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Strategies for positioning animal welfare as personally relevant
|
[
"Marketing",
"Consumers",
"Positioning strategies",
"Animal welfare",
"FMCG"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In response to the growing public concern for animal welfare (AW), companies are introducing an increasing number of animal-friendly products (AFPs) to the market. In Europe, 94 percent of consumers believe that it is important to protect the welfare of farm animals and 59 percent of consumers even claim to be willing to pay more for AFPs (European Commission, 2016). However, the market share of AFPs remains low. In the Netherlands, for example, the market share ranged from less than 7 percent for animal-friendly dairy to 9 percent for animal-friendly meat and 29 percent for animal-friendly eggs (Ministry of Economic Affairs, 2014). To stimulate the sales of AFPs, companies use marketing campaigns and strategies (Ingenbleek and Immink, 2011). Still, these products only represent a small proportion of the market, which may suggest that companies still struggle to release their market potential.\n2. Review of literature: 2.1 Background on positioning strategies\n3. Methods: 3.1 Data collection and coding\n4. Results: To derive the positioning strategies, we analyzed 13 cluster splits step by step (see Figure 1). In the first split, one product, containing no attributes other than an organic label, is cast off the large cluster. In the second split, we observe the appearance of the cluster labeled \"AW & emotional value,\" which contains products reinforcing the improved AW with emotional value. For example, products in this cluster contain detailed descriptions of improved animal husbandry or rural images, which do not only imply improved AW but also evoke positive feelings. The other cluster, however, contains less information about improved AW but more on attributes such as quality, nutritional information or a new feature. Therefore, this cluster is labeled \"individual benefits,\" as the products emphasize various types of individual benefits.\n5. Discussion and implications: The aim of this paper is to conceptualize product positioning strategies for AFPs and to explore their use in the marketplace. The findings imply that a \"one size fits all\" approach is not the most promising way forward to develop the market for AFPs further. The results from the empirical study indicate four distinct positioning strategies on the market for animal-friendly food products: emotional value strategy, functional value strategy, epistemic value strategy and public welfare strategy. The strategies are shown in Table II, where they are classified by the consumption values they emphasize and the product categories in which they primarily occur. These strategies offer insights at a higher level of abstraction in what companies do to position AFPs (cf. Hunt, 2010).\n6. Future research: Several directions for future research emerge from this study. While our study investigated the strategies for AFPs as used by marketers, it did not test whether these strategies are also effective in increasing the market share. Future research may study this in two different ways. First, it may conduct market-level studies in which data are collected about the positioning strategies that are then related to sales data, using our conceptualization of strategies as a starting point. While market-level studies offer insight in the outcomes of such positioning strategies, they are limited in offering explanations of why consumers would choose an AFP or not depending on the positioning strategy. Such a deeper, explanatory understanding requires consumer-level studies, probably conducted in an experimental setting. Future research may therefore investigate the effectiveness of positioning strategies that use different types of individual benefits and compare their effectiveness for different consumer segments and categories of AFPs.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Next to organic food products, an assortment of ethical products is emerging in the supermarket that targets the large market segment of consumers that are open for ethical product choices but do not restrict themselves to them. The purpose of this paper is to examine the positioning strategies that marketers use to persuade consumers in this segment to buy animal-friendly products (AFPs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors approach product positioning from a consumption values perspective from which they examine strategies that make animal welfare (AW) personally relevant to the buyer because they reinforce AW with suitable consumption value (functional, emotional, social, sensory, epistemic and/or ethical). Using data from 129 AFPs from a Dutch supermarket, the authors explore the positioning strategies of these products.\nFindings: The results identified four different strategies used to position AFPs in a Dutch supermarket. They respectively call upon consumers' emotions, functional or sensory perceptions, curiosity and sense of public welfare. The findings also show substantial category differences, with fresh products relying predominantly on emotional value and processed food on functional value.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to empirically explore positioning strategies of AFPs on the basis of their consumption values. The study offers a novel perspective to understand how companies try to extend the market for AFPs, thus providing a basis for a new research agenda.\n",
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Entrepreneurship education in Hong Kong's secondary curriculum: Possibilities and limitations
|
[
"Entrepreneurialism",
"Secondary education",
"Curricula",
"Hong Kong"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Beginning as an entrepot in 1841, Hong Kong has since become one of the leading financial and business centres in the Asia-Pacific region, performing a \"hub\" role as the gateway for China. Hong Kong owes its economic success to thousands of small businesses and hundreds of corporations and it is true to say that entrepreneurs are one of the territory's most important assets. At present, small and medium-sized enterprises represent 98 percent of all local enterprises. However, a recent survey by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) found that only 3 out of every 100 people in Hong Kong had started their own business in the previous 42 months - ranking the city third last among the 35 economies surveyed (Reynolds et al., 2002). As entrepreneurs are so important to our economy and the success of small business depends very much on entrepreneurship training, should schools be responsible for cultivating in students suitable entrepreneurial spirit and skills? The existing business curriculum in Hong Kong secondary schools lacks significant programs in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial training in secondary schools does little to pave the way for students to pursue their future career planning and is unable to match the needs of the future society. With no official syllabuses prescribing what should be covered, schools have a greater degree of flexibility in the way entrepreneurship is taught, or returning to the very beginning, in the decision of whether to provide entrepreneurship education or not. The flexibility schools enjoy brings diversity and choices in entrepreneurship education. This paper aims to give a picture of the entrepreneurship education programs currently provided in Hong Kong secondary schools, to present teachers' evaluations of the effectiveness of the programs offered, and to point out the factors that hinder the development of entrepreneurship education in Hong Kong secondary schools.\nThe need for entrepreneurship education: We live in an era of globalisation, whose immense impact is felt on the structure of large corporations and governments worldwide. Advanced technologies have drastically shortened the distance between markets, and suppliers all over the world now face keener competition. Strong global competition accelerates the simplification of job process, causing the loss of many jobs. The crisis is there but so are the opportunities. When working for a company is insecure, people start to become their own \"boss\". When technology is advanced, jobs are without boundaries. When the government is outsourcing, that means more jobs are available on the market. All these factors increase the number of small-to-medium-sized entrepreneurs.Evidence in Europe has shown that a change in economy will lead to a growth in small enterprises and, naturally, the demand of entrepreneurship programmes (Hayward and Sundes, 2000). A similar situation can be seen in the US, and Kourilsky (1995) noted that these enterprises are the driving force for economic growth through the creation of jobs and innovative products and services. This created an urgent need for students, the future workforce, to learn about entrepreneurship. At the same time, educators, policymakers, employers, parents and students started to become aware of the gaps between school and work. They found that \"neither students nor teachers [had] a solid understanding of the links between school and work\" (Rubin and Cunniff, 1996, p. 7). Students and teachers had no idea, or limited knowledge, about how the skills learned at school might be applied to the workplace (Cheung and Lewis, 1998). It was also noted that the existing business education was not relevant to the business world, and this situation applies both in Hong Kong and the West (Brawer, 1997; Cheung, 1997). The gaps between school and work not only create problems for employers and job-seeking graduates, but may lead to social, economic and even political problems as well. Students who cannot see the practical side of the subjects they learn tend to have less incentive to study. The result is a high dropout rate, which very often turns into a high unemployment rate and a high crime rate. In other words, students, employers and the whole community directly and indirectly suffer from the gaps between school and work (Saboe et al., 2002).In view of the problem, many countries started to introduce entrepreneurship education in schools and colleges (Fayolle and Klandt, 2006). In 1992, the Alliance for Achievement was formed in America by a group of educators and policymakers who urged American schools to devote more attention to preparing students for the workplace. Two years later, the School-to-Work Opportunities Act was passed in the same country to provide \"funding to states and local schools to develop innovative community-based programs to assist students in transition from their educational experiences to employment\" (Rubin and Cunniff, 1996). Since then schools have had more incentive to build partnerships with employers in providing entrepreneurship education. In a survey conducted in the mid-1990s by the International Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education, 19 out of the 39 states examined included entrepreneurship in their state plan for vocational education, while 28 states planned to integrate entrepreneurship more closely into their school-to-work program (Ohio State University, 1995). Entrepreneurship education has progressed further in the twenty-first century with many entrepreneurship training programs across America such as the programs held with the Jumpstart funding, which has the aim of bringing entrepreneurship education to the community college population (Cohen et al., 2000).In the 1980s, most of the governments in the European Community supported entrepreneurship programs for young people. For example, a considerable number of entrepreneurship programs were developed in the United Kingdom in the 1980s with the support of both public and private organizations (Erkkila, 1996) and the number of entrepreneurship programs continues to grow in Europe (Fayolle et al., 2005). Today, entrepreneurship education is well-entrenched throughout much of Europe. In England, it is compulsory for secondary schools to provide at least five days of enterprise education a year (BBC, 2005), and recently a PS180m budget over three years has been announced to fund enterprise education in the UK (BBC, 2007). In Ireland, Enterprise Education has been officially included in the curriculum of Senior Cycle Programmes (The European Commission, 2006, p. 22). In Scotland, the Scottish Executive launched the Determined to Succeed programme in 2002 to promote entrepreneurship education in primary and secondary schools (The European Commission, 2006, p. 30). In Spain, the curricular framework for secondary education includes a mini-company program (Empresa Joven Europea) that explicitly addresses entrepreneurship (The European Commission, 2006, p. 24). In Austria, the Entrepreneur's Skills Certificate was created to promote entrepreneurship education in secondary schools (The European Commission, 2006, p. 33).\nThe significance of entrepreneurship education: Entrepreneurship education is significant in many aspects. It can provide students with an understanding of business - its purposes, its structure, its interrelationship with other segments of the economy and society. Many studies have noted that an entrepreneurship course has a positive impact on students' views of entrepreneurship. Mohan-Neill (2001) suggested that students exposed to entrepreneurship education have more favourable views of small businesses. A study conducted by Waldmann (1997) indicated that entrepreneurship education at high school level will have a great impact on the number of students who would seriously consider starting a business sometime after graduation. Kolvereid and Moen (1997) argued that entrepreneurship graduates have stronger entrepreneurial intentions than other business graduates.Entrepreneurship education focuses on life. There is a debate in the literature as to whether entrepreneurship education should be concerned more with venture creation and business management or with developing a set of personal attributes and skills. In the vocabulary of Kirby (2004), whether one should educate about entrepreneurship or educate for it. Traditionally, it has been thought that entrepreneurship education is about teaching students how to start a business, create a business plan, etc.. More recently, however, it has been recognized that such skills \"are essential but not sufficient to make a successful entrepreneur\" (Rae, 1997). A successful entrepreneur must have knowledge of the business world, but must also possess a set of generic attributes, skills and behaviours - such as those related to communication, creativity, and problem-solving - that are important to life as well as business. Therefore, if entrepreneurship education is conducted with a view to promoting students' personal attributes, then it can have a substantial impact on students' careers, whether or not they plan to become an entrepreneur. Moreover, since obtaining a position in a large organization is definitely hard for a school leaver and more and more jobs are created by small and medium size companies, more students will be working in new and small companies. These companies will have to manage innovation for long-term growth and compete with other similar enterprises. In other words, students who work for these small to medium size companies will need to have the ability to manage the innovation process. Entrepreneurship education can thus not only help students to develop innovative skills but also provide entrepreneurial knowledge to compete with this \"entrepreneurship generation\".\nMethodology: A questionnaire about entrepreneurship education was designed and piloted and then faxed to all Hong Kong secondary schools, inviting teachers teaching business related subjects and those in charge of extra-curricular activities to complete it. A total of 128 usable questionnaires were received, which gave a valid response rate of 31 percent.Close-ended and multiple-choice questions were adopted to maintain readability of the questionnaire and encourage participation. The purposes of the questionnaire echoed the three goals of this paper mentioned above and therefore the questions asked could be classified into three categories. The first group of questions aimed at eliciting information about the types of entrepreneurship education now offered in Hong Kong secondary schools. The second group were designed to seek teachers' opinions on the effectiveness of entrepreneurship training programs. The last group were intended to identify the factors that hindered the development of entrepreneurship education.As the participants of the quantitative research did not have the opportunity to elaborate their responses, in-depth phone interviews were conducted. In the questionnaire we asked the respondents whether they could provide more information about entrepreneurship education for us. Thirty-one percent of the respondents answered \"yes\", and we contacted all of these respondents and invited them for an interview; 70 percent of them accepted our invitation. The interviews were semi-structured and covered 13 questions, which sought answers to the three questions addressed in this paper.\nAn overview of the existing entrepreneurship programs: Half of all respondents reported the presence of entrepreneurship education in one form or another at their schools. Of the remaining respondents, nearly 80 percent said their schools were not planning to implement entrepreneurship programs.Number of years since implementation\nEffectiveness of entrepreneurship education: Enhancing students' awareness of the business world\nFactors that hinder the development of entrepreneurship education: Although most of the respondents believed that entrepreneurship education can promote students' understanding of business subjects and personal growth, only half of them said that entrepreneurship training programs were provided in their schools. Very often, even when entrepreneurship education was provided, only a limited population of the students could participate. One of the aims of the present study was to find out why entrepreneurship education, despite its many advantages, is not widely offered in Hong Kong secondary schools; what factors have hampered the development of entrepreneurship education. The data gathered from the questionnaires and interviews revealed that insufficient resources are the main cause of the problem.Time\nConclusion: This study shows that entrepreneurship programs in Hong Kong are largely similar to those in the West in terms of objectives of provision, content and teaching strategies. Though individual cases may vary, most Hong Kong and Western programs share similar themes and targets, are interdisciplinary in nature, and seek to foster communication and interpersonal skills. As in the West, entrepreneurship programs in Hong Kong introduce new teaching strategies into the traditional classroom; teachers recede into the background and students are expected to be more independent. Another common characteristic shared by Western and Hong Kong programs is that they both situate learning in reality. Very often, they require the students to set up and run their own business, to write business plans and to analyse the success factors of a real business.Most respondents agreed that existing entrepreneurship education programs in Hong Kong were effective in enhancing students' awareness of the commercial world and in developing personal attributes. However, entrepreneurship education is not developing in Hong Kong at a rate that it should be. This is because unlike their Western counterparts, Hong Kong schools receive little support from private and public sectors for entrepreneurship education. Due to limited resources, entrepreneurship programs in Hong Kong are often set up as competitions - meaning only an elite few can proceed to the last round and actually set up a business, which costs more. Schools in the West obtain more funding from private sources and often from the government, so that even though programs are organized as competitions, all students have the opportunity to set up a business with their group members and no one gets knocked out in the middle of the game. The problem of finance is one distinctive element of Hong Kong programs and has been hindering the development of entrepreneurship education in Hong Kong.Data colleted in this study indicated that most of the factors hindering the development of entrepreneurship education in Hong Kong had to do with the unavailability of resources of different kinds. On the positive side, however, we can see that a step towards solving the resource problems can help us advance in the development of entrepreneurship education. To deal with the shortages of resources, the first step would be to identify why adequate resources are not invested in this area. Our research showed that unlike Western countries, Hong Kong had not yet fully recognized the significance of entrepreneurship education. Nevertheless, the situation is improving. More people have started to value entrepreneurship training programs and are now more willing to invest time and resources in it. In another paper forming this larger project, we will look at the development of entrepreneurship education from the standpoint of private and public organizations which support entrepreneurship training programs.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to give a picture of the entrepreneurship education programs currently provided in Hong Kong secondary schools, to present teachers' evaluations of the effectiveness of the programs offered, and to point out the factors that hinder the development of entrepreneurship education in Hong Kong secondary schools.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A questionnaire about entrepreneurship education was designed and piloted and then faxed to all Hong Kong secondary schools, inviting teachers teaching business related subjects and those in charge of extra-curricular activities to complete it. One hundred and twenty-eight usable questionnaires were received, which gave a valid response rate of 31 percent. Close-ended and multiple-choice questions were adopted to maintain readability of the questionnaire and encourage participation. As the participants of the quantitative research did not have the opportunity to elaborate their responses, in-depth phone interviews were conducted.\nFindings: - Half of all respondents reported the presence of entrepreneurship education in one form or another at their schools. Of the remaining respondents, nearly 80 percent said their schools were not planning to implement entrepreneurship programs. Around 70 percent of the schools running entrepreneurship programs had more than three years' experience in entrepreneurship education, and forty-three percent had even been running these programs for more than 5 years. The survey revealed that schools tended to take a comprehensive approach in delivering entrepreneurship education.\nOriginality/value: - This study shows that entrepreneurship programs in Hong Kong are largely similar to those in the West in terms of objectives of provision, content and teaching strategies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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When a brand caught fire: the role of brand equity in product-harm crisis
|
[
"Brand equity (consumer)",
"Crisis management",
"Product-harm crisis",
"Public relations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent decades, media has brought up many product-harm warnings to the center of public discernments, and the upsurge of media publicity has caused product-harm crises to become increasingly critical for firms' public relations management (Meulenberg et al., 2002). In the past, noteworthy product-harm crises that have provoked great societal attention include Firestone's recall of millions of defective tires in the 1970s, the tampering of Tylenol products in the 1980s, a Coca-Cola contamination scare in Europe in the 1990s and the defective Toyota braking mechanisms during the 2000s, to name just a few. These examples elicited above share one common consequence - the brand image erected over years was severely broken. According to The Economist (2010), favorable views of Toyota dropped 12 per cent (from 58 to 46 per cent) from the time the company announced its recall of millions of vehicles in January of 2010 to the time another poll was taken approximately two months later. Such an unexpected consequence was witnessed again in the case of Honda's recall of 700,000 compact cars in 2011, which has garnered a great deal of mistrust worldwide (NBC News, 2011).\nTheoretical background: Product-harm crisis\nHypotheses development: Consumer reactions\nMethodology: Experimental design\nResults: H1 proposed that a product-harm crisis will negatively influence the following consumer reactions:\nDiscussion: Consumers have a tendency to weigh negative publicity information more heavily than positive information (Mizerski, 1982). We applied this paradigm in an attempt at understanding consumer reactions to product-harm crises in media. Specifically, we empirically investigated multiple indicators of consumer evaluations after a product-harm crisis. Our results provided positive confirmation to our hypothesized patterns of consumer reactions.\nLimitations and future research recommendations: We acknowledge that a number of limitations exist in our study. Our experiment investigating consumer reactions to product-harm crisis is based on the participants' decision-making in purchasing PC laptops. We used two real PC brands in the experiment. The means for brand equity were 3.29 and 2.73, respectively, for the high- and low-equity PC brands. Thus, both brands were relatively moderate in consumer perceptions of brand equity. It partially explains why the difference between the high- and low-equity PC brands has not made a big enough impact on certain consumer reactions, such as involvement and purchase intentions (see Results on H3). To achieve better manipulations of brand equity, future research may choose to compare a PC brand with Apple's Mac to arrive at the differed levels of brand equity in the category of computers.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate differences in consumer reactions to high- versus low-equity brands in terms of consumer attitude toward the brand, involvement with the brand, company credibility and consumer purchase intentions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Experimental procedure is conducted to test three hypotheses using 317 consumer participants. The experiment is carried out comparing a high-equity personal computer (PC) brand and a low-equity PC brand involved in product-harm crisis.\nFindings: The results indicate that, in the case of product-harm crisis, negative consumer perceptions regardless of brand equity level; less negative perceptions for a high-equity brand than for a low-equity brand; and smaller loss in consumer perceptions for a high-equity brand than for a low-equity brand.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings highlight the importance of brand equity in crisis management explained by covariation theory of attributions.\nPractical implications: Although product-harm crisis is inevitable for many firms, continuous investment in brand equity can mitigate the negative consequences.\nOriginality/value: Product-harm crisis can pose serious consequences for firms on both financial and intangible dimensions. Given the occurrence of numerous product-harm crises involving both reputable and less known brands, it is important to consider potential influences of brand equity on consumer reactions to such crisis.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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How transactive memory systems relate to organizational innovation: the mediating role of developmental leadership
|
[
"Knowledge driven organizations",
"Leadership",
"Knowledge sharing",
"Organizational innovation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Organizational knowledge is constantly changing: that is, yesterday's knowledge may not be valid at present, let alone tomorrow. In a knowledge economy in which the depreciation of knowledge happens more quickly than ever, recognizing how to learn, unlearn and relearn knowledge is critical for companies seeking to maintain their competitive advantages (Azmi, 2008; Villasalero, 2014; Zhao et al., 2013). Yet, managing knowledge is a complicated practice because, unlike other tangible management resources, knowledge is diffused among numerous people, tasks, tools and routines, as well as in the linkages among these entities (Yuan et al., 2010). Thus, the concept of transactive memory systems (TMS) has attracted significant interest among researchers as a mechanism for describing cognitive division of labor, including who possesses knowledge and how the knowledge is shared and coordinated (Wegner, 1986).\nResearch background and hypotheses: Transactive memory systems\nResearch methods: Organization context\nResults: To check the reliability of the survey instrument, Cronbach's a, which represents internal consistency, was measured. Kline (2011) has argued that if .the value of Cronbach's a is around 0.70, then the reliability of the measurement is adequate. Every case in this study was considered to demonstrate acceptable score reliability. With regard to convergent validity, two of the factor loadings were higher than 0.50, while one factor loading nearly reached the threshold. The composite reliability value and the average variance extracted (AVE) value were measured, and all the constructs were, respectively, more than or equal to 0.7 and to 0.5 (Hair et al., 2006). In terms of discriminant validity, the square root of AVE for each construct is higher than the correlation coefficients among the constructs. Pearson's product-moment correlation analysis showed that all correlations were statistically significant at p < 0.01 and that every pair of measures had correlations below 0.7. This means that there was no multicollinearity among the variables (Hair et al., 2006).\nDiscussion: This study aims to corroborate the causal relationship among TMS, developmental leadership and organizational innovation alongside the mediating effect of developmental leadership. This study found that TMS is not related to organizational innovation; TMS exerts a statistically significant influence on developmental leadership; developmental leadership significantly impacts organizational innovation; finally, developmental leadership fully mediates the relationship between TMS and organizational innovation.\nPractical implications: Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, once said that the volume of data produced every two days is equivalent to the volume of data that accumulated from the advent of civilization to 2003 (Siegler, 2010). In the current rapidly developing knowledge economy, the challenge of such increased cognitive labor has been experienced by companies as a total information input that overwhelms the cognitive capacity of employees and organizations who lack adequate time to process it all (Whelan and Teigland, 2013). Knowledge management needs a new strategy due to this circumstance and other related changes in society. It is time to consider not how much we learn, but how much less we learn while maintaining organizations' performances and innovation.\nLimitations and future research: The most critical limitation of this study is the extent to which it relies upon self-reporting: that is, all variables were measured by respondents' self-reporting rather than via more objective measurements. Self-reporting is known to inflate parameter estimates (Podsakoff and Organ, 1986). Nevertheless, this study is more interested in capturing self-perceptions of knowledge-workers during the process of business transformation than in indirectly developing causal inferences from a set of objective measures (Chan, 2009). Additionally, Harman's single-factor test was used as a statistical remedy for socially desirable responses to issues (Podsakoff and Organ, 1986). For future studies looking to corroborate the results of this study, considering the actual magnitudes of impacts on organizational variables is recommended. For example, TMS may be measured using social-network analysis or experimental design (Peltokorpi, 2012; Ren and Argote, 2011). Organizational innovation may also be measured according to numbers of patents received or innovative products developed (Hagedoorn and Cloodt, 2003).\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between transactive memory systems and organizational innovation. Several recent studies have discussed the positive relationship between these two entities. Yet, very few studies have demonstrated how transactive memory systems are related to leadership and innovation. This study investigates this tripartite relationship, finding that developmental leadership exerts a mediating effect on the relationship between transactive memory systems and organizational innovation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In examining this relationship, 224 participants from an electronics company in South Korea were surveyed. Structural equation modeling was used to enable the identification of simultaneous interactive relationships among the three research variables.\nFindings: Contrary to previous research results, transactive memory systems were found not to be significantly related to organizational innovation. Results also indicated that transactive memory systems comprise a statistically significant variable that influences developmental leadership. Subsequently, developmental leadership can be considered to be a valid construct in predicting organizational innovation; it can also be seen to fully mediate the relationship between transactive memory systems and organizational innovation.\nOriginality/value: These results have theoretical and managerial implications. As transactive memory systems do not always precede organizational innovation, knowledge of \"who knows what\" is not enough to ensure innovative performances. To accelerate organizational innovation, intentional managerial interventions such as developmental leadership are accordingly necessary.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Exploring the six sigma phenomenon using multiple case study evidence
|
[
"Six sigma",
