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To each his own: how to provide a library user with an article respecting licence agreements	[ "Copyright", "Interlibrary loan", "Document delivery", "Electronic journals", "Licensing", "Licences" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The shift from paper to electronic resources has brought about a change in the legal framework for libraries providing services to accomplish their mission. In the past 20 years, licence agreements have been gradually established in the world of electronic publishing in legal form privileged by publishers and distributors to protect their rights (Davis, 1997; Dygert and Langendorfer, 2014). These are private, legally binding contracts concluded between two or more parties, whereby a party supplies a given product for use and grants user rights. Thus, exceptions and limitations for libraries provided by copyright law have become \"licence to use\" under contract law. Such a shift of perspective is likely to impose significant limitations on the ability of libraries to continue to deliver services that are essential to their own mission, such as ensuring perpetual access to subscribed digital resources and supplying resources requested by users that are not in possession of the library through the interlibrary loan (ILL) services (Fernandez-Molina, 2004).\nWhat is ALPE?: ALPE (E-Journals Licences Archive) is a national archive of ILL clauses, extracted from standard and negotiated licences, to manage, to publicly share and to check the permitted uses of e-resources for ILL and document delivery. It aims to improve the understanding of the issues raised by licences of e-resources in ILL services. The ALPE project started in June 2012 when a national working group was formed. The aims of the project are: the accomplishment of a common model to describe ILL clauses found in licences, to standardize description of the ILL clause, to minimize the risk of subjective interpretation by librarians and to allow exchange of ILL rights data across systems.\nALPE data model: a common model to describe ILL licences: The ALPE project focuses on the licence conditions for an ILL request to answer two questions:\nThe ALPE search engine: The ALPE search engine is the \"core component\" of the ALPE project. It allows the ALPE database to be queried starting from a title identifier such as an ISSN/ISBN (or eISSN/eISBN) and year of publication. It will retrieve all licences of the publishers or content providers on which platforms access is made available for that particular e-journal or e-book. Alternatively, ALPE can be queried from a publisher or content provider name, or from a platform URL. More than 2,000 publisher and aggregator names have been standardized and associated to all the possible platforms for accessing their digital content. This facilitates insertion of a new licence in the database which allows the right platform to be chosen.\nCooperative population of the archive: The ALPE licence management software module was developed to populate the archive and provides licence entry and editing functionality to support cooperative and multi-level licences management. It allows login as an ALPE operator, insertion of negotiated or standard licences, association of standard licences to their subscribed e-resources, searching or displaying of all licences or only licences valid for their institution.\nSustainability and future developments: Technological and financial sustainability of the ALPE project is supported by the CNR Bologna Research Area Library. The library provides infrastructure, software development, technical know-how and financial support as well as the expertise involved in the NILDE network coordination.\nConclusions: The ALPE archive facilitates public and free access to a remarkable amount of information and data about ILL conditions granted by the most important commercial and academic publishers, and responds to the practical problems of managing and understanding ILL clauses. The solutions adopted by ALPE effectively solve many of the problems reported in the literature - as shown below:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to describe the state of the art of the Italian Archivio Licenze Periodici Elettronici (ALPE) project which aims to improve the understanding of the issues raised by licence agreements of electronic resources in the Inter-Library Loan Service and to support librarians in the implementation of the right policies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: ALPE - (E-Journals Licenses Archive) is a national archive of interlibrary loan (ILL) clauses, extracted from standard and negotiated licences, to manage, to publicly share and to check the permitted uses of e-resources for ILL and document delivery.\nFindings: The ALPE archive facilitates public and free access to a remarkable amount of information and data about ILL conditions granted by the most important commercial and academic publishers, and responds to the practical problems of managing and understanding ILL clauses in e-licences.\nOriginality/value: The solutions adopted by ALPE effectively solve many of the problems reported in the literature. These should help ILL librarians in dealing with the problems associated with ILL and licensing.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Intellectual capital and capital markets: additional evidence	[ "Intellectual capital", "Financial performance", "Capital markets" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Intellectual capital (IC) information gained importance because it is seen as an integral part of firms' value-creating processes (Bukh, 2003). Traditionally, firms relied on their tangible assets to drive their performance and firm-level strategy. Today, firms are relying more on IC to sustain their competitive advantage. To illustrate, a dollar invested in R&D increases, on an average, current and future operating income by two dollars (Aboody and Lev, 2001; Lev and Sougiannis, 1996). And R&D valuation of firms with royalty income from patents is higher than the R&D valuation firms without license patents because investors believe the quality and prospects of R&D of firms having the ability to license patents is higher (Lev, 2001).IC is critical for long-term success of knowledge-intensive firms (Hansson, 1997). Their market value is often much higher than their book value (Lev, 1997), the gap sometimes referred to as firms' \"hidden value\" (Edvinsson, 1997). Thus, the capital market can accommodate information on IC (Lev and Sougiannis, 1996). Research also suggests that financial analysts pay attention to IC information (i.e. R&D intensity or R&D/sales) to partially compensate for the IC-related information deficiency of financial reports (Amir et al., 2003), especially in high-tech industry (Barron et al., 2002). But, in general, financial market estimates use limited information-based primarily on financial performance and tangible assets - with information on intangible assets quite scarce even in the best of cases (Lev, 2001). Further, performances based on earnings and cash flow misses a major part of what IC is all about - creating future growth. With the economy shifting to an increased reliance on intangible/intellectual assets (Lev, 2001), the use and recognition of these resources is both important and topical for study. Yet, almost no research considers intellectual indicators other than R&D intensity to understand their dynamics in the value creation of firms. Also, there is little research on how IC information is actually used by external constituencies such as financial analysts in their recommendations.This study provides evidence, using secondary data (archival and survey), that measures of IC in addition to R&D intensity are indeed recognized and considered relevant for firm valuation. The study also shows experimentally that financial analysts consider firms' IC information when making recommendations to invest in the stocks of firms especially across different time horizons. As used in the current study, IC means the specific and valuable knowledge that belongs to the organization, such as know-how, patents, skilled employees, etc.This research makes three contributions to the IC literature. First, it extends the studies on the relevance of IC in capital market research by broadening its scope to include measures of IC other than R&D intensity. Next, it provides evidence of the informativeness of IC measures in market valuation of firms and analysts' recommendations, thus lending credence to the arguments of reports (FASB, 2001) and researchers (Eccles et al., 2001) for more external communication of IC information. Finally, this study is one of the first to examine a broader scope of IC in the capital market context and the use of IC sophisticated market participants. With policy-makers and standard-setting bodies (e.g. FASB, IASB) considering proposals to enhance information on IC in financial reports, it is important to broaden the scope of IC metrics and understand their role in enhancing firm value to develop a framework for reporting IC.The rest of the paper is as follows. A two-part theory is discussed in section 2: part A is on IC and firm valuation, part B is on IC and analysts' recommendations. Section 3 and 4 discusses the research method and presents results from the data analysis. The last section summarizes the results and provides some conclusions.\nTheory and background: Firms' market value and IC\nMethod and data analysis for intellectual capital and firm valuation: Variable definition and measurement\nMethod and data analysis - IC and financial analysts: Research variables and data collection\nConclusion: This research first examines whether IC information is considered in firm valuation. Using a combination of archival and secondary survey date, the findings indicate that for both MV/BV ratio and Tobin's Q, the measures of IC are significant explanatory variables over and above the control variables of ROI, earnings growth and beta. Next, the research experimentally examines two issues. First, financial analysts' investment recommendations when faced with different combinations of performance levels (i.e. positive and negative) of financial and IC measures. The results show that, on an average, the maximum amount is invested when the means of FP and ICM are above industry average, and the least amount is invested when both ICM and FP parameters are below average. This is consistent with the predictions of H2Ai and H2Aii, respectively. Next, and consistent with H2Aiii, the results show that when FP is above average but ICM is below average, the amount invested is significantly greater than the amount invested when FP is below average but ICM is above average. Thus, the results indicate financial measures are the primary variables of interest to analysts with IC measures providing supplementary information. Hence, financial performance and IC measures have an interactive effect on the analysts' investment decisions.The second issue examined in the experiment was about the role of financial and IC measures with different levels of performance, and time horizon for holding the investments on the analysts' investment recommendations. The results indicate, as predicted, that the only circumstances when the analysts invested significantly more in long-term holding versus short-term holdings is when performances of both financial measures and IC measures are above the industry average. It should be noted that in all other circumstances, the analysts recommended investing more short-term rather than long-term (although the differences are not statistically different from each other). This indicates the dominance of financial measures and that perhaps sophisticated market participants like analysts recognize that financial measures are lag measures, thus, more appropriate for short-term investment decisions.Although there are limitations to generalizing the results from a single study done at a non-US site, this study does provide a few implications for future research. First, the evidence suggests that market participants do heed firm's IC information. In contrast to some belief that these participants do not appreciate information on IC (Mouritsen, 2003), the results here show otherwise. Second, the importance of the IC increases for long-term holding of investments compared to short-term holding. Also, analysts are recommending significantly higher amounts be invested for long-term holding only when the IC measures and financial measures are above the industry average. Thus, IC has the attributes of being a lead indicator of performance of organizations. Similar observation was also made by Roslender and Fincham (2004) based on their field study of IC accounting in UK: \"what interest intellectual capital is attracting is largely a consequence of the recognition that what it relates to is of growing importance to the long-term value creation aspirations of organizations (p. 202).Finally, this study highlights the evolutionary nature of IC and firm value. This is an important issue that is missing in cross-sectional studies, thus limiting the scope of understanding as to how firms develop and manage their IC over time and its ramification for firm performance. In many companies, managers already understand that intangibles and IC are mostly what they need to manage. Even companies in industries which are capital intensive must manage their IC to generate \"excess\" returns on their tangible assets (Hurwitz et al., 2002). Thus, future research on IC should attempt to examine the inter-temporal aspects of the effect of intellectual capital on firm value.This research also has some practical implications. For Guthrie and Petty (2000), who reviewed the annual reports of Australian companies for their interest in IC, the stumbling block to progress on reporting IC is the absence of an established and mutually agreed framework. Interesting metrics is being developed to meet the information needs of managers. These metrics are often incorporated into \"balanced scorecard\" reporting frameworks for internal communication purposes (Roslender and Fincham, 2004). But a number of these internally developed measures of IC are neither recognized nor reported in the financial statements of an entity. Hence, investors are not receiving all the relevant information about the entity. To begin with, companies in an industry can start reporting as a part of their Value Chain Scorecard some measures of IC which meet the three criteria suggested by Lev (2001) to maximize the measures' usefulness: quantitative in nature, permit inter-firm comparison, and empirically linked to corporate value. The current research suggests that a firm in an electrical/electronic industry can start off with reporting measures such as R&D intensity, IT/sales, etc. and provide industry averages as a benchmark. Additional types of measure can be added to the framework as they evolve. Much of the information needed by investors and analysts are not found in the traditional financial statements. Including additional information on IC should better meet investors' needs and mitigate the present problem of information asymmetry in capital markets.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to first examine whether intellectual capital (IC) information is considered in firm valuation. Next, to examine two issues: financial analysts' investment recommendations when faced with different combinations of performance levels (i.e. above or below industry average) of financial and IC measures, and the role of financial and IC measures with different performance levels and holding periods (i.e. short-term vs long-term) for the investment on analysts' recommendations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The first part of the paper used secondary (both archival and survey) data. The second part was an experiment.\nFindings: - The findings in the first part show that, after controlling for the effect of financial performances on firm value, measures of IC are still significant explanatory variables (of firm value). The second part shows that the financial and IC measures affect financial analysts' investment recommendations differently depending on the measures' levels of performance and the time horizon for holding the investments.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The limitations of the paper are as follows: the use of secondary data from a single country limits its generalizability; and the results of the experiment are parameterized by the research design such as the amount of information provided to the financial analysts. Extending the analyses to other settings and using time-series data represent future research opportunities.\nOriginality/value: - The research makes three contributions to the IC literature. First, it extends the studies on the relevance of IC in capital market research by broadening its scope to include measures of IC other than R&D intensity. Next, it provides evidence of the informativeness of IC measures in market valuation of firms and analysts' recommendations, thus lending credence to the arguments of reports and researchers for more external communication of IC information. Finally, this study is one of the first to examine a broader scope of IC in the capital market context and the use of IC by sophisticated market participants. With policy-makers and standard-setting bodies considering proposals to enhance information on IC in financial reports, it is important to broaden the scope of IC metrics and understand their role in enhancing firm value to develop a framework for reporting IC.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Age diversity and team outcomes: a quantitative review	[ "Turnover", "Meta-analysis", "Age diversity", "Aging workforce", "Quantitative review", "Team outcome" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Age diversity (AD) has become a pressing challenge for organizations in most developed countries. Due to lower birth rates, increased prosperity, and the improvement of health systems, the percentage of individuals over the age of 60 has increased (Sluiter, 2006). These changes also shrink the labor pool of younger workers and increase the labor pool of older workers (Tempest et al., 2002). Therefore, employers have to recruit at both extremes of the age distribution spectrum (Jackson et al., 1995) and retain more older employees (Kunze et al., 2011). Consequently, organizations are composed of employees from multiple cohort groups, with ages varying by more than 25 years (Wegge et al., 2008). At the same time, age prejudices and ageism have increased in the western societies (Nelson, 2005) implying stereotypical beliefs about the competence of specific age cohorts providing a fertile ground for myths about effects of AD. Hence, knowledge about the consequences of AD for team outcomes is essential to managers to estimate risks and rewards of AD.\nReview of theoretical perspectives on AD and team outcomes: Two theoretical perspectives have guided research on diversity for decades: the information-processing perspective (Mannix and Neale, 2005; Williams and O'Reilly, 1998) and social categorization theory (Tajfel, 1981; Turner et al., 1987). While the information-processing approach suggests positive effects of diversity due to beneficial elaboration of task-relevant information that occurs when a team has an increased variety of resources (e.g. experience, skills, knowledge), social categorization theory suggests negative effects of diversity by facilitating intergroup bias and disrupting collective teamwork (Brewer and Kramer, 1985). Recently, both perspectives were integrated in the categorization-elaboration model (CEM), arguing that the effect of AD may best be understood by considering both perspectives simultaneously (Van Knippenberg et al., 2004). The CEM emphasizes that each diversity attribute (e.g. age) may provide a basis for both, the elaboration of task-relevant information-processing as well as social categorization. Thus, AD can lead to either positive, negative, or zero effects on team outcomes depending on the respective team outcome and the contextual factors (Van Knippenberg and Schippers, 2007). In the following, we provide a short summary of the main arguments for positive and negative effects of AD found in the literature.\nThe present study: The goal of the present study is to provide a quantitative review of the research on the AD-team outcome relationship. We extend previous research by focussing solely on AD to address the need to consider diversity attributes separately. For this purpose, we meta-analytically investigate the relationship between AD and a wide spectrum of team outcomes (i.e. performance quality, financial performance, innovation and creativity, effectiveness, satisfaction, and turnover), as these are the very essential goals of teamwork. Additionally, we examine whether the relationship between AD and team outcomes may be contingent upon contextual factors (i.e. task complexity, type of performance evaluation, study setting, team size, age cohort). Besides informing about the state of research, we identify research gaps and hint at important future research issues.\nMethods: Literature search and sample\nResults: To analyze the studies, we used a random-effects model with Fischer's Z-transformation (Hedges and Olkin, 1985; Lipsey and Wilson, 2001). The results in Table I show, that only turnover was significantly positively related to AD (\nDiscussion: Based on heterogeneous findings of previous studies, the present study reviews extant literature and provides meta-analytical evidence on the relationship between AD and essential team outcomes. Our results show that AD seems to be of little relevance for team outcomes, as it was neither positively nor negatively related to team outcomes, with the only exception being turnover. However, significant albeit weak moderator effects (i.e. task complexity, team size, age cohort) indicate that the effect might differ across contexts. We see three potential interpretations of the absence of an overall relationship, that is, first, neither the information-processing perspective nor social categorization perspective is correct and AD is neither useful nor detrimental; second, both perspectives are correct and the positive and negative effect cancel each other; and third, the positive and negative effects are moderated by variables not considered so far.\nSummary and conclusion: We reviewed the existing literature and provide meta-analytic evidence that AD is neither positively nor negatively related to several team outcomes (i.e. overall performance, financial performance, innovation and creativity, effectiveness, and satisfaction), with some exceptions for turnover and weak moderator effects (i.e. task complexity, team size, age cohort). This meta-analysis certainly does not presume to be the conclusive study in this field of research. Quite the contrary, due to our findings and the partial limited number of studies within the moderator analyses, our study provides important recommendations for future research in order to explain the non-significant results between AD and most of the team outcomes.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the literature on the relationship between age diversity (AD) and the essential team outcomes (i.e. performance quality, financial performance, innovation and creativity, effectiveness, satisfaction, and turnover).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors conduct a meta-analysis of the relationship between AD and team outcomes using a sample of 74 studies. Furthermore, the authors investigate the role of contextual factors (task complexity, type of performance evaluation, study setting, team size, age cohort) as moderators of the AD-team outcome relationship.\nFindings: The results show no significant overall relationships between AD and team outcomes, except for turnover (r=0.11, p\nOriginality/value: The authors extend previous research by quantitatively reviewing the AD-team outcome relationship. By showing that AD is only related to turnover, the authors provide counter-evidence to many scholars arguing for the importance of AD for team outcomes. Additionally, the authors found some potential sources of the conflicting findings observed in the literature by considering contextual factors.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Conceptions of digital libraries: an African perspective	[ "Digital libraries", "Ghana", "Conceptions", "Definitions", "African libraries", "Western-centric" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Digital libraries are innovations in the educational systems of most African countries (Lusigi, 2019; Boamah et al., 2015). Consequently, they are viewed differently by users even in the same cultural or educational community. According to Calhoun (2014, pp. 3-12), this development could be attributed to the multiple communities from which digital libraries originated. Some of these communities included the computer and information sciences industry, the online information industry, libraries and archives. For instance, while librarians traditionally viewed digital libraries as collections and associated services, computer and information scientists were primarily concerned with the architecture and systems of digital libraries (Calhoun, 2014, p. 3). Over time, these unique assumptions of different communities, even in western societies, influenced the adoption of different approaches in the development, management and preservation of digital cultural heritage resources in the African contexts (Calhoun, 2014, p. 14; Boamah et al., 2015). This paper argues that the concept of digital libraries in Africa is shaped by its western antecedents but has been complicated by contextual challenges. This accounts for the ambivalence and uncertainty of what a digital library should entail and by extension, how to plan, develop, integrate and adapt them to improve critical educational and developmental outcomes as set out in the science, technology and innovation strategy for Africa (2024) (Lusigi, 2019).\n2. Digital libraries: background and early initiatives: The earliest digital library endeavours in academic libraries involved the digitisation of journal articles (Tedd and Large, 2005, p. 5). The Mercury Electronic Library project at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA is on record as one of the earliest attempts (1989-1992) at establishing a campus-based digital library of journal articles on computer science. The next project in line was the Chemistry Online Retrieval Experiment (CORE) of Cornell University, the American Chemical Society, the Chemical Abstracts and the Online Computer Library.\n3. Some initiatives in developing countries: Meanwhile in developing countries, DLIs were also being developed as and when technological support became available in some of these countries. Some of the initiatives, as noted by Tedd and Large (2005, p. 7), Satgoor (2015) and Kavulya (2007) are as follows:\n4. Methods: This paper was based on a review of the literature. The paper relied predominantly on only open access peer-reviewed literature on digital libraries. This strategy helped to obtain open access documents from the free web and publisher or society sites. This choice of strategy ensured access to a general, albeit, broad view, of digital library scholarship from its nascent years to the present. This was also necessary to capture African publications that may not be available on commercial publisher websites as a result of contextual challenges within the publishing ecosystem of Africa. The search terms used were \"Africa digital libraries\", \"electronic libraries\", \"ICT/libraries\" and \"institutional repositories (IRs)\". Following a search, publications on or aspects of themes such as digital libraries; digital records management; digital heritage; preservation; IRs; open access; and inter-library cooperation/library consortium were considered relevant. The period scope for western publications was undated-present, whereas literature focussing on the African library and information science (LIS) sector was in the range 2006-2020. Item types included were published articles, preprints and post-prints, theses, book chapters/sections and conference papers. Publications were considered for inclusion if they were written in English and were associated with Europe or North America on the one hand and Africa, on the other. For those of western conceptions, 23 publications were found relevant, while 66 publications on African conceptions were found relevant. A major limitation of this strategy is that the review was limited to predominantly only open access publications; albeit this was as an affirmative strategy to harvest African publications from as many different sources as possible.\n5. Digital library conceptions: a western perspective: The term digital libraries became widely accepted as a result of many activities in this area in the period 1991 to 1993 (Fox, 1993), perhaps, corresponding to the growing interest in digital technology such as digital networks, digital media and electronic publishing. The definition of digital libraries must be made in the context of many related issues such as distributed collections, preservation, integrity, use, interoperability and social, economic and legal implications. Developments in the world of technology have given birth to massive growth in digital libraries. The rapid rise of digital libraries has also been aided by the publication of digital materials and hosts of digitisation projects that resulted in the conversion of items in other formats to digital formats (Tedd and Large, 2005, p. 4). According to Schwartz (2000), respondents in a study reported 64 different definitions of the term \"digital library\". Cleveland (1998) suggests that this is not surprising given the history of digital libraries. The term \"digital library\" is attributed to Vannevar Bush, a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose seminal article \"as we may think\", primarily concerned with information overload, led to the development of an imaginary machine known as the Memex device (Lesk, 2005, p. 13). This device was expected to have the capacity to store one's collection of books, records and communications. With the advent of computer technology, the concept of digital library centred on large bibliographic databases, online retrieval and public access systems that are part of any contemporary library. Subsequently, with the development of computer networking and internet systems, the concept has since evolved as a \"virtual library\", \"electronic library\", \"library without walls\" and, most recently, \"digital library\". All these terms have been used interchangeably to describe this broad concept (Cleveland, 1998).\n6. African conceptions of digital libraries based on the attributes of innovation: Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory has been used extensively in innovation research and not least in the digital library sub-field of the LIS literature (Allard, 2003; Boamah et al., 2015; Maull et al., 2011; Moorthy et al., 2019; Nazari et al., 2013; Raynard, 2017; Zanello et al., 2016). This paper analyses the conceptualisation of digital libraries from the perspectives of the five attributes of innovation of the DOI theory; namely, conceptions based on the relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, observability and trialability of digital libraries. The reason for grounding this conceptual paper in this component of the DOI theory is that digital libraries, being an innovation, appears not to be uniformly-understood within the library fraternity in Africa. Consequently, the viewpoints of librarians and LIS researchers on digital libraries are still subject to various personal, professional and experiential interpretations (Boamah, 2010; Ondari-Okemwa, 2016). This approach towards the conceptualisation of this paper extends our understanding of the contextual factors shaping digital libraries as innovations in Africa (Khan and Qutab, 2016; Lusigi, 2019; Maull et al., 2011; Moorthy et al., 2019; Nazari et al., 2013).\n7. Comparing African conceptions to western notions of digital libraries: Digital library conceptions in Africa have been at variance with the western \"collection\" orientation of digital libraries (Calhoun, 2014; Schwartz, 2000). Several western conceptions of digital libraries in the first decade of digital libraries (1991-2001) centred on improving the content-related issues such as technology, information retrieval capabilities and content-gathering capabilities of digital libraries to the detriment of the social, behavioural and economic factors of digital libraries (Calhoun, 2014, p. 142). Consequently, most of these initial technical conceptions of digital libraries influenced the future development and implementation of digital libraries in the west (Arora, 2001; Chowdhury and Chowdhury, 2000; Goncalves et al., 2007, 2008; Schwartz, 2000). However, in developing regions including Africa, the priority, as pointed out by Schwartz (2000), was more than visions and conceptions rather than the organisational, funding, technological and human issues involved in implementing digital libraries. While the western notions of digital libraries centred mostly on the technical capabilities of digital libraries being the technologies and services that support the creation of an information system, the African conceptions view digital libraries as services and resources to support and complement the traditional roles of librarians and information professionals (Boamah, 2010). Nonetheless, the major similarities in both the western and African conceptions include the fact that on either side there is no one single conception of digital libraries. Finally, it appears that on both sides, what constitutes a digital library is primarily a function of the requirements of the user community.\n8. Practical implications: The challenge of funding in African academic and public libraries has ripple effects on most of the critical success factors for developing digital libraries (Mokhtari Aski et al., 2018). It is, therefore, incumbent upon African Governments and managers of universities to develop sustainable and strategic funding sources to enhance the prospects of digital libraries (Owusu-Ansah et al., 2018). Notwithstanding, as open-source technology becomes more adaptable and local content in digital library development of developing countries become the norm, rather than the exception, in building and managing Africa's digital content and associated services, information institutions in educational and cultural centres in African countries need to evolve a unified and contextualised conception of digital libraries as this would largely drive the direction of digital library development towards achieving developmental goals of these societies. As noted by previous researchers (such as Boamah, 2010; Anyaoku et al., 2019; Lusigi, 2019; Zirra et al., 2019), a contextualised understanding of digital libraries remains a critical success factor for their development and implementation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to explore African conceptions of digital libraries from the perspective of the historical literature. This paper argues that the concept of digital libraries is a western creation and that there was a need for developing societies to develop their own conceptions to guide their own digital library development agenda.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a literature review. The paper makes use of publicly-available literature on the theme of digital libraries from both the Western and African perspectives. The search terms used were \"digital libraries\", \"Africa digital libraries\", \"electronic libraries\", \"information communication technologies/libraries\" and \"institutional repositories\". A total of 89 publications were examined for this purpose.\nFindings: The analysis revealed that most of the initial digital library initiatives in Africa emanated from the west with African countries benefiting from international initiatives to expand access to information resources to bridge the global digital divide. However, due to a number of contextual challenges such as lack of sustainable funding and inadequate capacity and strategy, the development of digital libraries was hampered. Thus, even though digital libraries enjoy considerable goodwill, there remain negative conceptions of digital libraries in Africa.\nPractical implications: Information institutions in African countries must evolve a unified conception of digital libraries as this would largely drive the direction of digital library development towards achieving the developmental goals of the continent.\nOriginality/value: The study applies the attributes of innovation to explain contextual factors shaping African conceptions of digital libraries.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Health literacy and its effects on well-being: how vulnerable healthcare service users integrate online resources	[ "Resource integration", "Quality of life", "Health literacy", "Online health communities", "Transformational service research" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Participation in online health communities (OHCs) may benefit individuals because these communities are an important source of informational, emotional and social support (Yao et al., 2015), whereas these types of support are known to improve well-being (Rosenbaum and Massiah, 2007; Rosenbaum and Smallwood, 2013; Yao et al., 2015). A recent article in the British Medical Journal states that\nLiterature review: Online health communities and benefits for users\nMethodology: The present study aims to develop a better understanding of how OHC members with different HL levels benefit from their participation in OHCs through the analysis and comparison of their RI processes. Therefore, a study was conducted on a French OHC for patients with breast cancer. The platform launched in June 2014 and had more than 2,000 members at the time of data collection. The WHO emphasizes that cancer is one of the main causes of death worldwide. In 2012, 14.1 million people learned that they were suffering from cancer. Breast-, lung- and genital-cancers are the most frequent forms. Moreover, cancer does not only affect an individual's physical health but also social, psychological and economic aspects of his/her life. Next to facilitating the sharing of information and experiences, the platform under investigation aims to inform patients about relevant events and service providers close to their geographical location. The content is not accessible to non-members. The community is extensively moderated by the community manager (who is also its founder and an ex-patient).\nResults: Integration of online resources\nDiscussion and conclusion: Discussion\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to develop a better understanding of how online health community (OHC) members with different health literacy (HL) levels benefit from their participation, through the analysis and comparison of their resource integration (RI) processes. It investigates through a RI lens how the vulnerability of community members - captured as their level of HL - affects the benefits they derive from participation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to investigate the effects of healthcare service users' vulnerability. Data were collected about their profiles and levels of HL. Furthermore, 15 in-depth interviews were conducted.\nFindings: The study demonstrates how low levels of HL act as a barrier to the integration of available online health resources. Participation in OHCs appears less beneficial for vulnerable users. Three types of benefits were identified at the individual level, namely, psychological quality-of-life, physical quality-of-life and learning. Benefits identified at the community level were: content generation and participation in the development of the community.\nOriginality/value: This study has implications for the understanding of how service users' activities affect their own outcomes and how the vulnerability of users could be anticipated and considered in the design of the community.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Towards establishing an Islamic retail bank in a Muslim-minority country: Prospects and challenges in Mauritius	[ "Challenges", "Mauritius", "Prospects", "Islamic retail banking", "Muslim-minority country" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Mauritius, a small island in the Indian Ocean, is a Muslim-minority country with mixed population of Europeans, Africans and Asians. It is emerging as a major international business platform in this region of the world, aided by the fact that its population of 1.3 million inhabitants has the highest adult literacy rate for the whole of Africa. The Mauritian economy is one of the fastest growing economies in sub-Saharan Africa. With the right policies implemented at the right time in its economic history, Mauritius is today categorized as an upper-middle income country with a per capita income of US$9,760 (Doingbusiness.org, 2018). Mauritius is recognized by international organizations for continuous improvement in its regime for doing business. The country is today acclaimed as a leading investment destination, a reputed international financial centre and a gateway to Africa (BOI, 2017). It is also an international and regional arbitral jurisdiction of choice, which was made possible with the collaboration of the London Court of International Arbitration in 2010 (MIAC, 2014).\nResearch objectives: This study aims to achieve the following objectives:\nMethodology: To achieve the research objectives outlined above, this paper undertakes a combination of two research methods. First, it carries out a comprehensive review of the existing literature and theory. The theoretical framework of this study is constructed through the literature review. The main literature sources are journals, books, reports, theses and bank regulators' papers. It must be recognized upfront that there is a dearth of published literature on Islamic banking and finance in Mauritius. Second, it conducts an empirical study to extract the opinions and perceptions of respondents, both Muslims and non-Muslims, on patronizing an Islamic retail bank in Mauritius. Both quantitative and qualitative data analyses are used for this second part. An online survey is used in this context to obtain primary data from a selected group of banking customers. In addition, semi-structured interviews from a target sample of bankers, financiers, professionals, academics and Shari'ah scholars are used to substantiate and compare the survey findings.\nConsumer behaviour and Islamic banking patronizing behaviour: Empirical research using different methodologies and approaches has been carried out in different parts of the world to examine the criteria influencing consumers in selecting their banks (Haron et al., 1994; Che and Mohd, 2003). Understanding how customers select banks is important as it assists banks in identifying the appropriate marketing strategies needed to attract and retain customers (Al-Mossawi, 2001).\nProspects for Islamic banking and finance in Mauritius: Islamic finance has been present in Mauritius since 1998, when the small Muslim community of 14 per cent (now 18 per cent) of the total population started receiving services from the Al Barakah Cooperative Society Limited, an Islamic cooperative credit union. The Islamic cooperative offers tailor-made murabahah schemes, hajj saving accounts and istisna' financing (Gelbard et al., 2014).\nIssues and challenges: The evolving nature of global banking is a serious challenge to Islamic banking. According to the governor of the Bank of Mauritius, the increasing integration of economic activities across national borders, along with the phenomenal progress in banking technology, has made banking systems across the world increasingly vulnerable. Banks have been losing some of their traditional businesses to other intermediaries, both non-bank financial institutions and other commercial enterprises, which are now offering an endless array of financial instruments (Roi, 2005b).\nConclusion: This study has tried to fill the gap in the empirical literature on the setting up of an Islamic retail bank in a Muslim-minority country. The research aims to identify the main prospects and challenges in setting up an Islamic retail bank in Mauritius. The preliminary findings of the research have unveiled many prospects and challenges that will be put to test through an on-line survey questionnaire and semi-structured interviews.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this research study is to explore and analyze the factors that will favour or constrain the introduction of an Islamic Retail bank in a Muslim-minority country such as Mauritius. This research attempts to fill the gap in the empirical literature on the setting up of an Islamic Retail bank in a Muslim-minority country. It recognizes upfront that Islamic banking offers an alternative banking system that is attractive to both Muslims and non-Muslims.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research adopts a mixed approach to address the prospects and challenges of establishing an Islamic Retail bank in Mauritius.\nFindings: The research finds that there are various prospects for an Islamic retail bank in Mauritius for Muslims and non-Muslims, including enabling legal, fiscal and regulatory framework, the financing of small- and medium-sized enterprises and the issuance of sukuk (Islamic investment certificates). The research also finds that the development of an Islamic retail bank in Mauritius face various challenges. Some of these challenges are lack of Shari'ah-compliant liquidity instruments and inter-bank deposits, lack of knowledge and understanding of Shari'ah-compliant products and the enforcement of Islamic contracts in court.\nOriginality/value: This in-depth study appears to be comprehensive and will help in developing a solid foundation for establishing an Islamic retail bank in Mauritius.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Environments for successful interaction	[ "Innovation", "Design", "Facilities", "Conferences" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: 1.1 A new innovation economy\n2. Methodology: AMA Alexi Marmot Associates conducted a two-year research programme part funded by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills with assistance from University College London (UCL). The main research objective was to investigate how to facilitate successful interaction through better facilities and organisation. A secondary objective was to explore new tools for collating evidence on interaction and use of space. The new tools termed WorkWareCONNECT were to supplement AMA's existing five WorkWare tools: staff questionnaire, manager interview, workshops, space observation survey, and space audit. In total, seven new tools were tested:1. Quality of Interaction Zone (QuIZ). A checklist of five categories (accessibility, privacy, usability, comfort, quality) and 30 ratings which is used during an expert walkthrough to quantify the presence of environmental conditions for successful interactions.2. Visual Field Analysis. A means of assessing the percentage of desks and offices (i.e. occupants) which are visible to each other, the hypothesis being that greater visibility facilitates more interaction (Heerwagen et al., 2004).3. Space Interaction Survey. An observation study, similar to Space Syntax, which traces movement and interaction throughout the space and identifies key nodes of interaction, popular spaces, or dead spaces and unused routes.4. Interaction Profiling. A short interview conducted with staff as they leave a meeting or informal interaction, focussed on accessibility, choice, meeting etiquette, layout and technology; questions on knowledge transfer and meeting success were also added to AMA's standard staff questionnaire.5. Photosphere. A workshop technique which uses 100 images of (e.g. meeting rooms, homes, beaches, parks, leisure spaces) to explore which environments are better suited for different types of interaction and solo activity.6. Interaction Mapping. A workshop technique for mapping the reasons for interaction with the various modes of interaction.7. Social Network Analysis. An abridged version of AMA's established questionnaire with additional questions to determine the number of colleagues with whom individuals associate with and to establish central points of contact; the assumption being that knowledge transfer is greater between those who have a social tie (Cross and Parker, 2004).Field studies were carried out in the offices of five diverse organisations: a transportation company, charitable foundation, management consultancy, architectural practice and investment bank. In total, eight buildings were surveyed and 350 meeting spaces and approximately 3,500 meetings with 12,700 participants observed. The data collated also supplemented the existing WorkWare database of 60,000 people in 250 buildings. Approximately 150 of the office staff were consulted through interviews, workshops and Interaction Profiling. Some 470 staff, across three buildings, were invited to participate in an on-line survey focusing on interaction spaces; 207 responded resulting in a response rate of 44 per cent.\n3. Seven key findings: Figure 2 shows a weak but statistically significant correlation (r=0.64, p < 0.05) between the number of meeting room seats per occupant and the mean number of meetings per week per occupant for seven buildings where the staff were surveyed and asked about their meeting schedule. As the number of occupants per building varied, the regression analysis was weighted by the number of workstations. The small number of data points means that the correlation is not sufficiently robust enough to make generic predictions of the level of interaction but nevertheless there is a relationship. The first research result is therefore that the higher the ratio of meeting spaces to desks, the more meetings occurred. This sounds an obvious result and may not be causal but rather derive from the fact that organisations that already provide numerous meeting spaces do so to match their proclivity to interact.However, the second key result is that the utilisation of the meeting rooms surveyed was only 37 per cent, almost identical to the 38 per cent benchmark in AMA's existing WorkWare database. The results indicate that whilst, the number of meetings is related to the number of spaces provided, the spaces are nevertheless under-utilised. The poor utilisation of meeting rooms is due to a number of factors, including the quality of the space and advertised availability, thus attaining the appropriate number of meeting spaces is a key challenge when designing the modern office. Based on the research and the data from previous design projects, a Meeting Room Calculator has been developed which uses utilisation and the expected frequency and size of formal and informal meetings to determine the number of meeting rooms required to support the organisation. The utilisation of informal meeting spaces such as casual seating areas in open work zones, was much lower than meeting rooms at 21 per cent. Interaction Profiling and observation indicated that informal meeting areas were less utilised either because the design was not as well considered as meeting rooms, and they were poorly located with little privacy, or because the organisational culture meant that holding meetings outside of meeting rooms was not the norm.Expert walkthroughs, which included the QuiZ, were carried out in 84 meeting spaces in three buildings in the study. Figure 3 illustrates a good and statistically significant (r=0.80, p < 0.05) correlation between the utilisation and QUiZ score; the eight data points represent the Quiz scores from all three building binned into 5 per cent increments. The third research finding is therefore that the quality of the space does indeed matter. Furthermore, the observed relationship means it is possible to predict the uptake, and implied success, of existing and new spaces for interaction using QuIZ.Further analysis, backed up by observation, revealed that the key factors are accessibility and privacy. Whilst the spaces need to be conveniently located, they also need to offer a level of privacy, especially if located on the primary circulation routes. The office surveys repeatedly revealed under-utilised informal meeting areas which were often simply a cluster of seats, sofas and tables placed on circulation routes in clear view of passing colleagues. The Interaction Profiling showed that people do not like to travel a long distance to interaction areas and are likely to stay local unless the spaces entice them, for example by offering good refreshments, a pleasant ambience or a place to retreat. The more successful interaction spaces offered a balance of being conveniently located but offering a degree of screening.The fourth finding is that only one-fifth of the interactions in meeting rooms used any form of technology. It is unclear if this is because the technology is not required rather than it is not available. The Interaction Profiling and QuIZ together indicate that meeting rooms with better facilities, including technology, were the first choice of meeting organisers. However, some responses also indicated that technology was not used in meeting rooms because there was uncertainty of what technology was available or it was simply too difficult to set it up. Many of the meetings taking place in meeting rooms were found not to require the formality of the meeting room however the cultural norm in the organisation required them to do so. The \"meeting room culture\" of organisations is difficult to break and requires provision of a range of different spaces for interaction and training/encouragement in when and how to use them.The Space Interaction Survey and Social Network Analysis allowed the researchers to identify the people who were most visited by their colleagues and the ones with the largest number of social ties. The fifth key finding is that there is a significant correlation between the number of social ties and satisfaction with how the space supports teamwork (r=0.35, p < 0.05) and informal meetings (r=0.32, p < 0.05), supporting the literature review conclusions. Although key people were identified, and overlaid with key interaction nodes, it was found that their role was important and they would be visited regardless of their location. There is some logic in placing key people centrally where they can be easily visited but located so their regular interactions do not disturb others. The fieldwork also showed that knowledge sharing is highest at the team level between co-located colleagues and weakest at the organisational level. Assuming that the various teams within an organisation have a common high-level objective, it seems important to look for ways to use the workplace to encourage cross-team interaction.The penultimate finding is that although space matters it cannot alone overcome organisational predictors of successful interaction. The Interaction Profiling revealed that the success of formal meetings was largely due to good meeting etiquette. This involves appropriately arranging and managing the meeting; see Figure 4 and the details in Section 4. The survey respondents complained about too many meetings, particularly regular meetings to which they have little input but feel obliged to attend. Interestingly, the respondents also thought emails were over used and detrimental to relationship building. They report a trend to invite many people to meetings, or to copy them into emails, to satisfy a perceived need to canvas the opinion of all potentially interested parties.The seventh key finding is that much creative thought and productive work takes place alone and/or away from the office. In the Photosphere exercise the participants were asked to select images which represented where they:* are most creative;* can concentrate best;* prefer to meet; and* are most productive.Unexpectedly, none of the participants in any of the workshops selected images of desks or offices and only a few selected images of formal meeting rooms. The participants recognised that their best and most creative work is achieved outside of the normal office environment but felt that the bulk of their work, i.e. the processing of information, requires a desk and occasional meeting room. If today's office workforce are to remain as process workers, but to advance through the interaction-innovation cycle then clearly the balance of spaces in office buildings will need to change. At this stage in economic development the best solution is to provide a choice of environments that facilitate the different types of interaction but also support solo work requiring quiet and concentration.\n4. Recommendations: 4.1 Settings for interaction\n5. Conclusion: The authors believe that creativity and innovation is vital to economic development and that interaction is a fundamental step towards it. A two-year research programme employed a variety of new methods to explore the conditions required for successful interaction. The research showed that successful interaction is dependent upon both physical and organisational factors. Educating office workers in the purpose of interaction and the different media for interaction is as important as the provision of the right number of well designed spaces for interaction. The literature review revealed that innovation involves bouts of interaction and solo activity and it is critical that office buildings provide a choice of spaces to support the various work activities.The research was conducted in occupied buildings and access was granted by clients of the authors. There are always limitations to conducting \"real world\" research such as the sample size and makeup, the length of time that studies can be carried out and the lack of control conditions. Nevertheless, the research has identified seven key findings which provide a better understanding of how interaction can be improved in offices, and these finding have been converted to some basic recommendations. However, the findings and recommendations are based on a limited data set and further research in more or larger organisations would help confirm the generalisability of the results. The paper began by acknowledging that interaction facilitates innovation which can improve the economy, however despite recent efforts (such as Haynes, 2008) research proving the causal relationship between interaction and productivity is quite limited.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to share recent research to inform the design and facility management community on how to design and operate offices that enhance interaction, creativity and ultimately innovation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A two-year applied research project was conducted which involved a literature review followed by field studies. Surveys conducted in the offices of five diverse organisations piloted new methods for investigating interaction, termed WorkWareCONNECT.\nFindings: - Key findings include: more meetings occur in office buildings with more meeting space; on average meeting rooms are used 37 per cent of the time; the quantity and quality of space is important but does not overcome organisational factors; much creative thought takes place alone.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Conducting fieldwork in the real world has its limitations. For example, only five organisations were surveyed and therefore the results may be considered by some not to be representative. However, the paper considers that the data collected in real offices are realistic and valid.\nPractical implications: - The research resulted in a calculator for determining meeting room numbers and sizes, a system for prescribing the best media for interaction, design guidelines for interaction spaces, and guidance on the etiquette of successful meetings.\nSocial implications: - In the current economic climate many organisations focus on reducing costs and under-cutting competitors. However, it is innovation that gives businesses a competitive edge and innovation starts with good interaction and creativity.\nOriginality/value: - The recommendations are drawn from both the design and management communities. The research has resulted in practical advice to facilities managers, designers and the business heads.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Manageability of stress among construction project participants	[ "Stress", "Project management", "Construction industry", "Hong Kong" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Construction projects seldom run smoothly. Their complex and dynamic nature, together with the often confrontational attitude of its participants, results in the occurrence of frequent major problems or difficulties (Liu and Leung, 2002; Jang et al., 2003). In such conditions, events can be objectively harmful physically or mentally to the individuals involved. In the extreme case, when these are seen to be a negative influence, stress will be experienced. In other words, untypical individual responses occur (Seyle, 1976) due to the physical and mental effort needed to recover from being diverted from the normal situation (Holmes and Rahe, 1967). More typically though, the effect of stress on performance follows a bell-shaped pattern (Yerkes and Dodson, 1908; Leung et al., 2004), with too little and too much stress being equally inhibiting (Lingard and Sublet, 2003).The significance of the effects of occupational stress in general has prompted several studies aimed at identifying the causes of stress in various disciplines, including nurses (Dailey et al., 1986), managers (Davidson and Cooper, 1986) and teachers (Byosiere, 1988). These indicate that stress can be related to1. physical condition (Braham, 1994);2. organisational culture (Cooper, 2001; Moorhead and Griffin, 2001);3. interpersonal conflict (Toates, 1995; Cooper, 2001);4. personal characteristics (Caplan and Jones, 1975; Alluisi, 1982; Cooper and Roden, 1985; Hurrell, 1985; Dailey et al., 1986; Caudron, 1998; Bliese and Britt, 2001); and5. job nature (Caplan and Jones, 1975; Matteson and Ivancevich, 1987).Other studies have focused on the effects of stress on the performance of various professions - such as physicians (Richardson and Burke, 1991), managers (Jex, 1998), nurses (Jeanie, 2001), teachers (Sadowski et al., 1986; Chaplain, 1995) and police (Storch and Panzarella, 1996).To date, little research has been conducted with construction project participants, with the exceptions of Sutherland and Davidson (1989), Djebarri (1996) and Haynes and Love's (2004) work with site/project managers and Leung et al.'s (2004) study on cost estimators. However, as conflicts may arise when role ambiguity exists (Nordqvist et al., 2004), the origins of stresses may vary amongst different project participants. There is a need to examine whether the various construction stakeholders can adequately cope with the stresses they are confronting. This paper reports on the results of research aimed at ascertaining the situation for these other construction project participants by1. identifying the origins of stresses being experienced by management in the construction industry in terms of individual and situational factors;2. assessing the manageability of stresses and its impact on the management of different disciplines; and3. determining the relationship between different stresses and their associated effects.\nStressors pertinent to construction participants: An extensive literature review was carried out to establish the common origins of stresses. However, as little research effort has been directed to investigating stresses in the construction industry, a series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with the clients, consultants and contractors to gather opinions of the common stresses faced in their daily management activities. As a result, a total of 33 common stressors[1] were identified, covering all the origins of stresses viz. the problems associated with work overload, occupational frustration, occupational change, and other situational and personal factors.A close scrutiny to the identified stressors revealed that they could be meaningfully categorised according to their distinctive nature and characteristics (Holt, 1993; Djebarri, 1996). For example, some of the stressors are concerned with the time allowed for work execution, such as \"quantitative work overload\" and \"tight time frame for work\". In contrast, stressors such as \"lack of career guidance\" and \"poor communication with counter players\" are typified by the personal relationships among different parties of work. For \"bureaucracy\", \"inadequate room for innovation\", \"unsatisfied salary\", etc. the policies of the organization play a significant role in their formation. By grouping stressors with similar properties together, seven basic categories of stressors can be derived, namely:1. works nature related stressors - WN;2. works time related stressors - WT;3. organisation policy related stressors - OO;4. organisation position related stressors - OP;5. situational/environmental stressors - S;6. relationship related stressors - R; and7. personal stressors - P.In operationalising the 33 stressors, it was realised that the terms may be interpreted differently due to a divergence in backgrounds and working experience. For example, the meaning of the stressor \"ambiguity of job requirements\" may easily be mixed with another stressor \"inadequate knowledge of project objectives\". At the same time, the term \"role conflicts\" may also be taken to have a similar meaning. These were, therefore, replaced with more straightforward phrases/sentences in this study. For the above examples, the stressor \"ambiguity of job requirements\" was replaced by the sentence: \"I am not sure about the scope and responsibilities of my post\". \"Inadequate knowledge of project objectives\" was replaced by \"the project objectives have not been clearly conveyed to different working levels\", while \"role conflicts\" was converted to \"there may be occasions of conflicts between my role in the organisation and that under individual project\". The full list of operationalisations is shown in Table I.\nResearch method: To assess the corresponding attitudes towards the 33 identified stressors, a questionnaire was designed and sent to members of the construction industry. The respondents were asked to give a rating of the manageability of stress for each of the 33 operationalised stressors. The level of manageability of stress was defined as the ability of an individual to handle the stress experienced without causing a negative effect on his/her overall performance. A Likert scale of 1-5 was provided representing five different levels of stress manageability:1. totally unable to manage;2. difficult to manage by oneself - external assistance is needed;3. moderately manageable - performance is slightly affected;4. able to manage with effort - adequate time for adaptation required but without influencing the outcomes; and5. well managed without any difficulty.Copies of the questionnaire were sent to a stratified sample of 52 consultants and contractor firms selected from the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers' Yearbook, covering various aspects of the construction industry. For government departments, copies were also distributed to different divisions of the Drainage Services Department, Highways Department, Water Supplies Department and Civil Engineering Development Department. Out of the 300 questionnaires distributed, 97 completed questionnaires were received representing a response rate of 32.3 per cent. These were from respondents working at different levels (e.g. inspector of works, site agent, engineer, project manager and even director) with 51.5, 25.8 and 22.7 per cent being from respondents working in the various government departments, consultancy firms and contractors, respectively. 34.0, 41.2 and 24.8 per cent respondents were aged from 25 to 35, 35 to 45 and over 45 years, respectively.The level of manageability of stress was analysed by means of visual comparison and the arithmetical mean. Through the arithmetical mean, the most unmanageable stressors to the construction project participants could be identified. However, since it is possible to have more than one stressors occurring concurrently, the relationships between two stressors and hence their combined impacts should be carefully scrutinised. In this study, the Pearson correlation analysis was adopted to establish which stressor pairs have a stronger correlation. A Pearson correlation coefficient (p) of over +0.6 is considered as having a strong positive correlation, whereby the potential impacts could be much more serious should they occur concurrently.To help interpret the results of the questionnaire survey, three supplementary interviews were carried out with members of a client department, consultancy office and contractor firm. The interviewees had ample of practical experience (i.e. 7-30 years) in the construction industry. During the interviews, they were asked to express their views on the stresses confronted by construction participants. Particular attention was drawn to the 33 identified stressors, their personal experience of each of them and the associated strategies in handling these stressful situations.\nResults: Manageability patterns of different groups\nDiscussion: The economic recession in Hong Kong in recent years has induced an exceptionally high stress level on construction project participants, as projects have to be finished within a very tight budget and time frame in order to attain maximum savings. While there has been a general decline in consultancy fees and tender prices, the requirements of the clients in terms of quality, safety and environmental awareness has become increasingly stringent. To survive in the industry, many project participants have to work extremely cautiously through extra long hours at a much reduced salary. As a result, the stresses experienced by project participants in Hong Kong and the extent to which they are able to cope may not be the same as other advance countries in the western world under which the interests of project staff are better protected by trade unions and/or relevant legislation.Manageability patterns\nConclusions: Work fulfils a number of basic human needs. Whenever there is a failure to satisfy these needs, or of potential threats to their satisfaction, stresses may occur. While previous researches and studies mainly concentrated on the effect of stress and its effect on the performance of an individual and the project outcome, very few have touched on stress experienced in the construction industry.The research described in this paper aimed to assess the manageability of the common stressors faced by management of construction projects in Hong Kong. Thirty-three stressors covering various aspects of project implementation, such as organisation policies, working relationships, communication and personal factors, were identified from a series of interviews with various construction industry participants. A questionnaire survey was then conducted with members of the industry working in different sectors to ascertain the associated manageability of these stressors. A major finding was to show the most difficult stressors to manage are \"bureaucracy\", \"lack of opportunity to learn new skills\", \"work-family conflicts\" and \"different view from superiors\". The results also revealed that the patterns of stress manageability differ between clients, consultants and contractors. With the aid of further interviews, these results were interpreted in the light of actual industry practice. The relationships among individual stressors were similarly examined and which indicated that stress effects may be combined and accumulated when related stressors coexist.Though not studied here, the research reported in this paper constitutes a significant step towards the understanding, and management of, potentially stressful situations and their influence of the efficiency and effectiveness of construction industry participants. Similarly, there are triple bottom line implications for all concerned. In particular, those most likely to be exposed to high stressors may expect to at last receive some serious consideration from their managers and advice for self-help.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose is to report the results of research on ascertaining whether the various stakeholders in construction projects can adequately cope with the stresses they are confronting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Thirty-three stressors covering various aspects of project implementation, such as organisation policies, working relationships, communication and personal factors, are identified and the manageability of the common stressors faced by management of construction projects in Hong Kong is assessed by means of a questionnaire survey. The relationships among individual stressors are similarly examined. The extent to which stress effects combine and accumulate when related stressors coexist is also considered.\nFindings: - It is shown that the most difficult stressors to manage are \"bureaucracy\", \"lack of opportunity to learn new skills\", \"work-family conflicts\" and \"different view from superiors\". The results also revealed that the patterns of stress manageability differ between clients, consultants and contractors. The relationships among individual stressors are similarly examined. The extent to which stress effects combine and accumulate when related stressors coexist is also considered.\nOriginality/value: - The research reported constitutes a significant step towards the understanding and management of potentially stressful situations and their influence on the efficiency and effectiveness of construction industry participants.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The increasing complexity of the internationally mobile professional: Issues for research and practice	[ "Flexible labour", "Labour mobility", "Labour specialization", "Social capital", "World economy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent years, there has been significant and fast paced change in the nature of global business in the form of cross-border investment, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and other forms of partnership (Brewster et al., 2000; Iles and Yolles, 2002). Additionally, the phenomenon of the born-global company has emerged (Andersson and Wictor, 2003; Madsen and Servais, 1997), and increasingly small- and medium-sized firms are seeking global opportunities (Brewster and Suutari, 2005). Despite global developments of many kinds, our understanding of the international assignment and international assignee remains largely locked into the idea of the traditional long-term expatriate sent overseas for a 3-5 year period. The consequence of this focus on the traditional long-term expatriate is that research is lagging practice rather than informing it, thus new research agendas need to be developed with respect to the international assignment and assignee. This research needs to investigate the complexity of issues involved with respect to alternative types of organizationally sponsored international assignment and assignee, and the existence of the independent internationally mobile professional (IIMP). This is the individual who expatriates without organizational sponsorship, a group who remain largely invisible in research, but of whom there are many thousands circulating throughout the global economy.This paper proposes to broaden the research agenda that is of relevance to organizations operating in an international context by considering the increasing complexity of international assignments and assignees. Of particular importance are practical issues to do with hiring, preparation and support, performance management, rewards, re-entry, and careers. The paper suggests that research into international assignments, and HRM practitioners who have responsibility for international assignments, need to recognize developments in the international and regional labour markets for skilled professionals who have important implications for organizations. This is particularly so under conditions where organizations are seeking to reduce the costs of expatriation and enhance \"localization\" of staffing decisions (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2005). The paper has two major concerns: firstly, to raise research questions that are developing as organizations use alternative types of international assignment and assignee, e.g. short-term, commuter, flexpatriate, and teams. Secondly, to consider questions concerning research into, and organizational use of IIMPS. Such professionals have left their home countries to pursue opportunities in other countries independently of organizational sponsorship.\nStrategic purposes of international assignments: As the literature on strategic human resource management (SHRM) makes clear, for HRM to make a contribution it needs to \"fit\" the strategic direction, goals, and objectives of the organization (Boxall and Purcell, 2003). Clearly, a global organization should have a global strategy, regional and country strategies, as well as functional strategies. Thus the purpose of SHRM is more complex in a global context but in theory the same principle of \"fit\" should apply. Within these general strategies, we might expect that the organization has specific strategies for hiring, human resource development, rewards etc. depending on the purpose of an organization in any particular location.In the context of global, regional, and local business strategies, the role and purpose of international assignments should be clearly defined. A crucial question, for example, is related to the purpose of an international assignment such that it contributes to business strategy. Traditional long-term assignments have been found to have the purpose of skill and knowledge transfer, management control and coordination, and management development (Dowling and Welch, 2004). The purpose of such assignments, however, will doubtless vary according to the nature of the business and the organization's country of origin (Black et al., 1999; Fink et al., 2005). It seems that increasingly organizations are seeking alternatives to the long-term international assignment (CendantMobility, 2004; PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2005) which raises at least two questions. Firstly, can the purposes of a long-term assignment be met by an alternative type of assignment; and secondly, are international assignments and assignees of any type always necessary?Organizations may see that alternative types of international assignment offer opportunities for cost savings, yet this is hardly strategic reasoning. Decisions concerning the nature and type of international assignment should be driven by the objectives and purpose(s) of the assignment, not by cost alone. The effective and efficient management of assignments and assignees, therefore, will depend greatly on their definition, objectives, and purpose. Furthermore, clarity of definition, objectives, and purpose will enable an effective determination of the nature and type of assignment required, or whether an international assignment is necessary at all.As we have indicated, long-term assignments often have the purpose of skill and knowledge transfer, management control and coordination, and management development. Short-term assignments have been associated with skill and knowledge transfer and professional development (Tahvanainen et al., 2005). Overall, however, little is known of the purposes of other types of assignments (commuter, rotational, team, and flexpatriates), but it might be assumed that reasons such as skill transfer, business development and establishment, trouble-shooting and consulting, project management, and professional development are all potential reasons for sending individuals or teams on international assignment.The number, nature, and purpose of international assignments is increasing and becoming more complex (Mayerhofer et al., 2004; Shen, 2004; Shih et al., 2005). These influences on demand for assignees have implications for the manner in which organizations, their managers, and HRM professionals respond to them. While there is an extensive literature on the expatriate cycle in relation to the long-term expatriate, and in particular on how the cycle should be managed, there is little on the cycle of management of alternative types of assignment, or the supply of mobile professionals prepared to take an international assignment. Bonache et al. (2001) problematize much of the work on the expatriate cycle, arguing essentially that organizations manage international assignments and the expatriate cycle in an emergent way, depending upon the resources they have at their disposal to fill a vacancy at any particular time. The role of HRM in these processes is often negligible. From a research point of view, more needs to be done to describe and theorize from what organizations do rather than prescribing what should be done.The increasing demand for, and complexity of international assignments, some of which may be driven by a desire to diminish the use of traditional long-term assignments, raises important issues for organizations of all types and sizes. International assignments are not simply HRM issues, they are organizational issues. With this in mind, the following sections consider the expatriate cycle in relation to alternative types of international assignment. We also seek to introduce arguments from the supply side, suggesting that the demand and complexity of assignments might be met from the external global and regional labour markets rather than internal labour markets. Organizations, for example, might seek to fill assignments with IIMPS circulating in the global economy. From these discussions, we propose a number of areas that might usefully be subject to concerted research effort in line with that proposed by other scholars (Brewster and Suutari, 2005).\nThe management of international assignees: The prescriptions for selecting, preparing, rewarding, managing performance, and re-entry and career issues of international assignees (IAs) have largely derived from the strategic fit model of HRM (Boxall and Purcell, 2003). This approach posits that in order to ensure that an international assignment will be successful it is important to identify the purpose(s) of an assignment in relation to business strategy and objectives. From this, it should be possible to manage the expatriation cycle in a systematic and rational way. The reality of IA management, however, is far from being strategic and is often haphazard, disorganized, incoherent, and chaotic (Bonache et al., 2001). If this is the case for traditional long-term international assignments, the situation for alternative types of assignments may be little better, and certainly will be in need of investigation. Of importance is to consider what factors cause organizations to do what they do, and how they develop practices for the management of international assignments and IAs that may constitute their own \"best practices\". Research might usefully investigate new ways that organizations, specific to their own circumstances, manage international assignments.Selection\nConclusion: Surveys continue to emphasize that organizations, certainly those in the private sector (and probably those in the not-for-profit sector), want to reduce the costs of international assignments and to be able to understand the return on such investments (CendantMobility, 2004; PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2005). There is a lack of scholarly work at present that investigates how costs are influenced by alternative types of assignments, other than simple direct cost-reductions. Work to develop return on investment and value measures for international assignments remain in their infancy.From an organizational point of view, we contend that more detailed case study work should be undertaken that investigates how organizations are managing international assignments as a process and the extent to which this is reducing costs. We also contend that organizations need to increase their understanding of local, regional, and global labour markets. Localizing assignments means not only using locals but accessing nationals from other countries who are locally or regionally resident. As part of a strategic cost-reduction and return on investment approach to managing international assignments organizations need to draw on a wider pool of possible \"assignees\". Figure 1 outlines a process for selecting staff for international assignments. Assuming that timelines enable organizations to plan decisions in this way such a process presents the possibility of more effective selection decisions. However, even if timelines are short organizations ought to be able to develop and/or utilize internal or external consultants who can facilitate speedy yet more effective decision-making on international assignments.In line with the strategic fit model of human resources management, Figure 1 indicates that effective decisions for international assignments begin by understanding an organization's global, regional, and national strategies and their business goals and objectives. Being as clear as possible on strategies and goals facilitates a decision about the need for an international assignment, its purpose and scope and, consequently, the type of assignment that is appropriate. If the purpose and scope of an assignment concerns professional development or control and coordination an IA should be selected internally. However, for other purposes, e.g. some forms of knowledge transfer, introduction of scarce skills, it might be as feasible to select from the external labour market. Even if the purpose of the assignment appears to demand an internal candidate, it is necessary to ensure that such a resource is both available for and willing to take the assignment.Selecting from the external labour market might lead to a decision to \"localize\" the position; to use a host country national; to select a national of the home country resident in the host country; or to hire a third country national. In other words, if there is no clear and compelling reason why an international assignment should be staffed from the internal labour market, or the resource is not available internally, the external labour market offers a cost-effective and potentially more attractive option. Candidates from the external labour market will inevitably be less expensive, require less preparation, receive localized rewards, have more focused performance management, and require no re-entry or career support.For the HR practitioner or business/organizational managers making international assignment decisions, it appears sensible to tap into IIMP's circulating within local, regional, and global labour markets (Banai and Harry, 2004). In order to do this we contend that more needs to be discovered about such mobile professionals and how organizations can connect to them, as well as producing more research on new forms of international assignment staffed internally.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to develop a research agenda and raise practical issues relating to the increasing complexity of the internationally mobile professional.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper considers the developing issues in the use of alternative forms of international assignment (short-term, commuter, flexpatriate) and the existence of the independent internationally mobile professional and raises questions for research and practice.\nFindings: - The paper suggests that alternative forms of international assignment and assignee are under- researched. Additionally, the large number of independently mobile professionals in the global economy need to be further researched, while organizations should recruit for international assignments from the external as well as internal labour markets when circumstances allow.\nOriginality/value: - The paper raises under-researched questions in the study of international assignments and suggests more strategic approaches to the practice of managing international assignments.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Rejection of the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill in Nigeria: A setback for sustainable development goal five	[ "Development", "Developing countries", "Gender discrimination", "Legal matters", "Social action" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The sustainable development goals (SDGs) were unanimously voted to replace the millennium development goals (MDGs) at the United Nations (2015) General Assembly. The MDGs had been selected in 2000 with quantifiable targets to be achieved by 2015. However, several of the targets were not met, especially in the less developed countries (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa et al., 2015). The SDGs are widely viewed as a product of better consultative efforts than the MDGs, which were delivered through a top-down approach (Esquivel and Sweetman, 2016). The SDGs came into effect on the first day of 2016 and will have a 15-year lifespan, ending in 2030.\nThe bill: some concerns: As part of our effort, we carried out a critical analysis of the Bill and present our findings. A review of the Bill suggests that some sections might be regarded by some in Nigeria's overwhelmingly patriarchal context as being too lopsided and in favor of women. For example, Section 6b of the Bill states that:\nConclusion: Despite long-standing international commitments and the demonstrated benefits of addressing gender inequalities, enacting legislation in a patriarchal or male-dominated culture remains a significant challenge. For instance, many Nigerian societies maintain the rigid gender norms and social practices such as uneven distribution of power in marital relations, restriction on the movement of women and low participation of women in political and social spheres of decision-making (Oyediran, 2016). After six years following the introduction of the Gender and Equal opportunities Bill, the Bill could not be successfully passed as a Nigerian law. As such, more years of possible implementation of the law will be lost before another review could be put forward and completed. Also, the law would have been a good opportunity to direct activities that will move the country toward achieving some of the targets of the SDG.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls is the fifth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). This continues the effort of the third Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which was \"to promote gender equality and empower all women\". In Nigeria, a Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill had been under consideration in the Nigerian Senate since 2010 to be enacted as a Nigerian law as part of effort toward MDG 3. After six years, the Bill was voted out for \"lack of merit\". The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of the outcome.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A review of this Bill and the authors' perceptions of reasons for the decline are subsequently presented.\nFindings: There were concerns based on the content of the Bill. It was agreed by members of the Nigerian Senate that the content of the Bill was not in line with the religious and cultural beliefs of most of the Nigerian population and thus, unworthy to be enacted as a Nigerian law.\nSocial implications: The review herein provides important analysis of the content of the declined Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill. It reflects the continued patriarchal norms and perception of the superiority of men over women in Nigeria.\nOriginality/value: The paper provides a bird-view analysis of an unsuccessful Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill in Nigeria. This information is needed for a review of the Bill ahead of possible re-presentation following modifications for discussion.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Demonstrating academic library impact to faculty: a case study	[ "Collaboration", "Partnership", "Student retention", "Infographics", "Faculty", "Data visualization" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, academic institutions have begun to allocate a high priority to student retention and graduation rates, which often form part of their mission and/or strategic plans (Oakleaf, 2010; Brown and Malenfant, 2016). There are a number of stakeholders, including the library, who have a key role to play in helping the institution achieve these goals. Given the nature of their interaction and influence with students, both academic and library staff are integral to assisting students in developing the skills required to be successful in their academic endeavours.\n2. Literature review: In undertaking a critical review of the literature, the authors have focused on two main areas. First, they have examined the principal factors influencing student retention, including the role of academics and library staff. Second, they have then examined the aspects of how libraries can demonstrate impact, specifically through the use of infographics.\n3. Methodology: The authors undertook a critical analysis of the literature on student retention and data visualisation. The purpose of the review was twofold: to evaluate a number of perspectives on the critical success factors that contribute to student retention and to determine the extent to which libraries are using data visualisation to increase their collaboration with academic staff and thereby positively influencing student outcomes.\n4. Communicating LLS engagement with Griffith Sciences: Griffith University is comprised of four main academic groups: Arts, Education and Law; Griffith Business School; Griffith Health; and Griffith Sciences. As part of its engagement strategy, Library and Learning Services (LLS) regularly updates each of the Group Boards on a range of topics that are deemed to be of potential interest to that Group Board. Reports are tailored to suit the disciplines represented in each Group.\n5. Discussion: When these infographics were incorporated into a subsequent Information Services report for School B in Griffith Sciences, the Head of School (HOS) immediately commented on the relatively low number of students from his school, who were attending workshops, compared with students from other schools within that same Group.\n6. Conclusion: Given increased emphasis by universities on student retention and academic success, librarians have an opportunity to partner with key stakeholders, particularly academics, to help improve student outcomes. The key to such a partnership lies in the library's ability to engage the faculty in a way that demonstrates its ability to assist in achieving strategic institutional goals.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to describe the approach taken by an Australian university library in using data visualisation to increase the academic/library staff collaboration.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors have undertaken a critical review of the literature as the foundation for their case study, which presents observations and reflections arising from their first-hand experience with infographics.\nFindings: The use of data visualisation, specifically infographics, to present data about relatively low student engagement from a designated school with the Griffith University Library led to increased communication between the school and the Library. In addition, the Library has increased its use of infographics to demonstrate library impact to both academic and non-academic audiences.