"Production improvement"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Six sigma is one of the more recent quality improvement initiatives to gain popularity and acceptance in many industries across the globe. Its use is increasingly widespread in many industries, including both service and manufacturing companies, with many proponents of the approach claiming that it has developed beyond a quality control approach into a broader process improvement concept. While the basic concept has its origins in industry, its popularity has led to an increasing level of interest from the academic community, with a substantial rise in the number of academic papers published in recent years (Nonthaleerak and Hendry, 2006; Schroeder et al., 2007). Many of these academic articles are more skeptical; for example, McManus (1999), through a comparison with TQM, concludes that six sigma is just an add-on project management tool. Despite such skepticism, it is argued here that it is important for the academic community to continue to study the six sigma phenomenon given its acceptance in industry. Such study should focus on enhancing the underlining principles, methodology and deployment processes to assist companies in ensuring that it is used appropriately as an effective means of process improvement.To achieve such enhancements, it is first necessary to gain a deeper understanding of the six sigma phenomenon in practice and in particular any areas of weakness in the approach. The results of an extensive literature review on six sigma revealed that much of the written evidence on issues such as implementation concentrates on positive attributes and is not well founded using a rigorous research approach (Nonthaleerak and Hendry, 2006). Hence, there is a lack of conclusive empirical evidence and it is not yet possible to draw clear conclusions from the literature on issues such as the strengths and weaknesses of this approach. Therefore, there is a need for comparative empirical research to explore potential areas of enhancement and areas of best practice in six sigma implementation.Hence, the aim of this paper is to explore empirically the phenomenon of six sigma implementation in the organization, using a rigorous multiple case study approach. By using a semi-structured interview method, practitioners' viewpoints were obtained regarding the methodological and practical issues of six sigma and how the implementation varies in different settings, such as type of business and size of company. On the six sigma methodology side, the study investigated the application of the five-phase define, measure, analyze, improve and control (DMAIC) for improving a current process, or improving an existing product/service performance which does not meet customer expectation. The issues explored include the practitioners' difficulties and concerns when undertaking the six sigma projects through the methodology as well as the tools that were used in each phase.The interviews also explored the deployment process of each company, focusing on the critical success factors (CSFs). Some of these have been previously identified in the literature; such as management involvement, the effectiveness of the six sigma training program, the six sigma organization (Project Champion, master black belt (MBB), black belt (BB), etc.) and the motivation program. Other important issues are newly identified, such as the impact of assigning a BB to either a full-time or part-time post; the type of reporting structure and the nature of the technical support available. For further details regarding the six sigma methodologies, the deployment process including the role of the belts, tools description and other key characteristics of six sigma, readers are referred to authors such as Eckes (2001), Tennant (2001) and Breyfogle III (2003).The rest of this paper is organized in a further five sections. It begins with a literature review of academic research into six sigma to further explain why this exploratory empirical study is needed. The following section proposes key exploratory research questions and describes the research methodology and data collection methods. The next section presents the characteristics of the case study companies and proposes indicators of six sigma progress and success based on the empirical evidence. Then the key findings of the empirical study are discussed based on the research questions and finally the paper draws conclusions and discusses future research.\nLiterature review: This literature review is grouped into three main categories: research into the underlying theory of the six sigma approach and potential enhancements; research into the implementation process, concentrating on problems identified and discussion on applicability to manufacturing and non-manufacturing contexts; and the comprehensive study of associated CSFs.Six sigma theory development and enhancements\nResearch methodology: The following key exploratory research questions are derived from the research gaps and issues identified in the literature review:RQ1. What are the areas of weakness in six sigma implementations, if any, which could be addressed by research into potential enhancements to the methodology?RQ2. What are the difficulties and issues in the six sigma implementation process and how do they differ between manufacturing and non-manufacturing operations?RQ3. What are the CSFs for six sigma implementation? And how do they impact six sigma?Research design\nData analysis: Before discussing the research findings, it is important to consider the case study company characteristics and assess their level of progress and success of six sigma implementation. This is considered a necessary first step if the empirical evidence is to be used to explore issues of comparative best practice between the companies. For example, issues of company size may affect implementation issues and the CSFs cannot be discussed without first assessing whether or not the case study companies have achieved a level of success in their six sigma implementation programs.Company characteristics\nKey findings from the empirical study: Key findings from the empirical study are summarized below by taking each research question in turn and discussing the empirical evidence along with future research issues where appropriate:RQ1. What are the areas of weakness in six sigma implementations, if any, which could be addressed by research into potential enhancements to the methodology?The interview results suggest that most practitioners viewed the define and control phases as areas of weakness in the DMAIC methodology and that appropriate execution of these phases are critical to the success of the six sigma projects.Define phase\nConclusions and future research: This paper has explored key aspects of the six sigma phenomenon, including those regarding the associated methodology and implementation process. By interviewing 43 practitioners in nine case study companies and two regional support companies, a multi-level, multi-case study analysis has led to the identification of a number of valuable insights. Key findings from this exploratory study are summarized as follows:* Two areas of weakness in six sigma implementations relate to the use of the DMAIC methodology in the define and control phases. For example, it is concluded that the methodology needs to ensure that the project selection criteria are carefully aligned to company goals rather than being merely based on shortsighted financial targets and that appropriate larger scale projects are selected. The latter is important as the empirical evidence suggests that six sigma is more appropriate for high risk, complicated, large-scale and cross functional projects for which the resources required can be justified. In addition, the process control tools employed in the control phase are insufficient to sustain the improvement results. Thus, the role of management and a good quality control system would be considered important. The methodology needs to be enhanced to address these identified areas of weakness.* Even though six sigma has been accepted positively among the practitioners as a useful tool to improve business performance, the use of rigorous statistical tools and quality tools creates a fear of six sigma. This is especially pertinent in non-manufacturing areas where employees do not have an engineering background and lack mathematics skills. The study also found that the application of six sigma in non-manufacturing contexts can be problematic for other reasons; in particular, a lack of data availability is a major concern for the practitioners and creates doubts regarding the quality of six sigma outcomes. Consequently, some tools are less used for non-manufacturing processes, such as DOE and some tools need to be adapted or modified to be suitable for this context. Hence, there is scope to contribute to six sigma knowledge by enhancing the methodology to provide better advice to those attempting to implement six sigma in a service process.* Some CSFs have arisen that supplement those previously identified in the literature. Firstly, it is concluded that using a part-time BB can be a more realistic option for small firms and can still lead to successful six sigma implementation, despite the usual recommendation that the BB should be full-time. Secondly, the nature of the reporting structure is seen to be key, with best practice involving direct reporting to the Project Champion who should also be the process owner and hence have direct responsibility for the project. Thirdly, it is concluded that issues regarding the complexity of tools leads to a need for easy access to coaching advice if projects are not to be unnecessarily delayed.It is concluded that many of the above findings constitute an important contribution to our knowledge of six sigma in their own right, while others would benefit from further research. For example, the issue of the appropriateness of a part-time or full-time BB could be further investigated using survey research. However, it is perhaps more interesting to work at addressing the issues that need to be enhanced and then to carry out research to implement the changes, monitoring the effect. To this end, it is proposed that a future research project to enhance the six sigma phenomenon should concentrate on improving the training material available, be particularly aimed at those involved in service process improvement, and should address the areas of weakness identified in the use of the DMAIC methodology. Such a project is the basis of the future research plans of the authors.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This research paper aims to: explore areas of weakness in six sigma implementations that may require enhancements in the methodology; to investigate implementation differences between manufacturing and services; and to investigate critical success factors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Exploratory empirical evidence is presented from nine case study companies in Thailand, including manufacturers, sales and service companies and a national airline.\nFindings: - Key findings include: six sigma is more appropriate for high risk, complicated, large-scale and cross functional projects; the six sigma methodology could be enhanced to ensure that projects are aligned to company goals; the evidence questions standard text book advice that a \"Black Belt\" (BB) should have a full time role, as a part-time BB role can be more realistic particularly in a small company and the training materials available need to be improved to be more appropriate for service operations.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The main research limitation is in the number of companies studied and the restriction to companies located in Thailand. In addition, the research is exploratory and future research is needed to look at the issues raised in depth.\nPractical implications: - All of the findings have practical implications. For example, the conclusion on the nature of the BB role is seen as a key issue for successful use of six sigma in small businesses.\nOriginality/value: - Six sigma has been widely used in industry, but there has been limited rigorous academic research. This paper seeks to identify a series of issues worthy of further attention from the academic community using a rigorous research approach.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Do buzz and evidence really matter in product preannouncements? An empirical test of two competing theories
|
[
"Signaling theory",
"Agency theory",
"Buzz marketing",
"Stock market return",
"Pre-announcements",
"Product pre-announcements",
"Information asymmetry"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Product preannouncements (PPA) are widely used by marketers to inform consumers about impending new product introductions or upcoming modifications and updates to existing products. PPA are integral to a firm's communication strategy, extensively used in practice and followed by the investment community. It is estimated that almost half of all new products and services in the USA and UK are preannounced (Bayus et al., 2001) across different product categories such as software (Stevenson, 2016), computer hardware (Mann, 2016), consumer electronics (Fowler and Stern, 2016), pharmaceuticals (Rockoff, 2016), airlines (Schmidt, 2016), automobiles (Thompson, 2016), food (Jargon, 2015) and consumer goods (Glazer, 2012).\n2. Literature review and hypotheses development: 2.1 Evidence effect based on information asymmetry theory\n3. Research method: 3.1 Measurement of market value effects\n4. Empirical results: We begin by examining the mean abnormal returns corresponding to five days immediately preceding the product preannouncement (days -5 to -1), the announcement date itself (Day 0) and five days following the announcement (days +1 to +5) for the placid-evidence, and the placid-no evidence groups.\n5. Discussion: New products are the heartbeat of a company and PPA is a potent promotional tool because they are deployed in advance of actual introduction. Hence, properly designed PPA can provide firms with a head start and create lock-in effects that encourage product trial and culminate in repeat purchases. The present study advances our knowledge of preannouncements by introducing a moderator (i.e. the degree of buzz contained in a preannouncement) to reconcile two competing consumer theories. We also posited the effect of company size and investigated if industry characteristics systematically affected preannouncement performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate if product pre-announcement effects measured using stock market returns conform to the predictions of two competing consumer marketing theories. In particular, while buzz marketing theory indicates a direct positive effect, information asymmetry theory suggests an influence contingent upon evidence. The study also investigates whether a pecking order of performance effects exists across different signaling situations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The final sample consists of 219 product-preannouncements reported in the Wall Street Journal between 2005 and 2015. The standard event study methodology was used to test for performance effects.\nFindings: The results show that preannouncements with evidence alone significantly outperform those with buzz alone, and announcements containing buzz and evidence. Also, buzz acts as a salient moderator of the relationship between evidence and performance. In addition, company size also affects the evidence-performance relationship, with smaller firms benefiting more from evidence than larger firms.\nResearch limitations/implications: The event study method assumes efficient markets and deals with publicly traded companies.\nPractical implications: Managers can allocate resources wisely by deciding whether to invest in evidence or buzz in their pre-announcements.\nOriginality/value: In contrast to extant research that primarily investigates contingency effects, this study identifies how an important moderator, i.e. buzz affects performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Private sector balance, financial markets, and US cycle: a SVAR analysis
|
[
"Household financial balance",
"Corporate financial balance",
"Business cycle",
"Financial markets",
"SVAR",
"United States of America",
"Private sector organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: One of the most interesting approaches, outside the mainstream context, used to make economic projections is the sectoral balances approach pioneered by Godley (1999) at Levy Institute of Economics. This approach starts from the well-known macroeconomic accounting identity that income must equal spending in the overall economy, because one person's spending is always another person's income. This implies that the differences between income and spending in the economy's major sectors - the private sector, the public sector, and the foreign sector - must add up to zero[1]. Although all the balances must equal zero, each variable has a \"life of its own\" and it is the change of output that brings them into equivalence (Godley et al., 2007). Zezza (2009) explains this point very well:If any of the sectors changes its balance, this will have consequences on the growth rate, as well as being reflected on other balances. For instance, an improvement in the foreign balance - generated, say, by a devaluation - will increase GDP, reduce government deficit, and increase saving against investment. An increase in private expenditure over income will also increase GDP and reduce government deficit, but will make the current account balance worse. Analysis of movements in the balances can thus help in understanding the trajectory of the economy.Goldman Sachs (Hatzius, 2003) and the macroeconomic team at Levy Institute of Bard College (Zezza, 2009) make use of financial balances for prediction purposes to develop a different theoretical framework[2].The Levy model has been developed along the lines of stock flow consistent models (Godley and Lavoie, 2006). The stock of net financial assets of each sector increases with net saving, and stocks feed back into flows through interest payment or whenever flows adjust towards a stock flow norm (Zezza, 2009)[3]. There are two drawbacks inherent within this framework. First, these models are typically based on a market clearing price mechanism, implying a smooth feed back to the economy. The financial crisis revealed, instead, that financial markets show a persistent deviation from market clearing conditions. Second, in the Levy model, the private sector balance (PSB) is modelled with no distinction between households and corporate balances. Given that these two sectors showed distinctly different patterns over time (as we will see in Section 2), this simplification implies the loss of important information. In particular, it hides the important contribution played by private firms' balances during the economic cycle according to Minsky's insights (1982, 1993), whose results are very important in an explanation of the cycle, as we will see in our analysis.Hatzius, at Goldman Sachs, has modelled the financial balances dynamics through an error correction mechanism towards a long run equilibrium determined by financial variables. The movements of the balances around the equilibrium cause an effect on output growth. An important aspect of this model is that it considers household and corporate balances separately in the analysis. However, this model has two significant drawbacks. The first is that the sectors are modelled separately (independently of each other) and GDP does not enter into their explanation. This is contrary to the logic of the sectoral balances approach. The second is that the financial markets are exogenous in the analysis, implying only a one-way effect from the financial markets to the economy.Our contribution is as follows: our analysis on the PSB distinguishes between household and (non-financial) corporate sectors and endogenizes the relationship between the two sectors, output, and financial markets through a vector autoregression (VAR) approach. We concentrate our analysis on these balances because the saving and investment decisions of households and firms can heavily influence the output dynamic.Methodologically, all the variables are expressed as deviations from their trend. The trend acts as the normal path historically observed in the data. The reasoning for this approach (taking Hatzius's intuition) is that financial balances have an impact on output growth when they gravitate around their normal level.Through an impulse response function (IRF) - obtained from SVAR estimation with appropriate restrictions on the matrix A of contemporaneous relations - we find that both corporate financial balances have a strong positive impact on GDP growth, and that financial and economic variables have an effect on each other, confirming our view that the mechanism studied is endogenous. In particular, the result that the economic cycle reacts positively to corporate financial balance is in accordance with a Minsky's view of the economy.The paper is organized as follows: in Section 2 we explain our approach and the methodological issues. In Section 3, we describe the data and present the results of our VAR estimation and the IRF. Section 4 concludes.\n2 The approach and methodological issues: In this section we discuss the characteristics of the approach followed and the methodological aspects.In our analysis we focus on the PSB; also known in the literature as private net saving) only to study its impact on GDP cycle. The reason is twofold. First, the PSB has historically shown a very close relationship with GDP growth. Figure 1 shows this relationship.The cyclical pattern of PSB has a significant and positive correlation with GDP with an average lead of four quarters (but the leading time, as we can see in the figure, varies across the years). The explanation is as follows: since the private sector cyclical pattern historically shows a tendency towards mean reversion, the large deficit/surplus today raises the probability of an imminent reversion in the near future. This cyclical behaviour can have a significant impact on future GDP growth. For example, when the private sector is running at a financial deficit (total spending larger than income) this implies a future reversion (reduction of total spending) with a negative impact on the economic cycle. In particular, we can see that the 2001 and 2008 crises were explained very well by a huge unbalancing of the private sector which anticipates economic recession.Second, the private sector comprises the two agents, household and corporate which, with their decisions on consumption and investment spending, can have a huge impact on output. Given that consumption and investment are two different decisions taken from two different agents, it is better to distinguish them in the analysis. For this reason we split the PSB into households and corporate balances. In particular, we select households and non-financial corporate balances[4] as suggested by Hatzius (2003). Figure 2 shows the importance of this distinction: household and non-financial corporate balances have different patterns over time (in particular they diverge heavily during the 2000s). In Figure 2 we plot the two private balances with GDP growth. We see that non-financial corporate balance shows a closer positive pattern with GDP, in particular after the 1970s (during the period 1980-2010 - the period under investigation in our analysis - the cross correlation between non-financial corporate balance and GDP growth is 0.28, whereas between household balance and GDP growth it is only 0.19).This distinction is important from another aspect. The non-financial corporate balance[5] - corporate profits minus business investments, known as the financing gap with the reversed sign - is a key variable of choice for firms: other than investments, firms decide on the financial imbalance. This variable summarizes Minsky's theory of financial instability and financial cycles (Minsky, 1993). Here we explain briefly the main characteristics of this theory since many economists may be unfamiliar with this non-neoclassical theory of economic cycle[6].In Minsky's model, the level of investment by a firm is constrained by the cash flows generated by its assets and liabilities, and its ability or willingness to borrow to finance investment. In the early stages of recovery from a recession phase, memories of previous financial calamity increase the perception of risk by borrowers and lenders. Firms reduce their debt (accumulated in a previous phase of the cycle) and finance most of their investment internally. In this phase of the cycle, the corporate financial balance is positive. As recovery persists and leads to expansion, perceptions of risk are reduced and firms begin to increase the amount of debt to finance investment. In this phase, borrowing takes the form of \"speculative financing\" and the corporate balance reduces, starting to become negative. As the expansion continues, perceptions of risk fall further and firms become \"Ponzi-borrowing\". The corporate balance continues to fall further. At some point during the expansion phase, some events (such as an expected default by a big corporate) will lower the realized profits under the expectations, causing an increase in the perception of risks by firms, with a consequent pull back from investment spending. The result is a cumulative process in which profits fall, perceptions of risk increase, firms try to pay back their debt, asset prices fall, and the economy enters into a deep recession. In this phase the corporate balance increases and reverts to positive territory.Combining the financial instability hypothesis with the sectoral balance approach, it is evident that the corporate financial balance plays an important role in explaining the cycle in a dynamic way: a widening positive gap (profits larger than investment) preludes a boom economic phase because the firms, attracted by huge profits, will invest more.Concerning the methodological issues, we consider these aspects:* The impact of the financial balances on the economy depends not on the sector's actual financial balance, but whether the sector is above/below its \"normal\" path over time. The \"normal\" path is identified as the trend pattern historically observable in the data. The trend is an ideal or desirable level of financial balance. When a sector's balance diverges from its normal level, this implies an impulse on GDP growth.* The cyclical patterns of household and corporate balances are determined by cyclical patterns of financial markets. Stock prices, 10-year Treasury-Note (T-N) yields, and the spread between BAA-corporate bond yields and 10-year T-N yields (BAA-spread) are the financial variables used in our empirical study. For example, a rise in stock prices implies that households feel richer (the equity wealth effect) and corporate bodies are more optimistic about their future returns on capital. The effect is a rise in their spending. When long term interest rates reduce, households will refinance their mortgages and corporate bodies will be more willing to borrow capital. Also in this case, the effect is a rise in their spending. BAA-spread is a measure of the cost of external finance for corporate bodies. Higher BAA-spread discourages debt-financed spending by firms discouraging investment spending.* The effects of financial market variables on the fiscal balances have to be understood in a portfolio set up a la Tobin (no market clearing hypothesis is needed). An increase in household balance implies an increase in savings and - coeteris paribus - an increase in the size of a portfolio's assets held by household. More savings push the price up (i.e the S&P 500) and down the return of assets (i.e. the long bond). An uncertainty - on a theoretical side - regards the BAA-spread, depending on the relative sensitivities of the return of government bonds versus corporate bonds. An increase of corporate balance has, instead, a specific sectorial effect on portfolio: an increase of profits increase the attractiveness of equity by decreasing the price/earning ratio. The substitution effect in the portfolio should raise the return of government bonds and should reduce the BAA-spread through a decrease in the risk of corporate.* Given that all the aspects in this comparison are inter-dependent, a deviation of one of the two private sectors implies an effect on output. At the same time GDP brings all the sectors into equivalence. The proper instrument to analyse these aspects is the VAR. We first estimate an unrestricted VAR, and then we identify the structural shocks imposing restrictions on the matrix A of contemporaneous relations.The IRF points out that households and non-financial corporate balances react to financial markets in a correct way (in a way consistent with our theoretical expectations), the economic variables (GDP and financial balances) influence the financial variables, and that economic cycles react positively to the non-financial corporate balance according to Minsky's insights that we embraced.\n3 The empirical VAR model: 3.1 The data\n4 Conclusions: We reconsidered the sectoral balances approach of Godley, focusing our attention on the two main components of the PSB and on their interactions: household and (non-financial) corporate balances. Through a structural VAR estimation, obtained imposing restriction on the contemporaneous effects matrix, and the relative IRF, we find that:* household and corporate balances react to financial markets in the way we discussed;* the economic cycle influences the two financial balances;* the corporate balance has a positive impact on the cycle;* the economic cycle and financial balances influence the financial variables.In particular, point (3) shows that the corporate balance is a leading component of the cycle as suggested by Casadio and Paradiso (2009) and accords with Minsky's theory of financial instability. Our contribution - which aims to endogenize all the mechanisms behind the sectorial balances approach - is an important improvement with respect to Levy Institute and Goldman Sachs' contributions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Considering the sectoral balance approach of Godley, and focusing only on the two main components of the private sector balance for the US economy (household and non-financial corporate balance), the purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between these two sectors, the financial variables, and economic cycle. In particular, the paper considers all these relationships endogenously.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors estimate a structural VAR model between household and (non-financial) corporate financial balances, financial markets, and economic cycle and the authors perform an impulse response analysis. All the variables are expressed as cyclical components applying the Hodrick-Prescott filter.\nFindings: - The main result is that: household and corporate balances react to financial markets in the way the authors expected and discussed; the economic cycle influences the two financial balances; the corporate balance has a positive impact on the cycle; the economic cycle and financial balances influence the financial variables. In particular, the point that shows that the corporate balance has a positive impact on the cycle shows that the corporate balance is a leading component of the cycle as suggested by Casadio and Paradiso and accords with Minsky's theory of financial instability.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The analysis does not include the foreign sector (current-account balance).\nOriginality/value: - This study is an important step forward with respect to the two main contributions in literature which use this approach: the Levy Institute macroeconomic team and Goldman Sachs. Methodologically their models are based on assumptions (such as exogeneity or market clearing price mechanism for the financial markets) that the authors overcome considering all the relationships studied in an endogenous manner.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Correlating trainee attributes to performance in 3D CAD training
|
[
"Computer aided design",
"Technical training",
"Process analysis",