\nPractical implications: This case study would be useful to libraries wishing to demonstrate to the academic staff their capability to partner with faculty to achieve the institutional goals.\nOriginality/value: This case study outlines the advantages of librarians partnering with academics in terms of major university drivers, such as student success and student retention. It provides an example of the use of infographics as an effective communication strategy in an academic library.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Financial development and income inequality in India: an application of ARDL approach	[ "India", "Income inequality", "Financial development", "Auto regressive distributed lag (ARDL)", "D30", "F43", "G28", "O16", "O53" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The link between financial development and economic growth has received considerable attention in recent literature. Numerous studies have studied this relationship at both the theoretical and empirical levels. At a basic level, they have tried to find the answer, whether financial development leads to improved growth performance or vice versa. Other studies have focused on identifying the channels of transmission between financial intermediation and growth. Despite several attempts to empirically investigate the relationship between financial development and economic growth, very few studies have addressed the causal relationship between financial development and income inequality on the one hand and financial development and inequality reduction on the other. The theoretical predictions of the effects of financial development on income inequality are still unresolved.\n2. Literature review: Since the pioneering works of Robinson (1952), Goldsmith (1969), Schumpeter (1911/1934), McKinnon (1973) and Shaw (1973), the relationship between financial development and economic growth has been one important area of discussion among economists (Gregorio and Guidotti, 1995). After that many studies have examined the different aspects of this relationship at both theoretical and empirical level. There exist different steams of thought on the relationship between the financial development and economic growth. Bencivenga and Smith (1991), Greenwood and Jovanovic (1990), as well as Pagano (1993) suggesting that financial intermediate have positive effect on economic growth. Although the causal relationship between financial development and economic growth has been extensively studied in the literature (e.g. Luintel and Khan, 1999; Christopoulos and Tsionas, 2004; Rousseau and Vuthipadadorn, 2005; Ang and McKibbin, 2007; Kar et al., 2011; Esman et al., 2012).\n3. Methodology and data description: 3.1. Model specification and data\n4. Empirical results: Unit root tests: before we proceed for ARDL testing, we test for unit root of the variables to determine their order of integration. The test for unit root is to ensure that none of the series in integrated at I (2). In the present study we have used ADF, DF-GLS, KPSS and Ng-Perron unit root tests. The results of the conventional (ADF, DF-GLS, KPSS) test results are presented in Table III and the results of newly developed Ng-Perron test developed by Ng-Perron (2001) test is presented in Table IV. The analysis of the unit root test results indicate that all the variables are integrated order one or none of the variables are I (2) series.\n5. Conclusions and policy implications: The present paper examined the presence of long run relationship between financial development and income inequality in India using ARDL bound testing co-integration and ECM for short run dynamics. Further the paper also test the existence of the Greenwood-Jovanovich (GJ) hypothesis between financial development and income inequality on the annual time series data covering the period from 1982-2012. The study make use of ADF, DF-GLS, KPSS and Ng-Perron unit root tests to check the stationarity property of the series. The test statistics of the unit root suggest that all the variables included in the study are stationary in their first differences, so they are I (1). The bound test confirms that the estimated equation and the series are co-integrated. The ARDL results suggest that financial development in India does not help in the reduction of income inequality rather it widens the gap between poor and rich. Further economic growth has led to the deterioration of the income inequality, as is also true in case of inflation. Whereas trade openness lowers the income inequality as workers get better job opportunities with trade liberalization in the economy. The results from non-linear specification do not support the GJ hypothesis in India. This may be due to underdeveloped financial markets and yet to reach maturity to trigger the onset of inverted U-shaped relationship between financial development and income inequality, this result supports Ang (2010).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between financial development and income inequality in India using annual data from 1982-2012.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Stationarity properties of the series are checked by using ADF, DF-GLS, KPSS and Ng- Perron unit root tests. The paper applied the auto regressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound testing approach to co-integration to examine the existence of long run relationship; and error correction mechanism for the short run dynamics.\nFindings: The co-integration test confirms a long run relationship between financial development and income inequality for India. The ARDL test results suggest that financial development, economic growth, inflation aggravates the income inequality in both long run and short run. However, trade openness reduces the gap between rich and poor in India.\nResearch limitations/implications: The present recommend for appropriate economic and financial reforms focussing on financial inclusion to reduce income inequality in India.\nOriginality/value: Till date, there is hardly any study that makes a clear comparison between market-based indicator and bank based indicator of financial development in India and those examining the relationship between finance and income inequality nexus. Further there is hardly any study to include gini coefficient as a proxy for inequality for India and apply ARDL techniques of co-integration, using the basic principles of GJ hypothesis and provide short run and long run dynamics for India. So the contribution of the paper is to fill these research gaps.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Ideas for growing executive education revenue: codification and catalyst	[ "Innovation", "Executive education", "Revenue growth" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: University-based, non-degree, executive education (EE) revenue growth has been modest, at best, for the past several years according to the Consortium for University-Based EE (UNICON, 2014). The EE boom times, characterized by \"build it and they will come,\" are over except for perhaps a handful of elite institutions. Indeed, \"management education is in flux\" (Armstrong and Sadler-Smith, 2008, p. 571). EE program instructors, designers, and administrators are under increasing pressure to innovate, adapt (Whitney, 2016), differentiate (Valle and O'Mara, 2010), improve (Mihelich, 2015), compete (Doh and Stumpf, 2007), be more effective and efficient (Prokopeak, 2016), faster (Bersin, 2016), and sell more - pressures not foreign to the business people attending their EE programs. It is not an overstatement to suggest that such pressures have morphed into imperatives for many EE providers at a time when organizations are spending less on outsourced learning activities (Anderson, 2016) and \"there are many options available for leadership development\" (Prager, 2016, p. 48).\nThe opportunity and the challenge: The demand for EE services is likely to increase and those services must become more tailored to an organization's unique needs (Armstrong and Sadler-Smith, 2008). In fact, in a recent Chief Learning Officer (CLO) article, Mihelich (2015, p. 19) reports that \"78 percent of executives involved with developing corporate learning for their organizations said management education is an increasingly important part of their company's business strategy.\" This is not surprising given that \"competitive advantage does not come from an ability to hire better people than your competitors do, but from a superior ability to develop them\" (Maister, 1997, p. 105). Simply stated, \"learning [...] is of increasing importance for corporations\" (Mills, 2003, p. 115; see also Ready, 1995; Buchel and Antunes, 2007; Weber, 2016). Those who conscientiously lead corporations and other organizations know that the vitality of their enterprise depends on their \"knowing\" and \"execution\" capabilities, capabilities that must expand, evolve, and be ever enhanced (Pfeffer and Sutton, 2000; Bossidy and Charan, 2002). To such ends, \"the best leaders are the best learners\" (Wick et al., 2010, p. 329), those whose curiosity prompts them to continuously consider new possibilities.\nMethodology: The ideas that follow spring from, and are grounded in, two endeavors. The first pertained to what Schon (1983, p. 55) refers to as \"reflecting on action\" - reflecting on prior patterns of action, the situations in which they occurred, and on the know-how implicit in making those actions successful. With a similar purposefulness, others have termed this process, \"reflections from practice\" (Schedlitzki et al., 2015). In this vein, our prior, present, and planned EE program experiences, spanning nearly a century of combined time in the EE and talent development arenas, were identified and codified. EE program designs that worked well for clients were identified. Additional EE program ideas emanating from those that had worked well were also formulated and noted. Second, a focused \"ideation\" process (see Bjork et al., 2010; Reid and Moriarty, 1983; Losaw, 2015) was applied to: all 23 profit models presented in the popular business growth book, The Art of Profitability (Slywotzky, 2002)[2] and to other intriguing, related literature. Where applicable, and for further reader inquiry if desired, appropriate cites are noted for a number of the ideas presented.\nA framework and its application: From the foregoing two endeavors, 90 EE revenue growth ideas emerged. Those ideas are briefly described and codified below. Before presenting them, several points are important to make. First, reading a long list of anything, no matter how useful that list might be, can be tedious. This list is suitable for initial skimming, subsequent periodic focused attention, and selective use as a catalyst for customized thinking most suitable for readers' varied institutional contexts. For such purposes, it is a list with a long shelf life for useful revisiting.\nGrowth ideas to spark action and possibilities: The EE revenue growth ideas that follow are not rules. They are not To Do's. They are not the secrets to success that have been protected and are now disclosed because they have outlived their usefulness. No. They are ideas borne of effective practices, careful trials, informed observations, and experience-based possibilities thinking. In some instances, they are challenges to old EE paradigms or extrapolations from the business context to the EE world. Many are a combination of both stimuli. Some of the ideas may have already been implemented, or are about to be, at your school. Others may require careful deliberation, loosened restrictions, challenged assumptions, new decision makers, and/or some investments.\nDiscussion and conclusions: Generating new revenue growth ideas and fresh commitments to their pursuit are core competencies that many EE organizations seek to improve. For decades, EE revenues have mostly been the result of successful responses to other organizations' request for proposals, or taking a generic theme and benefiting from a \"build a program and they will come\" approach, or some combination of both. This is not a criticism - it is an observation. The days of comfortably relying on these two approaches are over.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to codify a comprehensive array of executive education (EE) revenue growth ideas that are implementable in their own right or that spark other, related growth ideas.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The EE revenue growth ideas presented are an outgrowth of: a collective and personal \"reflections from practice\" process that embraced nearly a century of combined years in the talent management and EE sales, design, and delivery arena; and a focused \"ideation\" process sparked by the contemporary business literature devoted to profitable growth models.\nFindings: In total, a robust list and description of 90 EE revenue growth ideas are succinctly chronicled.\nResearch limitations/implications: The 90 ideas presented here, although rooted in nearly a century of the authors' combined EE experience, are nonetheless limited by their experience. The array of ideas, and variants of those presented, are constrained only by the unique experience and creativity of other conscientious EE program designers and stewards. The inventory of 90 ideas is a robust start that can be extended, modified, and used as a catalyst for ongoing EE revenue growth discussions and research.\nPractical implications: The growth ideas presented are immediately actionable and potentially galvanizing for EE providers. In addition, EE clients whose interest is piqued by any of the ideas, can approach their own providers to initiate a tailored talent development process rooted in one or more of the ideas. Of note, the extensive list has been crafted to have a long shelf life and thus this paper can effectively serve as a reference for ongoing use.\nOriginality/value: The authors are not aware of any prior articles presenting such a myriad of ideas for EE providers (and clients) to potentially renew and expand their portfolio of activities with the aim of revenue growth. Moreover, the paper is both an inventory of ready ideas as well as an array of catalysts for specific providers (and clients) to pursue their own related, or parallel, ideas.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Integrating multi-criteria decision making and clustering for business customer segmentation	[ "Fuzzy AHP", "Multi-criteria decision making", "Business customer segmentation", "Data clustering" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Customer segmentation can be defined as division of a customer base into distinct and internally consistent groups with similar characteristics. It allows companies to develop different marketing strategies according to customer characteristics.\n2. The proposed approach and theoretical background: 2.1. The proposed approach\n3. Application of the proposed approach: 3.1. The case company and data set\n4. Conclusions: This study proposes an integrated approach for business customer segmentation. The proposed approach differentiates itself from its counterparts by combining MCDM and clustering in business customer segmentation. In addition, it extends the traditional RFM model by including five novel segmentation variables for business markets namely \"loyalty,\" \"average annual demand,\" \"long term relationship potential,\" \"average percentage change in annual demand\" and \"average percentage change in annual sales revenue.\"\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a systematic approach for business customer segmentation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study proposes an approach for business customer segmentation that integrates clustering and multi-criteria decision making (MCDM). First, proper segmentation variables are identified and then customers are grouped by using hierarchical and partitional clustering algorithms. The approach extended the recency-frequency-monetary (RFM) model by proposing five novel segmentation variables for business markets. To confirm the viability of the proposed approach, a real-world application is presented. Three agglomerative hierarchical clustering algorithms namely \"Ward's method,\" \"single linkage\" and \"complete linkage,\" and a partitional clustering algorithm, \"k-means,\" are used in segmentation. In the implementation, fuzzy analytic hierarchy process is employed to determine the importance of the segments.\nFindings: Business customers of an international original equipment manufacturer (OEM) are segmented in the application. In this regard, 317 business customers of the OEM are segmented as \"best,\" \"valuable,\" \"average,\" \"potential valuable\" and \"potential invaluable\" according to the cluster ranks obtained in this study. The results of the application reveal that the proposed approach can effectively be used in practice for business customer segmentation.\nResearch limitations/implications: The success of the proposed approach relies on the availability and quality of customers' data. Therefore, design of an extensive customer database management system is the foundation for any successful customer relationship management (CRM) solution offered by the proposed approach. Such a database management system may entail a noteworthy level of investment.\nPractical implications: The results of the application reveal that the proposed approach can effectively be used in practice for business customer segmentation. By making customer segmentation decisions, the proposed approach can provides firms a basis for the development of effective loyalty programs and design of customized strategies for their customers.\nSocial implications: The proposed segmentation approach may contribute firms to gaining sustainable competitive advantage in the market by increasing the effectiveness of CRM strategies.\nOriginality/value: This study proposes an integrated approach for business customer segmentation. The proposed approach differentiates itself from its counterparts by combining MCDM and clustering in business customer segmentation. In addition, it extends the traditional RFM model by including five novel segmentation variables for business markets.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Translating knowledge of supply chain uncertainty into business strategy and actions	[ "Supply chain management", "Uncertainty management", "Decision making", "Strategic management", "Knowledge transfer" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction and related work: The twenty-first century global competition has driven many modern manufacturing enterprises to respond to uncertainty more rapidly. Owing to such intense competition, enterprises are no longer affordable to deal with uncertainty using the traditional approach, which entails a relatively reactive and ad hoc decision-making process in finding the solution to cope with the uncertainty identified at any one time (Koh and Saad, 2004). Uncertainty is defined as any unpredictable event occurs during production process that cannot be planned for (Koh and Saad, 2002). Uncertainty has been referred to as disturbance (Saad and Gindy, 1998) and nervousness (Ho and Ireland, 1998). Regardless of how uncertainty is termed, the stochastic nature of its unpredictability is alike.Production process involves fulfilling customer order and coordinating supply and resource availabilities. These are supply chain operational activities. In this sense, uncertainty that occurs in a production process could be referred to as supply chain uncertainty. Such process is bound to be affected by uncertainty at various levels.Supply chain uncertainty can generally be described as any unpredictable events that cannot be planned for during production process in a supply chain or be featured with some levels of fuzziness. The specific categorisation reflects to the hot spot of its occurrence, e.g. during inbound and outbound logistics. Manufacturing uncertainty can be referred to as unpredictable events that occur during the manufacturing cycle, e.g. machine breakdown or scrap. Ounnar and Ladet (2004) adopted the Petri net approach to reassign operations to shop floor resources in the event of machine breakdown. In contrast, Lofsten (1999) suggested the use of preventive maintenance or corrective maintenance based on cost minimisation criteria. To reduce scrap production, Stewart et al. (2004) suggested a proactive method called the fuzzy defect avoidance system, which uses a fuzzy Bayesian methodology to aid in the identification of work centres and jobs that are most likely to produce defects. Wei (1997) predicts scrap rate by designing process tolerances to minimise the expected loss of the entire process.Manufacturing uncertainty is the hottest spot in a production process because manufacturing is the key activity where many types of internal and external uncertainties (Saad and Gindy, 1998) could impact upon. Manufacturing uncertainty could be caused by supply uncertainty, demand uncertainty, new product development uncertainty and technology uncertainty. Supply uncertainty can be defined as unpredictable events that occur in the upstream supply chain, e.g. late delivery from supplier or supply part shortage. It is clear that supply uncertainty could delay manufacturing processes, particularly in a scenario of dependent demand of purchase parts for final assembly and manufacturing. Customer is another entity that often makes changes to orders, which result in demand uncertainty. Demand uncertainty can be defined as unpredictable events that occur in the downstream supply chain. This directly impacts on the manufacturing cycle time and order release to the shop floor.Brennan and Gupta (1993) simulated the effects of demand uncertainty, supply lead-time uncertainty and manufacturing lead-time uncertainty on bill of materials (BOM), BOM variant, demand variant, lead-time bias factor, set-up to holding cost ratio, shortage cost and lot-sizing rule. They found that the number of parts at a given level in the BOM and its shape are significant; the choice of lot-sizing rules is significant; the value of the ratio of set-up to holding cost is significant; on system performance. Petrovic et al. (1998) studied customer demand and external supply uncertainties using fuzzy modelling and simulation. Their supply chain simulator provides a dynamic view of the supply chain and assesses the impact of decisions recommended by the supply chain fuzzy models on supply chain performance.New product development is often linked to negotiating for manufacturing resources expansion or new resources investment based on demand and market prediction for the new product after finalising the design. New product development uncertainty can be referred to as unpredictable events during the process of market research, product design and product prototyping. For example, controlling engineering changes during product development via concurrent engineering approach will reduce or prevent rework in manufacturing (Loch and Terwiesch, 1998). Manufacturing technology uncertainty in a broad sense can be defined as a scenario of fuzziness in the selection of a suitable technology platform. For example, trade-off between a fool-proof manufacturing technology and a prospective technology offering superior price to performance results but whose viability is not certain (Krishnan and Bhattacharya, 2002). The decision on which technology to adopt will impact on the manufacturing capability. Technology uncertainty often causes new product development uncertainty. Magnusson and Berggren (2001) argued that the application of new technology to comply with environmental demands may change the product development process within the auto industry. Their research shows that technology uncertainty drives beyond the prevailing lean product development approach. They proposed a strategy to control technology uncertainty in innovative and time-focussed product development projects.It must be noted that manufacturing uncertainty itself could also cause supply and demand chain uncertainties. For example, increased of manufacturing workload as a result of customer increases order size needs to be reflected for those related bought-out parts. Frequent changes of manufacturing capacities may induce demand uncertainty because available-to-promise cannot be clearly established. Hence, customers may need to change their orders interval and size accordingly. The multiple cause-and-effect of all the rest of the uncertainties is self-explanatory. Analysing from the supply chain perspective, these uncertainties either at inter-enterprises or intra-enterprises levels could amplify its effect on supply and demand chain performances.Blackhurst et al. (2004) modelled supply chain uncertainty using the network-based approach. The notion is to enable better analysis of supply chain through inclusion of stochastic variables in the abstracted network. Chang et al. (2002) proposed the need to align manufacturing flexibility with environmental uncertainty that is caused by customer demand changes, supply variance, competitors' unpredictability and technology uncertainty. Towill (2000) and de Souza et al. (2000) referred to supply chain uncertainty as supply chain dynamics. Towill proposed a route map to improve supply chain dynamics, whilst de Souza suggested the supply chain reengineering approach by means of coordinating dynamics.In a manufacturing environment, supply chain uncertainty may result in other planned work being displaced to make way for the delayed assembly or delay may be increased if a suitable resource cannot be found. Most previous research developed or applied different techniques to tackle supply chain uncertainty with little or no discrimination amongst the level of significance of the uncertainty (Koh et al., 2002). This has led to research on the optimality of techniques to tackle particular supply chain uncertainty without knowing whether significant improvement to performances can be achieved. In addition, little evidence can be found that shows the underlying causes of supply chain uncertainty have been addressed.The lack of responsiveness to supply chain uncertainty from using the traditional approach triggers the need to use a systematic type of planning and control system, such as material requirements planning (MRP), manufacturing resource planning (MRPII), and enterprise resource planning (ERP). It is expected that such planning and control systems could act as the information core in an enterprise, which in turn may help in identifying, evaluating and understanding the effects of supply chain uncertainty. At the strategic level, ERP system is defined as an integrated application program for enterprise business organisation, management and supervision (Davenport, 1998). ERP collects all the functionalities of stand-alone applications, and gathers inside a standard software, making it compatible with different business processes. At the operational level, ERP is a game plan for planning and monitoring the resources of a manufacturing enterprise, including the functions of manufacturing, marketing, finance, and engineering (Wight, 1993). ERP represents the application of the latest IT to MRPII systems and it is related to the fundamental techniques of MRP in that if they are used as a production planning and control tool, they follow the same MRP release logic (Enns, 2001; Miltenburg, 2001; Koh, 2004; Koh and Saad, 2004). Hence, the outputs (i.e. planned order release schedules) generated from such tool are identical. Within an ERP system, this will be generated from the production planning module. Their planning capability could offer substantial gains in productivity, dramatic increases in customer service, much higher inventory turns, and a greater reduction in material costs, if they are used efficiently and facilitated by necessary support. However, such systems could not perform under supply chain uncertainty (Whybark and Williams, 1976; Brennan and Gupta, 1993; Yeung et al., 1998; Guide and Srivastava, 2000; Koh and Saad, 2002) and many failures have been reported in relation to their dependencies on high level of data accuracy, and management and administration disciplines (Loh and Koh, 2004). In addition, these systems lack the quick response capability, e.g. suggesting appropriate solutions to cope with the effects of supply chain uncertainty when needed.The ERP software market has been growing at a very fast pace from the year 1993 to 1997 and it has been predicted that the current growth rates of 35-40 per cent will be sustained in the long term (Bingi et al., 1999). Many larger enterprises rely heavily on such systems for information retrieval and progress update; whereas many small and medium sized enterprises are rapidly adopting the midrange ERP (Loh and Koh, 2004). It is essential to examine the underlying causes of the supply chain uncertainty that affect performances of manufacturing environments that use such systems in order to formulate appropriate business strategy and action to tackle the uncertainty. In this paper, we refer to such environments as ERP-controlled manufacturing environments since the same release logic is deployed in MRP, MRPII or ERP systems in production planning.Realistically, multiple supply chain uncertainties impact on a production process at any one time and hence diagnosing for which uncertainty exerts significant effect is informative to enable prioritisation of effort for improvement and maximise benefits from those effort. This research proposes a knowledge translation approach to manage supply chain uncertainty. The paper presents the process and results of the application of a decision-making tool, namely TAPS, which enables translating of knowledge of supply chain uncertainty into business strategy and actions.\n2 The process of translating knowledge of supply chain uncertainty: The process of translating knowledge of supply chain uncertainty can be divided into three steps as follows.2.1 Step 1: collecting and diagnosing the underlying causes\n3 Case example: TAPS shows qualitative cause-effect relationships between variables. A cause-effect relationship between variables is said to exist if a change in one of them will induce, or be induced by, a change in the other. The existence of this cause-effect relationship can be shown graphically by placing the names of the variables within nodes and connecting these two nodes with an arrow. For example, working extra hours \"overtime\" in factory will induce an increase in the factory output, thus \"overtime\" has a relationship with \"capacity\" (Figure 3).TAPS uses four main modules:1. database;2. graphic user interface;3. analysis; and4. evaluation, in the process of translating knowledge of supply chain uncertainty.3.1 Database module\n4 Business strategy and actions: ERP-controlled manufacturing environments are extremely complex because ERP relies on accuracy of data from internal departments and external suppliers and customers, and stability of environment and supply chain in order to provide a workable schedule and order. Supply chain uncertainty would fizzify such environment and thus resulting in under performance on customer delivery. Such complexity calls for a systematic approach in identifying suitable business strategy and actions to tackle the underlying causes of supply chain uncertainty.In practice, managers experience with various forms of supply chain uncertainty at any one time. This tacit knowledge usually has not been encoded and let alone being translated into suitable business strategy and actions. Without such knowledge translation, the managers may not have identified the most suitable business strategy and actions to tackle the supply chain uncertainty. Given that there may be multiple supply chain uncertainties affecting the enterprise at any one time, the managers may not be able to visualise the entire cause-and-effect of the supply chain uncertainty with the absence of the uncertainty diagnosing business model, and hence the chosen business strategy and actions may be \"sub-optimal\". Translating knowledge of supply chain uncertainty into business strategy and actions is a difficult process in an ERP-controlled manufacturing environment, so the proposed process of translating knowledge of supply chain uncertainty could help practitioners.It could be argued that in theory, as long as the environments are flexible enough to respond to supply chain uncertainty, the effects on late delivery could be minimised. However, the threshold of the flexibility has to correspond to the level of supply chain uncertainty (Chang et al., 2002). It may not be cost-effective to be flexible when there is a high level of supply chain uncertainty. Flexibility may not be the robust approach in tackling supply chain uncertainty (Caputo, 1996). To this end, we propose the process of translating knowledge of supply chain uncertainty so that a holistic and systematic way of tackling the significant underlying causes could be found and hence appropriate business strategy and actions could be identified.\n5 Conclusions and implications: Action planning is far too frequently carried out relatively informally. Companies might spend significant time developing strategies and objectives, which are then passed down to a manager to implement. This often occurs in an ad hoc way based on the manager's past experience. A formal process provides a mechanism for combating this tendency. A formal process helped managers to decompose the complexity of uncertainty in manufacturing environments into manageable steps.We have demonstrated, how TAPS approach can facilitate the generation and communication of actions in ERP-controlled manufacturing environments. The TAPS tool has been designed to support the three aspects: formal process, visualization, and knowledge capture. It gives integrated support throughout the process providing a more comprehensive functionality for translating knowledge of uncertainty into business strategy and actions.TAPS allows managers to develop and visualise a model of the causes of uncertainty. There are clear benefits of developing a shared and agreed model of an organization's operation. The cause-effect visualization prompted discussion on three levels: firstly, defining and understanding individual causes; secondly, identifying linkages; and thirdly, characterizing and evaluating the attributes of the linkages. The uncertainty diagnosing cause-effect business model provides a way of capturing and recording the operation of an organization in a way which can be easily accessed and to be shared with others. This allows a knowledge base to be built up over time, and revisited and amended as changes occur.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to present the process and results of the application of a decision-making tool, namely TAPS, which enables translation of knowledge of supply chain uncertainty into business strategy and actions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The knowledge of supply chain uncertainty is collected from previous research performed under enterprise resource planning (ERP)-controlled manufacturing environments. The knowledge is used as the input for TAPS and is mapped to investigate and formulate appropriate business strategy and action plan to manage supply chain uncertainty in such environments.\nFindings: - The results of knowledge translation provide a set of guidelines to academics and practitioners, which indicates the underlying causes of supply chain uncertainty in ERP-controlled manufacturing environments in a priority order, and the suitable business strategy and actions that could potentially be adopted to manage the uncertainty.\nPractical implications: - Owing to the increasing level of complexity and uncertainty intoday's enterprises, translating knowledge is suggested to be useful in assisting decision making and business strategy formulation.\nOriginality/value: - This research provides a successful case example of knowledge translation process of supply chain uncertainty into business strategy and actions, which enables creation of sustainable strategies to manage uncertainty based on the concept of knowledge management and learning.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Individualism, collectivism, and consumer animosity in emerging Asia: evidence from Korea	[ "Individualism", "Collectivism", "Consumer animosity", "Asian consumers", "Japanese animosity" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since initial research by Klein et al. (1998), various scholars have studied the concept of consumer animosity toward a particular country and its products. Consumer animosity, in general, means the antipathy that some consumers feel toward a certain country in relation to that country's past or present military, political or economic events and circumstances. Past research has consistently shown that such animosity discourages consumers from purchasing products of a country or countries toward which their animosity is directed. Such effects have been observed for diverse products and countries (Amine, 2008; Fong et al., 2014; Shoham et al., 2016). Particularly, the effects have been quite strong in East Asia toward Japanese products (Klein et al., 1998; Klein, 2002; Wang et al., 2013).\nTheoretical background: The concept of consumer animosity\nThe effects of individualism and collectivism on purchase intentions: IC may affect consumers' intentions of purchasing Japanese brands in two ways. First, IC can affect purchase intentions through consumer animosity. Consumer animosity is expected to be preceded negatively by individualism and positively by collectivism. Second, IC can also moderate the effects of consumer animosity on purchase intentions. Specifically, individualism would negatively moderate the effects, whereas collectivism would show a positive moderation. Details on these two effects are discussed below.\nResearch method: Operationalization and measurements\nEmpirical results: Before the hypothesis testing, discussion of descriptive statistics is in order. The survey data first show that the respondents were slightly hostile toward Japan. The mean value on country animosity was 0.437 on the scale of -3 to 3. As to the levels of IC, they were first modestly individualistic. Their mean values of HI and VI were 1.114 and 1.143 on the scale of -3 to 3, respectively. They also exhibited a moderate level of collectivism with the values of 1.304 and 1.382 on HC and VC, respectively. The HI and VI values are slightly greater than, and the HC and HC scores are close to those on Koreans reported by Nam (2007) (HI = 4.86, VI = 5.30, HC = 5.15, and VC = 4.76 on the scales of 1 to 7) and Cho et al. (2013) (HI = 5.06, VI = 4.71, HC = 5.48 and VC = 5.31 on the seven-point scales). As for brand familiarity, they were also moderately familiar with the brands examined in the study with the mean value of 3.897 on the scale of 1 to 7.\nDiscussion and conclusions: This study examined how the value of IC affects consumer animosity toward foreign brands in emerging Asia by surveying Korean consumers and their animosity toward Japanese brands. Specifically, it attempted to estimate the effects of IC on purchase intentions in two ways. First, it examined how IC can affect purchase intentions through consumer animosity. Second, it also investigated how IC can moderate the effects of consumer animosity on purchase intentions. The effects were expected to be moderated negatively by individualism and positively by collectivism.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to investigate how the consumer values of individualism and collectivism (IC) affect consumer animosity toward foreign brands in emerging Asia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Surveys were conducted with Korean consumers on their animosity toward Japanese brands.\nFindings: The study found that the IC value can precede consumer animosity and also moderate the effects of consumer animosity on purchase intentions. When horizontal and vertical dimensions of IC were examined, collectivism and vertical individualism were found to have strong effects on consumer animosity. In addition, both horizontal and vertical individualism negatively moderated the consumer animosity effects.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings suggest that future consumers in Asia and perhaps other emerging countries as well may be less affected by consumer animosity in brand choice as they become more Westernized and individualistic.\nOriginality/value: This study may enhance the understanding on changing consumer animosity and behavior in emerging countries in general.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Achieving transformative sustainability learning: engaging head, hands and heart	[ "Action research", "Experiential learning", "Education", "Learning", "Canada" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nPurpose: Introduction\nApproach: Context\nFindings: This research resulted in three major findings.Head, hands and heart as an organizing principle\nImplications: This paper introduced the TSL model by positioning this framework as a means to engage and enable learners to enact principles, values and goals of sustainability for perspective transformation, and ideally, ultimately to societal transformation. The TSL model, and particularly the assessment matrix, may better enable transformations to sustainability through more effective planning, implementation and evaluation of collaborative sustainability pedagogies, particularly when paired with iterative processes of reflection, innovation and implementation. The current UN Decade of EfSD echoes many scholars' calls to re-envision education for sustainability. Short of a complete overhaul of education, we propose learning objectives that can be integrated across existing curricula. University programs and courses meeting these learning objectives exhibit an emergent property we term TSL.This model is essentially still a work in progress. In developing TSL, we continue to experiment with it as a means of enhancing its usefulness. Our work to date demonstrates potential in applying this learning framework to courses and programs in higher education. We posit that TSL is a useful framework in that it provides an organizing principle that is simple and effective, and serves to engage and enable participants to explore and enact sustainability. As such, TSL may clarify, elevate and further unify sustainability-oriented pedagogies while strengthening their transformative potential.\nConclusion: While other teaching and learning models cover aspects of cognitive engagement, practical application and emotional connection, TSL offers the organizing model, head, hands and heart (Figure 1), to explicitly unite and embody the theories, practices and heartbeats of sustainability within academic and applied fields. We hope that we have clearly documented the usefulness of the TSL theory, particularly its organizing principle of head, hands and heart, and its application, in the form of the assessment matrix.We presented an innovative \"pedagogical landscape\" (Figure 2) and mapped some established inter/transdisciplinary, practical, and place-based sustainability-oriented pedagogies (Table I) by similarity to each other via the simple and effective organizing principle of head, hands and heart. This cognitive landscape clarifies TSL as a valuable bridge amongst sustainability pedagogies. We introduced three case studies that further informed the emergence of the TSL pedagogy to provide additional insight and examples to those interested in planning, implementing and evaluating TSL in various learning environments. Finally, we detailed TSL learning objectives that were developed through study of related pedagogies, and emerged through the case studies. We presented an assessment matrix (Table II) based on a simple ranking rubric, with a scale from 0-4 to assess the strengths and areas for improvement of TSL programs. TSL is therefore useful for planning, implementing, assessing and reflecting on sustainability-focused post-secondary education.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The current UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development echoes many scholars' calls to re-envision education for sustainability. Short of a complete overhaul of education, the paper seeks to propose learning objectives that can be integrated across existing curricula. These learning objectives are organized by head, hands and heart - balancing cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains. University programs and courses meeting these learning objectives exhibit an emergent property here termed transformative sustainability learning (TSL).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Theoretically, TSL grew from traditions of sustainability education and transformative education. Practically, TSL emerged from experimental learning collaborations sponsored by the University of British Columbia in 2003 and 2004 in an effort to enable explicit transitions to sustainability-oriented higher education. Primarily through action research, these community-based, applied learning experiences constituted cyclical processes of innovation, implementation and reflection.\nFindings: - The paper finds: advancement of head, hands and heart as an organizing principle by which to integrate transdisciplinary study (head); practical skill sharing and development (hands); and translation of passion and values into behaviour (heart); development of a cognitive landscape for understanding TSL as a unifying framework amongst related sustainability and transformative pedagogies that are inter/transdisciplinary, practical and/or place-based; creation of learning objectives, organized to evaluate a course or program's embodiment of TSL.\nOriginality/value: - By enabling change within existing structures of higher education, the paper complements and contributes to more radical departures from the institution. The work to date demonstrates potential in applying this learning framework to courses and programs in higher education.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Ethnic stereotyping in service provision: When do stereotypes affect the performance expectations and evaluation of ethnic service providers?	[ "Customer experience", "Social identity", "Evaluations", "Ethnic stereotypes", "Service expectations" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Many societies today comprise a highly multi-ethnic population. In the USA, 26.2 per cent of the population is considered to be non-white. In Canada and Australia, the population born in a foreign country is reported to be 20.7 per cent and 27 per cent respectively. Marketers recognize that these different ethnic groups have distinct needs, consumption habits, and preferences. Most of the Fortune 500 firms embrace the idea of multi-ethnic product/service offerings (Daniels, 2014) as expressed in the notion of ethno-marketing (Pires et al., 2003). The academic literature in marketing has also begun to investigate the role of cultural and ethnic factors in the evaluation of products and services: For instance, the effectiveness of using ethnic spokespersons to target specific demographic groups (Forehand and Deshpande, 2001); the evaluation of products associated with ethnic minorities (e.g. salsa dip, rap music; Grier et al., 2006; Ouellett, 2007); and the paradigm of inter-cultural service encounters (e.g. the effect of cultural distance between the customer and the service provider on the evaluation of the service; Etgar and Fuchs, 2011; Hopkins et al., 2005; Riechart and Gill, 2004; Sharma et al., 2009, 2012; Stauss and Mang, 1999). Moreover, in a recent editorial, this journal itself has highlighted the importance of studying the implications of the modern multi-ethnic society on service provision (Ranaweera and Sigala, 2015).\nConceptual framework: Customers judge service quality by comparing performance against the prior expectations from the service provider. Services are also heterogeneous in that performance varies from one experience to another (Parasuraman et al., 1985). Customers are often willing to accept this heterogeneity, which is referred to as the zone of tolerance (Zeithaml et al., 1993). This zone, which is known to be the difference between desired service and adequate service, can expand and contract. Customers' service expectations are therefore characterized by a range of levels, which take into consideration a number of factors including stereotypes.\nStudy 1: Phase 1\nDiscussion: The results from Study 1 confirm the presence of ethnic stereotypes in various service domains (professions). Whereas Chinese and South Asian ethnic groups were considered to possess more hard skills (e.g. numeric skills, technology-related skills, analytical skills) relative to whites, the opposite pattern emerged for soft skills (e.g. communication skills, interpersonal skills, leadership/managerial skills, creativity) where whites fared better than the two ethnic groups. In addition, professions that typically require hard skills (e.g. accountant, IT professional, computer/software engineer) were considered to be highly typical for Chinese and South Asians and entailed high performance expectations. Professions that are associated with soft skills (e.g. lawyer, psychologist), on the other hand, were considered less typical of the Chinese and South Asians. These ethnic stereotypes were also reflected in performance expectations for the two ethnic groups such that expectations were higher for professions that were considered typical of a given ethnic group and lower for professions that were less typical for that group. Overall, there were clear (and more extreme) stereotypes about the service domains and professions congruent with the two ethnic groups as compared to the white group. Both the Chinese and South Asians were considered highly typical in six of the 12 professions (accountant, financial advisor, IT professional, doctor, computer/software engineer, and math teacher; all ratings higher than 6.5 on a nine-point scale), but they were considered less typical in four of the 11 professions (police officer, fitness instructor, music teacher, and psychologist; all ratings lower than 5). In contrast, the white ethnic group was not considered atypical for any of the 11 professions (no rating lower than 5).\nStudy 2: In this study, we examined the evaluation of ESPs in different service domains (stereotypical vs counter-stereotypical) based on the level of their performance (good vs mediocre), as well as from the perspective of different customer groups (same ethnic group vs majority group). To select the appropriate stimuli for the study several criteria had to be met. First, in order to control for any potential confounds we wanted to select a single service domain/profession where ESPs could be perceived as stereotypical vs counter-stereotypical contingent upon the subtype of service provided. Second, since our participant sample was undergraduate students, the domain should be highly relevant to the sample. Third, the ethnicity of the provider had to match the ethnic groups represented in the sample. To meet the first and second criteria, we selected personal trainer as the domain appropriate for this sample, and within this domain selected two subtypes of professional services - fitness instructor (for weight training, body-building) vs martial arts instructor (for taekwondo, tai chi) - that were, respectively, counter-stereotypical vs stereotypical for service providers from the Chinese ethnic group. The ESP (i.e. of Chinese origin) also met the third criterion, as our sample had a sufficient number of participants from the Chinese ethnic group in addition to those from the white majority group.\nDiscussion: In this research we looked at how the service domain (stereotypical or counter-stereotypical), and social group membership of the customer (same ethnicity or different ethnicity) interact with the performance level provided by the service employee (above or below average) in impacting the way customers form attitudes and behavioural intentions towards ESPs. As noted before, given the multi-ethnic nature of today's society, interactions between service providers and customers belonging to different ethnicities is increasingly common. Yet, our understanding of how these ethnicities impact customer evaluations and behaviours is limited. Incorporating both stereotypical and counter-stereotypical service contexts enables us to make direct comparisons while at the same time accounting for the effect of the ethnicity of the customers themselves. Prior research on stereotypes about obesity, for instance, shows that both obese and non-obese people are equally likely to assign negative stereotypes to obese individuals (Cowart and Brady, 2014). Crandall (1994) explained this by saying that this phenomenon may occur because obese people may see themselves as capable of leaving the group through dieting and exercise, while group exodus is not a typical option for members of other stereotyped groups, even if they wished to do so. Similarly, while the effects of employee accent (Hill and Tombs, 2011; Tombs and Hill, 2014) and appearance (Nickson et al., 2005; Shao et al., 2004) on customer reactions have been previously examined, a more detailed examination of these effects based on the customer's group affiliation has not. In this regard, we clearly demonstrate that when it comes to ethnic stereotyping, it is critical to account for the ethnicity of the respondents themselves given the substantive differences we found based on the different ethnic affiliations of the respondents/customers. We also looked at how these ethnic stereotypes act in combination with different performance levels, specifically below and above average performance levels. We chose these levels because first, these performance levels are most typical in most service scenarios vis-a-vis extreme levels of either positive or negative performance. Second, stereotypes are known to be subtle effects and thus, are likely to be overwhelmed by extreme service scenarios. As such, investigating the aforementioned performance levels enabled us to bring both theoretically and managerially meaningful insights from the study.\nTheoretical and managerial implications: Theoretical implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the expectations and evaluations of services provided by members of an ethnic minority using the lens of ethnic stereotypes. The authors also examine how ethnic service providers (ESPs) are evaluated by customers from the majority group vs the same ethnic group as the provider.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In Study 1, the authors measure the stereotypes about skills, abilities, and typical professions associated with different ethnic groups (i.e. Chinese, South Asians and white). The authors then measure the effect of these stereotypes on the performance expectations from ESPs in different professional services. In Study 2, the authors manipulate the service domain (stereotypical vs counter-stereotypical) and the level of service performance (good: above average performance vs mediocre: below average) of a Chinese ESP, and subsequently measure the evaluation of the ESP by the same ethnic group (Chinese) vs majority group (white) participants.\nFindings: Performance expectations from ESPs closely match the stereotypes associated with the ethnic group. But the performance of an ESP (especially mediocre-level service) is evaluated differently by the same ethnic group vs majority group customers, depending upon the domain of service. A Chinese ESP providing mediocre service in a stereotypical domain (martial arts instructor) is evaluated more critically by same ethnic group (Chinese) participants as compared to white participants. In contrast, a Chinese ESP providing mediocre service in a counter-stereotypical domain (fitness instructor) is evaluated more favourably by same ethnic group (Chinese) participants as compared to white participants. There is no such difference when performance is good.\nResearch limitations/implications: It is a common practice to employ ESPs to serve same ethnic group customers. While this strategy can be effective in a counter-stereotypical domain even if the ESP provides mediocre service, the findings suggest that this strategy can backfire when the performance is mediocre in a stereotypical service domain.\nPractical implications: The results demonstrate the need for emphasizing outcome (vis-a-vis interaction) quality where ESPs are employed to serve same ethnic group customers in a stereotypical service setting. However, when an ESP is offering a counter-stereotypical service, the emphasis needs to be more on the interpersonal processes (vis-a-vis outcome). Firms can gain by taking this into account in their hiring and training practices.\nOriginality/value: Prior research has primarily used cultural distance to examine inter-cultural service encounters. The authors show that ethnic stereotypes pertaining to the skills and abilities of an ESP can affect evaluations beyond the role of cultural distance alone.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Reflections on COVID-19 and the ethical issues for healthcare providers	[ "Health policy", "Health economics", "Ethics" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Healthcare governance places medical ethics at the forefront of defining and maintaining the quality of care. Examples of serious ethical issues include sexual abuse of patients (Dubois et al., 2017), criminal prescription of opioids (Johnson, 2019) and unnecessary surgical procedures (Tayade and Dalvi, 2016) or shortages in service delivery because of little knowledge or experience, especially during pandemic outbreaks (Hay-David et al., 2020). In many cases involving medical ethics, patients are identified as the first victims; however, clinicians and other healthcare practitioners may also be victims (Ozeke et al., 2019).\nConclusion: Medical ethics pertains to a set of values that governs the doctor-patient relationship. In this regard, health systems can play an important role, especially in policy making (Nouhi et al., 2019). Ethics has two sides; from the individual physician's or health worker's perspective that means providing equitable and compassionate care to patients without any judgment of their sexual orientation, religious beliefs, race or ethnic background. From a health organization management or government perspective, ethical care is the ability to access all of the requirements of delivering healthcare services (Tavana et al., 2015). During global emergencies such as the corona pandemic hoarding, monopolization of staff and equipment, political blockades or trade refusals and every intentional restriction to the access of health equipment show that the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic is not sufficiently grounded in medical and humanitarian ethical principles. Greater international cohesion is required to solve what has rapidly become a global problem (Bahadori et al., 2012a, c). It seems disingenuous to expect physicians and healthcare workers to observe ethical codes of behavior while suffering from limitations caused by a lack of ethics on national and international scales (Bahadori et al., 2012b; Hakimzadeh et al., 2014; Teymourzadeh et al., 2014). Now, as more than 140 countries are engaged in the fight against this pandemic, it brings to mind a quote from Saadi, the Classical Persian poet, \"Human beings are members of a whole, in creation of one essence and soul, if one member is afflicted with pain, other members uneasy will remain.\" Until the global family of nations begins to act for the good of all, this pain and feeling of unease cannot be eradicated. Saadi recognized this truth in the 13th century; it is not too late for us to recognize it and apply its lessons in the 21st century.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Healthcare governance places medical ethics at the forefront of defining and maintaining the quality of care. Examples of serious ethical issues include sexual abuse of patients (Dubois, Walsh, Chibnall et al., 2017), criminal prescription of opioids (Johnson, 2019) and unnecessary surgical procedures (Tayade and Dalvi, 2016) or shortages in service delivery because of little knowledge or experience especially during pandemic outbreaks (Hay-David et al., 2020). In many cases involving medical ethics, patients are identified as the first victims; however, this study aimed to consider clinicians and other healthcare practitioners as other probable victims (Ozeke et al., 2019).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that tens of millions of patients worldwide suffer disabling injuries or death every year due to unsafe medical practices and services. Nearly, one in ten patients is harmed due to preventable causes while receiving health care in well-funded and technologically advanced hospital settings (WHO, 2016). Much less is known about the burden of unsafe care in non-hospital settings, where most healthcare services are delivered (Jha et al., 2013). Furthermore, there is little evidence concerning the burden of unsafe care in developing countries, where the risk of harm to patients is likely to be greater, due to limitations in infrastructure, technologies and human resources (Elmontsri et al., 2018).\nFindings: While these problems are endemic in health care, they are exacerbated in times of health and social crises such as the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This pandemic has few precedents, being most closely paralleled with the global influenza pandemic of 1918 (Terry, 2020). Initially compared to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak of 2002-2003 (Parrym, 2003), COVID-19 is already proving much more deadly. The WHO's estimates of the number of SARS cases from the start of the outbreak in 2002, until it was brought under control in July 2003, was 8,437 cumulative cases, with 813 deaths (WHO, 2003). The European Center for disease prevention and Control estimated that as of May 15, 2020, that 4,405,680 cases of COVID-19 have been reported with 302,115 deaths (ECDC, 2020)\nResearch limitations/implications: The outbreak of COVID-19 was declared in February 2020 in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and up to March 2020, the cases of morbidity reached 12,729, with 611 deaths (Bedasht, 2020). The current figure at the time of editing (May 16, 2020) is 118,392 cases, with 6,937 deaths (Worldometer, 2020). Acting in cognizance of its ethical responsibility to the citizens of Iran, the Iranian government has taken the following action to attempt to mitigate the deleterious effects of the virus: in each province, one or more hospitals have been evacuated and allocated to patients with pulmonary problems with suspected to COVID-19. Access to intensive care units and specialist equipment is a primary ethical issue that concerns the Iranian healthcare system. The issue is exacerbated by the knowledge that these facilities are not distributed equitably in the country. Therefore, equity is the first ethical concern in this situation.\nPractical implications: All nurses, clinicians, practitioners and specialists have been asked to volunteer their services in hospitals in the most infected areas. This raises ethical concerns about access to personal protective equipment (PPE) such as appropriate masks, gowns, gloves and other equipment to protect healthcare workers from infection. Access to PPE was restricted because of government failure to stockpile the necessary amount of disposable medical equipment. This was related to lack of domestic capacity to produce the equipment and problems accessing it internationally due to political-economic sanctions that were imposed on Iran by the USA and some European countries. Such shortages can quickly lead to a catastrophic situation; current evidence demonstrates that about 40% of healthcare workers are vulnerable to the COVID-19 infection (Behdasht, 2020). However, it should be noted that this is not a problem limited to Iran. As of March 2020, the WHO was already warning about PPE shortages and the dangers this posed for healthcare workers around the world (WHO, 2020).\nSocial implications: A Disaster Committee was created by the Iranian Ministry of Health to take responsibility for decision-making and daily information sharing to the community. The ethical dilemma that arises in terms of reporting the situation is the conflict between transparently presenting accurate and timely information and the creation of public panic and fear that this may cause in the community.\nOriginality/value: As a steward for public health, the Ministry of Health was afforded direct responsibility to maintain intra-sector relationships and leadership with other organizations such as political executive organizations, municipalities, military agencies, schools, universities and other public organizations to reach consensus on the best methods of controlling the COVID-19 outbreak. An important ethical issue is found in potential areas of conflict between the therapeutic and preventive roles of the Ministry of Health and those related to public health and the civil administrations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Researching the benefits of arts in health	[ "Arts", "Social inclusion", "Community health services", "Community work (social welfare)", "Occupational therapy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In December 2002, the editor of one of the foremost medical journals in the UK asserted that \"diverting 0.5 per cent of the healthcare budget to the arts would improve the health of people in Britain\" (Smith, 2002, p. 1432). There is no doubt that in general terms the arts are good for the health of society by providing interest, amusement, satire, challenge and vision. But there is also a specific arts in health movement dedicated to the improvement of health. What is this movement and how does it operate? What research approaches are appropriate to discover whether it improves health? How can health-related arts work be funded and what are the future directions for funding and research in this field? These are questions we aim to answer in this paper.\nWhat is arts in health?: Arts in health practice used to be largely confined to the arts in hospitals movement. The field has, however, diversified and grown rapidly in recent years. The National Network for Arts in Health, established in 2000 to support artists working in healthcare contexts, currently has over 500 members (Dose, 2004).Arts in health can be classified in several ways (Smith, 2003). Behind phrases such as \"arts for health\", \"arts and health\", \"arts into health\", and \"arts in health\" lie different approaches and assumptions about the roots of ill health and the ways arts can improve it. However it is categorised, we would broadly define this field as comprising all activities that aim to use arts-based approaches to improve individual and community health, health promotion and healthcare, or that seek to enhance the healthcare environment through provision of artworks or performances. It differs from arts therapies in that the artists involved are not trained therapists. Rather artists, as arts in health practitioners, wish to engage \"unhealthy\" individuals or communities in their work and to feed that engagement into their own creative output. For example, at South Tyneside Arts Studio, a drop-in centre for people with mental health problems, five small studios are rented by professional artists in exchange for running workshops for the project participants. The artists view this bartering arrangement as not only financially satisfactory but also contributing to their own creative practice (Everitt and Hamilton, 2003).The field of arts in health is now so diverse we are starting to see some emerging specialities in differing approaches. Some projects focus on the therapeutic benefits of the arts, some on environmental improvements to support health staff in delivering their care services, and others look at producing more creative kinds of health information. When doing arts in health work with communities, projects may also focus on the concept of social capital. These are arts projects using creativity to enhance social relationships, reflecting growing evidence that good relationships are a major determinant of health (Wilkinson, 1996; Pahl, 1999).\nA case study: The \"Looking Well\" project in High Bentham, North Yorkshire, is a good example of a project working within the social capital model (see Plate 1).This project grew out of a community consultation exercise in High Bentham in 1995, which revealed high levels of depression, loneliness and isolation amongst people of all ages, particularly women, within the farming community of this small market town. The consultation exercise also revealed a lack of opportunities for children to undertake physical activity. Acknowledging that social exclusion within this community was leading to a cycle of declining health, the Looking Well was established in 1997 by Pioneer Projects (Celebratory Arts) Ltd, a charity run by artists who live in the local area. The aim of this project is to enhance the health and well-being of individuals of all ages in the local community and to improve their social and physical environment through engagement in creativity and the arts (Everitt and Hamilton, 2003). The project is run on a shoestring through a rented shop in Bentham High Street. The shop is furnished mainly by a long table at which participants make their art and by a scattering of easy chairs around a wood-burning stove. Conversations about difficult issues like depression, stress and loneliness take place more easily while the participants' eyes are focused on a creative activity and not on each other. The artwork is geared towards the health promotion needs of the community and is displayed and distributed in local health centres and around the town (see Plate 2).At one level, the project provides distraction from the problems of daily living, but it also gives participants a sense of individual achievement at having made something, which has some value within their community. In its seven years of existence, Looking Well has provided an impetus for the regeneration of this deprived community, with over one-third of the local population involved in its activities. One of the young mothers who originally accessed its services while suffering from depression has now become a paid employee and the project has achieved additional funding for five part-time salaries. The local GP can list a number of \"heart sink\" patients who have been transformed by participating in its activities (Burnett, 2004). Not only this, but the GP's own perception of these individuals has been transformed by viewing their work at Looking Well. Having seen the work of one patient, whom she had seen struggling with two small children, the GP \"saw her in a different light: as someone who could create\" (personal correspondence).\nApproaches to research: This project claims to have begun to tackle social exclusion in its community but it is unable to make the further step and say that health indicators have improved. This further step requires the evidence that improved social cohesion has in fact made a difference to life expectancy and chronic ill-health in the community (Wilkinson, 1996).Is this, however, what arts in health projects are setting out to do? In hoping to appeal to funding streams from the health sector, projects may be at risk of presenting their outcomes within a research culture that does not fit with their aims. A recent review of the literature (Angus, 2002) showed that insofar as practitioners state aims for their projects they do not include improving health amongst them (see Figure 1)This is odd given that artists and practitioners acknowledge that their field is arts in health. However, the explanation may well be that practitioners accept that it is unrealistic to aim at directly measurable health gain as this usually means locating some numerically assessable physical change. Arts in health research in the hospital sector has begun to move in this direction with projects measuring blood pressure in response to music in hospital waiting rooms (Staricoff and Loppert, 2003) and use of analgesics in response to improved hospital design (Lawson and Phiri, 2003). At best, community-based arts in health projects aim at achieving intermediate indicators of health gain, working on the assumption that improving the social capital of a community can make differences over time to its health profile (Nutbeam, 1998).A study by Everitt and Hamilton (2003) of five community-based arts in health projects identified problems of professional-patient confidentiality as a barrier to validating evidence from participants of the personal health impact from engaging in arts activity. So we fall back on the voluntary testimony of participants themselves, which can be readily dismissed as \"soft\". But in evaluating arts in health we embark on a process of discovery, not proof, and success is predicated on the quality of relationships built up between all involved in the project. It is not the arts activity alone that provides health gain - rather how it is delivered; and the environment and conversations around the activity provide the intermediate indicators of perceived benefit. Which is why the artists, agency partners and participants can help by together tracking closely the evolution of a project to measure it against its objectives, and also allow for the influence of unforeseen outcomes. Project partners need to see that artists may have a greater understanding of the potential benefits of their work and appreciation of the context in which it might be effective.A common problem in arts in health evaluation is the tension between an instrumental approach, that sees the arts activity as a tool to fulfil funders' policy objectives, and a transformational approach that trusts in the arts process itself to deliver outcomes. For example, a recent evaluation report on an arts in health project in Wythenshawe that had struggled to meet the aims set for it within a Neighbourhood Renewal framework laments that: \"... we felt that what we perceived as an inward looking, therapy-oriented approach might militate against the potential of artistic processes that can create something that can be shared with others\" (Storey and Brown, 2004).A recent evaluation of the Common Knowledge arts programme in Tyne and Wear Health Action Zone (Smith, 2003) highlights the need for the arts in health field to understand better the diversity of its practice and approaches as a precursor to setting aims. It focuses on learning outcomes rather than clinical outcomes, and the common knowledge approach itself suggests it may be more useful to evaluate arts in health projects when they are grouped into programmes or portfolios rather than just to scrutinise them individually. Some projects may focus on the therapeutic benefits of the arts, some on environmental improvements to support health staff in delivering their care services, and others look at producing more creative kinds of health information. When doing arts in health work with communities, we may also focus on the concept of social capital where \"unity is health\", drawing on the extensive research of Marmot (2004) into the effect of social status in determining the social gradient of health. One of the most frequently cited benefits of participation in arts activity is its effect in raising self-esteem. (Matarasso,1997).There is now such a diversity of arts in health practice it requires distinctly different approaches to evaluation. Figure 2 summarises the approaches adopted - explicitly or implicitly - by projects in this field.\nFunding arts in health: Organisations such as the Arts Council of England (ACE) and the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) are beginning to put some of their budget behind arts organisations and projects that are specifically operating in health-related situations (ACE, 2003, SAC, 2004). ACE and SAC may be doing this for their own arts-related motives: arts in health projects engage huge numbers of people as audiences and participants in the arts; such projects also provide employment for artists. However, the Arts Councils' willingness to back arts in health may also be related to the fact that participation in, or even just consuming, art is regarded by arts organisations as a good in itself and does not need to be justified by an evidence base. Art is seen as essential to human flourishing - to the \"complete sense of physical, social and mental wellbeing\" which is part of the WHO's definition of health. We do not need to provide evidence for the benefits of health, just evidence for what leads to improvements in health. Should we have to provide evidence for the benefits of art? \"Yes\", say the health funding bodies that view art as a potential instrumental means for individuals and communities to attain better health.Arts in health has been, until recently, a small, local and poorly resourced movement fuelled by deeply committed artists, involved health-care professionals, and participants. Its anecdotal success has now led it to the notice of government who view it (along with sport) as another potential means of tackling social exclusion (Department of Health, 1999). However, there has been little spare money in the projects to fund the kind of research that would reach the significance required for publication in this or any other high-profile health or medical journal. The arts in health movement is therefore, caught in a bind. Unless it produces an appropriate evidence base for its work it will not gain access to better sources of funding from the health sector, and because it does not have access to sufficient funding it is struggling to work up this evidence base. The bind tightens when arts and health projects attempt to approach evaluation of their work in a way that satisfies the health sector's view of what constitutes appropriate evidence.\nFuture directions: So what are the possible future directions for research and funding in this field? The field needs to stake its claim to the research context in which it is operating and not fall into the trap of trying to appease potential funding bodies by forcing the field into the straitjacket of a medical model of research with medical outcomes. There has recently been a further call for randomised controlled trials to be carried out on arts in health interventions (White, 2004). It has been suggested that trials investigating the health effects of social interventions are potentially unethical (Thomson et al., 2004). In the case of arts in health they would almost certainly be meaningless. It is very difficult to imagine randomising participants to an activity that requires such commitment of time and imagination. Also, it is inherent to their success that arts in health projects are very much a product of their specific community and the individuals within it. What is now required in arts in health are well-designed longitudinal studies of the best established projects tracking their historical progression, along with evidence of their impact on their respective communities. We need work on clusters of such projects that pose similar research questions; that are willing to band together to try a common evaluation methodology within a large, externally-led research project; and that are then also willing to network with others to share practice and research outcomes. Such research should be run by experienced social scientists with cross-disciplinary input from artists, ethnographers and the participants themselves (Heath, 1997). Everitt and Hamilton (2003), for example, used logistical framework planning to involve project participants in both the planning and the evaluation of their projectAll this is contingent on sufficient funding. Despite the strong orbital pull of the prevailing medical research orthodoxy, there is now public and governmental recognition that social factors are central to the health of individuals within communities. The hope is that those who hold the purse strings in health will support new ways of combating the social determinants of ill health by promoting the development of meaningful and rigorous research in this field. We believe that work in the arts in health field deserves this support.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This review article seeks to draw on experience in the UK to describe the different forms that arts in health activity can take and to examine the challenges for research in this field.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A case study is used to describe the kind of arts in health project that intends to enhance the social capital of its community and to show how difficult it is to measure the effects of this work using conventional measures of health improvement. However, those who are responsible for providing funding for arts in health are increasingly demanding results that indicate a measurable health gain from the projects.\nFindings: - A literature review of the evaluation of arts in health projects in the UK has shown that few aim at direct health improvement but rather at intermediate indicators of health gain, such as raising awareness of health issues and social activity and participation. This suggests that artists instinctively locate their work as having value within a social model of health where improvements in social inclusion and social cohesion are the important indicators which may go on to lead to long-term improvements to the health of the community in which they are working.\nOriginality/value: - Understanding the nature of this work has implications for the kind of research appropriate to measure its effect and the timescale required for such research.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How do health information and sensory attributes influence consumer choice for dairy products? Evidence from a field experiment in Ethiopia	[ "Ethiopia", "Consumer choice", "Taste", "Health information", "Experimental auction", "Milk quality" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Food value chains are transforming rapidly in developing countries (Swinnen, 2007; Jaffee et al., 2011) following from urbanization, risen income, change in consumption patterns and the rise of vertical coordination in local food chains (Reardon et al., 2009). This change boosts demands for improved food quality, in turn influencing the structure of local food chains. A flurry of recent studies considers how these changes impact on supply dynamics (compare Dries et al., 2009), yet fewer have considered the role of consumers therein. Consumers are important actors in food value chains, however, as their aggregate choices structures food demand. A major challenge facing the study of food choice is to understand how consumers evaluate key food attributes such as quality and safety. In a developing-country context in particular even less is known how consumers' trade-off these attribute, nor how they vary across socio-economic groups. In this paper we address that contentious issue, thereby focusing on the special case of consumer choice behavior in milk supply chains in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.\nConsumer food choice and quality attributes: A major breakthrough in consumption studies occurred with the realization that consumers do not derive utility from purely intrinsic attributes that are mediated through the price mechanism, but from extrinsic attributes too. Thus, more subjective, less easy to measure objectively, aspects of consumption became a central tenet in consumer choice behavior studies since then. An analytical distinction is therein usually made between so-called search, experience and credence quality attributes. Search attributes are those that are available before purchasing a product: brand, packaging, and of course price. Experience attributes are revealed during the consumption of a product, for instance odor, taste or texture. Credence attributes are those that cannot be observed directly before or after consumption; health claims are a case in point.\nMethodology: Experimental design\nResults: Descriptive analysis\nDiscussion and conclusion: Our analysis reveals several important findings about milk consumption behavior in urban Ethiopia. The majority of consumers (53 percent) prefers pasteurized milk over raw milk, and they are willing to shift to pasteurized milk. However, a considerable segment of consumers are also unwilling to upgrade to pasteurized milk. This is mainly due to the combination of both extrinsic attributes such as a lower price of raw milk and intrinsic attributes such as taste. Our results show that consumers are willing to pay more for enhanced milk quality attributes with an average premium of 4 percent for pasteurized milk and 2.5 percent for raw milk. However, there is a modest difference across socio-economic groups with regard to WTP a price premium for enhanced milk quality attributes.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of health information and sensory attributes on consumer's propensity to upgrade and their willingness to pay (WTP) for pasteurized milk in Ethiopia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors used a framed market experiment with 160 participants in 14 central locations in urban Ethiopia. The authors used a double hurdle model to analyze consumer willingness to shift to pasteurized milk and their WTP for quality attributes in pasteurized milk.\nFindings: Consumers are willing to pay a 4 percent premium for quality attributes in pasteurized milk. Male and employed participants are willing to shift and pay a premium for pasteurized milk. Conversely, consumers with more children, higher income, and higher raw milk consumption are less likely to shift to pasteurized milk. These results also show that taste is negatively related to consumer propensity to upgrade to pasteurized milk. Further, about half of the consumers who were provided with health information are willing to pay a premium of 11 percent for pasteurized milk, whereas others would pay only 6 percent. After providing the treatment group with health information, those consumers with higher income, old people and consumers with children are less likely to shift to pasteurized milk. Overall, consumer preference for raw milk is the result of taste, perceived nutrition and perceived health benefits. The study points at a segmented milk market and the consequent need for the provision of a targeted milk market promotion.\nResearch limitations/implications: The application of experimental auctions in developing countries requires an extensive learning exercise for participants.\nOriginality/value: The authors used a non-hypothetical valuation mechanism to unravel the effect of subjective and intrinsic milk attributes in fluid milk choice decisions and its variation across socio-economic groups in a developing country context.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Designing blockchain-based SIEM 3.0 system	[ "Network security", "Blockchain technology", "Information security event", "Security information and event management (SIEM)", "Information security incident" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: New advanced technologies usually have a huge impact on how business can innovate to improve its competitive advantage. As the advent of the Internet, the blockchain (BC) technology (BCT) has been acknowledged as one of the most explosive innovations of the early twenty-first century. It was first mentioned in 2008, in relation to Bitcoin. It was included in Gartner's Top 10 strategic technology trends for 2017. According to Bishop (2017), it is expected to be widely tested and prototyped in new ways and socialized as never before in 2017. As a technology for creating verifiable digital records, at present it is used in financial applications (e.g. payments, currency exchanges, money transfers and wallets, trade finance, markets, micro transactions, investments, brokerage and insurance), as well as in non-financial ones (e.g. digital identity management, authentication and authorization, digital content storage and delivery systems, certification validation systems, smart contracts, application development, election voting, patient medical records management, distributing the workload for communication systems, computer systems that must comply with legal agreements without human intervention and the Internet of Things [IoT]). But the description of specific BC applications in such an important area as network security is not yet to be found in open sources. There are only brief remarks (without any explanations how to implement them) that this technology could monitor software state and integrity, data transmitted from various IoT systems for illicit changes, and thus ensure that the firmware used and data streams have not been tampered with.\n2. Generalized glossary of the blockchain technology: First of all, we would like to quote some definitions of the BCT themselves. BCT is defined as:\n3. Specifications unifying the information formats applicable to information security incidents: IS incident refers to one or multiple unwanted or unexpected IS events that can harm an organization's assets or compromise its operations and threaten its IS (Bishop, 2017; ISO/IEC 27035-1, 2016). In turn, IS event is an identified occurrence of a system, service or network state indicating a possible breach of IS policy or failure of controls, or a previously unknown situation that may be security relevant (ISO/IEC 27000, 2016; ISO/IEC 27035-1, 2016) (e.g. system crashes, packet floods, unauthorized use of system privileges, unauthorized access to sensitive data and execution of malware). An IS event may be considered as a part of one IS incident, while IS incident can be a set of IS events.\n4. Security information and event management concept and systems: In intranets, millions of IS events can be registered by IPTs during one day only. The amount of work to identify the truly important data on IS incidents can be extremely large. This activity, often manual and time-consuming, can overwhelm the most experienced professionals. The automated software for IS event management - SIEM systems (introduced by Gartner in 2005) - are used to control the stream of IS events coming from IPTs and computerize IS incident management. SIEM systems are also crucial for compliance purposes to automatically generate reports that provide evidence of its adherence to various requirements. To completely and correctly perform their assigned tasks SIEM systems require frequent tuning as they serve in continuously changing environments. The indicators of intranet's resources compromise are deployed in SIEM systems in the form of patterns.\n5. Perspective of designing a blockchain-based SIEM 3.0 system: Different organizations get an ever-growing amount of IS-related data about the current state of their networks and events taking place in them that seem unrelated (scattered) at a first glance. These data are generated from the raw data considered in a particular context; they exist in four types of silos (at the bottom of Figure 3): data locked up in disparate security devices, applications and DBs; data collected from endpoint products (like DNS servers, domain controllers, proxies), applications (e-mails, phone records, Web-based content, metadata, digitized audio and video, GPS locations), etc. (like application execution logs); data in streams (like network traffic, Website click streams); and data segregated by organization's business units and working groups (the data of business processes, organization's internal documents and analytical data for many years of its existence). In addition, current configurations of network devices, characteristics of network traffic, application and network services functioning, activity and specific actions of individual end-users, etc. The structured, consolidated and visual IS-related data presentation and secure dynamic processing is a well-known Big Data IT challenge. In general, big IS-related data processing is aimed at data mining, i.e. refers to extracting or discovering knowledge (at the top of Figure 3) from large amounts of raw data (Miloslavskaya, 2017).\n6. Results and discussion: For SIEM 3.0, a BC is a type of secure distributed DB (ledger) that maintains a constantly expanding list of non-editable time-stamped blocks, containing data on IS events collected by preselected data sources, without any central administrator or centralized data storage, and sets rules about any IS event that are tied to a specific IS incident. The BC is streamlining all network events. Thus, it can be considered as a unidirectional (without feedback) chain with a linked list of blocks, each one referring back to the one that went before, using hash pointers (Figure 4). These pointers are stored in the header of the next block. A block must have a unique identifier (ID) and unique hash, as well as a cryptographic link to a previous valid block, confirming their relationship and belonging to the same IS incident (as its consequent stages). Creating a repeated block (its content is similar to one of the preceding blocks) with a large number of IDs means some repeated events on the network, which are characteristic, for example, of a denial of service attack.\n7. Blockchain-based security information and event management 3.0 evaluation methodology: This section is devoted to a methodology which can be used for validating that the resulting BC-based SIEM 3.0 satisfies efficiently and reliable the requirements of a SIEM system. Even though this system has not been yet implemented, such a methodology is needed in advance to provide in the future a basis for proving that it is realizable, complete, consistent, unambiguous and verifiable. For evaluation, we suggest modeling BC-based SIEM 3.0 using such mathematical objects as sets, relations and functions, which form the basis of all formal languages (however it is obvious that a formal specification can never be \"perfectly correct\" (Hall, 2006).\n8. Conclusion: This article shows the full applicability of the BC concept to the creation of the next-generation SIEM 3.0 systems that are designed to detect IS incidents in a modern, fully interconnected organization's network environment. Our attempt to begin with a detailed description of the basics for a BC-based SIEM 3.0 system design is presented, as well as the evaluation methodology for the resulting product.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Nowadays, to operate securely and legally and to achieve business objectives, secure valuable assets and support uninterrupted business processes, all organizations need to match a lot of internal and external compliance regulations such as laws, standards, guidelines, policies, specifications and procedures. An integrated system able to manage information security (IS) for their intranets in the new cyberspace while processing tremendous amounts of IS-related data coming in various formats is required as never before. These data, after being collected and analyzed, should be evaluated in real-time from an IS incident viewpoint, to identify an incident's source, consider its type, weigh its consequences, visualize its vector, associate all target systems, prioritize countermeasures and offer mitigation solutions with weighted impact relevance. Different security information and event management (SIEM) systems cope with this routine and usually complicated work by rapid detection of IS incidents and further appropriate response. Modern challenges dictate the need to build these systems using advanced technologies such as the blockchain (BC) technologies (BCTs). The purpose of this study is to design a new BC-based SIEM 3.0 system and propose a methodology for its evaluation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Modern challenges dictate the need to build these systems using advanced technologies such as the BC technologies. Many internet resources argue that the BCT suits the intrusion detection objectives very well, but they do not mention how to implement it.\nFindings: After a brief analysis of the BC concept and the evolution of SIEM systems, this paper presents the main ideas on designing the next-generation BC-based SIEM 3.0 systems, for the first time in open access publications, including a convolution method for solving the scalability issue for ever-growing BC size. This new approach makes it possible not to simply modify SIEM systems in an evolutionary manner, but to bring their next generation to a qualitatively new and higher level of IS event management in the future.\nResearch limitations/implications: The most important area of the future work is to bring this proposed system to life. The implementation, deployment and testing onto a real-world network would also allow people to see its viability or show that a more sophisticated model should be worked out. After developing the design basics, we are ready to determine the directions of the most promising studies. What are the main criteria and principles, according to which the organization will select events from PEL for creating one BC block? What is the optimal number of nodes in the organization's BC, depending on its network assets, services provided and the number of events that occur in its network? How to build and host the SIEM 3.0 BC infrastructure? How to arrange streaming analytics of block's content containing events taking place in the network? How to design the BC middleware as software that enables staff to interact with BC blocks to provide services like IS events correlation? How to visualize the results obtained to find insights and patterns in historical BC data for better IS management? How to predict the emergence of IS events in the future? This list of questions can be continued indefinitely for a full-fledged design of SIEM 3.0.\nPractical implications: This paper shows the full applicability of the BC concept to the creation of the next-generation SIEM 3.0 systems that are designed to detect IS incidents in a modern, fully interconnected organization's network environment. The authors' attempt to begin with a detailed description of the basics for a BC-based SIEM 3.0 system design is presented, as well as the evaluation methodology for the resulting product.\nOriginality/value: The authors believe that their new revolutionary approach makes it possible not to simply modify SIEM systems in an evolutionary manner, but to bring their next generation to a qualitatively new and higher level of IS event management in the future. They hope that this paper will evoke a lively response in this segment of the security controls market from both theorists and direct developers of living systems that will implement the above approach.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Developing high performance work system for Indian insurance industry	[ "High performance work practices", "Factor analysis", "Insurance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Performance maximization is one of the most fundamental objectives for many corporate firms whether it is public or private. In this pursuit of output optimization every organization aspires to squeeze out maximum benefits out of its resources. Every type of resource including financial, operational, technological and human resources is operated at the highest efficiency. The twenty-first century has witnessed a renewed interest in the human aspect of organizational resources. Growing number of research studies now emphasize employees' performance as one of the important cogs in the mechanism of organizational performance excellence. It has been largely understood that output of non-human resources depends upon skills, knowledge and value system of human resource of the organization. Employees' skill sets and value systems may help in achieving performance targets easily. But optimum performance does not happen automatically; rather it is induced through implementation of various theories and approaches. One such novel approach is institutionalization of a suitable model of high performance work practices (HPWPs). The high performance work system (HPWS) has evolved as a revolutionary paradigm of performance excellence. The basic rationale behind the success of the HPWS is \"the way people are managed and treated at workplace has an impact on their performance level, i.e. on their productivity and efficiency\" (Punia and Garg, 2013). According to Penny (2004) the HPWS focuses on engaged and empowered employees, flatter and less hierarchical organizational structures, team work, autonomy, open communication and a high level of trust and mutual respect-based relations. HPWS does not only have a positive impact on productivity and profitability of employee but the system is also found to have favorable effects on employee morale, satisfaction and commitment. As per research conducted by Yadav and Yadav (2013), Indian firms have started to engage with HPWS as a tool of performance optimization both in qualitative and quantitative terms. Foreign-based multinational companies (MNCs) and India-based MNCs are pioneers in institutionalizing innovative work systems in the workplace. Such systems are also penetrating into India-based firms. After information technology firms, knowledge processing outsourcing units, business processing outsourcing units and pharmaceutical industry, now the financial sector has also started to explore the potential of HPWPs. The insurance industry is one of the fastest growing service industries of India. Insurance companies have witnessed exponential growth in recent years and it has resulted in increased insurance density and penetration. A report by IRDA highlighted golden prospects of higher growth and prosperity owing to huge untapped market (especially smaller cities and rural areas), arrivals of new products, de-tariffing of insurance premium, growth in private and foreign investment and also due to increase in government schemes and support. The insurance sector is expected to have a consistent growth rate of about 10-15 percent in the next five years or so. Madhvi (2014) reported major challenges in the path of accelerated growth of the insurance industry. The most challenging hurdles are related to human aspect ranging from attrition, lower morale, high-organizational role stress, lower employee engagement level and lower levels of mutual trust and respect. Previous studies as listed in the below literature review indicate that HPWS seems an appropriate answer to these challenges. This paper aims to develop a system of high performance especially for the Indian insurance sector.\nLiterature review: Plentiful empirical and theoretical evidence of the positive influence of HPWS on productivity and profitability of employees is available (Kuhlmann et al., 2004). HPWPs have been found to be positively linked with increased organizational agility and innovativeness. Both agility and innovativeness are further reported as key ingredients of performance excellence (O'Regan, 2011). According to Appelbaum et al. (2000) systematic implementation of a HPWS through restructuring of the entire work system is one of the efficient methods to achieve greater workplace efficiency. Many researchers have reported that output of employees could be increased through job enrichment. The pillars of HPWS are founded on three underlying foundation stones: enriching the job, empowering the employees and streamlining the work process. Hackman and Oldham's (1976) job characteristics theory provides theoretical and experimental basis for enrichment efforts of job profile. The theory states that higher work performance and work motivation could be achieved through designing the job in a way that maximizes skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback. HR practitioners are expected to focus on these tenets while designing a job. Wood (1999) concludes that HPWSs concentrate on empowering and enriching employees through increased information flows and devolution of decision making. Thus practices are often found positively correlated with increased productivity and loyalty of the employees. Other scholars like Ichniowski et al. (1997), Arthur (1994), Huselid (1995), MacDuffie (1995), etc. have also hinted at positive association between HPWS and employees productivity and performance.\nResearch framework: The objective of this study was to develop a HPWS for the Indian insurance industry. The research setting for this empirical analysis is insurance companies located in the National Capital Region (India), Mumbai Chennai and Bangalore. The framework is considered an apt one for exploring HPWPs. These four metropolitan areas form the hub of the insurance sector.\nResults and discussion: The model development was a lengthy exercise and first step was to calculate awareness level of employees for the 35 chosen practices.\nCFA: SEM is a quantitative data analytical technique which tests theoretical relationships between observed (endogenous) variables and latent (exogenous) variables. SEM comprises of various relevant procedures that include analysis of covariance structure, regression and factor analysis. The SEM starts with structure modeling in which latent and observed variables are linked in the directions in which they affect each other. In the estimation process, SEM produces regression weights, variances, covariance and correlations in its iterative procedures converged on a set of parameter estimates (Holmes-Smith et al., 2004). The kh2 test is a fundamental measure in SEM, but three alternative measures (absolute measures, incremental measures and parsimony measures) were also developed to assess the goodness of fit of a specific model (Raykov and Marcoulides, 2006). An absolute fit measure (fit indexes such as root mean square residual (RMR), root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) and normed kh2 (CMIN/df) is a measure of overall model goodness of fit. Incremental measures such as comparative fit index (CFI); and Tucker Lewis index (TLI) differ from the absolute fit indices and assess how well a particular model fits relative to alternative baselines (null/independence) model (Tabachnick and Fidell, 2007; Hair et al., 2006). Parsimony groups of measures such as parsimony comparative fit index and parsimony normed fit index were developed to provide information about which model among a set of competing models is the best, considering its fit relative to its complexity (Figure 3 and Table IV).\nDefault model and nested model after modification: Table V provides a default HPWS for the Indian insurance sector. The table depicts the value of kh2 for the default model is 85.96 and this value is too large. A smaller value of kh2 is required for the model fit. This shows that the default model is not a good fit for the data. Further, to find out the model fit, other indices are studied in accordance with their standard values. Other values of indices show that the default HPWS does not fit well. Hence, there is a need to identify the areas of poor fit. After finding the areas of poor fit, the desired modifications in the model were done to arrive at a model fit. The poorly fitted default model can be modified by a series of steps: first is to check the regression loadings of the observed variables on the latent variable; second, is to improve the modification indices (MIs) and the third is to examine the localized area of problem through standardized residual covariance. Hence, the steps followed for model revision to obtain model fit for the data are discussed as follows.\nDiscussion and conclusion: HPWSs enhance the work-related attitudes and well-being of employees in addition to positively influencing organizational performance (Ichniowski et al., 1997; Barling et al., 2003; Van De Voorde et al., 2012). Various other researchers also conclude that the HPWSs are closely associated with higher performance and productivity. The mutual gain perspective of HPWPs states that such a system is beneficial for both employers and employees. A critical perspective argues that these systems benefit only employers and the impact on employees is still inconclusive. In both scenarios, HPWSs seem to have positive association with organizational outcome. In this conceptual background, the present paper has tried to develop a working model of statistically selected performance practices. As many as 18 high performance practices are filtered out in various stages of model development. The final model comprises only 17 practices that could help insurance companies to elicit higher performance from its employees.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Modern age witnessed an exponential growth of high performance work practices (HPWPs) at workplace. This phenomenal increase in quest of performance excellence has fascinated both researchers and practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model of HPWPs for insurance companies of India.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A structured questionnaire comprising of 35 HPWPs with a five-point rating scale has been used. Model is based on two important paradigm of HR practices - employees' awareness and perception for HPWPs. Factor analysis is followed by confirmatory factor analysis to build a model of HPWPs for insurance industry in India.\nFindings: Of the 35 practices 17 get reduced to most applicable practices constituting high performance work system (HPWS) for insurance industry. The paper arrives at appropriate model of HPWPs.\nResearch limitations/implications: Paper has successfully developed model for insurance companies. Taking clue from findings, insurance practitioners could deal with various HR related challenges in their respective companies.\nOriginality/value: The paper uses primary data collected using structured questionnaire to develop HPWS.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Controlling the control system: performance information in the German childcare administration	[ "Performance information use", "Performance management", "Information asymmetry", "Bureaucratic discretion", "Germany", "Public sector organizations", "Child care" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The systematic measurement of the performance of public services has become a crucial task for public administrations in OECD countries (Bouckaert and Halligan, 2008; Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2004). The idea behind this approach is to explicitly formulate goals for the supply of public services - in terms of inputs, outputs, efficiency, quality, outcomes, effectiveness and so forth - and to track their achievement (Bouckaert and Halligan, 2008; de Lancer Julnes et al., 2007; Hatry, 2006). Recent research has brought to question whether this kind of laboriously produced performance information actually influences the decisions made by politicians, public managers and citizens (Moynihan, 2008; Van Dooren et al., 2010; Van Dooren and Van de Walle, 2008). About a dozen (mostly quantitative) studies have presented lists of variables - environmental, organisational, and individual factors - that might explain the difference between cases where performance information is more or less likely to be used (e.g. Askim et al., 2008; Ho, 2006; Johansson and Siverbo, 2009; Melkers and Willoughby, 2005; Moynihan and Pandey, 2010). The use and usability of performance information is an issue that has also been addressed by studies published in the International Journal of Public Sector Management. These studies drew conclusions from empirical experiences in Australia, Finland, England, and Scotland (Di Francesco, 1999; Jacobs, 2009; Try and Radnor, 2007; Rantanen et al., 2007; Wisniewski and Stuart, 2004). Our article aims to contribute to this body of literature. Unlike other studies, we will not only focus on one group of potential information users (the managers) but also take into account how council members (politicians) become involved in the process.\nResearch design and methodology: Most of the studies in the field of performance information use that were cited above have used quantitative designs. They have analysed the covariance between many variables to empirically test hypotheses about factors that might impact the use of performance data. These hypotheses are generally robust but at the same time more broad than illustrative. Therefore, as a next step for a fruitful research agenda there need to be in-depth case studies to \"put flesh on the bones\" of existing explanations (Ragin, 1989; Stake, 1995; Yin, 2003). We do not use case studies to try to falsify statistical hypotheses because a small number of cases is unsuitable to make probabilistic propositions. Instead, we use case studies to increase our knowledge about concepts rather than about populations (Yin, 2003). Therefore, it is not the goal of this article to draw inferences about the use of performance information for a large number of city administrations. What we intend is rather to describe in-depth case data and reflect on it based on theory to generate conceptually plausible ideas to enhance existing hypotheses. Whether these ideas are generalisable to a larger population would have to be tested using more cases; however this goes beyond the scope of this article.\nTwo cases in the field of childcare administration: Contextual background\nAn analysis through an agency-theory lens: Agency theory is based on the assumption that principals choose agents to do part of their work. At the same time, it is assumed that the agents' interests do not concur with these of the principals. Therefore, agents tend to act opportunistically to realise their own goals. It is difficult for the principals to monitor the agents because of information asymmetries that work in favour of the latter (hidden characteristics, hidden intention, hidden action, Arrow, 1984; Eisenhardt, 1989). This theory has also been adapted to explain the relations between politicians and bureaucrats or between public managers and staff, and it has proved to add value to our understanding of these relations (Bendor et al., 1987). The idea behind performance measurement systems is to reduce information asymmetries in favour of the principals by making goal-achievement more transparent and traceable. This means for local government that council members set or negotiate goals with public managers and keep track of their achievement.\nConclusion: This article started off by analyzing the hypothesis that complex performance measurement systems can be associated with a great use of performance information. Empirical results from two instrumental case studies have shown that this hypothesis needs to be enhanced further. The hypothesis holds true if we consider civil servants as the end users of the performance data. If we take also into account the council members as potential users of the data, the picture looks different. Here, the complexity of the performance measurement contributes to an expansion of the civil servants' (the agents') discretion at the expense of the politicians (the principals). Applying a temporal view, we suggest that the principals can win back political control if the complex measurement is completed by simple reporting.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this article is to improve understanding of the use of performance information in the public sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The article is based on a comparative case study in the field of German childcare administration. Two cities have been selected based on the variation of their performance measurement systems.\nFindings: It is found that a higher complexity and sophistication of the measurement system fosters the use of performance data by civil servants. At the same time, such a comprehensive control system seems to undermine the steering ability of local politicians. Referring to agency theory, it is argued that complex data systems can increase information asymmetries in favour of bureaucrats.\nResearch limitations/implications: Since the findings are based on two cases, the paper does not make any claims about their generalisability for a particular population. Instead, the paper uses in-depth observations to better inform and enhance an existing hypothesis.\nPractical implications: The results emphasise the importance of user-specific performance reporting. The paper suggests thinking of the adoption of management innovation as a temporal process where measurement complexity can be balanced over time by customised reporting.\nOriginality/value: This article is innovative as it focuses on two user groups of performance data simultaneously. The results show that this approach adds value because observations vary based on the perspective of the different users.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Race and culture in the secondary school health and physical education curriculum in Ontario, Canada: A critical reading	[ "Culture", "Race", "Health education", "Curriculum", "Schools", "HPE" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Health education officially joins physical education in the school curricula of many countries. The USA, New Zealand, Scotland, Australia and Canada, for example, have combined the subject fields into one area where curriculum documents formally outline how the subjects are to be taught (Fitzpatrick and Tinning, 2014). This paper focuses on the recently revised Ontario, Canada, health and physical education (HPE) curriculum to explore how meanings of race and culture are presented in the document as curriculum informs pedagogy and shapes the knowledge, skills and experiences gained about health in school settings.\nCritical race studies in HPE: To date, there are notable but relatively few Canadian studies that examine HPE curriculum using critical race theories (Millington et al., 2008; Vertinsky et al., 1992). Millington et al. (2008) examined the experience of Chinese Canadian males in HPE to find the myths of Asian men's physicality and weakness as exclusionary practices in the organization of school sport and HPE classes. Vertinsky et al.'s (1992) study revealed that if Indo-Canadian secondary school girls choose not to participate in HPE, the explanations provided by administration and educators perpetuated stereotypical views of Indo-Canadian women as being weak, repressed and traditionally conservative. The young women in the study noted that many girls of diverse cultural backgrounds withdrew from HPE in secondary school. For these young women, the binary cultural practices of HPE were not always exclusionary or incongruous with traditional beliefs, but the institutional racism of the HPE experience suggests the undercurrents of racism have ripple effects with the school.\nWhiteness: Whiteness \"is a dominant cultural space with enormous political significance\" such that \"white people are not required to explain to others how 'white' culture works, because 'white' culture is the dominant culture that sets the norms\" (Frankenberg, 1993, p. 21). Whiteness is not a color but an ideology.\nAn analysis of Ontario's HPE curriculum: Education is a provincial jurisdiction in Canada, and the province of Ontario's latest curricular change in 2015 is based on a vision of providing students with the knowledge and skills to help them develop the competency, capacity and commitment to live in a complex world. Objectives of the Ontario HPE curriculum were bold; thus, the document became a controversial government approach. There was much discussion over the sexual health education content; specific concerns aimed at the inclusion of masturbation and consent occurred much earlier in the curriculum than previous iterations (Bialystok and Wright, 2017; McKay et al., 2014). Issues of culture and identity are not at the forefront of curriculum, but in regards to the knowledge presented to students about healthy living cultural and racial identities figure centrally into the promotion of health initiatives.\nConcluding reflections: The province of Ontario and the curriculum writers should be commended for the direction the HPE curriculum is moving and the specific addition of the cultural identification of Canada's First Peoples. The new Ontario curriculum has provided a doorway to learn more about students' culture in relation to health. McEvilly et al. (2014) who identified a lack of student identity in curriculum reform documents from Sweden suggested that this disconnection between identity and health continues to alienate students from seeing themselves as healthy, thus limiting their involvement in HPE classes. The specific acknowledgment of holistic approaches to health and the physical cultural practices of Canada's First Peoples also separates this curriculum from others in Norway and England (Dowling and Flintoff, 2015). Not uncommon within the health field, the acknowledgment of unhealthy activities and their association with First Nation, Metis and Inuit identity is a narrative that continues within western bioscientific medicine; thus, with the starting point coming to be a pathologization of Indigenous peoples, the justification for health interventions ensures (deLeuuw et al., 2010). In this way, in health education, dominant Eurocentric practices are positioned as being more evolved or advanced, subsequently minimizing the meaning of Indigenous culture and cultural health practices (Hokowhito, 2014; Norman and Hart, 2016).\nMoving forward: The Ontario HPE curriculum is working to interrupt the \"racelessness\" of curriculum (Dowling and Flintoff, 2015) with its references to First Nation, Metis and Inuit identities. With more efforts aimed at disrupting the reductionist references to culture in pedagogical practice and continuously interrogating how whiteness operates in HPE, even more can be done to enhance ideas of healthy living. Research with youth in physical education suggests that more positive learning about the self and others occurs when culture is recognized and can be seen by students (Fitzpatrick, 2013). Culturally relevant teaching has a legacy in other curricular areas (Ladson-Billings, 1994), thus building these educational approaches into HPE will advance the field. Currently, dominant health practices are promoted, and thus naturalized in curriculum fashioning a construction of healthy living that disguises its own cultural underpinnings of health as the norm from which health knowledge and actions can be understood. The analysis indicates that some bodies and healthy practices become more visible than others within educational policy.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore issues of race and culture in health education in the secondary school health and physical education (HPE) curriculum in Ontario, Canada.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using Ontario's secondary school curriculum as a point of analysis, this paper draws from critical race theory and a whiteness lens to identify how cultural and race identities are positioned in contemporary health education documents. The curriculum document and its newest strategies for teaching are the focus of analysis in this conceptual paper.\nFindings: Within the curriculum new teaching strategies offer entry points for engaging students in learning more about culture and race. In particular, First Nation, Metis and Inuit identities are noted in the curriculum. Specifically, three areas of the curriculum point to topics of race and culture in health: eating; substance use, abuse and additions; and, movement activities. Within these three educational areas, the curriculum offers information about cultural practices to teach about what it means to understand health from a cultural lens.\nSocial implications: The HPE curriculum offers examples of how Ontario, Canada, is expanding its cultural approaches to knowing about and understanding health practices. The acknowledgment of First Nations, Metis and Inuit health and cultural ways of approaching health is significant when compared to other recently revised HPE curriculum from around the globe. The teaching strategies offered in the curriculum document provide one avenue to think about how identity, culture and race are being taught in health education classrooms.\nOriginality/value: First, with limited analysis of health education policy within schools, the use of critical theory provides opportunities for thinking about what comes next when broadening definitions of health to be more inclusive of cultural and race identity. Second, curriculum structures how teachers respond to the topics they are delivering, thus how HPE as a subject area promotes healthy practices is highly relevant to the field of health education. This paper provides an important acknowledgment of the educative work being undertaken in the revision of HPE curriculum.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Business strategy modelling based on enterprise architecture: a state of the art review	[ "Strategic management", "Business strategy", "Modelling", "Enterprise architecture", "Enterprise architecture management", "Enterprise engineering" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Despite the increasing complexity in the structure of organisational systems, there have not been adequate studies examining the strategic significance of the above. The research has shown that the architecture does not only present the relationship between the aspects in a complex environment. The orientation of enterprise architecture (EA) frameworks to the systems and technology and the lack of integration among strategy, business and processes are the most common problems of EA Frameworks. The main research question is:\nPrevious literature reviews: Systematic reviews were undertaken to place the current paper to the existing knowledge about EA and business strategy modelling as well as to examine the previous knowledge of this field and discuss the identified research questions based on the results of previous studies.\nMethodology: As it has already been supported, this paper aims to evaluate the contemporary problems in existing EA modelling frameworks concerning the optimisation of business strategy concepts, to determine the techniques that are supported by EA modelling and to identify areas for improvement. To achieve the aim of the paper, studies were searched and synthesised using a three phased literature review methodology which was suggested by Webster and Watson (2002). This methodology was used by many researchers in the field of IS, business strategy and enterprise modelling (Berkovich et al., 2011; Chen et al., 2010; Jourdan et al., 2008; Kamariotou and Kitsios, 2017; Kitsios and Kamariotou, 2017, 2016a, b). First, a search of the extant literature reviews was done to select the databases and keywords of the basic search. Then, the backward search was implemented to examine the references of the selected papers and finally the forward search to examine the citations of the selected papers in order to increase their amount. After the selection of papers, they were classified according to their content.\nResults: Number of published articles per year\nAnalysis of concepts: Strategic planning process\nConclusions and further research: This paper aims to evaluate the contemporary problems in existing EA modelling frameworks concerning the optimisation of business strategy concepts, to determine the techniques that are supported by EA modelling and to identify areas for improvement. In the last decade, one of the main issues addressed by researchers in the context of EA and business strategy modelling is to integrate the business strategy to the systems requirements analysis. Many modelling techniques have been implemented to visualise strategy and processes. However, the most frequently reported languages are the Archimate, the i* framework and the OWL, which optimise concepts, such as vision, mission, goals and strategy (Aldea et al., 2015; Bleistein et al., 2006; Cuenca et al., 2011).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Enterprise architecture (EA) is a means of a high level of abstraction of a business' levels which helps organise planning and taking better decisions. Evidence has shown that the scope of EA is not restricted to technology planning, but the lack of business strategy and processes is the most common problem of EA frameworks. Consequently, a challenge stems from the fact that the formulation of strategy should not be modelled separately but as a holistic approach. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the contemporary problems in existing EA modelling frameworks concerning the optimisation of business strategy concepts and to identify areas for improvement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Studies were spotted using a three phased literature review methodology which was suggested by Webster and Watson (2002).\nFindings: Although, previous studies have attempted to use tools and models to visualise the technological business planning, limited previous study has focussed on modelling strategic planning. Due to issues concerning the lack of guidelines for modelling business strategy, a holistic approach is needed to be made.\nOriginality/value: The paper contributes to the existing literature by assessing the current EA modelling languages and their skilfulness to modelling strategy. Moreover, it contributes to the determination of difficulties in modelling, as well as to the examination of ease of use of language in the context of strategy. Second, this paper provides an overview to practitioners who would like to develop effective EA modelling projects, as well as to architects who try to solve the problems of business complexity.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The role of governance in economic development: Evidence from some selected countries in Asia and the Pacific	[ "Governance", "Corruption", "Economic growth and development" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Undeniably, the quality of governance plays a crucial role to facilitate an environment for sustainable development and poverty alleviation especially for developing countries. Mr Kofi Annan, emphasized many times that \"good governance was perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development\" (United Nations, 1998). The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expresses its view about the linkage between good governance and economic development stating that \"promoting good governance in all its aspects, including ensuring the rule of law, improving the efficiency and accountability of the public sector, and tackling corruption\" can make economies prospers (International Monetary Fund, 1997). Good governance is important to achieve investment and thus economic growth by creating sound business environment. Good governance would minimize persistent occurrence of bad policy and therefore, enhance policy implementation.\n2. A brief summary of related literature: Though, empirical studies on the linkage between corruption and economic growth are abundant in general, but on Asia and the Pacific are relatively minimal. For example, Mauro (1995) discovered that corruption deters private investment which ultimately impairs economic growth using data for 58 countries during 1960-1985. In a study, Brunetti et al. (1998) did not find any significant linkage between corruption and economic growth. Ehrlich and Lui (1999) and Meon and Sekkat (2005) have shown the negative effect of corruption on business development, economic growth, local and foreign investment and public expenditures. Corruption hurts the process of economic development. Chauvet and Collier (2004) find that an average GDP growth is less at 2.3 percentages per year in those countries which are suffering from poor governance when compared with the other developing countries. Record (2005) reported that high levels of corruption and poor governance are broadly believed to be constraints to economic growth in developing countries. The study found evidence in support of the argument that in actual fact, causality runs from higher income to lower corruption, rather than the other way around in VietNam.\n3. Empirical analysis: 3.1. Methodology\n4. Results and discussion: In this study for empirical analysis, a balanced panel data set of 28 years is employed for nine Asia and the Pacific countries. The sample size is 252 (n=28x9). A brief summary of the correlation matrix and descriptive statistics is given in Table II. It is evident from Table II that the results obtained have expected signs and support the hypotheses of this study.\n5. Conclusions and policy recommendations: This study is motivated by the need to find out the impact of weak governance, in this case, in the form of corruption on economic growth. The result confirms erstwhile studies that corruption discourages economic growth which are also in line with theoretical expectations. As to the impact of control variables they are also supportive both of theoretical expectations and previous empirical findings. The negative impact of inflation on GDP per capita as hypothesized is also confirmed. The other independent variable which has also a significant effect on growth is international trade. A country which has openness to trade will benefit from increasing business activities in exports and imports. The study result also shows that high dependency ratio is not supportive of economic growth.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of corruption as an important element of weak governance, with control variables such as inflation rate, openness to trade and dependency ratio on gross domestic product (GDP) per capita income of nine selected countries in Asia and the Pacific.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is based on an annual panel data covering the period from 1985 to 2012, and a simple multiple regression for empirical investigation is used. Both fixed effects and random effects models were used as analytical techniques.\nFindings: The study reveals that both corruption and inflation rate are negatively related to GDP per capita and are statistically significant. As to the impacts of the control variables i.e., dependency ratio is found to be negative and openness to trade to be statistically significant which shows a positive impact on GDP per capita.\nPractical implications: The results resoundingly confirmed the importance of good governance, therefore, reducing endemic corruption and controlling inflation needs to be among the foremost factors for consideration for policymakers in adopting and implementing macroeconomic and public policies. In order to be most effective in tackling corruption, it is important to get to the root of the problem. In light of the study findings, it is suggested that corruption need to be put under control and economies be made more open to attain more benefits and accelerate economic growth and development.\nOriginality/value: Explicitly, this study provides some valuable evidence on the linkage between endemic corruption and economic growth in some Asia and the Pacific countries in particular and on developing world in general. Presumably, this is the first inclusive investigation on the subject under the study in the context of Asia and the Pacific countries and will emphatically contribute to the literature as well.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Role of management accounting in applying new institutional logics: A comparative case study in the non-profit sector	[ "Management accounting change", "Non-profit organization", "Institutional logics", "Institutional work" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Lately, developments in European Union (EU) - level competition and taxation legislation have challenged the role of non-profit health care sector, as the regulations stipulate that tax exemptions and subsidies of the non-profit sector may not distort competition[1]. In addition, recent decades have witnessed a significant increase in the number and turnover of private firms offering services that had been produced predominantly by non-profits, such as rehabilitative health care. The empirical setting of this comparative case study is Finland's non-profit health care sector, where many activities that were once considered fundraising for the non-profit sector have now begun to be considered comparable to private businesses.\n2. Research method: This study analyzes cost allocation practices with a comparative case setting in two Finnish non-profit health care institutions called the \"Veterans' Rehabilitation Institute\" and the \"Charity Healthcare Foundation\" (VRI and CHF, respectively - the names are disguised). The opportunity to study the process of new management control system implementation and adaptation in non-profit health care organizations came in the summer of 2007, when the author gained access to two non-profit health care organizations with plans to corporatize their functions and implement new management control systems. At that time, my research interests were guided only by a vague sense that corporatization and the emergence of MACS was the principal object for research. Within these case study settings, I explored the external pressure to alter or reform organizational control systems, the extent of change and the role of organizational actors in creating strategies for how to deal with such expectations.\n3. Empirical setting: The institutional field is defined by actors that provide financing for the non-profits by channeling government money and grants. These actors, the Social Insurance Institution (SII), the Slot Machine Association (a governmental gambling monopoly) and the Social Housing Association engage in a discussion between governmental bodies, especially the tax and competition authorities, over what is acceptable. Here, the logic of charitable health care contests with the logic of the health care market. There is a change in conceptions and views concerning what the boundaries of business and non-profit activities are. This means that the conditions for grants and allowances must be redefined in order to prevent government money flowing to subsidize private business.\n4. Institutional pressures and emerging logics: The change in the institutional environment of the non-profit health care sector coincided with cuts in overall health care spending in the wake of the mid-1990s recession. In fact, the cuts in Finnish total health expenditures in the 1990s can be characterized as quite drastic in the OECD context. For instance, in 2000, the health care expenditure per capita was still lower in real terms than at the beginning of the 1990s. This means that, on average, the financial situation for non-profit health care organizations was already deteriorating when the institutional pressures from competition, tax authorities and financiers began to appear.\n5. Comparative case studies: Next, we present two case organizations, the VRI and the CHF. The names of the organizations have been changed for purposes of confidentiality. Both are medium-size organizations operating in the fields of rehabilitation, private hospital services and hospitality. VRI's approach to management accounting and control was to set up a group structure with numerous small limited companies, with the charitable organization retaining the ownership and acting as a holding company. Between the companies, there existed numerous service contracts, the prices of which were negotiated by top management's radically changing plans and strategy. Budgeting was the main focus of management control, with internal revenues and expenses playing a major balancing role. In contrast, CHF's approach was different, as it organized its functions into product lines where the profitability of each service was closely monitored by a detailed cost accounting system, and only a small part of the functions were corporatized.\n6. Corporatization and management accounting: Prior research in accounting has employed the concept of institutional logics as a potential explanation for observed differences in the institutionalization of new accounting practices and has concluded that various institutional logics may develop and coexist within an institutional field (Hyvonen et al., 2009; Rautiainen and Jarvenpaa, 2012; Kantola and Jarvinen, 2012). In fact, neoinstitutional theory proposes that in such circumstances, the potentially competing institutional logics are interconnected with each other and the field, yet they are able to defy pressures for change (Reay and Hinings, 2009). For instance, Greenwood et al. (2010) found that even under overreaching market logic, organizations would vary in their receptivity of non-market logics.\n7. Concluding remarks: The purpose of this paper was to report how contradictory organizational field-level pressures interact with local management accounting and control practices in a highly institutionalized setting. The research question was:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the adoption of management accounting and control systems in the non-profit sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The theoretical framework of this comparative interpretative study draws on new institutional theory, especially the concepts of institutional logics and institutional work.\nFindings: New accounting and management controls serve as a medium through which organizations negotiate between multiple and conflicting objectives and choose institutional logics in the organizational field.\nResearch limitations/implications: The data comprise interviews, observations and archival data and provides a limited view on how the organizational field is structured.\nOriginality/value: The paper contributes to the accounting literature by investigating how institutional work and operating under contradictory logics explain management accounting change.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Performance measurement system in the situation of simultaneous vertical and horizontal integration	[ "Performance measurement system", "Integration", "Horizontal organization", "Customer-focussed production" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The horizontal organization, based on customer-focussed production, has been considered as a central source of competitive advantage in recent decades (Dean and Snell, 1991; Schonberger, 1996; Ostroff, 1999; Galbraith, 2005). Horizontal organization is defined in the theory as an alternative to vertical organizational structure based on the needs of owners and upper management, and where management accounting (MA) is the most central means of strategy implementation and achievement of the primary financial goals. Theories of horizontal organization treat vertical control merely as a problem, which can be abolished by abandoning the procedures and action models that maintain hierarchies and financial orientation. Horizontal organization is understood to require totally new, non-accounting means of control. In real life conditions, however, the vertical organization and control cannot be totally ignored because the mechanisms for the strategic and financial control of a firm are required at least in some form. Therefore, the puzzle is, how can these two seemingly exclusionary rationales of control be coupled?\n2. Literature review: There is increasing concern that research on PMS should be based on more coherent theoretical foundations (Bourne et al., 2000; Chenhall, 2003; Neely, 2005; Ferreira and Otley, 2009). Previous studies on vertical integration and PMS has resulted in notions of various problems. Jones (1985) conducted a seminal study on implementing MA systems in acquired companies. The acquirer usually replaced the control systems of the acquired firm with its own management control systems which may result in various post-acquisition problems like the over formalization of procedures and reduction of the quality of information. Roberts (1990) argued that hierarchical management controls were obstacles for strategy formulation and implementation based on market information. Granlund's (2003) longitudinal study illustrated problems and consequences that the lack of a common MA system may have in integrating two companies. This can also be seen in the study of Micheli et al. (2011), who have explored the links between PMS and strategy implementation in a highly diversified group of firms. They argue that difficulties with strategic planning and implementation were due to the lack of a comprehensive PMS. The rapid growth of the organization created great necessity for strategic coordination mechanisms and initiated the development of a corporate PMS.\n3. Research methodology: The two strands of literature on PMS for integration provide some guidance as to what may matter when there is a need to integrate their organization both vertically and horizontally. However, the literature is incomplete and it is clear that there is a need to understand what PMS designs satisfy the needs of integration management, how the different PMS design elements fit together with each other and the intended strategies, and why this bundle of practices leads to organizational performance, and a need to build a theory. The research design was based on the recommendations of Eisenhardt (1989b) and Yin (2003) and the theory is presented in the form of a model and propositions closely following previous research in operations and supply chain management (e.g. Pagell and Wu, 2009).\n4. Research findings: 4.1 PMS in vertical integration\n5. Discussion: In this study we have examined how an organizational PMS is used and how it influences horizontal and vertical integration. We found that PMS has an important role in vertical integration in situations where company growth is based on acquisitions. The challenges identified in the implementation and use of the PMS for vertical integration are similar to findings from previous studies (Jones, 1985; Granlund, 2003).\n6. Conclusions, implications and limitations: This study explored the design and use of PMS in a situation where both vertical and horizontal, strategic and organizational integration are sought. This study has identified contradictory tendencies in PMS design that may easily hinder integration processes. The most effective approach to remove those problems would be through enhancing the conceptual understanding of the dynamics of PMS formation in practice. The findings of this study are expected to fulfil that requirement. The propositions and accompanying descriptions and explanations are grounded in empirical data.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to extend the knowledge of the use of performance measurement systems (PMS) in situations where the benefits of both vertical and horizontal integration strategies are sought simultaneously.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a single case study, the purpose of which is to build a contextual theory.\nFindings: The main results highlight three competing and partly contradictory tendencies in the development and use of PMS in organizational integration. In addition, the authors have identified features of PMS that may benefit or hinder integration. Grounded on empirical findings the paper presents a more complete theoretical framework of PMS for integration.\nResearch limitations/implications: The propositions of the framework need to be tested in different contexts with case and field studies or a large sample of data using statistical techniques to improve external validity. The causal relationships explored in this study may be further developed using longitudinal studies.\nPractical implications: In acquisition situations there exists the need for vertical integration to control the growing complexity but at the same time for horizontal control to advance customer-centred production. Performance measurement is the key issue to examine the execution and results of such integrations.\nOriginality/value: Case study findings are used to develop a more comprehensive theory of PMS design and use in situations where both vertical and horizontal integration are sought. Contrary to current understandings, the central statement of this study is that horizontal organization is not an alternative to vertical organizational structure but they can be effectively coupled.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The effect of construction demand on contract auctions: an experiment	[ "Experiment", "Construction bidding", "Construction demand", "Contract auctions" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Demand is part of the large domain of market conditions that affect many decisions revolving around construction contract auctions (Runeson and Skitmore, 1999). These decisions force contractors to make judgements in an attempt to balance out the market opportunities and risks (Thorpe and McCaffer, 1991), and thus, affecting their bidding behaviour in order to achieve their firms' objectives (Skitmore, 1989). Skitmore (1989) classified construction firms' objectives under three main categories: monetary, non-monetary and market related, where construction demand by nature affects all three categories.\n2. Literature review: This section provides a review on market conditions and construction demand. The review initially ventures through theoretical studies involving market conditions and construction demand, moving onwards to previous empirical studies and finally a brief overview of the industry representation of demand.\n3. Research method: An experimental approach was adopted for this research for an explicit observation of the effect of construction demand on contract auctions. An experiment allows for control and discrete manipulation of variable(s) by the researcher, that of which is not possible using surveys and/or past data. As Zikmund (2003) suggests, the purpose of experimental research design is to provide the researcher with control over all factors that might have an impending effect on the outcome, and that a single (or multiple) variable may be manipulated in order to test the tenability of a hypothesis.\n4. Results and discussion: The results and discussion are presented in three parts. The first part presents an exploratory analysis of bids obtained from the bidders in both the booming and recession scenarios. The second part details statistical analysis of cross-comparison, at several time points, between the booming and recession groups. This is then followed by an assessment of the seriousness of bidders' bidding attempts.\n5. Conclusion: This study examined the effect of construction demand on contract auctions utilising an experimental research method. Two groups of inexperienced bidders were subjected to two different demand scenarios, a \"booming\" demand and a \"recessionary\" demand. The results show that the variations in the bid price level are affected by varying levels of construction demand, in terms of the number of projects available for bidding. From the exploratory analysis, it was found that there were more \"bid\" decisions when the number of projects was decreasing, and that there were less \"bid\" decisions when the number of projects was increasing. It was also found that the general mark-up level for the bidders experiencing a booming scenario was higher on average compared to bidders subjected to the recession scenario. Cross-comparisons between the two groups revealed that the experimental treatments have an impact on the bidders' mark-up decisions. An in-depth analysis of subseries of bids over bidding rounds shows that the inexperienced bidders in the experiment had taken two rounds to learn about the bidding environment before their behaviour adapted to the varying levels of construction demand.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present an experiment to test the effect of construction demand on the mark-up price level in construction contract auctions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An experimental approach was adopted for this study. In a controlled laboratory environment, a first-price sealed bid auction was simulated with varying number of projects available over ten rounds to simulate changing construction demand. Two experimental treatments were run in parallel, one exhibiting a \"booming\" demand over time, and the other group with a \"recession\" scenario. The experiment involved student (inexperienced) bidders with a construction project management background.\nFindings: The results show that inexperienced bidders do behave differently when subjected to varying levels of construction demand. Variations in the bid price level are affected by varying levels of construction demand and the general mark-up level for the bidders experiencing a booming scenario was higher on average compared to bidders subjected to the recession scenario.\nResearch limitations/implications: An identified limitation of this study is the use of student subjects in the experiment, thus the experiment results are limited in generalisation to inexperienced bidders. Further studies may be able to replicate the experiment with experienced industry practitioners to observe the results.\nPractical implications: The results allow for industry practitioners to gain a stronger understanding of the effects of varying levels of construction demand and the need to consider construction demand in construction contracting. For construction clients, the level of construction demand may be used as an indicator to assist in the timing to call tenders to achieve a desirable price. For contractors, increased awareness of how demand affects competition and the price level will allow additional optimisations to be achieved in the bid price.\nOriginality/value: Construction demand has been widely known to be one of the key factors affecting contractors' bidding decisions. However, there has been little empirical investigation of the changes in bidders' behaviour due to varying levels of construction demand. This paper attempts to add to the empirical research knowledgebase through an experimental setting.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Media richness, social presence and loyalty to mobile instant messaging	[ "Loyalty", "Structural equation modelling", "Survey", "Media richness", "Mobile instant messaging" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Mobile instant messaging (MIM) could satisfy the users' needs for instant communication, enhancing trust and encouraging repurchase intention (Chong et al., 2018; Ou et al., 2014), demonstrating the value of MIM apps in the e-commerce context. Moreover, MIM apps (such as WhatsApp and WeChat) rank the most downloaded ones. However, numerous MIM apps actively compete to be the market leader, indicating the relevance of research on user loyalty (the intention to use repeatedly) to MIM apps. The MIM literature has examined the antecedents to user loyalty, for example perceived enjoyment (Oghuma et al., 2016), switching cost (Deng et al., 2010), perceived quality of communication (Gan and Li, 2015) and perceived user base (or network size) (Gan and Li, 2015; Kim et al., 2017). Previous studies have shown that overall media richness helps foster social presence (perceived interaction with real persons by using the media) (Ogara and Koh, 2014; Ogara et al., 2014) and user satisfaction (Chen and Chang, 2018; Ogara et al., 2014). However, they do not answer which aspects of media richness could more effectively enhance users' perception of social presence, indicating a research gap. Recent studies (Tseng et al., 2017) examined how aspects of media richness impact user-perceived value and user loyalty, but they did not examine any relationship with regard to social presence, thus being incapable of filling this gap. So, the gap has remained unaddressed in the literature, motivating the present study.\nTheoretical background and hypotheses: Media richness theory\nMethods: Sample and data collection process\nResults: Sample profile\nDiscussion: Main findings and contributions\nConclusions: Guided by MRT and SPT, it is found that two aspects of media richness, namely immediate feedback and personal focus, are correlated with social presence. It is suggested that MIM managers allocate more resources to these two aspects, especially on personal focus. This study contributes to the MIM literature by finding novel predictors of user loyalty, that is immediate feedback, personal focus, social presence and relatedness need satisfaction. Future IS studies can add other novel drivers of user loyalty to MIM apps.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Mobile instant messaging (MIM) apps could provide rich and instant information in employees' communication. However, how media richness impacts MIM user loyalty is unknown. The purpose of this paper is to adopt media richness and social presence theories as theoretical foundations to address this insufficiency.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Collecting 247 responses from an online survey, the authors use structural equation modelling for data analysis and hypothesis testing.\nFindings: The authors found that immediate feedback and personal focus are the main aspects of media richness that are positively related to social presence, relatedness need satisfaction and user loyalty to MIM.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study using two pertinent theories to explain how aspects of media richness affect user loyalty to MIM. The present findings suggest that firms developing MIM apps focus on immediate feedback and personal focus as effective means to encourage user loyalty.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A survey on mining stack overflow: question and answering (Q&A) community	[ "Mining", "Software development", "Information retrieval", "Text mining", "Software repositories", "Stack overflow" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: 1.1 Background\n2. Related work: We categorized the related work into \"previous surveys\" and \"other related areas\" as discussed below.\n3. Research methodology: We performed a literature review to identify and evaluate relevant published research work on software development in SO. The overview of research methodology is depicted in Figure 1. The literature review was conducted by a team of four researchers, i.e., three PhD students and one academic staff member. All team members took participation in all the phases of the literature review. To minimize the personal bias and to improve the literature review process, inter-rater reliability tests were conducted at initial and final selection phases of the literature review process.\n4. Mining SO for software development: In this section, we will discuss and summarize the selected 166 research articles done on mining SO in the context of software development. The whole content and summarized discussions on mining SO in the context of software development is categorized and grouped by applying open card sorting (Section 3.4) into two main categories \"SO design and usage\" and \"SO content applications,\" having further eight topics/themes. It will enable the readers to get a systematic overview of the work in general and specifically to know future research avenues in each of the eight topics/themes. The selected 166 research articles are discussed in detail in the next subsections (Sections 4.1-4.2) and are chronologically summarized in Tables III-X.\n5. Validity threats: The validity threats (Wright et al., 2010) of our literature survey are discussed below.\n6. Conclusion and future work: 6.1 Conclusion\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Software developers extensively use stack overflow (SO) for knowledge sharing on software development. Thus, software engineering researchers have started mining the structured/unstructured data present in certain software repositories including the Q&A software developer community SO, with the aim to improve software development. The purpose of this paper is show that how academics/practitioners can get benefit from the valuable user-generated content shared on various online social networks, specifically from Q&A community SO for software development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A comprehensive literature review was conducted and 166 research papers on SO were categorized about software development from the inception of SO till June 2016.\nFindings: Most of the studies revolve around a limited number of software development tasks; approximately 70 percent of the papers used millions of posts data, applied basic machine learning methods, and conducted investigations semi-automatically and quantitative studies. Thus, future research should focus on the overcoming existing identified challenges and gaps.\nPractical implications: The work on SO is classified into two main categories; \"SO design and usage\" and \"SO content applications.\" These categories not only give insights to Q&A forum providers about the shortcomings in design and usage of such forums but also provide ways to overcome them in future. It also enables software developers to exploit such forums for the identified under-utilized tasks of software development.\nOriginality/value: The study is the first of its kind to explore the work on SO about software development and makes an original contribution by presenting a comprehensive review, design/usage shortcomings of Q&A sites, and future research challenges.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Collaboration on LibGuides in public universities in South Africa	[ "Collaboration", "Co-ownership", "LibGuides", "Library guides", "Course guides", "Subject guides" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Collaboration is an emerging theme in library and information science (LIS) research. Several studies have been conducted in the field in the past ten years by scholars such as Ocholla (2008), Ngoepe and others (2014), Maluleka and Onyancha (2016) and Maluleka et al. (2016). This underlines the importance of collaboration in librarianship as a discipline and practice. In the case of academic libraries, there is always a mutual and symbiotic relationship between these institutions and collaboration. The majority of what academic librarians do, whether it is collection development, organising book fairs, acquisition of information resources, providing information resources, conducting information literacy, attending faculty meetings, defending library budgets, authoring research papers, setting-up LibGuides and other functions, require collaboration with internal or external stakeholders (Sacchanand, 2012). It is for this reason that academic libraries and librarians are always on the lookout for the latest technologies that would enhance their role as collaborators (Kleinveldt and Zulu, 2016). When Springshare introduced LibGuides in 2007 (Bushhousen, 2009), they instantly became popular with academic libraries because, among others features, they allow for seamless collaboration between faculty and librarians on the one hand, and among librarians on the other. At the time of writing this paper, there were 537,796 LibGuides published by 140,949 librarians, in 4,756 institutions, from 73 countries around the world (Springshare, 2017).\n2. Overview of LibGuides in public universities in South Africa: South Africa is now home to 26 public universities after the establishment of three more public universities in the country in 2014 and 2015 (South Africa, 2014a, 2014b, 2014c). In terms of their classification, there are twelve traditional universities which in the main focus on theoretical-based training, six comprehensive universities which offer a combination of academic and vocational-oriented diplomas and degrees and eight universities of technology which in the main offer diplomas in vocational-oriented programs (Raju et al., 2015). The majority of public universities in South Africa own LibGuides as shown in Table I.\n3. Objectives: The main objective of this study was to measure the extent and level of collaboration in owning LibGuides in public universities in South Africa. To answer the broad objective, however, specific objectives were needed to break the main objective into manageable themes. The specific objectives of this study are to:\n4. Literature review: A survey of the literature on the subject of LibGuides co-ownership did not yield any result. Several studies, however, have been conducted on the area of LibGuides as collaborative tools in academic libraries. These studies and more are relied upon for a literature review of this study. The literature review is divided into five sub-sections, which are LibGuides as library Web 2.0 platforms, collaboration and LibGuides, collaboration in LIS research, faculty-librarian and faculty-support department collaborations and collaboration on LibGuides.\n5. Dealing with collaboration challenges: Collaboration, however, has its own negative aspects that should be dealt with for the partnership to succeed. Arroyo (2003) pointed out that collaboration can be harmed by the following factors:\n6. Methodology: This is a quantitative study that uses webometrics techniques to establish collaboration on LibGuides among librarians in public universities in South Africa. Thelwall (2009) defined webometrics as the application of quantitative techniques to measure the aspects of the Web including Web pages, blogs, LibGuides and other Web-related content. Specifically, it can be used to measure websites, number of webpages, number of blogs and/or number of LibGuides (Thelwall, 2008). The LibGuide pages of the 16 public universities in the country were visited. Co-ownership of those LibGuides was established by going through the list of owners usually situated on the right hand side menu bar. A total of 95 co-owned LibGuides were then identified as the population of this study. The data were divided into 16 Excel spreadsheets each representing a South African public university with LibGuides; each spreadsheet had the following columns: LibGuide name, number of collaborators, number of co-owners, names of co-owners, origin of co-owners (campuses), number of LibGuides with no owners, subjects covered and names of LibGuides with no co-owners.\n7. Findings and discussions: It was established that four of the sixteen public university LibGuides in South Africa do not have co-owned LibGuides. Those are the universities of Free State, Fort Hare, Venda and the Central University of Technology. Figure 1 shows the number of co-owned LibGuides in the country.\n8. Conclusion: This study sought to determine the extent of collaboration on LibGuides in South Africa using co-ownership as a proxy. The results show that only 8.1 per cent or 95 of 1,166 LibGuides are co-owned, whereas in 9.4 per cent or 109 of LibGuides, the ownership reverts to the host library as there are no authors indicated. Only 34 or 35.8 per cent of the 95 co-owned LibGuides are cross-campus or inter-campus collaborations suggesting that there is very little cross-pollination of ideas between different campuses of the same universities in South Africa. The results of this study also show that unlike other countries, there are no inter-institutional collaborations (Ford and Zeigen, 2014) further showing that the cross-pollination of ideas is lacking not only within the same public university but also between universities. Inter-institutional collaboration is an area that LibGuides owners will have to explore to avoid unnecessary duplication of resources, time, and effort. The implications of these results are that there is duplication of LibGuides content, effort and time across campuses of the same universities, as some universities have a number of LibGuides on the same subject areas across the institutions. This does not assist the users as it only adds to the information overload rather than assisting to streamline information resources (Jackson and Stacy-Bates, 2016). There seems to be competition rather than willingness to collaborate among librarians across different institutions. These results pose a challenge to library managers in the country to develop strategies that promote and nurture a culture of collaboration between and among librarians. One way of doing this would be for library managers to recognise and reward collaborative efforts especially when they happen between librarians from different universities. In addition, library managers should consider providing librarians opportunities for work visits to other institutions' libraries. These visits are likely to encourage knowledge sharing between and among the librarians. At national level, the Library and Information Association of South Africa can organise and sponsor knowledge sharing workshops and seminars to encourage librarian collaborations. Based on the findings, further studies on attitudes, constraints and impediments of collaboration between and among librarians are encouraged. In addition, research on the role and impact of LibGuides in promoting research outputs would be interesting.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper uses co-ownership as a proxy for determining the extent of collaboration on LibGuides in public universities in South Africa.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a quantitative study that uses webometrics techniques to establish collaboration on LibGuides among librarians in public universities in South Africa. The LibGuide pages of all public universities in the country are visited. Co-ownership of those LibGuides is established by going through the list of co-owners usually situated on the right-hand side menu bar. The data are divided into 16 Excel spreadsheets, each representing a South African public university with LibGuides.\nFindings: The results show that only 8.1 per cent or 95 of 1,166 LibGuides are co-owned, whereas in 9.4 per cent (109 of 1,166) of LibGuides, the ownership reverts to the host library, as there are no authors indicated. Only 34 of 95 or 35.8 per cent of co-owned LibGuides are cross-campus or inter-campus collaborations suggesting that there is very little cross-pollination of ideas between different campuses of the same universities in South Africa.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study will lead to a better understanding of the extent of collaboration between librarians in Africa, generally, but specifically in South Africa. In addition, it poses a challenge to library managers to develop strategies that promote and nurture a culture of collaboration between and among librarians to avoid unnecessary duplication. The recommendations of this study can be used to improve collaboration between and among librarians. The biggest limitation of this study is that it did not look into the attitudes, constraints and impediments of collaboration between and among librarians. This area, however, is recommended for further research.\nPractical implications: The implication of these results is that there is a duplication of LibGuides, effort and time across different campuses of the same universities, as some universities have a number of LibGuides on the same subject areas across the institutions. There is very little cross-pollination of ideas between various universities as reflected by a lack of inter-university LibGuides in the country.\nSocial implications: Duplication of LibGuides does not assist the users as it only adds to the information overload rather than assisting them by streamlining the information.\nOriginality/value: This study may well be the first study of its nature in the world. It is the view of the authors that this study will not only close the gap in the literature on LibGuides but also explain the use of Web 2.0 tools in libraries in developing countries as collaboration tools. It will add another perspective to the discourse about the collaboration in library and information science generally. This paper may lead to further research on the collaboration efforts of practising librarians.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The place of communities of practice in knowledge management studies: a critical review	[ "Communities of Practice", "Literature review", "Academic research", "KM journals" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Introduced by Lave and Wenger (1991) as a part of a broader conceptual framework for reflecting about learning in its social dimensions, the notion of Community of Practice (CoP) soon gained popularity and found an extensive use in so many fields (business, government, education health, etc.) that it is difficult to list all its applications (Wenger, 2010).\n2. Background literature: 2.1 Origins and development of the concept\n3. A systematic review of KM literature on CoPs: goals and methodology: The analysis of the background literature described in the previous section raises a number of important points. First, the notion of CoP has been very successful and widely used outside the area in which it originated (i.e. social learning and related fields). This is leading to a growing confusion about definitions and applications of the CoP\n4. Results: The number of retrieved papers confirms that CoPs continue to have a prominent place in the KM literature, and that the topic still raises the interest of scholars (see Table III). On average, each investigated journal published nearly seven articles on CoPs in the examined period: this is a much higher value than that (1.3) resulting from the mentioned review of Agrawal and Joshi (2011) regarding all management journals (see section 3). This indicates that KM journals have become the natural destination of the studies on this subject.\n5. Discussion: emerging trends and open questions: The findings of this review reveal that, despite the focalisation of KM journals on the typical research objects and approaches that characterise the research in this field, the studies of CoPs conducted in a KM perspective are rather heterogeneous. Many topics are discussed, often adopting different viewpoints, and with different conceptual references. Almost all the authors cite the seminal works by Wenger, but only to recall his definition of CoP that, as previously said, still leaves ample room for ambiguity and different interpretations.\n6. Conclusion: Over 20 years ago Lave and Wenger (1991) introduced the term CoP, undoubtedly one of the most influential concepts in the recent literature (Hughes et al., 2007). This study aimed to clarify the place that this notion has in the KM literature. With regard to the research questions that were listed in the previous sections, the main results of the review can be summarised as follows.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Since its introduction, the notion of Communities of Practice (CoPs) has gained immediate popularity, especially among Knowledge Management scholars. The paper aims at reviewing the past and discussing what has been done. In particular the purposes are: to assess the importance of CoPs in the KM literature; to trace how this notion is defined and used, both in practical and theoretical terms; to classify the approaches used by KM research on CoPs; to discuss the results that research and practice in CoPs have led so far, the open issues, and the potential role of this notion in a future KM research agenda.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper illustrates and discusses the findings of a systematic literature review on CoPs focusing on papers published in the most influential Knowledge Management and Intellectual Capital Journals.\nFindings: The study analyses 82 articles published in 12 different KM and IC leading journals from 1997 to 2012. Each article was examined to determine the following information: type of study; domain of application; research methodology applied and addressed topic. Emerging trends, open questions and further research needs are identified and discussed. In particular, an issue for researchers is the necessity to formulate an agreed definition of CoPs under the KM umbrella, which can also help to implement comparable empirical studies and to build theories that provide understanding of how CoPs can be managed.\nPractical implications: The outcomes of the review is particularly important for KM scholars dealing with CoPs, who can find suggestions for their future research. It can also provide food for thought to practitioners, by illustrating the state-of-the-art and prospects of this important organisational form. In addition, the paper highlights that, despite the huge amount of studies on this topic, the notion of CoP is still used in different ways and the specific experience of each company is difficult to generalise and transfer to other cases.\nOriginality/value: This is the most up-to-date analysis of research on CoPs in its elective field of application that is Knowledge Management.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Mobile agent-based SIEM for event collection and normalization externalization	[ "Data collection", "Log normalization", "Mobile agent", "SIEM" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the modern information technology (IT) environment, organizations face many challenges in managing network security. These challenges can be classified into three categories:\nRelated work: In this section, we will examine the related work on improving the normalization process and give some applications of Mobile Agents in network security.\nProposition of mobile agent based-siem approach: As we have seen, none of the current SIEM tools have used Mobile Agents for event normalization, also research has never addressed the benefits of externalizing the normalization process on the performance of SIEM systems. The aim of our research is to develop a mobile agent-based SIEM system (MA-SIEM) in which we propose an architecture of a SIEM system that inherits the benefits of using Mobile Agents for information retrieval and processing. This architecture has the following advantages:\nImplementation, comparison and result analysis: To prove the efficiency of our proposition, we have implemented the architecture using JADE (Java Agent DEvelopment Framework), which is a software Framework fully implemented in the Java language. It simplifies the implementation of multi-agent systems through a middle-ware that complies with the FIPA specifications (Poslad, 2007) and through a set of graphical tools that support the debugging and deployment phases.\nConclusion: Event normalization allows the SIEM system to operate on parsed and structured formats. This is an important criterion for the correlation process to perform an immediate attack analysis. In this context, we highlighted some of the difficulties and problems existing in SIEM systems when dealing with time-series data such as logs. The article also discussed the performance issues in existing SIEM systems that use centralized normalization.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to propose a mobile agent-based security information and event management architecture (MA-SIEM) that uses mobile agents for near real-time event collection and normalization on the source device. The externalization of the normalization process, executed by several distributed mobile agents on interconnected computers and devices, proposes a SIEM server dedicated mainly for correlation and analysis.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The architecture has been proposed in three stages. In the first step, the authors described the different aspects of the proposed approach. Then they implemented the proposed architecture and presented a new vision for the insertion of normalized data into the SIEM database. Finally, the authors performed a numerical comparison between the approach used in the proposed architecture and that of existing SIEM systems.\nFindings: The results of the experiments showed that MA-SIEM systems are more efficient than existing SIEM systems because they leave the SIEM resources primarily dedicated to advanced correlation analysis. In addition, this paper takes into account realistic scenarios and use-cases and proposes a fully automated process for transferring normalized events in near real time to the SIEM server for further analysis using mobile agents.\nOriginality/value: The work provides new insights into the normalization security-related events using light mobile agents.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