"Psychology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: CAD capabilities have steadily improved over the years; however, there are lingering concerns whether this is matched by a similar development in CAD training. Evolving training technologies (e.g. COACH/LMS by CADTRAIN, Inc.[1]) have yet to be matched by methodological advancements in CAD training. Current training methods are not adapted to individual needs and demands. Therefore, there is a need for custom-tailored CAD training programs. Training programs should be designed according to personal specifications based on the individual's attributes, including personal and technical background. But which specific attributes are conducive to CAD learning and competence development? This paper aims to develop a framework for identifying those attributes. We attempt to answer this question by studying written questionnaire of CAD trainees and, then, relate the responses to trainees' performance.Questionnaires are used on a wide scale for information gathering. Examples of questionnaire-based surveys aimed at training cut across all disciplines including engineering (Schellhammer, 2003; Willson, 1996), medicine (Adlard, 2002; Allen et al., 2000), and emergency response professionals (Wilson, 2000) etc. Relevant to technical training, it is customary to collect data on trainees' background. Data collected at the beginning of the training, is typically used for marketing and customer support purposes. Post-training surveys are typically used to assess the quality, or effectiveness, of the training (Birdi, 2005). Recently, surveys have been employed for several purposes in relation to CAD training. In Williams (2003), a web-based questionnaire was conducted for the purpose of understanding the impact of technology on CAD training. A recent questionnaire was conducted by Garcia et al. (2005) for the purpose of establishing the state of CAD training in Spanish universities. James-Gordon (2001) profiled automotive engineers according to their learning style preferences based on the questionnaire developed by Honey and Mumford (1992). This study established that the learning styles of engineers in the automotive industry are no different than those of the population as a whole. It was also determined that the CAD training in the company does satisfy the engineers learning style preferences. To the authors' knowledge, no research on pre-screening of trainees' for the purpose of customizing CAD training or profiling of CAD trainee has been reported in the literature. The lack of current literature on this topic suggests the importance of original and novel research aimed at developing means to pre-screen CAD training candidates and to customize the training accordingly. These prescreens could be made manually, or in electronic formats, and may be an essential tool for any organization aimed at CAD training.The aim of this work is to investigate the relation between trainees' attributes and their CAD skills and the improvement of these skills. This knowledge is essential for improving current approaches to training personnel (e.g. one-size-fits-all). By tailoring the training the duration of the training can be made shorter, more focused, or more detailed depending on the educational background and skill of the trainee. Customized training in dedicated groups saves time and money, increase trainees' interest, and improves speed and quality of learning.To accomplish our objective, we designed a written questionnaire and applied it to 44 novice CAD trainees. The survey results were used to relate the trainees' profiled attributes to their performance following training. We searched for correlation between technical/personality attributes and the trainees' ability to learn 3D CAD. Four measures were predictive of performance:1. performance time at start of training;2. rate of performance time improvement;3. model sophistication (complexity) at start of training; and4. rate of sophistication increase.\n2. Methodology: CAD training: 2.1 The training software\n3. Results: CAD training: Proper assessment methods are needed to evaluate CAD training. Hamade et al. (2005) developed an assessment of CAD skills learning by observing a group of novice trainees during learning of mechanical CAD software (Pro/Engineer). A beginner-level test parts (Figure 1) was used. Performance was assessed individually by performance time and by the total number of features needed to construct the part. It was found that as procedural and declarative knowledge was accumulated, trainees tended to utilize fewer (but more complex) features contributing to improved performance. This methodology was further validated to include test parts of more challenging nature (Hamade et al., 2006). It was also shown that the method is equally applicable to another, more recent, version of the CAD software (Pro/Engineer version Wildfire).The assessment of trainee progress in learning mechanical CAD was done through four test parts suitable for beginners. Trainees were asked to build four novice-level models (Figure 1) after 2, 4, 7, and 12 weeks from the start of the training (beginning of the semester). The developing skills of the trainees were measured utilizing these four models. These models had the same level of complexity, and but different so that test re-test effect were minimized. Generally and as evidenced in our study, faster, performing trainees tend to use fewer, more complex features than slow performing ones.Performance times were found to decrease with cumulative experience and to conform to a power form according to the Wright's learning curve (WLC; Wright, 1936): Equation 1 T(t) is the performance time when recall occurs by time t, T(1) is the theoretical production time at first repetition, and bt is the learning slope (where bt=-log ph/ log 2 and ph (0<=ph <= 1) being the learning rate). This fit yielded T(1)=51.4 minutes and bt =0.69. This indicates to a manager that for participants to attain maximum productivity levels, they have to become efficient by performing a CAD design task quickly or at small T(t). Initial performance time (IPT) is denoted by T(1) and bt represents the improvement rate of performance time. The paraemters describe the efficiency at which CAD knowledge gets acquired.To gain further understanding of the learning process, we advance the notion of using the number of features used in constructing the solid geometry as a second variable in addition to performance time. As the trainees become more innovative over time, the number of features required to perform these tasks were reduced. The learning curve was fitted to the power form in (1) but using the recorded number of features data: Equation 2 where F(t) is the number of features that trainees employ in modeling at time t, F(1) is the number-of-features utilized in construction at repetition one, and bf comprises the number-of-feature progression (decrease) rate. The learning curve that describes the evolution of model sophistication suggests values of 13 features and 0.55 for of F(1) and bf, respectively. An effective CAD task is one that is done smartly by using fewer number of features, F(t). The employed number-of-features, F(t), may be referred to as the initial effectiveness while the number-of-features employment rate, bf, as the effectiveness improvement rate.\n4. Methodology: The questionnaire: Especially critical to successful questionnaire design is the phrasing of the questions so that the survey results provide the information sought (Barnes and Rowbotham, 2003). In this work, proper questionnaire design is vital to identify relevant abilities in the trainee's profile. As one could imagine, technical attributes have a direct bearing on the ability to acquire technical knowledge, and, therefore, these attributes should be included in the questionnaire. Ye et al. (2004) conducted a limited survey in an effort to identify the key technical subjects (mathematics, computer, science, etc.) needed by various CAD personnel. In addition to identifying technical foundation skills, we make an effort to uncover relevant personality (both behavioral and attitudinal) traits including those that may prove to be of critical importance in acquiring CAD or other knowledge. Noe (1986) stressed the relevance of personality attributes and attitudes on knowledge acquisition.Here, 18 written questions were constructed to determine the trainees' technical and personality attributes (see Figure A1 in the Appendix). The questions were judged by the authors to be of particular significance in revealing psychological and technical attributes of the trainees' in relation to success in CAD training. To expose psychological attributes, a mix of attitude-, behavior-, and perception/imagination-type questions were posed. For the latter, the authors phrased some of these questions (see Table I) to reveal topics relevant to CAD as suggested by Ye et al. (2004).Attitudinal questions were designed to reveal motivation, interest, aim/ambition, and awareness/specificity of the trainees (see question 1-5 in Table I. (Note that the values in the table indicate the number fraction of the question based on the total number of questions in each category). Also, behavioral questions were designed to determine the actual work habits (e.g. practice through dedication/commitment) once CAD training actually commenced (questions 12 and 13). The perception/imagination category was investigated to determine the role of attributes such as inference and perception (questions 14 and 15).Recognizing their significance in shaping the trainees' capabilities in the learning of solid CAD, questions are devised to reveal the trainees' technical background and strengths. Technical-type questions were classified into three categories: technical/math skills, existing CAD (e.g. 2D AutoCAD) skills, and related knowledge. Questions 6-10 were designed so as to reveal the former. Existing CAD skills were primarily determined by questions 16-18. Related knowledge spanned questions of both of the previous two categories.One should be aware of the potential stuffy limitations which include:* the questionnaire contains a limited number of questions. An expanded version of this questionnaire may be desired; and* the pool of trainees in this study are all ME seniors and, as such, may not be very representative of the pool of trainees usually available in corporate settings.\n5. Results: The questionnaire: 5.1 Trainees' quantitative attributes\n6. Discussion: The outcome of the study and more specifically the correlation results in Table III can be interpreted as follows. Depending on the performance measure, a mix of the trainees' psychological (motivation and dedication) and technical attributes was found to contribute to CAD competence development. Related knowledge gained prior to the training was critical for initial CAD performance time and effectiveness (as measured by the number of features employed in building the CAD models). This confirms the relevance of technical background in subjects such as mathematics and computer science related to the ability of trainees to acquire CAD skills as speculated by Ye et al. (2004). In contrast, motivation and dedication was essential for the improvement in performance over the duration of the training.These findings have three practical applications for skills learning that possible may be generalized beyond the CAD learning literature:1. identifying the salient characteristics of potentially successful trainees;2. grouping trainees for the purpose of delivering training with most impact; and3. conducting focused questionnaires to select candidates with promising potentials.Regarding the first and second applications, training providers may be interested in discovering the characteristics of applicants and possibly predicting their learning curves in order to personalize the training and better-prepare the right training staff and material. For the third application, it goes without saying that such capability can prove vital in allowing organizations to select future employees who will be able to handle their envisioned responsibilities.Finally, the work presented in this paper could be used as a framework for designing \"adaptive\" questionnaires. This methodology may be described through the use of a simple flow diagram that has a feedback element (Figure 4): a) Identifying the important question categories; b) Eliminating redundant attributes; c) Designing the questions that fit those categories; e) A training designer can learn from past experiences and keep on refining the survey, which may yield more; and f) Effective training and correlation results. The above constitutes the focus of a new research effort currently pursued by the authors.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this exploratory study is to identify trainee attributes relevant for development of skills in 3D computer-aided design (CAD).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Participants were trained to perform cognitive tasks of comparable complexity over time. Performance data were collected on the time needed to construct test models, and the number of features used to construct them. A written questionnaire survey profiled the trainees' technical capabilities, motivation, and dedication.\nFindings: - Correlation analysis between the trainees' attributes/capabilities and performance showed that a mix of the trainees' psychological and technical attributes contributed to CAD competence development. Prior technical knowledge influenced initial performance whereas dedication had a strong influence on the rate of improvement.\nPractical implications: - The methodology serves as basis for developing specific guidelines for constructing questionnaires for trainee profiling and for customizing the training of mechanical 3D CAD.\nOriginality/value: - This original research proposes a framework for classifying CAD-training candidates based on their technical and personality profiles, which may lead to more effective training.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Re/searching for "impact"
|
[
"Impact",
"Autoethnography",
"Arts-based",
"Folklore",
"Perambulography",
"Práxes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: This paper is concerned with the exploration of how \"impact\" might be reconsidered, or indeed reimagined. The title is intended to be a bold incitement through the suggestion that simply searching for and recording impact, would invariably lead to propagating an already enculturated understanding of it. I propose instead by re/searching we might rediscover some practices that, while centrally concerned with reflection, are situated within an arts-based research paradigm that is not ordinarily associated with the contemporary, accepted understandings of what impact is and how it can be measured. Throughout this text, I will refer to reflective and reflexive practice by its etymological origin of praxes, to evoke its philosophical connections. Through brief expositions of three differing praxes and the discussion around them, this paper suggests that there are differing perspectives and understandings of impact and what it means.\nPhronetic vlogging: That I might more clearly define what I mean by phronesis, the first case study offered as an example method will be Phronetic Vlogging. Phronetic Vlogging is an approach to develop praxis. Vlogging is simply recording thoughts, ideas, and reflections through video. In this case though, it is a performative, reflective approach, which is chiefly concerned with phronesis. This has numerous definitions and understandings: often defined as the virtue of practical wisdom, or intelligence. More specifically it is the capacity for moral insight to recognise what moral decision or application would be most conducive to the good of oneself or others. It was considered in Greek philosophy to be different from other understandings of the virtues of wisdom; it is considered, perhaps more traditionally as \"prudence\". Alternatively, McEvilley (2006) has proposed that the best translation is \"mindfulness\". Regardless of the exact translation, an aspect of reflection can be seen to run throughout these definitions.\nEkphrasis: The second case study used Ekphrasis as a process of reflexive practice. It was originally inspired by Benjamin's et al. (1999) work in two different ways: first, in the way in which he talks of the need for us as individuals to create a narrative to understand time and history. These narratives, and the choices we make in constructing them, like what we should include (exclude), seem to me are ways of metaphoricising our being, and deal therefore crucially with our identity. Coming to understand our beliefs, values and expanding our appreciation of how we connect, as with Phronetic Vlogging, is significant, and in this instance, the impact of our relationship with nature is too. It also raises questions regarding sustainability. The second way that Benjamin's et al. (1999) work was an influence was through his interaction with Klee's painting; his conception of history was in itself Ekphrastic:A Klee (1920) painting named Angelus Novus shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress(Benjamin et al., 1999, p. 249).\nPerambulography: The third case study offered, looks at a praxis I have called Perambulography. It is important in the explanation of this practice to give some context: The rural county of Cheshire is the place where I grew up, and where my immediate family and ancestors are from. I was interested in drawing a connection between this landscape and my sense of belonging: to understand the impact of a landscape on a person's sense of belonging and/or identity, quite literally by drawing. I wanted to capture an understanding of the landscape that avoided the romantic and sentimental, that instead allowed for an expression of psycho-geographical understanding: of the kind that would be reminiscent of a derive (Debord, 1956), Benjamin's (1997) flanuer[3] or perhaps even the Japanese practice of Hanami, or \"flower viewing\", a traditional custom of relishing the short-lived beauty of flowers, but in a broader sense. The drawings that I would undertake though needed to represent my journey through the natural world with immediacy and thus I would try to avoid capturing and expressing a particular subject or singular moment with any emotional reaction. This would be crucial if Bausinger's (1990) concern of the depreciation of nature to something that is merely appreciated was to be avoided. These drawings would be affected by each footstep, stile, gate, or passing tree. They would be a direct interpretation of the land, a felt, lived, and recorded experience. The ultimate goal was use these drawings as a graphic score for composition in order to present the experience in a way, which might resonate with listeners.\nDiscussion: Ricoeur contributed in numerous ways to philosophical thought, but there are three aspects in particular that will help in the discussion of the three cases studies previously outlined: they are his combining of the hermeneutical process with phenomenology and his appreciations of time, and of language.\nImplications for research and praxes: Having reflected upon the methods and the implications of the proposed understanding of \"impact\", there are some common implications that to my mind determine what re/search looks like regardless of the method employed. Phronetic Vlogging for example, I would hope, offers more than a typical reflective journal because the product is dynamic, it is a sincere, intense, vibrant and convincing interpretation of my exploration as a researcher and practitioner, and as a performance it seeks to generate insights for the researcher, practitioner, and audience that are impossible for conventional qualitative methods to achieve (Ackroyd and O'Toole, 2010). The method can be more readily shared due to its digital nature too. All the methods search for validity through authenticity as much as plausibility. Each method attempts to determine generalisability by virtue of whether a (singular) individual is able to shed light upon (universal) cultural processes which one is otherwise unacquainted with (Ellingson, 1998; Ellis and Bochner, 2000).\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: As an exploration of how \"impact\" might be reconsidered, the purpose of this paper is to suggest that current contemporary understandings of \"impact\" fail practice and research by obscuring the space for reflexive criticality that is crucial for an individual or organisation to flourish. That it thus leads to an already predefined enculturated understanding of \"impact\".\nDesign/methodology/approach: Offering some interrogation and folkloristic analogy of the meaning of \"impact\", three brief expositions of differing arts-based praxes concerned mainly with reflection and connection, are then discussed through the lens of Ricoeur's et al. (1978) conflation of the hermeneutical process with phenomenology.\nFindings: It is suggested that the implications of restoring, refreshing, or representing \"impact\" give license to a personal/professional revitalisation, and that reformulating an understanding of \"impact\" through re/search might offer a potential pedagogic tool, and alternative organising feature.\nOriginality/value: Through the introduction of inter-disciplinary thinking and praxes, the paper offers novel autoethnographic arts-based methods for personal, professional and organisational development and growth.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
How does performance history impact supplier selection in public sector?
|
[
"Public procurement",
"France",
"Supplier selection",
"Performance history"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Supplier selection is an important dimension of procurement management (Cebi and Bayraktar, 2003; Huang and Keskar, 2007; Gosling et al., 2010; Khorramshahgol, 2012). In a context that is prompting manufacturing and retailing firms to increasingly concentrate on a few key competencies (new product design, marketing and communication policies, etc.), the use of external resources owned by effective suppliers directly influences the likelihood of gaining a sustainable competitive advantage. Although some may consider this question to pertain uniquely to private companies operating in sectors sensitive to outsourcing strategies, such as automotive, microcomputers or aeronautics construction, there is strong evidence to the contrary.\n2. Literature review: Few empirical studies have looked at public procurement from the supplier selection perspective (Quayle, 1998; Murray, 2001a; Shahadat, 2003; Walker et al., 2008; Arlbjorn and Freytag, 2012; Juntunen et al., 2012; Oruezabala and Rico, 2012). This is especially surprising given that public markets are major economic players. This is especially surprising given that public markets are major economic players. The government purchasing market constitutes the largest business sector in the world (Hawkins et al., 2011). Depending on the country, public expenditures represent between 8 and 25 percent of gross domestic product (GDP); this market represents about 16 percent of European Union GDP (Brammer and Walker, 2011).\n3. Methodology: To assess the impact of suppliers' performance history on their current win performance, we have chosen to study the case of France. In 2006, France implemented a new public procurement code prohibiting the use of performance history as a criterion of supplier choice for public contractors. Consequently, any effects of suppliers' performance history are unlikely to be caused by common practice, but rather result from a conscious choice. All transactions by French public buyers regarding contracts that exceed 4.000 before taxes are published in French Official Journals (www.boamp.fr). We collected all transactions of suppliers that won a minimum of one public procurement contract per year between 2006 and 2011. The final data set contained all transactions for 976 suppliers over six years.\n4. Results: The algorithm used in the paper is well-suited for predicting the probability that a single firm gets a new contract given the same firm's success score in the recent past. Our results illustrate the impact of performance history in the supplier selection process and the positive reinforcement on number of contracts won from 2007 to 2011 as a function of the number of contracts won from 2006 to 2010. In other words, we can conclude that there is a reinforcement logic whereby past contracts awarding increase the likelihood of future awards.\n5. Implications and research avenues: The French public procurement code aims to maximize the economic impact of public contracts by regulating supplier selection by public buyers. The code forbids French contractors from selecting suppliers based on their past performance. Our results show that the number of contract wins in a given year is correlated with the number of contracts won in the following year. This overall effect appears to corroborate previous studies and support the first conjecture, namely that the number of contracts won in a given year positively influences the supplier's contract performance in the following year. In parallel, we observed positive reinforcement effects that differ statistically by market, which supports the second conjecture. The findings can be explained by a supplier selection strategy that takes the number of contracts won by a supplier as an indicator of the supplier's past performance.\n6. Conclusion: This study aims to examine how the supplier selection process in public procurement can be influenced by the supplier's performance history. The research was conducted in France, a country whose economy includes important public markets. Using French Official Journals (BOAMP), we collected all of the public procurement transactions of 976 suppliers, which we analyzed to perform an econometric study. The results appear to be very specific to each market and apply only to particular cases. Accordingly, suppliers are most likely selected using other criteria of primary importance in public procurement contracts. Beyond past performance and legally imposed selection criteria, the way contractors select suppliers using pragmatic cost-related criteria such as contract value, geographical proximity and strategic networks, as well as individual personality-related criteria such as regionalism or personal networks, remains to be empirically assessed. In short, although the French public procurement regulation prohibits the explicit use of contractors' past performance as a selection criterion, public buyers nonetheless seem to favor firms that have been awarded contracts in the (recent) past.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study if the performance history impacts supplier selection in the French public sector context. While French public procurement legislation forbids consideration of the past contract wins in supplier selection, public contractors may still rely on contract win history for highly complex transactions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using French Official Journals (BOAMP), the authors collected all public procurement transactions of 976 suppliers that had at least one transaction per year, over a period of six years (between 2006 and 2011). The authors conducted a two-level hierarchical linear auto-regression analysis and a feature evaluation analysis for all transactions.\nFindings: The paper finds significant variation between the transactions of different markets, as well as in the overall positive impact of past wins and in the detailed impact patterns and thresholds of each market. The findings may allow refinement of existing contract awarding strategies and of current legislation.\nOriginality/value: The paper aims at empirically testing whether a supplier's degree of success in any given year, measured by the number of public contracts won, may have an impact on the likelihood that the same supplier is awarded a public contract the following year. The authors conclude that suppliers retained for public contracts could benefit from building public buyers' loyalty using a key account selling approach rather than systematically seeking to acquire new contracts.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Ethical climate and job satisfaction among organizational buyers: an empirical study
|
[
"Ethical climate",
"Job satisfaction",
"Business-to-business marketing",
"INDSALES",
"Organizational buying"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In an increasingly relational industrial marketplace, organizational buyers have assumed more boundary spanning responsibilities that compel them to interact and perform varying requests from people within and outside their organizations (Goolsby, 1992; Jackson et al., 1995). As a result, they are regularly confronted with conflicting expectations and ethical dilemmas for which they maybe unprepared to handle (Michaels and Dixon, 1994; Saini, 2010). The imminent stress that follows from such conflicting expectations tends to favor ethical conflicts, particularly in environments where managers provide little ethical direction. Such ethical dilemmas are heightened in organizations that fail to explicitly provide written ethical guidelines to direct employee behaviors, thus prompting ethical shortcomings (Gonzalez-Padron et al., 2008; Goolsby, 1992; Michaels and Dixon, 1994; Saini, 2010).\nTheoretical background: Cognitive dissonance theory\nMethodology: Data collection\nResults and findings: Results of the data analysis\nDiscussion: Ethic research in general has been extensive, but nowhere has this dialogue been more evident than in the b-t-b literature. Unfortunately, b-t-b scholars have devoted most of their research attention exploring the relationship between ethical climate and job satisfaction from a salesperson's perspective. In this study, we succeed in advancing the ethics research by focusing our discussion strictly from the organizational buyer's perspective.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between ethical climate and facets of job satisfaction among organizational buyers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research is an empirical study. Data are collected from the industrial buyers using online panel. The INDSALES scale, the scale developed to measure job satisfaction of boundary spanners, was used to measure the job satisfaction. Partial least squares, a components-based structural equation modeling approach, was employed to conduct data analysis.\nFindings: The key finding was that buyer's organizational policy mediates the relationship between buyers' perception of ethical climate and buyers' satisfaction with pay and promotion as well as satisfaction with coworkers and supervisors. The findings also show that work satisfaction can be achieved at different levels based on particular components associated to the work environment.\nPractical implications: The role of ethical climate in this study offers insights into managers who constantly observe lower levels of job satisfaction among their buying team. Given that companies specify rules and regulations as a way to standardize employee behaviors and prevent unethical practices, managers must ensure that such codes specifically address issue pertaining to compensation, supervision and promotion.\nOriginality/value: Most of the previous studies in the business-to-business boundary spanning literature address ethical climate primarily from the salesperson's perspective. Ethical issues relating to organizational buyers in business-to-business setting has largely gone underexplored. This research is one of the few studies that focus on industrial buyers and ethical issues.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Charismatic and corrective leadership dimensions as antecedents of employee safety behaviours: A structural model
|
[
"Ghana",
"Active management-by-exception",
"Idealised influence",
"Safety behaviours",
"Structural equation modelling"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The survival and success of every organisation hinges strongly on the workforce of an organisation; and by extension, the health and safety of that workforce. In the USA, work-related injuries cost organisations about 170 billion US dollars yearly in losses (Towers Watson, 2010), while the National Safety Council similarly reported in their statistics in 2010 that annual losses can be as high as 183 billion US dollars. The National Safety Council (2010) statistics further showed that, for each employee that gets injured, every other employee makes up for it up to about 1,250 US dollars yearly, on average (as cited in Frazier et al., 2013). The International Labour Organisation (2013) reported that due to inadequate health and safety policies and practices at work, about 6,300 workers die daily, while over 2.3 million die annually, with about 317 million workplace accidents occurring annually. In Ghana, Annan (2010) asserted that at least 7 per cent of the country's gross domestic product goes into tackling issues arising out of poor occupational health and safety management. The recorded cases of fatal injuries due to poor health and safety practices were 9,661 in Ghana in 2005 (Piavi et al., 2009). The rate of fatal injuries in the country also rose from 20.6 per every 100,000 workers in 1998 to 23.6 per every 100,000 workers in 2003, resulting in Ghana's position in 2003 as the country with the fourth highest rate of absenteeism in Africa (Piavi et al., 2009).\nResearch questions: The study sought to answer the following questions:\nLiterature review: Overview of leadership\nMethod: Approach and procedure\nDiscussion: The study investigated the extent to which idealised influence under transformational leadership and MBE-A under transactional leadership predict safety behaviours of employees in Ghana's power transmission sector. The first two findings of this study showed that idealised influence positively predicted safety compliance and safety participation, respectively. This means that when supervisors show charisma, exhibit exemplary behaviours, and their subordinates trust and identify themselves with the supervisors, it influences the employees to comply with the safety rules, standards and procedures of the organisation as well as go the extra mile to engage in voluntary safety behaviours. These findings are consistent with that of Hoffmeister et al. (2014) who similarly found that idealised influence predicted safety behaviours positively. This may indicate that perhaps the dimension of idealised influence is the underlying reason for the extant research (Clarke, 2013; Fernandez-Muniz et al., 2014; Jiang and Probst, 2016; Kapp, 2012; Lu and Yang, 2010; Mullen et al., 2016; Smith et al., 2016) that found that transformational leadership style had positive influences on safety behaviours. Hoffmeister et al. (2014) asserted that transformational leadership, due to its dimensions, is able to inspire and motivate subordinates to even go beyond safety requirements and exhibit safety citizenship behaviours, further indicating that idealised influence gives meaning to the other dimensions under transformational leadership, and that the other dimensions such as intellectual stimulation, individualised consideration and inspirational motivation may not be effective if idealised influence is separated. Again, contrastingly, Clarke (2013) posited that transformational leadership is more strongly related to safety participation than safety compliance because it enhances psychological empowerment and allows employees to identify with the organisation.\nPractical implications: Often times, research on safety leadership has focused on the overall influence of the full range leadership model on safety at the workplace with less attention on the individual dimensions under transformational and transactional and how they influence employee safety behaviours. Considering the ascertained influence that leadership profoundly has on an organisation's safety performance, this study reaffirms the importance of idealised influence and the corrective form of leadership in promoting employee safety behaviours. Thus, to ensure that employees comply with safety regulations and procedures and even exhibit extra-role, voluntary behaviours, leaders (supervisors) should endeavour to exhibit charisma and exemplary behaviours that engender trust and association from their subordinates. The findings also imply that active monitoring form of leadership that focuses on prevention and correction of mistakes can engender voluntary safety behaviours from employees but not compliance with minimum safety regulations. However, the literature indicates that voluntary safety behaviours have a greater tendency to reduce accidents and injuries, and may lead to compliance with rules. Hence, combining such charismatic and exemplary behaviours with corrective and active monitoring could go a long way to promote safety behaviours of employees thus promoting the overall safety performance of employees.\nTheoretical implications: This study adds to the discourse on safety leadership, highlighting the importance of idealised influence to the transformational leadership construct and the MBE-A to the transactional leadership construct in promoting employee safety behaviours. It delves into the full range leadership model to investigate the influence of some dimensions on safety within the Ghanaian context. The study lends credence to the importance that researchers attach to idealised influence and active transactional leadership to the safety leadership literature. The study thus extends the theory of transformational and transactional leadership styles and its particular relationship with safety behaviours of workers, especially with regard to the role of charismatic/idealised influence in the leadership-safety interplay. Of greater interest is the potential of MBE-A to influence safety participation rather than safety compliance, contrary to expectations. This challenges the idea that controlling and corrective forms of leadership tend to offer little in influencing employees' safety behaviours.\nConclusion: Employees are considered the single most important asset for organisations in gaining and sustaining their competitive advantage (Armstrong, 2010). With this being said, it is incumbent on organisations to ensure that the safety of employees is paramount and at its optimum. The literature on safety of employees also deems leadership to be the strongest predictor. Therefore, organisations must ensure that leaders are adequately enlightened on how they could engender employee safety behaviours. This study shows the influence of practical leadership behaviours on employees' compliance with minimum safety regulations, and more importantly their engagement in voluntary safety behaviours in the Ghanaian context.\nLimitations and directions for future studies: This study is limited with regard to the generalizability of its findings to other industries as it focused on one part of the energy sector in Ghana. Also, the quantitative method that was used could not reveal actual reasons that underlie the findings. Future studies could delve deeper into this by employing the qualitative method to triangulate and validate the findings of this study and help unearth further reasons for these findings. This study could also be replicated in other sectors to allow for comparisons and more conclusive arguments.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate idealised influence under transformational leadership and active management-by-exception (MBE-A) under transactional leadership as the predictors of employee safety behaviours among engineers and technicians in the Ghanaian power transmission subsector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study employed a cross-sectional survey design and a quantitative approach to gather data from 278 respondents through the use of a structured questionnaire. Covariance-based structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data and test the hypotheses with 264 usable responses.\nFindings: The analysis revealed that idealised influence had positive significant effects on both safety compliance and safety participation of employees. Surprisingly, MBE-A had a positive influence on safety participation but not on safety compliance.\nPractical implications: The findings of this study present useful practical implications for leaders and policy makers in organisations in engendering good safety behaviours of employees and improving overall organisational safety performance.\nOriginality/value: The variables used in the study together with the study's Ghanaian bureaucratic context present interesting and fresh insights into the interplay between leadership and employee safety, thereby contributing to the discourse on the safety leadership construct.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Optimization of inventory policies of food grain distribution stage in public distribution system
|
[
"Simulation",
"Genetic algorithm",
"Inventory policy",
"Public distribution system"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the recent past, the focus of the society worldwide has been on providing adequate food of a good quality to the population. The prevalence of food inadequacy poses immense problems in most of the underdeveloped and developing nations. These problems relate to production, availability, wastage, and increasing food prices and can be attributed to complex multi-echelon food supply chains. These chains consist of four tiers, namely, producers, processors/distributors, retailers and customers. They are characterized by a large variety of products that are produced at different time periods, variation in demand pattern in terms of geography, uncertainty in the supply, and a time lag between production and consumption. There is also a variation in the mode of transportation used, inventory positions, and supply lead time (Lowe and Perckel, 2004; Kumar and Nigmatullin, 2011; Vlajic et al., 2013). This variability in a food supply chain impacts all its stakeholders. The primary producers of food (farmers) suffer due to price variations, buyers (population at large) suffer as a result of unavailability and high prices and governments face problems associated with modifications in their food policies. Governments thus intervene in the food market as a reaction to these uncertainties and for enhancing the well-being of people. The intervention takes place at different stages/levels of the food supply chain and depends on the food policy of the governments. This includes policy of direct intervention through buying, storing, and distributing the food and policy of indirect intervention through subsidies. The major intervention is in the form of buying and maintaining national food stocks; buying, storing and distributing food (including targeted distribution, mid-day school meal and cooked food distribution through people's restaurants); and providing cash subsidies including conditional cash transfers (Ambekar et al., 2015; Demeke et al., 2009).\n2. Related literature: The PDS is implemented in India with the Noble objectives of providing food grains at an affordable price, providing minimum prices to farmers and maintaining buffer stocks for an emergency (Ambekar et al., 2015, annual report Department of Food and Public Distribution, 2015-2016; http://dfpd.nic.in/1sGbO2W68mUlunCgKmpnLF5WHm/AR-2015-16-ENG.pdf). Under the PDS, beneficiaries are classified into three categories based on their household income-Below The Poverty Line, Antodya Anna Yojana and Above the Poverty Line-and are issued different cards that enable them to buy food grains at subsidized rates. Their entitlement and the prices they pay are based on the type of card the family holds (Nagpal and Kumar, 2012; http://dfpd.nic.in/?q=node/101). Altogether, the PDS distributes food grains to around 2,320 lakh households across India (based on the information from the web page: http://dfpd.nic.in/statement-reg-implementation-tpds.htm).\n3. Description of the model for PDS distribution: Our model for the PDS distribution stage is based on the actual mapping of the PDS distribution stage as given in the literature of PDS supply chains. This is a multistage supply chain and consists of storage depots, issue centers, FPSs and card holders (Ambekar et al., 2015). Figure 1 represents the supply chain network used in this study. The material movement flows from storage depots to card holders. The supply chain is governed by periodic review-base stock policy. All the members of this supply chain have their own holding, ordering and shortage cost. The FPS faces a demand that follows Poisson distribution. The demand is dynamic in nature and changes for each time period. In the remainder of this section, we briefly describe actors involved in this supply chain. For a detailed description of these actors and their interaction, the readers can refer to Ambekar et al. (2015).\n4. Results and discussion: The performance of the distribution system (total distribution cost) was studied for a given set of backorder cost and holding cost. The base stock levels and review periods were optimized by using the proposed method. The simulation results are presented in Table III. Table III provides details of the results with a given scenario at each of the distribution node. It also summarizes the details of the TSCC with these scenarios.\n5. Conclusions: This paper presents a method to optimize the inventory policies of the PDS distribution stage. It uses simulation via GA for optimizing the base stock levels and review periods in this serial supply chain with the objective of reducing TSCC. It presents the impact of different combinations of the holding and backorder cost on the overall distribution cost. Although food security has globally grown in importance in recent years, analytical research in this area is still limited. Our study contributes in this domain through a readily useable quantitative model for improving the inventory performance of the food grain supply chain. The present study will be useful to policy-makers in improving the performance of the PDS. It will act as a guide for various decision-makers involved in the operations of the PDS in designing and improving their operations. The modeling of the PDS will help agencies involved in the PDS supply chain to improve their performance, so that the actors in the supply chain can develop their strategies for improving the food security situation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to model the distribution stage of the public distribution system (PDS) and optimize the inventory policy during this stage of the PDS to address some of the inefficiencies present in the system. This study models this supply chain as a multistage supply chain consisting of storage depots, issue centers, fair price shops and card holders.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A two-stage modeling approach is used to model the distribution stage in the PDS. In the first stage, the authors developed a simulation model for periodic review-based stock policy with appropriate assumptions. This helped minimize the total supply chain cost (TSCC). The TSCC consists of three cost elements, namely, ordering cost, holding cost and shortage cost. These three cost elements, in turn, depend on inventory policy parameters, such as review periods and base stock levels, at various echelons. In the second stage, a Genetic Algorithm based optimization approach was used.\nFindings: A set of optimal policy parameters was identified. It is observed that base stock levels at issue centers are higher as compared to those in the FPS and the TSCC is less in scenario, when backorder cost is equal to the holding cost.\nPractical implications: Present study will be useful to policy makers in improving PDS performance. This optimization of inventory policies helps actors in the PDS supply chain to choose appropriate policy parameters in the present inventory policy so as to reduce the overall distribution cost.\nOriginality/value: Unlike the previous researchers who examined the PDS from the social security perspective and tried to address specific problems to improve functioning of the PDS, this study looked at the problem as a supply chain-related problem and optimized the inventory parameters in one of the subsets of the PDS supply chain.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Operational efficiency evaluation of restaurant firms
|
[
"Hospitality management",
"Business performance",
"Restaurant industry",
"Financial variables",
"Operational efficiency"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, a large body of literature has focused on measuring firm efficiency as it provides an indication of how well resources are being managed by the organizations in question (Sanjeev, 2007). There is an equally important need to evaluate the performance of tourism activities to provide tourism policymakers with accurate performance indicators to develop their strategic decision-making (Barros et al., 2011; Parte and Alberca, 2015). Measuring restaurant performance and understanding the influence of determinant factors on operational efficiency can help managers to define their business strategy.\n2. Theoretical background and hypotheses: The most commonly used methodologies in efficiency studies are frontier approaches such as data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier analysis. The tourism industry is no exception and most previous studies in this area use the DEA approach to evaluate efficiency in hotel firms (Barros et al., 2011; Bernini and Guizzardi, 2015; Haugland et al., 2007; Huang, 2017; Huang et al., 2012; Luo et al., 2014; Parte and Alberca, 2015; Pulina et al., 2010), restaurants (Assaf et al., 2011; Fang et al., 2013; Joo et al., 2009; Reynolds and Biel, 2007; Reynolds and Thompson, 2007; Sanjeev, 2007) and trade shows (Alberca et al., 2015). Table I summarizes efficiency studies that focus on the assessment of restaurant firms.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Metafrontier approach\n4. Data, variables and descriptive statistics: 4.1 Data\n5. Results: 5.1 Metafrontier data envelopment analysis and specific frontiers by size: results\n6. Conclusions, discussion, implications and future research: 6.1 Conclusions and discussion\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the operational efficiency of restaurants in a dynamic context, over the period 2011-2014. The paper also analyzes efficiency with respect to several frontiers and production technologies dependent on restaurant size. Finally, it provides a new perspective by examining financial and non-financial variables that can directly affect the efficiency of restaurant firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study applies metafrontier data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology to investigate differences in production technologies, dynamic Tobit regression models and bootstrap procedure.\nFindings: The results reveal that operational efficiency in the restaurant industry is affected by firm size, showing that large restaurants perform better than medium-sized and small restaurants Moreover, the evidence suggests a link between the efficiency index and financial variables, such as credit ratings, probability of default or bankruptcy, leverage and cash flow, as well as a link with non-financial variables, such as type of auditor.\nPractical implications: The strength of restaurant firms has practical implications for managers and entrepreneurs, linked to the investment possibilities and growth potential of companies in that industry.\nOriginality/value: This study provides exploratory insights into operational efficiency as well as restaurant efficiency determinants. Performance and operational efficiency are key factors to restaurant firms' survival in the economies that have been most severely affected by the financial crisis. Furthermore, this study confirms the relevance of financial and non-financial variables, which are associated with firm efficiency in this industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
How diverse is your pipeline? Developing the talent pipeline for women and black and ethnic minority employees
|
[
"Women",
"Diversity",
"Inclusion",
"Leadership",
"BAME",
"Pipeline"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An update by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) of the UK Corporate Governance Code (the Code) in September 2014, states under \"Other Issues\":\nUnconscious bias training: Providing unconscious bias training for those involved in the recruitment, selection, development and promotion processes helps raise awareness of subconscious preconceptions so that bias does not affect their decision making.\nMentoring: Advice and support from someone who has already walked the walk, enables aspiring employees to learn how they too can manoeuvre the climb up the corporate ladder.\nSponsorship: Sponsorship involves an influential senior person using their influence with senior executives and becoming an advocate for an aspiring high-performing employee (Ibarra et al., 2010). Sponsorship goes beyond mentoring in that the sponsor is able to open doors and is more likely to be aware of opportunities for the employee, opportunities that the employee may not have otherwise had privy to.\nCoaching: Fear, lack of confidence, imposter syndrome are often why women and BAMEs do not proactively take action to push themselves forward to secure senior roles. A lack of role models that look like them in those senior roles can also be discouraging. They may have the required skills and knowledge but without the confidence and the courage to pursue senior positions, they will constantly get overlooked.\nLeadership training: A different skill set is required for senior management roles than that of first line manager and from that of senior manager to that of an executive role. Although someone stepping in to a first line management role may have very good technical skills, it does not mean that they will have developed the required leadership skills for more senior roles, likewise with a senior manager who aspires to an executive role.\nCreating opportunities: Providing experiential opportunities for aspiring women and BAME leaders gives them an insight and awareness of what the roles entail. Ways that this can be achieved include providing job shadowing opportunities, delegating projects they can lead on, networking and secondments.\nEmployee networks: Developing employee networks promotes inclusivity, embraces diversity and provides support for minority groups and for groups of employees who face similar challenges.\nFlexible working patterns: Women are still very much the main carers both for children and for elderly parents. Offering flexible working patterns means that they can manage their caring responsibilities and their work.\nHelping individuals to help themselves: Whilst organisations should provide developmental opportunities if they are to retain their high-performing employees, individuals also need to take responsibility for their own professional development and should be encouraged to do so.\nAn example of good practice: The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group is an example of an organisation that is proactively developing the talent pipeline for its women and BAME employees.\nFocused Women's Network: The Focused Women's Network was launched by RBS in March 2007 to support RBS in actively attracting, retaining and developing talented female members of staff. The network supports the development and career advancement of all RBS employees by giving them further opportunities to network internally and externally, to get involved in activities that will enable them to excel and challenge themselves, and to gain access to additional personal development. The mission of the network is to:\nThe Multi-Cultural Network: A more recent addition to the RBS employee led networks is the Multi Cultural Network. Formed in 2013, the Multi Cultural Network's aim is to support the variety of cultures within RBS (as well as in their communities). By proactively supporting the recruitment, development and retention of skilled employees from all backgrounds, RBS supports the diversity amongst their employees through facilitated events and initiatives. The network harnesses the diversity evident amongst RBS employees; working together, celebrating differences.\nConclusion: It is more cost effective to develop talent from within an organisation than to bring external recruits in Bidwell (2011). They understand the culture of the organisation and the company values. Having a clear career path and being supported with their development helps with employee motivation and engagement.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Research shows that companies with a diverse leadership perform better financially. Having a diverse board encourages constructive and challenging dialogue which is key to the effective functioning of any board. However, in the UK, women and black and minority ethnic (BAME) employees still lag behind when it comes to representation at senior management and board level. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of having a diverse talent pipeline of women and BAMEs and offer practical solutions on how this can be achieved.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A mixture of data, analysis, experience and practice forms the basis of the paper, drawing from research on diversity, leadership development, executive boards and developing the talent pipeline. It looks at current initiatives being used in organisations to develop aspiring leaders.\nFindings: Executive boards are ill representative of the diversity of the working population. Having diversity in the boardroom allows for rich dialogue and better business decisions. In order to address the issue, organisations need to develop a talent pipeline that includes women and BAMEs. There are practical solutions that can be applied to achieve this. Not only does this make good business sense from an economical perspective, it also helps to maintain empowered, motivated and engaged employees.\nOriginality/value: This paper outlines initiatives that organisations can apply to develop the talent pipeline for women and BAME employees and in doing so, retain high performing, aspiring leaders, whilst supporting action to increase diversity and inclusion in the boardroom.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The metaefficiency of trade shows: a benchmarking analysis by sector
|
[
"Benchmarking",
"Efficiency",
"Business strategy",
"Business factors",
"Metafrontier DEA",
"Trade shows"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Trade shows are temporary events that take place at different recurring intervals, where new products and services are presented. The number of trade shows is steadily increasing worldwide (UFI, 2018). In Spain, the trade show sector has experienced fluctuations as a result of the economic crisis, but as of 2013, the number of trade shows stopped falling and the sector managed to stabilize. It is worth noting that despite the reduction in the net surface area occupied and the fall in the number of direct exhibitors and total visitors, the number of international direct exhibitors has increased. This reflects the focus of trade shows on achieving a greater degree of internationalization, and so from 2014 to 2015, the number of international trade shows held in Spain grew in a number of regions: Aragon, Catalonia, the Basque Country and Madrid.\n2. Theoretical background of trade shows: Both past and present trade show literature has focused on the factors behind company decisions to exhibit at commercial trade shows (De Freitas and Mendoca, 2013; Rodriguez et al., 2014); assessing the quality of service provided within trade show activities (Gottlieb et al., 2011; Jin et al., 2012a; Jung, 2005); strategies aimed at attracting visitors to trade shows (Chu and Chiu, 2013; Jin et al., 2012b); visitor behavior at-show (Tafesse and Korneliussen, 2013) and post-show (Kim et al., 2013); trade show effectiveness and performance (Cobanoglu and Turaeva, 2014; Gottlieb et al., 2014; Shi and Smith, 2015) and trade show efficiency (Alberca et al., 2015; Prado et al., 2012).\n3. Contextual setting: Spanish trade shows: To focus on changes over time, the Spanish trade show sector has been hit by the economic crisis in recent years, particularly since 2011. Figure 1 shows that between 2001 and 2010, the sector underwent gradual growth, but that in 2011, there was a sharp fall: from one year to the next, the number of trade shows held in Spain fell by 206 from 567 in 2010 to 361 in 2011.\n4. Metafrontier DEA model and business factors: The scientific literature in the field of efficiency and performance evaluation has produced a wide variety of theoretical and empirical models which have been applied to several countries as well as service industries as tourism and hospitality, banks or franchises, among others (Assaf et al., 2012; Barros, 2005; Huang et al., 2012; Perrigot et al., 2009; Reynolds and Taylor, 2011).\n5. Sample and descriptive statistic: 5.1 Sample\n6. Results: 6.1 Efficiency analysis\n7. Conclusions, managerial implications and limitations: Trade shows are one of the main tools used by exhibiting firms to achieve several objectives related to promoting their brand and the quality of their products and services. In the case of the Spanish economy, the growing importance of trade shows and the lack of analysis related to trade show efficiency justifies a detailed evaluation of the sector.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the efficiency of trade shows and provide insights for trade show exhibitors using data envelopment analysis (DEA). The paper also offers a benchmarking analysis of the business factors for the most efficient trade shows in each sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper uses the metafrontier DEA methodology and identifies several frontiers according to the sector in which the trade show operates since different sectors could not share homogeneous production technology for exhibitor firms.\nFindings: The main findings reveal different profiles of individual sectors. The investment sector presents a more homogenous profile than either the consumer goods or the services sector. The consumer goods sector is more heterogeneous but it is also possible to find common characteristics for the most efficient trade shows. The service sector is characterized by a high variability and as such it is more difficult to identify benchmarking elements for the most efficient trade shows.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main limitation of the study is that the sample only includes audited trade shows. Future studies could extend the period under study in order to obtain a more complete picture on the evolution of trade show efficiency.\nOriginality/value: This paper extends the DEA results by profiling the most efficient trade shows in each sector so that this information can be used as a benchmarking tool to define exhibitors' strategic decision making.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of service encounter quality in service evaluation: evidence from a business-to-business context
|
[
"Service levels",
"Customer service quality",
"Customer satisfaction",
"Customer loyalty",
"Business‐to‐business marketing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There is a growing knowledge base studying how service customers conceptualize, perceive, and evaluate services. Researchers and practitioners are now better informed on how service quality is evaluated (Brady and Cronin, 2001; Parasuraman et al., 1988), how customers derive value from a service offering (Fornell et al., 1996; Ostrom and Iacobucci, 1995), what drives customer satisfaction (Choi et al., 2005; Fournier and Mick, 1999), and which factors influence loyalty to a service provider (Gupta and Zeithaml, 2006). As a result of this body of research, the importance of customers' perceptions of service encounters is increasingly recognized (Namasivayam and Hinkin, 2003). Bitner et al. (1994) noted that from the customer's point of view, the most immediate evidence of service quality occurs in the service encounter. They called this customer interaction with the firm \"moment of truth\". The importance of service encounters, defined by Surprenant and Solomon (1987) as a dyadic interaction between the customer and service provider is increasingly recognised in service industries. Indeed, service encounters can become an integral part of the image that the customer has of the firm and, in turn, will play an influential role in determining the success of the firm (Bitner, 1990; Bitner et al., 1990). Specifically, Hartline et al. (2003, p. 43) argue that customers \"base their evaluations on their perceptions of the service encounter\".Although marketing academics and practitioners have long been interested in the nature of business-to-business relationships (Dwyer et al., 1987), a review of service encounter literature reveals that it is dominated by work examining retail consumers (Kong and Mayo, 1993; Westbrook and Peterson, 1998). As Jayawardhena et al. (2007) observe, service encounter quality in a business-to-business context tends to be both overlooked at the managerial level (Bitran and Lojo, 1993) and under-researched (Brown et al., 1994; Chumpitaz and Paparoidamis, 2004; Hartline and Jones, 1996). In light of this evidence, it is conceivable that an investigation of the role of service encounter quality play in a business-to-business setting would represent a significant avenue of further research. The business-to-business context has a number of characteristics that make it sufficiently different to business-to-consumer context. Specifically, business-to-business service encounters are often more frequent (Hardy, 1978); are usually signified by a small number of customers, each contributing significant value to the overall business (McNamara, 1972); characterized by closer and deeper interfaces than consumer relationships (Mehta and Durvasula, 1998).With this in mind, the objective of this study is to develop and empirically test a model of service evaluation within business-to-business exchanges, positioning service encounter quality in an antecedent role in the service evaluation process. As such, this study seeks to evaluate the relationships between the following variables: perceived service encounter quality, service quality, perceived value, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty to both the service provider firm and service provider employee.The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. The following section will provide background information on the constructs under examination in this study. In this section we will present our conceptual model and detail our hypotheses formulation. The research methodology will then be detailed in the subsequent section. Section three presents the analysis and results of the research. In the fourth section, we discuss the study outcomes and their implications for academics and practitioners. Finally, we present the limitations of the study, and offer directions for future research.\nConceptual framework: In order to build the conceptual model, a figure identifying the key constructs included in the study is provided in Figure 1. We argue that service encounter quality is an antecedent of service quality and satisfaction, which in turn influence loyalty to the employee and loyalty to the firm. Our choice of constructs are driven by a literature review. Specifically, we examined literature on how service quality is evaluated (Brady and Cronin, 2001; Parasuraman et al., 1988), how customers derive value from a service offering (Fornell et al., 1996; Ostrom and Iacobucci, 1995; Zeithaml, 1988), what drives customer satisfaction (Anderson and Sullivan, 1993; Choi et al., 2005; Fournier and Mick, 1999), and which factors influence loyalty to a service provider (Gupta and Zeithaml, 2006). Additionally, our conceptualisation is shaped by researchers that have examined groups of factors that contribute to consumers' overall service evaluations (Cronin et al., 2000; Brady et al., 2005; Kamakura et al., 2002). Based on this review, we also argue that service quality is a direct antecedent of value, which in turn is an antecedent of satisfaction. Detailed conceptual foundations for the model are offered next.Loyalty\nMethodology: Design, procedure, and sample characteristics\nDiscussion: We live in an increasingly service-oriented global economy (Vargo and Lusch, 2004). In this service-intensive climate it is vital to understand how consumers evaluate services that they purchase. And yet, published academic research tends to concentrate on retail consumers (Westbrook and Peterson, 1998), and relatively little has been done on the business-to-business context (Gounaris, 2005b). Our research objective was to contribute this line of inquiry by examining service evaluation in a business-to-business service context.We develop a conceptual service evaluation model and empirically test the same. Although our study context was professional cleaning services, we believe that our study findings are adaptable and applicable across other business-to-business service contexts. The theoretical framework that we developed adds support to a number of established models. For instance, Jayawardhena et al. (2007) had demonstrated that the impact of service encounter quality on service quality and customer satisfaction has an influence on loyalty to both the organisation and loyalty to the employee. Our work strengthens these findings and adds the value dimension to the service evaluation framework.Our study examines an often overlooked construct: service encounter quality. We demonstrate that service encounter quality is a sound predicator of both service quality and customer satisfaction. We also demonstrate that perceived value is positively related to service quality. Another noteworthy finding is that not only does service quality have a positive influence on loyalty to the firm, it has an indirect influence through perceived value. Furthermore, the measurement of service encounter quality brings about a series of benefits. First, the measurement of service encounter quality on a regular basis can be used to periodically track customer perceptions of service encounter quality of a firm relative to that of its competitors. This may be useful in assessing overall company performance compared with that of the competition. This could be achieved by participating in syndicated surveys, where a number of service providers are evaluated by their customers, and each survey provider is able to find out how they compare in comparison to the competition. Second, as suggested by Jayawardhena et al. (2007), evaluation of service encounter quality enables an organisation to track the level of service provided by individual employees of the service provider firm. It may be argued that this enables the operationalisation and subsequent monitoring of changes in service delivery. The suggestion here is not to discard existing customer survey instruments, but rather to enhance existing survey instruments with service encounter quality measures. This type of insight can be invaluable in monitoring the service performance of individuals and terms for evaluation, recognition, and rewards. Last but not least, the measurement of service encounter quality empowers the management to identify dissatisfied customers, so that service recovery can be attempted.Another theoretical contribution of this research is that we offer insights into the specifics of business-to-business service dynamics and their influence on loyalty. We evaluated the role of service quality, satisfaction, value on loyalty to both employees of the firm and the firm itself. Consistent with studies in other service contexts, perceived value exhibit a direct association with loyalty to the firm. In keeping with earlier studies in service contexts (e.g. Anderson and Mittal, 2000; Dabholkar et al. 2000; Oliver, 1997) and we observe a quality-satisfaction-loyalty chain in our study. Overall, our results also provide empirical support to a number of existing studies that have emphasised the importance of examining, concurrently, a range of service variables, including; perceived value, satisfaction, and service quality (e.g. Brady et al., 2005). In this regard, our study contributes to a holistic view of service dynamics that incorporates the main service factors into a tested framework of service in a business-to-business setting. In doing so, our study draws on extant studies (for, e.g. Jayawardhena et al. (2007) culminating in the validation of the model in a business-to-business context. The results support and build on existing research into loyalty and further extend the generalizeability of such research into the context of business-to-business services. Thus, the results corroborate existing frameworks of service that typically present some variation of a service quality value/satisfaction-loyalty chain or model (e.g. Cronin et al., 2000; Dabholkar et al., 2000).