What is in a name? Cross-national distances and subsidiary's corporate visual identity change in emerging-market firms' cross-border acquisitions	[ "Institutional distance", "Cultural distance", "Economic distance", "Corporate visual identity", "Emerging-market firms", "Subsidiary branding" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The recent increase in foreign direct investment from emerging markets has been studied by several authors (Yaprak and Karademir, 2010; Nicholson and Salaber, 2013, 2014; Rao-Nicholson et al., 2016; Li, 2007; Gubbi et al., 2010; Buckley et al., 2007, 2012). To compensate for their latecomer disadvantages, emerging-market firms (EMFs) often utilize acquisitions of established firms to acquire strategic assets, such as brands and distribution channels (Luo and Tung, 2007; Makino et al., 2002; Rui and Yip, 2008; Mathews, 2002; Li, 2007; Yaprak and Karademir, 2010). The EMF's worldwide acquisitions provide us with a great opportunity to study the major challenges facing modern multinational firms' subsidiary management - multiple stakeholders' potentially conflicting expectations (Tihanyi et al., 2015). Lacking international experience, EMFs often grant foreign subsidiaries substantial autonomy to be flexible to respond to diverse stakeholder demands, shaped by the potentially large national differences between the host and the home economies.\nLiterature review: Stakeholders' demands and corporate visual identities after acquisitions\nCross-national distances and acquired subsidiary's CVI transformation: In the current study, we utilize three major cross-national distance to capture the divergent stakeholder demands between the home country and the host market, including economic distance and formal institutional distance (Ghemawat, 2001; Tsang and Yip, 2007; North, 1991), and intangible distance like the cultural distance (Shenkar, 2001). First, economic distance is denoted by the different levels of economic development between the home market and the host country (Ghemawat, 2001; Tsang and Yip, 2007). According to the country's economic development, parent and local stakeholders may have divergent perceptions on the competition dynamic and consumer experience. Second, according to North (1991), institutions are \"humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic and social interactions.\" Institutional constraints consist of formal rules (constitutions, laws and property rights) and cultural restraints (sanctions, taboos, customs, traditions and code of conduct). Institutional distance presents the national differences in both formal institutions and cultural settings. Thus, parent and local stakeholders who are embedded in different institutional environment are accustomed to different institutional rules and less likely to share the same worldviews and value systems.\nMethodology: Sample selection\nResults: Since our dependent variable is a dummy variable, we used a Probit regression model to test our hypotheses. Table VI reports the results of the Probit regression models, estimating the probability of a corporate name change after being acquired by an EMF. The model 5.1 presents the baseline model. In models 5.2-5.4, we present the explanatory variables individually. Model 5.5 constitutes the full model and includes all the independent variables.\nDiscussion and research implications: The rise of EMFs has expanded the horizon of academic research in understanding the opportunities and threats presented in managing a business across national borders. The findings of the current study suggest that an identity approach is valuable in considering diverse stakeholders' expectation at a foreign subsidiary. Examining the CVI, we establish that the foreign acquired subsidiary may assume the parent's identity to different degrees depending on the divergent stakeholders' demands, residing in the cross-national environmental differences. For EMFs who are limited in acquire complimentary strategic capabilities in their home market, the targets in a market with large economic distance and formal institutional distance present valuable opportunities to gain the needed strategic resources. To realize the synergy benefits, the parent stakeholders may exert considerable demands for integration on the foreign subsidiary, resulting in the corporate name change observed in the current study.\nLimitations and future research directions: BRICS have been accredited as important rising economies in the early 2000s (O'Neill et al., 2005). The selected sample by EMFs originated from these five potent emerging markets is representative of a class of emerging markets with different institutional environment in their home markets. The results of the current study, however, are by no means generalizable to all EMFs, particularly the ones originated from other geographic regions of emerging markets, such as United Arab Emirates in the Middle East area. We encourage international strategy researchers to utilize the CVI approach established in the current study to further investigate the subsidiary management among EMFs which are originated from other emerging markets.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Addressing the unique challenge facing emerging-market firms (EMFs) of branding and marketing in their foreign subsidiaries, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the foreign subsidiary's corporate visual identity (CVI) transitions during the post-acquisition period.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data on 330 cross-border acquisitions from five emerging markets, namely, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) are used. The cross-sectional multivariate analyses are used to test the hypotheses.\nFindings: Utilizing a sample of worldwide acquisitions conducted by EMFs originated from BRICS, this study establishes that various cross-national distances do not consistently cause the targets to take on the parent's CVI. While economic distance and formal institutional distance increase the likelihood of an acquired subsidiary's CVI change, cultural distance decreases the likelihood of CVI change.\nPractical implications: Lacking international experience and shaped by national differences between the host and home markets, EMFs often grant foreign subsidiaries substantial autonomy to respond to diverse stakeholder demands in subsidiary branding. Contrary to extant literature, the findings show that some distances are more pertinent to CVI transformation in the subsidiaries than others in the context of the EMFs.\nOriginality/value: This research shows that the formal institutional distance and economic distance will increase the likelihood of CVI changes in the subsidiaries, whereas, the cultural distance requiring soft skills like the cultural adaptability from the EMFs will decrease the CVI change possibility. The findings presented in the paper have significant implications for future research and strategic application.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How transformational leadership facilitates e-business adoption	[ "Transformational leadership", "E-business adoption", "Innovation processes", "Adaptive culture" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The digital economy's continuous growth causes firms to accelerate adoption of e-business processes (Kotler, 2014). Based on a European study in telecommunications and tourism, Oliveira and Martins (2010) find that external pressures are among the most relevant drivers of e-business adoption. Some studies show concerns, however, about the success of organization's e-business adoption. Dubelaar et al. (2005) identify impediments and suggest the need to address issues of leadership, employee trust, and monitoring of internal processes. Ashurst et al. (2012) suggest that successful e-business adoption requires IT competences that can be achieved by IT leadership. People in organizations naturally resist change that makes implementation of IT systems difficult (Seah et al., 2010). E-business adoption is especially difficult for incumbents (Verdu et al., 2014) because of the associated learning processes and costs.\nTheoretical framework: Leadership\nMethod: Data\nResults: We analyzed the mediating effect of adaptive culture on transformational leadership and e-business adoption, using the procedure from Tippins and Sohi (2003). These authors develop two consecutive models, the first evaluating the direct effect of transformational leadership and e-business adoption, and the second evaluating the mediating effect including adaptive culture.\nConclusions and discussion: Recent literature recognizes the difficulties of e-business adoption in incumbent firms (Dubelaar et al., 2005; Ashurst et al., 2012; Seah et al., 2010; Verdu et al., 2014). These studies indicate that most impediments arise from organizational behavior issues, not technical problems. We propose that obstacles arise from leadership style and its direct effects on organizational culture. We thus theoretically identified two paramount antecedents of e-business adoption for incumbents and large firms that help to understand the social scope of the digital economy when firms adopt it: transformational leadership and adaptive culture. Although various studies show the connection between transformational leadership and innovation (Howell and Avolio, 1993; Jung et al., 2003, 2008; Gumusluoglu and Ilsev, 2009), the literature has hardly empirically analyzed the means by which transformational leadership can influence e-business adoption. Thus, the theoretical model proposed is tested empirically in large manufacturers' e-business adapters. The results confirm the mediation model and indicate a significant contribution to the theory - that leadership plays a key role in internal transformation of the culture (Strese et al., 2016; Fan et al., 2014) - which translates into implications for e-business adoption. More specifically, our study proposes total mediation, in which adaptive culture is the main vehicle by which leadership influences e-business adoption. Leaders must thus create a cultural context that leads to accepting the change required by the digital economy and then facilitate its adoption in the firm. Although other studies propose mediation models between leadership and innovation processes in the organization (Lin and McDonough, 2011), no one has connected the relevance of leadership to e-business adoption by its direct effects on the organization's cultural context.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine theoretically and empirically what type of leadership facilitates e-business adoption in large manufacturing firms. The digital transformation of firms requires leadership that can promote the adaptive quality of organizational culture.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors conducted an empirical study using two key informants from a sample of 181 incumbent firms.\nFindings: The authors find significant evidence that adaptive culture is the vehicle by which transformational leaders positively influence e-business adoption.\nOriginality/value: Given the digital economy's external pressures, many e-business adoption processes fail due to organizational factors originating in leadership and its capability to change followers' values, norms, and motivations. To solve this problem, the authors propose a model that explains how transformational leadership first plays a key role in changing characteristics of culture and then facilitates e-business adoption.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Executive compensation: influence and reciprocity effects	[ "Reciprocity", "Influence", "State-owned enterprises", "Executive compensation", "Socio-psychology" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Although research on executive compensation continues to proliferate and determinants of executive compensation have received substantial attention from both academics and regulators, there is still no interdisciplinary consensus on the primary forces shaping observable patterns of executive compensation (Baxamusa, 2012; Shaw and Zhang, 2010; Tosi et al., 2000; Van Essen et al., 2015). The lack of consensus is most visible between scholars in economics and finance, who advocate the primacy of market-based explanations and scholars outside these two disciplines, who have challenged these explanations and some of their underlying assumptions by highlighting the importance of the power of socio-psychological processes in the creation of compensation practices (DiPrete et al., 2010).\nInfluence: A number of studies have demonstrated that executives can increase their pay beyond what is justified by economic determinants through exercising their influence (O'Reilly et al., 2014; Shin, 2013; Van Essen et al., 2015). Many of the empirical and theoretical propositions in contemporary treatments of influence relate variations in influence to other observable variables. For example, studies of the factors associated with leadership, the phenomenon of authority, the persuasion effects of different types of communication content, the formally defined power structure in an organisation and informal relations in a community all assert propositions in which \"influence\" is a major variable (March, 1957).\nReciprocity: Another element that applies to the process of determining executive compensation is reciprocity. O'Reilly and Main (2010) extend the concept by stating that reciprocity is a fundamental norm in all societies and pervades both economic and social life. Norms are social expectations of how people ought to behave in a given social context (Bandura, 1991). As a norm, reciprocity dictates that \"When one party benefits another, an obligation is generated\" (Gouldner, 1960, p. 174). Reciprocity finds expression in the psychological contract an executive enters into with the employer that demonstrates their shared expectations (how one should behave) and sanctions (what happens if one does or does not conform) (O'Reilly and Main, 2010). The current study, therefore, sought to determine the following research objective:\nThe relationship between influence and reciprocity as determinants of executive compensation: The relationship between influence and reciprocity in the determination of executive compensation is demonstrated by how an executive is rewarded for his/her political connectedness, which in turn benefits the organisation. Although Aslan and Grinstein (2011) found that political networks are positively related to levels of compensation and negatively associated with pay-performance sensitivity, supporting evidence is already available that the political social network connectedness of executives increases their compensation, and that connection-based pay is positively associated with future performance (Horton et al., 2012). Similarly, Li et al. (2007) contend that the positive association between executives' political influence and the performance of the firm has also been shown empirically, suggesting that increased compensation arising from the executive's political influence may be rooted in increased firm-level performance. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that executives are aware of the performance-enhancing benefits of their political influence, and in return, organisations may be willing to provide greater compensation because of the associated benefits. Politically connected executives may, therefore, demand higher compensation (Aslan and Grinstein, 2011).\nMethodology: Several scholars advocate different paradigms (worldviews) and philosophies that underpin knowledge production (Bryman and Bell, 2011; Guba and Lincoln, 1994; Habermas, 1972; Zikmund et al., 2013). Although there are differences in scholars' advocacy of research philosophies that include among others interpretivism, realism and positivism (Saunders et al., 2012; Sekaran and Bougie, 2010; Srivastava and Rego, 2011), a common theme is that no knowledge is neutral, and all research is embedded in philosophical preferences. From an epistemological stance, this research adopted an interpretivist approach that advocates subjective views of the phenomenon under study.\nResearch design: A research design refers to the overall research plan. It is a strategic framework for action that serves as a bridge between research questions and the execution or implementation of the research (Terre Blanche and Durrheim, 2002, p. 34). This plan stems from the objective of the study. The research design followed in the current study is discussed according to the sub-headings below.\nFindings: Findings were condensed under the two variables investigated, namely influence and reciprocity. Under influence, three themes emerged, namely social capital, intellectual capital and social comparison. Two main themes emerged under reciprocity, namely the pay-performance relationship and role complexity. Lastly, the political-symbolic role of the executive emerged as the theme that described the relationship between influence and reciprocity. The findings are presented next.\nInfluence: Social capital as an influence in the determination of executive compensation\nReciprocity: Pay-performance relationship\nRelationship between influence and reciprocity: Political-symbolic role\nDiscussion and conclusion: The findings support the role of the two main elements under study, namely influence and reciprocity, in the determination of executive compensation. Influence has been described in terms of the social capital, intellectual capital and comparability of an executive in relation to compensation. Reciprocity has been described by the pay-performance relationship and the complexity of the executive role, while the relationship between influence and reciprocity has been described by the political-symbolic role of the executives in the determination of executive compensation.\nInfluence: Based on the findings, one of the themes that emerged under the heading of influence is that executive compensation is influenced by the social capital of the executive. Social capital has been described as consisting of the social networks established by the executive. The social networks and stakeholder engagement are mostly political in nature. Thus, the executive is recognised and rewarded for his or her political networks and leadership role demonstrated in translating the vision of the SOE to be adopted by employees and accepted by the broader stakeholders who include the main shareholders (the government) and the third parties (communities) they serve.\nReciprocity: Based on the findings, executive compensation is seen as resulting from a relationship between the achievement of performance targets aligned to the strategic intent and business plans of the SOE by the executive. The research respondents asserted that the strategic objectives focus on strategic deliverables for long-term sustainability, as well as on short-term business plan deliverables for profitability, both of which are imperative to shareholder value creation. In turn, the executive would be compensated for reaching the set performance targets. Thus, the determination of executive compensation is reciprocal in that the remuneration philosophy for the executive is designed to align remuneration with long-term shareholder growth and sustainable profitability of the SOE.\nThe relationship between influence and reciprocity in the determination of executive compensation: The relationship between influence and reciprocity in the determination of executive compensation finds expression in the setting of executive compensation as a symbiotic exercise. Symbiosis in this context involves the incorporation of influence that facilitates the negotiation of expectations between an executive and the organisation, as well as an element of reciprocity, which defines the agreed amount of compensation to be given to the executive for the achievement of the predetermined set of performance targets. Thus, the makeup of the pay mix depends on the complexity of the political role of the executive that serves the best interest of the organisation, which in this context, is the ability of the SOE to meet its developmental mandate to society. The findings on the relationship between influence and reciprocity seem to align with previous studies. For example, according to Aslan and Grinstein (2011), Horton et al. (2012) and Li et al. (2007), influence and reciprocal exchange produce beneficial effects for both the individual executive and the organisation.\nOverall implications of influence and reciprocity as the determinants of executive compensation: The findings of this study, unlike those of previous economic and financial studies, have demonstrated that executive compensation is a product of endogenous and exogenous factors. Endogenous factors include an important individual attribute such as the executive's influence. The executive is recognised and rewarded for his or her leadership role demonstrated in translating the vision of the SOE to be adopted by employees. Exogenous factors entail the accepted predetermined performance standards between the executive and the broader stakeholders who include the main shareholders (the government) and expectations from the third parties (communities) they serve.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand the effects of influence and reciprocity as the elements in the determination of executive compensation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A purposive sample was drawn, which comprised of 13 respondents chosen for their expertise relating to the determination of executive compensation in state-owned enterprises (SOEs). A semi-structured interview guide was used as the data-gathering instrument. A thematic analysis technique was used for data analysis.\nFindings: The findings in this study identified three themes resorting under influence as crucial in the process of determining executive compensation, namely an executive's social capital, intellectual capital and social comparison. Two major themes emerged under reciprocity, namely the pay-performance relationship and role complexity. Finally, the political-symbolic role emerged as the main theme that described the relationship between influence and reciprocity.\nPractical implications: The findings provide a more detailed description of the process involved in determining executive compensation in SOEs.\nOriginality/value: There has been limited if any, empirical study on the process involved in setting executive compensation. The limited focus has always been on accounting measures. Incorporating the socio-psychological view attempts to provide a more comprehensive and conclusive explanation of the process of determining executive pay in theory and practice.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Towards a transaction-based hotel property price index for Europe	[ "European hotel transactions", "Hotel assets", "Hotel price index", "Hotel property cycle", "Hotel valuation index", "Hotels transactions" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nPurpose and structure: The purpose of this paper is to fill an existing gap in the field. A transaction-based hotel property price index (HPPI) for Europe is constructed to provide a true measure for hotel real estate performance. The index will enable investors enhance investment decisions in many ways: to assess individual property performance, to make an objective decision about where to invest and in which property type, and to assess the relative performance of hotel assets to all other sectors and consequently reach optimal funds allocation decisions. This will allow investors to time their acquisitions/disposals according to the hotel property cycle. Prevailing hotel indices in Europe are exclusively appraisal based, which suffer from subjectivity in values estimated. A transaction-based index attempts to overcome this problem by indexing actual values of properties transacted in the marketplace.\nUses of HPPIs: An index for Europe tracking changes in hotel property prices is instrumental to enhancing market transparency, improving investment decision making and increasing transaction liquidity in the hotel sector. A European hotel price index (HPI) gives owners of hotel properties a benchmark, which can be used to gage the performance of individual assets and portfolios, for example, in undertaking internal periodic valuation. Also, the index can prove useful as an initial screening tool for hotel investors who are considering acquiring a single hotel asset or a portfolio. This is particularly true if the assets were located in several countries and initial screening becomes a key prerequisite to a potentially costly due diligence process. Additionally, buyer and seller influences on property prices can be evaluated through these models. Price premiums and discounts occur for three reasons: incomplete information (about the property or the local market), time factors (e.g. due to one party is more anxious to close the deal) and strategic factors (e.g. to achieve penetration rates in certain markets and achieve economies of scale) (Corgel and deRoos, 1994). A sound HPPI provides an objective benchmark for hotel buyers and sellers which helps them reduce such market inefficiencies. From hotel brokers perspective, identifying premium and discount buyers assists them in improving efficiency and effectiveness in matching buyers and sellers.\nTypes of real estate indices: Fisher et al. (1994) classify real estate indices based on price series utilised in constructing them. They classify them into indices that are based on series of appraisal values, transaction prices, and unlevered Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) share price. This section summarises issues that affect construction and performance of price indices. Whilst appraisal- and transaction-based indices are considered as bottom-up direct indices, the unlevered REIT share price indices are considered top-down indirect indices.\nIssues in constructing real estate indices: Variable-quality issues\nHPPIs: The last three decades have seen several initiatives to construct HPPIs. They include three appraisal-based indices: hotel valuation index (HVI) (Bertschi and Perret, 2014), the AH&MA[5]'s IREFAC[6] Lodging Property (Total Return) Index (LPI) (Corgel and deRoos, 1997), and the Investment Property Databank (IPD) Pan-European Hotel (Total Return) Index (IPD) (Mansell, 2012). Cornell developed a transaction-based \"Cornell Lodging Property (Price) Index\" (CLPI) (Corgel and deRoos, 1992). Cornell also developed a Publicly Traded Equivalent of LPI (ELPI) (Corgel et al., 1998) but this paper focuses only bottom-up appraisal-based indices. Top down appraisal-based indices are beyond the scope of this paper. A transaction-based price index for UK hotels emerges in 2004 as a by-product of a hedonic valuation model developed to understand determinants of hotel property values (Roubi and Litteljohn, 2004). Some rule-of-thumb transaction-based price indices have also emerged such as Christie & Co.'s HPI (Hill, 2011) and Savills Hotel Capital Value Index (Savills, 2012).\nThe data: European hotel property transactions: The data include hotel property transactions during the period between 2004 and 2013. Initially, over 800 transaction details had been collected. Of the transactions, just over 300 were omitted from consideration primarily due to incomplete data or the property had extraordinary characteristics (e.g. golf course) to the rest of the sample. The final sample size utilised in the analysis was 495. Data include the property name, sale price, size, time of sale, location, buyers and sellers. Transaction prices and property characteristics were collected from a variety sources published by hotel agents and consultants, property magazines, newspapers, tourist board, individual property and hotel association registers and web sites.\nSample property characteristics: The samples size consists of 495 transactions. The average size of property was 199 rooms. The average transaction price in the sample was circa 46 million. The largest deal in the sample was a property that sold for 553 million. The total value of transactions during the index period was 30 billion. Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels (2014) report a volume of 49-54 billion in single hotel asset transactions for Europe Middle East and Africa during the same period. Given that JLL aforementioned report includes several non-European cities primarily in the Arabian Gulf and North Africa, the sample utilised in this paper captures a significant portion of transaction activity in Europe. Table III provides descriptive statistics on transaction prices, property sizes, room sizes and room prices per night in the sample.\nDeveloping the model: A hedonic pricing model is developed regressing transaction prices on the different characteristics. The general form of the model can be expressed as:\nDiscussion: This section compares HPPI to other European indices and evaluates their performance in explaining price movements during the period between 2004 and 2013. Table VIII compares HPPI vs HVI and IPD in regards to some index construction issues.\nConclusion: This work has successfully developed an HPPI for hotel properties in Europe. A HPE is estimated to control for variable quality of the different hotel properties in the sample and separate movement in hotel prices during the period between 2004 and 2013. As a transaction-based index it is more volatile than existing appraisal-based indices. It does not suffer from sticky valuation issues which are characteristic of appraisal-based indices. Further HPPI is more sensitive than HVI and IPD and appraisal-based indices in general because it includes information on distressed assets. Distressed situations are part of the market reality that could provide insight on market opportunities or threats. While HPPI represents a significant development in tracking price movements of hotel properties in Europe, there are limitations to the research due to incompleteness and potential inaccuracies in the data.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to fill an existing gap in the field. A transaction-based hotel price index for Europe is constructed to provide a true measure for hotel real estate performance. The index will enable investors enhance investment decisions in many ways: to assess individual property performance; to make an objective decision about where to invest and in which property type; to assess the relative performance of hotel assets to all other sectors and consequently reach optimal funds allocation decisions. This will allow investors to time their acquisitions/disposals according to the hotel property cycle.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data include 495 hotel property transactions in Europe during the period between 2004 and 2013. Transaction prices and property characteristics were collected from a variety sources published by hotel agents and consultants, property magazines, newspapers, tourist board, individual property and hotel association registers and web sites. Data include property name, sale price, size, time of sale, location, buyers and sellers. A hedonic pricing model is developed where the transaction price is regressed on the different characteristics. The index is calculated by taking the anti-logs of regression coefficients of the year index.\nFindings: This paper claims that the hotel property price index (HPPI) portrays a more realistic picture of what happened to hotel property prices in 2008 showing a single digit negative growth vs the hotel valuation index which reports a double digit negative growth rate in European hotel prices during the same year. The real impact of recession showed on hotel property prices in 2009. HPPI shows a crash in hotel property prices by -23.7 per cent in 2009. The year 2011 was marked by more sales transacted through administrators and a looming double-dip recession. Unlike appraisal-based indices, HPPI does not suffer from sticky valuation issues and is not desensitise from distressed properties. Therefore, it was more volatile to distressed situations throughout the period between 2011 and 2013.\nResearch limitations/implications: Results of this study should be considered with caution. There are limitations associated with transaction data including incompleteness or inaccuracies regarding price data, financing information for each deal, property tenure, and property characteristics.\nPractical implications: This work has successfully developed an HPPI for hotel property in Europe. This paper paves the way for transaction-based indices that are more volatile than existing appraisal-based indices. This represents a significant development in tracking price movements of hotel properties in Europe. The index has potential to support research and forecasting of the hotel property cycles.\nOriginality/value: This paper fulfils an identified need to track hotel property prices and timing the hotel property cycle.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Context specificity in use of price information sources	[ "Pricing", "Retailing" ]	[ { "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.\nBackground: The growing importance of online shopping has spurred considerable interest in understanding differences in consumer behavior, especially with respect to pricing in online and offline shopping. In the area of pricing, online channels differ from offline channels in several ways. Consumers have more information on both price and non-price attributes (Alba et al., 1997). The online channel is associated with lower search costs for products, and wider selection (Lynch and Ariely, 2000). The online channel is also widely perceived to have lower prices than the offline channel (Brynjolfsson and Smith, 2000; Jensen et al., 2003). Price sensitivity was found to be lower in online environment under some circumstances (e.g., Lynch and Ariely, 2000).Prior research also suggests that consumers tend to be aware of store differences while judging price acceptability. For instance, higher prices in a convenience store are judged to be fair and acceptable (Bolton et al., 2003; Grewal and Baker, 1994). Further, relative importance and effects of different reference prices vary in different situations and contexts (e.g., Biswas and Blair, 1991; Yadav and Seiders, 1998).Online and offline channels represent two different contexts. The focus of this research is to examine whether differences in intention to use reference price sources to judge price acceptability exist in online and offline channels. Specific differences in types of offline stores such as convenience stores, department stores, and supermarkets are not taken into account. We also restrict our focus to marketer-supplied price sources such as advertisements in traditional and online media.\nHypotheses: The accessibility-diagnosticity framework (Feldman and Lynch, 1988) provides a basis to explain the differences in likely use of different price sources. According to this framework, the likelihood that any cognition about an object will be used as an input to any subsequent decision involving that object or a related object is asserted to be a function of:* the accessibility of the input in memory;* the accessibility of alternative inputs; and* the diagnosticities of the input and of alternative inputs (Lynch et al., 1988, p. 171).Accessibility is defined as the relative ease with each information can be retrieved from memory (Feldman and Lynch, 1988). Diagnosticity is the perceived sufficiency of a retrieved input to accomplish a decision goal (judgment task) and is similar to the \"informativeness\" of a cue (Menon and Raghubir, 2003).Channel effects\nMethodology: A quasi-field experiment design was used with type of channel (online v. traditional) as a within-subjects factor, daily online usage (low, moderate, high), and product as between-subjects factors. Daily online usage was a measured variable. Products were assigned randomly.Sample\nResults: Differences in price expectations\nDiscussion: This study examined the effects of channel and online usage on the likely use of prices previously seen in online or offline contexts. The results indicate that likely use of price sources is influenced by shopping channel (offline v. online), and extent of online usage of consumers. These results have several managerial and theoretical implications.Implications for retailers\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research is to examine whether there are differences in use of price sources in online and offline shopping contexts, and the effect of time spent online on these potential differences.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A quasi-field experimental design with shopping channel and online usage as factors is used. MANOVA was used to analyze the data collected from 180 subjects (54 percent female; mean age of sample=27 years).\nFindings: - The findings revealed context specificity in the use of price sources. Prices previously seen in traditional media are more likely to be used while shopping offline, while prices previously seen on the internet are more likely to be used while shopping online. The extent of time spent online would also lead to more use of prices previously seen on the internet.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research examined consumer intentions of using price sources within the accessibility-diagnosticity framework. Future research should measure accessibility and diagnosticity of specific price sources in different shopping contexts.\nPractical implications: - Retailers should base their pricing on channel characteristics. They should exploit the capabilities of the online channel to be more competitive. Pricing communication strategies should also take into account extent of time spent online.\nOriginality/value: - The research suggests that price parity between online and offline channels may not be critical for multichannel marketers. Online and offline channels are different shopping contexts and as such offer unique opportunities to attract consumers. Pricing strategies should take into account these differences.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Evaluating the comparative efficiency of the postal services in OECD countries using context-dependent and measure-specific data envelopment analysis	[ "Performance measurement", "Data envelopment analysis" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The notion that \"public enterprises operate less efficiently than private enterprises\" has long been defended by many politicians, administrators and economists as a way to persuade policy makers to privatize public or state-owned enterprises in many industrialized countries (Sueyoshi and Aoki, 2001). However, the opponents of privatization argue that public ownership still can sustain efficiency through well-planned competitive strategy. In fact, some researchers contend that a key factor affecting efficiency is the degree of competition, not the state ownership (Mizutani and Uranishi, 2003). After witnessing the recent financial struggle and budget shortfalls of postal services across the most of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, the postal sector became the center of this debate. For example, in fiscal year of 2009, the US Postal Services (USPS) faced a decline of mail volume of 30 billion pieces, creating a budget deficit of more than $8 billion (Shein, 2011). In 2011, USPS lost money at a rate of approximately $3 billion per quarter (Orr, 2011). One of the culprits for the decline in postal services is the advancement in information and communication technologies including e-mails and text messages. Another to blame includes the increased competition from private companies such as United Parcel Services, FedEx and DHL which often duplicate the government run postal services. The question still remains why the public companies or state-owned enterprises cannot compete against private companies. Answering this fundamental question is especially important given that the 192 members of Universal Postal Union (UPU) are public entities.\n2. Relevant literature: Although there has been much study in the telecommunications sector, there has not been much research regarding postal services. Some studies regarding telecommunications sector are outlined below.\n3. Research methodology: As noted earlier, the conventional DEA suffers from some theoretical flaws despite its popularity. As a better alternative, we propose the context-dependent DEA to measure the relative attractiveness and progress of the national postal operators of OECD countries. In addition, we propose the measure-specific DEA models to calculate the level of potential improvement-specific inputs and/or outputs associated with inefficient DMUs. The detailed rationale for using the hybrid, context-dependent and measure-specific DEA models are provided below.\n4. Model applications and experiments: To validate the usefulness and practicality of the proposed DEA models, we applied them to evaluate the operational efficiencies (progress) or inefficiency (regress) of the postal service operations of OECD countries. To further verify the robustness of the proposed DEA models, the models were experimented with the actual secondary data. The detailed experimental results are described below.\n5. Conclusions and future research directions: In the wake of world-wide financial crisis and the subsequent chronic budget shortfall, this paper aimed to measure the performances of the universal postal operators of OECD countries by using newer DEA techniques. For comparative purposes, we initially performed conventional output-oriented CCR-DEA analyze. According to the initial results, only three postal operators were considered efficient. Besides, the average overall efficiency of the postal services under evaluation yielded a considerably low DEA score. To see if we can better gauge gradual improvement potentials, we conducted the context-dependent DEA analyses. We determined six efficient levels (frontier) the first of which is identical to the result obtained from the conventional DEA. Afterwards, we calculated the relative attractiveness scores for the efficient postal operators with respect to the sub-efficient frontiers as well as progress scores for inefficient postal operators with respect to upper-efficient frontiers to overcome unrealistic targets. Application of the context-dependent DEA model enabled inefficient DMUs became efficient at lower levels and acted as a referent DMU for the remaining DMUs at lower efficient frontiers. Besides, via calculation of attractiveness scores we ranked the DMUs at each level which is very practical for benchmarking purposes of managers.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: In an effort to help policy makers develop competitive postal service strategies, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the comparative operating efficiencies of postal services across the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations and then identify room for service improvement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: As a better alternative to the conventional data envelopment analysis (DEA) which requires the proportional improvements of inputs and outputs simultaneously, the authors propose the combined use of both context-dependent and measure-specific DEAs to measure the relative attractiveness and progress of the national postal operators of OECD countries.\nFindings: Defying the conventional notion that public enterprises operate less efficiently than private enterprises, the author discovered that some state-owned public enterprises such as postal service operators could still be efficient if managed properly. Even inefficient postal services operators could significantly improve their service performances, once they identified the root causes of their service failures. Through a series of model experiments and testing, the authors found that proposed context-dependent and measure-specific DEA models were more useful for finding such causes than the conventional DEA model.\nPractical implications: For public officials and policy makers, the proposed DEAs can pinpoint what it takes to become more efficient and what steps need to be taken to improve postal service operations gradually.\nOriginality/value: This paper is the first to combine the context-dependent DEA with measure-specific DEA to evaluate the comparative efficiency (or progress) and inefficiency (or regress) of the national postal operators of 25 OECD countries.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Tuning in to the talent	[ "Talent management", "Saudi Arabia", "Turnover intention", "Hospitality", "Hotel industry", "Talent retention" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nReview: For national economies and academics alike, the topic of tourism is a surprisingly recent phenomenon. It is easy to forget that passenger airlines only started taking off, if you will excuse the pun, in the 1950s and 1960s, and that for countries in Europe, international travel has boomed with the advent of budget airlines only in the past 20 years or so. Wish the budget model spreading to Asia and elsewhere, the so-called global village has become a reality for tourists and not just business, and spawned other hospitality developments such as Airbnb and TripAdvisor, so that even a trip to the local Italian becomes a tourist event.\nEastern promise: A focus on new destinations and new theories is the chief aim for a recent study by Alferaih et al. (2018) in their article \"Talent turnover and retention research: The case of tourism sector organizations in Saudi Arabia.\" Their research looks at the latest developments in talent management and the implications of this in the context of Saudi Arabia. This country is an interesting case study. Although it has a long history of tourism because of the sighting of Mecca in the country, outside this specifically seasonal example it has not perhaps been top of international travel destinations in the same way as Dubai or Egypt has been in the region. However, there is evidence that, particularly the top end of the market, there is growing demand for luxury and spa hotel breaks, which has been supported by a Saudi government seeking to diversify its economy with a long-term eye on what happens when the oil reserves start to run dry.\nPositive impact: To answer these questions, the authors approached over a thousand employees of a number of five-star hotel complexes across Saudi Arabia so as to gain a broader picture as possible, and one that reflected the emerging hospitality sector as well as the traditional one around historic honeypot sites. More than 500 people responded with a mix of backgrounds - although nearly three-quarters were male, four fifths has at least an undergraduate degree with half having management positions. As such, a good picture of Saudi talent in the sector was covered for the study.\nPractical implications: Although some of these conclusions will surprise few people, it is important to underline the fact that given the nascent aspects of the industry, economy and culture that the research is based on, none of the findings should be taken for granted. In addition, it is also fair to perhaps extrapolate these findings to similar level hotels in adjacent countries that share many of the contextual factors of this case study.\nComment: The paper \"Talent turnover and retention research: The case of tourism sector organizations in Saudi Arabia\" by Alferaih et al. (2018) provides a very practical guide to the emerging hospitality sector in Saudi Arabia, and how hotel owners can get the most out of their employees. Although none of the findings are surprising, it nevertheless provides ample evidence for operators in the region for best practice.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: For national economies and academics alike, the topic of tourism is a surprisingly recent phenomenon. It is easy to forget that passenger airlines only started taking off, if you will excuse the pun, in the 1950s and 1960s, and that for countries in Europe, international travel has boomed with the advent of budget airlines only in the past 20 years or so. With the budget model spreading to Asia and elsewhere, the so-called global village has become a reality for tourists and not just business, and spawned other hospitality developments such as Airbnb and TripAdvisor, so that even a trip to the local Italian becomes a tourist event.\nPractical implications: Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Empirical study of measuring supply chain performance	[ "Supply chain", "Manufacturing industry", "Supply chain performance measurement" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In particular, measuring the supply chain (SC) has been recognized as a problem. The problem occurs when developing a SC in practice. The pressures in rationalizing set by management create a significantly large challenge for supply chain management (SCM). The SC has to be made more streamlined, lead-times have to be decreased, excess processes need to be eliminated and developed as a whole in such a manner that new, more efficient processes can be established. The basis for development work is a survey of the present state and measuring efficacy of the current SC. Tools for this have been scarce. This study provides a resolution to problems in measuring the SC.\nResearch methodology: Eisenhardt (1989) defines case study research as a research strategy that aims at understanding the internal dynamic of an individual case (Eisenhardt, 1989). Case study research is aiming at understanding comprehensive and relevant phenomena of real life. In that case the endeavor is to study the phenomena in their genuine context. Interface between the phenomenon and context is not often clear, which complicates the work of a researcher (Yin, 2009).\nSC performance measurement: This chapter presents primary approaches for SC performance measurement. First, the emergence of SCM concept is reviewed. After this, SCM is defined according to the views of various academics. It is possible to measure SC performance in several ways and performance measurement in the SC context has been studied in many perspectives.\nEmpirical SC performance measurements: In this chapter the SC is measured with previously established indicators. The indicators consist of four different parts: order book analysis, profitability, time and managerial analysis. In order book analysis, the production plant's completed output and reliability of delivery in different years are reviewed. SC can be also measured from the point of view of profitability. Also the costs of the SC are observed. Time-based measuring of the SC is conducted by measuring the delivery cycle, on time delivery, production time and its subdivision into operational times. It is extremely important to make managerial analyzes where analyses are made on operational, tactical and strategic levels.\nConclusions: The indicators consist of four different parts: order book analysis, outcome, time and managerial analysis. The SC was measured with the help of order book analysis. The volume of orders was analyzed and two customer cases were selected. Through these customer cases, cost-efficiency of the SC was measured. With the help of order book analysis it is possible to obtain an overview of the volume of orders, production volumes and on time delivery of the case production plant. It is easy to generalize as an indicator in various SCs. The indicator can be utilized regardless of the branch of industry or production plant in analyzing the SC of manufacturing production.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Supply chain (SC) performance measurement - the process of qualifying the efficiency and effectiveness of the SC. The purpose of this paper is to create a SC measurement framework for manufacturing industry, define which data should be measured and verify the measurement framework in the case company's SC.\nDesign/methodology/approach: There is a review of the current understanding of supply chain management and literature related to SC performance measurement and the study creates a framework for SC measurement. This research is qualitative case study research.\nFindings: This study presents the main theoretical framework of SC performance measurement. The key elements for the measurement framework were defined as time, profitability, order book analysis and managerial analysis. The measurement framework is tested by measuring case SC performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: In the study, a performance measurement framework was created for the needs of manufacturing industry. Suggestions for future research are multiple case study in different manufacturing industry areas and positivistic-based SC performance research.\nPractical implications: The measurement framework in this study offers guidelines for measuring the SC in manufacturing industry but the measurement framework could be used in different areas of industry as well.\nOriginality/value: The SC performance measurement framework is tested and a valid framework for SC performance measurement in manufacturing industry.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Consumers' psychological outcomes linked to the use of an online store's recommendation system	[ "Consumer", "Online store", "Psychological perspective", "Responses to recommendation system" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Information overload is a problem in e-commerce, since individuals are incapable of processing all the information available on the web (Shih et al., 2002). However, the problem can be eased by personalizing the offers provided at online stores (Pine and Gilmore, 1999). Information becomes valuable when it can be localized, filtered and organized, so that information that is useful to the consumer can be communicated. Here, the so-called e-commerce recommendation systems (RS) play a highly significant role (Choi et al., 2011; Martinez-Lopez and Martinez-Lopez, 2010; Wang and Doong, 2010). RS are tools that help the consumer to take decisions, since they proactively suggest the offers and the content that are most suited to each consumer (Chen and Chen, 2005). They make it easier for the consumer to take decisions by optimizing the quality of the selection process and by filtering the information available; this reduces the search effort required (Ansari et al., 2000; Haubl and Trifts, 2000). Consumers are more likely to be persuaded by recommendations in the first stages of the decision process (Ho and Tam, 2005). To be specific, Xiao and Benbasat (2007) state that e-commerce RS serve to simplify the stages of searching and making an initial selection of alternatives, in addition to the stages of comparison and evaluation. For example, RS are useful for finding lower prices for products/services of interest to the consumer (Diehl et al., 2003).\n2. Background: Most of the research has focused on technical aspects, mainly related with the process followed by RS to generate outputs; i.e. performance and evaluation of the algorithms used to generate recommendations (Pu et al., 2012); these topics lie outside the interests of our research, and so we will not consider them in greater depth (for an up-to-date in-depth review, see Park et al., 2012). However, from the perspective of the consumer, the effectiveness of an e-vendor's RS depends on other factors besides technical factors. In addition to the objective aspects of a RS (e.g. RS type, algorithms, process, inputs, outputs, visual design, presentation of recommendations, etc.), other factors are also influential, most notably those related with subjective and personal aspects of the consumer. Subjective aspects (e.g. overall opinion of an e-vendor's RS), the result of how the consumer processes the objective aspects of a RS, are particularly important when seeking to understand issues related with the adoption and use of this technology (Pu et al., 2012). Behaviour and interaction with RS, and their influence on the online decision process, ultimately depend on the perceptions of consumers (Pu et al., 2012; Murray and Haubl, 2009; Knijnenburg et al., 2012; Martinez-Lopez et al., 2010). In the literature, there are various interesting proposals - both theoretical proposals and those with empirical support - for gaining a better understanding of issues related to the adoption and/or use of e-commerce RS which attach greater importance to the psychological, subjective perspective of users. However, they are comparatively few in number among all the RS-related papers.\n3. Theoretical foundations: 3.1. Theoretical model: overall view\n4. Research methodology: 4.1. Procedure for data collection\n5. Data analysis and results: We followed the widely accepted two-step procedure proposed by Anderson and Gerbing (1988), first assessing measurement reliability and validity (i.e. analysing our measurement model), and then evaluating the full structural model (i.e. testing our hypotheses) (see also Martinez-Lopez et al., 2013). We conducted our analyses using both SPSS 15.0 and LISREL 8.80.\n6. Conclusions: Our results clearly support the theoretical model that we worked with. First, the structure of psychological responses linked to the use of an e-vendor's RS, originally proposed by Martinez-Lopez et al. (2010) in their integrative model, but specifically developed and discussed here, is valid. The basic sequence of perceived performance-satisfaction-willingness to purchase (suggested item matching consumer's initial shopping goal)-willingness to make an add-on purchase is empirically proved. Furthermore, based on the structural coefficients obtained for such relationships, the degrees of influence of one response on the other are considerable. However, there is a hypothesized relationship, namely the relationship between the consumer's satisfaction with an online store's RS and his/her willingness to make add-on purchases (H5), which is not finally supported. This said, an interesting conclusion can be drawn from this result: consumers need to be satisfied if they are to eventually purchase one of the items suggested by the e-vendor's recommender, although it is probable that no add-on purchase will be made, based on such a recommender, unless the consumer has previously bought one recommended item related to his/her primary shopping goal. This result has important implications. On the one hand, it reinforces the idea that unplanned and impulse purchases would appear to be more likely in e-commerce contexts where consumers have previously bought other items (see Jeffrey and Hodge, 2007). In the specific context of online shopping decisions with the aid of recommenders, this means that consumers should first use an online store's RS to support a planned purchase (i.e. their initial shopping goal). Subsequently, related add-on purchases could take place.\n7. Implications for practitioners: Some major implications and practical suggestions related to the aforementioned theoretical observations are highlighted in the following points:\n8. Limitations and future research: Samples obtained by means of convenience sampling do not have the same degree of rigour as those obtained using probability sampling methods, limiting scope for the generalization of results (Peterson, 2001). Nevertheless, they are useful for studies of online consumer behaviour (see Lin and Lu, 2000). Furthermore, this sampling procedure is an acceptable option for successfully testing proposed causal models (Kardes, 1996).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Psychological perspective has been omitted or considered a secondary issue by past studies focused on e-commerce recommendation systems (RS). However, this perspective is key to gaining a better understanding of consumer behaviours when these systems are used to support purchasing processes at online stores. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The field study consisted of a simulated online shopping process undertaken by a sample of internet users with a recommender system at a real online store (Pixmania). The authors applied rigorous and detailed exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to assess the empirical validity of the model.\nFindings: The proposed sequence of psychological outcomes is valid, with the exception of one hypothesized relationship. In particular, satisfaction with an online store's recommender has a strong influence on a consumer's willingness to purchase one of the items related to his/her shopping goal. However, this satisfaction has no direct effect on a consumer's intention to make add-on purchases based on the recommender's suggestions. On the contrary, the results support the idea that add-on purchases are conditioned by a previous purchase related to the consumer's initial shopping goal. On the other hand, a consumer's flow state while shopping improves all his/her psychological outcomes linked to an online store's recommender. The influence of flow state is particularly interesting when seeking to gain a better understanding of consumers' unplanned purchases based on the recommender's suggestions. These findings have important implications for practitioners.\nOriginality/value: This paper discusses in detail and empirically test a set of psychological outcomes that emerge when an e-vendor's recommender is used to assist a consumer's shopping process. To the best of the knowledge, this is the first attempt that empirically tests most of the hypothesized relationships within an online store's RS context.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Organizations, gender and learning: The effect of "otherness" and visibility on knowledge creation and sharing within an organization	[ "Knowledge", "Gender", "Organizational learning", "Organizational culture", "Visibility" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In a competitive business world, organizations strive to gain advantage over each other and to lead the field. To do this, they need to be knowledge experts. Organizational learning occurs when an organization gains knowledge; how knowledge is created by and shared among its employees. Knowledge is more than just technical know-how; it involves social interactions and relationships - organizational values, practices, routines, and behaviors.\nDoing gender - the \"norm\" and the \"other\": While there have been many studies and theories about organizational learning, they always assume that knowledge is equally contributed by all members of the group and is of equal importance. There are few studies which look at how social differences among individuals can have an effect on organizational learning. Differences can include ethnicity, age, social class, and gender.\nExploring gender and organizational visibility: Martin et al. (2018) investigated the gap in organizational learning by focusing on the visibility and invisibility of women in a large organization.\nResults: Knowledge within an organization could mean technical expertise but also meant knowing how the organization works - who to go to, how to make things happen - the internal politics of the organization, and how to use this.\nComment: The review is based on \"Unseen and unheard? Women managers and organizational learning\" by Martin, L.M., Lord, G. and Warren-Smith, I., published in The Learning Organization.\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: Organizations need to use, create, and share knowledge to gain competitive advantage. Many organizations are traditionally based on a male culture. This means that men are seen as the \"norm\" and women as the \"other.\" Women, thus, feel excluded and their voices, opinions, and knowledge go unheard. This can be detrimental to successful organizational learning.\nPractical implications: The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Why do people stick to Facebook web site? A value theory-based view	[ "Hedonic value", "Empirical study", "Facebook", "Social value", "Virtual community", "Social networking (e.g. Facebook, second life)", "E-inclusion/exclusion", "Epistemic value", "Community stickiness" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Due to the continuous and rapid development of information technology, the internet has become an important tool for people to communicate online and continue to receive more services and functions. In addition, owing to the rise of the Web 2.0 model, social network services have become a simple and universal concept in the internet environment. There had been widespread concerns over the social network sites (SNS). Boyd and Ellison (2007) stipulate that SNS must allow users to construct public or semi-public profiles within a bounded system, generate lists of individuals with whom they share a connection, and navigate these connections and those made by other users. Sites such as Facebook and MySpace, etc., possess these attributes. According to the latest data from Socialbakers (2013), Facebook has more than 964 million registered users in worldwide; and according to eBizMBA (2013) rank, it is the number one SNS as of June 2013 with 750 million visitors per month, ahead of Twitter (250 million visitors per month), Linkedin (110 million visitors per month), and MySpace (70.5 million visitors per month). Therefore, Facebook was chosen for investigation in this study.\nLiterature review and hypotheses development: Stickiness\nSample survey: Instrument development\nResults: Measurement model\nDiscussions and conclusions: This study explored the impacts of community users' stickiness to Facebook. The samples were collected through the online questionnaire survey on the platform of Taiwan Facebook. This study proposed that hedonic value, social value, and epistemic value act as critical antecedents to the Facebook stickiness. The overall statistical results are discussed as follows.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Based on past study, three different value constructs, including social value, hedonic value, and epistemic value, were adopted in this study to examine their influence on individual's stickiness to use Facebook. Besides, this paper aims to explore how \"trust\" affects the personal usage behaviors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research model was tested with data from 345 Facebook's users using a web survey. The partial least squares technology was used to test the proposed hypotheses.\nFindings: Results confirmed that hedonic value served as important value concerns for Facebook users. Besides, considering trust factor, the respondents can be classified into two groups. In the high-trust group, social value and hedonic value produced significant impacts on stickiness. In the low-trust group, the statistical results show that epistemic value and hedonic value had impacts on the stickiness for Facebook web site use, but social value aspect had no significant impact.\nResearch limitations/implications: The respondents were mainly the subjects that belonged to the young age group in Taiwan. Therefore, it should be cautious to generalize the conclusions to other areas or the elder.\nPractical implications: This study results facilitate web site operators and marketing researchers to understand what value factors and trust affect the user stickiness of Facebook. Their marketing plan and application plug-in can be accordingly adjusted.\nOriginality/value: This study provides positive evidences how value factors affect Facebook stickiness. The paper also proved that high-trust and low-trust people have different value models.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Stakeholder cross-impact analysis: a segmentation method	[ "Relationships", "Stakeholders", "Influence", "Segmentation", "Publics" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Organizations operate in complex environments involving a multitude of stakeholders. One of the key factors for successful public relations programs is the understanding of such environments. To do so, scholars and practitioners have developed a series of models and techniques to segment stakeholders and publics in order to understand who should be given attention (Bryson, 2004; Kim et al., 2008; Preble, 2005; Rawlins, 2006). Used together, these models allow for a well-informed understanding of stakeholder environments (Kim et al., 2008). However, such segmentation techniques also have one main limitation: they do not allow for assessing how stakeholders influence one another.\nReview of the dominant approaches to stakeholders' analysis: Stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1984) is a very broad field of research that spans many disciplines, including strategy, management, organization theory, finance, accounting, corporate social responsibility, business ethics, marketing, and public relations (e.g. Laplume et al., 2008; Parmar et al., 2010). The topic related to \"identification and prioritization\" of stakeholders is one of the main topics within this broader field (e.g. Laplume et al., 2008). The aim of this section is to provide an overview of the dominant methodologies used to define, segment, and prioritize stakeholders in order to highlight the logic as well as the limitations of such methodologies (for other reviews of segmentation approaches, see Bryson (2004), Kim et al. (2008) and Rawlins (2006).\nImportance of understanding stakeholders' reciprocal influences: Stakeholder theorists long ago acknowledged the importance of understanding how stakeholders influence one another and how organizations respond to such pressures (e.g. Rowley, 1997). However, this theoretical development was not followed by practical tools to analyze such mutual influences.\nIntroducing a method to understand stakeholders' reciprocal influences: The specific focus of CIA is to understand how a set of predetermined variables are likely to influence one another. Initially, CIA was developed by T. Gordon and O. Helmer in 1966 (Gordon and Hayward, 1968) as a game called Future for the Kaiser Aluminum Chemical Company's 100th anniversary (Gordon, 1994). Since then, CIA has been further developed in many forms and has been applied in a variety of domains (Asan and Asan, 2007; Chao, 2008), becoming part of a wider array of techniques used in futures research. The aim of futures research is to \"systematically explore, create, and test both possible and desirable futures to improve decisions\" (Glenn, 2003, p. 3). Other well-known techniques used in this research field include the Delphi method, simulation, and scenario writing (Asan and Asan, 2007). CIA is considered to be related to the Delphi method (e.g. Okoli and Pawlowski, 2004), as it often relies on the use of experts' judgments (Gordon, 1994). In the next subsections, we use an illustration to explain how CIA can be used to better understand how stakeholders influence one another.\nDiscussion and conclusion: In this paper, after reviewing the literature on stakeholders' segmentation and their reciprocal influences, we introduced SCIA as a method that can be applied to understand the degree to which stakeholders influence one another. In our main example, we used an illustrative case to demonstrate how different stakeholders influence one another. It is also possible, following the same procedure, to use SCIA to analyze how different issues influence one another according to different stakeholders. In the latter case, it is also possible to integrate SCIA with SNA in order to understand the degree to which stakeholders agree on how issues influence one another, as well as which issues most stakeholders consider to be central and which stakeholders have the most shared opinion on how issues are related. While we have used one specific illustration, the method can be used following the same procedure in all possible contexts.\nAcknowledgments: A previous version of this paper was presented at the 17th International Public Relations Research Conference in Miami. The authors thank Erik Larsen for coming up with the idea of using the CIA model to analyze stakeholders and Eric Quintane for his input regarding SNA. The authors also thank EMScom program participants (in particular, Onoria Bozzato, Samuel Eckstein, Robert Faulkner, Christine Griese, Alexey Osipov, Manuela Staub, Bors Brita Westelius, Matthias Wuthrich, Barbara Zanzinger, Giovanni Zavaritt) for experimenting with the method in their field work. And finally the author thank participants at the 2014 IPRR Conference in Miami for their useful feedback.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce a method that the authors call stakeholder cross-impact analysis (SCIA), which is aimed at analyzing how a given set of stakeholders influence one another and also how such stakeholders relate to a given set of issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors first identify, in the current literature, a lack of analytical tools for assessing mutual influences among stakeholders. The authors then identify cross-impact analysis, a method that was initially developed in the field of futures research, as a suitable method to be applied in the present research. Its application, which the authors call SCIA, is described in detail through a fictitious case.\nFindings: SCIA permits to assess the direction and the strength of relationships between stakeholders. Furthermore, it allows for the classification of stakeholders based on their level of dependence and influence on others. Also, it is possible to integrate SCIA with social network analysis in order to understand the degree to which stakeholders agree on how issues influence one another, as well as to identify which issues most stakeholders consider to be central and which stakeholders have the most shared opinion on how issues are related.\nPractical implications: This method can be used, along with traditional segmentation techniques, by corporate communication and public relations practitioners in order to gain a more sophisticated understanding of the complexity of organizations' environments.\nOriginality/value: SCIA represents a much-needed and novel way of understanding the complexity of organizations' environments.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Determinants of household income of micro-finance women participants: a quantile regression approach	[ "Microfinance", "Women", "Quantile regression", "Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There is a growing acknowledgement that microfinance programs have the potential to help the poor, especially women, to develop income-generating activities. The value of microfinance lies in its ability to give credit to normally poor women, whose lack of collateral forces them to rely on expensive informal credit. The cheaper credit is expected to become capital for starting up micro or small businesses that generate income for women, and subsequently increase the welfare of their household members (Pitt and Khandker, 1998). Among the developing countries, Malaysia has a success story and a commendable record in reducing the poverty level in the country. In 1999, it was reported that 8.5% of the population was under the poverty line. However, after only five years, i.e. in 2004, Malaysia managed to reduce the population living below the poverty level to only 5.7%. Microfinance is one of the objectives of New Economic Policy, which was launched by the Malaysian Government to reduce poverty and income disparities in Malaysia.\n2. Microfinance in Malaysia and literature review: Microcredit program in Malaysia started in 1987 with the establishment of AIM. AIM was established to replicate the Grameen Bank model for rural micro-financing (Conroy, 2002). The objective of AIM is to help alleviate rural poverty through provision of micro-financing to the rural poor as a way to generate income. Currently, almost 99% of the members are women and the loans available are generally on short-term basis (between 25 and 150 weeks payback time). Beside AIM, public institutions such as agricultural bank (formerly Bank Pertanian, recently has changed its name to Agrobank), as well as the Credit Guarantee Corporation (CGC) also provide lending to small and medium-sized enterprises. However, the loan sizes of these institutions are somewhat above the conventional microfinance.\n3. Data and methodology: 3.1 Data and variables\n4. Results and analysis: Table 2 shows the descriptive statistics of the variables used in the analysis. As for age of the respondents, the minimum age found is 19 years and the maximum of age is 85 years. The average age among the respondents is 46 years. The minimum household size of respondents is 1 member and the maximum household size is 17 members. On average, the household of respondents is about 5.97 members. The respondents are also asked on the approximate yearly income that they received after joining AIM program. Yearly per capita income is computed by dividing yearly income by household size. The statistics show that the maximum yearly per capita income of respondents is RM 60,000.00 with the mean of RM 4,734.40. As for the ratio of spending to income (after joining AIM), the mean percentage of spending per income is about 55%. The minimum value of loan obtained from AIM scheme among respondents is RM 200.00 and the maximum is RM 22,000.00. Meanwhile, the value of assets belong to respondents, the maximum is RM 420,000.00. Looking at the standard deviation of the data, it is found that there is less variance of data for age, household size and ratio of spending to income because of small number of standard deviation.\n5. Conclusion: The present study mainly investigates the factors affecting per capita income obtained from the scheme by the participants of AIM. As oppose to the simple linear regression method, this study uses rigorous statistical tools to examine the impact of microcredit loan, amount of assets, household size, age, duration in the scheme, ratio of spending to income and location on higher and lower household income per capita using a quantile regression method. For this purpose, the study is using data collected from a survey on respondents who are the participants of AIM program using convenience sampling in Perak and Kelantan. The empirical results show that value of asset, value of loan, household size, ratio of spending to income and dummy state are consistently giving similar impacts on per capita income of participants at different quantiles. However, age negatively and significantly affects per capita income only at middle and lower quantiles but not at higher quantile of per capita income. The results indicate that young participants of AIM contribute to higher per capita income when per capita income is at lower and middle levels but not at higher level of per capita income.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to adopt quantile regression to investigate the impact of several factors on per capita income of participants of micro-financing scheme (Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia [AIM]), who are mostly women at different point on the income distributions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses data collected from a survey on respondents who are the participants of AIM program using convenience sampling in Perak and Kelantan.\nFindings: The empirical results show that the value of asset, value of loan, household size, ratio of spending to income and dummy state are consistently giving similar impacts on per capita income of participants at different quantiles.\nOriginality/value: However, age negatively and significantly affects per capita income only at middle and lower quantiles but not at higher quantile of per capita income.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Hidden meanings in virtual words: Watch what you say and how you say it	[ "Communication technologies", "Virtual work", "Managers", "Electronic mail" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Texting and e-mailing, so we are told, has led to the death of the \"thank you\" letter. Once upon a time, if you gave your grandchildren or nephews and nieces a thoughtful gift for Christmas or their birthday, they might have put pen to paper and sent you a note of gratitude in the post. These days, it seems, even the thoughtful ones just fire off an e-mail or a text. Job done.\nHierarchy in which the most important send the most frequent e-mails: For example, prior to e-mail, a company's field employees might make significant decisions autonomously. However, the ease and immediacy of using e-mail has presented an opportunity for managers in far-distant lands to micro manage. In the days of postal communications, managers had more time for reflective, strategic thinking, time to focus their attention on the oversized world maps lining their walls and to consider how best to allocate resources. Now, thanks to e-mail - and other Web-based communications - they can be virtually on-the-spot, making decisions that they were once content to delegate to worthy field workers.\nSenior managers' concerns about communication media transition: To test how changes in communication media are associated with changes in the nature of manager-expatriate employee communications, Dr Celeste M. Brotheridge of the University of Quebec, Montreal, Canada, and others studied the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), a cooperative relief and development agency of the Mennonite and Brethren churches in North America which has field operatives in 63 countries. With typically minimal financial, social or other support locally, senior managers recognize the importance of maintaining close communication ties with their distant staff, and, to keep expenses low, most communications between field employees and their North America-based managers were in written form, with a face-to-face meeting once a year on average. Telephones were rarely used because of the cost and difficulties related to time zones. Now, not surprisingly, with the introduction of facsimile technology and then electronic mail, things changed, and now HQ and field employees communicate almost exclusively by e-mail.\nInteraction between the medium and its organizational context: What would have happened if managers had used new communications media with a more deliberate consideration of its implications for their organizations' culture? Perhaps they would have consciously reduced message volume and length or ensured that they were being responsive to employees' messages and so on. Research suggests that managers tend to use communication media frequently and repetitively without thinking through their implications of communication and status patterns. Brotheridge et al. say that managers must become conscious of what they want to accomplish when they are communicating and set precedents early on to ensure that their goals are met.\nComment: This review is based on \"Communicating virtually in a global organization\" by Brotheridge et al. (2015). Focusing on a church-based development agency with field operatives in 63 countries, the authors consider the extent to which changes in the means of communication - particularly from postal services to e-mail - are associated with changes in the nature of manager-expatriate employee communications.\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: The authors found significant interaction effects between communication media and hierarchical level on communication attributes such that changes in communication media intensified status differences between managers and their employees.\nPractical implications: The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Towards an impartial and effective corporate governance rating system	[ "Corporate governance", "Performance measures", "Boards of Directors", "Compensation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The increasing number of corporate scandals in the last five years have stained corporate governance reputation and questioned the effectiveness of its current structure. As a result, corporate governance has received attention from policymakers, investors, corporate boards and rating agencies. During this period, many top executives of giant corporations such as WorldCom Inc., ENRON Corporation, Tyco International Ltd., Adelphia Communications Corporation, Credit Suisse First Boston, to name a few have been convicted of conspiracy, orchestrating schemes to hide their company's debt and exaggerate profits while embezzling millions of dollars. Shareholders as well as legislators have been appalled at such intolerable actions. These actions and practices have created an urgent need for corporate governance assessment and rating systems.The concern of how to develop a corporate governance system equipped with efficient mechanisms to ensure economic efficiency was the subject for debate (McCahery and Renneboog, 2002). Ideally, a responsible corporate governance system would promote shareholder wealth, restrict managerial shirking, protect minority shareholders and minimize controlling shareholders' misappropriation of private benefits of control.Professional rating agencies came up with corporate governance rating methodologies and rankings. Different rating systems were introduced in order to rank companies, such as the Governance Metrics International (GMI) (www.gmiratings.com) Rating, the Corporate Governance Quotient (CGQ) (www.isscgq.com), the Corporate Governance Score (CGS) (www.standardandpoors.com) of Standard & Poor's and the Board Effectiveness Rating of the Corporate Library (BER) (www.thecorporatelibrary.com).These corporate governance ratings seemed to concentrate on the following general categories:* board characteristics;* ownership structure;* compensation plans;* anti-takeover devices;* financial disclosure;* internal controls; and* director education (Allen et al., 2004).Details of the major four rating systems are found in Tables I and II (Allen et al., 2004).As the volume and intensity of the debate on this issue is on the rise and the number of corporate scandals is rapidly growing, a critical appraisal of such corporate governance rating systems is imperative. This paper is organized as follows:1. Examine the rationale behind corporate governance rating systems and their characteristics.2. Discuss the different components of the four major rating systems.3. Report on the strengths and weaknesses of the rating systems.4. Conclude and provide suggestions.\nCorporate governance models: Corporate governance is as old issue as the venture itself. In the nineteenth century, state corporation law enhanced the rights of corporate boards to govern without the consent of shareholders in exchange for statutory benefits like appraisal rights, in order to make corporate governance more efficient (Becht et al., 2002). Since that time, concerns of shareholders over administration pay and stock losses periodically have led to more frequent calls for corporate governance reforms.Corporate governance cannot be dealt with in an abstract model, as it is a product of hierarchal, cultural, and political systems. Also, any model or a governance structure must entail the four basic ingredients namely: accountability, independence, transparency, and integrity. It is evident that these components are interdependent and cannot be isolated or separated. In the literature, many different models of corporate governance around the world have been reported. These models vary along the lines of investment cultures and political system in which they exist. The first model is the liberal model (shareholder model) that is common in industrial countries (North America and UK) which tends to give priority to the interests of shareholders. The second model is the coordinated model that can be found in Europe and Japan that also recognizes the interests of workers, managers, suppliers, customers, and the community. Both models have distinct competitive advantages, but in different ways (Becht et al., 2002).\nGoals of corporate governance: Separation of ownership and control\nCorporate governance rating systems: Although historic financial performance can be factored in predicting future performance but it is definitely not the only factor that must be counted. This necessitated the need for a financial scorecard that gives the investor a guideline on the financial status of an enterprise. As the twenty first century economy can be characterized as a dynamic one, a way to measure adaptability to sustained customer satisfaction is becoming indispensable. Leadership that is courageous, willing to adapt to changing economic environment and equipped with common-sense can be considered the choice of tomorrow's leading companies.John Snow's (US Secretary of the Treasury) statement on credibility:As world leaders met in Gleneagles, Scotland early July 2005 to discuss proposals to address poverty in Africa, questions were raised by many about accountability by African states and companies doing business in Africa. John Snow, US Secretary of the Treasury, addressed the Council on Foreign Relations about proposals for debt relief and financial aid to Africa. Snow said that he believed the long-term solution to poverty was sustained growth. But, he concluded, \"You've got to be able to trust the books. If you can't trust the books, you don't get investors. If you don't have confidence in the people running the enterprise that they're looking out for your interests rather than their own interests, it makes you reluctant to want to invest, so getting corporate governance right will be important.\" Hence the issue at hand here is accountability, transparency, and law-abiding executives and board.Methods of assessment\nEvaluating the ratings: Interdependences among variables\nConclusions and future research: Corporate governance remains a complex and dynamic issue as it deals with cultural, political, technological, and market variations. In this paper, we introduced the major corporate governance rating systems, their structures, and argued that there is a weak relationship between the enterprise performance and the rating score obtained by these rating systems. Also, we emphasized that the mere existence of such systems represent a safety valve to minimally control fraud and mismanagement.In addition, we emphasized that there are theoretical and empirical concerns about the use of a single index to measure the relationship between good corporate governance and firm valuation and performance. Also, we explained how endogenous relationships between variables, stated preferences versus revealed preferences, country-specific legislation, ill-defined measures and scaling problems disturb the impact of a corporate governance score on firm valuation and performance. In the literature, empirical research suggests that there is a weak, if any, relationship between a corporate governance index and firm valuation and performance, which agrees with our analysis and conclusions. In fact, the corporate governance score has little explanatory power. We recommend that future research should focus on endogenous relations between corporate governance variables. More attention should be paid to single relationships and interdependences between corporate governance variables and firm performance. Furthermore, instead of single period analyses, panel data analyses should be used in empirical corporate governance research to measure the influence of changes in corporate governance on firm performance.Finally, this paper provides some critique on the use of corporate governance ratings especially that the rating system process converges to a single number that may give numerous explanations and erroneous conclusions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to investigate the most popular corporate governance rating systems and to scrutinize their usefulness to shareholders and the public at large. It proposes to examine whether the advertised good governance scores reflect corporate performance, fraud, lawsuits, and the like.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The analysis focused on the methodology used by rating agencies to rank corporate governance practices of companies. Analysis of the categories and variables used in the rating systems were also scrutinized and critiqued.\nFindings: - This research shows that there is a weak relationship between corporate performance and corporate governance rating. Ideas and suggestions have been proposes to remedy the shortfalls of existing rating systems.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Many researchers use corporate governance scores in their studies to investigate the relationship between these single scores and corporate performance. Potential vulnerability and risk are demonstrated using such kind of methodologies. Research should be accomplished with the corporate governance indicators separately.\nPractical implications: - Several corporate governance ratings systems have been developed and implemented. These systems reduce a complex corporate governance process and related performance into a single score. Such outcome does not in any way reflect the real nature of corporate governance or its performance. Ranking, if it is at all needed, should be interpreted carefully and not be used as a simple measurement of good or bad corporate governance practice.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is the first of its kind to critically evaluate corporate governance systems scores launched by different rating agencies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Whose online reviews have the most influences on consumers in cultural offerings? Professional vs consumer commentators	[ "Social influence", "Associative learning", "Cultural industry", "Elite culture", "Mass culture", "Online review" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Recent development of the cultural industries is particularly salient around the globe. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the cultural industries refer to those industries that combine the creation, production, and commercialization of cultural offerings, such as musical performance, films, performing arts, video games, and the like. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (2010) indicated that world exports in 2008 reached US$29.7 billion in visual arts and US$26.4 billion in audiovisual services. PricewaterhouseCoopers (2008) reported that the worldwide entertainment and media industry, which represents some of key cultural industries, will reach around US$2.2 trillion in the global economy in 2012.\n2. The dichotomy of culture cultural offerings: Consumers tend to differentiate themselves one from another through symbolic activities like consumption (Bocock, 1993). According to Bourdieu's (1984) theory of tastes, members of a social class are characterized by a habitus which influences consumer preferences for particular types of cultural consumption (Bourdieu, 1984, 1993; Levine, 1988). The habitus operates as a social psychological mechanism that sorts the world of consumption and guides individual action (Holt, 1998). It allows people to distinguish their tastes and lifestyles from those of others in a social milieu. Homologous tastes and lifestyles within a social class can help consumers to maintain their class-based identity and distinctions (Swartz, 1997).\n3. Cultural commentators as a source of information: This study focusses on two common types of cultural commentators: professional and consumer commentators. Drawing upon prior research (Holbrook, 1999; Shrum, 1991), professional commentators are defined as those who have highly academic background and professional achievement in a specific cultural field (e.g. movies or performing arts). They are often familiar with the perspectives of the legitimate masters who are empowered to assess what passes for excellence in the cultural field (Shrum, 1991). Professionals which often publish their specialized critics and academic reviews are assumed to possess values consistent with the gatekeepers and masters in a given cultural field (Holbrook, 1999). This study argues that the professional commentators, to some extent, display differences from the experts because some experts may have sufficient experiences but less academic education and training in a given cultural field.\n4. The congruence between cultural offerings and commentators: Although this study proposes that online cultural reviews posted by professional commentators are more credible than the ones posted by consumer commentators, it is argued that the effectiveness of different commentators' online reviews may depend on the categories of cultural offerings. We suggest that the congruence between cultural offerings and commentators in online cultural reviews is likely to influence a consumer's offering evaluation, overall attitude, and behavioral intention toward the cultural offerings. These factors are consistent with a consumer's cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses toward a cultural offering (Eagly and Chaiken, 1993).\n5. Methodology: To test our hypotheses, a 2x2 between-participants factorial design was used. The two factors were cultural offering type (elite and mass) and cultural commentator type (professional and consumer).\n6. Results: The data was analyzed by 2 (cultural offerings)x2 (commentators) ANOVA. The Cronbach's a's for four dependent variables were 0.89 (review credibility), 0.74 (offering evaluation), 0.90 (overall attitude), and 0.91 (behavioral intention). These values indicated that the reliabilities of our scales were satisfactory (Table II).\n7. Discussion and implications: In order to improve the effectiveness of online reviews in the cultural industries, this study is the first to examine the effects of online cultural reviews of professional and consumer commentators on audience responses toward elite and mass cultural offerings. As predicted by the source credibility model (Hovland et al., 1953), the results showed that the credibility of online cultural reviews is found to be significantly higher for professional commentators than for consumer commentators across both elite and mass cultural offerings.\n8. Limitations and future research: Two limitations should be addressed in this study. First, a classical music concert and a movie were selected as focal cultural offerings in this study. Although these offerings are conceptually and empirically distinct, future studies may also take other cultural offerings into account when applying the proposed elite and mass culture classification.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: To improve the effectiveness of online reviews in the cultural industries, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of online cultural reviews of professional and consumer commentators on consumer responses toward elite and mass cultural offerings by drawing upon associative learning theory and social influence theory.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study used a 2 (cultural offerings: elite vs mass)x2 (commentators: professional vs consumer) between-participants factorial design to examine the proposed hypotheses. A total of 195 participants were randomly assigned to one of four experimental cells.\nFindings: The ANOVA results indicate that the credibility of online cultural reviews is significantly higher for professional commentators than for consumer commentators across both elite and mass cultural offerings. Furthermore, the results confirm that there is a significant cultural offering type by commentator interaction on a consumer's offering evaluation, overall attitude, and behavioral intention.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study provides strong support for the congruence between cultural commentators and cultural offerings in online cultural reviews. The findings can also effectively explain the weak correlation between professional judgments and popular appeal.\nPractical implications: For better effectiveness of online cultural reviews, the findings recommend cultural marketers that the use of professional commentators is effective for elite cultural offerings, whereas the use of consumer commentators is effective for mass cultural offerings.\nOriginality/value: This study proposes a useful dichotomy to classify cultural offerings as elite and mass. Meanwhile, this study is one of the first to examine the congruence between cultural offerings and cultural commentators in online reviews.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Environmental management accounting in the Taiwanese higher education sector: Issues and opportunities	[ "Taiwan", "Universities", "Cost accounting", "Management accounting", "Environmental costs", "Environmental impacts", "Environmental management accounting" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Accounting is now facing the challenge to account for the environment not only through its traditional role of recording and reporting financial information, but also through its role to manage environmental performance (Hopwood, 2009; Schaltegger and Wagner, 2006). The United Nations Division for Sustainable Development (UNDSD, 2001, p. 1) states:The general use of environmental management accounting information is for internal organisational calculations and decision making. EMA (environmental management accounting) procedures for internal decision making include both physical procedures for material and energy consumption, flows and final disposal, and monetarized procedures for costs, savings and revenues related to activities with potential environmental impact.The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC, 1998, para. 1) defines environmental management accounting (EMA) as:[...] the management of environmental and economic performance through the development and implementation of appropriate environment-related accounting systems and practices. While this may include reporting and auditing in some companies, environmental management accounting typically involves life-cycle costing, full-cost accounting, benefits assessment, and strategic planning for environmental management.The two definitions reveal that the development of EMA is set within an environmental management context (Bartolomeo et al., 2000; Burritt et al., 2002; Graff et al., 1998). For this paper, EMA is defined as the generation, analysis and use of both monetary and physical (or financial and non-financial) environment-related information in order to improve organisational financial and environmental performance (Bartolomeo et al., 2000).EMA has attracted increasing attention and interest as a support mechanism to manage environmental performance, which in turn helps improve financial performance (Bouma and van der Veen, 2002; Ditz et al., 1995; Epstein, 1996; Graff et al., 1998; Gray and Bebbington, 2000; Howes, 2004; Mathews, 1997; Tuppen, 1996). Various industries have been included in EMA-related research and case studies (see Burritt (2004) for a summary of available EMA-related studies), but universities as part of the service organisations have typically failed to be the focus of interest and attention. It is true that universities generate less obvious environmental impacts[1] relative to manufacturing industries, but they still do - both direct and indirect (Bennett et al., 2006). Indirect impacts include (but are not limited to) potential environmental behaviour changes through education and research. Direct impacts arise from the consumption of resources such as paper, but mainly from the need to provide facility service and management, which place substantial demand on energy and water, and produce large quantities of solid wastes (Bennett et al., 2006; Good Campus, 2011; USEPA, 2008). According to Creighton (1998), they even can be the largest users in the community or region where they are located.Indeed, energy management is reported as one of the most significant environmental challenges facing universities (Herremans and Allwright, 2000). Identification of energy consumption, even for individual buildings, may be a cost-effective improvement opportunity (Penn State Green Destiny Council, 2001). Although the consumption of energy and water within universities has gained some attention (HEEPI, 2010), little is known about how much waste is generated or how much paper (part of which would become wasted) is used because very few universities collect data (Bennett et al., 2006; HEEPI, 2011). Due to the lack of data, many cost saving opportunities have been ignored or lost. Creighton (1998, p. 8) argued:To date, no university or college community has completely understood and acted on the opportunities to save money, reduce risk, demonstrate new technologies, and increase student learning that a truly green university might offer. The progress toward that end will require the commitment of many individual people. It will involve rethinking some priorities, taking risks, making mistakes, and persevering.Creighton's argument highlights the requirement of participation of many individuals with various management functions, such as management accountants, to improve environmental management on campus. However, a literature review reveals that few universities involve accountants in this area (Burritt, 2004).Most of the available EMA examples are in the manufacturing sector. Among the few studies[2] on the service organisations are two Australian cases (Methodist Ladies College, Perth and AMP Services) (Deegan, 2003). The findings suggest that the majority of managers within service organisations have little knowledge about their environmental costs incurred, which is responsible for the many cost saving opportunities being missed. Deegan (2003) argued that this is mainly due to deficiencies deriving from accounting for the environmental costs. As shown in the case of AMP Services, accumulating environmental costs in overhead accounts represents a major hurdle to monitoring and managing these costs. Subsequent allocation is also questionable, for example some cleaner products or service processes effectively subsidising those with greater negative environmental implications. Accounting for waste is another problem. The two Australian studies reflect that organisations generally ignore the acquisition costs associated with wasted resources, and instead restrict their recognition to the contract cost for having the waste removed or disposed of. It is clear that some accounting changes (e.g. the use of overheads, the way waste cost is recognised, and the incorporation of physical environmental cost information) can inform environmental strategies, assist decision-making, and result in financial benefits. According to Deegan (2003, p. 5):[...] given that stakeholders increasingly want to see that organisations are taking steps to reduce their environmental impacts and risks, the lessons learned from these case studies can ill afford to be ignored.The two service-based case studies appear to support the uses and applications of EMA in service organisations. However, extending the applicability of EMA to universities for the purpose of managing the costs and improving environmental performance remains unexplored. As Ditz et al. (1995, p. v) states:The good news is that hidden in the shallows of the information failure created by conventional business accounting practices are unexploited opportunities to increase profits, use materials more efficiently, and protect the environment. What's more, firms of any size and in any industrial sector can make such gains, given the accurate cost information that evolving environmental accounting practices provide.The paper attempts to extend the applicability of EMA to this unexplored area that directs attention towards universities, the sector that fails to be in the spotlight of EMA studies.\nStudy design: The study was intended to address the issue of managing the major environmental costs from an accounting perspective. Being an exploratory study, the research followed a qualitative, case study methodology. A multiple-case design was chosen (Yin, 2003). Three case studies were conducted. The major source of data collection was through face-to-face interviews. However, available resources were also examined, such as the chart of accounts, annual reports, strategic plans, sustainability reports and information disclosed on the web-pages of the three universities.Access, time and cost considerations[3] associated with the collection of qualitative data limited the choice of case universities. As both management accounting and environmental management are of special interest and concern to this study, it is required that at least one participant from the accounting division and the resources/facilities management division of each university could participate. Eight universities were initially approached. Three out of the eight met this criterion and agreed to participate, these being TransWorld University (TWU), Nanhua University (Nanhua) and National University of Kaohsiung (NUK). To increase validity and reliability, additional interviews were performed with the senior management and heads of academic schools within two of the participating universities. Interview times varied from 50 minutes to 1.5 hours, and were open-ended in nature. A plain language statement was developed and passed to the participants before the interviews, which detailed the research purpose, interview themes, and definitions of key terms such as \"environmental cost\" and \"EMA\". The information gathered was also used as the basis for further inquiry, as some further sources of evidence emerged through the interviews. Table I provides a listing of the participants, their positions and management functions.Study scope\nA description of the three universities: TransWorld University\nFindings: The following section will present the findings for the three participating universities. Due to the different degree of access, direct comparisons among them were deemed unsuitable. The role of the three case universities was to demonstrate some common problems with, or significant differences (if any) in, accounting practices in managing the major environmental costs.TransWorld University\nLessons learned: There were a number of lessons learned from this study. In general, the following could be related to all the three universities.Financial barriers\nFinal concluding remarks: The role of universities for environmental sustainability involves two issues - education itself and internal practices. There is no doubt that universities, as education providers, should provide environmental education, but they should also practice what they preach. The findings revealed that there was a general absence of accounting systems designed to manage environmental costs within the universities investigated. Arguably, this is not a problem specific to the cases, but is one that is possibly common to many other universities. It should be borne in mind that this study focused on the three Taiwanese universities. Although the findings might be generalised to other universities, they are perhaps somewhat critical to them. However, key staff within the participating universities are ready to consider the issues as shown by the openness and transparency demonstrated in this study. In concluding, the results of this study do highlight the potential uses and applications of EMA, and its ability to improve environmental sustainability within universities. A literature review highlighted a lack of EMA-related case studies in a university setting. Additional case studies in this area appeared essential. By doing this, best practice examples of the ways in which management accountants can be involved in environmental management will emerge, and benefits arising from embracing EMA will be reported and established.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of managing the major environmental costs from an accounting perspective. The current state of practices for managing the costs associated with the consumption of electricity, water and paper, as well as the generation of wastes within three universities in Taiwan, was investigated. The costs mentioned above were termed \"major\" environmental costs for the purpose of this study.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Being an exploratory study, the paper followed a qualitative, case study methodology. A multiple-case design was chosen and three Taiwanese universities were investigated. The major source of data collection was through face-to-face interviews. However, available resources were also examined, such as the charts of accounts, annual reports, strategic plans, sustainability reports and information disclosed on the web-pages of the three universities.\nFindings: - The findings demonstrated that there appeared to be a general absence of environmental management accounting (EMA) utilisation to manage the major environmental costs by the three universities. Efforts to improve environmental performance, in particular from an accounting perspective, were still lacking.\nOriginality/value: - The study contributes significantly to the following areas: providing specific information about how the major environmental costs are accounted for and managed; identifying limitations of current management accounting systems being used for the purpose of managing environmental costs; and extending the applicability of EMA to the higher education (HE) sector.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Drivers of organizational performance in state owned enterprises	[ "Performance", "Government", "Organizational theory", "Governance", "Resources" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Despite the publicized inefficiencies and poor performance of state owned enterprises (SOEs) (Boko and YuanJian, 2011), compelling evidence suggests that SOEs remain a relevant. Such relevance and popularity is more pronounced in developing countries, typically Sub-Saharan Africa where SOEs operate virtualy in all sectors (Kikeri and Kolo, 2006). This is particularly so in the infrastructural sectors where huge capital requirements and low returns serve as a disincentive for the private sector (Bozec et al., 2002). Given this importance and the central role SOEs play in developing countries, it becomes imperative to understand the factors that fundamentally drive their performance, yet this remains a poorly researched area in organizational science. Existing studies have taken a rather narrow focus in this field, focusing mainly on the prevailing SOE inefficiencies while insinuating alternative business models, (e.g. Boko and YuanJian, 2011; Elwel and Labonte, 2007; Mwaura, 2007; Kikeri and Kolo, 2006; Fritz and Menocal, 2006; Buchs, 2003), such an approach, however, fails to contribute to a clear understanding of performance drivers in SOE, which remains a critical gap. The clear understanding of factors that combine to influence SOE performance, which is the focus of this paper, lays a good foundation for any attempts to improve performance in these often strategic enterprises.\n2. Literature review: Governance has been cited as a factor with influence on firm performance (Putterman, 1993; Nayyar, 1990). Boards are often projected as stewards of good governance in firms, wherein they protect the interests of the shareholders against those of managers who tend to be blamed for pursuing self-interests (Carney et al., 2011). Thus, according to the agency theory, existence of strong boards is expected to drive good performance in a firm. However, two problems arise when such a view is applied to the SOE context, leaving the relevance of the agency theory to SOEs barely appreciated; first, the agent-principal relationships in SOEs are often unclear (Toninelli, 2000) and second, the corporate objectives (to be pursued by agents) are often too broad and vague, encapsulating both the social and financial perspectives (Aharoni, 1981). The broad nature of SOE objectives on the other hand derive from the nature of their stakeholders as these are often heterogeneous groups, which by itself presents a further problem of compromised firm performance in pursuit of divergent stakeholder interests (Carney et al., 2011). This line of argument is a direct criticism of the stakeholder theory which postulates that good firm performance arises from a reconciliation of various stakeholder interests (Freeman, 1994).\n3. Methodology: 3.1 A brief overview of the power sector in sub- Saharan Africa\n4. Analysis and findings: Descriptive statistics are presented in Table III.\n5. Conclusion: In this paper, we have investigated the fundamental drivers of performance of state owned power utilities operating as commercial enterprises. We did this in the context of known organizational theories. We adopted broad-based measures of performance incorporating profitability, efficiency and productivity indicators. The study has revealed that good SOE performance could be explained by the agency and resource-based theories, where we found both strong boards and resource availability to be positively related to all forms of performance. Our analysis also reveals that an unbalanced approach to stakeholder interests compromises SOE efficiency. Similarly, a higher level of government involvement in the operations of SOEs is detrimental to SOE performance, thus reflecting thus supporting the notions of the public choice.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine empirical evidence on factors that influence performance of state owned enterprises (SOEs). With a focus on power utilities, the paper investigates how such several factors interact with each other to influence ultimate performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data on the SOEs constituting the sample is predominantly obtained from the audited annual financial statements and other publicized reports of entities for a 20-year period spanning from 1994 to 2013. The audited annual financial statements provide quantitative data whilst the rest of qualitative information is available from narratives in the annual reports. The study takes liquidity, board strength, extent of stakeholder presentation on board and government's involvement in pricing as proxy variables for resource-based agency, stakeholder and public choice theories, respectively. Using performance as the dependent variable, the study variables are modeled in a regression model.\nFindings: The paper finds that good SOE performance could be explained in terms of the agency and resource-based theories, where the authors found strong boards and good liquidity profiles to be positively related to good performance. A wider stakeholder representation on SOE boards correlates negatively with performance. Similarly, the higher the level of government involvement in the tariff setting process the weaker the performance results. Based on the results, the paper concludes that SOEs performance is underpinned by a plethora of organizational issues: agency, public policy, stakeholder and resource-based issues. These issues must therefore inform the appointment of SOE management and also their performance contracts.\nPractical implications: The study suggests that SOE governance structures should be centered around four main unifying themes; agency, stakeholders, resources and shareholder engagement. From an agency perspective, board appointments should first be based on merit and stakeholder representation comes in as a subset. Resources availability should be paired with objective imperatives and engagement with political leadership should be limited to matters of policy through a regulatory and legal framework.\nOriginality/value: This study provides some practical insights from both an administration and policy perspective. First, it reveals the importance of and a linkage between both adequate resources and strong boards, but also the need to find the right balance in managing stakeholder interests SOEs face. The study does not necessarily support the popular view of completely eliminating government interference in SOE affairs, but rather advances optimal political influence through regulatory and legal frameworks without giving up ownership rights.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Beyond sex: Exploring the effects of femininity and masculinity on women's use of influence tactics	[ "Masculinity", "Influence tactics", "Continuous occupational commitment", "Femininity", "Performance ratings", "Sex role identity" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the workplace, people often try to influence others to gain compliance, to increase liking or to keep or advance in their jobs. Accordingly, a substantial body of research has been devoted to classifying different influence tactics as well as examining their outcomes. Indeed, previous research has shown that influence tactics can promote helping (Sparrowe et al., 2006), liking (Wayne and Ferris, 1990) and performance ratings (Barrick et al., 2009) in the workplace. Given these outcomes, it is critical to understand the antecedents that give rise to the use of influence tactics.\nMethod: Participants\nResults: We conducted multiple regression analyses to test H1 and H2 and used SPSS PROCESS macros developed by Hayes (2013) to test H3 through H5. The macros were designed to test complex moderated mediation models using regression analysis. More specifically, we conducted non-parametric bootstrapping analyses with these macros, which are accomplished by drawing from a sampling distribution of indirect effects with replacement for anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 times to estimate the true standard error of estimate closest to that of the population and create a confidence interval for the indirect effects (Hayes, 2013). If the confidence interval for these repeatedly sampled indirect effects excludes zero, then one can conclude a significant mediation effect. This approach is superior to the causal steps approach (Baron and Kenny, 1986) in that it does not require a significant X to Y relationship for mediation to occur (Hayes, 2013). Additionally, it quantifies the indirect effect as the product of the two paths involved in the proposed mediation. It is also superior to the Sobel (1982) test in that it does not assume a normal sampling distribution of the indirect effect, which is often an untenable assumption that can lead to Type II errors (Edwards and Lambert, 2007). In short, bootstrapping does not impose untenable assumptions and was recommended, based on simulation studies (Mackinnon et al., 2002), over the causal steps and Sobel approach, as it leads to lower rate of Type II errors while preserving reasonable control of Type I error when testing for mediation (Preacher and Hayes, 2008).\nDiscussion: The purpose of this study was to shed light on the within-sex differences in the use of influence tactics and their effects upon performance ratings under the boundary condition of continuance occupational commitment. Based on previous research, we proposed and tested a model in which sex role identity, or level of femininity and masculinity, predicted performance ratings through its effects on influence tactics. Additionally, we examined occupational continuance commitment as a boundary condition of these mediated effects. Results generally support this overarching model for femininity (but not masculinity) and suggest that within-sex variability in sex role identity influences performance ratings via influence tactics among women who feel that they should stay in their occupation.\nConclusion: The results of this current study suggest that: not all women are equally likely to use influence tactics, and not all tactics result in positive perceptions of performance. Feminine women in general refrain from using influence tactics unless they are driven to stay in a given occupation, but they only receive positive results when their behaviours are congruent with society's gender role expectations. Despite progress in gender equality, gender roles remain rigid and women are still penalized for stepping out of the expected norm even in an unconventional profession.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Influence tactics are prevalent in the workplace and are linked to crucial outcomes such as career success and helping behaviours. The authors argue that sex role identity affects women's choice of influence tactics in the workplace, but they only receive positive performance ratings when their behaviours are congruent with gender role expectation. Furthermore, the authors hypothesize that these relationships may be moderated by occupational continuance commitment. Results suggest that femininity is negatively related to the use of influence tactics overall, and this relationship is moderated by occupational continuance commitment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In all, 657 women working in the construction industry were surveyed for their continuance occupational commitment and sex role identity and 465 supervisors whose responses are linked with the subordinates are surveyed for the women's influence tactics and performance ratings.\nFindings: Results suggested that femininity was negatively related to the use of influence tactics overall, and this relationship was moderated by occupational continuance commitment. Results also showed that women's use of influence tactics was only positively received in terms of performance ratings when the influence tactic was congruent with gender role expectations.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results of this current study suggest that not all women are equally likely to use influence tactics and not all tactics result in positive perceptions of performance. Feminine women in general refrain from using influence tactics unless they are driven to stay in a given occupation, but they only receive positive results when their behaviours are congruent with society's gender role expectations.\nOriginality/value: Past research has mostly focused on broad differences between males and females, and this study has shown that there are more nuanced differences that can more accurately describe the effects of gender disposition (i.e. sex role identity) on influence tactics. It also emphasizes the importance of occupational commitment as a boundary condition, which influences women to step out of their gender roles even though they may be penalized with lower performance ratings.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Book or NOOK? Information behavior of academic librarians	[ "Interview", "Academic libraries", "Librarians", "Human information behaviour", "Information technology adoption" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The use of digital technology for accessing and disseminating information continues to rise in academia (Phan et al., 2014). From digitized collections of traditional print materials to electronic databases and e-books, digital content made accessible via new information technologies broadens opportunities for academic research, teaching, and content creation (Tetrault and Reaume, 2014; Russell et al., 2013; Abderrahim et al., 2013). In academic environments, the library can be seen as the hub of the adoption of these technologies as librarians introduce new digital content and resources to the rest of academia (Mulholland and Bates, 2014; Polger and Okamoto, 2013; Witten and Bainbridge, 2002). Considering the important role played by librarians in the broader trends of information technology adoption in academia, it is important to understand librarians' personal information behavior and attitudes toward technology, as these factors affect librarians' ability and inclination to advocate or deter the adoption of new digital resources by faculty and students (Blackburn, 2011).\nLiterature review: There is currently a proliferation of digital resources in American academic libraries. The National Center for Education Statistics found that \"in fiscal year 2012, academic libraries added 52.7 million e-books, resulting in total e-books holdings of 252.6 million units\" (Phan et al., 2014, p. 2). In conjunction with this trend, the number of studies on information technology adoption in academia is also on the rise. Popular themes in technology adoption literature include information technology use, preferences of college students (Rod-Welch et al., 2013; Lopatovska et al., 2014; Foasberg, 2011) and faculty (Dodds et al., 2014; Mulholland and Bates, 2014) as well as issues pertaining to the development of digital collections and services (Dewan, 2012; Walters, 2013; Newman and Bui, 2010; Blummer, 2006). In an effort to understand the perspectives of those responsible for academic library offerings, several recent studies focussed on information behavior and technology use of academic librarians.\nMethods: In order to explore librarian preferences, as one important factor in technology adoption in academia, we investigated the factors affecting librarians' information behavior and the influence of that behavior on librarians' perception of student information behavior. We operationalized the concept of \"information behavior\" by: context-specific information needs, technology/devices used to obtain or produce information that satisfies these needs, and specific uses of this information. We decided to explore information behavior in both professional and leisure contexts, as the latter is a better indicator of true preference (e.g. librarians may be required to use a laptop supplied by their workplace) and a comparison of the two contexts can reveal the difference between technology that people are forced to accept and technology that they welcome. Based on our review of the literature, we developed a model of relationships between librarians' demographics, academic institution characteristics, librarians' information behavior in professional and leisure contexts and librarians' perceptions of student information behavior and preferences (see Figure 1). We initially hypothesized that institutional characteristics and librarian demographics affect librarian information behavior and preferences, which in turn affect librarians' perception of students' information behavior and information preferences (Figure 1).\nResults: Participants' characteristics\nDiscussion: Effects of demographic and institutional characteristics on librarians' information behavior\nConclusion: Research implications\nFuture research: Future work that seeks to understand professional information behavior of librarians should focus on the identification of the variety of contextual and situational factors that are unique to each specific job of an individual in a distinct institutional setting. Within a professional context, librarians use a wide variety of tools and media to satisfy work demands. We found that librarians employed by different academic institutions, working with populations and collections of various sizes and composition, exhibit similar information behavior trends. This finding suggests that information technology and other professional competencies do not depend on the employing institution, and academic library users can universally receive assistance from competent, information-savvy professionals in small or large, public or private universities.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand patterns in information behavior of academic librarians, individuals who influence information technology adoption in academic libraries and parent institutions. Librarians' perception of their student patrons' information behavior was also investigated.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An exploratory study investigated professional and personal information behavior of eight librarians employed by various academic institutions in the Greater New York City area. The data were collected in face-to-face interviews and analyzed using the content analysis technique.\nFindings: The study found that librarians' institutional affiliations had no effect on their information behavior. The patterns in librarians' information behavior at work and leisure suggest that those behaviors are influenced by contextual variables, personal preferences and tasks, and are no different from the general population. Overall, librarians had accurate, evidence-driven understanding of their student patrons' information behavior.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study findings have limited generalizability due to the small sample size and limited geographical pool of participants.\nPractical implications: Academic library is often seen as the hub of the adoption of information technologies as librarians introduce new digital content and resources to the rest of academia. Understanding information behavior of academic librarians contributes to understanding factors that are affecting technology adoption in academia overall, and can potentially inform recommendations for optimizing academic library offerings.\nOriginality/value: The study is an original investigation of the relationships between institutional characteristics and librarian demographics, librarian information behavior at work and leisure, and librarians' perception of students' information behavior and information preferences.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The sociological construction of ageing: lessons for theorising	[ "Elderly people", "Social theories" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: This special edition on \"theorising ageing and social policy\" in International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy has aimed to provide a critical reflection of and provide new insights to ageing studies and later life. Our contributors have pointed to a range of examples focusing on micro and macro forms of analysis. As the three papers by King and Calasanti, Chapman and Andrews illustrate, the theoretical focus on ageing must be situated within the rise and consolidation of publications relating to human agency and how ageing is experienced through narrative and biography. Hazan's paper further suggests there is much to be learned from disciplines outside of sociology such as anthropology. At same time, Estes and Portacolone analyse the influence of Maggie Kuhn situated within a structural analysis which complements McKelvey's paper on global forces of ageing. Of course, all these fascinating theoretical discussions must also be cast against the backdrop that gerontology has been ensnared in a bio-medical thrall until the recent emergence of such critical and reflexive theories (Longino and Murphy, 1995).\nThe social constructs of ageing I: why theorise?: Explicating the social construction of ageing is an important theoretical alloy to narrowly focused medical narratives; it includes how \"norms\" or pervasive attitudes materialise - from basic bio-medical functions to sophisticated and complex social, economic, political and cultural structures including educational, political and religious institutions, the arts, customs, morality, ethics and law. How does the relationship between us shape the nature of experience? Those in power present ontologically arbitrary social constructs as \"the way life actually is\", that is, as reality. For example, the bio-medical sciences have been important in this process in shaping reality regarding the ageing process: seeing the process as one of maturation followed by decline.A theoretical model emphasizing the social construction of ageing highlights the contention that ageing has no existence independent of social interaction and power relationships in society. In other words, the meaning of ageing derives not from innate biological processes but is socially determined. Indeed, the \"constructedness\" of ageing is made invisible by the normal workings of social life, so that it appears \"natural\" rather than \"artificial\". Early glimmerings of such a point of view can be found in German, French, and American sociological theory. At the structural level, the value of a social constructionist perspective lies in emphasizing that societal arrangements are created in light of specific ideologies and with particular social relationships in mind. At the individual level, a social constructionist perspective helps individuals to stand outside hegemonic worldviews and perhaps to see the role public policies and moral economies play in establishing their worldviews and what is taken to be factual. As a first order construct, employed by actors themselves, a social constructionist perspective helps actors appreciate the notion of the \"other\" and to understand what may be happening in the social world given that the familiar is increasingly seen as tenuous, shifting and co-existing with other \"realities\". Further, embracing the social construction of ageing can help individuals see that they themselves are not the sole creators of their \"problems,\" that the public framework of life is also an issue.By attending to the interplay between social context and individuals, the social construction of ageing can be defined as the systematic study of the taken-for-granted assumptions that are created by societies that filter through to shape personal attitudes about ageing as played out in light of the relationships between institutions and individuals. It provides a theoretical framework for analysing the interplay between human lives and changing social structures. Accordingly, social theorists must address how society works, the arrangements of its structure and institutions, and how the mechanisms of change affect its citizenry over the course of their lives.This is an abiding issue in examining the interdependence between ageing over the life course as a social process and societies and groups as classified by age. Nevertheless, mainstream sociology has evidenced a perplexing lack of interest in the \"sociology of ageing\". As Fennell et al. (1993) point out, in male dominated sociology the study of ageing has been seen as one of the lowest status areas of all. Fennell and coauthors comment, for example, that theoretical developments in social facets of ageing have at best had a \"chequered history\" (p. 41). Interestingly, Fennell and colleagues offer virtually the same lament as Talcott Parsons verbalized in the decade immediately following World War II.On both sides of the Atlantic, the emergence of sociologically inspired theories of age and ageing can be located to the early post-World War II years with governmental concerns about the consequences of demographic change (Biggs and Powell, 2001). In the post-war years, social gerontology emerged as a multidisciplinary field which attempted to respond to the social, health and economic policy implications and projections of population change (Phillipson, 1998). The wide disciplinary subject matter of social gerontology was shaped by significant external forces: first, by state intervention to achieve specific outcomes in health and social policy for older people; secondly, by a socio-political and economic environment which viewed an ageing population as creating a \"social problem\" for western nations in general (Phillipson, 1998). It is important to reiterate that sociological theories cannot help but mirror the norms and values of their creators as ensconced in particular social times, reflecting culturally dominant views of what should be the appropriate way to analyse social phenomena (Turner, 1989).Of course, the \"social\" dimensions of ageing do not just include theorising without an empirical context. The social spaces to grow old impinge upon population formations which aid policy makers' responses to social problems. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, life expectancy of people born in the USA has increased by approximately 25 years and the proportion of persons 65 years or older has increased from 4 per cent to over 13 per cent. By the year 2030, one in five individuals in the USA is expected to be 65 years or older and people age 85 and older make up the fastest growing segment of the population. In 2000, there were 34 million people aged 65 or older in the USA that represented 13 per cent of the overall population. By 2030 there will be 70 million over 65 in the USA, more than twice their number in 2000.Comparatively, the population structure of western European countries including the UK has also matured since the turn of the twentieth century. Whereas in 1901, just over 6 per cent of the population were at or over current pension age (65 in the UK for men and women), this figure rose steadily to reach 18 per cent in 2001. At the same time, the population of younger people under age 16 or younger fell from 35 to 20 per cent. The United Nations estimates that by the year 2025, the global population of those over 60 years will double, from 542 million in 1995 to around 1.2 billion people (Krug, 2002, p. 125). These patterns, and comparable population shifts going on in much of Asia are sufficient to command attention from sociologists.Theorising within the sociology of ageing is concerned with the reciprocal impact of human ageing and multiple aspects of society. Societal and cultural forces influence the ageing process via normative expectations and the public policy agenda. One value-added dimension of social theory is that it can help highlight the interrelationships between social structure or institutional arrangements and the experience of individual actors. Knowledge of social theories enhances understanding of the position of older people within society, cultural attitudes regarding older people, the attitudes and expectations of older people themselves, and also the interaction of older people within their social contexts. Distinct social theories have evolved in the last few decades, each adopting a certain conceptually informed point of view of ageing. Social gerontology is multidisciplinary and is the principal instrument of orthodox theorising about old age. Be that as it may, theorizing ranges from micro-level emphasis on individuals making personal choices to macro-level attention to the political economy of ageing as influenced by market economies and global influences. One \"lesson of history\" in social gerontology is that human agency consists of imposing sense, differently and mutably, upon our worlds and interacts with the pull of social forces. Another is that sense-making and the structure of everyday life always plays out within the confines of the social bonds that come of structural locale and social relations.\nThe social constructs of ageing II: \"who theorises ageing?\": Bengtson et al. (1997), among a raft of other social theorists, argue that social gerontology, and the study of ageing more generally, is data rich but theory poor. It has lacked a strong theoretical underpinning and has tended to ignore until recently an understanding of ageing identity, the body, and cultural representations of ageing, to name but a few sociological concerns which are central features of an emerging post-modern paradigm in gerontological theory. While a significant amount of sophisticated data has been generated, there has been a dearth of theoretical discussion of the meaning and place of ageing within the structure of society. In addition, there have been relatively few attempts to build conceptual models taking account of the ways in which experience is shaped by the quotidian characteristic of lifestyles.The role of theory in gerontology and its growth as a discipline coincides with the post-war years; a growth in public awareness and interest in ageing issues; - from \"Grey Power movements\" to the ageing population - not to mention the crises over pensions and funding of the welfare state (Phillipson, 1998). Nevertheless, the lack of theoretical integration in North American and British gerontology has been a cause of some concern over the last 20 years (Biggs, 1999). Fennell et al. (1993, p. 42) comment: \"Much more characteristic of British research is the lack of attention to theory of any kind. This failing has been a feature of the social gerontological tradition\". Of course part of the difficulty is that so many facets of social life are changing simultaneously and rigorous theorising must account for all the pressures resulting in a given pattern. For example, the pressures on older people in the work place combined with the rapid growth in early retirement have resulted in a significant shift in the way ageing is experienced and perceived (Phillipson, 1998). Biggs et al. (2003, p. 1) maintain \"theory goes beyond the collection of data and tries to uncover the 'why' as well as the 'what' of occurrences and relationships\". Embedded in that quote is the proposition that theory helps to call-out the interconnectedness and underlying processes of the phenomenon in question. Of course it is likely that the parameters identified for that interconnectedness will not only reflect the disciplinary starting point of the author, but the explanations offered will echo the disciplinary foci. One of the issues haunting social gerontology is a question as to whether the disciplinary perspective adopted in the process of theorising serves to alter the nature of the question being asked to the point where different disciplines at different times may not be asking the same questions. Under the best of circumstances theorising is fraught with difficulty, when the nature of the questions asked is elided to the point where it is in fact a different question, theorising faces even greater challenges.Gubrium and Wallace (1990) seek to promote the development of gerontological theory by posing the question \"who theorises age?\" Their focus suggests that it is not only professional social gerontologists who theorise age in the course of formulating second-order constructs; we all are involved in first-order constructions of the \"other\" in relation to ourselves. Critical gerontology is concerned with \"... . a collection of questions, problems and analyses that have been excluded by established [mainstream gerontology]\" (cited in Fennell et al., 1993, p. 13). These vary from questions about the role of the state in the management of old age (Phillipson, 1982, 1998; Townsend, 1981) to issues about the purpose of growing old within the context of a post-modern life course (Featherstone and Wernick, 1995).Similarly to the tradition of critical sociology, a critical gerontology seeks to problematise the construction of ageing and to identify the conditions experienced by elders in society by emphasizing the role of power relationships and hegemony in shaping experience of ageing actors (Phillipson, 1998). Because of its role in current theorising, let us attend a bit more fully to some principles of critical gerontology, drawing out four themes for their usefulness in providing some evocative conceptual tools for sociologists and gerontologists to ponder. These four themes are: \"ageing and politics of redistribution\"; \"gender and ageing\"; \"ageing, identity and postmodernism\" and \"ageing and surveillance\". These themes may have overlapped with certain theories of ageing but what makes this particularly illuminating and important is the rich tapestry of ideas that deconstruct ageing as discursive, symbolic, experiential, material and existential subject/object of power.\nTheorising ageing studies - four critical themes: Theme one: ageing and the politics of distribution\nConclusion: These conceptual themes of politics of distribution, gender and ageing, surveillance of older people and post-modern ideas centring on social identity are important in understanding the social construction of old age in USA, UK and in a variety of western cultures. Taken together, these theoretical currents have been influential in providing social gerontology with a rich social dimension. Such social theories have also been used to analyse pressing social issues such as elder abuse, the gendered nature of age, the politics of power relations between older people and state/society, and community care. The purpose of this final contribution to the International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy collection has been to amalgamate the key ideas from gerontological theorising in order to stress the importance of social theories of ageing as we continue in the quest for more answers, more concepts to the complex social questions that impinges on who and what we are - a necessity to reflect on social constructs and how our biographies are made by the push of social forces as well as our own identity formation. A dialogue around such issues is the next step for sociological theorising in social gerontology: linking the micro concerns of social action with macro structures of power.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this concluding paper is to reflect on the theories of ageing well delineated by the papers of the special issue. It sets research themes that social theorists of ageing should reflect upon in creating conceptual tools to understanding the power dynamics of older people and modern society.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is an overview of the key issues that have been found by theories introduced throughout the special edition. It attempts to look ahead to seeing how social theory and ageing will need to be strengthened so that theory and experiences are inter-locked.\nFindings: - This concluding paper cites how social theory can be analysed in variety of international and national contexts that gives an holistic and not eurocentric approach to social gerontology.\nOriginality/value: - The paper is original in that it points to the future challenges social gerontology in terms of theorising ageing. The great value of social theory is that it provides critical questions about the nature of modern society and the implications this has for older people. This is original in getting researchers to see the creative use of theories of ageing.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Sustainability: what the entrepreneurship educators think	[ "Education", "Entrepreneurship", "Sustainability" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With the escalating social, environmental, and economic challenges that face humanity and the planet, many believe that business has a pivotal role to play in shifting society towards a more sustainable future (Hall et al., 2010; Baumann-Pauly et al., 2013). In recent years, businesses around the globe have acknowledged that sustainability, and its forerunner corporate social responsibility, is \"everybody's business\" (Rake and Grayson, 2009, p. 395). The concept of the \"triple P\" bottom line, where business accountability addresses people, planet, and profit has spread far and wide, and there is growing recognition that businesses must learn to understand and adhere to sustainability concepts, including the ethics and sustainability of supply chain management and labour sources, resource management, energy consumption, carbon emissions, and climate change mitigation and adaptation (Elkington, 1997; Bos-Brouwers, 2010). There is also mounting evidence of a practical shift in businesses towards engaging in more systematic change to address issues relating to societal change (Loorbach and Wijsman, 2013).\n2. Literature: EE and sustainability: Since the industrial revolution, business behaviour in the developed world has been predicated on attaining economic growth as the underlying basis of a capitalist society (Schumpeter, 1934). Economic growth has traditionally been attributed to the accumulation of human and physical capital, and increased productivity arising from ongoing technological innovation (Lucas, 1988). Consequently, business education provision in the higher education (HE) sector globally has been built on the same foundations (Wolf, 2002).\n3. Methodology: This study reports on one phase of a wider 18-month research project, which aims to identify and examine the synergies between EE and ESD and to evaluate the potential for sharing effective pedagogical practices, critically informed by best practice in both fields. The authoring team were drawn from both disciplines; one from a sustainability education background, the other an entrepreneurship educator and a third with an educational background in both disciplines. The research starts from the premise that it is becoming vital for future business leaders and entrepreneurs to understand and work with sustainability principles, enabling them to tackle the most pressing environmental and social challenges in the twenty-first century, and mitigate the risk associated with an unsustainable and unstable society (Dyllick and Hockerts, 2002). Equally, the authors recognise that future sustainability leaders and change agents require the entrepreneurial mind-set and skills necessary to bring about a rapid step change. The project employs a variety of methods including the mapping of the literatures in both fields, surveys to educators delivering EE and ESD programmes both nationally and internationally, semi-structured interviews of thought leaders, student focus groups, and participant observation in pedagogical contexts. This study focuses on the EE survey phase of the project.\n4. Data collection: For the purposes of this study, the data collection process involved a web survey undertaken with respondents drawn from the EE academic community. Web surveys have become an increasingly popular method of data collection for management research (Cook et al., 2000). Respondents were identified from EE academics who had previously attended and presented a paper at an EE conference, namely, the Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship or the Enterprise Educators conference. In total, 143 entrepreneurship academics were identified from universities in Australia, New Zealand, UK, and the USA. Participants had to be individuals teaching entrepreneurship and typically have entrepreneurship in their job title. All members of this population were entered into a database and their e-mail details confirmed by checking their contact details on their university web page. Thereafter, each academic was individually e-mailed by the entrepreneurship academic co-authoring this study. The e-mails adopted a personal tone with each individual addressed on a first name person basis. The academics e-mailed were asked to complete a questionnaire which was attached through an embedded web link (Porter and Whitcomb, 2005). The web survey was developed using SurveyMonkey(c) software and piloted with a group of EE and ESD academics prior to its launch to test its construction and design (Collins, 2003). In total, 54 complete questionnaires were returned giving an acceptable response rate of 38 per cent.\n5. Research instrument: The questionnaire was developed out of a literature survey surrounding the research themes of EE, ESD, and pedagogical approaches and involved five sections. The first section explored the respondent's attitudes to entrepreneurship including key competencies and drivers for entrepreneurship. The second section explored the respondent's EE level of teaching activity and their understanding of the discipline. Section 3 related to the respondent's pedagogical approach. The fourth section evaluated the respondent's knowledge of sustainability and its association with entrepreneurial activity. The final section explored the respondent's intention to include sustainability within their EE teaching.\n6. Data analysis: To analyse the qualitative data collected from the survey in a logical manner, a coding system was adopted to categorise the collected data (Jones and Jones, 2014). This involved a process of data reduction, display and conclusion drawing and verification based on the protocol proposed by Miles and Huberman (1994). Within this process, the data were sorted into groups relating to the research themes developed from the literature, namely EE, ESD, and pedagogical approaches (Smith, 1991). This axial coding narrative text approach was adopted to enable an accurate description of the data as related to the issue of sustainability and its association with EE (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). This interpretation process involved multiple reviews by the researchers in order to explicate and refine the understanding of each case (Baskerville and Pries-Heje, 2001). The following section explores the findings from three key questions within the EE survey and considers the value that EE might accrue by engaging with the field of ESD.\n7. Findings: 7.1. How do EE feel that entrepreneurs can contribute to solving sustainability problems?\n8. Discussion: The study provided the following evidence towards the research questions identified previously.\n9. Conclusions: This study has provided an initial indicative benchmark regarding the levels of sustainability provision within UK EE curricula. The results indicate limited sophisticated deployment of sustainability within EE curricula, which can be currently understood within a spectrum of provision and inclusion (Figure 1). Positively, examples are forthcoming of sustainability featuring as an additional or supplementary \"topic\". On a less salutary note, there is scant evidence of coherent, embedded approaches to the teaching about and for sustainability and barely one example where sustainability forms the underpinning ethos to an EE programme.\n10. Further research: The authors of this study recognise that there is a need for further inquiry into this area. In terms of this project, the authors will undertake qualitative interviews with thought leaders in both fields of EE and ESD, and further work on suggested pedagogical frameworks of best practice. More generally, the issue of sustainability is not going to disappear and the entrepreneurship discipline must act as a thought leader and example to other subject disciplines in embedding best practice at the core of its activities. There is also a need to educate and benchmark the small business community in effective sustainability practice. Finally, there is also a need for EE to review and evolve its pedagogical approaches in light of the sustainability agenda (Sterling and Scott, 2008). With the need to rethink EE, and mindful that many entrepreneurship educators do not have a background in educational theory, how can the pedagogies favoured within sustainability education be incorporated into the EE programmes? By adopting a pluralistic view of pedagogy and \"educations\", there is a clear potential for entrepreneurship educators to draw inspiration from the field of education for sustainability or sustainable development (ESD), and indeed vice versa.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider the understanding and presence of sustainability within entrepreneurship education. The extant literature on sustainability within the entrepreneurship discipline remains extremely limited. Previously, sustainability within an entrepreneurship context has related to economic viability as opposed to sustainability in its broadest sense. This study explores, through a survey of entrepreneurship educators, three key research questions, namely, how entrepreneurship educators believe that entrepreneurs can contribute to solving sustainability problems. Second, to what extent education about sustainability is integrated within existing entrepreneurship curricula. Finally, what considerations are being made to include sustainability within future programmes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study represented part of a larger university project exploring the associations between the sustainability and entrepreneurship disciplines. This part of the study involved a web-based survey from entrepreneurship academics drawn from Australia, New Zealand, UK, and the USA which provided 54 completed questionnaires.\nFindings: The study uncovered much good practice led by \"champions\" within the entrepreneurship discipline. However, embedded sustainability practice was typically limited and it was more typically regarded as an \"add-on\" to traditional entrepreneurial teaching.\nPractical implications: The study proposes three ways in which sustainability might be more meaningfully integrated into entrepreneurship programmes. First, the QAA (2012) guidelines for enterprise and entrepreneurship need to be reconsidered to encapsulate the sustainability agenda. Second, for entrepreneurship educators to reconsider their pedagogical approaches to encapsulate systems thinking as more holistic educational perspective. Finally, the authors call for entrepreneurship educators to revise their programmes to embed the core facets of social, environmental, economic, and more recently ethical sustainability.\nOriginality/value: The study offers a novel insight into entrepreneurship educators attitudes to sustainability and their approach to it within their curricula. This study provides an initial benchmark regarding the levels of sustainability provision within entrepreneurship curricula which will be of interest to the entrepreneurship academic community, the sustainability community, and policy makers.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Extending the supply chain visibility boundary: Utilizing stakeholders for identifying supply chain sustainability risks	[ "Sustainability", "Risk management", "Stakeholder management", "Design science", "Supply chain visibility" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Today, stakeholders place substantial pressure on firms for sustainable business conduct, thereby requesting that firms pay attention not only to economic concerns but also improve environmental and social conditions (Carter and Easton, 2011; Meixell and Luoma, 2015). This attention stretches beyond individual firms' operations in that it also includes their direct (Foerstl et al., 2010) and indirect (Hartmann and Moeller, 2014) suppliers. Stakeholder pressures increase awareness for sustainability in the supply chain, push buying firms to adopt sustainability-related goals, and influence them to implement sustainability in the supply chain (Meixell and Luoma, 2015). When stakeholders' sustainability-related expectations are unfulfilled, irresponsible supplier behavior may be projected onto buying firms, leading to adverse publicity, reputational loss, and costly legal obligations (Bregman et al., 2015). Thus, non-compliance with stakeholders' requests of sustainability poses a risk for buying firms (Hajmohammad and Vachon, 2016), which this study refers to as supply chain sustainability risk (SCSR). Accordingly, SCSR is defined as \"a condition or a potentially occurring event\" residing \"within a focal firm's supply chain\" which can \"provoke harmful stakeholder reactions\" (Hofmann et al., 2014, p. 168). In times of global sourcing and ubiquitous information availability, SCSR poses a major challenge to buying firms (Busse, 2016).\n2. Theoretical background: In recent years, several excellent reviews of SSCM research have been published (e.g. Winter and Knemeyer, 2013; Meixell and Luoma, 2015; Touboulic and Walker, 2015; Wong et al., 2015) which are not recapped here. Instead, this section focuses on three specific pillars for this study: first, the emerging theory of the supply chain which illustrates the problem of missing supply chain visibility; second, an overview of SCSR; and third, the fruitful avenue of stakeholder inclusion within SSCM to mitigate SCSR.\n3. Methodology: This research subscribes to the design science paradigm whose proponents challenge the view of management as a primarily explanatory science, modeled in accordance with the natural sciences (van Aken, 2004; Holmstrom et al., 2009). In contrast, design scientists regard design-oriented disciplines such as engineering and medicine as additional role models for management. These \"sciences of the artificial\" (Simon, 1996) revolve around the development of solutions and improvements to real-world problems (Holmstrom et al., 2009). Design science is relatively more concerned with questions of effectiveness (\"works\" vs \"does not work\") than truth (\"is true\" vs \"is false\") (Romme, 2003), thereby aiming at the generation of prescriptive knowledge (i.e. how things should be in practice) (Denyer et al., 2008). Design science involves making suggestions for possible or emerging new solutions.\n4. Results: Departing from low-visibility supply chains and elevated stakeholder pressure for SSCM as the typical context, this research has developed a procedural model for integrating the stakeholders' distinct knowledge into a buying firm's understanding of its own supply chain. Some stakeholders have special interest in sustainability-related issues (e.g. NGOs or activist groups), others represent parties involved in the narrower supply chain (e.g. unions), yet others possess special investigative skills and knowledge (e.g. media). In light of these different interests and roles, stakeholders may see aspects of a buying firm's supply chain that the firm itself is unaware of, since these aspects are not essential to the firm's ordinary operations. Thus, by viewing stakeholders as valuable resources for SCSR identification, the procedural model serves as a workaround to the low-visibility problem and facilitates the SCSR identification.\n5. Concluding discussion: Many buying firms face elevated stakeholder pressure for fostering supply chain sustainability but cannot fully comply with these requests due to low supply chain visibility. In consequence, they are left vulnerable to sustainability risks lurking within their supply chains. Against this background, this design science study sought to explore how buying firms can utilize the stakeholder network to identify the most salient SCSR. A procedural model was developed which facilitates identification of such SCSR \"hotspots\" through an iterative process of supply chain and stakeholder analysis. This section elaborates on the scholarly and practical contributions, acknowledges the limitations of the study, and suggests paths for future research.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how buying firms facing low supply chain visibility can utilize their stakeholder network to identify salient supply chain sustainability risks (SCSR).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study employs a design science approach to develop a procedural model for identifying SCSR as a new artifact. A small-scale field-testing study in a food supply chain of a Swiss retail firm demonstrates its applicability and pragmatic validity.\nFindings: When stakeholder knowledge external to the supply chain is regarded as a valuable resource, a generic understanding of a buying firm's supply chain suffices to identify SCSR hotspots without creating complexity for the SCSR management.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper contributes to the study of SCSR by identifying mechanisms buying firms can employ to identify SCSR hotspots and fostering the nascent understanding of responsibility attribution by stakeholders. Moreover, the emerging theory of the supply chain is enriched by paving a way to extend the supply chain visibility boundary. The procedural model is presumably most useful in contexts of elevated stakeholder pressure and low supply chain visibility. Future research should seek to validate and improve the effectiveness of the newly designed artifact.\nPractical implications: The procedural model is directly applicable in corporate practice to the identification of SCSR. Moreover, its application fosters the understanding of a firm's supply chain and its stakeholder network.\nOriginality/value: SCSR is an increasingly important phenomenon in corporate practice that has received only scarce research attention. The design science approach represents a valuable means for generating theoretical insights and emergent solutions to the real-world problem of SCSR identification.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Flexible pay systems and labour productivity: Evidence from manufacturing firms in Emilia-Romagna	[ "Industrial relations", "Labour productivity", "Organizational change", "Performance-related pay", "Pay for participation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The rapid spread of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the increasing globalization of production have made international competition fiercer than ever. In a more dynamic, uncertain and risky world, a firm's performance depends more and more on intangible assets and non-technical aspects such as flexibility, recruitment, assessment, training, employee commitment schemes, and - last but not least - flexible pay systems (FPS) (Eurofound, 2011a, b). The adoption of FPS is generally seen as part of a broader set of human resource management (HRM) practices and one of the ways in which organizational change occurs at firm level.\n2. Related literature: 2.1 Determinants of the adoption of a FPS\n3. Data and empirical analysis strategy: 3.1 Data and variables\n4. Results: Table II shows the first-stage probit results for FPS adoption, while Table III shows the second-stage OLS results for labor productivity.\n5. Conclusions: This paper sheds some light on the whether the adoption of FPS relates to labor productivity. To account for self-selection into FPS, a two-stage approach was adopted to an original firm-level data set on manufacturing firms in ER, Italy.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the link between flexible pay systems (FPS) and labor productivity, also looking at which factors drive firms to adopt such wage schemes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analysis is conducted on an original sample extracted from a firm-level survey on manufacturing firms with at least 20 employees in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. A two-stage model is adopted to mitigate potential self-selection into FPS adoption.\nFindings: The results show that the adoption of a FPS is linked to the unions' involvement and organizational changes within firms, supporting the idea that a FPS is not simply a risk-sharing mechanism, but part of a more complex strategy to increase workers' flexibility and autonomy. The relationship between FPS and labor productivity concerns a traditional form of premiums intended for individual employees and linked simply to \"effort improvement and control\" motives and to the firm's \"ability to pay.\" Productivity also increases after adopting ex-ante payment systems that focus on developing employees' participation and competences.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main findings have two important implications. In the personnel economics literature, the authors stress the complementarity among different organizational practices and their role in making firms more competitive. The authors also attribute an additional role to flexible payment systems, which can be seen not just as a way to make employees work harder, but also as the means by which the effect of organizational changes on labor productivity materializes.\nSocial implications: From the policy perspective, the results show that non-price incentives are as important as price incentives for achieving higher productivity targets. Firms' competitiveness is the outcome not only of a higher worker effort and lower labor costs, but also of the adoption of managerial and organizational innovations to promote skill development, learning, and union involvement.\nOriginality/value: The analysis has two elements of novelty: first, the distinction between a broad array of human resource management practices in both production and labor management; and second, the analysis of different types of flexible payment systems: ex post, ex ante, individual, team-based, and mixed.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Clustering product launches by price and launch strategy	[ "Product launch", "Pricing policy", "Distribution management", "Inventory management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\nIntroduction: The best firms at new product development (NPD) depend heavily on new products for continued sales revenues, and effective product launch greatly improves the overall chances of new product success (Maidique and Zirger, 1984; Calantone and Di Benedetto, 1988; Cooper, 1979; Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1987, 1990; Griffin, 1997; Di Benedetto, 1999). Product launch is also financially risky, and in fact is often the most costly stage in the NPD process (Booz, Allen and Hamilton, 1982; Calantone and Montoya-Weiss, 1994; Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1987; Hultink, Griffin, Hart and Robben, 1997; Guiltinan, 1999).In spite of its managerial importance, launch has only recently begun to attract much academic research attention. Table I presents the most prominent empirical and review articles on the subject of launch from the early 1990s to the present day. Surprisingly, little empirical research had focused on product launch until the early 1990s, as reported by Calantone and Montoya-Weiss (1994). Soon after, the Product Development & Management Association (PDMA) published its Handbook of New Product Development, which included review articles on consumer (Ottum, 1996) and industrial (Stryker, 1996) product launch. About this time, several research studies into product launch were initiated in the USA, the UK, and The Netherlands, as shown in Table I. An important research milestone was the special issue on new product launch, published by the Journal of Product Innovation Management in November 1999. Empirical studies up until this time focused on strategic and tactical launch decisions and their effects on performance (e.g. Hultink, Griffin, Hart and Robben, 1997; Hultink, Hart, Robben and Griffin, 1997; Hultink and Hart, 1998). Later studies expanded on this literature base to investigate related issues such as the role of logistics and supply chain relationships in successful launch (Bowersox et al., 1999), differences in competitive reactions to launches of radical and incremental new products (DeBruyne et al., 2002), launch signaling (Hultink and Langerak, 2002), the moderating role of product innovativeness (Lee and O'Connor, 2003), and the role of market orientation (Langerak et al., 2004).Most of the empirical and conceptual studies of product launch in Table I distinguish two groups of launch decisions: strategic and tactical launch decisions (Hultink, Griffin, Hart and Robben, 1997; Hultink, Hart, Robben and Griffin, 1997; Hultink and Robben, 1999; Guiltinan, 1999). Strategic decisions are those that are concerned with product and market issues, and are often finalized early in the NPD process, perhaps in the Product Innovation Charter or at product protocol specification. Strategic decisions target market decisions (niche versus mass market), leader vs follower decisions, and decisions on relative innovativeness (Guiltinan, 1999; Di Benedetto, 1999; Calantone and Montoya-Weiss, 1994). Tactical decisions include familiar marketing mix decisions such as product branding, sales and distribution support, promotion activities, timing decisions, and pricing decisions. These decisions are usually made after the launch strategy has been decided, and may be influenced by strategic decisions already taken (Guiltinan, 1987; Di Benedetto, 1999; Calantone and Montoya-Weiss, 1994).Launch management is often ignored in the handoff of products between the team developing the commercial entity and the consumer product brand managers or business-to-business (B2B) product sales managers. Despite much literature showing benefits of speed to market and early entry advantage (see Lieberman and Montgomery, 1988, 1998), many firms do not develop pragmatic, heavily monitored, and flexible launch programs. In this article, we focus on a narrow perspective of the launch management process - pricing and its relationship to overall launch management - in order to dredge up patterns of good and poor approaches to launch management.Pricing decisions are always at the crux of the management dilemma. Falling prices generally stimulate demand and drive the volume cost decreases that most new product programs depend on to realize and capitalize on the advantages of early market entry; yet falling prices reduce revenues and margins for all concerned in the new product commercial enterprise, unless costs fall even faster. The payoff to better understanding of past launch behaviors is to develop an approach to shorten breakeven times and to understand and control new product launch programs better.The established marketing literature is quite clear about the need to coordinate pricing decisions with all other elements of the marketing mix. A firm may choose to set a premium price on its product in order to skim the market (maximize revenue obtained by different price segments), or to establish the product as a quality leader. In each case, the product quality, distribution channel, and promotion strategy must be consistent with and supportive of the higher price so that it is justified. Similarly, if production and distribution costs can be contained, a penetration price strategy would be effective. In addition, managers must take cost-volume-profit considerations into account when making the skim vs penetration price decision (for a thorough discussion of all these issues, see Kotler (2003, pp. 473-7); see also Guiltinan (1999)). Skimming or penetration pricing will not necessarily lead to good performance; proper execution of the price strategy, made in coordination with the rest of the marketing mix, is essential.Some academic research has recently focused on the interactions among the various activities conducted at the time of the launch stage (Guiltinan, 1999; Ottum, 1996; Hultink, Griffin, Hart and Robben, 1997; Hultink and Robben, 1999). In this study, we examine the interactions between pricing and other marketing-mix elements, and also study the roles of launch timing, logistics, and the coordination with support organizations throughout the distribution channel (Calantone and Montoya-Weiss, 1994; Ottum, 1996) as well as the effect of industry structure and environment. Despite the evidence of the need to coordinate price with other marketing mix elements, managers still will make faulty pricing decisions, focusing only on the revenues generated by high prices (Calantone and Montoya-Weiss, 1994; Stryker, 1996). The effects of other variables included in this study, such as launch timing, logistics decisions, and distribution channel decisions, have received relatively less research and are relatively less understood.In this study, we explore the combined effects of pricing and non-pricing strategic and tactical decisions made by firms at the time of launch. We review the literature on product launch to identify strategic and tactical variables thought to affect launch success. We collect data from 215 recent new B2B and consumer product launches. Respondents provided information on price decisions made at the time of launch, and we empirically identify three clusters of pricing strategies. We also gather information on how well the strategic and tactical variables related to launch were carried out, as well as on industry structure, environment, and overall profitability and competitive performance of the new product. From this analysis we identify constellations of new product launches in terms of pricing and related launch strategies, and discuss the success outcomes of each. These constellations can be related to \"pure\" skimming and penetration strategies, but with shades of difference in terms of the corresponding strategic and tactical variables that suggest reasons for better or poorer performance. We conclude by deriving and discussing managerial recommendations, and outlining future research directions.\nOverview of variables affecting launch: Pricing and marketing mix strategy\nMethod: Data collection\nResults: Identification of price strategy clusters\nDiscussion and managerial implications: Summary of findings\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the interaction of pricing strategies with other aspects of launch, in particular, timing, logistics/inventory strategy, and coordination with support organizations, and the effect on profit and competitive performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper presents an empirical study of 215 recent new product launches, focusing on pricing and other strategic and tactical launch decisions and the resulting profitability and competitive performance. Clusters of new product launches are identified and the profitability and competitiveness of each cluster are discussed.\nFindings: - The paper finds that some clusters are related to greater success than others. The most profitable and competitively successful cluster contained launches supported by solid market research and marked by good timing decisions. By contrast, the least profitable/successful cluster were higher price launches unsupported by adequate research.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study is limited by the fact that the sampling frame is made up of members of a professional association of product development and management, and may therefore be more representative of \"best practice\" in new product development (NPD) than of NPD in general. The authors believe the use of the key informant method is justified in this study, however this method has been criticized in the past.\nOriginality/value: - The pricing decision for a new product is sometimes oversimplified as a \"high-low\" or \"skimming versus penetration\" choice. The study finds that the actual effect of pricing on ultimate success is much more complex, and that one must consider not only price level, but also the timing of the launch, the logistics and inventory strategy, the extent of market research, testing, and planning, and so forth.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Why are Chinese and North American guests satisfied or dissatisfied with hotels? An application of big data analysis	[ "Satisfaction", "Cross-cultural", "Big data", "Topic modeling", "Word frequency" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Customer satisfaction has been the core concept in tourism studies for a relatively long time due to its role in the revisit intention, decision-making and the customer experience (Pizam et al., 2016; Lee and Kim, 2018; Kandampully et al., 2018; Lee et al., 2019; Lin et al., 2020). For instance, Chen et al. (2013) testified to the relationship among quality, satisfaction and loyalty and showed that satisfaction mediates the relationship between quality and loyalty. Jani and Han (2014) examined the relationships among personality, satisfaction, loyalty, ambiance and image and indicated that personality factors (extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism) significantly affect satisfaction while satisfaction significantly influences image and loyalty. Park et al. (2019) investigated the impact of a substantive and communicative servicescape on satisfaction and satisfaction's influence on behavioral intentions.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Satisfaction studies in hospitality\n3. Research procedure: 3.1 Collecting the data\n4. Research results: The current study collected 656,374 online reviews from Ctrip.com (Chinese reviews posted by Chinese guests) and 6,520 online reviews from Tripadvisor.com (English reviews posted by North American guests). Tables 1 and 2 presents the data distributions in terms of cities, the travel group and the year of review. In the reviews posted by Chinese guests, Shanghai hotels had the most reviews, followed by hotels in Beijing, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Xi'an. Business guests posted the most reviews, while single guests provided the least. Review numbers peaked in 2017. In the reviews posted by North American guests, Beijing hotels had the most reviews, followed by hotels in Shanghai, Xi'an, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Chengdu. Review numbers peaked in 2018. Guests from the USA accounted for 88.08% of the total, while Canadian guests accounted for 11.92% of the total.\n5. Conclusion and discussions: 5.1 Conclusion\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The paper aims to identify the emergent themes of hotel guests' satisfaction, to compare the distribution of the attributes of the themes between Chinese and North American guests and to compare the importance of the themes for different satisfaction levels between Chinese and North American guests from a cross-cultural perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: By adopting Python (a computer language), the word-frequency method was used to identify emergent themes of hotel guests' satisfaction. Topic modeling was adopted to compare the attributes distribution of each theme and the features of satisfaction between Chinese and North American guests.\nFindings: First, three themes were identified including functionality, staff and price. Functionality can be further categorized into five subthemes, namely, room, travel, food, environment and hotel facility. Second, the distribution of the attributes of the themes between Chinese and North American guests was compared from a cross-cultural perspective. Chinese guests tend to mention both lifestyles- and social norms-related attributes and expect personalized service, while North American guests mainly prefer to describe lifestyle-related attributes and prefer standardized service. Third, the study compared the changing importance of the themes (functionality, staff and price) for different satisfaction levels between Chinese and North American guests. As the satisfaction level decreases, the importance of functionality decreases, that of staff increases and that of price remain stable for Chinese guests. In contrast, the importance of each theme has fluctuated mildly from the high to the low satisfaction level for North American guests.\nPractical implications: Proposed managerial implications are to highlight lifestyle- and social norms-related attributes, as well as personalized service for Chinese guests. However, lifestyle-related attributes and standardized service should be facilitated for North American guests. Specific suggestions were made to help improve hotel performance such as the good performance of functional-related attributes, which could enhance satisfaction and better staff performance, which would reduce dissatisfaction.\nOriginality/value: By mining big data, this study investigated hotel guests' satisfaction from a dynamic instead of a static perspective. This study provides some rare insights into differences in key attributes influencing satisfaction levels of Chinese versus North American guests staying in luxury hotels in China. This study also takes a novel approach to examine the dynamics of the importance of the various themes at different satisfaction levels, and contrast these dynamics between Chinese and North American guests. The findings offer valuable insight into market segmentation and management in the hospitality industry.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Orientation, attitude, and competency as predictors of manager's role of CSR-implementing companies in Malaysia	[ "Corporate social responsibility", "Attitude", "Competency", "Managers", "Role", "Business companies", "Orientation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The research context and research questions\nMethod: Population and sampling\nResults and discussion: Roles\nConclusions and recommendations: In this study, we investigated the perceived orientation, attitude and competency of CSR managers as predictors of their CSR roles specifically in community development in the Malaysian context. On the basis of this quantitative analysis, we found that CSR managers clearly had high perceived orientations to CSR, competency and role in CSR, but slightly lower in terms of attitude, suggesting that they understood the vision and mission of CSR conducted by the companies. However, only three factors (two from the orientation subvariables of economic and ethical responsibilities), as well as the competency of managers, were found to predict significantly the role of CSR managers.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This exploratory study aims to investigate how the role of the CSR manager is influenced by his orientation to corporate social responsibility (CSR) responsibilities, his attitude and competency.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study involved 112 managers of CSR-implementing companies in the Klang Valley, a highly industrialized region in Malaysia. They were chosen based on a systematic random sampling technique.\nFindings: The study found that the level of role, orientation and competency of CSR managers was high, whereas that for attitude was moderate. Further, regression analysis results showed that the managers' orientation to economic and ethical responsibilities as well as competency significantly influenced their role in CSR with an explanatory power of 20.1 per cent.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study was cross-sectional in nature. Nevertheless, it involved a sample of company managers from a selected location in the country. The predictor variables were limited to orientation to economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities; attitude; and competency.\nPractical implications: The study highlights the importance of personal qualities of the manager and also the manager's role in promoting community development CSR. These findings should be capitalized on by managers and other practitioners in CSR.\nOriginality/value: The study findings contribute to research on CSR that is viewed from the perspective of corporate image being projected by the role of CSR managers, as influenced by their CSR orientation, attitude and competency. Recommendations for CSR and human resource development practice and future research on the predictors of the role of CSR managers are proposed.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How to derive optimal guarantee levels in participating life insurance contracts	[ "Maximizing policyholder's utility", "Optimal guarantee level", "Participating life insurance contracts", "Risk-neutral valuation of life insurance", "Valuation of embedded investment guarantees" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Due to the current low interest rate environment, much public attention has been focused on life insurance companies offering interest rate guarantees. In addition, an increasing interest in research addressing embedded options in life insurance contracts has also emerged in the academic world in recent years (Bohnert et al., 2015; Reuss et al., 2015; Russ and Schelling, 2018).\nModel framework: We assume that the policyholder's premium payment can be separated in two parts: a savings premium and a premium for death benefits (term life insurance). Furthermore, we assume mortality risk to be fully diversifiable, and hence, we focus solely on the savings premium. To draw a more realistic picture, we consider expected deaths and early surrender on a portfolio basis. Moreover, transaction costs are ignored.\nInterest rates, default risk and stakeholder claims: In this study, we focus our analysis on participating endowment contracts with cliquet-style guarantees. At inception of the contract, two groups of agents - policyholders and equityholders - invest an amount of money in the life insurance company: the initial amount of equity E0 and the first premium payment P0. Note that all policyholders purchase the same life insurance contract at time t = 0. This contract can only differ in premium volume (all premiums sum to the overall premium). These contributions make up the initial assets A0 of the company and, hence, the initial balance sheet is fully described.\nRisk management constraints and contract valuation: This section outlines our assumptions regarding the regulation of life insurance contracts - regulated parameters and solvency requirements - that are set in accordance to current standards. Furthermore, we address the pricing strategy applied in our model, and afterward, some implications for the model are discussed. Finally, we will detail the preference function of the policyholder and the measurement of his utility.\nModel parameterization: This section describes the full set of model parameters and defines a reference situation. We start by presenting our simulation assumptions and the calibration of the interest rate model and asset process. Then, we provide details regarding the model parametrization, such as premiums, contract length, regulatory environment, solvency requirement and the probabilities of death and early surrender.\nNumerical analysis: In this section, we derive our numerical results and identify the optimal contract design. We start with an explanation of our solving procedure for the optimization problem. Next, we demonstrate the role of the initial interest rate level at contract inception. Subsequently, we show how the model can be used to determine the level of the interest rate guarantee that maximizes the policyholder's utility. Subsequently, special focus is placed on the contract length and the effects of the safety requirement on the positioning of the insurance company. We also evaluate how the selection of the utility function impacts the results of the model. Finally, the special role of the long-term mean of the interest rate process due to contract terms of 30 years or more is elaborated.\nImpact of the interest rate environment at contract inception on the positioning of the insurance company: The initial interest rate level, r0, represents the current interest rate environment in our model and has a large influence on the development of possible interest rate paths. The initial interest rate can vary substantially throughout time. Additionally, r0 plays an important role in the optimal determination of the interest rate guarantee g, even though there is a certain time lag between the two parameters. In the following, we are interested in finding out how the model reacts to changes in the initial interest rate. Therefore, we make use of the reference situation and let the value of r0 vary. Special focus is placed on the positioning of the insurance company and the policyholder payoff (Table III).\nMaximizing policyholder utility by optimizing the guarantee level of the Cliquet-style option: In the previous subsection, we focused on the positioning of the insurance company in various interest rate environments and their effect on the policyholder payoff. Henceforward, we want to include the policyholder's valuation of the contract in our analysis. Therefore, we make use of the power isoelastic utility function introduced in equation (11) and the certainty equivalent. We address the results from the viewpoint of customers with different levels of risk aversion (low/medium/high) by setting the Arrow-Pratt constant coefficient of relative risk aversion to n = 2, 5 and 7.\nImpact of the contract length on the optimization results: We also analyzed the impact of the contract length (up to T = 30 years) on the policyholder choice under different risk aversion parameters. The numerical results are available upon request. In the current low-interest rate environment (r0 = 0.12), an equilibrium situation for both stakeholder groups does not always exist. Problematic are shorter contract durations of up to T = 15 years in combination with high guarantees g (0.5 and above). In these cases, the interest rate process lacks enough time to drift toward its long-term mean value. Furthermore, for r0 = 0.12, both the contract length T and the risk aversion parameter v do not have a major impact on the optimal guarantee level g (which is 0 or -0.5 in this setting). Finally, if the overall interest rate environment is above g (r0 = 3.4), the 5-year contract is only attractive for the policyholder if g = 3.0 per cent, independent of v. Extending T to 15 and 30 years under r0 = 3.4 decreases the optimal g to 2.0 per cent and 1.0 per cent, respectively, for v = 2 or notably into negative territory for v = 7.\nVariation of the safety requirement: The safety requirement is a parameter set by the regulating authorities and can be considered an upper bound for ruin probability. In the reference setting of this model, the safety requirement [?] has been chosen to be 0.5 per cent. The following analysis evaluates different levels of the safety requirement and reports its effect on the insurer's equity capital, the chosen asset allocation and the policyholder's utility. In this analysis, an initial interest rate level of r0 = 0.12 per cent is used. All other parameters of the reference setting remain unchanged. Particular focus is placed on the question of whether an increase or decrease of the safety requirement could imply an increase in policyholder utility. Table VI shows that the asset allocation of the insurance company is mainly unaffected by the level of the safety requirement. This result confirms the findings in Schmeiser and Wagner (2014). However, the level of the safety requirement has a large impact on the equity capital base of the life insurance company. An increase in the safety level (which corresponds to a decrease in [?]) forces the company to provide additional equity capital. Due to the risk aversion of the policyholder, a decreasing value of [?] leads to a higher utility for the policyholder. This effect becomes especially strong when considering a policyholder with a high degree of risk aversion (n = 7). If the regulator were to increase the safety level (from the current 0.5 per cent to 0.1 per cent), it would imply a large additional amount of equity required from the shareholder. However, the increase in utility for the policyholder would be rather marginal. For a policyholder with a low degree of risk aversion, no increase in utility can be measured, and even for an extremely risk-averse policyholder, the increase in CE of 0.13 is rather negligible. Hence, a further tightening of solvency requirements does not have an important influence on the policyholder utility.\nThe role of the long-term mean of the interest rate process: As we have shown in previous sections, the interest rate environment at contract inception plays an important role regarding guarantee levels in participating life insurance products. In addition to the starting point, the long-term mean has a large impact on the development of interest rate paths. The long-term mean serves as a target that the interest rate process drifts toward. Therefore, it plays an important role in assessing future guarantees. This section illustrates the effects of a lower long-term mean on the contract and the policyholder's assessment.\nEconomic implications: Earlier research regarding optimal guarantee levels in participating life insurance contracts (in particular Gatzert et al., 2012 as well as Schmeiser and Wagner, 2014) applied three major simplifications: First, interest rates were considered to be deterministic over the entire life span of the contract. Second, insurer defaults were ruled out or could only occur at maturity of the contract. Third, the policyholders paid an upfront lump sum instead of regular premiums. Relaxing these assumptions, our numerical results in the previous section entail at least four important implications for the design of participating life insurance products.\nConclusion: Until 2013, for various reasons, life insurers generally embraced the maximum guaranteed interest rate set by the regulator. As a result of recent economic developments, however, this is no longer a valid assumption. In fact, many companies have now begun to view the guarantee level as a true decision variable. We analyze participating life insurance contracts with cliquet-style interest rate guarantees to derive an optimal design for policyholders with different degrees of risk aversion. For this purpose, we extend the work of Schmeiser and Wagner (2014) to account for a stochastic term structure, interim defaults, regular premium payments and average death and early surrender on a portfolio basis. Our model yields important implications for the product strategy of life insurers in the current low interest rate environment. We find that policyholder utility generally rises for decreasing guarantee levels because the insurer is able to allocate a larger fraction of his portfolio to higher-yielding risky assets. However, if the guarantee is set too low or the contract term is too short, the product completely loses its value for the customer and is dominated by a direct investment in the underlying asset portfolio. Therefore, to maximize policyholder utility, insurers need to combine a sufficiently low guarantee level with a long time to maturity. In addition, we were able to show that preference-based product differentiation is strictly beneficial for the customer.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show how an insurance company can maximize the policyholder's utility by setting the level of the interest rate guarantee in line with his preferences.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors develop a general model of life insurance, taking stochastic interest rates, early default and regular premium payments into account. Furthermore, the authors assume that equity holders must receive risk-adequate returns on their initial equity contribution and that the insurance company has to maintain a solvency restriction.\nFindings: The findings show that the optimal level for the interest rate guarantee is in general far below the maximum value typically set by the supervisory authorities and insurance companies.\nOriginality/value: The authors conclude that the approach of deviating from the maximum interest rate guarantee level given by the regulatory requirements can create additional value for the rational policyholder. In contrast to Schmeiser and Wagner (2014), the second finding shows that the interest rate guarantee embedded in a life insurance product becomes less attractive compared to a pure investment in the underlying asset portfolio to the policyholder when the guarantee level is lowered too far or the contract duration is short. They also refute Schmeiser and Wagner (2014) by showing that the equity capital required by the insurance company increases with the level of the guarantee, even if the insurer is flexible with respect to its asset allocation. The last finding is that a policyholder with higher risk aversion does not generally prefer a higher guarantee level.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Local government transparency index: determinants of municipalities' rankings	[ "Local government", "Municipalities", "Transparency", "Transparency index" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Changes introduced in the last few decades in the public sector altered the public administration's traditional culture, opening organizations and increasing the mechanisms of accountability and transparency. Transparency is a mechanism used to improve good governance in public services (Piotrowski, 2007; Bauhr and Grimes, 2014) and increase the public's ability to access government information (Roberts, 2006a; Piotrowski and Van Ryzin, 2007). It is about increasing the effectiveness of its management, looking for ethical standards and government decisions (Cooper and Yoder, 2002). Focussing on the relationship between information disclosure (supply side of transparency) and the access and usability of information by citizens and stakeholders (demand side of transparency), it allows a better understanding of public policies and increases the public's trust (Park and Blenkinsopp, 2011). In addition, it holds officials accountable for their actions and outcomes, based on the accessibility and divulgence of information. Public administration transparency has increased worldwide since the 1990s (United States Agency for International Development, 2011), and several international organizations have recommended governments to adopt socially responsible practices and to provide information about their activities (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2006).