\nLimitations and suggestions for future research: As with any research project, our study could have been improved. It is characterised by limitations that restrict the extent to which the results and implications of the research can be reliably generalized. First, we measure all constructs in our conceptual model with one survey conducted at the same time. While attempts were made to mitigate the common method variance problem through our survey design (we ensured that all constructs were separated and the order of construct measures were mixed) and we found no evidence of it in the analysis and its impact can only be conclusively ruled out only if we were able to collect data through different sources. Second, although we have demonstrated that conceptually the service encounter quality and service quality are distinct constructs, the adopted operationalisation of the service encounter quality show that there are similarities with service quality measures. A solution to this could be to adopt a different scale to measure the service quality construct, for instance original Parasuraman et al. (1988) 22 item scale measure as opposed to the shortened ten item measure that we used for this research study. Third, there might be other variables and moderators that might influence service dynamics and its implications on customer loyalty. This is because, although our framework of service evaluation features a number of constructs, the developed model focuses on the incorporation of constructs that have been theoretically directly associated with, thereby limiting that breadth of their focus.The implications and limitations of our study however offer a number of potentially interesting future research projects. First, as noted above, although our model does contain a number of constructs, it would be useful to incorporate other factors (such as trust for example) may also exert an influence on loyalty. Future studies could include wider range of constructs thus broadening the scope of the model and assisting in conceptually and empirically distinguishing associations between constructs. Second, further research investigating the nature of service encounter quality and loyalty in business-to-business services marketing is desirable. This is particularly so, since an argument could be made that our research was based within a service context where services are relatively easy to evaluate, and therefore the role of service encounters in evaluation may be less important. In this context we wish to reiterate a call for more research on business-to-business service dynamics (Jayawardhena et al., 2007), particularly in contexts where the service involves more credence quality such as professional services. Third, related to above, in order to better capture the quality of interactions, and their consequences it may be desirable to carry out a study of service encounter quality and its consequences across a range of service contexts simultaneously. For instance such a study could take the procedure adopted by Brady et al. (2005) where they administered the instrument across service sectors in different countries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to examine the impact of service encounter quality within a service evaluation model. The conceptual model seeks to incorporate the following constructs: service encounter quality, service quality, customer satisfaction, perceived value, loyalty to the firm and loyalty to the employees.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A conceptual model was developed based on a comprehensive literature review. A questionnaire was developed with item measures that captures the constructs in the conceptual model. A survey of business customers was undertaken, and a response rate of 18.6 per cent was obtained. The data are analysed via confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.\nFindings: - Service encounter quality is directly related to customer satisfaction and service quality perceptions, and indirectly to perceived value and loyalty. The paper offers insights into the specifics of business-to-business service dynamics by examining the role of service quality, satisfaction, value on loyalty to both employees of the firm and the firm itself. It demonstrates how firms may be able to contribute to the achievement of organisational objectives through careful and creative management of the service encounter.\nOriginality/value: - Research examining the role that service encounter quality plays within service evaluation models is scarce. Moreover, most service evaluation models are operationalised within a retail customer context. The paper addresses both these shortcomings, by examining a comprehensive service evaluation model which incorporates service encounter quality within a business-to-business context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Causes and consequences of voluntary assurance of CSR reports: International evidence involving Dow Jones Sustainability Index Inclusion and Firm Valuation
|
[
"Valuation",
"CSR report assurance",
"CSR reports",
"DJSI",
"Type of CSR assurer"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: For those firms that were early leaders in the sustainability arena, this creates a kind of red queen effect where leading firms need to keep finding ways to differentiate themselves. Beyond self-disclosure in the form of company websites, sustainability reports and press releases-which are often discounted as self-promotion-how can a firm credibly signal sustainability leadership? Prior studies in the area of reputation have signaled the importance of intermediaries and experts. One such mechanism in the area of sustainability is to seek inclusion on a recognized sustainability index. In particular, firms can target inclusion on one of the best in class indices that serve to identify sustainability leaders within their industries.Robinson et al. (2011, p. 493)\n1. Introduction: Increasingly, firms are seeking independent assurance of their CSR or sustainability reports to enhance their communications with relevant stakeholder groups (KPMG, 2015). Firms will not voluntarily adopt costly corporate social responsibility (CSR) leadership strategies unless they can enjoy the benefits by successfully signaling their CSR strategy (i.e. high vs low CSR commitment within the firm's sector). As the above quotation implies, the dilemma relates to the question of how firms can credibly signal sustainability leadership.\n2. Institutional background: According to KPMG (2015), the percentage of N100 companies (the largest 100 companies from 45 nations) using independent assurance for their CSR reports has more than doubled, from 30 percent in 2005 to 63 percent by 2015. Nonetheless, the actual assurance engagement is quite complex. One reason for the complexity is the lack of a uniform CSR reporting framework and the corresponding assurance standards. Although GRI reporting guidelines are widely followed as the de facto standard for sustainability reporting, they allow considerable flexibility with respect to compliance.\n3. Literature review and research questions: The signaling role of voluntary CSR disclosure suggests that high CSR commitment firms signal their commitment through better voluntary CSR disclosures that cannot be mimicked easily by low commitment peers in the firm's sector (Clarkson et al., 2008). Legitimacy theory predicts that low CSR commitment firms may also use CSR reports to \"green-wash\" with selective and less verifiable CSR disclosure to change stakeholder perceptions and to enhance legitimacy. This creates a natural demand for credibility enhancement mechanisms by high commitment firms in order to achieve a separating equilibrium.\n4. Research design: 4.1 CSR performance and CSR report quality\n5. Sample data: To construct our sample, we start from the comprehensive set of international CSR reporting data provided by Corporate Register that hosts the world's largest online depository of CSR reports, for the period of 2009-2015. We then match these data with the environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics from Thomson Reuters ASSET4 database that specializes in providing objective and auditable ESG data with a comprehensive global coverage for the same period. From the ASSET4 database, we are also able to identify the level of publicly available CSR information based on the level of comprehensiveness of CSR information provided by firms to the public. Data on DJSI membership are collected from RobecoSAM DJSI's official website (www.sustainability-indices.com). All remaining data are obtained from S&P Capital IQ (CIQ) database, with the exception of the number of analysts following which is obtained from I/B/E/S. Based on this process, our final sample then consists of 17,050 firm-year observations drawn from 40 countries.\n6. Empirical results: 6.1 CSR report and assurance decision model results\n7. Conclusions: The central focus of this study is the impact of voluntary CSR report issuance, assurance of said CSR report, assurance scope and type of assurer on the likelihood of inclusion in the DJSI and on firm valuation. Our findings indicate that voluntary CSR reporting, external assurance and greater assurance scope each positively affect the likelihood of DJSI inclusion whereas we find only limited evidence that the type of assurer (i.e. Big 4 accounting firm vs sustainability specialist) matters. Alternatively, turning to the capital market perspective as reflected in firm valuation, we find that the capital markets do not place a significant value simply on the provision of CSR report issuance and assurance but more on the decision of choosing a Big 4 auditor as opposed to a sustainability specialist consultant for a firm's CSR reporting assurance. Importantly, our \"consequences\" results are robust to a series of potential challenges, including the threat of endogeneity, the use of a PSM sample designed to confront concerns that the decision to seek CSR assurance may be nonrandom, and to issues surrounding sample composition and study time period. In conjunction, we also find that the results are robust to the inclusion of measures that reflect the extent to which the CSR report adheres to the GRI guidelines and the level of assurance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the authors investigate a firm's decision to provide a CSR report, and if so, whether to have the report assured and to seek higher quality assurance as reflected through the choices of the scope of the assurance and type of assurer, Big 4 accounting firm vs specialist consultant. Second, the authors investigate the impact of voluntary assurance of CSR reports, assurance scope and type of assurer on the likelihood of inclusion in the DJSI and on market valuation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study's sample consists of 17,050 firm-year observations from 40 countries with CSR reports available from Corporate Register and ESG metrics available from ASSET4 over the period 2009-2015. The study first empirically examines the associations between CSR commitment and each of CSR report provision, CSR report assurance, assurance scope and type of assurer. It then examines that association between both inclusion in the DJSI and market valuation with each of CSR report assurance, assurance scope and type of assurer, using inclusion in the DJSI as an objective measure of a firm's reputation for sustainability given its recognition as a leading indicator for corporate sustainability and market valuation as a reflection of the broader set of capital market participants.\nFindings: The authors establish two key findings consistent with the predictions of signaling theory. First, we show that high CSR commitment firms are more likely to: provide standalone CSR reports; obtain assurance; obtain assurance from a Big 4 accounting firm; and, adopt higher assurance scope. Second, the authors find that both CSR report assurance and assurance scope increase the likelihood of inclusion in the DJSI, but that the type of assurance provider does not. Alternatively, the authors find that capital market participants appear to value the provision of a CSR report only when it is assured by a Big 4 accounting firm.\nOriginality/value: The results in the existing literature exploring the capital market benefits to CSR Assurance have been mixed. Firms that voluntarily obtain CSR Assurance incur a cost in doing so and must perceive a net benefit from obtaining such assurance. Despite the limited guidance currently provided by existing CSR standards, we establish the existence of benefits to obtaining CSR Assurance in terms of enhanced likelihood of DJSI inclusion and, more generally, enhanced market valuation. The discussions with DJSI analysts indicate that CSR assurance does enhance the perceived reliability of CSR data, thus improving user confidence.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Exploring dimensions of firm competencies and their impact on performance: Some exploratory empirical results
|
[
"Competitiveness",
"Firm performance",
"Competitive advantage",
"Manufacturing sector",
"Exploratory factor analysis",
"Functional competencies",
"Multiple linear regression analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There are always conversations taking place between Indian manufacturers about how Toyota or Nokia or Dell achieve superior performance (Samson, 2010). In order to answer this question, the first step Indian manufacturers need to take is to benchmark against these world class manufacturer(s) in terms of inventory turn, operating with negative cash conversion cycles, or huge profit margins, as it is understood from the literature that benchmarking is an important tool for continuous improvement (Dattakumar and Jagadeesh, 2003). Benchmarking can be defined as a strategic tool which helps to identify the sources of a firm's competitive advantage (Camp, 1989). Strategies are formulated to determine the ways in which organisations can move from their current competitive position to a stronger one (Feurer and Chaharbaghi, 1994; Grant, 1991).\n2. Literature review: In this study, we have adopted a systematic literature review approach (Tranfield et al., 2003). The review has been divided into four phases as follows:\n3. Research framework, hypothesis development and research design: 3.1 Research framework\n4. Data analysis and findings: This section presents the analysis of the data collected for the study and the findings related to it. Data exploration is carried out as a step prior to analysis. After coding the data, all necessary assumptions of parametric test are checked and then multivariate data analysis is conducted. It is analysed using the statistical software package SPSS 20.0. Here, both descriptive and inferential statistics have been used.\n5. Conclusion, limitations, managerial implications and further scope of research: The conclusions drawn from factor and regression analyses are: the EFA reduces 31 items into seven factors which are parsimonious and orthogonal. The factor analysis output is further used for constructing a regression model for regression analysis. The multiple regression analysis output suggests that the regression model constructed using the factors explains nearly 45.7 per cent of the total variance of firm performance. Out of six factors, one factor (F2) is not statistically significant; this may be due to response error. Out of remaining five factors, four factors positively support firm performance and one factor (F5) is negatively associated with firm performance. Based on researcher insight, the possible reasons could be the lack of awareness and focus towards procurement practice. Indian manufacturing firms need to appreciate the importance of supplier relationship management which is the missing link in the Indian manufacturing sector. This sometimes leads to poor demand forecasting, resulting in overstocking or shortages of materials due to poor sourcing or the lack of a complete awareness regarding e-procurement. These variables were not considered important by most of the respondents in the survey.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the dimensions of Indian manufacturing firms' competencies and to study the impact of these competencies on firm performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors have adopted a literature survey to identify variables and gaps in the research. Based on the construct and its item identified through the literature review the authors have developed a structured questionnaire which was pre-tested before being used for the final survey. The authors have collected data from 100 firms out of 275 targeted firms in two phases which represents a 36.36 per cent response rate. The data have been subjected to exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using varimax rotation, which reduced the data into seven parsimonious and orthogonal factors. The authors then carried out regression analysis using EFA output to test the relationship between six independent variables, representing competencies of the firm and performance.\nFindings: Findings show that EFA has reduced the data into seven factors, out of which six represent firm competencies and one represents firm performance. The competencies which have been identified are supply-demand coordination and product pricing, logistics, marketing, procurement, manufacturing simplicity and product quality and preventive maintenance. The EFA output was further tested using multiple linear regression analysis which shows that out of six competencies, four are positively supporting, except procurement which is negatively supporting and logistics which is found to be statistically insignificant.\nResearch limitations/implications: The conclusive model suggests that there is considerable impact from other deterministic variables which are not assumed in the present study, and some of the variance has been accounted for by stochastic variables and response error. However, utmost care has been taken to minimise response error by personal follow-up with each of these firms. The outcome of the quantitative analysis provides an insight into firm competencies and their impact on firm performance. It is very important for the managers who are interested in deriving superior performance from their firm and focusing on supply-demand coordination and product pricing, manufacturing simplicity, marketing and product quality and preventive maintenance practices.\nOriginality/value: This original study has been carried out by researchers in India on Indian manufacturing firms and adopted an EFA technique to identify dimensions which are unique in their contribution.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
How do involvement and product knowledge affect the relationship between intangibility and perceived risk for brands and product categories?
|
[
"Risk assessment",
"Knowledge management",
"Brands"
] |
[
{
"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: With the development of new communication technologies, the tangibility of products (i.e. goods and services) is becoming more important. Many products can be acquired through the web, from laptops to sofas, or from food to movie tickets. This has motivated several authors to review the concept of intangibility and reconsider its dimensions. According to Kotler and Bloom (1984) intangibility describes \"what cannot be seen, tested, felt, heard or smelled.\" In other words, an intangible product is one that cannot be perceived by the five senses. However, this definition does not take into account all the dimensions of this construct. For instance, some authors characterize an intangible object as something that is unable to be grasped mentally, highlighting the mental dimension of intangibility (Bateson, 1979; McDougall and Snetsinger, 1990; Hirschman, 1980). A third dimension was introduced by Breivik et al. (1998) and also studied by Featherman and Wells (2004) and Eggert (2006), and it describes if the product is perceived as general or specific. A general product is one whose definition, features or outcomes cannot be referred to precisely. For instance, a \"safe car\" is constituted of features and attributes that cannot be easily defined, but in the other hand, an \"air-bag\" has a clearly expected outcome. These three dimensions were developed as a new scale by Laroche et al. (2001) who established the discriminant and convergent validities of the dimensions and defined them as: physical intangibility (if it is accessible to the senses); mental intangibility (if it can be mentally grasped) and generality (if it is specific or not).This paper tests a broader model based on previous findings. As in Laroche et al. (2003), we also test the relationship between intangibility, evaluation difficulty and perceived risk. However, two moderators are considered: involvement and prior knowledge. Until now, past studies use either the brand perspective (e.g., Levi's Jeans) or the product category perspective (e.g., jeans). No study has compared the appropriateness of this model for both perspectives; therefore this is another contribution of this study. Thus, our two major objectives are to test the role of involvement and knowledge and to verify if the model is equally applicable to brands and product categories.This paper is organized as follows. First, the model is presented along with its conceptual framework. Next, it is tested using two analyses and six different products. Hypotheses are developed prior to each test followed by the findings, interpretation and discussion. Finally the managerial implications, research limitations and future research agenda are presented.\nConceptual framework: Intangibility and evaluation difficulty\nAnalysis 1: General model: brand versus product category perspectives\nAnalysis 2: Moderating effects of product knowledge and involvement\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Intangibility has long been studied in marketing, especially its physical aspect. This paper seeks to verify whether a branding strategy is efficient in reducing the risk perceived by customers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A sample of university students answered the measurements considering both perspectives (brands and product categories). The paper uses a three-dimensional approach of intangibility and explores its relationships with evaluation difficulty (ED) and perceived risk (PR). These relationships were tested in two different perspectives: brands and product categories.\nFindings: - Two analyses were made to test the hypotheses which were generally supported. Several relationships between the variables were found, but three should be highlighted. First, it was shown that brands are more mentally intangible than product categories, which may lead to a difficulty to evaluate. Second, it was found that evaluation difficulty increases the perceived risk in the product category perspective. Third, it was found that higher involvement generates a stronger relationship between evaluation difficulty and perceived risk for the product category perspective.\nPractical implications: - Theoretical and managerial implications to the literature are discussed along with examples of how managers could use the findings.\nOriginality/value: - The research incorporates prior knowledge and involvement as moderating variables of the proposed framework and reinforces their relevance to the field. The results not only show the importance of branding, but also support the argument of considering evaluation difficulty in future research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Supply chain management: a comparison of Scandinavian and American perspectives
|
[
"Supply chain management",
"Cross‐cultural studies",
"Scandinavia",
"United States of America"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: According to the world trade organization, world exports and imports exceeded US$24 trillion in 2006, nearly double the 2001 number (www.wto.org). As supply chains go global, it becomes more important to understand how SCM is defined and implemented around the world. There are four strategic perspectives on the definition of SCM vis-a-vis logistics (Larson and Halldorsson, 2004), and a variety of barriers and facilitators to SCM implementation. This paper advances understanding of international differences in SCM perspectives and practices; by reporting results of a Scandinavian survey on SCM implementation, including comparisons of these results to those of an identical American survey.There are four more sections to follow, as described below. The next section is a review of selected SCM literature, focusing on the definition and implementation of SCM. The following two sections describe the research methods and present statistical results, respectively. The final section of the paper discusses implications for SCM practitioners and researchers.\nLiterature review: Lingering confusion about the meaning of supply chain management (SCM) is observed by American academics (Mentzer et al., 2001); Scandinavian scholars, such as Skjott-Larsen (1999); and scholars in the UK (Giannakis and Croom, 2004). There is also a lack of consensus on the conceptual relationship between logistics and SCM. Cooper et al. (1997, p. 1) note: \"practitioners and educators have variously addressed the concept of SCM as an extension of logistics, the same as logistics, or as an all-encompassing approach to business integration.\" They even suggest that SCM \"can be the management of all business processes\" (p. 5). Such a discrepancy is not new in the logistics discipline. Nearly, 40 years ago, Bowersox (1969) observed a lack of standardized definition of physical distribution, an emerging field at that time.According to Metz (1998), SCM \"is the logical progression of developments in logistics management.\" SCM has evolved through four stages of increasing functional breadth. The first stage, physical distribution, involved integrating the transportation and warehousing functions. Logistics, the second stage, added the following functions to SCM: procurement, manufacturing and order management. The third stage, integrated SCM, positions both suppliers and customers in the supply chain. The fourth and final stage, \"super\" SCM, includes additional functions, e.g. marketing, product development and customer service. Metz (1998) suggests that SCM has evolved from a narrow subset of logistics to a broad, multiple function phenomenon.The Council of Logistics Management (CLM) was compelled by the SCM concept to rename itself the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP). The council has adopted a rather broad view of SCM, which:... encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement, conversion, and all logistics management activities. It also includes coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third-party service providers, and customers (Council of Logistics Management, 2004).The present study considers four conceptual perspectives on SCM vs logistics: traditionalist, re-labeling, unionist, and intersectionist. This section briefly describes each perspective, referring to the logistics literature.The four perspectives are adopted from Larson and Halldorsson (2004), and their search for ways to differentiate and integrate logistics and SCM, starting in 1999. The four perspectives are based on study of the literature; informal discussions with logistics professionals; and a survey of logistics educators, which confirmed the existence of the four perspectives. If logistics and SCM are considered fields within business, then the four perspectives cover all possible ways the two fields might be inter-related: logistics equals SCM (re-labeling), logistics subsumes SCM (traditionalist), logistics is subsumed by SCM (unionist), or logistics and SCM overlap partially (intersectionist). A fifth option, that there is no connection between logistics and SCM, seems indefensible.Traditionalist\nQuestionnaire design; survey administration: Design of the questionnaire was guided by the literature, as well as discussions with supply chain professionals. SCM enablers and impediments developed by Mentzer et al. (2000) were adapted and expanded upon to create questionnaire items on facilitators of and barriers to SCM. These represent four key task areas of supply chain professionals. First, organizational issues refer both to structure (e.g. functional silos, restructuring, and integration) and people (common understanding and training). Second, relationships with external stakeholders were also considered, including customers, suppliers, logistics providers (3PLs and fourth-party logistics (4PLs)), and consultants. By this, we recognize that external relationships play a role in the strategy formation of the particular company (Hakansson and Ford, 2002). Third, information technology denotes hardware, software, and systems (electronic data interchange (EDI), enterprise resource planning (ERP), internet). Finally, though often considered an end rather than a means, performance management was considered, both in terms of costs and systems (e.g. SCOR model).Larson and Halldorsson (2004) inspired measures for the four perspectives on SCM versus logistics. The questionnaire described each of the perspectives using words and diagrams (Figure 1), and then asked: \"Which perspective on logistics vs SCM has your organization adopted?\" The SCM performance measures included both logistics measures, such as inventory levels and customer service, along with broader measures, such as sales and product quality (Tan et al., 2002).American survey\nStatistical results: As shown in Table II, the four perspectives appear similar in terms of popularity among the American and Scandinavian supply chain professionals. In both groups, unionist is the most popular perspective, followed by the intersectionist and traditionalist perspectives. Further, in neither group do more than 10 percent of respondents adopt a re-labeling point of view. The popularity of unionism is of little surprise, given the theoretical tilt toward this perspective among professional groups, such as CSCMP; and SCM scholars, like Lambert et al. (1998) and Mentzer et al. (2001).Table III compares SCM implementation status of the two geographic groups. At 27.7 percent, Americans are nearly twice as likely to report SCM as \"fully implemented\" at their organizations, compared to Scandinavians. On the other hand, only 4.8 percent of the Scandinavian firms report having \"no plans\" to implement SCM, compared to 12.9 percent of the American firms.American firms report having re-titled an average of 55.8 employees as part of SCM implementation, compared to only 13.4 employees at Scandinavian firms. It is interesting to note the ratio of average American to Scandinavian employees re-titled (55.8/13.4 = 4.2) is similar to the ratio of average American to Scandinavian total employees (25,092/5,307 = 4.7). While the American firms have more employees to re-title, the percent of employees re-titled is similar across the two groups.Table IV compares average ratings of various sources of SCM knowledge across the two geographic groups. Both Americans and Scandinavians rate CLM/CSCMP the most important source of knowledge on SCM and 4PLs providers the least important source. While the Scandinavians rate academic journals and books significantly more important than the Americans, the Americans rate trade magazines significantly more important than their Scandinavian counterparts. This may reflect the presence of a variety of good SCM trade magazines in North America.Both regions place relatively high emphasis on research-driven sources of new knowledge that allow for professional development of personnel (colleges/universities and conferences/seminars); compared to acquiring new knowledge through external organizations (e.g. consultants and logistics providers). Management development is hence an important means of internalizing new knowledge. Executive education is rated rather low by Scandinavians and Americans. These ratings may reflect that most MBA programs offer generalist degrees; few business schools have specialized streams for SCM MBAs, or Master of Science (MSc) degrees focused on SCM.In Table V, the groups are compared across four characteristics regarding the nature of SCM implementation at their organizations. Both groups report that SCM implementation is slower, more difficult and broader than expected. Though the Americans also rate implementation more expensive than expected, Scandinavians rate it slightly less expensive than expected.Facilitators\nConclusions: The survey confirmed that senior supply chain executives, in Scandinavia and the USA, have multiple perspectives on SCM vis-a-vis logistics. However, they strongly prefer broad, multiple function perspectives (unionist and intersectionist) to narrow, single function, logistics-based perspectives (traditionalist and re-labeling). The survey also identified a number of facilitators of and barriers to SCM, which have implications for supply chain managers and researchers. This section, and the paper, ends with a discussion of limitations of the study, along with future research opportunities.Implications for supply chain managers\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to advance understanding of international differences in supply chain management (SCM) perspectives and practices, by comparing perceptions of Scandinavian and American supply chain managers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The survey focused on the definition of SCM, along with facilitators of and barriers to SCM implementation. A four-page questionnaire was designed and sent by mail. After follow-ups, 23 Scandinavians and 104 Americans returned completed questionnaires.\nFindings: - While many similarities were found between Scandinavians and Americans, several differences were also identified. Both groups have adopted broad, multiple function perspectives on SCM; and both groups perceive SCM implementation to be slower and more difficult than expected. Two differences are the Americans' greater concern about incompatible systems and implementation costs as barriers to SCM, compared to the Scandinavians.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study is based on relatively small samples, of limited functional (logistics) and geographic (Scandinavia and America) scope. Future research should expand the functional focus into purchasing, operations, and marketing; and the geographic coverage to other parts of the world.\nPractical implications: - Internal resistance is more of a barrier than external (customer or supplier) resistance to SCM. Thus, organizations should focus first on internal (functional) integration, and then move onto inter-organizational integration. However, employees working with customers and suppliers should use these external relationships to inspire closer internal relationships. Further, people are more critical than technology in implementing SCM. Organizations should get the right people in place first, and then think about technology.\nOriginality/value: - There is little empirical research on SCM implementation. Practitioners and researchers should find value in this unique comparative study.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Does a socially well integrated university have anything to do with faculty retention? A study on Kerman University of Medical Sciences-2011
|
[
"Social capital",
"Retention",
"Faculty members",
"Path analysis model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The success of today's organizations not only depends on financial, physical and human capital but also on social capital (Safarzadeh et al., 2011), which can complement other capitals (Pennings and Lee, 1998).\nMaterials and method: The study was conducted using a cross-sectional approach. The study population consisted of all faculty members of Kerman University of Medical Sciences working in different faculties including Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Public health, Pharmacy, Paramedical and Management and Medical Information. Sample size was estimated to be 120 samples (with a=0.05 and b=0.8) (Machin et al., 2011). Since the response rate was not very high we distributed 150 questionnaires among the faculties. To provide a more representative sample of the population, stratified multistage sampling was applied. At the first stage, each school of Kerman Medical University was considered as one strata, then at the second-stage, according to the number of faculty members of each school, the overall sample size for each specific school was determined. In third stage, according to the number of faculty members in each group of specific school, the samples of each group were specified. Faculty members in each group were chosen relying on random sampling.\nResults: Among 120 recruited subjects (response rate=80 percent), 67.5 percent were male. Most of the faculty members were in 31-40 (28.3 percent) and 41-50 (48.3 percent) age group, had PhD degree (85.8 percent) and were assistant professors (62.5 percent). Most of them (87.5 percent) were married and clinicians (55.8 percent). Among them, 60.8 percent declared that it is possible to find job out of the university.\nDiscussion: The results of this study indicate a direct and positive bilateral relationship between social capital and retention of faculty members. It means that with higher social capital in faculty members, their tendency to remain in the university will increase: in other words, they would not like to leave the university. On the other hand, most of faculties who have the high amount of retention in the university mostly have more social relationships compared to their peers.\nConclusion: This study set out to examine the relationship between organizational social capital and retention of medical faculty members in Kerman University of Medical Sciences. It generated two main insights. First, university authorities can count on social capital, i.e. the bindings and relations of their faculties as a source to increase their valuable faculties retention. Second, because of the reciprocal relation of these two variables as confirmed in this study, universities will benefit from investing on human resources retention in from of cohesive and well-integrated faculty members.\nAcknowledgement: The authors appreciate the Research and Technology Deputy of Kerman University of Medical Sciences for their financial support. The authors would also like to thank all faculty members of Kerman University of Medical Sciences who participated in our study. The authors are also grateful for individual efforts of Ms Elham Haghighatfard and Mr Hossein Shirkhani who had a sincere cooperation in data collection. This paper is the result of the thesis to earn a Master's Degree approved at the Kerman University of Medical Sciences in Islamic Republic of Iran.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to measure the relationship between organizational social capital and retention of faculty members in Kerman University of Medical Sciences in 2011.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a stratified multistage sampling, 120 faculty members were recruited to fill the questionnaire.\nFindings: There were a direct and positive bilateral (r=0.65) relationship between social capital and retention of faculty members.\nOriginality/value: The university officials and policy makers need to pay closer attention to some issues such as providing welfare facilities, salary and wages, benefits, interests and appreciation for faculty members.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Restorative servicescapes: restoring directed attention in third places
|
[
"Attention deficiency disorder",
"Fatigue",
"Video games",
"Young adults"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: All too often the modern human must exert effort to do the important while resisting distraction from the interesting. Thus, the problem of fatigue of direction attention may well be of comparatively recent vintage (Kaplan, 1995, p. 170).\nIntroduction: Marketing researchers tend to deem places as mere geographic locales where consumers engage in utilitarian exchanges (Sherry, 2000). As a result, research on retail environments usually centers on how manipulations of physical elements (e.g. temperature, fragrance, music) in consumption settings, or servicescapes (Bitner, 1992; Sherry, 1998), influence consumer approach and avoidance behaviors (Michon et al., 2005; Oakes and North, 2008; Turley and Milliman, 2000). Although this research is insightful, it contains shortfalls. Namely, many researchers may fail to consider that some commercial places (Rosenbaum et al., 2007) may be integral to their customers' health and personal well-being.Perhaps, it is difficult to fathom that consumers can actually intertwine commercial places into their personal lives. After all, most consumers fail to deem most firms in which they enter as objects worthy of significant awareness. Yet certain places, specifically, third places, or service establishments that \"host the regular, voluntary, informal and happily anticipated gathering of individuals beyond the realms of home and work\" (Oldenburg, 1999, p. 16), often assume a profound role in their customers' daily lives and personal experiences (Bounds, 2005).For example, older-aged and elderly consumers often obtain emotional support and companionship from other customers and employees in restaurants (Cheang, 2002; Rosenbaum, 2006). In addition, teenagers and young adults patronize third places, such as video arcades and diners, because these places provide a comfortable and safe place to gather with friends (Brown, 2006; Lieberg, 1995; Oldenburg, 1999). This research is notable, but one may question whether third places are simply a nice place to meet friends or whether consumers truly obtain something unique and valuable through third-place patronage.Insights into the beneficial role of third-place patronage in consumers' lives may be partially explainable by attention restoration theory (ART) (Berto, 2005; Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989; Ouellette et al., 2005). This theory suggests that a person's ability to direct attention in thought and perception to environmental stimuli (e.g. to a lecture) is a biological mechanism that becomes fatigued with use. Directed attention fatigue (DAF) transpires when this mechanism becomes impaired; as a result, a person experiences lower mental competence, difficulties with focusing and planning, and, in general, ailments that are symptomatic of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (Kuo and Taylor, 2004). Recent estimates suggest that 9 percent of American children have ADHD (Froehlich et al., 2007), which may be linked in some to DAF.People may recover from DAF by spending time in restorative environments that facilitate recovery. To date, researchers have explored how natural stimuli, such as parks and beaches (Han, 2003; van den Berg et al., 2007), help people undergo restorative experiences and lessen ADHD symptoms (Taylor et al., 2001). Can servicescapes mimic natural stimuli? If so, can third places that offer patrons diverse physical (Bitner, 1992), social (Baker et al., 1992; Rosenbaum and Montoya, 2007; Tombs and McColl-Kennedy, 2003) and symbolic (Rosenbaum, 2005) stimuli promote restorative qualities? Perhaps, third places can help younger-aged consumers lessen their symptoms associated with DAF, including ADHD.The objective of this paper is to integrate ART into marketing by illustrating the restorative potential of third-place servicescapes on younger-aged consumers. Thus, this paper makes a twofold contribution to the marketing literature. First, the paper reveals that younger consumers may experience personal restoration in third places, enabling them to direct attention to taxing stimuli in the future, such as to a lecture or an examination. More important, this paper also reveals that college students who patronize third places have lower incidents of ADHD symptoms than those who do not do so. Second, the paper suggests that Bitner's (1992) servicescapes framework represents a health construct in which \"great good (third) places\" (Oldenburg, 1999) can positively influence their patrons' lives in a way that should be of interest to medical and public health researchers alike (Frumkin, 2003). Beyond approach or avoidance behaviors and a willingness to buy, a consumption setting's built environment may also promote a healing mechanism that is essential to human health and personal well-being.Overall, these contributions heed Berry and Bendapudi's (2007) request to link service research with consumer health issues. Subsidized third places may improve \"urban health\" (Frumkin, 2005) by providing urban youth, who often lack easy access to parks and green spaces, with an enjoyable means to lessen their DAF symptoms, which may include a proclivity toward street violence. Furthermore, improved environmental health on college campuses may help students reduce burnout and perhaps campus violence.The remainder of this paper is as follows: first, a literature review is offered to extend ART into marketing and to support a proposed framework. Second, the fit of the model is analyzed from data collected from patrons of a video arcade. Third, the relationship between third places and ADHD symptoms among college students is explored and discussed. The paper concludes with a discussion of theoretical and managerial implications, research directives, and limitations.\nLiterature review: ART theory\nStudy 1. The video arcade as a restorative setting: Consider for a moment walking into a video arcade. The servicescape seduces your senses with a cacophony of sights, sounds, and fragrances that put you into a childlike state of seventh heaven. You walk around, almost in a trance, fascinated by the machines and contraptions. Each devise offers you the opportunity to engage repeatedly in unique, nearly lifelike challenges in a place in which you are comfortable being among others who share your interests. Indeed, you could easily find a partner for a game. Undoubtedly, video arcades represent archetypal third places for teens. However, do video arcade patrons undergo personal restoration in these settings?Furthermore, from a managerial perspective, is personal restoration a driver of financial returns? Insights into this question may derive from Korpela and Hartig (1996), who found a positive relationship between a person's desire to spend time in a favorite place (e.g. a home, a park, even a commercial establishment) and its perceived restorative quality. Hartig et al. (2001) found that people who undergo restorative experiences in a specific natural environment are more likely than others to protect the locales by behaving ecologically, such as by recycling or treating the area with respect. By extending these findings into the marketplace, consumers who undergo restorative experiences in specific third places should also demonstrate a commitment to patronize the establishment and to care for its longevity, perhaps by expressing personal loyalty or by engaging in positive word of mouth.Structural model\nStudy 2. Linking restorative servicescapes to ADHD: As discussed previously, many of the pathogenic effects of DAF, including inattentiveness and impulsivity, are symptomatic of ADHD. Kuo and Taylor (2004) found that exposure to natural stimuli in settings such as outdoor play after school and weekend activities helps reduce ADHD symptoms in children. Study 1 revealed that, similar to natural stimuli, third-place servicescapes may possess restorative properties. Thus, it is likely that third-place settings could also help reduce ADHD symptoms in younger-aged consumers who undergo restorative experiences in these neighborhood establishments. This contention supports the following hypothesis:H1. Third-place patrons who undergo restorative experiences in these establishments have lower ADHD symptomatic tendencies than consumers who do not have restorative experiences in third places.Research method\nDiscussion: A place for third places in public health\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to introduce restorative servicescapes. The work demonstrates that younger-aged consumers may remedy symptoms associated with directed attention fatigue, including adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), by patronizing third places, such as video arcades and coffee shops.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper evaluates a servicescape's restorative potential by drawing on established measures. Attention restoration theory (ART) has been explored in natural and environmental psychology, rather than marketing. The first study uses survey methodology to explore whether teenagers who patronize a video arcade sense its restorative potential. The second study uses survey methodology to explore the relationship between patronizing a restorative third place and being at risk for ADHD.\nFindings: - Study 1 reveals that video arcade patrons sense the arcade's restorative potential. Therefore, commercial servicescapes may possess restorative qualities. Study 2 reveals that college-aged students, who patronize a restorative servicescape, are significantly less likely than other students to be at risk for experiencing ADHD.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Although the data reveal a relationship between restorative servicescapes and ADHD risk, a diagnosis is not obtained. Furthermore, because survey methodology is employed, the causal influence of restorative servicescapes cannot be evaluated on their customers' health. However, commercial servicescapes can mimic the restorative properties found in nature. Thus, the health potential of public places on health may be profound.\nPractical implications: - Educational institutions, governmental agencies, and parents should consider publicly supporting third places for teenagers because doing so can remedy symptoms associated with mental fatigue.\nOriginality/value: - The paper brings ART into the marketing discipline.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Institutional commitment to sustainability: An evaluation of natural resource extension programs in universities in Alabama and Oregon
|
[
"Education",
"Natural resources",
"Agriculture",
"Sustainable development",
"United States of America"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Sustainable development, characterized by the union of economic growth, environmental protection, and social equity, is at the forefront of national and international policy and research agendas. Sustainable development can be defined as \"development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs\" (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, p. 8). In 1996, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) made a commitment to integrate the goals and concepts of sustainability throughout its agencies, policies, and programs. One such program is Cooperative Extension, which is an educational partnership between the 105 land grant colleges and universities in the USA and USDA. Cooperative Extension is a unique system of public outreach that exists in over 9,000 US counties, has close links to local communities, a science-base at land-grant universities, and a tradition that spans more than 80 years. The land-grant university three part mission of teaching, research, and extension serves as the foundation for Cooperative Extension programs. Educational institutions such as these are essential to implementing sustainability (Deason, 1996).Some controversy surrounds sustainability, mainly related to arguments about whose values should take precedence in defining it. Thus, using the term \"sustainability\" conveys ideological, political, moral, and scientific views and can involve controversial topics such as limits to growth, social inequality, and economic diversification. Achieving and utilizing sustainability requires an examination of the political, economic, and social underpinnings of society. For example, it has been argued that forms of economic, social, and political subordination will continue to exclude marginalized groups (on the basis of \"skin color, religion, culture, ethnicity, or any alternative conception of otherness\") from the sustainability debate. These conflicting definitions and interpretations have led to some controversy over the notion of sustainability (Filho, 2000; Prugh et al., 2000). Regardless of the differing definitions, the US public is increasingly concerned with sustainability as it relates to the natural resources and the environment (Schneider and Smallidge, 2000) and sustainability is an important concept for institutions of higher education (Filho, 2000; Wright, 2002; Deason, 1996).While sustainability is a term that has been gradually incorporated into many program areas in extension, the longest tradition of sustainability is in the Natural Resource Extension program area (Guy and Rogers, 1999). This is intuitive, as sustainability's roots are in renewable resources such as forests and fisheries (Lele, 1991). Researchers have examined attitudes and perspectives toward sustainability in Cooperative Extension. Agricultural scientists at land-grant universities perceive agricultural sustainability as most closely tied to environmental quality and less tied to economic and social aspects of sustainability (Lyson, 1998). Similarly, extension professionals in North Carolina possessed favorable attitudes toward sustainable agriculture in general but the social aspects of sustainability (equity, participation, etc.) were not endorsed as strongly as were the economic and ecological aspects of sustainability (Minarovic and Mueller, 2000). In addition, Lyson (1998) found discipline-related diversity in attitudes toward sustainability. In fact, 84 percent of academics in forestry reported that environment was an important goal above all other dimensions of sustainability, while the social dimension of sustainability was the most important goal above all others for social scientists and economists. Thus, sustainability calls for inter-disciplinary, collaborative work in order to achieve a balance of all aspects of sustainability (Lyson, 1998; Filho, 2000).With regard to the focus of land grant universities and Cooperative Extension, Meyer (1997) suggested a wider definition of agriculture, moving beyond agricultural production to encompass environmental management of all lands (Meyer, 1997). As Brown (1999, p. 13) once declared, \"it is time to shift the basic mission of the Land Grant Colleges of Agriculture from agricultural production to that of land stewardship in all of its aspects\". While budgets for extension have been disproportionately committed to the agriculture community and to the benefit of farmers and ranchers (Mc Dowell, 1991), land-grant university personnel believe that environmental issues will be the driving force for land grant Colleges of Agriculture and that environmental interests should also be included as clientele of extension (Meyer, 1995).Researchers have examined attitudes and perspectives toward sustainability in Extension (Francis et al., 1988; Korsching and Malia, 1991; Minarovic and Mueller, 2000; Lyson, 1998), however, no study has examined sustainability from the aspect of Natural Resources Extension educators and programs. Natural Resource Extension programs play a significant role in educating private landowners, the public, and professionals about various aspects of forestry and natural resources. Two state extension systems, the Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES) and the Oregon State University Extension Service (OSUES), served as cases in this research. The two states were selected because they provided different political, environmental, and organizational contexts as Oregon and Alabama (Figure 1) vary in the size, scope, and organization of their respective extension programs. Oregon has the largest Extension Forestry program in the nation and this was part of the rationale for selecting this case. Alabama's Forestry Extension program is more typical of other states: only a handful of campus-based extension specialists and no county extension foresters (Table I). The Oregon State University Extension Service employs approximately 313 people and the Alabama Cooperative Extension System about 337. Alabama has approximately 250 county extension staff and 80 campus-based extension specialists, while Oregon has about 190 county extension staff and 120 campus-based specialists. Secondly, the states also have different natural resource contexts. For example, while Alabama's forests are mostly privately owned, Oregon's forests are predominantly publicly owned (Table II). Forests occupy 45 percent of Oregon's total land area contrasting with the 68 percent in Alabama. The forest products payroll in Oregon stands slightly higher at $1.72 billion compared to Alabama's $1.54 billion. Forests are a tremendous natural resource in both states and a critical component of each state's ecological, social, and economic landscape.\nMethodology: For the purposes of this study, the following methods were used: document analysis and semi-structured interviews. Semi-structured interviews were utilized because this approach allowed for some flexibility for discussion during the interviews while ensuring that a standard set of questions was asked of every interviewee. A document analysis of Natural Resource Extension planning and reporting documents was conducted to provide contextual and historical data for the study. Overall, 29 Natural Resource Extension personnel in the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and 29 Natural Resource Extension personnel in the Oregon State University Extension Service were interviewed (Table III) (Figure 1). The interviews were tape recorded and subsequently transcribed and coded.In this study, sustainability in Natural Resource Extension programs was assessed in terms of three components: inputs, activities, and participation. Inputs, activities, and participation are necessary conditions that must be met before any primary changes can occur in program participants. For example, personnel must be in place and program dollars allocated in order to develop a particular curriculum or educational program in which clientele could then participate. Inputs are the resources - staff, and dollars - that go into educational programming. Activities include the educational programs that are conducted through Natural Resource Extension. Participation describes the interaction between Natural Resource Extension staff and their clientele in programs and program planning. The program inputs, activities, and participation model is one that is commonly used in Cooperative Extension and educational evaluation research (Bennett, 1975, 1979; Summers, 1977; Christenson and Warner, 1982; Warner and Christenson, 1984; Mayeske, 1994; Bennett and Rockwell, 1995; Swanson et al., 1997).Grounded theory procedures were used to analyze the interview transcriptions. Grounded theory was an ideal social research approach to examining sustainability in two Natural Resource Extension programs because it is best-suited for examining explanations about phenomena about which little information is known. Grounded theory uses a methodical set of procedures to inductively derive explanations about a social phenomenon. The analytical procedure involved open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. Open coding was the initial step used to analyze the data. Researchers began by reading the transcripts and describing concepts, properties, and dimensions. The next step was axial coding. This is where connections were made between categories and contextual conditions were examined. In the final analytical procedure, selective coding, the axial coding statements were integrated into core thematic categories. The outcomes of the selective coding resulted in a set of core categories, which are presented in the results.\nResults: Results are presented from the two data sources utilized in this study (document analysis and in-depth interviews) using the program inputs, activities, and participation methodological framework previously outlined. Results are organized thematically by the program inputs and related factors of:* staffing and expertise;* budgets and funding levels;* program activities;* program participation; and* political context.Because this research was qualitative in part, textual data such as quotes and themes from interviews will be presented in addition to the quantitative data from the document analysis. All names used in this paper are pseudonyms, but the state locations and position descriptions reflect those of actual interviewees.Staffing and expertise\nRecommendations: Based on this study of Natural Resource Extension programs in Alabama and Oregon, the following are necessary for Extension to address natural resource sustainability through its educational programs:* Intellectual commitment. Recognition that sustainability encompasses environmental, economic, and social aspects that must all be addressed in natural resources extension education; this involves approaching education from a systems viewpoint and integrating the three components of sustainability.* Financial commitment. Commitment to natural resources education in extension should be reflected in budgets and staffing; this may involve a redirection of extension resources away from production agriculture and toward natural resources and sustainable agriculture programming and staffing.* Collaboration. Addressing sustainability requires working across program areas, across disciplines, and within programs.* Inclusive and diverse participation. Engagement of non-traditional clientele in extension programs and program; this includes broadening the diversity of viewpoints and backgrounds of personnel in Extension.\nConclusions: Extension is well poised to foster sustainability through its educational programs. Natural Resource Extension programs at our nation's land grant universities inform and influence the knowledge and decisions of thousands of citizens across the USA. Extension educators working in over 9,000 counties in the USA can utilize their grassroots network to meet the educational needs of citizens related to sustainability. Extension educators also have much to contribute to the dialogue around sustainability and in doing so can help the public better understand issues surrounding resource sustainability. Sustainability education has the potential to play a great role in moving society towards embracing sustainability, however, there are certain practices that will help promote sustainable development within the Extension organization. The recommendations stated above should be taken into account if Extension is going to aid in educating citizens on why sustainability is important and how to go about achieving it.Philosophical support for sustainability is but one of a constellation of factors needed to demonstrate commitment to sustainability in Extension education. Budgets, staffing, and leadership must accompany that philosophical vision. In addition, Extension must engage non-traditional clientele in Extension programs, program planning, and staffing in order to achieve equitable program participation. Improved diversity in program participation, in turn, will broaden the discourse around sustainability and better address the educational needs of non-traditional clientele. Lastly, the influence of state politics in Extension education should not be underestimated.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research is to determine institutional commitment to sustainability by examining Natural Resource Extension program inputs, activities, and participation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A document analysis of Natural Resource Extension planning and reporting documents was conducted to provide contextual and historical data for the study and 58 in-depth interviews were conducted with Natural Resource Extension personnel in the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and the Oregon State University Extension Service.\nFindings: - This research moves beyond the familiar teaching and research functions of higher education institutions and focuses on Cooperative Extension, which is the outreach arm of universities. The paper discusses challenges and opportunities associated with implementing sustainability through these outreach education programs. In both Alabama and Oregon, the Agriculture, Home Economics, and 4-H programs dominate human and economic resource investment in Cooperative Extension. Natural Resource Extension programs in Alabama and Oregon represents 6 and 14 percent, respectively, of all program expenditures in Cooperative Extension. Both states have educational programs that address sustainability of natural resources and those programs were interdisciplinary in nature. Little evidence is found extensive participation in Natural Resource Extension programs by environmental groups, minorities, and other non-traditional clientele. Lastly, Oregon's political context was more conducive to broadening Natural Resource Extension program work in sustainability.\nPractical implications: - Educational institutions such as Natural Resource Extension programs at universities play a significant role in educating private landowners, the public, and professionals about various aspects of forestry and natural resources. Based on this study of Natural Resource Extension programs in Alabama and Oregon, the following are needed for extension to address natural resource sustainability through its educational programs: sufficient intellectual and financial commitment to sustainability, diverse and inclusive participation in programs, and collaborative interdisciplinary programming. The analysis presented here can aid other educators as they explore sustainability through educational programming.\nOriginality/value: - Since, Natural Resource Extension programs address societal concerns through problem solving, grassroots education, and research and technology dissemination, they are poised to do work in the sustainability arena. No study to date has examined sustainability from the aspect of Natural Resource Extension educators in Oregon and Alabama. An understanding of current investment in sustainability through education is fundamental to building a strong Extension program in this area.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
First do no more harm ...