\nTheoretical background and hypotheses development: Concept of transparency\nResearch methodology: This section presents the sample used and justifies the variables selected to test the hypothesis of the empirical study.\nResearch model: The main objective of this work was to analyze the factors that affected the TI during the year 2012, so we adopted a lineal regression method. This was empirically tested using the following econometric model:\nResults and discussion: This section provides empirical results of our study by using three analyses. First, the descriptive analysis, will present the main characteristics of the Spanish municipalities included in the sample. Then, we will do a bivariate analysis to show the bivariate correlation between the dependent and independent variables. Finally, we will do a multivariate analysis to have evidence about the relationship among the proposed variables in the econometric model.\nConclusions: The main objective of this paper was to do an analysis of the index of transparency in Spanish municipalities from the supply side perspective and to determine which political factors affected the index of transparency, under the framework of the agency and legitimacy theories. The sample was composed of 109 municipalities, using data from the TI published by the Organization of TI-Spain in 2012.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Cases of corruption, embezzlement, theft and fraud, abuse of discretion, favoritism, nepotism, clientelism, and abuse of power in governments have led to a growing demand from society to access public information. In response to this demand, governments have been forced to be more transparent in the conduct of their activities. The information transparency index (TI) may be conditioned by economic and political characteristics of local governments affecting the information provided. What factors influenced the index of municipal transparency? Literature about transparency is largely based on the explanations of the agency theory and the legitimacy theory. Based on the postulates of both theories, the purpose of this paper is twofold. First, study the index transparency in Spanish municipalities, and, second, determine the main features that are affecting the index of transparency.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from Transparency International Spain ranking and from official sources. Univariate and multivariate analysis are performed for the treatment of data.\nFindings: The results shows that political factors like electoral turnout, political ideology, and political competition have a significant effect on the index of transparency. Gender has no significant effect on the index of transparency.\nOriginality/value: This study is a contribution to the growing body literature of transparency in order to understand what explains the variations of the TI among municipalities.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The hidden taxable capacity of land: enough and to spare	[ "Land rents", "Property tax", "Economic resources", "Taxation", "Depreciation", "Tax burden" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Scores of economists tell us that an ideal tax is one based on the value of land. A big part of the benefit is getting rid of other taxes, taxes that impose \"excess burdens\" by twisting incentives against the bases taxed. Then these economists abandon the point by assuming land values are too low to support modern government, so forget the ideal tax base.Here, we examine their reasons for so assuming. It turns out that the revenue potential of land is greater than almost anyone thinks. There is enough and to spare. We find that conventional sources of data are seriously negligent and consistently biased downwards. They omit much of the potential base and low-ball what they do measure. Then we go on to identify and uncloset hidden elements of revenue potential, by using truer and more comprehensive definitions and measures of rent and land values, and several modes of raising public revenues from them.Some other economists and pundits, at the same time, express the opposite concern. They bridle at any land tax hike, even in a tax-cum-rebate proposal. It is just \"feeding the beast\", they say, fearing that this feast is too rich. Some even take both positions alternately, as Seligman did a century ago when he bent the twig of modern tax theory (Andelson and Gaffney, 1979). But here we just address the more common concern whether land revenues have the capacity to replace other taxes, so we may sunset the latter. We are looking at a \"revenue-neutral\" shift, to banish counterproductive taxes on labor, production, dwellings, other capital, and commerce. In the process we will specify ways to cut wasteful public spending by using private land better.Beyond that we may or may not, as separate issues, want to add some \"lean\" to the public sector to provide and maintain its crumbling infrastructure, a foundation of the private sector. We may have to pay down our heavy public debts. Interest on those debts now consumes a high fraction of public spending, and threatens to take more as our international credit rating falls, as the dollar already has. We may want to raise taxes to bail out underfunded existing obligations like social security, public health, medical care, and public schools (or vouchers, as one prefers). We may or may not want to distribute a social dividend in cash, on the Alaska model[1]. But again, each of those is a separate issue not treated here.Many modern champions of Georgist ideas have withdrawn into a corner, confining themselves to modifying the existing local property tax by exempting buildings. Many (not all) even shy away from demanding reform of moss-covered assessment rolls[2]. They express concern at being branded as \"cranks\" if they would do more, and of course, their opponents see this weakness and use it to cow them[3]. This timidity narrows the prospective tax base to a small and shrinking part of the total system of public revenues. I ask my readers to join me in exploring the whole system. It is not just the property tax, narrowly conceived, that brims with Georgist issues.There are at least 16 elements of land's taxable capacity that previous researchers have either trivialized, or overlooked and \"disappeared\" entirely. In Group A, Elements 1-4 correct for the downward bias in standard data. In Group B, Elements 5-12 broaden the concepts of land and its rent far beyond the conventional narrow perception. This includes showing how the benefits of untaxing useful activity are shifted into higher taxable land rents, a very powerful effect. In Group C, Elements 13-14 show how removing \"excess burdens\" uncaps viable tax rates. In Group D, Elements 15 and 16 explore a moot idea on how mortgage interest might be treated as rent; and on how taxing the rents of absentee owners improves a local balance of payments.The following table of contents shows how the four Groups and the 16 Elements fit together, and reinforce each other. I urge the serious reader to refer back to this table often, as the focus shifts from one Element to another of the total thesis. The Elements are the trees; this is the forest.\n2 Group A. How conventional data hide land rents and values: 2.1 Element No. 1 Commonly used data sources\n3 Group B. Broadening the concepts of land and its rent: 3.1 Element No. 5 Rents best tapped by variable charges\n4 Group C. Uncapping the tax rate: 4.1 Element No. 13 Freedom from the constraint of excess burden\n5 Group D. Moot new elements of taxable rent: Here, are two more supplements to the land rent tax base. I am not counting them among the basic 14 because they entail novel thinking, outside the box, and are fraught with controversy, such that they might divert us from the main chance.5.1 Element No. 15 Mortgage interest as land rent\n6 Summary and conclusion: Previous estimates of rent and land values have been narrowly limited to a fraction of the whole, thus giving a false impression that the tax capacity is low. We are adding 14 Elements to the traditional narrow \"single tax\" base, plus two moot elements that we advance for future consideration. These 16 Elements come in four Groups.6.1 Group A: How conventional data sources hide land values\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - A tax based on land value is in many ways ideal, but many economists dismiss it by assuming it could not raise enough revenue. Standard sources of data omit much of the potential tax base, and undervalue what they do measure. The purpose of this paper is to present more comprehensive and accurate measures of land rents and values, and several modes of raising revenues from them besides the conventional property tax.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper identifies 16 elements of land's taxable capacity that received authorities either trivialize or omit. These 16 elements come in four groups.\nFindings: - In Group A, Elements 1-4 correct for the downward bias in standard sources. In Group B, Elements 5-10 broaden the concepts of land and rent beyond the conventional narrow perception, while Elements 11-12 estimate rents to be gained by abating other kinds of taxes. In Group C, Elements 13-14 explain how using the land tax, since it has no excess burden, uncaps feasible tax rates. In Group D, Elements 15-16 define some moot possibilities that may warrant further exploration.\nOriginality/value: - This paper shows how previous estimates of rent and land values have been narrowly limited to a fraction of the whole, thus giving a false impression that the tax capacity is low. The paper adds 14 elements to the traditional narrow \"single tax\" base, plus two moot elements advanced for future consideration. Any one of these 16 elements indicates a much higher land tax base than economists commonly recognize today. Taken together they are overwhelming, and cast an entirely new light on this subject.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The symbolic meaning of artifacts for the workplace identity of women in academia	[ "Aesthetics", "Identity", "Artifacts", "Auto-ethnography", "Emotional meaning", "Symbolism" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: It is important to investigate the way women in academia identify with the workplace because man has historically been identified as the ideal and the preferred worker (Allan, 2011; Ramarajan and Reid, 2013). There are two further reasons for such an investigation:\nLiterature review: Context\nMethodology: A direction toward auto-ethnography, as a methodological approach, was chosen because it provides a connection between the consciousness of personal experience and the setting, in this case academia. Prior studies successfully applied the auto-ethnographic approach to study academia (Mendoza, 2008), gender in organizations (Haynes, 2011; Mischenko, 2005; Watson, 2010), and careers (Ryan, 2012). An auto-ethnographical approach facilitates the personal and immediate analysis of the researchers' direct experience (Styhre and Tienari, 2013). In the auto-ethnographic approach, the individual reflects and makes sense about involvement as a researcher, \"given the space to figure out who we are as a person, fieldworker and writer\" (Ryan, 2012, p. 544). Thus auto-ethnography enables us as participants, researchers and writers to \"explore our somewhat conflicting identity positions as women\" in academia (Haynes and Fearfull, 2008, p. 186) through reflection on \"who am I (or 'who are we') and what do I (we) stand for?\" (Sveninggson and Alvesson, 2003, p. 1164). We move here to referencing ourselves in the narrative as \"we\" or \"our\" to support our auto-ethnographical approach.\nFindings: The findings were classified into three emergent themes about the symbolic meaning of workplace artifacts for women in academia. These themes were:\nDiscussion: The symbolic meaning obtained from these artifacts emerged as we, the authors, attempted to make sense of our surroundings (Maitlis, 2005). Sense making is a key feature to the creation of a workplace identity wherein, via a reflective process, sense is made of who we are through either an internal dialogue or through recounting our stories of experience to others (Reissner, 2010). This was true for the authors' auto-ethnographies, where we initially reflected in our journals, and then through dialogue about our experiences we discovered layers of meaning projected through the artifacts.\nLimitations and future research direction: This study is limited, in that it reflects an auto-ethnography by a small number of women in one academic institution in one country. Thus, we cannot claim our framework to be generalizable to other settings; it is an initial study, and deeper analysis of the symbolic meaning of workplace artifacts for women is warranted. An implication is to involve female academicians from many nationalities to extend the study to other academic institutions in further countries. Future research can apply the auto-ethnographic approach and our framework to determine the impact of symbolic meaning on the inclusion and opportunity for women in academia.\nConclusion: Workplace identity for women in academia is constructed and reconstructed as they attribute symbolic meaning to the architectural, institutional and personal artifacts that surround them. We classified our findings into themes of affect, representation and surveillance that imbue artifacts as an institutional issue because of the symbolic meaning for women's inclusion and opportunity in academia.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The aim of this paper is to investigate the symbolic meaning attributed by women in academia to workplace artifacts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research approach is that of auto-ethnography, whereby the authors, as researchers and participants, explore symbolic meaning from artifacts in their working environment.\nFindings: Three themes emerged on the symbolic meaning from artifacts for women in academia. The theme of \"affect\" revealed women as uncomfortable in their surroundings; \"representation\", renders women invisible within the institution; and women felt themselves to be under \"surveillance\".\nResearch limitations/implications: The investigation is limited to one university, which limits generalizability. The implication is to replicate this auto-ethnographical study in other institutions of higher education.\nPractical implications: This paper implies that architectural, institutional and personal artifacts play an important role in defining women's workplace identity.\nSocial implications: Women in academia identify themselves as \"outsiders\" in the workplace because of the symbolic meaning they attribute to artifacts.\nOriginality/value: This study on women in academia is original as it is the first auto-ethnographical study on artifacts in an international institution of higher education.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Emergency remote teaching environment: a conceptual framework for responsive online teaching in crises	[ "Distance learning", "Participatory design", "Design research", "Online instruction", "COVID", "Formal learning", "Learning framework" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In 2020, COVID-19 confronted teachers and administrators in the USA with unprecedented challenges. Encountering a shifting landscape, teachers engaged young students in online learning environments with marked variation in technological access, parental support and academic expectations.\nOverview of study design and participants: Teacher participants were directly recruited via social media. Respondents completed initial questionnaires to identify geographic location, school district socio-economic level, student-device ratio, student age range and subject(s) taught. To reduce situation-specific challenges and broaden applicability of our work, we chose four teachers representing significant variance in these dimensions.\nIntroduction to the emergency remote teaching environment framework: Sawyer (2005, p.10), in the introduction of The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences, identifies four elements that constitute a learning environment: the people in the environment, technologies, architecture and layout of the room and the physical objects within and the social and cultural environment. We propose the term ERTEs to highlight how crises can lead to sudden, widespread variation in these elements. Further, we propose the ERTE framework as a conceptual framework through which teachers can plan and researchers can conceptualize learning in these emergent environments.\nInquire: Based on our focus group discussion, teachers who considered their instructional responses to be effective began with an inquiry of the teacher's abilities, familiarity with technologies, and time; the students' health and safety, access to basic needs, and access to technologies; and their collective resources. By initiating an inquiry, teachers ensured that the pedagogies they put into place were actionable and based on available means. As one participant stated:\nClassify: Factors identified in the inquiry stage are classified into constants and variables. We define constants as factors shared by all students and teachers within an ERTE. One teacher gives an example of a constant with the district's 1:1 device ratio, \"We have lots of money and wealth in the district. So, we have been a 1 to X, lots of devices for the better part of a decade\".\nDesign: We propose eight dimensions of course design for ERTEs, informed by Means et al. (2014) and based on our data. These dimensions, a reflection of the identified themes, guided participant teachers in gathering related information and organizing it systematically to create a coherent design. These dimensions form a progressive but iterative design strategy. In the ERTE framework, teachers design a plan using the constants as a foundation for each aspect of the pedagogy and variables as a means of maximizing individual learning.\nEvaluate: The ERTE framework includes an iterative evaluation of the overall process of remote teaching as Hodges et al. (2020) recommend. This is an evaluation not of the student or the teacher, but of the efficacy of the approach taken for learning with the goal of identifying strategies that will lead to success in continuing or future ERTEs.\nLimitations and future work: Limitations\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to provide an educational framework for not only the emerging COVID crisis but also future emergency remote teaching environments (ERTE).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using participatory design methodologies, this study engages K-12 teachers and professional instructional designers in a design-focused discussion.\nFindings: This work identifies thematic elements present across multiple subject areas, school districts, learner ages and socio-economic situations. Using these themes, as well as design solutions created by our participants, the authors propose the ERTE framework.\nResearch limitations/implications: The framework presented is grounded in the experiences of a limited number of teachers, but presents a theoretically grounded approach to teaching in an emergent field.\nPractical implications: This framework is designed for practical application for use by teachers operating in ERTE.\nOriginality/value: Though multiple online teaching frameworks exist, the ERTE framework is novel in its emphasis on shifting constants and variables rather than planned pedagogy and is specifically for use in unplanned or responsive remote teaching situations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Evidence-based leadership development: the 4L framework	[ "Leadership", "Leadership development", "Lifelong learning", "Professional education" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Much has been written about the role of the principal. For example, Fullan and Hargreaves offered insights into the culture of schools and change issues (Fullan, 2001; Hargreaves and Fullan, 1992). Sergiovannni (1992) provided alternative perspectives on the impact of leadership, school culture, and positive relationships. Leithwood et al. (2004) explored, among many aspects of leadership, the impact of school leaders on student achievement. Darling-Hammond has written about the significance of the principal in establishing supportive environments for teachers' professional development (Darling-Hammond, 1998, 1994; Darling-Hammond and McLaughlin, 1995).\nConceptual framework: The proposed model for leadership development presented in this paper is based upon a clear set of assumptions and beliefs about educational leadership. This conceptual framework draws upon the evidence garnered through the ASAS, the ISPP, and BBL studies outlined above. It also utilizes the scholarly literature pertaining to educational leadership, professional development, and adult learning theory. The following statements are not presented in a sequence of priority.First, good leadership can be taught and nurtured. Though the value of formal advanced studies is debated in some quarters (Levine, 2005; Murphy, 2002), the cross-cultural findings of the ISPP scholars endorse the need to move beyond the belief that good teachers make good principals to address, in a structured and intentional manner, the knowledge and expertise required of leaders in schools of the twenty-first century, globalized society.Second, the primary purpose of leadership is to facilitate high-quality teaching and learning, i.e. provide effective instructional leadership for all stakeholders, including students, teachers, support staff, parents, and, to some extent, associated community members. This conceptualization of instructional leadership is much broader than how it is commonly described in the literature. It includes principals' curriculum, assessment, and management literacy. It includes the capacity to maximize the use of a range of data collected by outside agencies, e.g. standardized tests, and data collected through action research within the school community for the purposes of sound problem solving and decision making, plus ongoing individual and school development.Third, it is clear from the research literature that successful schools are unattainable without effective leadership and attention to sustainability (Schwann and Spady, 1998). Therefore, leaders must have unambiguous, purposeful educational vision. Clearly, leaders must avoid rigid perspectives that are impervious to the evolution required by changing circumstances; but effective leadership is impossible without a strong personal sense of direction that can be enriched in collaboration with other stakeholders and articulated in a manner understandable and acceptable to all.Fourth, the leadership development needs of principals vary as they progress through their careers. Steffy et al. (2000) noted the differences in skills and levels of knowledge as teachers' careers progressed through a range of stages, from novice to apprentice, professional, expert, distinguished, and emeritus teacher. We argue that principals, similar to teachers, have differing levels of knowledge and expertise which can and should be developed over the course of their careers.Fifth, leaders can be informed by the expertise that exists throughout educational organizations (Ballek et al., 2005). Robertson and Webber (2002) noted the benefits that accrue from drawing upon knowledge that resides throughout an entire school community - including that held by educators, parents, and students - for decision-making purposes. This is not to say that everyone can or should be a leader, given Leithwood's (2007, p. 43) cautionary question: \"... if everyone is a leader, who are the followers?\"Sixth, leadership development should be founded on the principles of adult learning theory which identify adults' preference for active and reflective learning environments and utilize problem-solving approaches. The content of leadership development programs must be relevant to participants' work situations, acknowledge their prior learning and experiences, and be negotiated between the instructor and learner (Knowles et al., 2005; Merriam, 2001). Their learning needs must also integrate with their career aspirations.Seventh, educational leadership for the twenty-first century must have an entrepreneurial dimension (Webber and Scott, n.d.). Educational leaders ought to be informed by the important work of those who identify power differentials and social inequities (Ball, 2008; Kozol, 1991; Smyth, 2001). However, we argue that addressing current political and social justice issues in meaningful ways requires leadership practices that are unorthodox and entrepreneurial. Our use of the word entrepreneurial is not intended to elicit the too common conceptualization that focuses primarily on financial considerations. We use the term in a broader sense, to include innovative, nontraditional, and morally sound professional practices. Obviously, leadership should be thoughtful but, more importantly, it also must result in action that makes a positive difference for learners and society. Entrepreneurial leadership should be characterized by action as well as critical thinking. Lessons from business and industry tell us that thinking, on its own, rarely changes anything.Eighth, successful educational leadership requires flexibility and resilience. That is, educational leaders must manifest high levels of social and political acumen (McGinn, 2004) as they navigate the complex demands and expectations of various educational stakeholders. As well, educational leaders must work with colleagues and external stakeholders who have never been in leadership positions and who have little or no understanding of what it involves. As a result, leaders must combat the tensions and conflicts that, without the nurturing of a strong level of personal resilience, can cause some leaders to retreat or step down. Personal resilience - for leaders, their colleagues, and their students - can be maintained through a focus on career trajectory, professional development, and individual support networks.\nValue of leadership development: Principals in the twenty-first century lead very different schools from those of previous generations. Schools are more complex, change is constant and increasingly rapid, public accountability is more overt, and society demands more from school graduates (Fullan, 2002; Hargreaves and Goodson, 2006). As Peterson and Cosner (2005, p. 29) stated \"[p]rincipals' daily work is characterized by brevity, variety, fragmentation, complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty.\" Principals' roles encompass more diverse duties and expectations, ranging from instructional leader to financial manager to policy developer, decision maker, staff mediator and negotiator, and marketer. Most undergraduate programs prepare teachers to teach, not necessarily to lead, and yet teachers are generally the \"talent\" pool from which leaders are drawn. Hence, professional development opportunities must be provided for teachers aspiring or newly promoted to administrative and leadership opportunities.The value of formal qualifications and ongoing professional development is acknowledged readily in the literature as essential for maintaining teacher professionalism (Brandt, 1994; Darling-Hammond and McLaughlin, 1995; Joyce and Showers, 1995; Steffy et al., 2000). Therefore, there can be little argument that professional development for teacher leaders and principals, or \"leadership development\", is also essential in ensuring effective management and leadership (Ballek et al., 2005). Unfortunately, while there is reasonable funding and an entire industry focused on teacher professional development, leadership development is frequently left to the domains of experiential learning on the job, and occasionally, loose forms of mentoring (McCay, 2001). Some western nations have emphasized the value of leadership development by requiring formal higher qualifications, such as, enrollment in a master's degree program, and yet, in context, sustained support for leadership development remains ad hoc (Peterson and Cosner, 2005).\nGood leadership development: Leadership development should include a continuum of formal and informal learning opportunities. Guskey and Sparks (1991, 2002) identified that effective professional development must include attention to the quality of both the content and the processes of learning. In terms of the content, the adult learning literature indicates leadership development program topics should be highly relevant to teacher leaders' and principals' work contexts (Merriam and Caffarella, 1999). With the range of demands on leaders, the content must be comprehensive and representative of the diversity of challenges leaders face in modern schools. Mentorship - whereby novices are coached by experienced peers - can support learning about the principalship. However, Joyce, Showers and their associates (Joyce et al., 1993; Joyce and Showers, 1995) advocated the inclusion of experts in particular aspects to ensure that new knowledge and skills also introduced to learners. Leadership development that relies totally on experiential learning and peer mentorship, without the inclusion of a range of experts, runs the risk of \"pooling ignorance\", the \"acceptance of outdated practices\", and proliferating poor or less effective practices (Scott, 2002).Darling-Hammond (1996, 1998), Lieberman and Miller (2000), Sparks and Hirsh (1997) and Brandt (1994, 2000) all have researched and documented the need for professional development processes to be constructivist in nature, and leadership development is no exception. The shift from professional development based on the \"one-shot workshop\" or conference event to more systematic, sustained, and contextually relevant processes, including formal and informal programs, is well supported (Goldenberg and Gallimore, 1991). Leadership development must address real-world challenges; incorporate opportunities for participants to work together and with experts; promote reflection and dialogue; facilitate the creation and sharing of resources that improve school management and student outcomes; and permit rehearsal of new management skills and leadership strategies (Merriam and Caffarella, 1999). Even though the literature has identified educational advantages of ongoing, sustained, and multidimensional leadership development, there is still a gap between what we know to be effective practice and principals' and teacher leaders' realities. This paper will propose a model which aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice in professional development for effective leadership.\nLeadership roles and responsibilities: Webber and Mulford (2007) highlighted four main influences on schools and their communities: professional leadership, pluralism and multiculturalism, globalization, and information and communication technology. It is within this context, which is very different from that encountered by previous generations of educators, that today's leaders fulfill their responsibilities as instructional leaders, accountability facilitators, and managers.Instructional leadership\nA framework for leadership development: The three reports described earlier - ISPP, ASAS, and BBL - plus the literature discussed informed the leadership development framework presented below. Previous models of professional development, such as peer coaching (Joyce and Showers, 1995) and cognitive coaching (Costa and Garmston, 2002) can be used effectively to focus on quite targeted behaviors. Other models, such as the concerns-based adoption model (Loucks and Hall, 1979), are useful tools for understanding the human process of change. However, what we have called the life-long learning leader (4L) framework is designed to address the full range of complex expectations that society holds for educational leaders. It recognizes the need for career-long learning as a mechanism for thriving during periods of rapid personal, social, and technological change. It is intended to be more than a framework for graduate study, although that can be one application of the model, and it can be viewed as a tool for spiraling through professional and personal learning over time. For example, individuals can apply the 4L model to the learning needs that emerge throughout their careers. Schools and districts, business and industry trainers, social and health services, and government agencies can use the 4L framework to plan job-embedded school- and system-wide initiatives to promote aspiring and novice leaders as well as mid and late career educational leaders. Scaled appropriately, the model can provide the foundation for sector-wide and state/province-wide change initiatives and for sustaining desirable educational practices on a large-scale.There are three parts to the multidimensional 4L model. First, several dimensions of leadership development are listed in Table I, along with a summary of the key components of each dimension. The third aspect of the 4L model describes the foci encompassed by each dimension that should be considered essential for inclusion in leadership development programming.Career stage\nImplications: Essential knowledge and skills for leaders are included in the 4L framework, introduced through both formal and informal professional development processes. As a result, use of the 4L leadership development approach has implications for all organizational roles, both in the field of education and in other professions. That is, the dimension foci can be modified to be discipline specific.Leaders\nConclusion: The 4L framework has been formulated based upon evidence garnered from three major studies conducted in Canadian and international contexts. It also draws upon the scholarly literature from education and the social sciences. It is a proposal for leadership development not only applicable within the field of education but also in broader contexts such as business and industry, health and social services, sports, and government. We argue that the 4L framework merits serious consideration by professional development providers and institutions of higher learning as a vehicle for leadership training and nurturing. It is comprehensive in that it suggests particular learning content for leadership development initiatives but it also addresses the processes for effective professional development of adult learners.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to use the results of three research initiatives to present the life-long learning leader (4L) framework, a model for leadership development intended for use by designers and providers of leadership development programming.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The 4L model is a conceptual framework that emerged from the analysis of one study conducted in Canada and two others conducted in international settings.\nFindings: - The 4L framework contains eight dimensions that leadership development programming should address: career stage, career aspirations, visionary capacity, boundary breaking entrepreneurialism, professional skills, instructional design and assessment literacy, crisis management, and approaches to leadership development.\nResearch limitations/implications: - As with all research, findings are subject to researcher biases and limitations.\nPractical implications: - The 4L framework can be used as the basis for graduate programs in leadership, small- and large-scale leadership development initiatives, and cross-cultural leadership development. Implications of the 4L framework are discussed in relation to stakeholder roles, e.g. leaders, professional developers, university leadership preparation programs, employers, policy makers, and researchers.\nOriginality/value: - The 4L is a framework for leadership development not only applicable within the field of education but also in broader contexts such as business and industry, health and social services, sports, and government. The 4L framework merits serious consideration by professional development providers and institutions of higher learning as a vehicle for leadership training and nurturing. It is comprehensive in that it suggests particular learning content for leadership development initiatives but it also addresses the processes for effective professional development of adult learners.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A genetic algorithm for minimizing makespan of block erection in shipbuilding	[ "Production scheduling", "Parallel machines", "Shipbuilding industry", "China" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: In the recent years, Chinese shipbuilding industry boomed because of the cheap labor, and in China, the shipyards are running at peak load capacity. This calls for the highest level of productivity improvement research. Efficient planning is vital in achieving high productivity. The manual planning system, which has been used, has had a limited effect in the shipyard because of the unrealistic and untimely work orders it gives. This results in work delays, accumulation of work-in-processes, etc. The manual planning system also cannot respond quickly to the changing environment since it takes a long time to find a schedule manually. To tackle this challenge, many shipbuilding companies are developing their own computerized planning systems.The manufacturing process of shipbuilding includes pre-processing, fabrication, assembly, painting, pre-erection and block erection, according to the necessary operations to build a ship. Much attention has been paid to the optimization of the part fabrication (Okumoto and Iseki, 2005; Cho et al., 1999), block assembly (Park et al., 1996; Cho et al., 1998), block painting (Cho et al., 2001), and pre-erection area (Ranjan and Yoon, 2006; Duck and Ranjan, 2007). Lee et al. (1997) used the constrained direct graph search technique to generate block erection schedule, but they did not consider the machine (crane) eligibility restrictions because there was only one crane.The block-erection process is the process of construction ships by assembling blocks transported to docks by cranes. The block-erection process in shipbuilding is the last stage, but it is the first stage and basis of the flow of manufacturing plans. In any shipyard, most bottlenecks form around the building dock area. To minimize the block occupancy at the dock, the cranes are equipped as much as possible. There are total three cranes at the dock of this paper. On the other hand, an efficient scheduling algorithm for block erection is necessary to minimize makespan with the limited cranes.\n2 Literature review: The block erection scheduling problem can be defined as the parallel machine-scheduling problem with precedence constraints and machine eligibility (PCME). Many people investigate the problem of minimizing makespan on parallel machines with the precedence constraints (Herrmann et al., 1997; Hurink and Knust, 2001; Chekuri, 2001; Isto and Erkki, 2006; Hermann et al., 2003). Hurink and Knust (2001) presented some complexity results which restrict the use of list scheduling for solving a parallel machine-scheduling problem where additionally precedence constraints and sequence-dependent setup times are given and the makespan has to be minimized. Herrmann et al. (1997) proposed a number of heuristics for the problem of minimizing makespan on unrelated parallel machines with precedence constraints. Chekuri (2001) developed an approximation algorithm for scheduling precedence constrained jobs on machines with different speeds to minimize makespan. Isto and Erkki (2006) and Hermann et al. (2003) both solved the parallel machine-scheduling problem, consisting of m parallel machines, n tasks having precedence constraints, and unit processing times. They only considered the precedence constraints, and did not address the machine eligibility.Other people deal with the problem of minimizing makespan on parallel machines with machine eligibility (Lin and Liu, 2004; Liao and Shin, 2008; Centeno and Armacost, 2004). Lin and Liu (2004) presented a polynomial algorithm for the parallel machine-scheduling problem with unit-length jobs. Liao and Shin (2008) considered the problem of scheduling n independent jobs on m identical machines incorporating machine availability and eligibility constraints while minimizing the makespan. Centeno and Armacost (2004) developed and evaluated a combination of the least flexible job rule, the longest processing time and the least flexible machine rule for the parallel machine scheduling-problem with release time and machine eligibility restrictions. These literatures did not consider the precedence constraints. As indicated, none of the above works can deal with the block erection problem, because of the combination of the precedence constraints and the machine eligibility.The extreme complexity of the parallel machine problem has triggered a great deal of effort in developing computer-search techniques such as tabu search and genetic algorithms (GAs). Min and Cheng (1999) address the identical parallel machine problem for the makespan minimization criterion using GA and show that their method has advantage over heuristic procedure and simulated annealing method. Many people successfully develop the GA for parallel machine-scheduling problem with different constraints and objective, for example workflow balancing with precedence constraint (Rajakumar et al., 2006), minimizing the weighted completion time with precedence (Girish and Elmaghraby, 2006), minimizing maximum lateness with dynamic job arrivals (Malve and Uzsoy, 2007), and multi-objective (Cochran et al., 2003). However, there is a noticeable gap between the theory and the practice of scheduling, because some real situations are ignored.In this paper, a meta-heuristic, based on a GA, is developed for block erection scheduling to minimize makespan. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 3 describes the block erection problem. Section 4 defines a few lower bounds (LBs) used to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. Section 5 presents a new GA in detail. Section 6 designs the experiments to valid the proposed algorithm, and show the results. Finally, Section 7 summaries the paper and addresses the future research directions.\n3 Block erection scheduling problem: A layout of a shipbuilding dock is shown in Figure 1. Bq (q=1, ... , n) shown in Figure 1 indicates block q. There are two jib crane (M2 and M3) and one gantry crane (M1). A block and a crane are defined as a job and a machine, respectively. There are n blocks erected by m=3 cranes. Because of the limited capacity of the jib crane, some large blocks must be used by the gantry crane M1. Furthermore, in order to eliminate the errors and deformation, some blocks must be transported simultaneously by two cranes, and others must transported by the restricted crane (Liu, 2000). These crane restrictions are defined as the machine eligibility. All the blocks should satisfy the structural stability condition. For example, blocks at the bottom of a ship must be erected before their corresponding wing blocks. The precedence among associated blocks is strictly fixed, and each kind of vessels has its own configuration, which the scheduling of block erection must meet. The objective of block erection scheduling is to determine the detailed sequencing and timing of each block erection, so as to minimize makespan, Cmax, the maximum completion time of all blocks on all cranes. Now, the block erection scheduling problem is defined as the parallel machine-scheduling problem with PCME, which is to schedule n jobs on m identical machines in parallel in the presence of machine eligibility and precedence constraints.Figure 2 shows a typical block erection precedence diagram, which is a part of 74,500 bulk carrier. A circle indicates a job, and an arc linking two jobs represents the precedence relation between jobs. Each job is associated with a label of (ti, R), where ti is the ith job processing time and R (= M1, M2, M3, E or D) is the preferred operation machine. M1-M3 indicate that the job should be performed on Machine 1-3, respectively. A job associated with E can be performed on either machine, and D represents that the job occupancies two machines.\n4 Lower bounds: In this section, a LB on the optimal makespan is proposed. The role of a LB is to use it as a reference for evaluating the performance of our GA for the parallel machine-scheduling problem with PCME.The simplest LB0 follows from the critical path (CP), and can be defined as the length of CP, which is the sum of the processing times of the jobs in the CP. For the example shown in Figure 2, the CP is a set of jobs {1, 3, 6, 9, 14, 18, 21, 24}, and LB0=72.In term of total capacity bound for the job with two machines restriction, LB1 can be defined as following: Equation 1 where R( j ) represents the machine eligibility of job j, R( j )=2 means that job j must occupy two machines simultaneously, and [m/2] indicates the maximum number of the jobs with two machines restriction processed synchronously. For the example in shown Figure 2, if there are m=3 machines, the LB1=(71/[3/2])=71.Total capacity bound LB2: it means that the total time available on the machines must be no smaller than the total work content: Equation 2 LB1 can be strengthened by adding the processing time of the jobs, which are processed on one machine, and are common predecessors or successors of the jobs with two machine restrictions, because they cannot be processed at the same time. LB3 is the strengthened LB1 and can be defined as following: for job k and j, [?]k, R(k)=1, [?]j, R(j)=2, if k[?][?]Pj or k[?][?]Sj, then: Equation 3 Further, the common predecessors or successors of the jobs with two machine restrictions are in the same path, which means that they must be processed one-by-one, and the enhanced LB4 can be defined: Equation 4 For the example shown in Figure 2, the jobs {1, 3} are the common predecessors of the jobs with two machine restrictions, and they are in the same path. LB4=71+6+12=89. The LB for the problem with PCME is defined as the maximum among above four LBs.\n5 A genetic algorithm: The problem with PCME is intractable to polynomial-time algorithms. The known GA is powerful and broadly applicable stochastic search and optimization techniques based on principles of evolution theory. In the recent years, GA has received considerable attention for solving difficult combinatorial optimization problems (Gen and Cheng, 1997). In this section, GA is developed to solve the problem with PCME.The basic elements of a GA that must be specified for any given implementation are representation, population, evaluation, selection, operators and parameters. GAs (Holland, 1975) start with encoding the factors of a problem by chromosomes, and creating the initial population. The chromosome is evaluated by using a fitness function. The evolvement is carried out through the genetic operators so that the chromosomes would approach the optimal solution generation by generation. There are three genetic operators: crossover, mutation, and reproduction. Crossover combines two chromosomes to generate next-generation chromosomes preserving their characteristics. Mutation reorganizes the structure of genes in a chromosome randomly so that a new combination of genes may appear in the next generation. It serves the search by jumping out of local optimal solutions. Reproduction is to copy a chromosome to the next generation directly so that chromosomes from various generations could cooperate in the evolution.5.1 Chromosome representation\n6 Experimental results: The experiment to be conducted in this paper is the scheduling problem of block erection in a shipyard located in Shanghai, China. Its main product type includes container carrier, oil tanker and bulk carrier. The hull block construction method is to divide hulls into many blocks and builds them up at dock. During the blocks division, the vessel type and the tonnage are mainly considered. Of course, the little variation of the vessel tonnage cannot change significantly the blocks and precedence among them. One bulk carrier, two container carriers and two oil tankers are selected, which can reflect the practical situations of block erection in shipbuilding industries. Appendix shows the block erection precedence of the bulk carrier. The precedence of the block erection is provided by the shipbuilding enterprise, and the processing time is randomly generated according to the statistical distribution, based on the analysis of the historical data. For each of the test problem, the different values of the processing time generated randomly were used in order to provide a higher number of problem instances, a total of 15.The manual scheduling system of block erection, based on the random heuristic algorithm, is used in the shipyard, while the solution quality is poor and it cannot react quickly to the dynamic environment, i.e. the major incentive for us to develop a more efficient and effective GA to improve the system performance.It is usually difficult to evaluate the performance of approximate algorithms. In this paper, we define two measures: the RG and the percentage of the reduced makespan (PRM). RG is defined by the equation (5), and it represents that the obtained solution is near to the optimal one. If RG is equal to zero, the solution is optimal. PRM is defined as following equation: Equation 7 where RCMax is the makespan of the schedule constructed manually by the operators of shipyard. PRM indicates that the improvement made by the GA compared with the manual scheduling system.The GA has been coded in C++ and run on a Pentium 4, 2.66 GHz PC, with 1 GB of memory. The results of the proposed GA for the example problem in Figure 2 are shown in a Gantt chart (Figure 4) with CMax=94 and RG = 5.62 percent. Table I presents the results of the proposed GA for Appendix, and Table II presents the approximate solutions found by the proposed algorithm, the number of blocks, the LB, RG, PRM and the computational time for the collected five instances. When computing the average computational time, the example shown in Figure 2 is not considered because its number of blocks is much less than the real instances. The results show that the proposed GA can find good approximate solutions for minimizing makespan on parallel machine with PCME, and can be applied to construct the schedules of block erection in shipbuilding industry.\n7 Conclusions: The block erection scheduling problem is defined as the identical parallel machine-scheduling problem with precedence constraints and machine eligibility restrictions. The GA is developed to find the approximate solution by minimizing makespan. The GA performance is evaluated by using the measure of RG, and compared with the random heuristic algorithm by using the measure of PRM. GA is tested on the collected typical instances in the shipyard from real industrial applications. The proposed GA is applied to the block erection scheduling problem in a shipyard. The results with the average RG of 12.0 percent and the RPM of 10.6 percent definitely illustrate that the proposed GA can efficiently find the good approximate solution for the block erection scheduling problem, and thus can really contribute to the productivity improvement in the shipbuilding industries. However, because of the very high-inventory cost in shipbuilding industry, minimizing the total weighted completion time of the block erection is also interesting. In the future, the algorithm for multiple objective optimization of block erection at a dock should be developed.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to propose an algorithm based on genetic algorithm (GA) to solve the block erection scheduling problem in shipbuilding.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The block erection scheduling problem is defined as the identical parallel machine-scheduling problem with precedence constraints and machine eligibility (PCME) restrictions. A GA is proposed to find near optimal solution, and a few lower bounds and the percentage of the reduced makespan are defined to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. Finally, the GA for block erection scheduling problem in a shipyard is illustrated by using the real data from a local shipyard.\nFindings: - The proposed GA produces lesser values of makespan against the random heuristic algorithm for the collected real instances.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The proposed GA can solve other similar parallel machine-scheduling problems with PCME to minimize makespan.\nPractical implications: - Based on the proposed GA, the developed scheduling system for block erection in a shipyard can reduce the makespan of block erection, and contribute to the productivity improvement.\nOriginality/value: - The allocation of block erection to the crane is modeled as a parallel machine-scheduling problem with PCME, and the GA is developed to solve this problem to minimize makespan.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Factors affecting desire to negotiate again	[ "Ethics", "Negotiation", "Interpersonal relations", "Communication" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Negotiation is an interpersonal decision-making process that an individual undertakes when achieving his/her objectives requires the cooperation of others (Thompson, 2012). It is an essential skill for all social encounters and economic exchanges, including those occurring in organizational contexts. As such, negotiation is common to strategic planning, purchasing, hirings/firings/promotions, sales, budgeting, customer relations, and many other managerial and administrative endeavors (Lax and Sebenius, 1986; Pride et al., 2014).\nBackground and hypotheses: The study of bargaining and negotiation is marked by a number of milestones, one of which is the seminal work by von Neumann and Morgenstern (1944) in game theory. Interestingly, much of the research that flowed from this paradigm contained a longitudinal dimension, as games such as the Prisoner's Dilemma were played in rounds with the same counterpart (Axelrod, 1984; Deutsch, 1973). As the study of negotiation continued to evolve, however, researchers began to employ more complex scenarios involving multi-issue buyer-seller and team-based negotiations requiring more time to set up and execute. While the immediate context of these negotiations was enriched, it was often at the expense of a longitudinal reality.\nMethods: Participants\nResults: The descriptive statistics and correlations for the control, independent, and dependent variables of the randomly selected individuals from each dyad are shown in Table I. Age and gender of these focal negotiators were comparable to those of all participants in the study. The dyads exchanged between 2 and 24 messages (mean=4.50 messages per negotiator, 9.00 per dyad). On average, these messages contained about two competitive tactics each (mean=2.03 tactics/message for focal negotiators, 1.97 tactics/message for their counterparts).\nDiscussion: Negotiation is an essential feature of organizational life. In more cases than we are probably aware (or would like to remember), the process or outcome of a negotiation impacts a counterpart's desire to negotiate with us in the future. While there may indeed be situations where there are no consequences to these feelings (one-off negotiations), in many cases the parties have interrelated positions that will involve future encounters (Thompson, 2012). To better understand the factors that can influence a counterpart wanting to negotiate again, this study examined the processes and outcomes of 115 dyads negotiating property leases, selecting one representative at random from each dyad to serve as focal negotiator for purposes of statistical analysis.\nConclusion: In the process of moving toward more complex scenarios involving multiple issues, many negotiation researchers broadened their focus from the repetitive encounters commonly found in game theory to single encounters with objective measures. More recently, however, researchers have come to recognize the value of negotiators' subjective assessments of process and outcome (Curhan et al., 2006). Implicit in these assessments is the desire to negotiate with a counterpart in the future. Negotiation involves getting things done in interdependent environments, whether personal or professional. Beyond achieving one's own objectives, therefore, it is important to understand and manage the factors that drive a prospective counterpart's desire to negotiate again.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of negotiation process and outcome on an individual's desire to negotiate again with the same counterpart.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 115 dyads representing two companies negotiating an eight-issue property leasing agreement via e-mail. Desire to negotiate again was regressed on demographic/personality, process, and outcome measures.\nFindings: Reaching an agreement was found to be significantly related to desire to negotiate again, while the number of messages exchanged and the mean number of competitive tactics employed were positively and negatively associated with reaching an agreement, respectively. Further, perceived honesty of self and counterpart were also associated with an individual's desire to negotiate again.\nOriginality/value: This study focuses on an aspect of real negotiations often overlooked by researchers - the likelihood of future encounters with the same party - and examines three categories of factors that could affect a party's desire to negotiate with a counterpart again - demographic/personality, process, and outcome (actual and perceived).\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How Skillsoft stay ahead of the learning curve: content, service and experience are crucial to customer satisfaction	[ "Learning and development", "Elearning", "Technology", "Mobile learning", "Social collaboration", "Customer service", "Training", "Learning", "Development", "Customer service management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nYou have been with Skillsoft UK for almost 14 years, and have vast experience in the learning industry. How have your customers' expectations changed over the years?: Customer needs have changed in a number of ways. Some of the challenges this presents are not unique to Skillsoft in any way. Expectations are certainly much higher than they were in the early days, driven by a number of business pressures, but also from a technological perspective. Expectations within the learning and development community are often driven by the end user, and what they expect in terms of the way in which they will acquire information, knowledge and skills. It's changed - some people still expect to learn in a classroom setting, but many more people expect to acquire knowledge through some form of technology. There has been a shift from evangelizing in the early days that soft skills could be taught using the web, through to much more of a focus on mobile deployment and social collaboration.Procurement is often front and center to organizations looking to purchase training, something that is a reflection of tough economic times. They are clearly looking for the best possible value, best fit, and most relevance. We believe that technology-based training has tremendous value that it can offer within a constrained, tough economic period. Organizations are increasingly looking for long-term partners who have the financial strength to continue to invest in bringing innovation into the marketplace. With the speed of change increasing constantly, we, along with all technology-based training providers need to be up-to-date with those latest trends, and building solutions that reflect the reality in our corporate client-base.\nWhat are the emerging trends in learning and how do you stay ahead of the curve?: We spend a lot of time ensuring that we've got a good view of the changing technology and priorities within our diverse customer base. We do that, for example, through formal gatherings such as the Perspectives event we held back in June. We had close to 200 customers in attendance, and it provided a great opportunity for us to understand what their priorities are. We also have a strong field support team, whose task is to meet with customers on a weekly or monthly basis, and feed back to us what they see in terms of changing technology and demands. We also have an annual survey which goes out to our customers globally, looking at key topic areas. All of those things help to inform what we produce and when we produce it.There's another player in that process, because we also focus on IT professional content, in that some of the curricula are driven by changes in technology, whether at the desktop level, or at the more advanced, Cisco, Oracle level. We will build certification tracks that map against their latest curricula. Those are the factors that help us identify what we build, what we prioritize, alongside which we have research labs that are looking at future technologies to make sure we are well-aligned to what's emerging.\nWhich technological advancement has been most significant in shaping the industry?: Over the last few years there have been three significant developments: the increased use of media-rich content, social collaboration and mobile technology.If you look at course content built five years ago, there is a degree of interactivity, but it is fairly flat as it was built in line with customers' technology environments. That has changed out of sight - most organizations have got very good accessibility across the board now, for both remote- and on-site workers, which has allowed us to use much richer media content. Over the last two years, our portfolio has shifted from one hour business skills courses with some video content, which are still very popular, through to three minute support videos around a specific topic. There has been a real shift towards greater use of rich media, and we've been very fortunate to have been at the forefront of that.The concept of social collaboration has gained visibility across many organizations, although like mobile, a lot of companies are talking about it, while only some are executing it. We addressed this about three years ago when we released a social layer called inGenius to one of our key solutions, the Books24x7 product. This allows communities within an organization to come together, to identify key experts and best practice, all within the firewall of that particular organization.Similar to social collaboration, there is lots of talk about mobile, and most organizations are looking to implement and deploy some form of mobile solution. Part of the challenge, frankly, has been the lack of stability in terms of devices, and the speed of change. The challenge for organizations such as ourselves has been deciding what approach we take from a technology perspective - preferably one that means as many of the solutions we produce as possible are platform- and device-independent. That's been our strategy, and it's worked very well for us. Almost irrespective of the tablet, android, or phone technology you are using, most organizations can access our content and that's been a major investment, because we see the use of mobile increasing significantly.\nWhat challenges do you see for the market in the future?: The most fundamental challenge to the learning and development (L&D) community is delivering value. If you ask the majority of CEOs how they would rate the contribution of their L&D function, it's not a particularly pretty picture. In economically-challenging times, training for many organizations is still seen as discretionary and one of the first things that can be cut. With those organizations where there's a clear alignment between the L&D contribution and business outcomes, training investment doesn't decline and in some cases grows, because they are able to sit down with the CFO, the COO, and the CEO and demonstrate the value. I think underlying all the trends and changes in technology, the biggest challenge for L&D is demonstrating value to the board.\nWhat is the key to creating a successful partnership between eLearning provider and client?: We tend to focus on three key value propositions, the first of which is around our content. We focus on delivering world-class, instructionally-sound content delivered in a whole series of ways, whether it's traditional elearning, performance support videos, digitized books, role-play simulations, virtual classrooms. We invest heavily in that, and it's that range and diversity of content that supports our customers as their priorities and technology change over time.The second area is service. We focus very heavily on supporting our customer in the deployment of elearning, both from a technology point of view, but also in terms of positioning, and how to map it against key programs within the organization. Each year we use an external market research company to go to our global customers and ask how they rate Skillsoft across 6 measures. This is something we have done for the past five or six years, and we are hitting in the mid-90 s on each measure. We take service very seriously, and have a view that you can build the best content in the world but you still need to wrap around services, because we know how to make it work for our customers.Third, tangibly linked to the service side, is experience. That experience comes from working globally with over 3000 customers, with over 15m users on our LMS platform. We invest in excess of $50m per year on product development, technology enhancements and innovation. All of those things, we believe, create a very effective long-term partnership for our customers.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide an interview with Kevin Young, general manager of Skillsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper takes the form of an interview.\nFindings: - The paper discusses the challenges the industry faces, both for learning solution providers and customers.\nOriginality/value: - It outlines how Skillsoft has overcome various challenges, and discusses the core beliefs that the company espouse.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Recognizing the rights of consumers as brand co-owners	[ "Brands", "Trade marks" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Brand marketers are increasingly recognizing that brands are not simply something they create and thrust upon passive consumers. Rather if brand interest is to lead to brand loyalty and beyond to brand affiliation, marketers must recognize the important role consumers play in the process (Boyle, 2007). Today consumers often can readily communicate with their fellow brand consumers and exchange both information and viewpoints about the brand (Lawer and Know, 2006). Even extensions of well-accepted brands more often than not fail because consumers evaluate the new product rather than remain unthinkingly loyal to the overall brand (Volckner and Sattler, 2006). Consumers determine whether brands succeed or fail in the marketplace.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to assert that trademark law is too restrictive and that consumers should have some rights to a brand independent of the brand owner.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper examines the expansive tendency of trademark law and the concept of trademark fair use and the impact of trademark law on customer relationships.\nFindings: - The concept of trademark fair use offers only limited benefits to brand consumers.\nPractical implications: - Despite the ability to enforce exclusive ownership rights under trademark law, brand owners need to exert a broad view of customer co-ownership or they risk less customer involvement with the brand.\nOriginality/value: - The paper proposes policy changes to allow great consumer enjoyment of brands.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
I'm loving it but hating US: Understanding consumer emotions and perceived service quality of US fast food brands	[ "Pakistan", "Animosity", "Ethnocentrism", "Religiosity", "Service quality", "PAKSERV", "Country of origin", "Fast food chains" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The understanding of consumer emotions is rooted in the theories of psychology which laid the basis of theoretical development in the field of marketing and consumer behavior. Among these theories, the social identity theory addresses consumers' emotional and sentimental cues toward a product or service (Bruning, 1997). It is acknowledged that people seek an in-group identity and wanted to continue with it, instead of trying to create and maintain an individual identity - absolutely true in high-context cultures (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2001). The source of identity is the brand - the consumption which helps people to achieve social recognition. In an era where global consumer culture is on the move, local brands are spreading their wings in international markets which have necessitated the need to establish and maintain strong consumer-brand relationships. In order to counter the strong competition from home country brands, global brands are trying to gain social approval and recognition among its target markets by highlighting \"Made in [...]\" country images (Gao et al., 2014) that is also known as country of origin (CoO) effect in consumerist literature. The country images are displayed to consumers who wanted to gain social power through buying, consuming, and referring to global brands. However, the process of articulating \"Made in[...]effect\" is complex and demands an articulation of three inter-related yet distinct forms of consumer emotions - animosity, ethnocentrism, and religiosity (Ahmed et al., 2013).\nLiterature review: The CoO and consumer decision making\nHypothesis development: Religiosity\nMethodology: The data from consumers patronizing US-based fast food restaurants in the city of Lahore Pakistan were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire. The anecdotal evidence shows that McDonalds', KFC, Pizza Hut, and Subway are among the most well-known US-based food brands in Pakistan which formed the basis to collect data from consumers visiting these food chains. The data were collected from US-based fast food chains located in the city of Lahore where people from all across the country reside to seek employment and work opportunities. Ethics approval from the branch managers of these food chains was sought before formal data collection. The questionnaires were randomly distributed among people once they finished the meal by one of the researchers. The privacy of respondents was assured which led to a smooth data collection phase. The respondents sealed the finished questionnaires and dropped these into a box (placed by research team) while exiting the restaurants.\nResults: The respondents of this study represented almost all the age groups who are customers of fast food restaurants in Pakistan. The largest age group category of respondents was 18-27 years which is the largest chunk of Pakistani population. There were males (66.2) and females (33.8) as respondents. Since the largest age group was from 18 to 27 years of age bracket, most of respondents (43.3 percent) were single. The second highest category of respondents (35.8 percent) based on their marital status was \"married with children\". The respondent demographics, with a few dominant categories truly represent the actual target market profile of customers of these US-based fast food chains in Pakistan.\nDiscussion: This study was motivated to extend the theoretical understanding of international food service marketing knowledge by integrating international marketing issues (religiosity, animosity, and ethnocentrism) with relationship quality challenges (service quality and purchase intent). The study is pioneer to establish a relationship between international marketing emotions with perceived service quality of US-based fast food brands. This relationship was previously limited to product judgment - purely tangible products which are different as compared with services (Ahmed et al., 2013). Second, the application of PAKSERV scale to investigate service quality of fast food brands by integrating it with international marketing issues is also a unique product of this study. Finally, the study has a contextual value - the selection of Pakistan as a country where one of the largest Muslim populations resides. However, previously, the consumer emotions were merely studied with regards to food choice decisions in a western environment (Bonne et al., 2007). Furthermore, food service marketers, in a developing country context have restricted their investigations to explain the food retail selection criteria among consumers (Ehsan, 2012).\nLimitations and future research: Despite several contributions and a strong methodology where a non-student population has been surveyed, this study has a few limitations. First, the data were collected through employing a survey-based approach. Given the cultural and religious orientation of Pakistani people in general, more in-depth qualitative studies are recommended to unearth the consumer emotions rooted in local culture and religion. Second, the research is a cross-sectional study intended to delineate the role and impact of consumer emotions with respect to perceived service quality and purchase intentions. It is known that consumer emotions change over time and feelings of religiosity may be high among Muslims during, for example, the month of Ramadan and other religious events. Hence, a few experiments to understand the religious emotions on purchase intentions in Muslim societies may bring interesting results. Third, the data were collected from a single country - Pakistan and does not completely represent the opinions of all the Muslims. Future researchers are strongly recommended to collect data from multiple countries - employment of cross-national studies.\nConclusion: The relationship between consumer emotions and service quality is established by the conduct of this study. The managers working with US-based fast food chains in Pakistan and countries alike must acknowledge consumer emotions. Although these do not strongly relate to purchase intention of fast food brands, but influence perceived service quality. This implies that a \"made in\" tag might be used in Pakistan to gain customer confidence concerning the service quality of fast food chains (Suri and Thakor, 2013). The Pakistani fast food consumers are not highly ethnocentric and seem to be willing to trust these global brands. However the feelings of religiosity and animosity are relatively high and should be taken into consideration while devising a strategy. Observing some religious events in Pakistan and other Muslim countries might be helpful in developing religious congruence - brands and consumers. The PAKSERV scale items should be emphasized to strengthen further service quality perceptions. This is important because service has now become an experience - created and shared among multiple parties of a social system. The higher values for sincerity and assurance dimensions promote the value of these two dimensions for fast food marketers in Pakistan and should be taken into account so as to manage customer perceived service quality more effectively.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The studies which connect international marketing emotions with perceived service quality are scarce. The purpose of this paper is to fill this knowledge gap and take into account the consumers' perceived animosity, religiosity, and ethnocentrism to connect these with perceived service quality and purchase intentions of US-based fast food brand chains currently operating in Pakistan.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors collected data by means of a self-administered questionnaire, distributed among 500 consumers, randomly selected, patronized the four US fast food brands, namely, McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Subway in the city of Lahore in Pakistan. The data are analyzed by employing Structural equation modeling (SEM) based on AMOS 21.0 software.\nFindings: Results of this study reveal that religiosity and ethnocentrism among Pakistani fast food consumers are low and do not influence the decision to purchase fast food brands. However, consumer emotions influence service quality perceptions - ultimately leading to purchase intentions.\nOriginality/value: The study generally adds to marketing and specifically to international food service marketing knowledge by eliciting the role of religiosity, animosity, and ethnocentrism to delineate service quality and purchase intentions. Furthermore, the external validity of PAKSERV scale and the context of Pakistan - a collectivist Muslim country are also the unique products of this study.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Investment in working capital and financial constraints: Empirical evidence on corporate performance	[ "China", "Performance", "Working capital management", "Financial constraints", "Cost of external capital" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Working capital management decisions affect firm performance (Schiff and Lieber, 1974; Kim and Chung, 1990), and influence company value, profitability and risk (Smith, 1980). Working capital is the difference of current assets and current liabilities, and it is also considered as measure for liquidity (Ding et al., 2013). Corporate finance literature has mainly focused on long-term financial decisions such as dividends, capital structure, investment and company valuation but paid little attention to short-term financing decisions (De Almeida and Eid, 2014). Moreover, liabilities and liquid assets are indispensable part of company's overall assets and yet need to be properly analyzed in order to manage working capital requirements (WCRs).\n2. Review of related literature and hypotheses development: The financial health of a company is reflected by its working capital which is directly linked to profitability and liquidity (Sagner, 2014). Working capital management is crucial and integral part of companies' financial management (Talonpoika et al., 2016), and short-term financial performance. Working capital involves management of cash, inventories and accounts receivables (Yazdanfar and Ohman, 2014). Firm's working capital comprises current assets (mainly receivables, inventories and cash) minus current liabilities (chiefly payables and short-term debt), and it measures firm's net position in liquid assets (Fazzari and Petersen, 1993). Initially a considerable amount of literature investigates the individual components of working capital in segregation. The studies such as Long et al. (1993), Deloof and Jegers (1999) and Ng et al. (1999) examine the trade credit policy and discover support for contracting cost motive with receivables used as an indicator for product quality. However, Petersen and Rajan (1997) determined that receivables are directly tied to company's profitability and access to capital markets and Deloof and Jegers (1999) evaluated demand side of trade credit and demonstrate that payables are openly linked to financing deficits. In that regard, Hill et al. (2010) integrated the components of working capital to examine the dynamics impelling the net investment in working capital by WCR and declare that firms with high cost of external financing, low capacity to finance internally and limited access to capital markets encourage firms to follow more aggressive strategies of working capital. They further suggest that firms not only rely on industry averages but should also consider financing and operating circumstances in order to evaluate the behavior of working capital.\n3. Sample and measures: 3.1 Data and sample\n4. Empirical analysis: 4.1 Specification and estimation\n5. Implications and conclusion: 5.1 Theoretical contributions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between working capital management and corporate performance with financial constraints.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses large panel sample of Chinese listed firms over the period 2005-2015 using system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator that controls unobserved heterogeneity of individual firms well and GMM methodology is robust to address endogeneity issues.\nFindings: Empirical evidence finds inverted U-shaped relationship between working capital and corporate performance and exhibits similar evidence for financially constrained firms. Evidence shows impact of high sales and discounts on early payments at low level of working capital and dominance of opportunity cost and cost of external finance at high level of working capital. The findings of the results show that optimal working capital level of financially constrained firms is relatively lower due to high cost of external capital and debt rationing. The results also indicate that on average NET is significantly lower for firms with Tobin's Q>1 than firms with Tobin's Q=1, and suggest that aggressive working capital management is significantly and positively associated with higher corporate values.\nOriginality/value: This paper is among few that complement the existing literature by providing evidence that inverted U-shaped relationship between working capital management and corporate performance also exists in the context of Chinese listed non-financial firms. Exclusively, the relationship of working capital and corporate performance with linkage of financial constraints is scant in the context of Chinese listed non-financial firms.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Temporary agency workers shake a work community: a social capital perspective	[ "Employee relations", "Discourse analysis", "Social capital", "Temporary agency workers", "Flexible labour" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: According to current theories on firms, competitive advantage relies to a great extent on intangible resources, especially on knowledge and relations. Thus, the concept of social capital has been suggested to be a prominent driver of an organisation's competitive advantage (Burt, 2004). However, in contrast with the contemporary trend to increase agility and dynamic structures in work organisations, the construction of social capital somewhat requires stability and continuity in social relations (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998). In light of this, it is worth considering the continually strengthening trend where employers attempt to gain maximum flexibility and cost control over labour resources by using a temporary agency workforce (De Graaf-Zijl and Berkhout, 2007; Kalleberg, 2009) supporting the organisation's social capital.\nTemporary agency workers: The most investigated perspective of the temporary agency workforce phenomenon is that of temporary agency workers. The overall picture of their situation is mostly negative. Many of the studies have proved that they have poorer compensation and working conditions (see e.g. Nienhuser and Matiaske, 2006; De Cuyper et al., 2008; Tanskanen, 2012). For instance, they participate unequally in the training and development activities of organisations (Forrier and Sels, 2003; Stanworth and Druker, 2006), have fewer opportunities to use skills in their work than their permanent colleagues (Hall, 2006) and they are also often - at least partly - excluded from their organisation's decision-making (Kirkpatrick and Hoque, 2006). They are also excluded from contributory pension schemes, long-term cover for illness or sick pay and holiday entitlements, and additionally they often suffer from financial uncertainty, a lack of work-related challenges, the discontinuation of social relationships (Garsten, 1999; Tailby, 2005; Kirkpatrick and Hoque, 2006) and lower job satisfaction (Forde and Slater, 2006; Tanskanen, 2012). Many studies have shown that agency workers feel themselves to be outsiders in client organisations (e.g. Kirkpatrick and Hoque, 2006). Additionally, agency workers may experience resentment (Tailby, 2005) or even full-on discrimination in the workplace (Byoung-Hoon and Frenkel, 2004; Forde and Slater, 2006). However, according to Slattery et al.'s (2010) study, agency workers still tend to identify themselves with the client organisation rather than the agency.\nSocial capital in organisations: Ideas of social capital are centrally concerned with the significance of relationships as a resource for social action (Granovetter, 1985; Bourdieu, 1986; Coleman, 1988; Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998). For example, Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998, p. 243) define social capital \"as the sum of the actual and potential resources embedded within, available through, and derived from the network of relationships possessed by an individual or social unit\". The growing process of social capital can be understood through the lenses of social exchange theory. It explains human relationships as a continuous process of negotiated exchanges between the parties - individuals or groups - of those relationships (Homans, 1958; Emerson, 1976). It posits that parties in dyadic relations experience the relationship by making subjective cost-benefit analyses and by comparing different alternatives. In an organisational context, those costs and benefits can be emotional, cognitive, physical and economic (Saks, 2006). Power also plays a role in this process (Emerson, 1976). In short, people in relations with reciprocal interdependence are satisfied if they experience that the returns they receive are fair compared to their expenditures. Thus, they are willing to \"invest\" in the relationship; they are ready to trust the other party and to act for mutual benefit, which are elements of social capital.\nResearch design: We collected the data through semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Our questions included, for example: \"Could you please talk about your present job in this company/[...] your employment/[...] pros and cons of being a temp/[...] your past experiences as a temp/[...] your relations with people at the agency and at the client company\". Participants were invited to bring up any issues they felt to be important or relevant to the conversation. The discussions took place in the meeting rooms at the companies.\nFindings: According to the theoretical framework combined from the social capital theories of Coleman (1988), Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998) and Putnam (1993), we observed the agency workers' relations in the work context; identification, trust and support in those relations; norms, codes and shared views; and their position in relation to the flows of information in a client organisation.\nDiscussion and conclusions: The findings indicate that the use of temporary agency workers is harmful to the organisation from the perspective of social capital. In our sample the temporary nature of agency workers caused tensions in social relations between them and permanent employees, which are negatively related to structural, relational and cognitive dimensions of social capital. Additionally, temp workers were left outside many important flows of information, which play a role in building social capital. Surprisingly, these tensions emerged even in those cases where the temp worker had been in the same client organisation for a long time. In Table I we present the main findings in the light of social capital theories, before discussing the practical implications of those findings.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the kinds of effects that using a temporary agency workforce may cause on an organisational level, especially on relations between employees. In this study the authors explore the organisation as a community, leaning on the theory of social capital.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data were gathered via semi-structured interviews with 18 temporary agency workers and five employees in permanent positions. Discourse analysis with some degree of pragmatism was employed in comprehending the speech of the interviewees.\nFindings: The position of agency workers may be problematic from the perspective of social capital formulation in a work organisation. The short duration of contracts and different conditions of employment shake relations in a work group. Agency workers may also be outside the information flows. Additionally the norms and rules may be different for temporary and permanent employees and thus cause confusion.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings will hopefully provoke researchers to investigate the effects of using a temporary agency workforce in different organisational contexts. In addition, the study indicates that the theory of social capital is fruitful for investigating the topic on the organisational level.\nPractical implications: The use of agency workforce should be considered comprehensively in organisations. Its effects on work organisations may be conflicting. If temporary agency workers are needed as interim help, HRM practices should be developed in order to minimise the potential problems in terms of social capital.\nOriginality/value: The study adopted an organisational perspective on the agency workforce, which is still rare in studies on the topic.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Macroeconomic uncertainty, corporate governance and corporate capital structure	[ "Corporate governance", "Capital structure", "Leverage", "System GMM", "Macroeconomic uncertainty", "Asia Pacific region" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Capital structure is an area in corporate finance that has attracted much attention among researchers since the landmark paper by Modigliani and Miller (1958). These studies are mainly focused on identifying firm-specific determinants of capital structure such as profitability, asset tangibility and firm size (Martin and Saona, 2017; Vo, 2017; Antonczyk and Salzmann, 2014). More recently, some studies have found that macroeconomic factors such as exchange rate, inflation rate and interest rate are also significant influencers of capital structure decisions (Zeitun et al., 2017; Muthama et al., 2013; Oztekin and Flannery, 2012). However, only a handful of studies have focused on macroeconomic uncertainty and how it affects the firms' financing decisions.\n2. Hypotheses development: 2.1 Macroeconomic uncertainty and corporate capital structure\n3. Data and methodology: 3.1 Data\n4. Empirical results and discussion: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5. Robustness tests: To evaluate the sensitivity of the empirical results, we conduct additional tests involving lagged macroeconomic uncertainty and additional firm-specific and macroeconomic control variables.\n6. Conclusion: This paper examines how corporate governance moderates the relationship between macroeconomic uncertainty and corporate capital structure using an unbalanced panel data of 907 listed non-financial firms from seven Asia Pacific countries during the period 2004-2014. We employ the robust two-step system GMM model in the analyses. Macroeconomic uncertainty is proxied by the volatility of growth rate of exports. As a robustness check, we also adopt the volatility of growth rate of imports as a second proxy for macroeconomic uncertainty. The results for both proxies are generally similar, which indicate the robustness of the results. The results reveal that macroeconomic uncertainty has a significant negative influence on the capital structure choices of Asia Pacific firms. Additionally, this study finds that the overall effect of macroeconomic uncertainty on leverage among firms with better governance quality is negative. The evidence suggests that corporate governance acts as an effective mechanism to curb the usage of leverage during times of high volatility. Further analysis shows that board independence, the separation between the CEO and chairman roles and blockholders' ownership are effective governance mechanisms, whereas similar observations do not hold for board size and institutional ownership.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how corporate governance moderates the relationship between macroeconomic uncertainty and corporate capital structure.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper employs the two-step system generalized method of moments regression, considering a sample of 907 listed non-financial firms from seven Asia Pacific countries during the period 2004-2014.\nFindings: This study finds that macroeconomic uncertainty has a significant negative impact on the capital structure decisions of firms. The results also reveal that the overall effect of macroeconomic uncertainty on capital structure among firms with better governance quality is significantly negative. The evidence suggests that corporate governance acts as an effective mechanism to curb the usage of leverage during times of high volatility. Further analysis shows that board independence, the separation between the roles of CEO and chairman of the board and blockholders' ownership are effective governance mechanisms, whereas similar observations do not hold for board size and institutional ownership.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings of this study may be useful to policy makers to formulate appropriate policies to mitigate the adverse effects caused by macroeconomic uncertainty. This is important because macroeconomic uncertainty may have potential destabilizing effects on a country's or region's development by jeopardizing the firms' ability to formulate sound investment, production and financing decisions. Additionally, the results suggest that good governance quality can act as a check and balance to ensure that firms use less leverage when they are facing volatility in the macroeconomic environment. These findings could help to reinforce the importance of good governance among policy makers of a country as well as managers of firms.\nOriginality/value: The authors make the first attempt to examine the moderating effect of corporate governance on the relationship between macroeconomic uncertainty and corporate capital structure.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The interaction between learning styles, ethics education, and ethical climate	[ "Learning styles", "Ethics education", "Deep learning", "Ethics climate" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As business educators, one of our challenges is to develop more ethical managers. The solution to this challenge has been at most universities to require students to complete a course in business ethics (Givens, 2004). While ethics education in the form of a business ethics course may heighten a student\nLiterature review and hypothesis development: Learning spaces and its influence on learning\nMethod: Sample and procedure\nResults: Descriptive statistics and correlations were calculated for the dependent and independent measures (Table I).\nDiscussion: For those of us in business ethics education, the hope is that our classes have a positive impact on increasing the sensitivity of our students to the nuances of ethical situations and engaging in ethical behaviors. Our findings show support that taking a business ethics class positively impacts the likelihood of a student engaging in ethical behavior. This is most likely due to increased sensitivity to ethical situations, and a better understanding why specific behavior would be considered unethical. Additionally, our findings show support for the impact of the ethical climate of the university on our students. Our results show that students who perceive higher percentages of students caught cheating are more likely to engage in ethical behavior. The implication for both these findings is that formal and informal learning spaces are important as environments in instructing our students, particularly as they pertain to ethics education. Our teachings in the classroom need to align with our policies and practices outside the classroom.\nImplications for ethics education: Ethics education does not happen in a vacuum. It is critical that those of us in business education recognize that business education is two pronged. The classroom experience as a formal learning space is where students can engage in abstract and reflective learning. This is where the concepts, theories, and their applications can be used to for vicarious learning. The ethical climate of the university as an informal learning space is where students can act as a member of the climate and gain concrete experiences - in a sense the practical application of the vicarious learning. In order for any ethics education to be successful, universities must view ethics education holistically and recognize that at all three levels of the university learning space - micro, meso, and macro - act on our students' perceptions to stimulate deep learning. We must practice what we preach. Our students learn both by engaging in vicarious learning in the classroom and by experiencing those lessons as real life consequences outside the classroom.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how learning styles and learning spaces interact to stimulate deep learning. Specifically the paper investigated the interaction of learning styles with ethics education and the ethical climate to influence the likelihood of engaging in ethical behavior.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from two groups of students - those who had completed a business ethics course and those who had not completed a business ethics course. The sample consisted of 180 undergraduate students at a private university in the USA. Data were analyzed using regression analysis to test the hypotheses. A scenario-based measure of the likelihood of engaging in ethical behavior was developed and implemented in the study.\nFindings: Both ethics education and ethical climate had a direct impact on a student\nPractical implications: The findings have practical implications for how universities should utilize learning spaces both inside and outside the classroom to be stimulate deep learning and be more effective in sensitizing students to ethical behavior.\nOriginality/value: The results support using formal and informal learning spaces to stimulate deep learning as it relates to ethics education in universities.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Performance and turnover intentions: a social exchange perspective	[ "Leader‐member exchange", "Performance", "Task interdependence", "Turnover intentions", "Elder care", "Health care" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Employee turnover is a serious issue for both employees and organizations. For organizations, employee turnover takes a heavy toll, increasing costs both directly (through recruitment, selection, training, etc.) and indirectly (in the form of lost knowledge and reduced productivity). In the USA, the average monthly turnover rate in 2011 was about 3 percent, of which some 49 percent was voluntary (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012). This means an annual rate of about 20 percent voluntary turnover, at a cost estimated in billions of dollars per year (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012; Mukamel et al., 2009). Moreover, even before an employee formally quits a job, turnover intentions are likely to affect that employee's performance - and, therefore, the organization's. For instance, employees with high turnover intentions are likely to show little or no organizational citizenship behavior (Dodd-McCue and Wright, 1996; Van Breukelen et al., 2004), and often provide poor service to customers, which may seriously undermine customer retention (Allen et al., 2003b; Tax and Brown, 1998). This is not surprising, as turnover intentions have been consistently linked to negative employee attitudes, such as reduced satisfaction and commitment, that are known to diminish both short- and long-term organizational success.\nLiterature review and hypothesis development: The role of LMX\nMethod: Design and sample\nResults: Means, standard deviations and correlations among the variables are displayed in Table I. t-test analyses comparing the dependent variable among those dropped from the analyses (due to missing data; n=16) and those remaining (n=209) indicate no statistically significant differences between the two groups (p>0.10). The bivariate results indicate that intentions to quit are negatively associated with LMX (r=-0.23, p<0.01) and task interdependence (r=-0.14, p<0.05), and also with self-rated (r=-0.18, p<0.01) and manager-rated (r=-0.21, p<0.01) performance.We ran two regression models to test our hypotheses, one including self-rated and one including manager-rated performance. Both models fit the data well (self-rated performance: kh2=0.33 (df=0, n=209), p<0.01, CFI=0.99; TLI=1.00, RMSEA=0.00; manager-rated performance: kh2=5.22 (df=7, n=99), n.s., CFI=1.00; TLI=1.07, RMSEA=0.00). Tables II and III present the results of our multilevel regression analyses.H1 and H2 posited that LMX and task interdependence moderate the relationship between performance and turnover intentions. Our multilevel regression analyses included the control variables, the respective main effect variable (self-rated/manager-rated performance), the moderating variables (LMX and task interdependence), and the interaction variables (self-rated/manager-rated performanceLMX and self-rated/manager-rated performancetask interdependence). In both regression models, all variables were entered simultaneously in one block. We centered the independent variables around the grand mean, as this reduces potential problems with multicollinearity (Hofmann and Gavin, 1998). The results for self-rated performance do not provide support for H1. As shown in Table II, the interaction term is not statistically significant. The results for manager-rated performance however, do provide support for H1. The generally negative association between manager-rated performance and intentions to quit was found to be stronger under high LMX (b for the interaction=-0.129, t=-2.227, p<0.05, Table III). Contrary to our prediction, the generally negative association between self-rated performance and intentions to quit was found to be weaker under high task interdependence (b for the interaction=0.125, t=1.985, p<0.05, Table II). Therefore, H2 was rejected. This result was not supported on the basis of for our manager-rated performance data (Table III), which shows that the interaction term is not statistically significant.The moderation effects of LMX on the link between manager-rated performance and turnover intentions, and task interdependence on the link between self-rated performance and turnover intentions were plotted at one standard deviation below and one standard deviation above the mean of the moderators (Figures 1 and 2), following recommendations of Aiken and West (1991). Figure 1 shows that under high levels (+1 SD) of LMX, the manager-rated performance-turnover intentions slope is steeper than under low levels (-1 SD) of LMX. Simple slopes analyses support this conclusion, suggesting that the slope of manager-rated performance was significantly negative under high levels of LMX (estimate=-0.451, p<0.01), and statistically insignificant under low levels of LMX (estimate=-0.015, n.s.). Figure 2 shows that under low levels (-1 SD) of task interdependence, the self-rated performance-turnover intentions slope is steeper than under high levels (+1 SD) of task interdependence. Simple slopes analyses support this conclusion, suggesting that the slope of self-rated performance was statistically insignificant under high levels of task interdependence (estimate=-0.139, n.s.), and significantly negative under low levels (estimate=-0.383, p<0.01).\nDiscussion: Prior research has found the relationship between employee performance and turnover intentions to be inconsistent (Jackofsky et al., 1986; Williams and Livingstone, 1994), suggesting that it varies as function of other variables (Zenger, 1992; Zimmerman and Darnold, 2009). Whereas studies have examined internal/system and external/labor market moderators (Allen and Griffeth, 1999; Nyberg, 2010; Zimmerman and Darnold, 2009), we employ notions from social exchange theory to generate hypotheses about the moderating role of employees' relations with their supervisor and co-workers.Implications for theory and future research\nLimitations and suggestions for future research: The findings of this study should be considered in light of its limitations, which may also offer important research opportunities. First, the managerial data were available for only about half of our sampled employees. Although, as noted above, we statistically addressed this issue using recommended procedures (i.e. testing for attrition bias), future research may further examine performance-related data drawn from different sources (e.g. co-workers).Second, all data were collected at a single point in time. Therefore, no causal relationships can be tested, and we cannot rule out possible reversed relationships, such as high turnover intentions leading to lower performance. Although the relationships reported between perceived performance and turnover intentions are consistent with previous work in this field (Allen and Griffeth, 1999; Bycio et al., 1990; Jackofsky, 1984; Zimmerman and Darnold, 2009), future research could include data collected at different points in time, enabling the identification of causal relationships.Third, our study focused on turnover intentions, rather than actual turnover. Although, as noted above, research has repeatedly shown that turnover intentions are the most powerful predictor of actual turnover (Griffeth and Hom, 1988; Griffeth et al., 2000; Lum et al., 1998; Mobley, 1977; Steele and Ovalle, 1984; Tett and Meyer, 1993; Van Breukelen et al., 2004), future research might seek to include actual turnover data in longitudinal research designs in order to examine the hypothesized effects on actual turnover over time.Fourth, Cronbach's a for our task interdependence scale was relatively low (0.70). However, it falls within the generally accepted guideline for psychometric measures, in which 0.70 is considered the minimum acceptable criterion of instrument internal reliability (Gay and Diehl, 1992). Moreover, prior research studying task interdependence reports similar values (Hertel et al., 2004; Liden et al., 1997b; Van der Vegt et al., 2000; Van der Vegt and Jansen, 2003).Fifth, the current study was conducted in a firm operating in the health care sector, which differs from other sectors in a number of ways. For example, most jobs in this sector require a high degree of cooperation and teamwork, and most also involve relatively high levels of stress, due to frequent contact with patients or clients. Both factors might make social exchange relationships more important for employees' work experience and turnover intentions. It is true that social exchange relationships have been found to have important implications (including for turnover intentions) among other work populations in the service sector, such as retail employees (Shanock and Eisenberger, 2006). Still, future research should replicate our study in other service organizations, as well as in other sectors, to see whether the relationships we found hold, and how they might differ in different types of businesses.A final limitation, also relating to our sample, is its relative homogeneity with respect to gender, as well as ethnic background and socio-economic status. Regarding the high percentage of women in our sample, evidence is inconclusive regarding whether women are any more or less likely to leave a job than men are. Miller and Wheeler (1992) concluded, in line with earlier studies, that women did not have stronger intentions to quit after controlling for job satisfaction. They did, however, find that women were more sensitive to low job satisfaction than men; reduced satisfaction seemed to increase women's intentions to quit, but not those of men. Similarly, it remains an open question whether women are more strongly influenced by the quality of LMX and task interdependence at work than men. Although we controlled for gender in our analyses, our female-dominated sample may have generated a somewhat stronger moderation effect than a more balanced sample would have. This limitation can be remedied in future research using different samples from other occupations and sectors.\nConclusions: Drawing from social exchange theory, our study proposed that the association between performance and turnover intentions may be moderated by the social exchange context within which intentions are formed. On the basis of self-rated performance evaluations, our results indicate that the relationship between performance and turnover intentions is more negative under conditions of low task interdependence, and on the basis of manager-rated performance evaluations, the relationship between performance and turnover intentions is more negative under conditions of high quality LMX. These results also point to the relevance of the source of performance evaluations (self vs manager ratings) in considering the role of performance data in the study of turnover. The study enhances our understanding of contextual factors relevant for the long-debated association between performance and turnover intentions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Prior research has yielded mixed results regarding the relationship between performance and turnover intentions. Drawing from social exchange theory, the purpose of this paper is to propose that the performance-turnover intentions association may be contingent upon individuals' exchange relationships with their supervisor and co-workers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Surveys were conducted in six branches of an elderly care organization. All 512 employees received a questionnaire, and responses were obtained from 225 employees.\nFindings: - Self-rated performance and manager-rated performance were both negatively related to turnover intentions. The relationship between manager-rated performance and turnover intentions was stronger under conditions of high leader-member exchange, whereas the relationship between self-rated performance and turnover intentions was weaker under conditions of high task interdependence.\nResearch limitations/implications: - High performers may be particularly sensitive to relationships with their supervisor, and low performers seem to be more sensitive to relationships with colleagues. Performance data obtained from different sources (self/manager ratings) may show different patterns of results. The value of these findings in extending notions from social exchange theory to the realm of talent engagement is discussed.\nPractical implications: - To retain high performers, firms should promote high-quality relationships between leaders and subordinates.\nSocial implications: - The study suggests that investing in social relationships in the health care sector may be worthwhile. In particular, women represent an increasingly important share in this sector, and social mechanisms may help retain high-performing women.\nOriginality/value: - The study addresses the inconsistent findings of prior research regarding the performance-turnover relationship, and the lack of agreement on variables that may relate to the retention of valuable employees.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Negative outcomes of positive brand relationships	[ "Brand attachment", "EWOM", "Brand hate", "Brand attributions", "Narcissistic entitlement", "Perceived betrayal" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Stronger than a lover's love is a lover's hate. Incurable, in each, the wounds they make - Euripides, Medea.\n2. Theoretical background and hypotheses: 2.1 Effect of brand attachment on feelings of perceived betrayal\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Experimental design and scenario development\n4. Results and analysis: 4.1 Results of multivariate analysis\n5. Discussion: The study makes some significant contributions to the consumer-brand relationship literature. It asserts brand attachment as a crucial predictor of perceived betrayal and brand hate, when a favourite brand fails to deliver. While prior studies in this area have examined the moderating effect of brand relationship quality on perceived betrayal or the role of other brand relationship parameters, such as trust and loyalty, the role of strong brand attachment have not been examined to have an independent effect in augmenting the feelings of perceived betrayal and hatred towards the brand, when brand transgressions occur. Though brand relationship quality has been conceptualized to denote the strength of a relationship, it is brand attachment that influences consumers' behaviours involving their time, money and other resources such as reputation (Park et al., 2010) and is, therefore, a stronger indicator of positive consumer-brand relationship.\n6. Managerial implications: The current study makes certain observations that result in a number of recommendations for brands. Firms must consider how consumers attached to their brands are likely to react when they feel betrayed following a transgression. Strongly attached consumers assess their relationship with the brand on an emotional basis. They expect a mutual relationship of appreciation and think that the brand owes them in return for their love, loyalty and commitment. Brands are, therefore, advised to manage their expectations to contain the negative effects of transgressions. Firms should come up with preferential strategies for these customers. It is important to segregate policies for close customers and make them feel important. Having flexible and personalized service policies is a way to acknowledge the customers who are emotionally invested with the brand. Additionally, front line employees should be empowered and trained to personalize their service encounter with the brand's loyal customers. Managers should proactively prepare service employees to empathize with the aggrieved customer and provide personalized solutions. This can help attenuate the perception of betrayal and its subsequent outcomes.\n7. Limitations and future research: One of the limitations includes the convenience sampling of college students as respondents. Even though this segment of the population may not be representative of other consumer samples, it is argued to be more suitable for addressing internal validity, as the respondent sample is more homogenous in characteristics (Mantovani et al., 2018). Additionally, the experiment was conducted on an Indian sample, which limits the generality of the findings across other cultures and geographies. Replicating and extending the research using different methodology and alternate samples is desirable. It is recommended that future research shall examine other market segments based on demographic and psychographic characteristics.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to understand how strong brand attachment can intensify the feeling of perceived betrayal, leading to brand hate after a negative experience with the brand. The study further investigates how consumers make causal attributions for negative experiences when strong brand attachment exists. The moderating effect of a narcissistic personality in the dissemination of negative electronic word of mouth (eWOM) following brand hate is also tested.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study uses a within-the-subject repeated measures experimental design. A total of 202 college students were exposed to two treatments (high versus no brand attachment), involving a situation of product failure of a smart phone brand. A total of 135 responses were used to compare the outcomes of the two treatments using multivariate analysis. The data of high brand attachment treatment (N = 202) were used to test the proposed research model using partial least square-structural equation modelling.\nFindings: The results suggest that having a strong positive relationship with the brand can generate stronger feelings of perceived betrayal and brand hate after the brand transgresses the consumer's expectations. The results indicate that resentful customers can resort to eWOM after feeling betrayed, even though the prior relationship with the brand was strong.\nOriginality/value: This paper extends the work on perceived betrayal to study brand hate and proposes that brand hate can arise even if there is a strong brand attachment. It contributes to the growing body of literature on brand hate and its possible antecedents. Additionally, the study poses some crucial managerial implications for the brand managers by suggesting that strong brand relationships not always ensure loyalty or commitment and can lead to consequences that are damaging for the brand equity.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Contract coordination of new fresh produce three-layer supply chain	[ "Supply chain management", "Third-party logistics", "Fresh produce e-commerce enterprise", "Freshness-keeping effort", "Perishable product" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Nomenclature\n1. Introduction: With the rapid development of social economy and the change of consumers' consumption pattern, consumers demand for fresh agricultural products (FAPs) has been undergone a transformation from quantity to quality. Safer and fresher FAPs have been paid more and more attention to recently. There are some characteristics about FAPs, such as perishability, freshness decreases with time, large market demand, so appropriate operation and management in supply chain play an important role in ensuring their quality (Dan et al., 2011; Zhang et al., 2017). In a traditional way, the FAPs were mainly transferred from the large wholesale market, through small- and medium-sized food markets or supermarkets to consumers. That means it has to undergo a long-distance transportation and many intermediate links to reach the target market. The rapid development of FAPs e-commerce makes it possible to transport FAPs directly from the original producing area to consumers. However, in actual supply chain operations, there are many issues such as high loss rate of FAPs, low preservation level of FAPs, high cost of cold chain distribution, which restrict the development of FAPs e-commerce seriously and cause it to suffer substantial losses. According to Cai et al. (2010) and Zheng et al. (2017), the loss rate of perishable products in developed countries is up to 15 percent due to damage and spoilage, and it is much higher in developing countries, reaching approximately 25 percent or 30 percent. There is as high as $8.9bn loss of the supply chain of fruit and vegetables, representing about 30 percent of the annual production in China (Yan et al., 2015).\n2. Literature review: Research on supply chain coordination originated from the Clark's study of multi echelon inventory and sales system (Clark and Scarf, 1960), then the related research started gradually from using supply chain contracts to construct coordination mechanism, applying game mechanism to achieve supply chain coordination, employing the principal agent theory and the information sharing theory to improve supply chain performance. The contract mechanism can be used for a means to coordinate channel conflict and the purpose is to maximize the supply chain profits. Supply chain contracts are mainly including wholesale contract (Bernstein et al., 2006), buy-back contract (Chang and Rhee, 2010), quantity discount contract (Buronlineas et al., 2007), quantity flexibility contract (Kobbacy et al., 2011), revenue-sharing contract (Cachon et al., 2005) and two-part pricing contract (Chen et al., 2012).\n3. Model analysis: Consider a three-layer supply chain that consists of a fresh produce e-commerce enterprise, a TPLSP and a community convenience store. Figure 1 shows the supply chain considered in this paper. The fresh produce e-commerce enterprise sells FAPs on the online shopping platform. The consumers browse FAPs information and order online. Then, the order information is passed to the fresh produce e-commerce enterprise. Finally, the order information is transmitted by the fresh produce e-commerce enterprise to TPLSP and the TPLSP distribute FAPs to the community convenience store.\n4. Contract coordination model: 4.1 Freshness-keeping cost-sharing contract\n5. Computational studies: In the above sections, we have characterized the optimal decisions of decentralized and centralized FAPs' supply chain, and investigate how to coordinate this supply chain by contracts. To better understand the theoretical results and explore the implicit conclusions, the computational studies are conducted in this section.\n6. Summary and concluding remarks: The rapid development of FAPs e-commerce and the change of people's consumption mode make consumers put forward higher requirements on the freshness and safety of FAPs. How to improve the safety and freshness of FAPs while increasing the profits of supply chain is a thorny issue facing supply chain members. This is of great importance to the consumers' health consumption of FAPs and the overall operational performance of FAPs' supply chain. We work hard to address these issues.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: There are particularly high fresh agricultural product (FAP) loss rates in actual supply chain operation and the development of FAPs e-commerce is hindered to some extent. The purpose of this paper is to achieve the coordination of three-layer FAP supply chain and maximize profit through the contracts among the supply chain members.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A three-layer FAP supply chain that consists of a fresh produce e-commerce enterprise, third-party logistics service provider (TPLSP) and community convenience store under e-commerce environment is considered. New game models are developed and optimal decisions in centralized and decentralized channel are characterized. Different contract coordination mechanisms are designed to improve the supply chain performance. Finally, computational studies are conducted.\nFindings: The decentralized supply chain cannot be coordinated by a freshness-keeping cost-sharing contract, and it can be coordinated by a freshness-keeping cost-sharing and revenue-sharing contract. The optimal unit online selling price, unit logistics distribution price, fresh-keeping effort and unit self-collection service price can all be achieved.\nPractical implications: The paper provides a practical guideline to managers in fresh produce industry in terms of how to cooperate with other supply chain members so as to maximize total profit and achieve Pareto improvement while also supply the freshest and safest produce to the target market under e-commerce environment.\nOriginality/value: Few studies have explored the coordination of three-layer FAP supply chain under e-commerce environment with TPLSP and community convenience store's participation in decisions, especially considering that the market demand for FAPs is affected by freshness and unit online selling price. In this paper, all these scenarios are taken into account and corresponding mathematical models are developed. In particular, different contract coordination mechanisms are designed and examined simultaneously.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Implementer resistance to school food policy: unpacking the paradox	[ "School food", "Implementation", "Intervention" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the last half of the twentieth century, school food environments evolved in a manner reflective of the evolution of the global food system - a system of food environments typically consisting of ubiquitous, unhealthy, processed, convenient, addictive and low-nutrient energy dense (LNED) foods (Poppendieck, 2010). With widespread acknowledgement of the impact of food environments on health behaviours (Story et al., 2008) one increasingly popular population health intervention adopted by governments is strong policy (i.e. legislations, regulations, or mandates (Bemelmans-Videc et al., 1998)) to improve the quality of foods and beverages for sale in schools (Bonsmann et al., 2014; Centers for Disease Control, 2004; Hawkes et al., 2015). This type of intervention aims to create an environment that supports students' opportunities to maximise their health in both the short and long term. The use of strong government directives to achieve healthier school food sales environments, as opposed to less coercive measures, is argued to be ethically justified (Asada and Garza, 2014; Crawford et al., 2011; Kass et al., 2014). Regardless, resistance to the perceived paternalistic nature of school food environment interventions has been reported by various stakeholders (e.g. principals, teachers, parents) as a barrier to implementation in western contexts like the UK, the USA and Canada (Devi et al., 2010; Downs et al., 2012; Levay, 2018; MacLellan et al., 2010; Masse et al., 2013; Nollen et al., 2007; Quintanilha et al., 2013; Roberts et al., 2009).\nBackground: There are many ethical arguments to justify use of strong policy interventions to improve school food and beverage sales environments. First, there is a special value placed on children as well as an acknowledgement of their vulnerability (Asada and Garza, 2014). There is also widespread acknowledgement of the harm of over-consuming LNED foods, coupled with knowledge of the influence school food can have on children's short-term consumption habits (Loewenstein et al., 2016; Tugault-Lafleur et al., 2018) and longer term health (Leonard, 2017; Taber et al., 2012). Therefore, children require protection from the known harm of overconsumption of LNED foods during the school day. Additionally, public schools have a \"symbolic relevance\" (Kass et al., 2014) because they assume the responsibility as loco parentis (Stuart, 2010). The goals of public schools go beyond academics and extend to shaping \"good\" and \"productive\" citizens reflecting values of society (Illich, 1971) and they are expected to uphold and model societal values, goals and behaviours (Asada and Garza, 2014; Kass et al., 2014).\nHarm: Upshur's (2002) harm principle asks whether actions limiting the liberty or autonomy of any individuals or groups (i.e. paternalistic interventions) are warranted by the harm prevention efforts of the intervention. As stated previously, regarding school food sales interventions, the authors of this paper agree that the ends appear to justify the means (Asada and Garza, 2014; Crawford et al., 2011; Kass et al., 2014). However, this section broadens the considerations of the ethical dilemmas associated with school food sales policies by discussing the ways in which parents and private industry stakeholders, in the Canadian context, may be experiencing reduced liberty or autonomy in the pursuit of harm prevention for children.\nCoercion: Upshur's (2002) principle of \"least restrictive or coercive means\" (p. 102) states that more coercive means of government intervention are justified only if less coercive means have been attempted and have failed. To coerce somebody means to compel them to a choice or action (Merriam-Webster, 2017). It is tempting to argue that stakeholders, like parents or vendors, are free to cease involvement and, as such, this intervention is not coercive. However, upon closer inspection, there are issues of problematic coercion occurring, which may be contributing to implementer frustration and, consequently, accusations of paternalism.\nReciprocity: Upshur's (2002) principle of reciprocity asks if an intervention places burdens on certain individuals or groups to fulfil an ethical duty and, if yes, will they be helped or compensated? In the case of parents who want to be a part of important fundraising initiatives and are also motivated to ensure a healthy school environment, studies have reported they often cannot take action due to the restrictive nature of policies combined with the perceived lack of necessary resources required to comply. Parents have reported a variety of resource-needs these broad interventions typically do not provide, such as food preparation infrastructure (Levay, 2018; MacLellan et al., 2010), support for accessing options from the marketplace that comply with standards (Levay, 2018; Masse et al., 2013), particularly in rural areas (Downs et al., 2012; Levay, 2018). In British Columbia, Levay (2018) found that parents involved in food fundraising activities may become frustrated and demotivated, opting instead to source food from local corner stores or fast food restaurants, food environments also shaped by multinational food producers and processors. The lack of provision of needed resources for implementation is likely fostering implementer \"moral distress\"; when a person knows the right thing to do but institutional constraints make it nearly impossible to act (Jameton, 1984). This experience has been found among health care practitioners to lead to \"burnout\" (Lins Fumis et al., 2017), cynicism and low efficacy (Leiter et al., 2009).\nTransparency: Lastly, Upshur's (2002) principle of transparency relates to democratic processes in policy-making and asks: whose decision is it? Upshur (2002) asserts that \"all legitimate stakeholders [...] should have equal input into deliberations\" (p. 102). Sharing the decision-making process with stakeholders increases credibility, accountability and acceptability. However, while one barrier to acceptability of school food and beverage sales nutrition standards has been reported to be lack of stakeholder consultation (Levay, 2017; MacLellan et al., 2010), arguably the government is in the best position to make decisions compared with parents, education sector staff, and industry stakeholders. The individuals working for the government who create school food and beverage nutrition standards are, or should be, experts in nutrition and public health, with training to critically assess scientific evidence and a nuanced understanding of how unhealthy food environments have been created and perpetuated through wider systematic processes. In other words, food industry attempts to protect their own interests in the development of government regulations can be met with the well-founded scepticism of nutrition and health experts.\nConclusions and moving forward: This paper explored the hypothesis that the often cited barrier to implementation in implementation studies of school food and beverage sales policies, aversion to their paternalistic nature, may be accusations of paternalism rather than a true opposition to help children maximise opportunities to make healthy choices. We hypothesised that expected implementers may be experiencing ethical breaches in the implementation process, leading to a context of constrained choice, lower acceptability of this type of intervention and therefore less cooperation. Public health ethical principles were used to argue that this often cited implementer resistance (and barrier to implementation) may be the result of an accumulated frustration from feeling these ethical principles been breached. Upshur's (2002) harm principle highlighted that some implementers may be feeling a loss of freedom in how they choose to function. Coercion is occurring for parents involved in fundraising activities and school food industry actors. Discussion around the reciprocity principle revealed implementers feel they are not adequately supported to implement while transparency has been questioned as stakeholders have reported their perspectives are often not equally considered in decision making. This work offers insights useful for architects of school food interventions, helping identify potential issues associated with intervention acceptability among important stakeholders such as parents and private industry actors.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the paradoxical resistance of parent and private school food vendors to the paternalistic nature of school food policies. It develops the hypothesis that resistance, on the basis of them being \"paternalistic\", is associated with implementers experiencing ethical breaches that contribute to frustration and low acceptability. This may be leading to accusations of paternalism and non-cooperation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: It takes a deontological perspective and uses Upshur's (2002) public health ethics framework to explore the potential that parents involved in school fundraising and private school food vendors are experiencing ethical breaches associated with implementation of school food and beverage sales policies in the Canadian context.\nFindings: Upshur's (2002) harm principle highlighted how some implementers feel a loss of freedom in how they choose to function, which is perceived to be resulting in lost profits. Parents involved in fundraising activities may experience feelings of coercion. Opting out of fundraising may result in their children's schools having fewer resources. Smaller private vendors are coerced through economic incentives while being bound by what products are available in the marketplace and the associated costs of items that comply with nutrition standards. Discussion around the reciprocity principle revealed implementers feel they are not adequately supported to implement. Transparency has been questioned where stakeholders report their perspectives are often not equally considered in decision making.\nOriginality/value: This is the first paper to explore the often cited resistance to the paternalistic nature of school food and beverage environment policies as an implementation barrier. Using a deontological ethical perspective offers an original way to discuss school food policies. This work offers potential leverage points at which policy-makers and practitioners may intervene to improve acceptability and contribute to more effective, consistent implementation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Keep on rating - on the systematic rating and comparison of authentication schemes	[ "Password", "Rating", "ACCESS", "Authentication scheme", "Objective features", "Subjective Perceptions" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Authentication has long become an integral part of daily life. Every single authentication process provides access to private data like emails, account data, personal documents or photos. A loss thereof to an unauthorized third party can, thus, have a huge impact on private life or businesses.\n2. Method: One of the primary goals of this research was to supplement and update the original rating of authentication schemes by Bonneau et al. (2012). To that end, a literature search via Google Scholar was conducted which revealed a total of 164 relevant publications dealing with authentication schemes. All publications addressed or evaluated the user interaction with or perception of the authentication schemes. Papers only describing technical aspects or algorithms were not considered. From the analysis 40 authentication schemes which were not already included in the rating by Bonneau et al. (2012) could be extracted. Even though all schemes were extracted from research papers, a significant number of these schemes are actually used in practice, e.g. challenge questions, face recognition, passphrases and Google's Android Pattern Unlock.\n3. Results: Due to space constraints, the rating results will be presented exemplarily for four authentication schemes: the biometric scheme Retina Scan, the graphical scheme Android Pattern Unlock (Google Inc, 2011), the text-based scheme Associative Questions (Irakleous et al., 2002) and the token-based scheme Cronto (OneSpan Inc., 2019). While the former three add to the existing database, the scheme Cronto has already been rated by Bonneau et al. (2012) but is presented here for the purpose of comparison with a token-based authentication scheme. The rating results of the four exemplary schemes are depicted in Appendix A. The complete rating results of all newly added schemes, as well as a description of the schemes and the rating features can be accessed online and via ACCESS (see Appendix B).\n4. Application: The following section presents examples for the application of the rating by researchers and practitioners.\n5. Discussion of the rating process and ACCESS: As described above, the rating process provides a number of benefits for researchers and practitioners alike: support in the choice of an existing authentication scheme for one's own application or study, a comparison of new schemes with existing ones and requirements, as well as context-based ratings of authentication schemes.\n6. Conclusion: This paper describes the rating process of 40 authentication schemes in terms of the three categories: usability, security and deployability, based on the framework introduced by Bonneau et al. (2012) and refined by Mayer et al. (2016). The rating offers researchers, as well as practitioners, an aid in the choice of appropriate authentication schemes for their specific application scenarios and allows comparisons with newly developed schemes.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Six years ago, Bonneau et al. (2012) proposed a framework to compare authentication schemes to the ubiquitous text password. Even though their work did not reveal an alternative outperforming the text password on every criterion, the framework can support decision makers in finding suitable solutions for specific authentication contexts. The purpose of this paper is to extend and update the database, thereby discussing benefits, limitations and suggestions for continuing the development of the framework.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper revisits the rating process and describes the application of an extended version of the original framework to an additional 40 authentication schemes identified in a literature review. All schemes were rated in terms of 25 objective features assigned to the three main criteria: usability, deployability and security.\nFindings: The rating process and results are presented along with a discussion of the benefits and pitfalls of the rating process.\nResearch limitations/implications: While the extended framework, in general, proves suitable for rating and comparing authentication schemes, ambiguities in the rating could be solved by providing clearer definitions and cut-off values. Further, the extension of the framework with subjective user perceptions that sometimes differ from objective ratings could be beneficial.\nOriginality/value: The results of the rating are made publicly available in an authentication choice support system named ACCESS to support decision makers and researchers and to foster the further extension of the knowledge base and future development of the extended rating framework.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Shift schedule realignment and patient safety culture	[ "Indonesia", "Patient safety culture", "Shift schedule", "Difference in differences" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Patient safety in hospitals has obtained considerable attention following the Institute of Medicine report \"To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System\"(Cho et al., 2016; Hessels et al., 2016; Van Den Kerkhof et al., 2017). The idea of patient safety culture initiated from safety studies in high-risk industries, such as nuclear industry and aviation (Brown et al., 2018; Clinics and North, 2015; Macdonald and Sevdalis, 2017). Deufel et al. described safety culture as the behavior, perceptions, attitudes and values related to safety which are shared among employees (Deufel et al., 2017). Similarly, Ralston and Yuen explained patient safety culture as individual and collective behavior, perceptions, attitudes and values that establish the commitment to an organization's safety management (Ralston and Yuen, 2018). A hospital with a \"safety culture\" is transparent and objective with staff when adverse events occur, learns from errors and analyze what went wrong and what needed to be done to prevent it from happening again rather than naming, blaming, shaming and stigmatizing individuals (Hall et al., 2016; Koyle et al., 2017; St. Onge and Parnell, 2015).\nMethods: Research context\nResults: Hospital characteristics\nDiscussion: With shift schedule realignment implemented for nine months, we have demonstrated measurable improvement in patient safety culture with improved communication, better patient safety incidents awareness, enhanced self-efficacy and lesser punitive concerns. These improvements were also observed in BIMC Kuta and BIMC Nusa Dua when they were analyzed separately (Tables AII and AIII). Moreover, the incidents reported through QPulse Version 6 (i.e. electronic hospital information system integrated with policies, procedures and incident reports) increased meaningfully. No decrement in any patient safety culture composite was observed.\nConclusion and recommendation: Shift schedule realignment should be considered as quality improvement initiative. It provided adequate time for healthcare providers to execute care plan and at the same time completing administration task which is equally important for effective handoff during shift changes and incident reporting if any. Extended shift schedule from 8 to 12 h, even though longer in duration per shift, seems compensated with the less total shift per month (15 shifts per month in 12 h based vs 20-22 shifts per month in 8 h based to achieve the same 40 h per week).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the association between shift schedule realignment and patient safety culture.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using difference in differences model, BIMC Hospitals and Siloam Hospital Bali were compared before and after shift schedule realignment to test the association between shift schedule realignment and patient safety culture.\nFindings: Shift schedule realignment was associated with a significant improvement in staffing (coefficient 1.272; 95% CI 0.842 - 1.702; p<0.001), teamwork within units (coefficient 1.689; 95% CI 1.206 - 2.171; p<0.001), teamwork across units (coefficient 1.862; 95% CI 1.415 - 2.308; p<0.001), handoffs and transitions (coefficient 0.999; 95% CI 0.616 - 1.382; p<0.001), frequency of error reported (coefficient 1.037; 95% CI 0.581 - 1.493; p<0.001), feedback and communication about error (coefficient 1.412; 95% CI 0.982 - 1.841; p<0.001) and communication openness (coefficient 1.393; 95% CI 0.968 - 1.818; p<0.001).\nPractical implications: With positive impact on patient safety culture, shift schedule realignment should be considered as quality improvement initiative. It stretches the compressed workload suffered by staff while maintaining 40 h per week in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.\nOriginality/value: Shift schedule realignment, designed to improve patient safety culture, has never been implemented in any Indonesian private hospital. Other hospital managers might also appreciate knowing about the shift schedule realignment to improve the patient safety culture.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Work time demands, work time control and supervisor support in the Australian construction industry: An analysis of work-family interaction	[ "Hours of work", "Strain", "Work‐life balance", "Work‐family conflict", "Work‐family enrichment", "Job demands", "Construction industry", "Australia" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The work-family interface\nResearch methods: Data collection\nResults: The sample\nDiscussion: Correlates of work-family conflict and enrichment\nConclusions: The strong correlation between work time demands and conflict and time- and strain-based WIF suggests that the long hours culture of the Australian construction industry presents a high risk environment for work-to-family conflict and the undesirable health effects associated with WIF. Long hours may be addressed through improved attention to work scheduling and resourcing in construction project programmes, as well as work hours monitoring and managerial interventions to ensure that workers do not work excessive hours. However, although work time demands were positively correlated with WIF, work domain resources of work time control and supervisor support were inversely related to WIF to a similar degree of magnitude. Thus, reductions in WIF may be achieved through a reduction in work time demands coupled with strategies to increase work time control and/or supervisor support.Work time demands were unrelated to work-family enrichment. While it is desirable to reduce WFC, there is a growing recognition that optimal outcomes occur when participation in one domain enhances the quality of experience in the other domain. The results suggest that a reduction in work time demands is an important but insufficient development to promote work-family enrichment, which is likely to require the provision of resources, such as work time control and supervisor support. Strategies, such as the provision of training to supervisors in the importance of being sensitive to the family needs of workers and/or the provision of greater work hours flexibility, for example through self-rostering, could be useful. However, the effectiveness of any work-family support strategies implemented must be carefully evaluated.From a research perspective the results highlight the need to include WFC and work-family enrichment as distinct variables in future work-family research in the construction context. The results also raise a number of issues that require further investigation. First, the unexpected finding that work time control and supervisor support have a stronger positive relationship with family-to-work enrichment than work-to-family enrichment and warrants further research. Also, the JDC and job demands-support models failed to explain experiences of FIW or work-family enrichment. Alternative theories to explain the positive side of the work-family interface need to be explored.Limitations and future research\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This research aims to explore the relationship between work time demands, work time control and supervisor support in the Australian construction industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A survey was undertaken with waged and salaried construction workers in two construction organizations (n=261).\nFindings: - Work time demands were positively correlated with time- and strain-based work interference with family life (WIF) but inversely correlated with time- and strain-based family interference with work (FIW). Work-family enrichment was inversely correlated with work time demands and positively correlated with both work time control and social support from one's supervisor. Respondents with high work time demands and low work time control (or low supervisor support) reported the highest levels of time- and strain-based WIF. The lowest levels of WIF were reported by respondents in low work time demands and high work time control (or high supervisor support) jobs classifications. However, jobs high in both work time demands and work time control reported the highest levels of work-to-family enrichment.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The results suggest that work-family conflict and work-family enrichment should be treated as two distinct concepts in work-family research and that the job demands-control theory is helpful in explaining work-family conflict but that alternative theories are needed to explain positive work-family interactions.\nPractical implications: - The practical implication of the research is that reducing work time demands may be helpful in reducing work-family conflict but that the provision of work domain resources is probably required to enable positive work-family interactions.\nOriginality/value: - Previous work-family research has focused on job demands and resources separately, while the job strain literature has focused on the impact of job demands and the key resources of social support. The originality of this research is that it examines the extent to which different configurations of job demand and resource can explain experiences at the work-family interface.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A performance evaluation framework for construction and demolition waste management: stakeholder perspectives	[ "Construction and demolition waste management (CDWM)", "Performance evaluation framework", "Waste management strategy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The development of the construction industry has generated an enormous amount of construction and demolition waste (CDW). In European countries, approximately 970 million tons of CDW was produced in 2006 (Dahlbo et al., 2015) and around 820 million tons in 2017 (Galvez-Martos et al., 2018). In Hong Kong, nearly 15 million tons of CDW was sent to landfills annually (Lu and Tam, 2013). The high volume of CDW can have a negative impact on the ecological and environmental system (Lu and Yuan, 2010), economy, public health (Blaisi, 2019), construction workers' health (Stocks et al., 2011) and project finance (Udawatta et al., 2015b). Thus, an understanding of how to manage CDW is crucial (Ling and Nguyen, 2013; Yuan, 2013b). Effective construction and demolition waste management (CDWM) increased the life span of landfills, lowered the need for raw materials, decreased the costs for projects, created new business chances and showed the environmental commitment of project stakeholders (Luangcharoenrat et al., 2019). However, the implementation of CDWM still failed to meet the satisfaction of project stakeholders (Dahlbo et al., 2015).In recent years, governments have increasingly recognized the importance of CDWM and rolled out relevant regulations in succession. Take Hong Kong, where CDWM performance has received certain positive results, as an example. A proper series of policies enacted by the Hong Kong Government since the 1980s have contributed to the effective implementation of CDWM (Lu and Tam, 2013). Indeed, every million dollars' construction work has produced around 20 tons of CDW in recent years, compared to around 40-70 tons during the first half of the last decade. In contrast with the comprehensive policies in Hong Kong, insufficient legal documents and unclear assignment of prime responsibilities for CDWM have been witnessed in Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and Vietnam (Hoang et al., 2020). In Vietnam, although ambitious sustainable goals with CDW regulations have been issued, the CDWM performance has been by far the weakest with incoherent policies at government levels (Hoang et al., 2020), lack of awareness of project stakeholders (Ling and Nguyen, 2013) and unsolved problems in waste transport due to a lack of coordination among CDW actors (Lockrey et al., 2016). CDW has not been well documented (Lockrey et al., 2016) since no update of the CDW volume has been officially provided by the Vietnamese government for this decade, remaining at 6.000-7.200 tons per day since 2011 (Hoang et al., 2020). The performance of CDWM in Vietnam, or the world at large, still faces many hindrances, which need a comprehensive performance evaluation framework and proper CDWM strategies (Ling and Nguyen, 2013; Lockrey et al., 2016).Currently much of the literature relates to CDWM performance and how to obtain it. A number of studies have tried to gain insight in understanding the CDWM performance variables, but these studies only focus on environmental, economic and societal components as critical aspects of CDWM performance evaluation (Klang et al., 2003; Begum et al., 2006; Lu and Yuan, 2010; Hwang and Yeo, 2011; Yuan, 2013b; Dahlbo et al., 2015) and relate to the performance of project stakeholders separately. The performance of each stakeholder was independently examined with regard to the contractors' perspective (Kulatunga et al., 2006; Tan et al., 2011; Saez et al., 2013) and the designer's view (Othman and Abdelrahim, 2019). There is a lack of studies that holistically investigate variables forming the evaluation framework of CDWM performance with regard to key project stakeholders' perspectives, like owners, contractors and consultants. The construction project involves a large number of organizations of different characteristics that may have divergent opinions on CDWM performance. A comprehensive evaluation framework requires major organizations' widespread recognition and validation. This assessment framework allows organizations to acknowledge the degree of achievement of their CDWM performance, thus applying fitting CDWM strategies for construction projects.So far, the majority of studies have considered CDWM strategies based on either its feasibility (Klang et al., 2003; Udawatta et al., 2015b) or effectiveness (Begum et al., 2006; Ling and Nguyen, 2013; Saez et al., 2013). This study argues that feasibility and effectiveness are the two critical aspects when assessing CDWM strategies; and the feasibility of a given strategy is independent of its effectiveness. Knowing a CDWM strategy is well-prepared does not mean it will be feasible in practical implementation (Shiers et al., 2014). Therefore, CDWM strategies need to be evaluated both of its feasibility and effectiveness to increase the possibility of achieving positive outcomes.The objectives of this study are to (1) develop a holistic performance evaluation framework of CDWM and (2) propose effective and feasible CDWM strategies to improve CDWM performance. The purpose of this study is to bring out a performance evaluation framework and CDWM strategies that enable key project stakeholders to understand and perform CDWM in a better manner. The scope of this study focuses on the project level within the perspectives of key project stakeholders, like owners, contractors and consultants in the Vietnamese construction industry. The results provide key project stakeholders with an emphasis on critical factors when evaluating CDWM performance. It also provides strategic practices to implement CDWM at the project level.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Construction and demolition waste\n3. Research methodology: 3.1 Research design\n4. Findings of the study: 4.1 Conceptual performance evaluation framework\n5. Discussions: 5.1 CDWM performance evaluation framework\n6. Conclusions and recommendations: This paper investigated CDWM implementation in the Vietnamese construction sector. Although waste management had been conducted in both government agencies and construction projects, CDWM was still the area of low achievement. The study addresses the gap in knowledge by developing the comprehensive performance evaluation framework and proposing feasible and effective strategies which enable the evaluation and improvement of CDWM practices in construction projects.Among the initial 22 CDWM performance variables, 18 variables extracted the six crucial factors through factor analysis technique. The six factors were validated to form the CDWM performance evaluation framework. Of these, the most critical area was determined to be \"attitudes towards CDWM.\" In addition, questionnaires were used to collect personal viewpoints on the feasibility and effectiveness of CDWM strategies, which then evaluated through PI values. The prioritization of PI values showed that \"raise CDWM awareness among construction stakeholders\" was the most prominent CDWM strategies in the Vietnam context, which supported to the critical importance of human behavior extracted from factor analysis. 6.1 Implications for research and practice\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to develop a performance evaluation framework for construction and demolition waste management (CDWM); second, to investigate feasible and effective strategies to improve the CDWM performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A review of the literature highlighted a lack of comprehensive research to evaluate CDWM performance of key project stakeholders, like owners, contractors and consultants. After the identification of 22 performance variables through a pilot study, a first questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the views of respondents toward CDWM performance. The 132 responses were analyzed using factor analysis to determine specific CDWM performance factors, which formed a conceptual performance evaluation framework of CDWM. Furthermore, a practical index (PI) was proposed to integrate the feasibility and effectiveness of CDWM strategies. The values of PI were employed to prioritize CDWM strategies from data collected in a second questionnaire survey.\nFindings: The validated results from factor analysis revealed that the conceptual performance evaluation framework of CDWM consists of six factors; and the attitude toward CDWM emerged as the foremost critical factor. The prioritization of PI values indicated that raising CDWM awareness among construction stakeholders was the most feasible and effective strategy for CDWM.\nOriginality/value: This CDWM performance evaluation framework is one of the first to holistically evaluate CDWM from key stakeholder perspectives. In addition, the PI firstly enables quantitative integration of the feasibility and effectiveness of CDWM strategies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The enterprise system revisited: how well does it capture the company's business network?	[ "Information technology", "Industrial marketing", "Industrial purchasing", "Markets-as-networks", "Adaptations", "Connections" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Enterprise systems, also called enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, were described as a \"dream come true\" given their process-oriented logic and seamless integration of all business data (Davenport, 1998). Their design allows for inter-organizational collaboration with customers and suppliers through different ecommerce solutions. Enterprise systems are modular software that can support most of a company's business processes in an integrated way, and one of their major strengths (but also challenges) is that they work through an (virtually) integrated database with common data and definitions (Motiwalla and Thompson, 2012; Sumner, 2005; Davenport, 2000). For the industrial company acting in a business network, such functioning seems ideal. However, lately researchers have nuanced the enterprise systems' role by pinpointing that their transaction-logic is not an optimal basis for business decision support (Markus et al., 2003), that the full enterprise system is seldom implemented (Davenport et al., 2004) and that we need to learn more about benefit external to the firm (Grabski et al., 2011). Other researchers have said that the marketing function needs to utilize different information systems (Daniel et al., 2003) or that salesmen and marketers are reluctant to embrace integrated enterprise systems (Lamb and Kling, 2003; Walsham, 2001). Thus, the original description of enterprise systems as the central business hub can be called into question.\n2. The logic of enterprise systems: The dream of an integrated company-wide information system has been around for a while (Anjard, 1995), and the advent of enterprise systems seemed to fulfill these needs (Davenport, 1998). The divergence between the original promise and actual use has led to concepts like ERP1 and ERP2 (or ERP II), as well as the labelling the \"extended ERP\" (Frank, 2004; Koh et al., 2011; Shanks et al., 2003). Thomas Davenport was overly confident when he forecasted that enterprise systems \"of the near future will be in the areas of customer relationship management, supply chain management, knowledge management, and new product development\" (Davenport, 2000, p. 283). The practical use of enterprise systems has not been as extensive as Davenport (1998, 2000) predicted, and this has led to a situation where complementary information systems have been added, focussed either on the customer side through separate customer relationship management (CRM) systems or on the supplier side through supply chain management (SCM) systems. While studies of CRM systems often delimit the attention to some of the customer-focussed activities such as profitability (Johnson et al., 2012), relationships and organizational performance (Rapp et al., 2010) or organizational learning (Stein and Smith, 2009), studies of SCM systems often follow a more holistic approach, studying the integration of different supply-side activities (Shatat and Udin, 2012), cross-functional needs (Qiu, 2012; Kaiser and Buxmann, 2012; Piercy, 2009) or how they support the company's strategy and contribute to overall business value (Bose et al., 2008; Moellera et al., 2006). A limitation in the CRM and SCM system studies is that they seldom address the cross-functional needs of a networked company (Kim et al., 2010; Batista et al., 2008). Industrial companies must manage the customer and supply sides simultaneously. The original intention with enterprise systems was to support both customer- and supplier-focussed activities (Davenport et al., 2004; Davenport, 1998, 2000), and this is also in line with the vendors' descriptions. Fully implemented, an enterprise system allows a \"real holistic '360 degree' picture of the extended enterprise\", as well as increased response rates and leverage on the organization through increased accurate information (Koh et al., 2011, p. 392). Enterprise systems, fully developed, should be the tool for transactions, process re-engineering and decision-making and, fully implemented, it should have a wide information scope\n3. Industrial \"markets-as-networks\": Large-scale studies of industrial businesses have resulted in a theoretical body that is described as markets-as-networks (McLoughlin and Horan, 2002; Mattsson, 1997; Turnbull and Ford, 1996) or \"the IMP Group\" (Morlacchi et al., 2005; Ford et al., 2003). Empirical studies of the business of more than thousand companies showed that their actions could be described as business relationships (Anderson et al., 1994; Hagg and Johanson, 1982; Hakansson, 1982; Hakansson et al., 1976). An early conceptualization of a business relationship was as made up of ongoing interactions holding different forms of exchanges in an atmosphere of trust and commitment (Anderson and Weitz, 1992; Dwyer et al., 1987). The fundamental exchanges are the business exchanges (product or services exchanged for money). However, studies also demonstrated that other forms of exchanges are needed when companies do business as information exchanges (about the product, about the selling conditions and so forth) and social exchanges (e.g. between company representatives and customers or suppliers). Thus, the product for money exchange is only one of many exchanges needed for an ongoing business relationship (Hakansson, 1982), and the exchanges concern many individuals on both the selling and buying side (Cunningham and Homse, 1986) which makes the buying and selling activities a group decision process that crosses organizational boundaries.\n4. Case study design: The case study is a methodological approach that allows the investigation of \"a contemporary phenomenon in depth and within its real-life context\" (Yin, 2009, p. 18), and it has been a suitable approach, given that enterprise systems are technologically and organizationally complex systems that span organizational boundaries and that affect a large part of a company's staff, as well as the company's partners. Case studies also encourage multiple data sources, i.e. data triangulation (Eisenhardt, 1989), and the companies and their inter-organizational business have been captured through different data collection methods such as interviews, participatory sketching inspired by Checkland's \"rich pictures\" (Checkland, 1999; Checkland and Holwell, 1998), system blueprints and documents, as well as other archival material and observations. The research was performed as three different case studies, whereas all three have been following multinational companies' use of enterprise systems and other company-wide IT. The empirical material contains a pilot study (Steel Company 2002-2004) followed by a study of the Automation and Automotive Company that also involved visits to some of their customers and suppliers (during the period of 2004-2006), while the later companies (studied during the period of 2008-2010) have only covered respondent renderings from the case companies. However, all companies showed similarities in enterprise system use, even if there were differences in how \"complete\" their enterprise system was. The companies were also representative when it comes to earlier studied companies that have formed the basis for the \"markets-as-network\" theory (Ford et al., 2003; Hakansson and Snehota, 1995), and the selection of multinationals are in line with the fact that they have been early adopters of enterprise systems. Thus, the selection is considered to be representative for theoretical generalization (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007; Eisenhardt, 1989) given that the companies are similar to those in the earlier studies of industrial business networks. General information about the studied companies is offered in Table I.\n5. Results and discussion: The multinationals studied have been in a transition phase, i.e. their enterprise systems have been made up of a mix between legacy systems and new enterprise system modules. All the companies studied did also describe a situation where inter-organizational activities and demands were offering the biggest challenges. Many of the challenges where structural; the multinationals had a history of expansion through foreign investments and acquisitions that mean that there were sometimes overlapping marketing and sales functions, local adapted legacy systems, discrepancies when it comes to the different divisions' business activities (e.g. from component to system deliveries) and so forth. Thus, the Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and IT Managers interviewed described an intrinsic situation where they had to prioritize between different and often contradictory needs when they developed and refined their enterprise system, which also was often made up of several instances in different business areas. The companies' enterprise systems did all indicate that the internal (back-office) use found in earlier studies (Davenport et al., 2004) prevailed. However, the staffs' practical business activities can mainly be seen as relational or network oriented rather than transaction-focussed (Brookes et al., 2004; Coviello et al., 2002). The activities studied do fit well with the theoretical descriptions of business relationships, exchanges, business adaptations and connected network activities. The major findings are further discussed below.\n6. Conclusion: The presented study offers both theoretical and managerial implications that will be presented in the following sections. The conclusions are based on the three cases and such samples prevent statistical generalizations. However, the findings shall be seen as a call for further research allowing testing and development of the outlined findings through quantitative approaches focusing on the cross-functional nature of enterprise system practice.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to analyse how well enterprise systems capture the business network in which an industrial company is involved. Enterprise systems have been presented as a \"dream come true\" with a seamless integration of business data through a common database and software modules that can be customized to the companies' different functions. However, research shows that companies' utilization of enterprise systems is limited, and that internal processes are prioritized.\nDesign/methodology/approach: European multinational companies and some of their partners have been followed through case studies between 2003 and 2010. The pattern-matching analysis has been supported by a theoretical framework that depicts industrial companies as engaged in business relationships in a network setting.\nFindings: The results show that the company's relationship-oriented activities are badly captured by the enterprise system. The study highlights limitations that future enterprise systems need to address if they are to be able to offer the company a better insight into its business network.\nOriginality/value: The traditionally internal focus on enterprise systems means that important business information transcending inter-organizational activities will be missed. To be worthy of the name enterprise system, more customer- and supplier-oriented activities need to be supported and captured.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Developing a cultural perspective on ERP	[ "Manufacturing resource planning", "Organizational culture", "Standardization", "Social factors" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nA demanding technology: A recent case description reports a major enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation at Nestle, a multinational Switzerland-based consumer goods corporation (see www.CIO.com, a web site for Chief Information Offers related to CIO Magazine). The implementation involves an initial $200 million contract with SAP and an additional $80 million for consulting and maintenance. With this investment Nestle wants to centralize a conglomerate that owns 200 operating companies and subsidiaries in 80 countries. The report cites a business analyst who downgraded her recommendation on Nestle stock. She is skeptical about a project of this magnitude, because \"[I]t touches the corporate culture, which is decentralized, and tries to centralize it [...] That's risky. It's always a risk when you touch the corporate culture\". The responsible CIO of Nestle also is very aware of the risky nature of ERP, and warns: \"[I]f they go in with an attitude that there's not going to be resistance and pain, they're going to be disappointed\". This CIO has learned the hard way that \"no major software implementation is really about the software. It's about change management\". She stresses in particular that \"when you move to SAP, you are changing the way people work [...] You are challenging their principles, their beliefs and the way they have done things for many, many years\".This account of ERP stands in sharp contrast with the rhetoric that guided the introduction and distribution phases in the development of enterprise systems. In the mid-1990s, when many organizations jumped on the ERP bandwagon, ERP was advocated and welcomed as a cure-all for many major organizational problems (Davenport, 1998). ERP promised significant increases in management control, competitive advantage, reductions in the costs of business operations and flexibility in production and distribution processes. While these advantages are still the primary objectives of ERP, they are nowadays no longer naively presented as relatively simple and self-evident outcomes of a technological fix. Instead, ERP itself is presented as problematic, laying heavy burdens on organizations. This redefinition of ERP is informed by alarming stories about chronically exceeded budgets and deadlines and serious disruptions of business processes because of ERP. In short, the image of ERP seems to have changed from a highly promising into a highly demanding technology.The Nestle story not only draws attention towards transformations in the signification of ERP, it also points towards organizational culture as the primary factor responsible for the demanding character of this technology. Whether or not this claim is entirely accurate - it could well be that \"culture\" in some instances is used as a scapegoat, distracting from an underestimation of the complexity of ERP, from technical failures, financial miscalculations or bad management and power struggles - this claim strengthens our interest in the cultural conditions and consequences of ERP systems.In this article we develop a cultural perspective on ERP and organizations. We want to clarify what can or should be taken into account in a cultural study of ERP. We are specifically interested in the interaction between new technologies and organizations (Ciborra and Lanzara, 1990; Orlikowski, 2000). First, three different but mutually related perspectives on ERP will be highlighted. This is relevant for defining ERP. Second, the standardization of ERP is identified as a key process in the relationship between organizational culture and the dynamics of ERP. From a cultural perspective it is important to study the process of standardization from the perspective of the life worlds of the various actors involved in the development and implementation of ERP. In particular, the role of intermediary ICT businesses in constructing ERP seems crucial.\nComplex organizations and ERP: We start from the observation that ERP systems are not easy to define, certainly not if we want to take the actors' point of view seriously. ERP systems are complex and dispersed within and between organizations. In a sense these systems are elusive - they are in constant flux and to be found everywhere (a little bit) and nowhere (entirely). Those involved in the (re)production of ERP will, depending on their position in the organization, have quite different views of and experiences with ERP. Individual or group definitions of ERP will vary according to their \"awareness context\". In order to recognize these subjective standpoints towards ERP, an a priori definition of ERP is not very useful. Instead, we highlight three perspectives from which ERP systems can be experienced, defined and analyzed. These perspectives, which indeed apply to any technology and which in a way also represent historical phases in the development and study of technology (Stemerding, 1995; Silverstone and Haddon, 1996), will in this article be specified as the \"constitution\" of ERP, ERP as a \"condition\" of organizations, and the (unintended) \"consequences\" of ERP.The constitution of ERP\nERP and organizational culture: In the previous section we concluded that whether we study the constitution of ERP, or consider ERP as a condition of organizations, or direct our attention towards the consequences of ERP, in each case the outcome of our analysis will be dependent on the perception of the actors involved and the organizational contexts. These complex relationships between ERP and organizations raise the question of how to study and manage cultural aspects of ERP systems. Analyzing ERP as an outcome of human actions and interactions can be done by connecting ERP to a body of literature that is known as \"social shaping of technology\" (SST) (Williams and Edge, 1996). In contrast with approaches that consider technological development in a deterministic way as an autonomous process that is taken for granted, this body of literature examines not only technical factors, but socio-economic factors as well. Though using a wide range of theoretical models and frameworks, the SST literature has in common that it studies the character and influence of shaping forces. Central to SST literature is that there are choices made by individual actors or groups that influence the character of artefacts and the direction of technological development (the so-called innovation trajectories). This implies that the understanding of choices and social influences is crucial. When it comes to the implementation of ERP in an organization, this means that the technology and the organization (i.e. organization members) cannot be treated as independent and separate entities. According to the SST literature, it is the social setting of the organization that shapes technology and vice versa (Ciborra and Lanzara, 1990). Technologies do not come to us like \"manna from heaven\", but are social and heterogeneous phenomena embedded in the social structures of organizations. Of particular importance are the interactions of people acting within these formal structures and in how they construct their own vision of reality. An analysis of the organizational context of actors should therefore be part of the analysis.In our view, SST encompasses all the three perspectives on ERP as outlined above. These perspectives should not be considered as mutually exclusive but as alternative cross-sections of the same technology-organization constellation. Whereas questions related to the constitution of ERP tend to highlight the meanings attributed to ERP artifacts, and questions related to ERP as an organizational condition tend to focus on the normative prescriptions embedded in the operation of ERP, the questions related to the consequences of ERP highlight the power relations regarding ERP. The intellectual challenge here is to analyze how these three perspectives interact and can be combined in practice.Organizational culture\nConclusion: We started this paper with the observation that ERP has become a highly demanding technology. Managers as well as scientists in many cases attribute the problems associated with the development and implementation of ERP to aspects of organizational culture. However, in general - with some interesting exceptions cited in this article - culture has not yet been a topic of explicit concern in studies of ERP. Therefore we have given some guidelines for developing a cultural perspective on ERP.First, in defining ERP from the actor's point of view, three different but mutually related perspectives should be taken into account. These perspectives include the constitution of ERP (stressing processes of signification and the redefinition of work), ERP as a condition of organizations (stressing the virtualization of organizations and normative prescriptions of ERP) and the intended as well as unintended consequences of ERP (stressing the globalization of organizations and power relations). In the interaction between these three dimensions of ERP we may find the cultural forces shaping this technology and how this technology in its turn influences organizational cultures. Since many studies of ERP highlight the gaps that often seem to be experienced between the expectations and evaluations of ERP projects, special attention should be given to the retrospective character of cultural processes, as in the concept of sensemaking (Weick, 1995).Second, in studying culture the actor's point of view is paramount, since culture refers to processes of meaning construction and sensemaking. The actor's point of view can be pursued by adopting a life-world approach. However, life-worlds should not be approached without taking the instrumental systems characteristics of ERP into consideration. It is important to specify how IT systems and life-worlds are connected, since cultural relations are reproduced together with the development and use of ERP-systems. System and life-world will have to be perceived as two sides of the same organizational coin. In this respect we have stressed the importance of \"intermediary\" structures and organizations. These structures, and the organizations specifically dealing with these structures, provide linkages between the producers and users of ERP. Accentuating intermediary structures, and intermediary roles of ERP, can also overcome the often arbitrary distinction between human and non-human \"actors\" (Callon et al., 1992).Third, the standardization of ERP systems is of interest in order to identify the relevant actors regarding ERP. In the standardization of ERP systems a distinction should be made between on the one hand the standardization of ERP, i.e. the vertical integration within the \"(re)production chain\" of ERP packages, and on the other hand the \"value chain\" standardized by ERP, i.e. the horizontal integration of business units and suppliers and customers. In managing these processes of standardization, intermediary ICT companies and other working practices that specifically deal with the connections between the various sub-systems of the ERP network occupy key positions in the social construction of ERP. Together they make up an organizational context for ERP, which has become a relatively autonomous force within and between organizations. This technological environment exerts considerable influence upon but does not determine organizational culture. It shapes a technological culture which management and researchers seriously have to reckon with.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To develop an analytical framework through which the organizational cultural dimension of enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations can be analyzed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper is primarily based on a review of the literature.\nFindings: - ERP is an enterprise system that offers, to a certain extent, standard business solutions. This standardization is reinforced by two processes: ERP systems are generally implemented by intermediary IT organizations, mediating between the development of ERP-standard software packages and specific business domains of application; and ERP systems integrate complex networks of production divisions, suppliers and customers.\nOriginality/value: - In this paper, ERP itself is presented as problematic, laying heavy burdens on organizations - ERP is a demanding technology. While in some cases recognizing the mutual shaping of technology and organization, research into ERP mainly addresses the economic-technological rationality of ERP (i.e. matters of effectiveness and efficiency). We want to supplement and complement this perspective with a cultural approach. How do individuals in organizations define and experience ERP-standards? How and to what extent are management and working positions redefined in the process of developing and implementing ERP? In the paper, we highlight three perspectives from which ERP systems can be experienced, defined and analyzed. These perspectives are specified as the \"constitution\" of ERP, ERP as a \"condition\" of organizations, and the (unintended) \"consequences\" of ERP.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Is the literature on content analysis of intellectual capital reporting heading towards a dead end?	[ "Disclosure", "Intellectual capital", "Narratives", "Content analysis", "Research framework" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The aim of this study is to investigate whether the results of prior content analysis studies on intellectual capital (IC) reporting are comparable despite differences in their IC research frameworks. The findings have implications for the research area of IC content analyses, because prior studies can only validly be consulted for meta-analyses provided that their results are comparable in rankings and key findings. Assurance on comparability would enhance conclusions in the research area of IC content analyses. Dumay and Cai (2014) critically review content analyses of IC reporting and criticise the plethora of individual studies following similar approaches in IC content analysis. They ask for an example of how IC content analysis can be taken forward. One possibility to utilise the remarkable amount of prior IC content analyses is to draw conclusions across the results of prior studies in meta-analyses. However, prior researchers have adapted their IC research frameworks according to different research settings under review. Hence, an investigation of the comparability of prior IC reporting results is necessary before meaningful meta-analyses can be conducted.\n2. Literature review: 2.1. Defining IC\n3. Research design: 3.1. Sample\n4. Results: 4.1. Role of widely used IC items\n5. Conclusion: The aim of this study is to investigate whether the results of prior content analysis studies on IC reporting are comparable despite differences in their IC research frameworks. Prior studies on content analyses of IC reporting have been conducted for over a decade using different IC research frameworks for different research settings. In a critical review, Dumay and Cai (2014) called for new ideas to enhance and enrich IC research. This study suggests that conclusions can be drawn across the results of prior content analyses in meta-analysis studies in order to utilise the plenty of prior content analysis studies. However, the differences in prior IC research frameworks may cause the results of prior IC content analyses to be non-comparable. Therefore, this study focuses on investigating IC research frameworks applied in prior IC content analyses to investigate the comparability of prior IC reporting results.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to respond to the call by Dumay and Cai (2014) for new ideas to enhance intellectual capital (IC) research. One possibility is to draw conclusions on comparability across the results of prior studies. This study investigates whether the results of prior IC content analyses are comparable despite differences in their IC research frameworks.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A content analysis of 428 German management reports is conducted, capturing the IC reporting scores for individual IC items to investigate the role of certain widely used IC items. The relationships of IC scores for different combinations of widely used IC items are further examined in a correlation analysis to indicate comparability of prior results.\nFindings: The findings show that widely used IC items capture the majority of IC reporting and that the IC scores for different combinations of these IC items are highly correlated. These findings indicate that the results of prior IC content analyses are comparable as long as most of the widely used IC items are included in prior IC research frameworks.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study contributes to IC reporting research as it shows that conclusions can be drawn across prior studies in meta-analyses because the results of prior studies are comparable in rankings and key findings.\nOriginality/value: Although content analyses of IC reporting have been previously criticised, this study seminally questions the comparability of the results of prior studies due to differences in the IC research frameworks.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Governmental accounting practitioners: cardigan removed, research agenda revealed	[ "Professions", "Network", "Public sector", "Practitioner", "Expert", "Professional accountancy organisation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In contrast to the generic accountant, a stereotypical image of a governmental (hereafter, public sector) accountant does not appear often. However, if such an image were to exist it could be expected to be a variant of the risk-averse public servant (Hood, 2011) with an influence from the more generic accountant image as a \"beancounter\" (Friedman and Lyne, 2001). Combining a risk-averse public servant with beancounter is unlikely to produce an attractive superhero. The image conjured is that of a middle-aged person (invariably male) wearing a cardigan as an unassuming but reliable and boring individual (Jeacle, 2008), who is willing to dwell regularly and consistently in the mire of numbers that a bureaucracy typically produces.\n2. Some problematics regarding practitioners: This AAAJ Forum presents four articles arising from a Comparative International Governmental Accounting Research (CIGAR Network) conference \"Making governmental accounting research more relevant: a practice-oriented approach\". That theme arose from CIGAR Network scholars' continued concern with the persistence of the research-practice gap in the accounting discipline more broadly than just public sector accounting (Baxter, 1988; Edwards and Emmanuel, 1990). For almost three decades, Baxter's (1988, p. 1) concern regarding accounting research has been confirmed by a growing body of research: \"I fear that a great gap separates much research from practice\" and research of public sector accounting does not stand aside from Baxter's concern.\n3. Overview of the Forum: The AAAJ Forum presents four articles in which practitioners feature. Three articles focus on the design of public sector accounting systems and, to a varying degree, on implementation issues (Aleksandrov et al., 2018; Bruno and Lapsley, 2018; Schuhrer, 2018). The other (Farrugia and Caruana, 2018) addresses how accounting information is used, or to be more precise not used, by members of Parliament. All four are in the tradition of critical accounting research. Three articles address accounting reform processes in Europe, ranging from the smallest EU member state (Malta) to Italy and Russia. The other article (Schuhrer, 2018) examines an accounting reform in Australia which was one of the first adaptors of public sector accrual accounting and was the pioneer in harmonising Government Financial Statistics (GFS) with General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in the public sector. Considering levels of government, all levels receive attention. While the Russian case (Aleksandrov et al., 2018) focuses on the municipal level, the Italian case (Bruno and Lapsley, 2018) looks at a failed public sector accounting reform at the regional level. The Australian (Schuhrer, 2018) and Maltese (Farrugia and Caruana, 2018) cases investigate reforms at the central government level. With respect to accounting techniques, the articles cover a wide spectrum: participatory budgeting, parliamentary reporting, accrual accounting and harmonisation of GFS with accrual accounting.\n4. Several research topics invoking the doings of practitioners: In handling submissions for this Forum, both the four articles published here and the papers not accepted for publication, as Guest Editors we were struck with the range of possible topics and the general lack of prior literatures. That is, practitioners' doings are fertile grounds for research and we now explore several research themes.\n5. Conclusion and mapping an agenda: This paper has scoped out an agenda for future research with a focus on the doings of practitioners. However, in delineating the contours found in that agenda's map it is prudent to be aware of three limitations. First, as noted by Burke (1935, p. 70) \"any one way of seeing is also a way of not seeing\", thus there is a risk that encouraging focus on the doings of practitioners may discourage other valid and interesting foci available to accounting researchers. Of course, we are not arguing that a practitioner focus should be adopted at the exclusion of alternatives and, as can be gauged from the four topics advanced here, interdisciplinary approaches to topics that cross into other fields will ensure the identified risk is avoided.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to encourage research implicating public sector accounting practitioners. It overviews articles in the AAAJ Forum arising from the Comparative International Governmental Accounting Research (CIGAR) Network conference in 2015 in which practitioners' doings were themes across numerous papers. The paper's central objective is to scope out an agenda for future research in the area.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using the CIGAR presentations and papers reviewed for this AAAJ Forum, a desk-based study informed by these sources and others has been conducted.