|
[
"Drug diversion",
"Health profession licensing and credentialing",
"Hepatitis C outbreak",
"Patient safety"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Too many of us are familiar with cases in which healthcare workers who have lost their privilege to practice for cause simply move to another jurisdiction and start another cycle of harm. A recent public health vulnerability review released by Maryland government agencies contains strong warnings for those engaged in clinical governance at all levels (Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 2013). Maryland's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene investigated how one healthcare worker whose history over at least five years should have triggered restrictions at several points nevertheless managed to continue working in several states and facilities until his ultimate arrest on federal charges. In this particular case, one radiography technician was placed in successive temporary assignments at hospitals in several states by multiple staffing agencies; he obtained and renewed his license to practice several times despite prior substance abuse events, unfavorable reviews by supervisors and even termination for cause; he apparently engaged in hospital activities involving controlled narcotic medications beyond his legitimate scope of practice; and complaints about him by supervisory hospital staff either were not being shared or were frankly ignored by interstate staffing agencies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this article is to alert those in positions of trust and authority that there is an urgent need for improvement throughout the entire health profession credentialing process to fix defects at every stage, from employer responsibilities all the way up to licensing board responsibilities and government oversight.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper takes the form of a narrative review.\nFindings: The assumption that layers of safeguards prevent dangerously incompetent or impaired practitioners from continuing to practice in American hospitals is, unfortunately, just that - an assumption. While the vast majority of healthcare professionals uphold the standards of their professions, a recent public health vulnerabilities report reveals serious defects throughout those safeguard layers and widespread harm that results from actions of relatively few determined miscreants who manage to evade them. This not only undermines public trust, but underscores ways in which governing boards, hospital executives and directors have found themselves liable for failings of their institution's quality assurance provisions. That vulnerability report is the result of investigation into one healthcare worker whose narcotic thefts and drug tampering resulted in thousands of patients exposed, dozens infected with hepatitis C, across several states and multiple missed opportunities to constrain.\nOriginality/value: Findings of the Maryland state investigation, coupled with other documents, show that long-recognized ethical and legal responsibilities are not being met effectively.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Consumer-brand relationships' development in the mobile internet market: evidence from an extended relationship commitment paradigm
|
[
"Brand loyalty",
"Brand commitment paradigm",
"Consumer brand management",
"Mobile internet services",
"Service brand evaluation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The rapid progress in mobile technologies, the growing affordability of smart devices and the increasing use of mobile application stores are acknowledged as the major drivers of mobile internet growth (Chuah et al., 2014). Mobile internet services are defined as the wireless access to internet content via mobile devices (e.g. smartphones and tablets) that enable people to access information, products and services available on the internet without temporal or spatial restrictions.\nLiterature review, conceptual background and research hypotheses: Service brands and brand loyalty\nResearch methodology: A cross-sectional survey approach was adopted. This section provides a description of the research instrument design, sampling procedure, data collection and data analysis methods.\nEmpirical findings: Data analysis involved a two-phase approach to assess the reliability and validity of the measures before using them in the research model. The first phase includes the analysis of the measurement model, while the second one examines the relationships among latent constructs.\nDiscussion and implications: This study enhances knowledge on how consumers relate to service brands by proposing an integrated modeling framework that explains the interrelationships among certain attitudinal and behavioral aspects of consumer-brand relationships. Drawing on the consumer-brand relationship development process, proposed by Sreejesh and Roy (2015), service research theory and two perspectives of brand commitment theory (i.e. investment model and commitment-trust theory) are used to conceptualize the various attitudinal and behavioral aspects of consumer-brand relationship development stages. The proposed modeling framework also extends the conceptual framework, proposed by Sreejesh and Roy (2015), to consider a brand's vulnerability to new brands' entrance or current customers' behavioral changes, by encompassing the quality of competitive brands and relationship investment size into the proposed modelling framework, and investigating the way that consumer-service brand investments are built up, as a result of the interplay between the cognitive and affective aspects of the relationship building process.\nLimitations and future research: This study, despite the significance of its findings, has a number of limitations. First, the industry-specific sample may affect the generalizability of findings. Therefore, it is necessary to test the proposed model in other service settings (i.e. high credence or high contact services). Second, the findings of this study are based on a cross-sectional study. As a result, longitudinal studies are needed to clarify the effects of temporal changes on research constructs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Given its importance in the brand management of service firms, the present research initiative primarily concerns the investigation of the formation process of consumer-brand relationships in the service industry. By considering a chain of effects' model, this paper aims to integrate two brand commitment paradigm's perspectives with service evaluation theory, representing the attitudinal and behavioral aspects of the relationship building process, to better explain the way consumers relate to a service brand. The proposed conceptual model is tested in the context of mobile broadband internet services.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey of 573 customers of mobile internet services was conducted using a structured questionnaire with established scales. Data were analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling.\nFindings: The results indicated that brand loyalty is determined by relationship commitment, which, in turn, is influenced by the consumer-brand relationship components - trust, satisfaction, investment size and quality of alternatives - as well as by the service brand's perceived value. Finally, the relationship quality components of the brand, trust and satisfaction to a large extent, and investment size to a lesser extent, mediate the relationships between service brand evaluation and brand commitment.\nResearch limitations/implications: The sample is industry-specific, and this may affect generalizability of findings. Also, the cross-sectional design adopted does not reflect temporal changes.\nPractical implications: From a practical point of view, the findings suggest that providers can improve their loyalty figures through the establishment of strong consumer-brand relationships as a result of the development and delivery of high quality, valuable services and other relationship-building tactics that support the consumer-brand binding.\nOriginality/value: Although there are previous studies that extend either the relationship investment model or the commitment-trust theory with the service evaluation theory, the proposed model is the first to combine the previous three research streams into one causal chain model, to explain the development and flow of events in the consumer-brand relationship process toward brand loyalty.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Risk-return optimization with different risk-aggregation strategies
|
[
"Financial risk",
"Risk assessment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: New regulations are imposing high standards on internal risk management in financial institutions. In its accord, International Convergence of Capital Measurement and Capital Standards - A Revised Framework, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has set forth a new set of regulations on risk management for financial institutions (\"Basel II\"). The new regulations are based on three pillars: Pillar 1 consists of new minimum capital requirements, Pillar 2 enforces qualitative standards on risk management, and Pillar 3 requires risk management information disclosure, thus enforcing market discipline (Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, 2004). While in recent years, financial institutions have been focusing on the implementation of the quantitative requirements of Pillar 1, attention recently shifted towards implementation of Pillars 2 and 3 requirements. Pillar 2 of the new Basel Accord postulates four principles of qualitative requirements on banks' internal risk management (\"supervisory review process\"). The intention is to insure that banks have adequate capital to support all the risks in their ongoing business.The first principle is also denoted as the Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process (ICAAP): \"Banks should have a process for assessing their overall capital adequacy in relation to their risk profile and a strategy for maintaining their capital levels\"[1]. To meet these requirements, the banks must aggregate material risks and allocate economic capital against them to cover potential financial losses. The internal capital adequacy needs to be balanced on an integrated portfolio level. A risk strategy must ensure capital adequacy in the overall business. While the quantitative standards of Pillar 1 are clearly defined, many issues of internal risk management under Pillar 2 methodologically are still unsolved or are difficult to implement, frequently due to the lack of sufficient data support. Banks are challenged to apply appropriate methodologies for integrated risk measurement under Pillar 2.We suggest an optimization model approach, which generates risk-return efficient portfolios with respect to internal (Pillar 2) and regulatory (Pillar 1) capital requirements, and illustrate its application by an example. For an optimized portfolio, we derive capital allocation and an efficient risk strategy, which is required by ICAAP (for a summary refer to Rosenberg and Schuermann, 2006). One important issue in this context is to aggregate different risk types: market, credit, and operational risk, which show considerable variations in their distributions. Different approaches of measuring integrated risk and aggregating different risk types have been developed and have become a major object of discussion. We consider different approaches of risk aggregation in the context of portfolio optimization and ICAAP implementation. The capital requirements under Pillar 1 thereby represent a minimum capital standard and a strict constraint that must be maintained continuously. Risk strategies frequently are derived by carrying forward actual portfolio compositions or heuristic allocations of economic capital or exposures by industry or branches. We suggest a systematic approach to derive consistent and efficient risk strategies from an optimal asset allocation.The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 derives a general formulation of optimization models considering different approaches of risk aggregation and integrated risk measurement in ICAAP, Section 3 describes the case study, which applies the formulated optimization models, and Section 4 concludes the paper.\n2 Formulation of optimization model: 2.1 Survey on optimization problem statement\n3 Case study: We used PSG to do the case studies. We posted MATLAB files to run these case studies in MATLAB environment on The MathWorks web site (www.mathworks.com), in the file exchange-optimization area (search with the last name Serraino).3.1 Assumptions and setup\n4 Conclusion: We suggested an optimization approach for a bank portfolio, which applies different methodologies of risk measurement in the context of actual regulatory requirements. We illustrated by an optimization example the generation of risk-return efficient portfolios with respect to Pillars 1 and 2 requirements. We analyzed the effects of different approaches of internal risk aggregation and suggested a systematic approach for risk strategy formulation based on risk-return optimized portfolios under the ICAAP. There is a need for further research and practical implementations especially for integrated risk measurement, risk relations modeling, and capital allocation. A future extension of this case study may be based on simulation-based scenarios for the sub-portfolios, especially for the credit portfolios. Different copula approaches, linking the marginal sub-portfolio distributions to the portfolio loss distribution, may be analyzed in this context. We suggest examining which of the copula approaches discussed in the literature are the most risk-return efficient in the use of economic capital, that is which copula approach allows to achieve maximum returns in the setting of the integrated optimization problem (Problem 3). Furthermore, the derivation of efficient capital allocation strategies for the optimized portfolios needs to be considered more in depth. Some practical issues of applying the Euler-allocation principle are not sufficiently investigated, in particular the treatment of capital allocation to assets with negative risk contributions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - New methods of integrated risk modeling play an important role in determining the efficiency of bank portfolio management. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a systematic approach for risk strategies formulation based on risk-return optimized portfolios, which applies different methodologies of risk measurement in the context of actual regulatory requirements.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Optimization problems to illustrate different levels of integrated bank portfolio management has been set up. It constrains economic capital allocation using different risk aggregation methodologies. Novel methods of financial engineering to relate actual bank capital regulations to recently developed methods of risk measurement value-at-risk (VaR) and conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) deviation are applied. Optimization problems with the portfolio safeguard package by American Optimal Decision (web site: www.AOrDA.com) are run.\nFindings: - This paper finds evidence that risk aggregation in Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process (ICAAP) should be based on risk-adjusted aggregation approaches, resulting in an efficient use of economic capital. By using different values of confidence level a in VaR and CVaR, deviation, it is possible to obtain optimal portfolios with similar properties. Before deciding to insert constraints on VaR or CVaR, one should analyze properties of the dataset on which computation are based, with particular focus on the model for the tails of the distribution, as none of them is \"better\" than the other.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This study should further be extended by an inclusion of simulation-based scenarios and copula approaches for integrated risk measurements.\nOriginality/value: - The suggested optimization models support a systematic generation of risk-return efficient target portfolios under the ICAAP. However, issues of practical implementation in risk aggregation and capital allocation still remain unsolved and require heuristic implementations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Disability in the Australian workplace: corporate governance or CSR issue?
|
[
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Disability",
"Corporate governance",
"Workplace diversity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With corporate governance being considered a key business requirement today, investigation and interest in this area is on the increase, made even more so by high profile corporate collapses (such as Enron, WorldCom) and increased market uncertainty brought about by the recent global financial crisis. Specifically, corporate governance seeks to describe \"the framework of rules, relationships, systems and processes within and by which authority is exercised and controlled within corporations\" (ASX Corporate Governance Council, 2014b, p. 3).\n2. Diversity in the workplace: Diversity is a complex term embracing many different meanings and contents (Point and Singh, 2003); however, at its core, it is about difference and inclusion (Prasad et al., 2006). In helping to understand diversity, one approach considered by some is to focus on groups that systematically face discrimination and oppression at work; such as women, religious, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, older employees, gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people (Hays-Thomas, 2004; Linnehan and Konrad, 1999).\n3. Diversity disclosure: CSR reporting has long been argued as a way to facilitate corporate accountability through increased transparency (Adams and Harte, 1999; Gray et al., 1996; Owen et al., 1997). However, studies that have focussed on the extent and quality of diversity disclosure have traditionally been few in number and have painted a pretty dim picture. For example, Adams et al. (1995) in a study of equal opportunity reporting in Britain, found low levels of reporting with the majority of reporting in response to legislation on employment of disabled people but even then, only a minority of firms complied with the legislation. Similar findings were found by Subbarao and Zeghal (1997), Abeysekera and Guthrie (2005) and Vuontisjarvi (2006) with low levels of diversity and equity issues disclosed. Whilst Islam and Jain (2013), in a study of 18 Australian retail and garment manufacturing corporations that source goods from developing countries, found low level human right disclosures including non-discrimination practices and policies. Studies focussed on diversity type include Adams and McPhail (2004) who in a longitudinal study of ethnic minority disclosures found increased disclosures across the time period 1935-1998. Whilst from a disability perspective, Woodward and Day (2006) in examining compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 found decreasing disclosure compliance across two time periods (1995 and 2000).\n4. Research method: Case study methodology was utilised in this research. This approach, advocated by many (see Merchant and Van der Stede, 2006), allows for the exploration and understanding of a particular phenomenon within its real-life context (Yin, 1984). It provides for a rich account and understanding of organisational practice, and is now recognised as stand-alone contribution in itself (Parker, 2012). Documentary analysis was utilised as the primary method providing for research engagement at close quarters (Vaivio, 2008) allowing for the \"penetration and unpacking\" of organisational processes (Parker, 2012).\n5. A review of the ASX Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations: In December 2012, the ASX Council issued a media release advising the Council had commenced a review of the Principles and Recommendations. As part of this review, it was to include: \"looking at ways that are both practical and within its mandate to elevate the issues [...] in relation to employment of people with disability\" (ASX Corporate Governance Council, 2012). The draft third edition of the Principles and Recommendations together with a Public Consultation document prepared by the ASX Council was released in August 2013 for public comment. This review sought to \"capture and reflect developments [in corporate governance] both in Australia and internationally\" (ASX Corporate Governance Council, 2013a, p. 2). The public consultation document in an overview of the third edition, listed and summarised the key revisions to the Principles and Recommendations (ASX Corporate Governance Council, 2013a, para. 9) as shown in Table I.\n6. Discussion and conclusion: With the introduction of diversity recommendations in 2010 specifically focussed on gender, the ASX Council sought to broaden the diversity focus in the third edition update of the Principles and Recommendations. Whilst including disability amendments into the draft edition, the ASX Council was clear on their position from the outset: that disability is a social issue, not a corporate governance issue. Of the respondents that commented directly on the amendments as part of the review process, all apart from one were in favour of the disclosure inclusions with some even noting the perceived inconsistency by the ASX Council towards diversity aspects and that this needed to be just the starting point towards a wider change towards disability inclusion. In the final iteration though, reference to disability diversity was removed and justified on the ground that disability is a societal issue not a governance concern, returning to the ASX Council's original view.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine the current state of play for workplace diversity disclosures, specifically disability by investigating the recently revised Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Case study methodology using documentary analysis techniques.\nFindings: With gender diversity recommendations introduced in 2010 based on the business case perspective, the process of revising the ASX Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations provided an opportunity for the ASX to expand its diversity focus, with disability diversity specifically identified in the draft third edition. However, the key amendments were subsequently removed when the approved edition was released in 2014 with justification provided on the grounds that disability is a social issue, not a corporate governance issue. Through a widening of the corporate governance lens beyond the business case perspective, this paper calls for a re-imagining of corporate governance to incorporate an ethical viewpoint on diversity.\nSocial implications: Disability diversity disclosure is merely the first step towards reform in helping to bring about deep change within organisations. Without both administrative reform and institutional reform, any future revisitation of the disability disclosure recommendations may become little more than a \"tick the box\" approach.\nOriginality/value: The paper is unique in reviewing the ASX Corporate Governance developmental processes towards workplace disability in its recently revised edition.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The impact of dietary supplement form and dosage on perceived efficacy
|
[
"Public policy",
"Dietary supplements",
"Perceived efficacy",
"Supplement marketing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A growing awareness of the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle (Bolton et al., 2008; Divine and Lepisto, 2005; Rajamma and Pelton, 2010; U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2013, 2015) has motivated consumers of all ages to consider complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs), most notably dietary supplements (Royne et al., 2014), one of the fastest-growing categories of CAMs. A majority of American adults (68 per cent) consume dietary supplements (Council for Responsible Nutrition, 2015), with US consumer sales of dietary supplements through retail and direct-to-consumer channels reaching $38.8bn in 2015 (Nutrition Business Journal, 2016). In addition, economic conditions have aided supplement sales, as consumers attempt to manage their own health care to avoid expensive doctor visits and prescription medications (Federal Trade Commission, 2010).\nPrevious research on dietary supplements: Although the literature dealing with consumer perceptions of preventative health-care products, including foods with therapeutic properties, is important (Bhaskaran and Hardley, 2002; Luomala et al., 2015), our primary focus is on the impact of supplement form and dosage on perceived efficacy of dietary supplements. Thus, we limit our discussion to research that specifically deals with dietary supplements, not other health-related foods and products.\nThe role of supplement form and dosage in perceived efficacy: Although literature on supplement form and dosage is scant, there is limited research which suggests that supplement consumption may be influenced by a \"more is better\" heuristic which in turn can lead to harmful consumer behaviors such as megadosing of supplements (Maughan et al., 2004). Indeed, within a broader consumer decision-making context, a \"more is better\" heuristic is commonly encountered (Peters et al., 2013). For example, research shows that consumers desire more information while making decisions irrespective of the relevance of that information (Keller and Staelin, 1987; Redelmeier et al., 2001) due to increased perceived control and an inherent preference for more choices (Bandura, 1986; Leotti and Delgado, 2011). Underlying the \"more is better\" heuristic is the belief that more will lead to positive additive and synergistic effects (Peters et al., 2013). However, in addition to a consumer bias toward higher supplement dosages as noted in the literature (Maughan et al., 2004), a \"more is better\" heuristic can also manifest through greater consumer preference and evaluation for supplements with multiple (vs single) ingredients. In particular, given the backdrop of incomplete and vague information about supplements which can lead to confusion (Mason and Scammon, 2011), consumers are more likely to process information through the peripheral route where they make inferences based on simple cues (Marshall et al., 2002; Petty and Cacioppo, 1984). This argument is based on research by Petty and Cacioppo (1984, 1986) which demonstrates that when consumers lack the ability to think about a message (e.g. when they have incomplete information or knowledge), they form favorable attitudes based on simple acceptance cues such as number of arguments (vs quality of arguments) in a message. Likewise, the number of ingredients in a supplement may behave as a peripheral cue (similar to number of arguments in a message), which in turn may signal that the MI (vs SI) supplement was somehow better and, thus, more efficacious based on the \"more is better\" heuristic.\nStudy 1: Methodology\nStudy 2: Study 2 (S2) design replicates S1 with the following revisions and additions:\nGeneral discussion: Theoretical contributions and implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of supplement form and dosage level on consumers' perceptions of dietary supplement efficacy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors draw upon literature on dietary supplements and accessibility-diagnosticity theory to derive their hypotheses. Hypotheses are tested through two experiments that use a 2 (supplement form: single-ingredient [SI] vs multi-ingredient [MI]) x 2 (dosage level: low vs high) factorial design.\nFindings: The findings show that consumers perceive that lower dose MI supplements are more effective than lower dose SI supplements, consistent with a \"more is better\" heuristic. In contrast, under high doses, the supplement form effect is insignificant; that is, MI and SI supplements are perceived to be comparable in terms of efficacy.\nPractical implications: Dietary supplements are not regulated the same way as prescription drugs. Consumers often draw inferences about supplement efficacy based on their perceptions rather than objective evidence. This may leave consumers vulnerable to potentially harmful consequences. This research has implications for designing supplement marketing efforts and public policy, which could help consumers to make informed choices when purchasing dietary supplements.\nOriginality/value: A growing awareness of the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle has motivated consumers of all ages to consider alternative remedies, most notably using dietary supplements. Past research offers little insight into understanding consumer reactions to dietary supplement form such as SI and MI supplements and their dosage levels. The studies reported here address this gap in research. Public policy and marketing implications are also discussed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Determinants of purchasing intention for fashion luxury goods in the Italian market: A laddering approach
|
[
"Fashion",
"Buying behaviour",
"Quality",
"Italy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The luxury goods market grew on a worldwide scale during the period from 1995 to 2007. More specifically, the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) was 11 per cent during the period between 1995 and 1999 (the period of the luxury industry boom), 1 per cent during the three-year period from 2000-2003 (the consolidation of the luxury industry) and 8 per cent between 2004 and 2007 (the expansion of the luxury industry into emerging markets) (Bain & Company, 2009). The two main factors which accelerated development in this sector were principally: the economic growth in Southeast Asia (Vigneron and Johnson, 2004), which created \"the new rich\" and the increase in the use of those products defined as new luxury (Silverstein and Fiske, 2003). However, it is to be noted that in 2008 the worldwide luxury goods market suffered the effects of the worldwide economic slowdown: taking into consideration the results at current exchange rates of listed companies, total sales volume declined by 2 per cent in comparison with 2007 (Bain & Company, 2009).Four main categories of luxury goods can be identified: fashion (couture, ready-to-wear and accessories), perfumes and cosmetics, wines and spirits, watches and jewelry (Jackson, 2004). Recently other categories were added: luxury automobiles, hotels, tourism, private banking, home furnishing and airlines (Chevalier and Mazzalovo, 2008). Fashion luxury goods are comprised of apparel, accessories, handbags, shoes, watches, jewellery, and perfume, for which just the mere use or display of a particular brand brings prestige to the owner, and functional utility becomes a side issue (Vigneron and Johnson, 2004). When analyzing the consumption of luxury goods some researchers focused on the profile of the buyers and on the reasons for their choices (Dubois et al., 2005; Dubois and Duquesne, 1993; Husic and Cicic, 2009; Nueno and Quelch, 1998; Summers et al., 2006; Wiedmann et al., 2007). Other studies analyzed the luxury market from the point of view of marketing management (Truong et al., 2008; Vickers and Renand, 2003) and the role of the brand for the consumption of luxury goods (Fionda and Moore, 2009; Kapferer, 1997; Kapferer and Bastien, 2009; O'Cass and Frost, 2002; Phau and Prendergast, 2000; Tsai, 2005). In particular, Vigneron and Johnson (1999) explored the presence of personal and interpersonal motives for the consumption of luxury brands. However, in a review of the literature, no research was found in which the analysis of determinants of purchase intention for fashion luxury goods was carried out through the application of the means-end chain (MEC) model (Gutman, 1982) and the laddering technique (Reynolds and Gutman, 1988). Thus, those research methods were applied to investigate this topic with the aim of bridging this gap in literature. Moreover, and differently from previous studies on the same issues, this investigation was carried out in Italy, which represents a relevant context for the analysis of the topic. Indeed, the methodology was applied to Italian consumers which represent a relevant mature market for fashion luxury goods, both in terms of production and consumption (Altagamma, 2009).\n2. The dichotomy of luxury consumption: Generally speaking, the concept of luxury is difficult to define because it represents a social context (Nueno and Quelch, 1998) which follows a cultural evolution. Thus, it is changeable and extremely subjective (Kapferer, 1997; Phau and Prendergast, 2000). However, from an analysis of the literature (see Amatulli, 2009, for a review), two main categories of reasons for luxury goods consumption emerge: on the one hand, external motivations, social and interpersonal; and, on the other hand, internal motivations, subjective and reserved. External motivations (signal wealth) concern those cases where the goal is essentially that of publicly displaying luxury so as to affirm the consumer's status (see O'Cass and Frost, 2002) while internal motivations (self-reward) relate to luxury consumption based on emotions, state of mind and subjective sensations related to an individual's self-perception (see Vigneron and Johnson, 1999, 2004). It is therefore possible, to distinguish between \"interpersonal effects\" and \"personal effects\" of luxury, two different approaches in terms of perceptions, motivations and behavior, one \"other-referenced\" and the other \"self-referenced\" (see Table I).In the first case, luxury is typically consumed for reasons related to ostentation, social positioning and status symbol accumulation (Fionda and Moore, 2009; Truong et al., 2008). In the second case, consumption involves more personal or cultural goals, related to the search for pleasure, originality, and perfection (Dubois and Duquesne, 1993; Vickers and Renand, 2003). Consumers can \"externalize\" luxury to show others how much they paid, to emulate people they admire or because they are pushed by a competitive spirit; they choose products on the basis of shared codes. At the same time, consumers can \"internalize\" luxury if motivated by aesthetic pleasures, cultural or personal sensibility to certain values; they choose products on the basis of taste and individual style, going beyond externally imposed criteria. Considering the study of Tsai (2005), internalized luxury could be connected to concepts like self-directed pleasure, self-gift giving, as well as congruity with internal self. Purchasing intentions principally dependent on \"others\" (externalized luxury) and purchasing intentions based on individual style and subjectivity (internalized luxury) are opposite motivations but they can potentially co-exist with one single consumer.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 The laddering technique and the means-end chain analysis\n4. General discussion: Data analysis was carried out with the examination of all answers and discussions which the subjects described (after the transcription). Examination and codification were effected by a team of three academics: two marketing professors and one PhD student. In total, the study obtained and codified 45 constructs: 21 attributes (11 concrete and ten abstract), 12 consequences (one functional and 11 psychological) and 12 values (four instrumental and eight terminal). The division of the constructs in different categories was carried out by the same team of experts. The different constructs obtained and distributed among, respectively, the six levels and sub-levels of abstraction (see Olson and Reynolds, 1983) and are shown in Table III.Next, there was a discussion of the attributes, consequences and values which emerged in relation to the purchase of the luxury goods. It should be noted that at the end of every statement taken from the interview documents and reported in the following paragraphs, there is a code in parentheses which indicates the sex (M=Male; F=Female), marital status (S=Single; IR=In a relationship; M=Married) and age bracket (1=31-40; 2=41-50; 3=51-60) of the subject.4.1 The attributes of luxury goods\n5. Managerial implications: This study builds on the notion of internal and external motives for purchasing luxury products as discussed by Vigneron and Johnson (1999) and the results of the MEC model confirm this and provide further information. The study found that habitual luxury consumers, with an average age of about 35 years, unmarried but involved in a relationship, childless, with a university degree, a career as independent professional/freelancer and a net personal income greater than 50,000 Euro, acquire fashion luxury goods for ostentation, for visible consumption or for the demonstration of a privileged economic status, but for personal enjoyment and for the possibility of owning high quality products that reflect their style and that give them personal inner serenity.The findings of the study can be of interest to marketing managers who handle communication or advertising in luxury fashion companies and desire to focus attention on fundamental consumer values. High-end brands could utilize the relevant attributes identified in the study to improve their product design and collection plans. When introducing new products, the knowledge of the LHVM can help marketers to focus on consumers' values and communicate these values to them and to product managers so as to translate them into physical product characteristics. This research contributes to the literature by verifying that product quality and \"internal motives\", more than ostentation and status symbols, are key factors in influencing the purchase of fashion luxury goods bought in the Italian mature market. Findings of the study trace the ladders among the different level of constructs elicited by the in-depth interviews; fashion marketing managers may find our study useful as they strive to design the appropriate semiotic architecture of their communication messages.Since this is a qualitative type of study, the final results produced a description of phenomena that can be defined as deep rather than wide-ranging. Thus a limitation of this study is that its results cannot be extended to the entire population of luxury customers. A second limitation lies in the fact that the interviews were carried out in a fashion store, so the results above all refer to luxury products in the clothing industry. Future studies could apply the same methodology in other luxury sectors, other than the fashion area, so as to acquire a broader perspective.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the latent determinants of the purchasing intention for fashion luxury goods.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A total of 40 in-depth interviews were conducted with Italian customers in a fashion luxury goods store in Italy. Qualitative research was employed in data collection using the laddering technique and the means-end chain (MEC) analysis.\nFindings: - Results showed that consumers buy luxury fashion goods mainly to match their lifestyle, thus satisfying their inner drives. The hierarchical value map resulting from the data collection and elaboration demonstrates that self-confidence and self-fulfillment are the main hidden final values when buying and consuming luxury goods. Implications for marketers are related to tailoring products, brand values and communication messages to the subjective, self-rewarding and \"internalized\" consumption sought after by consumers.\nOriginality/value: - The contribution of the paper is based on the use of the laddering technique and the means-end chain (MEC) analysis for investigating latent determinants of purchase intention for fashion luxury goods. Moreover, the paper examines this topic in the Italian market, which represents a relevant instance of mature market for fashion luxury goods.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Can business counselling help SMEs grow? Evidence from the Swedish business development grant programme