\nFindings: Aspects of public sector accounting practitioners' doings hold promise in themselves whilst also being likely to complement and enrich other themes of public sector accounting research. Those aspects give rise to analytical frames, which may overlap and/or reinforce other aspects. Those analytical frames are: first, examining networking between practitioners; second, identifying implications of the professionalisation project for public sector accounting practitioners; third, analysing public sector accounting practitioners' responses to the rise of external experts; and, fourth, exploring how public sector accounting practitioners interact with forces that shape the accounting craft. The four articles published here variously address several parts of these themes.\nOriginality/value: In scoping out a future research agenda, this paper justifies greater attention being paid to the four themes noted in its findings. In each of these research fields, an interdisciplinary approach is important.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Publish or impoverish: An investigation of the monetary reward system of science in China (1999-2016)	[ "China", "Web of Science", "Cash-per-publication", "Chinese university", "Journal publication", "Monetary reward" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Although monetary rewards have been used for recognizing scientific achievement since the eighteenth century, it is not regarded as the major reward system in science as described by Merton (1973), in which scientists publish their works and receive the recognition of their peers as the reward. Since academic prizes consisting of cash rewards are awarded only to very few scientific elites, they are considered as a metaphors of prestige rather than simply large sums of money (Zuckerman, 1992). However, the reward system in science changed when the monetary reward incentive for publication was introduced in 1980s. It is reported that this incentive can promote research productivity (Franzoni et al., 2011) but might create a negative goal displacement effect (Frey et al., 2013; Osterloh and Frey, 2014).\nLiterature review: Reward system of science\nMethodology: Data collection\nResults: A landscape of the cash-per-publication reward policy in China emerged as all 168 cash reward policies were analyzed. Chinese universities offer cash rewards that range from USD30 to USD165,000 for a single paper published in journals indexed by WoS, and the average reward amount has been increasing for the past ten years. The results show us the overview of the cash-per-publication reward policies in terms of eligibility, amount, diversity, and trends.\nDiscussion: Traditionally, the monetary reward incentive is used in business to reward employees for excellent job performance (Aguinis et al., 2013). Chinese universities apply this to reward their scholars for research performance, thus promoting publication productivity. Considering the low annual salaries of Chinese scholars - the average annual salary of university professors is around USD8,600, while the average basic salary of newly hired professors is only about USD3,100 (Altbach, 2012)[9] - the amount of cash-per-publication reward is a huge incentive: the reward value for a JASIST paper is equal to a single year's salary for a newly hired professor while the cash award for a Nature or Science article is up to 20 times a university professors' average annual salary. The cash reward policy has been successful as China's international scientific publication has experienced a period of exponential increase in the past 20 years.\nConclusion: In this study, after investigating 168 cash-per-publication reward policies from 100 Chinese universities, we described the landscape of the cash-per-publication reward policy in China and revealed its trends since the late 1990s. Chinese universities apply the monetary reward incentive used in business to promote scientific publication productivity, which lead to a radical increase in China's international scholarly publication. The cash-per-publication reward policy also produces the \"Matthew Effect\" (Merton, 1968) among university professors, as the amount of cash awarded for publications is much higher than professors' annual salaries. Publications bring scholars not only cash rewards but also the possibility of future funding and promotion, which reveals the golden rule of academia in China: publish or impoverish.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the landscape of the cash-per-publication reward policy in China and reveal its trend since the late 1990s.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is based on the analysis of 168 university documents regarding the cash-per-publication reward policy at 100 Chinese universities.\nFindings: Chinese universities offer cash rewards from USD30 to USD165,000 for papers published in journals indexed by Web of Science, and the average reward amount has been increasing for the past ten years.\nOriginality/value: The cash-per-publication reward policy in China has never been systematically studied and investigated before except for in some case studies. This is the first paper that reveals the landscape of the cash-per-publication reward policy in China.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Organizational practices and employee engagement: a case of Malaysia electronics manufacturing firms	[ "Employee engagement", "Organizational communication", "Reward and recognition", "Employees development", "Malaysia", "Employees behaviour" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The competition in the marketplace is getting fiercer nowadays due to globalization. Furthermore, the global financial crisis that occurred in the period 2007-2008 had forced companies to increase their competitiveness for business survival. Consequently, employee engagement has emerged as the most discussed topic among top management over the globe in this decade, since it is an important element for business survival and success. And Malaysia, with its highly educated workforce, is no exception.Previous research has demonstrated the relationship of employee engagement with positive work outcomes, such as low attrition, high performance, and positive business results (Hallberg and Schaufeli, 2006; Saks, 2006; Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004). Findings from BlessingWhite (2005), State of Employee Engagement research report showed a clear correlation between engagement and employee retention, with 85 percent of engaged employees indicating that they planned to stay with their current employer. Ramsey and Finney (2006) also found that engaged employees may be more likely to commit to staying with their current organization. However, Robinson et al. (2004, p. 1) commented that \"engagement is big in the HR consultancy market, yet there is a dearth of academic research in this area\". Likewise, Saks (2006) commented that there is a lack of research on employee engagement in academic literature. In a nutshell, there seems to be a knowledge gap in employee engagement, which drives the need for more empirical research in this area.This study on employee engagement not only expands our knowledge in the theoretical development, but also offers managers practical insights in employee motivation and engagement. To know how to improve employee engagement is particularly important as some reports have shown a decline in employee engagement, and a deepening disengagement among employees (Bates, 2004).To address the call for more research in employee engagement, this paper presents the study of multinational electronics manufacturing companies, based in Malaysia, in six parts. The first part of this article discusses what employee engagement is, followed by a discussion on the outcomes of employee engagement and how to motivate employees. Next, the study methodology is described, followed by the analysis and empirical findings. Last, are the discussions of the findings, limitations, and suggestions for future research, and conclusion.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Employee engagement\n3. Research design: 3.1 Survey instrument\n4. Findings: The demographic details of the respondents are summarized in Table I. As shown, most of the respondents answering the questionnaire are female respondents. More than half of the respondents are within the ages of 25- and 34-years-old. In terms of race, about half of the respondents are Malay, 35.0 percent are Indian and remaining 6.2 percent are Chinese. As for their education level, 43.3 percent of the respondents are Degree holders, 37.1 percent are Diploma holders, and the remaining are high school graduates. In terms of job function within the company, more than one third of the respondents were from the Supply Chain department, 27.8 percent from Human Resource Department, 7.2 percent from IT department, 6.2 percent from Engineering Department, and the remaining 20.6 percent were from other departments.Reliability test was performed to measure the internal consistency of the scale used in this study. According to Nunnally (1978), the minimum value requirement of Cronbach Alpha is 0.70. Table II shows the Cronbach Alpha values of the study variables, ranging from 0.83 to 0.98, all of which exceeds the recommended level of 0.70.In the next section, a descriptive analysis was performed to analyze the extent of organizational practices implemented within the company. As indicated in Table III, the means for organizational practice ranged from 3.25 to 3.54, indicating that respondents perceived a moderate level of organizational practices. Pertaining to the level of employee engagement, respondents perceived themselves as averagely engaged (mean =3.39, SD=0.71).Next, a multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the interaction among the organizational practice variables, in order to indicate which variable has the most predictive power on employee engagement. Table IV shows that all the organizational practice variables are significant at p<0.0001. The results also indicated that employee development (b=0.657) was the most powerful predictor of employee engagement, followed by employee communication (b=-0.578), and reward and recognition (b=0.483). Besides that, the R2 value was 0.432, showing that 43.2 percent change in employee engagement is caused by organizational practices.\n5. Discussion of the findings: Based on the results, it can be concluded that organizational practices do have a major impact on employee engagement. This finding suggests that organizational practices have 43.2 percent impact on employee engagement, which is consistent with previous research by Koyuncu et al. (2006). This study brings awareness to organizations on the importance of organizational practices and the need to align their HR strategy into the company's strategic plan. This manufacturing firm can further foster higher levels of employee engagement in order to reap the full benefits.The multiple regression analysis results also suggest that employee development has the strongest predictive power on employee engagement. This finding is supported by previous research findings conducted by Wellins et al. (2006), who claimed that most employees prefer to keep their jobs fresh and interesting by learning new approaches and building new skills. Thus, employee development seems to be able to meet this preference. Second, this finding is consistent with JD-R model (Bakker et al., 2004) in which employee development is one of the job resources that can fulfill basic human needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence that will motivate them to be more engaged in their workplace.Interestingly, the finding suggests that employee communication does have a negative impact on employee engagement, which is contradictory to what had been suggested by the Job Characteristic Model (JCM) of Hackman and Lawler (1971). The JCM (Hackman and Lawler, 1971) contended that feedback (employee communication) would lead to work motivation and work effectiveness. This finding may be due to the fact that the content of communication in the company has been viewed as a source of demotivating. For instance, employee communication that solely emphasizes on meeting job demands or stringent customer requirements may elevate levels of pressure and undue expectations, which eventually initiates disengagement. In fact, the management team needs to address this issue and may want to incorporate some motivating messages in employee communication, such as providing performance feedback, recognition, and appreciation to employees in order to improve employee engagement within the organization.The third highest predictor for employee engagement is reward and recognition. Reward and recognition refers to the extent to which the company gives appropriate reward and recognition for the work that had been done in achieving organizational goals. This finding is in line with Maslach and Leiter (2008), who proposed that rewards and recognition is one of the areas in work life that have motivation potential to enhance employee engagement.5.1 Limitations and future research\n6. Conclusion: This study had attempted to explore the extent of organizational practices in predicting employee engagement in one of the electronics manufacturing firms in Malaysia and to establish a relationship between organizational practices and employee engagement. Interestingly, the finding shows that 43.2 percent of employee engagement is affected by organizational practices in the firm and employee development is the most essential aspect in improving employee engagement. Practically, the human resource department needs to play its strategic role in fostering employee development, such as by offering employee socialization programs, on-going training programs, incentive schemes that emphasizes on new skills, employee growth reward and recognition, tuition re-imbursement, performance appraisal, and promotion from within the organization in order to foster greater degrees of employee engagement in the organization. The one-size-fits-all strategy is definitely not going to work in the case of motivating the employee to become more engaged.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of organizational practices on employee engagement based on 97 sample respondents from a multinational electronics firm that is based in Malaysia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper uses a survey; SPSS and multiple regression analysis.\nFindings: - The three dimensions of organizational practices, namely organizational communication, reward and recognition and employee development, explained 43.2 percent of the variance in employee engagement. This study also evidenced the significant relationship between organizational practices and employee engagement.\nOriginality/value: - This study contributes to the body of knowledge regarding the important influence of organizational practices on employee engagement. The management may use the findings to further enhance organizational practices that lead to more engaged employees.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The effects of students' entrepreneurial characteristics on their propensity to become entrepreneurs in Malaysia	[ "Innovativeness", "Risk-taking", "Entrepreneurial characteristics", "Leadership skill", "Need for achievement", "Tolerance of ambiguity" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: With the views that entrepreneurship education could nurture unconventional talents and skills, directly influence students' personality, and increase students' intention to start viable and sustainable business enterprises; entrepreneurship has found its way to the Malaysian universities since the mid-1990s. In Malaysia, government has made entrepreneurship course compulsory for all students in public universities to foster entrepreneur skills in youths, since graduates cannot be entirely absorbed in formal salary wage employment. Also, the economic value of supporting the development of entrepreneurship by the Malaysian Government is to create real and sustainable investment in the country (Ahmad and Buchanan, 2015; Yusoff et al., 2015). While the views of fostering entrepreneur skills in the Malaysian university students are well conceived by the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Cooperative Development and the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE), it is imperative to know whether entrepreneurial knowledge has impacted students' likelihood to become entrepreneurs.\nLiterature review: Entrepreneurship education\nData analysis: Exploratory factor analysis\nDiscussion and conclusion: This study investigates the effects of students' entrepreneurial characteristics on their propensity to become entrepreneurs in Malaysia. In doing so, the relationships between entrepreneurial characteristics, which comprised of six main dimensions (locus of control, need for achievement, risk taking propensity, self-confidence, leadership skill and tolerance of ambiguity) and entrepreneurial intentions of students who have participated in the entrepreneurship education in Malaysia were examined. In addition, the researchers also investigate the above relationships when innovation was introduced as a mediating variable. To achieve the intended aims, the paper initially discussed extant literature on the main dimensions of the entrepreneurial characteristics considered in this study. Following this, a conceptual framework that guides this study was developed to show the connections between entrepreneurial characteristics and entrepreneurial intentions; the developed model articulates the effects of entrepreneurial characteristics on entrepreneurial intention. Moving further, research hypotheses were developed; research methodology was discussed; and analyses performed on data collected were presented. Based on various results discussed earlier, the major findings and their implications are dealt with here.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the data collected from Malaysian students to investigate the effects of students' entrepreneurial characteristics (need for achievement, locus of control, propensity to take risk, self-confidence, tolerance of ambiguity and uncertainty, and leadership) on their propensity to become entrepreneurs in Malaysia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: As a quantitative study, various analyses, such as exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling, were conducted to analyze the data collected from 257 students known to have participated in entrepreneurship course and programmes.\nFindings: The results show that leadership skill, need for achievement, tolerance of ambiguity, and risk-taking propensity are positively and significantly associated with students' intention to initiate entrepreneurial activities in Malaysia.\nOriginality/value: The researchers have used data from the perspective of Malaysian students to increase the readers' understanding on students' entrepreneurial characteristics that could enhance their likelihood to become entrepreneurs in Malaysia.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Boundary conditions to the effect of fluency and comprehension on AAD when targeting Hispanics vs Whites with single meaning vs polysemous slogans	[ "Advertising", "Comprehension", "Ethnic identification", "Polysemous slogans", "Processing fluency" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this issue.\nIntroduction: With the population of the USA rapidly becoming more ethnically diverse, firms increasingly target specific ethnic groups with their marketing communications (Pires et al., 2003). Minority groups such as Hispanics present substantial value for marketers. Studies show that, by 2050, the Hispanic component of the US population will collectively exceed 27 per cent, compared to 13 per cent in 2010 (Ennis et al., 2011). According to Fahmy (2010), the Hispanic consumers' annual purchasing power totals $1 trillion and is the fastest growing demographic in the USA. Their purchasing power is expected to increase to $1.5 trillion by the year 2017, becoming the world's ninth largest economy (Fahmy, 2010). Unlike earlier immigrant groups, Hispanics generally have resisted acculturation into mainstream US culture (Huntington, 2004; Seitz, 1998) and, as a result, have a high likelihood to retain a strong ethnic identity (Huntington, 2004).\nEthnicity and ethnic identification: Findings of 21 studies involving ethnicity in advertising generally suggest that non-White consumers, relative to White consumers, are aware of and respond more favorably to advertisements with ethnic cues. Early studies by Deshpande et al. (1986), Webster (1992) and Deshpande and Stayman (1994) found that relative to weak Hispanic identifiers, strong Hispanic identifiers are more likely to:\nComprehension: Message characteristics, opportunity to process the message and the recipient's motivation and ability to process the message are factors that influence message comprehension (Mick, 1992). The formation of attitudes, memory, intentions and behavior occurs after message comprehension when either central or systematic processing occurs (Ratneshwar and Chaiken, 1991).\nPolysemous brand slogans: Communicating only one clear message in which the probability to misinterpret is low is an ideal characteristic of marketing stimuli (Keller, 1993). Consensual meaning is responsible for the development of stimuli meaning according to semiotics literature (Perussia, 1988). Psychology refers to consensual meaning as stimuli codability. Stimuli high in consensual meaning within a particular culture are known as highly codeable (Henderson and Cote, 1998). Consumers perceive, interpret, and retain highly codeable stimuli better than low codeable stimuli. The increased diversity of multi-cultural consumers has led to the increased complexity of the marketing environment and to the increased use of multiple-meaning stimuli. Dimofte and Yalch (2007) characterize polysemous brand slogans as having multiple meanings and being ambiguous.\nProcessing fluency: Processing fluency and the Revised Hierarchical Model of language are presented in a conceptual framework for understanding consumer responses to single-meaning and polysemous slogan advertisements. We make a contribution to the extant processing fluency literature by hypothesizing that language and slogan meaning influence the processing fluency of attitude toward the ad.\nMethod: Sample and design\nResults: We performed manipulation checks for advertisement slogan recall prior to data analysis. While not hypothesized, we expected significant main effects of comprehension and processing fluency on Aad, as suggested by other studies (Zuniga et al., 2015). We found that processing fluency had a significant impact on Aad; advertising comprehension had non-significant influence on Aad. The fit indices for the full model are within acceptable values, with kh2(70) = 148.0 (p\nImplications: Practitioners need to understand how to maximize their targeted advertising efforts toward minority consumers and minimize their advertising costs. Culture, ethnic identification, language usage, values, ideologies, preferences, customs and historical perspectives influence consumer perceptions of advertisements. We found slogan meanings in advertisements influences whether consumers will use the central route (comprehension) or the peripheral route (processing fluency) and ethnic identification moderates this relationship. Comprehension, but most of all, processing fluency, led to more positive attitudes and evaluations toward the advertisement.\nFuture research: Our empirical research study was subject to several limitations. First, a future study needs to study brand attitudes and purchase intentions to understand the thorough influence of processing route taken when processing advertisements, in this study, advertisement attitude was the focus. Future research focusing on other ethnic groups besides Hispanic consumers is needed to appropriately generalize the findings to the general minority population in the USA and elsewhere. Hispanic consumers were the focus of this study, as they are the most impactful (i.e. in numbers and purchasing power) minority group in the USA.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to show that high ethnic identifying Hispanics and Whites pursue different routes discussed in the Elaboration Likelihood Model when processing single meaning versus polysemous slogan ads. The authors found that high ethnic identifying Hispanics used the peripheral route (processing fluency) to a higher extent compared to Whites who used the central route (comprehension) to process ads.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this study, 310 undergraduate students of a Southwestern university were randomly assigned to one of two conditions (slogan: single meaning vs polysemous) in a between-subjects experimental design. Subsequently, participants responded to statements measuring constructs of interest and demographics. Participants were debriefed at the end of the survey.\nFindings: It was found that high ethnic identifying Hispanics used the peripheral route (processing fluency) to a higher extent compared to Whites who used the central route (comprehension) to process advertisements. Results suggest that while polysemous slogans are similarly interpreted by subject independent of their ethnic identification score, for single-meaning slogans, the impact of comprehension on attitudes toward the advertisement (AAD) is significantly different for low (vs high) ethnic identification individuals.\nResearch limitations/implications: A future study needs to study brand attitudes and purchase intentions. Additionally, strategies in developing advertisements that influence comprehension or processing fluency need to be studied.\nPractical implications: This paper\nOriginality/value: Minimal research focusing on polysemy in marketing exists. In advertising, comprehension is commonly studied, leaving processing fluency out. This research addresses the issue by focusing on how single-meaning and polysemous slogans are processed (via comprehension or processing fluency) by consumers and how their ethnic identification affects their AAD.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
"You call it a structure taboo!" Relating consultant experiences to changing dynamics in healthcare	[ "Organizational change", "Organizational autoethnography", "Management consultancy", "Unexpected developments in change projects" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Setting the context: \"You called it 'a structure taboo', God knows why, but as far as I am concerned, there is no taboo with regard to talking about structure here,\" exclaimed the male half of the two-headed board of directors directly to me (the first author). He said this during a collaborative large-group session in front of a full room of 40 executive managers, all working in the same Dutch healthcare institution. While confronted with this exclamation, it flashed through my mind: \"Yeah, what do I know?\" My gut feeling tells me that \"structure\" was apparently not debatable. Perhaps I picked it up during an earlier session with the preparation group or probably, and more likely, during one of the personal interviews I held with the executives. I know for sure that I shared it on an earlier occasion with my client; the same director who seems to use it now as something he could use against me in front of the group. I was baffled. How should I respond? Is this something that all the executives in the room know and share as \"how things are,\" or was it just something I assumed? It was remarkably silent in the packed room, and I noticed that in reaction to the emotional, somewhat angry and indignant words of the director, a sort of shiver went through the audience. And not just through the audience - his direct way of speaking clearly threw me off balance too. It felt as if everyone was looking at me, thinking, \"What will he say? Or was I imagining that?\" The silence continued, as everyone was waiting for what would come next.About six months before this incident happened, I accepted an assignment from the two-headed board of directors. For my assignment, I was told \"to help them [...] make the strategic apex of the institute function more effectively.\" Approximately 850 employees worked at the healthcare institution during that time, attending to 2,500 clients divided across eight different municipalities and 25 locations.\n2. Debates in the consultancy literature: Some scholars see consultants as instruments used by managers, as well as symbolic and rhetorical devices, to legitimize their initiatives for impactful change projects (Bouwmeester and Van Werven, 2011, p. 428). Others see them as \"experts\" in \"managing transition processes\" (Goodstein and Burke, 1991, p. 14), by recognizing and accepting the disorganization and momentarily reduced effectiveness that characterizes this transition. Schein (2009, p. 147) sees consultants in a \"helping role,\" based on the general concept of \"process consultation.\" This implies that a consultant should always select whatever intervention will be most helpful at any given moment, given all one knows about the total situation. In this way of looking, great importance is attached to the development of a cooperative relationship with the client, one which is based on mutual trust (Chalutz Ben-Gal and Tzafrir, 2011) and on the mobilization of all stakeholders around the achievement of planned goals (Lalonde and Gilbert, 2016).\n3. A complex responsive process perspective on research: Taking on the complex responsive process perspective implies that we ground our approach in the philosophical practice of first person inquiry (Marshall, 2004), paying attention to how we experience ourselves in interactions; a research practice that Reason and Torbert (2001) refer to as \"upstream inquiry\" It involves curiosity - through inner and outer arcs of attention - about what is happening and what part one is playing in creating and sustaining patterns of action, interaction, and nonaction. Narratives are used as \"vehicles\" to translate these actual experiences to the reader in such a way that the reader (virtually) can stand in the shoes of (here) the consultant. This function of narratives relates to their quality criteria, as formulated by Connelly and Clandinin (1990) and, for example, to the autoethnographic research approach of Ellis et al. (2011, p. 4). In this line of research, the topic of investigation is the researcher's own experience as part of a local interaction dynamic which can also be compared with Denzin's \"thick descriptions\" (2001, pp. 99-103), or, to be more precise, \"thick inscriptions,\" as narratives are the researcher's own selections and impressions highlighting aspects of the situation deemed relevant by him. In this way, narratives function as a specific \"window\" to certain subjective experiences rather than an \"objective\" representation of organizational reality (Bate, 1997, p. 1163). As a method, autoethnography is a useful approach to understanding an (auto-)biographical case as a personal narrative (Ellis et al., 2011) as we present here from an insider perspective - a lens that is often neglected in today's management literature (Stewart and Aldrich, 2015), especially within consultancy practice literature. However, such a first-person account requires self-questioning and confronting things that are likely less than flattering about oneself. This is probably why, despite its potential, building on personal experiences as a source of data, \"has been criticized for being self- indulgent, narcissistic, introspective and individualized\" (Wall, 2006, p. 155). In response to this criticism, Stacey's complex responsive process perspective encourages researchers not only to take their daily experiences seriously (Stacey and Griffin, 2005, p. 35), but also to use narratives as raw material, to be reflected upon by the researcher together with a group of fellow researchers.\n4. The follow-up of the narrative and the resulting emerging themes: In this section, we will share what happened next in the large group session. After that, some of the emerging themes from our reflection-group discussions are presented, through which it became painfully clear for the first author that he was not embodying the organizational change that he was seeking and the importance of not doing so:Because I (the first author) did not immediately react, the statement of the director hang heavily in the air, which gave a feeling of discomfort. After all, the board hired me to help them, right? However, at the same time, I also believed that my ineffectiveness to team up with my client at that particular moment had much to do with how I interpreted the situation. I found it difficult to parry in public, or even to deflect the question back to the audience. The question was posed directly at me. Moreover, the man who was also my client had said it in a way that clearly did not tolerate opposition. It would also be useless to react on the content; in that case, it would remain between us, which would make the rest of the audience (passive) spectators. Yet, that definitely was not my intent - in fact, the opposite was true. In consultation with both directors, the aim of this session was to enter into dialogue with them and the executives. However, while all of this flashed through my mind, the female member of the board of directors reacted, trying to save the situation and perhaps compensating her colleague-director. She suggested that the interviews I had done had apparently invoked this idea. A meaningful silence followed her reaction. I directly asked those present if there was anyone who could confirm this. Thankfully, that was the case, but it was clear that there was an (allegorical) elephant in the room - which no one dared to point out.\n5. Discussion: As Eriksen (2008, p. 633) argues, organizational policies can change; however, it is only through a fundamental change in who organizational members are in relation to one another that an organization can meaningfully change. Meaningful organizational transformation does not occur without a corresponding self-transformation, most importantly of the individual leading or facilitating the change. This self-transformation is not conceived as a soloistic activity within the consultant, but as a dynamic and emerging responsive process going on in the (\"inner\" and \"outer\") conversations of everyone involved in the change-interactions. This is also the fundamental assumption of the complex responsive process perspective, which we utilized in this paper to get a deeper understanding of the experiences in the narrative. As we would like to demonstrate with our contributions, reflections, and analysis, unpredictable developments and direct attacks on the (power) position and the role of the consultant do not always fit into the self-perceived role of a consultant (his generalized other), nor in the occasionally heroic images of consultants presented in the mainstream literature. In the conventional literature, these developments are regarded as noise or, at best, as exceptions to the rules and as deviations of predictions, which are to be expected and framed as \"resistance to change.\" Once framed in this way, the consultant is, yet again, usually in familiar territory, where he or she can use additional diagnostic tools, theoretical models and an evidence-based repertoire of interventions to \"overcome\" this resistance.\n6. Conclusion: The intense experiences of one of the authors are difficult to explain and understand using only mainstream consulting literature. Having used several concepts and ideas from the complex responsive process perspective on organizations, we contend that this perspective can shed complementary light on the realities of the work of consultants. Interaction processes can have a non-linear quality, where even the smallest gestures can provoke major changes in the emergent meanings and power balances. Furthermore, sense making, understanding, and theorizing are not seen as a disembodied rational process, but as embodied interaction dynamics, where personal power positions, emotions, fears and identities are at stake. The complex responsive process perspective is able to give a central stage to developments and processes that, in mainstream literature on consulting, are regarded as noise, deviations and distractions. This implicates that the broadly accepted image of the \"flawless\" consultant becomes an almost unattainable idealistic and normative image, which has little explanatory power for understanding the daily experiences of consultants in practice. Furthermore, a consultant is not only understood anymore as the heroic one who knows, oversees, and acts purposefully, but as a human whose thoughts, emotions, actions and identity emerge in local interactions hand-in-hand with the development of local power balances. Trying to think rationally is only one of the dynamics going on; one \"Me\" who thinks that he is right. Furthermore, going through intense emotions, being completely surprised, and not knowing what to do next are all regarded as integral parts of the daily practice of consultants. Even the meaning of the concept \"consultant\" and the role of the consultants can only be understood from a local, contextual, and historical perspective.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive reflective perspective on the effects of an intervention in a healthcare organization, as experienced by a consultant. What does a consultant experience when things flounder?\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper applies a complex responsive process approach as a research perspective and autoethnography as a method to better understand the tensions of a consultant in interacting with members of a client-system.\nFindings: Focusing on the experiences of the first author during his work as a consultant in a healthcare institution. This approach contributes to the literature by providing a witness, rather than an aboutness, perspective on the experiences of a consultant during a completely unexpected event.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper is limited by looking at one case in the public sector. It should be considered as exploratory research.\nOriginality/value: The paper can be of value to consultants who are working as a facilitator, as well as to management scholars and practitioners in the field of change management.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Heterogeneous utility from a representative agent model: immigrants vs non-immigrants	[ "Utility", "Immigration", "Dynamic general equilibrium", "Representative agent" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Representative agent models are popular in many fields of economics because of their tractability. By assuming a single representative household and/or firm, the number of optimization problems to solve is minimized. This minimizes the well-known \"curse of dimensionality\" where, as the number of characterizing equations in a model rises, the difficulty in solving the model can rise exponentially. This gain is offset by the restriction that only one type of agent can be considered. This can be particularly problematic when considering welfare implications as there will be only one household for which utility can be measured.\n2. Utility of household subunits: We build a DGE model with immigration. The details of the full model are laid out in Appendix 1. Our primary concern in this paper is to determine the effects on utility for a set of heterogeneous agents.\n3. Labor-leisure Euler equations: In the appendices, we derive the Euler equations that define leisure for each type of agent. For the representative agent model these are shown in Equations (10) and (11). For the equivalent heterogeneous agent model they are given in Equations (12)-(15):(10)\n4. Policy experiments and steady states: We calibrate our model to the Japanese economy[3] Table I shows the parameter value we use for the baseline. We then consider immigration policies that expand the total immigrant population from 1.25 to 5.0 percent. We view foreign and domestic labor as perfect substitutes as long as the labor is of the same type. We consider two scenarios in addition to the baseline. First, a case (UN) where only unskilled labor is allowed to immigrate; and second a scenario (SK) which allows only skilled labor into a country. We consider only the steady state solutions in this paper and not solutions for policy functions or transition paths. Our solution method is to use a root finder from the numerical library, Scipy, in Python[4]. We solve for the values of capital, international savings and labor supply that satisfy the steady state Euler equations.\n5. Conclusion: Overall the representative agent model with adjusted Euler equations conforms very well to the heterogeneous agent model. The standard representative agent model does fairly well with regard to utility. It performs less well with consumptions and with leisure demand and hence, labor supply.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to infer the welfare of heterogeneous agents using a representative agent model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: It does so by partitioning the household into subunits and allocating consumption to each subunit proportionally to the income the subunit generates through wages and capital returns.\nFindings: The author shows that for a simple dynamic general equilibrium model with immigration, the steady state utilities of these subunits correspond very closely to the utilities for an equivalent heterogeneous agent model. This is particularly true when labor-leisure decisions are made using slightly modified Euler equations.\nOriginality/value: More complicated models can be solved and simulated using fewer computational resources using this technique.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Forming a learning culture to promote fracture prevention activities	[ "Interprofessional", "Empowerment", "Learning", "Fracture and prevention", "Organizational culture", "Health education" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The high morbidity, mortality and economic costs for the elderly from fragility fractures are well known. This public health burden includes a lifelong risk of fragility fractures after the age of 50, which is about 50 per cent in women and 20 per cent in men (Kanis et al., 2008; Cummings and Melton, 2002). There is considerable evidence in support of measures that may be taken to help prevent fractures through improved health behaviour. These include physical activity, nutritional diet, compliance with medication and a safe physical environment. Smoking habits and fall-related activities need also to be taken into account as they entail an increased risk of fractures (Kanis et al., 2008; Jarvinen et al., 2008; Gillespie et al., 2003; Cooper, 1999). Despite the development of effective measures, adherence to the available global recommendations is low in high-risk groups (Lekkerkerker et al., 2007; Compstone, 2006; Mayoux-Benhamou et al., 2005; Cortet and Benichou, 2006; Rossini et al., 2006). These facts present challenges for both health professionals and patients concerning, for example, the need to change behaviour to prevent fractures. Several strategies have been proposed to increase the willingness of osteoporosis patients to follow recommendations, such as patient education, bone-mineral density measurements and consultative follow-up meetings (Compstone, 2004). The problem so far has been how to integrate these facts relating to health promotion activities into clinical practice, which forms the foundation for daily routines and shared values among professionals. Implementation of fracture-prevention strategies therefore needs to be improved if the global burden of fractures is to be decreased (Compstone, 2006; Manek, 2010).Integrating a parallel empowerment track into the existing health-care system has been described as one way of implementing health-promotion programmes (Laverack and Labonte, 2000). Prevention activities here seen as part of health promotion illustrate that, with the salutogenic interpretation of the Ottawa Charter, health promotion and health education approaches can be applied in disease prevention. Then the task for professionals is to provide support, enabling people to make sound choices, and to make people aware of the determinants of health by being active and participating (Eriksson and Lindstrom, 2008). The concept of empowerment emanates from humanistic values, founded on the belief that an individual has the will to affect the world around them. Empowerment further refers to processes and outcomes relating to issues of control, critical awareness and participation (Zimmerman and Warshaucsky, 1998). It is a process in which individuals gain control over their own lives and resources (Rappaport, 1981), congruent with the World Health Organisation's definition of health promotion (World Health Organization, 1986).There is a distinction between psychological and community empowerment. Psychological empowerment refers to a sense of having of greater control over one's life, resulting from the experience of being a member of a group, and may occur without collective political/social action (Rissel, 1994; Zimmerman and Rappaport, 1988). This approach has been explored from a patient perspective as a health-enhancing strategy where the patient gains control over their life (Zimmerman and Warshaucsky, 1998; Wallerstein and Bernstein, 1988). Community empowerment includes an enhanced level of psychological empowerment among members of a community but should also contain a component of political/social action in which members actively participate and achieve some redistribution of resources favourable to the group in question (Rissel, 1994).In conformity with Bliuc et al. (2005) we agree that in order to implement change in fracture prevention, organisational motivators and obstacles need to be further explored. As far as we are aware, organisational motivators for and obstacles to promoting fracture prevention have not been described when integrating health-promotion activities that are inspired by the idea of empowerment. The aim of this study was to explore interprofessional experiences when integrating fracture prevention activities in clinical practice inspired by an empowerment approach.\nMethods: The study took place in a health-care district in a region in Sweden and involved health professionals from primary health care and orthopaedic departments. This district has been in the process of developing an osteoporosis programme since 1998, with several attempts to integrate fracture rehabilitation with prevention strategies (Kullenberg et al., 2006). The orthopaedic clinic has striven to integrate bone-mineral measurement for all elderly patients with wrist fractures in line with secondary prevention strategies. Primary health care started an osteoporosis programme in 2002. Despite all efforts, the care and prevention activities were fragmented and there was no co-operation between orthopaedic clinic, rehabilitation clinic and primary health care, except for referral procedures. Several of the participants had never met each other before this study took place even though they worked with the same group of patients.An invitation was sent to 25 professionals working in primary health care, rehabilitation clinics or orthopaedic clinics in the small Swedish region. The criteria for participation in the study were an active involvement in osteoporosis or fracture rehabilitation and a will to be involved in a process over time, at least 6 months, focusing on fracture prevention. In total, 19 professionals participated, aged 31-60: four nurses, five occupational therapists, eight physiotherapists and two physicians. Six of these had been working on improving the diagnosis and care of osteoporosis for several years. Three were fairly new in their professional roles, four were involved in an osteoporosis programme in primary health care and two of the nurses had special roles as \"osteoporosis nurses\". Eleven of the participants were accustomed to meeting patients with fractures in the orthopaedic organisation and eight worked exclusively in primary health care. All except one were women. They came from four different departments with four different managements but were part of the same health care system. All apart from two had participated in a half-day course on motivational interviewing, which was not a planned part of this present process (Rollnick and Miller, 1995).The study was approved by the ethics committee at Karlstad University.Data collection\nFindings: The interprofessional experiences demonstrated that forming a learning culture was seen as the core category in achieving fracture prevention. The learning culture included new ways of learning to interact with patients and practicing face-to-face collaboration between and in multidisciplinary teams, which added professional meaning and, furthermore, triggered personal and collective learning. Those processes became a driving force in generating common efforts, here identified as: breaking professional patterns, creating empowering meetings, making shared preventive links visible and constructing a sense of prevention community. The experiences forming these learning processes are illustrated in Figure 1. Focusing on patient-centred interaction implied that some professional patterns have to be broken and the use of patient-centred empowering meetings established as common practice. The participants felt that they had to break professional patterns and adopt new attitudes when learning to support risk reduction or health behaviour in a patient-centred manner. This became a personal learning process, where the participants challenged their professional roles, transforming their traditional form of interaction without losing professional quality. When the participants managed to transform their personal and collective understanding into action, they experienced a sense of power from within which one summarised as \"the kick\". This feeling created the motivation for improving patient-centred interactions. One person described this feeling in the following manner:I feel so much more content when I feel that I'm there, in a constructive meeting, that's when I can get a real kick.At the beginning of the study, participants had a fragmented awareness of the existing health-care. Through new professional relationships, they began to see the lack of prevention activities, but also some possible shared preventive links. They felt that unbroken face-to-face collaboration was essential in order to facilitate joint organisational motivation and also personal driving forces. This face-to-face collaboration generated a sense of prevention community with a common motivation for change through feelings of coherence, responsibility and ethically substantive meaning. The process advanced by these individual and collective efforts triggered shared preventive activities to be incorporated in clinical praxis. The four efforts generated are explained and discussed in further detail in the following section.Breaking professional patterns\nDiscussion: The aim of this study was to explore interprofessional experiences of incorporating fracture prevention activities in clinical practice inspired by an empowerment approach. The main findings in this study is that forming a learning culture proved to be the core factor in managing fracture prevention and that it might also be an essential aspect of organisational empowerment.Forming a learning culture through new ways of patient-centred interaction and face-to-face collaboration based on the professionals' own requests and experiences was one significant motivator for promoting fracture prevention in clinical practice. This learning process probably advanced as a result of the fact that it was the participants themselves who identified organisational barriers and motivators and together created common goals to achieve organisational improvements similar to the effects of a bottom-up approach (Laverack and Labonte, 2000). This suggests that forming a learning culture may be likened to increasing community competence where the members of a competent community can collaborate effectively, reach consensus on goals and strategies and co-operate to solve identified problems. In line with our findings, it is apparent that a competent empowered community evolves from mutual learning in a synergistic interaction between critical reflection and action with benefits for both personal and community change (Wallerstein, 1992). Thus our findings confirm that a bottom-up approach may well facilitate community competence where mutual learning becomes a driving force for organisational, professional as well as patient change.In comparison with McWilliam et al. (1997) our findings capture relationship-building and raised awareness as significant components in health-promotion strategies. The professionals in our study revealed how the interaction between themselves and the patients could create professional meaning by supporting empowering patient-centred processes. Our study identified new relationships within and between multidisciplinary teams as central to develop a learning culture. This face-to-face collaboration led a mutual critical awareness of the importance of discovering motivators and obstacles within the whole community. In public health, empowerment has often focused on individual change but less on organisational change, on seeing the organisation as a community (Laverack and Wallerstein, 2001). Our results indicate that feelings of contentment, energy and satisfaction, occurred, as it were, as a collective force as they realized that their mutual learning with shared efforts made a difference and that it led to organisational improvements. In line with organisational empowerment, these shared efforts, based on the professionals' own requests and problem identification led to a wider process of community change, generating psychological empowerment and organisational effectiveness (Peterson and Zimmerman, 2004).Collaboration has earlier been described as an outcome of organisational empowerment. Our findings, however, show face-to-face collaboration with new relationships to be an important driving force for advances in shared efforts and the maintenance of mutual learning (Peterson and Zimmerman, 2004). Hence, this developed learning culture generated a collective sense of power, which made it possible to break professional patterns, create empowering meetings, make the preventive links visible and further raise a sense-of-prevention community. It was not possible to predict at the beginning of this research project whether there were sufficient prerequisites to achieve such a collective sense of power since empowerment cannot be given to a group (Rissel, 1994).The interprofessional experiences described in our findings show that patient-centred interactions involve efforts to break professional patterns and learn to construct more empowering meetings. Previous research has shown the need for a shift in the representation of professional roles, from being a \"skilled technician\" to being a person focusing on interaction (Aoujoulat et al., 2007) or from being an expert to becoming a facilitator (Adolfsson et al., 2004). We conclude that a patient-centred approach needs to be based on a relationship between the professional and the patient characterised by the expertise of each (Virtanen et al., 2007).To manage this new form of interaction, the professionals in our study found that the use of motivational interviewing (Rollnick and Miller, 1995) assisted them in confronting their fears of not being sufficiently professional, of not having the requisite vocabulary to encourage patients and of doubting their motivational skills. There are several studies reporting increased health behaviour or raised treatment adherence through using motivational interviewing (Britt et al., 2004). This study suggests that motivational interviewing may provide interprofessional support in managing to change professional patterns.Li et al., found that an empowering process also depends on patients efforts, where the patients also need to train to become successful in participating and thus raising satisfaction (Li and Lundgren, 2005). We believe that more research is needed to explore interprofessional collaboration combined with patients' learning processes to optimize the implementation of fracture prevention in clinical praxis.Methodological perspectives\nConclusions: The findings elucidate some interprofessional motivators for promoting the implementation of fracture prevention. Learning processes through patient-centred interaction and face-to-face collaboration based on the professionals' owns requests and experiences are one important motivator to promote fracture prevention activities in everyday-work. These learning processes became a driving force for the joint efforts to manage fracture prevention in clinical practice, here identified as breaking professional patterns, creating empowering meetings, making the preventive links visible and constructing a sense-of-prevention community. The inspiration of empowerment as a health-enhancing strategy for patients may also generate an empowered organisational process including individual development and improved community competence. Such a bottom-up approach might be an essential key to managing the implementation of fracture prevention. This study provides health professionals and educators with empirical elements of interprofessional learning to achieve prevention activities inspired by empowerment. The study might even act as a guide for other health-education activities in disease prevention. Another approach would be to include patient perspectives on the long-term impact of forming a learning culture inspired by empowerment.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore interprofessional experiences of incorporating fracture prevention activities in clinical practice inspired by an empowerment approach.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data collection consisted primarily of focus groups interviews, systematized and analyzed by the grounded theory method. The study took place in a health-care district in a county in Sweden and involved health professionals from primary health care and orthopaedic departments.\nFindings: - The findings generated the core category forming a learning culture in managing to incorporate fracture prevention activities in clinical practice. In this learning culture, new forms of interaction with patients were practised and the collaboration developed between multidisciplinary teams added meaning and triggered personal and collective learning in particular about the need for breaking professional patterns, creating more empowering meetings, making the preventive links visible and constructing a greater sense of prevention within the community.\nPractical implications: - The findings show that learning processes through patient-centred interaction and face-to face collaboration based on the professionals' own requests and experiences can be an important motivator to promote fracture prevention activities.\nOriginality/value: - This study provides some interprofessional elements in achieving a learning culture concerning health education and fracture prevention.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The drivers for cloud-based virtual learning environment: Examining the moderating effect of school category	[ "Self-determination theory", "Cloud computing", "Instructional effectiveness", "Virtual learning environment", "Internet learning", "School category" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The proliferation of cloud computing and Web 2.0 technologies has brought about the birth of a new genre of virtual learning environment (VLE) known as cloud-based VLE (c-VLE). Unlike the conventional grid-based VLE (g-VLE), c-VLE is able to provide on-demand, expedient and pervasive networks access to a common group of configurable computation facilities that include unlimited on-the-cloud storage, applications, networks servers, and services that can be accessed anytime anywhere due to its location and device independence regardless of where the information is based or where the computing processes take place. Considering the huge potential and capability of the c-VLE, the Malaysian Government in a smart partnership with YTL Communications and FrogAsia has embarked on the 1BestariNet (i.e. 1SmartNet) project to provide 4G high-speed wireless internet link together with the cloud-based Frog VLE (Figure 1) educational platform to 10,000 schools nationwide covering a region of 329,847 square-kilometers to linked half a million teachers, five million students and 4.5 million parents together (Hew and Kadir, 2016a). Malaysia is the first country in the globe to unite whole educational community under a single converged network (Hew and Kadir, 2016a).\n2. Literature review: The main focus of this section is to discuss theories that have been adopted in VLE studies so that it may assist us to appreciate the adoption of the SDT theory from a theoretical development viewpoint. Based on comprehensive literature review, we found that there is scarcity in studies on c-VLE. Generally, studies on VLE can be categorized into two broad contexts of g-VLE and c-VLE. In the g-VLE context, Van Raaij and Schepers (2008) have studied Casslearn using convenience sampling of 40 Chinese executives. They used an extended TAM2 model with social norm, personal innovativeness in IT, and computer anxiety. The finding showed that personal innovativeness significantly influences computer anxiety and ease of use. Also, ease of use influences computer anxiety while usefulness is impacted by social norm and ease of use.\n3. Research model and hypotheses: The research model (Figure 4) examines how SDT, knowledge sharing attitude as well as trust in website influence behavioral intention and ultimately VLE instructional effectiveness with school category as the moderating variable.\n4. Research methodology: The current study utilized a cross-sectional research design with a quantitative approach. Next subsections elaborate the research methodology details.\n5. Data analysis: The demographic profiles of the 608 samples are depicted in Table I.\n6. Discussion and conclusions: From the perspective of the full model, we found that all hypotheses have been supported empirically with exceptions for H1: PA-AT and H8: PR-BI. PR is the strongest predictor for AT followed by PC. On the other hand, PA is the strongest determinant of TW tailed by PR and PC. Among the predictors for BI, TW is the strongest followed by PC, PA, and AT. As theorized, BI has a direct significant effect on instructional effectiveness. The unsupported hypothesis H1 contradicts to the finding by Park et al. (2004) as teachers have been given sufficient freedom and autonomy in deciding how to use the VLE and therefore they do not contemplate autonomy as a determinant in determining whether to share knowledge or not. Similarly, the unsupported H8 is in contrary to the work by Roca and Gagne (2008) as a result of the proliferation of social media, e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. which have enabled teachers to get connected easily. Teachers do not contemplate relatedness as a determinant in determining whether to adopt the VLE or not.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to verify the moderating effects of school category based on the self-determination theory (SDT) in cloud-based virtual learning environment (VLE) acceptance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two phases of national surveys were conducted using a random sampling technique. The research model was tested empirically using 608 samples of primary and secondary school teachers.\nFindings: The full model supports significant effects of autonomy, competence, and relatedness on trust, knowledge sharing attitude and behavioral intention except the autonomy-attitude and relatedness-behavioral intention relationships. In primary school, 61, 24.1, 52.1, and 41.1 percent of variances whereas, in secondary school, 57.4, 31.5, 48.6, and 37.5 percent of variances in instructional effectiveness, behavioral intention, knowledge sharing attitude, and trust in VLE website were explained. There are significant moderating effects of category of school in all causal relationships except the autonomy-knowledge sharing attitude relationship.\nPractical implications: There are several useful theoretical and practical implications for scholars and practitioners including Ministry of Education, FrogAsia, etc.\nSocial implications: The findings may enhance education quality for societal change.\nOriginality/value: Unlike most studies which focused on TAM, UTAUT, etc., this study investigated the effects of SDT on attitude in sharing knowledge, trust in website and instructional effectiveness. Instead of studying gender differences, this study examined the school category differences.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Human development in a statist world	[ "Development economics", "Capabilities approach", "English School", "IR theory", "Statism", "Development", "Economics", "International relations" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The world is an inhospitable place for hundreds of millions of its human inhabitants, as well as much of the natural world on which humans ultimately depend. Martha Nussbaum's book Creating Capabilities addresses one critical dimension of this condition, the challenge of promoting individual human development. The work cannot be faulted in its aspiration for better theories to guide human development, and the capabilities approach (CA) is generally persuasive, but it fails to meet the challenge of producing an effective answer to the problem of advancing human capabilities in an international system characterised by anarchy and statism. This is an all-too-familiar outcome when political, economic, ethical, and other projects with universal aspirations meet the inconvenient truth of international politics.\n1 Development economics as if people matter: Creating Capabilities \"tells the story\" as Nussbaum (2011, p. 188, unless stated otherwise, all further references are to this book) puts it, of an \"evolving intellectual and practical movement\" whose professional association is the Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA). Nussbaum invites readers to join the Association.At the outset, I want to emphasise that the general orientation of the CA (questioning aspects of dominant development thinking) is one I share: above all, I agree with Nussbaum's views about the need for the normative privileging of the individual person in theory and practice, and the urgency of promoting equality through eradicating unjustifiable inequalities (Booth, 2007, pp. 350-359). The arguments that follow therefore are in the spirit of the \"critical normative argument\" which Nussbaum hopes will improve the CA (pp. 108, 187). In particular, the paper will concentrate on the weaknesses of Creating Capabilities in relation to its limitations in helping us work through the confrontation between individual human development and the \"inconvenient truth\" of international relations (IR)[1].Nussbaum provisionally defines the CA as a method of \"comparative quality-of-life assessment\" and conceives it as a normative political theory, a \"basis for a theory of justice\", or sometimes a \"theory of basic social justice\" (pp. 17-18). As such, she sees her project as bringing \"moral philosophy into development economics\". She rightly considers this to be \"progress\" (p. 77), though it is worth adding that applied economics can never be value-free in operation, even if it seems to lack explicit moral philosophising.From its beginnings, the CA was created as an alternative to dominant theories of development economics. Characterised by \"the GDP approach\", these dominant theories in Nussbaum's opinion \"[have] not always\" made a difference to the quality of people's lives, and have frequently ignored human dignity and functionings (p. 1). Above all, conventional economic indicators such as GDP have not been helpful, she insists, if we accept that \"the real purpose of development is human development\" (p. 185). In contrast to the GDP approach, the CA seeks to be responsive to such basic questions as \"what is each person actually able to do and to be?\" and \"what real opportunities are available to them?\" (pp. ix-xii) Nussbaum's own answers to these questions comprise a framework - still under construction - for what she calls \"A necessary counter-theory\" (pp. 46-68).This counter-theory is necessary, she argues cogently, because of the inadequacies of dominant theories, for as \"defective\" as the latter are they nevertheless \"have enormous power\" (p. 186); they \"greatly influence not just international bodies but also the domestic priorities of nations\". In Nussbaum's opinion, \"many nations today are pursuing economic growth in ways that short change other commitments they have made to their people\". To overcome this, she argues that her counter-theory promises to change theory and practice, and especially \"policy-making in the new global order\" (pp. 186-187).As a \"theory of basic social justice\" and as a normative political theory with universalist aspirations, Nussbaum's CA is progressivist and emancipatory. She recognises that world politics offer particular challenges, but her analysis of these obstacles, and her prescriptions relating to IR, are the weakest part of the book.\n2 Capabilities and context: Chapter 6 (\"The nation and global justice\") represents the book's most explicit focus on IR. It is the shortest chapter, and in my view by some way the least effective. There are hints that the author recognises this. Its five main themes from an IR perspective are as follows.2.1 The nation as the referent object\n3 \"Yet undertheorized\": Nussbaum is not unaware of the limitations of the CA's engagement with IR, for in the closing sentence of Chapter 6 she admits, somewhat unsatisfactorily after a quarter of a century of thinking about the project: \"Clearly, further work on these important issues - as yet undertheorized by the Capabilities Approach - remains of the utmost importance for the future\" (p. 122).The paradox of Creating Capabilities is that IR is undertheorized, yet the book is full of theory. Nussbaum engages with various philosophical traditions, with big questions in political theory, and with dilemmas of cultural diversity. But the cupboard is bare when it comes to engaging with theorising about the international level of world politics. The book does not consider IR's general theories or even with middle-range theories on international cooperation, global governance, or liberal institutionalism - all directly relevant to the progress of the CA. The one point of contact with IR is the briefest of references to the work of two IR specialists on international ethics (p. 118).What follows are five key weaknesses in the book's engagement with IR.3.1 Not levelling with the international\n4 English school capabilities: Nussbaum discusses, with characteristic confidence and authority, the relationship of the CA with a variety of areas in the social sciences and humanities. She outlines the CA's philosophical influences (pp. 123-125) and shows that it has roots in many countries; this underlines her belief in the wide-ranging resonance of its appeal across the world (p. 141). One relevant discipline that has been conspicuously ignored, as I have argued, is IR (in fact a multi-discipline under a one discipline label). IR has much to contribute regarding the global political context in which the CA project has to flourish.It is impossible for a project such as the CA to be advanced without at least an implicit IR theory (even if merely in the form of a loose body of albeit implicit assumptions and ideas). In this regard it is my contention that Creating Capabilities reveals the author to be an embryonic if unknowing theorist of the English School of IR. At the heart of this School is the idea of constructing a tolerable international society, in which the roughest edges of international anarchy are ameliorated, and in which there is scope for states to exercise a civilising influence.The history of the English School need not detain us (key early works were Bull, 1977, and Butterfield and Wight, 1966). Suffice it to say that the label \"English School\" is idiosyncratic, as there is nothing intrinsically \"English\" about it; it is better understood in relation to its central concept, the idea of \"international society\". Key concepts and concerns include the idea of states as \"good international citizens\", shared diplomatic cultures, great power responsibility, the promotion of human rights, and the potential of leading states to promote civilised values, norms, ideas, and institutions. In addition, the approach emphasises the need to stay close to state practice through \"diplomatic investigations\". In method, the English School is constructivist, and its ontology is realist. Sovereign states (not nations) are the members of international society, and therefore the basic units of analysis, though certain non-state actors (notably major international organisations) can also participate. International society is held together by mutual recognition of sovereignty, shared interests and values, and common rules, institutions, and norms.The English School has grown in prominence since the end of the Cold War, but it has limited influence across the discipline globally. Its critics point to gaps and inconsistencies (Linklater and Suganami, 2006); my aim here is not to elaborate these, however, but simply to provide enough evidence to support my claim that Nussbaum's ideas are consistent with English School thinking.4.1 The classical approach\nWhere next?: To paraphrase Trotsky on the dialectic, the CA might not (yet) be interested in the international level of world politics, but the international level is definitely interested in the CA. The Nussbaum project is a crucial element in the construction of a more humane world order, but significant progress is impossible until its advocates level with the international as one of the critical problems of world order. Doing so requires, in practice, dealing with the structures and dynamics of international politics in ways that promise to further the CA project. Theoretically, CA advocates must engage with the academic discipline which actually attempts to understand and explain politics among nations. For all its virtues, Creating Capabilities does not help in this regard.Theoretically as well as practically speaking therefore, there is a strong case for the international level being the next phase in CA development. If this verdict is sound, a broad agenda of relevant research would include the following: challenging the norms of global capitalism (if questions of equality were to be more comprehensively addressed and operationalised much else would follow, not only in relation to promoting central capabilities but also in ameliorating threats to human security generally); rethinking global governance issues (given the inter-state institutional context in which central capabilities are to be promoted); rethinking the reluctance to explore the exemplary potential of a security community such as the EU (because of the need for models to transcend statist norms if central capabilities are to be spread); and rethinking the importance of cosmopolitan sensibilities and duties (in the light of the imperative to think beyond traditional identities such as \"the nation\" at a time in world history when so many threats to human development are global). In short, the universal project of human development can be measured by our progress in moving beyond the statist world order: re-imagining what this might look like is the next biggest challenge to proponents of the CA.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The paper aims to examine Martha Nussbaum's latest theorising about the capabilities approach in relation to the \"causal weight\" and \"texture\" of the anarchical condition of the international system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper provides a detailed reading of Nussbaum's creating capabilities with regard to its explicit and implicit assumptions about international relations.\nFindings: - While the paper endorses the aims of the capabilities approach, it draws attention to the limitations of Nussbaum's engagement with the international level of world politics, including relevant international relations (IR) theory. The paper argues that a more explicit engagement with IR theory in general and the so-called English School in particular would strengthen one of the shortcomings of Nussbaum's counter-theory to dominant ideas in development economics.\nPractical implications: - The Human Development and Capability Association is committed to generating ideas to challenge dominant approaches to human development. As such, the sense of direction pointed to in the paper - identifying international relations as the priority area for research and reform - is a contribution to planning the next stage of its activities.\nOriginality/value: - The paper focuses on the international level of world politics, and as such offers insights into what Nussbaum herself admits is an \"undertheorized\" dimension of the capabilities approach.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Factors influencing career choice of management students in India	[ "Careers", "Career guidance", "National cultures", "Students", "India" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Globalization has brought about a radical transformation in what organizations need to do to maintain their competitiveness. As managerial skills become crucial for organizations to achieve success in a competitive and turbulent business environment, there has been a sharp rise in the demand for managerial professionals worldwide. Sturges et al. (2003) proposed that the MBA degree imparts certain key competencies to students. These competencies may be of key significance in the career success of students as \"management\" has gained in importance over other forms of professions.Industry demand for new managerial resources in India far exceeds supply. According to one estimate, the total number of entry-level managers needed by corporate India every year stands at 2,735[1]. But the best business schools in India produce about 1,740 managers in any given year. This demand-supply gap, amounting to almost 36 percent, has resulted in competition for scarce managerial talent, high levels of attrition, and an increase in the compensation levels of managerial professionals.For a large number of students in India, a managerial career has become the most preferred career choice. The emergence of management as a formal education is fairly recent, yet the MBA degree has emerged as one of the most sought after higher educational qualifications. There was a 55 percent increase in the number of institutes imparting management education in India between 1999/2000 and 2005/2006. More than 100,000 students are studying towards an MBA degree in approximately 1,200 institutions offering MBA degrees in India. Business factors coupled with several sociocultural changes have led to changing career preferences among young people in India.An individual's choice of career is likely to be influenced by several factors, including personal and cultural values, family background, career expectations, etc. Studies have been conducted in different cultural contexts to determine the range of factors that influenced students in making career choices (Ozbilgin et al., 2005; Kyriacou et al., 2002; Ozkale et al., 2004). However, a literature review suggests that no empirical study has been conducted among management students in India in order to understand their subjective view about why they choose to pursue a career in management.The main purpose of the present study was to identify important factors that influenced the choice of career of students pursuing an MBA degree in India, and the role that various people and relationships played in their career choice. The study also attempted to explore the dominant cultural values of the students along Hofstede's individualism-collectivism dimension, as well as the strength of their protean career orientation. An attempt was also made to examine whether there was a relationship between individualism versus collectivism as a cultural value and protean versus conventional career orientation of management students in India with the types of factors, people and relationships that are likely to play an important role in their career choice. Gender differences among the Indian MBA students were also explored.\nTheoretical background: \"Choice\" means \"selecting or separating from two or more things that which is preferred\" (Webster's Dictionary, 1998). \"Career choice\" involves choosing one occupation over another. Hence, in order for \"career choice\" to take place, two conditions are necessary:1. availability of alternative career options; and2. an individual/personal preference between these career options (Ozbilgin et al., 2005).The numbers of career options/alternatives available to an individual at any given point in time are influenced by external factors (labor market, state of the economy, etc.), as well as individual factors (education, family background, attitudes, etc.). Career choice, therefore, is not unbridled. Rather, career choices are often constrained by sociocultural factors (Swanson and Gore, 2000), individual factors, personal and cultural values, significant relationships, and structural factors such as barriers faced by women in certain careers such as management. Most career choice research has focused on predicting career choice behaviors based on personality or demographic variables (Ozbilgin et al., 2005). Studies attempting to identify career choice influencing factors have focused largely on individuals' aptitudes, interests, opportunities, etc.Factors influencing career choice\nMethod: Sample characteristics and data collection\nResults: Factors influencing career choice\nDiscussion: The study aimed to identify the factors and relationship types that influenced career choice of MBA students in India. The relationship of individualism/collectivism and protean/conventional career orientation with factors and types of relationships that influenced the career choice of these students was also explored. Indian MBA students considered their own \"skills, competencies, and abilities\" and \"education and training\" (intrinsic career choice factors) as playing the most significant role in their choice of a management career. With respect to relationships, \"father\" exerted the greatest influence on their career choice.The results replicate the findings of the study by Pines and Baruch (2007), and Pines et al. (2002) across five countries (i.e. Israel, the UK, Turkey, Cyprus, and Hungary). Students opting for a managerial career may be similar in certain respects, irrespective of nationality. The important influence of \"father\" in career decision of Indian students may be understood in the context of a largely patriarchal society. The fact that the majority of the students had a professional background, their father being an executive/ professional, may also have influenced their career choice. Numerous studies have shown similarities between parents' occupations and their children's career aspirations (Barling, 1990; Trice and Knapp, 1992).Findings on I/C suggest that even though Indian MBA students had a mix of both cultural values, they showed a definite preference for collectivism, thus supporting Hofstede's (1980) findings. Several other studies suggest that the Indian culture is collectivist (Sinha and Verma, 1987; Verma, 1999; Verma and Triandis, 1998). Evidence also suggests that Indian students exhibit a mix of both individualistic and collectivistic behaviors when I/C is seen as an individual level variable. Hence, I/C are not a bipolar dimension (Triandis, 1994). In a dynamic society characterized by economic liberalization and a Western pattern of education, students may be exposed to both I&C value preferences, emphasizing both (Karakitapoglu-Aygun and Sayim, 2007; Ramamoorthy et al., 2005). It is likely that Indians value both I&C, which coexist and jointly influence the way they define themselves, relate to others, and decide priorities in conforming to social norms (Sinha et al., 2001). The relative salience of the situation will determine which of the two - collectivism or individualism - will be evoked (Tripathi, 1988). It is likely that Indian students who demonstrated high collectivistic orientation may make individualistic choices in situations that related to the individual's career (Sinha and Tripathi, 1994). Similarly, students who showed higher individualism may make collectivist choices in a non-career context.The findings about the relationship of factors and people influencing the career choice of Indian MBA students to cultural values may be explained within this context. In individualistic cultures, individuals are looking for individual advantage, career progression, autonomy and individual financial security (Price, 1997); they believe they are responsible for their own future and are concerned with material possessions and social status (Di Cesare and Golnaz, 2003; Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005). A higher level of individualism among Indian students was found to be significantly correlated with extrinsic factors (money, status, etc.), suggesting that these students placed a greater value on material benefits, such as money, social prestige, and career advancement. Those students who had a collectivistic orientation emphasized \"free choice\" and \"love of career\" as important influences on their career choice. Collectivists tend to subordinate personal goals to group goals, and emphasize values of harmony, cooperation, and low levels of competition. Hence, high levels of collectivism may be associated with a desire to demonstrate that one had chosen the career out of free will, and not out of competition or pressure to conform, thus emphasizing harmony.Indian management students who were high on individualistic values were not influenced by their family or significant social networks in their choice of career. However, students who were high on collectivism were influenced by their father in their career choice decision. Similar findings were reported by Karakitapoglu-Aygun and Sayim (2007) in a study of Turkish MBA students. Since the I/C dimension emphasizes separateness versus embeddedness in social relationships, it is expected that a collectivistic person may value support from others, especially from family members, in his/her career decision-making process, thus suggesting a positive relationship between collectivism and family relatedness (Kwan et al., 1997). On the other hand, an individualistic person might not value the involvement of others, especially family members, in an important decision such as career choice.Indian management students demonstrated both protean and conventional career orientation, but were predominantly protean. According to Reitman and Schneer (2003), MBA graduates enjoy both self-managed and promised (conventional) career trajectories. Except for one career choice factor - i.e. \"quality of life\" (extrinsic) - all other factors (\"love of the career\"; \"skills and competencies\") that were positively correlated with protean career orientation in the present study were individual-centric. Studies have shown a protean career orientation to be positively related to subjective career success (in terms of career satisfaction) while the findings with regard to objective career success (in terms of salary and promotion rate) have been inconsistent (Briscoe, 2004). Since the protean career orientation reflects self-directedness, people/relationships may not influence career choice of protean individuals. The influence of manager on a protean individual's career choice in the present study may suggest the protean individual's desire for growth, and the perception of manager as a symbol of success.Individuals with higher conventional orientation, unlike those with protean orientation are not likely to be self-directed or in charge of their career. Therefore, factors like ease of access and success stories of others may play an influential role in their choice of career, as among Indian students. These individuals are also likely to be influenced by others, such as father and mother, in their career choice. These findings may be viewed in conjunction with the predominantly collectivistic orientation of Indian students.Gender differences\nImplications: The findings of the study may have an implication for vocational guidance and counseling among Indian students aspiring for a career in management. By gaining an insight into how students make their career choices, an effort can be made to guide students towards more realistic career choices. However, the findings of the study have limited generalizability.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to explore the influence of a range of factors on the career choice of management students in India. The importance of different individuals in the family and at work in making career choices among these students is also to be explored. In addition, the study seeks to address the relationship of the cultural values of individualism-collectivism and the protean/conventional career orientations of MBA students from India, with factors as well as people influencing the choice of a career.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Participants consisted of 93 students from India entering management, who were starting their first year of the two-year full time MBA program. Self-administered questionnaires were used to gather data on factors and types of relationships influencing career choice, individualism/collectivism, and protean/conventional career orientation.\nFindings: - \"Skills, competencies, and abilities\" was the most important factor and \"father\" was the most significant individual influencing the career choice of Indian management students. The predominant cultural value was collectivism, although the students demonstrated individualist tendencies in some contexts. A protean orientation guided the career orientation of these students.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The data were collected only from one management institute in India.\nOriginality/value: - Empirical research on factors and types of relationships influencing career choice, and their correlates, has not been conducted among Indian students. The paper addresses this issue and the study has implications for career counseling.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Flood warning in a Swedish local risk management context	[ "Natural hazard", "Risk management", "Early warning system", "Flood warning", "Local", "Spin-off" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Since the United Nations' International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (1990-2000) and recent high-profile disasters, there has been an ongoing effort around the world to put in place disaster risk reduction frameworks (Villagran de Leon, 2012). Although the process is slow and has only just started, it is an irrevocable process of change nonetheless (Wisner et al., 2012). In the area of flood risk management, the use of structural protection works and flood sensitive land management systems in Europe as well as in Sweden are the dominant trends. To address the residual risks that cannot be eliminated, early warning systems (EWSs) are being developed on international, national and local levels. These residual risks are likely to expand as climate change and urban invasion of flood plains continue. Cities develop at a fast pace and as the residual risks increase, partly also due to the limited strength and spread of structural protection works, there is a growing need of disaster risk reduction and EWSs (Handmer, 2001; Nye et al., 2011; Kundzewicz, 2013; Wisner et al., 2012). In addition, attention has been given to EWSs from an international policy perspective. In the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) that was adopted by the United Nations in 2005, enhancing early warning was identified as one of five prioritised actions. This was important as the HFA was the first framework for disaster risk reduction that was accepted on an international level (United Nations, 2005).\n2. Case description and methods: 2.1. Crisis preparedness and early warning in Sweden\n3. Results: 3.1. Organisation and responsibility\n4. Discussion: From a national perspective, it could be argued that establishing local EWSs even in places for which SMHI forecasts weather and issues flood warnings would be a way of making the early warning chain more effective when in operation by making the system more accessible and responsive to local officials and reducing superfluous intermediate links in the communication chain that exist between SMHI and the municipalities. As discussed by, for example, Parker and Priest (2012) and the United Nations (2006), the link between the warning communication and the warning response is the one most likely to fail. This is especially true if the communication is between two different organisations at different levels of government. Furthermore, local EWSs can utilise knowledge regarding local conditions and it also gives an opportunity to take appropriate responsibility for managing flood risks. The down side of this is of course the sub optimisation on the national level, as the Municipality 2 respondent commented on.\n5. Conclusions: This study investigated the adoption of flood EWSs at the local level in three municipalities in Sweden with the aim of shedding light on the role they did or did not play in the wider risk management process. In doing so the study provided answers to five questions:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how local early warning systems (EWSs) for floods are established at the municipality level in Sweden. The study also aims to analyse the role of EWSs in a risk management context. The overall purpose of this study is to elucidate how and to what extent the adoption of local EWSs can generate value-added benefits throughout the wider risk management process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with supervisors at each municipality in order to depict how local EWS are established at the municipality level in Sweden. The interviews went through a content analysis with respect to theory on EWS and theory on the risk management process.\nFindings: The possible effects from an EWS is not only reduced flood losses but also potential spinoff. The possibility of spinoff effects from the system, but also the mitigating effectiveness in case of a flood is largely dependent on the well-being of the organisation and its risk management processes.\nOriginality/value: This study widens the understanding of the value of an EWS and that the organisational culture and state of risk management system has influence on the availability of such value. Identifying the potential added value from EWSs is important from a more general disaster risk reduction perspective, as it helps to further motivate implementation of proactive risk management measures. This knowledge can be of help to others who investigate the possibilities of investing in EWSs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]

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