|
[
"Evaluation",
"Matching",
"Heterogeneity",
"Contamination",
"Selection",
"Business counselling"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: While there are many methodically advanced and technically sound evaluations of labour market programmes, such evaluations of entrepreneurship policy and business development programmes are rarer. This study, where we investigate the effect on firm growth of a public grant in the form of vouchers intended for the purchase of business counselling is a contribution towards filling this gap. There is some evidence that such counselling will have a positive impact on the growth of firms (see e.g. Wren and Storey, 2002; Mole et al., 2008, 2009). These evaluations, however, reveal some methodological problems concerning the construction of the hypothetical counterfactual situation for firms that receive a grant. In this paper we will take into consideration two of these issues: contamination which means that firms in the control group may have been granted similar types of aid to the one that studied; and selection due to unobserved heterogeneity, in the sense that treated firms are not representative of the population of firms at large in ways we cannot observe. We use a unique database created partly from a newly developed register with information about firms that have received some kind of public grant or other type of state aid, and partly from Statistics Sweden's Firm Register, which contains a wide range of statistics about all Swedish firms. Access to these data has facilitated selecting a sample of comparison firms for a quasi-experimental evaluation, since matching on a wide set of observables has been possible, while controlling for contamination from similar programmes.\n2. Institutional framework: The Regional Business Development Grant (RDG) is a grant provided within the Swedish Regional Business Development Programme. The RDG is a type of state aid in the form of grants for firms operating in the sparsely populated north of Sweden and in rural areas elsewhere in the country. The purpose of the grant is to stimulate growth of firms and contribute to a balanced regional development. The intended effect of the grant is to give competitive advantage to firms operating within the eligible region in relation to firms operating outside of it, but to be competitively neutral among firms within the region. This means that firms are predominantly active in manufacturing and tradable services. Investments in both tangible and intangible assets can be funded with RDG. Between 1,500 and 2,000 firms apply for and receive an RDG grant annually, which amounts to less than 1 per cent of eligible firms. Around a third of RDG grants are for investments in intangible assets which include business counselling related to product development, marketing and competence building. Grants for these purposes are generally awarded in the form of counselling vouchers and firms can freely choose the provider of the counselling services. Firms can apply for RDG covering up to 50 per cent of the total cost depending on the firm's geographic localisation and type of investment. The average grant for counselling vouchers during the studied period was around 7,000 (in 2008 prices)[1]. The RDG is open for applications from small and medium sized firms in the private sector that operate under market conditions (SFS, 2000:283). The firm is considered to operate under market conditions if it is privately owned and pays out a positive factor income in the form of wages or business income. Repeat applications are common; around a third of applicant firms have previously been given a similar grant. Only around 10 per cent of applications are rejected, mostly for formal reasons. The small number of applications, as well as the incidence of repeated applications, indicate that there is substantial self-selection in the decision to apply for the grant, and that knowledge about government grants is an important factor determining which firms apply for state aid to pay for business counselling. The small number of rejected applications indicates, and sources at the granting agency confirm, that administrative selection is likely to occur before an application has been made.\n3. Previous studies: There are relatively few rigorous studies of the effect of industrial policy instruments on the on the performance of firms. Previous studies of the impact of business counselling on the performance of firms have been surveyed in Johansson (2011), who points to the fact that there are few evaluations that compare the outcome for firms that have been granted some type of business counselling with a comparison group. Lenihan et al. (2007) broadens this scope to industrial policy in general. In our summary, we focus on studies where the treatment is publicly subsidised business counselling to active firms.\n4. Evaluation design: The purpose of an impact evaluation is to assess to what extent an intervention of some kind has had an impact on the outcome of some desired objective. Evaluation of social policy programmes have to deal with some particular difficulties, and Heckman et al. (1999) provides an extensive discussion of difficulties and methods concerning the evaluation of social policy programmes.\n5. Data and matching results: The data on the economic performance of firms are sourced from balance sheets and consolidated statement of income collected for tax purposes from all firms in Sweden. These data are supplemented with additional information from Statistics Sweden's Firm Register and from its Labour statistics based on administrative sources. Information on applications for and granted counselling vouchers are collected from the granting agency, the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth.\n6. Results: The average treatment effects on the treated (ATT) are reported in Table IV. ATT is the DIDs between treated and comparison firms, measured in per cent, estimated as in Equation (3) in Section 4 with respect to each outcome. In column 1 the comparison group consists of a matched sample of firms where both data contamination and selection can be present (ALL). This is the normal approach when evaluating business support programmes in Sweden. In column 2 (Not contaminated) we limit the matched sample to firms that, to as far as we can control, have never neither applied for nor been granted any type of investment aid, either in the form of grants, subsidised loans or services provided. This means that we exclude contaminated data to the best of our ability. Finally, in column 3 (Self-selected) we address the problem of selection on unobserved heterogeneity by matching treated firms only with firms that have applied for some type of public investment aid. This sample controls for self-selection. The appropriation of other kinds of state aid for investment purposes as well as remaining imbalance between treated and control groups are controlled for by linear regressions, and the important results are presented in Table IV.\n7. Conclusions: In this study we have investigated the impact of receiving a business counselling voucher on different dimensions of growth of firms. The business counselling vouchers is a grant within the Regional Business Development Programme and the voucher is financed by the state. The voucher allows firms to choose provider of the counselling service. Our results are to some extent ambiguous. Firms that received counselling vouchers have on average a higher growth in value added than firms in a control group of firms drawn from the pool of all firms eligible for the Regional Development Grant. This is mainly due to increased use of factors of production, but is also partly explained by a positive effect on technical efficiency. Thus, the first step in our analysis indicates positive impacts of the business counselling on firm growth.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the state funded business counselling on firm growth.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A quasi-experimental difference-in-difference estimation of treatment effects, using a matched sample of comparable untreated firms.\nFindings: Firms that have been granted counselling vouchers have a higher growth in value added than comparable untreated firms. This effect is mainly due to increased use of labour and capital, rather than increased efficiency. Results are upwardly biased due to sample selection among treated firms.\nResearch limitations/implications: An improved strategy for identifying potential comparison firms from the pool of all firms may be necessary for further impact evaluations on business development programmes.\nSocial implications: Policy makers may have to reconsider the programme design, since the programme currently suffer from a large potential for crowding-out, and low additional value of business counselling.\nOriginality/value: The paper uses a matching procedure in order to infer causal effects of business counselling and compares the effect of, respectively, contamination and selection on estimated impact on firm growth and survival. The data used are an original, rich micro-level data set on state investment support to businesses.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Perceived organizational support and organizational commitment: The moderating effect of locus of control and work autonomy
|
[
"Autonomous work groups",
"Employee behaviour",
"Job design"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Since the early 1990s, perceived organizational support (POS) has aroused a great deal of interest among researchers in the fields of psychology and management (Eisenberger et al., 2004). In 2002, Rhoades and Eisenberger published a meta-analysis on the antecedents and consequences of POS based on 70 empirical papers. Since this meta-analysis was published, Eisenberger et al. (2004) estimate that about 50 additional research papers have been published on the subject. The increased attention given to POS is possibly due to the restructuring and downsizing that have occurred over recent years in many North American and European organizations (Bishop et al., 2005). Indeed, during times of crisis, POS may be particularly potent in terms of maintaining or increasing organizational and individual outcomes (Rhoades and Eisenberger, 2002).\nPerceived organizational support and organizational commitment: Although POS and organizational commitment differ from one another conceptually and empirically (Bishop et al., 2005; Eisenberger et al., 1990; Shore and Tetrick, 1991), these two notions are somewhat analogous. Indeed, the first concerns the commitment of the organization to employees, and the second refers to the degree to which employees are committed to the organization that employs them (Eisenberger et al., 1986). More specifically, organizational commitment is a three-dimensional concept that includes affective commitment, normative commitment and continuance commitment (Allen and Meyer, 1996; Meyer and Allen, 1991; Meyer et al., 1993). Affective commitment represents the employee's attachment to and identification with an organization. Individuals with a high level of affective commitment continue to work for an organization because they want to. Normative commitment refers to the moral obligation to continue working for the organization. Employees with a high level of normative commitment believe they have the duty and responsibility to continue working for their current employer. Finally, continuance commitment indicates the degree to which employees stay with an organization because the costs of leaving are too high. Employees who are essentially bound to their organization on the basis of continuance commitment stay in their jobs because they feel that what they have invested in the organization (e.g., time, energy) would be \"lost\" if they left their current employer or, they assess their job options outside the organization as being limited. Compared to affective and normative commitment which are positively correlated with performance and various types of productive behaviors in the workplace (e.g. extra-role, organizational citizenship behaviors, work attendance), several studies have indicated that continuance commitment is usually negatively correlated with these same variables (Allen and Meyer, 1996; Meyer et al., 1993). Consequently, from a managerial standpoint, continuance commitment is generally considered to be less desirable than affective and normative commitment.POS is likely to influence each of these forms of organizational commitment. A meta-analysis conducted by Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002) shows that POS is strongly and positively correlated with affective commitment. To explain this relationship, Fuller et al. (2003) refer to Tyler's (1999) social identity theory, according to which individuals feel recognized within an organization when their employer values their contributions to the functioning of the organization. The recognition of their work and status within the organization helps meet the employees' socio-emotional needs, that is, their needs for esteem, approval and affiliation (Shore and Shore, 1995). Filling these needs contributes to building the employees' social identity, which in turn is likely to enhance their sense of belonging to and pride in the organization (Meyer and Allen, 1991). On the other hand, the relationship between POS and affective commitment can also be explained by referring to Blau's (1964) social exchange theory, according to which the development and maintenance of all human relationships are based on an exchange of resources which are valued by the individuals who are interacting with one another. In the case of the relationship between POS and affective commitment, it would appear to be mainly the socio-emotional and symbolic aspects of this exchange that are taken into consideration (Gakovic and Tetrick, 2003; Shore et al., 2006). More specifically, behaviors related to organizational support (e.g. promotions, salary increases, training, tangible help) appear to be interpreted by employees as marks of respect and consideration on the part of their employer, which in turn appears to increase their trust in and the quality of their relationship with the latter (Chen et al., 2005; Cheung, 2000; Eisenberger et al., 1990, 2001). In other words, in order to show their gratitude to their employer, employees appear to develop a positive attitude towards the organization, increasing their level of affective commitment. It should be mentioned that the studies of Rhoades et al. (2001) corroborate the idea that it is POS which influences affective commitment and not the reverse. Thus, the following hypothesis is formulated:H1. POS is positively related to affective commitment.A number of studies corroborate the relationship between POS and normative commitment (see the meta-analysis of Meyer et al., 2002). According to Eisenberger et al. (1986), this relationship can essentially be explained by the norm of reciprocity put forward by Gouldner (1960). This norm stipulates that when a person or an entity (e.g. group, organization) does someone a favour, the recipient of this favour feels the obligation to return the favour. Thus, when individuals perceive that their employer shows concern for their well-being and seeks to meet their needs, they are more likely to feel indebted to the organization and show loyalty (Gakovic and Tetrick, 2003). Therefore, POS is likely to increase the level of normative commitment. Compared to the relationship between POS and affective commitment, it appears to be more the economic aspect of the exchange between employees and the organization that explains the link between POS and normative commitment (Shore and Tetrick, 1991). The following hypothesis is formulated:H2. POS is positively related to normative commitment.Continuance commitment can be distinguished from the other two forms of commitment by the fact that employees continue to work for the organization by default rather than because they really want to (affective commitment) or feel that it is their duty to stay (normative commitment). Moreover, several studies reveal that continuance commitment is not correlated in the same way as affective and normative commitment with the various antecedents of organizational commitment (Allen and Meyer, 1996; Meyer et al., 2002). Specifically, the results of the meta-analysis conducted by Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002, p. 109) reveal that:POS and affective commitment had a strong, positive relationship, whereas POS and continuance commitment had a small, negative relationship. The effect sizes for both constructs were heterogeneous, even after removal of outliers. Nevertheless, the POS-affective commitment associations were positive in all individual studies. POS-continuance commitment relationships were more variable, ranging from near zero to large and negative.Thus, it appears that POS increases affective and normative commitment while lowering continuance commitment. Few researchers, however, have attempted to explain the negative relationship between POS and continuance commitment. One possible explanation is that POS lessens the feelings of entrapment that develop when employees feel compelled to continue working for the organization because of the high costs associated with leaving it (Rhoades and Eisenberger, 2002; Shore and Tetrick, 1991). A high level of POS may help to restore the balance between the benefits awarded by the organization and the contributions of the individual. Indeed, when individuals perceive a high level of organizational support, the costs attached to quitting their job will be perceived as being less significant than if they thought that they had given a great deal to the organization without having received anything in return. Consequently, based on earlier findings on the effects of POS on continuance commitment, we formulate the following hypothesis:H3. POS is negatively related to continuance commitment.\nThe moderating role of locus of control and work autonomy: The strength of the relationships between POS and the dimensions of organizational commitment is likely to vary according to personal dispositions and job design (Meyer et al., 2002; Rhoades and Eisenberger, 2002). Thus, depending on certain individual or contextual factors, employees can prove to be more or less sensitive to organizational support, thus varying the effect of POS on their level of organizational commitment. Based on this perspective, the present study takes into consideration two moderating factors, namely locus of control and work autonomy.Locus of control\nMethodology: Participants\nResults: Preliminary analyses\nDiscussion: This study sought to assess, on the one hand, the relationship between POS and the three forms of organizational commitment (i.e. affective, normative and continuance commitment) and, on the other hand, the moderating effect of locus of control and work autonomy on these relationships. As was expected, POS is strongly associated with affective commitment, which is consistent with previous studies conducted in organizational settings other than prisons (see the meta-analysis of Rhoades and Eisenberger, 2002). Thus, POS is likely to lead employees to develop a sense of belonging to and pride in their organization. More specifically, the results of this study indicate that POS accounts for 45 per cent of the variance of affective commitment in the bivariate analysis. The results also indicate that the greater the extent to which individuals have an internal locus of control, the weaker the effect of POS on affective commitment, which corroborates the results of Chiu et al. (2005). Similarly, the greater the extent to which individuals feel they have a high level of autonomy in their work, the less affective commitment is influenced by POS. In brief, the study reveals that the more control individuals feel they exercise over their work environment, whether because of their personality or job design characteristics, the weaker the effect of POS on their level of affective commitment. This moderating effect could be explained by the fact that locus of control and work autonomy reinforce employees' feeling of control and make them less dependent on the support provided by their organization (Harvey et al., 1974; Semmer, 2000).As for normative commitment, the results in the bivariate analysis show that POS accounts for 28 per cent of the variance in this form of organizational commitment. This relationship has also been supported in organizational contexts other than prisons (see the meta-analysis of Meyer et al., 2002). Thus, the greater the extent to which employees perceive that the organization is giving them support, the more they feel a moral obligation to keep working for that organization. However, locus of control and work autonomy have no influence on the relationship between POS and normative commitment. In other words, POS could increase normative commitment regardless of the control individuals have over their work environment. As stated by Meyer et al. (1990, p. 83), normative commitment is increased \"by the receipt of benefits from the organization [...] that create a sense of obligation to reciprocate\". When the organization provides support to individuals, these individuals feel morally indebted to their organization even if their personal dispositions or job design characteristics give them the feeling of having a degree of independence from managers.In contrast to what was expected, the results reveal that POS is not significantly associated with continuance commitment and that locus of control and work autonomy do not influence the capacity of POS to have an effect on this form of organizational commitment. It should be specified that a non significant relationship between POS and continuance commitment had also been observed in previous studies (see Rhoades and Eisenberger's (2002) meta-analysis). The absence of a relationship between POS and continuance commitment could be explained by the fact that the organization in which the study took place was one of the main employers in the region. Thus, it is probable that the employees of this organization perceived few alternative employment options, regardless of the level of organizational support they received, and consequently, felt a high level of continuance commitment (Allen and Meyer, 1990). Among the three forms of organizational commitment, continuance commitment obtained the highest average (see Table I), which indicates that it was in fact the predominant form of commitment within this organization. On the whole, POS probably could not reduce continuance commitment, because job opportunity is low. More research is required, however, to refine the role of job opportunity in the relationship between POS and continuance commitment. In addition, prison employees' work content could also explain why POS is not connected to a reduction in continuance commitment. In spite of certain incidents, their work is quite routine and highly specialized (e.g. to open and close the grids, to supervise the comings and goings of the prisoners), which offers very few opportunities for them to develop generic skills that could be useful in other types of organizations. Thus, in prison settings, the nature of the work lessens the capacity for support provided by the organization to develop employees' skills that would lead them to consider job options outside the organization. It would nevertheless be worthwhile, in future research, to verify the effect of work content on the relationship between POS and continuance commitment.Limitations and future directions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this article is to deepen the understanding of the relationships between perceived organizational support (POS) and the dimensions of organizational commitment (i.e. affective, normative and continuance commitment), and to test the moderating effect of locus of control and work autonomy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This study, based on a cross-sectional research design, was conducted in an organizational setting. The sample includes 249 prison employees. The data were collected through questionnaires.\nFindings: - The results show that POS is positively and significantly correlated with affective and normative commitment. In addition, the results of the hierarchical multiple regression analyses support the moderating effect of locus of control and work autonomy with regard to the relationship between POS and affective commitment.\nPractical implications: - This study highlights the importance of providing support to employees in order to foster their affective and normative commitment to the organization. Moreover, the results provide evidence in favour of managerial interventions aimed at enhancing perceived control and, consequently, minimizing the negative effects of a lack of organizational support on employees' affective commitment.\nOriginality/value: - In addition to taking into account three dimensions of organizational commitment, this study underlines personality and job design factors that can modulate the relationship between POS and organizational commitment.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
When in Rome, do as the Romans do: Factors influencing international students' intention to consume local food in Malaysia
|
[
"International students",
"TPB",
"Malaysia",
"Ethnic food",
"Malay food"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Educational tourism has been recognized as one of the tools in improving national tourism. The significant contribution of educational tourism to the national economy has led the government to realize the relevancy of the industry (Nair and Whitelaw, 2008). Since last decade, Malaysia has begun to emphasize on the growth of the education sector as it has been constantly recognized as a good choice of study destination for foreign students (Aziz and Abdullah, 2018).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Theory of planned behavior (TPB)\n3. Research methods: 3.1 Measurement\n4. Data analysis and results: SmartPLS3.0 (Ringle et al., 2015) was employed to test the hypothesized model. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is a frequently used method of data analysis (Hair et al., 2019; Richter et al., 2016; Ringle et al., 2018). Given the study explores the predictors of international students' intention toward consuming Malay food, PLS-SEM was assumed a best fit with the objectives of the present study (Hair et al., 2019). As recommended, a two-stage approach including measurement model (internal consistency reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity (DV)) and structural model (hypothesis testing) was adopted to test the proposed hypotheses (Hair et al., 2017; Ramayah et al., 2018).\n5. Discussion: Using the TPB, the present study verified three key hypotheses that were developed to investigate the impact of attitude, subject norm and PBC on international students' intention to consume Malay food. The findings of the present study suggest that all key variables: attitude, subject norm and PBC are significantly predicting international students' intention to consume Malay food. It confirms the usability of TPB in explaining the international students' intention toward consuming local food.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: International students are considered as a huge and potentially lucrative segment for various products of the tourism industry in Malaysia. One of the tourism products is the local food they consume. The purpose of this paper is to investigate key factors that contribute to international students' intention to consume Malay food. Drawing on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the present study examines the impact of attitude, subject norm and perceived behavioral control (PBC) on international students' intention to consume Malay food.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A quantitative approach using self-administered questionnaire was adopted. A total of 163 samples were collected from international students studying in five different Malaysian higher education institutions. A partial least squares structural equation modeling technique was used to test the hypothesized model.\nFindings: The findings highlight that attitude, subject norms and PBC significantly motivate international students to consume local food. The subject norm toward consuming local food was revealed as the strongest predictor of international students' intention to consume Malay food.\nOriginality/value: Although this is one of the early studies that uses the TPB in assessing the factors that influence international students' intention to consume local food, this paper is driven by and aimed for practical consideration and thus making a significant contribution to practice. Specifically, the findings of the present study provide important implications for tourism industry practitioners to plan and implement initiatives that may promote local food among international students studying in Malaysian institutions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Thematic analysis of marketing messages in UK universities' prospectuses
|
[
"University",
"Marketing communications",
"Higher education",
"UK",
"Thematic analysis",
"Prospectus"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The corporatization and marketization of the universities has its origins in neoliberalism (Lynch, 2006, p. 3), the notion that there is no alternative to the market as a basis for organising society. Education, in this context, is treated as another service to be delivered on the market to those who can afford it. In other words, education provides people with choices. This study explores the way in which the UK higher education institutions brand themselves to reach out. The competition in this sector is fierce and is not just within the country but also across the borders to connect with prospective students.\nLiterature review: Information search by students\nMethodology: The research methodology used for this study is thematic analysis using NVivo10, a qualitative content analysis tool for thematic analysis. Thematic analysis is the search for emerging themes that best describe the phenomenon (Daly et al., 1997). It is considered as an inductive generic qualitative approach that \"seeks to discover and understand a phenomenon, a process or the perspectives and worldviews of the people involved\" (Caelli et al., 2008, p. 3). Braun and Clarke (2006, p. 79) further considered it as \"a method for identifying, analysing and reporting patterns within data\". To this extent, patterns within the prospectuses that indicate how UK universities are communicating with prospective students were derived from subsequent analyses of the prospectuses.\nResults: The creative design of the prospectuses varied considerably in size and shape. The prospectuses were, overall, colourfully designed with various images of staff and students in different locations. There were no two similar designs. Hardcopies sent through the post were packaged in customised envelopes and printed on quality paper, suggesting that the universities were seeking to convey from the outset an impression of uniqueness and prestige. Printing on premium-quality paper and strategic positioning of the marketing communication materials have been known to boost consumer attitudes towards an advertisement and the brand, and to increase the intention to patronise (Hampel et al., 2012).\nDiscussion: The competition within the higher education sector is fierce and the universities need to reach out to prospective students and their parents through convincing and appealing marketing communications. The results indicate that the messages in the prospectuses are framed in an appealing way, filled with facts and figures, images of beautiful buildings and smiling students, and testimonials about facilities and experiences.\nConclusion: The marketisation of higher education, lifting the cap on university tuition fees and numbers of students, has actually led to increasing emphasis on universities to market themselves to prospective students (Bradley, 2013; Hemsley-Brown, 2011; Molesworth et al., 2009). There is competition among all institutions - not just the very best (Levy, 2013) - and they are adopting different ways to reach out to the prospective students. One way is through the prospectus.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Prospective students are exposed to abundant choices, and they are eagerly searching for information to select the best universities for themselves. Likewise, prospectuses are regularly produced by universities to meet this information needs; the purpose of this paper is to examine the key marketing messages used in their prospectuses.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The 2017 undergraduate prospectuses of 121 universities in the UK (out of the 134 members of University UK) were thematically analysed using NVivo10.\nFindings: Messages were predominantly about the location, the course, student experience, credibility and career progression. They are framed in an appealing way, filled with facts and figures, images of beautiful buildings and smiling students, testimonials of facilities and experiences that form a sense of compatibility and belonging.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study provides insights for the higher educational institutions to enhance their future marketing communications strategies in terms of effectively differentiating one university from another by highlighting the predominantly used appeals among 121 prospectuses and the need for adopting a more consistent approach between the clearing period and non-clearing period in terms of designing the prospectuses. This study has considered only the print platform, and therefore future studies should also look at social media and university websites in the context of the integrated marketing communications.\nPractical implications: Accurate and coherent narratives should be provided, taking into consideration the diverse nature of target audience. Universities need to realise that they can be held responsible for the promises presented in their prospectuses. Using the city appeal by many universities may be challenging, as there is need to attract students not just to the city itself, but to the university's campus.\nOriginality/value: Having a significantly larger sample than any other previous studies in this field, the empirical evidence provided in this paper is rich and in-depth, thanks to the size and age of the sample as well as the integrated and combined methodological approach. Five keys themes with sub-themes, descriptions and examples were provided, suitable for future research in higher education marketing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The moderating role of customer engagement experiences in customer satisfaction-loyalty relationship
|
[
"Satisfaction",
"Mobile apps",
"Moderation",
"Loyalty",
"Customer engagement"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Along with changing market dynamics, the relationship between organizations and customers is evolving. In the 1990s, companies focused on managing individual customer transactions, but in the early 2000s, they shifted their attention to developing long-term relationships and increasing satisfaction and loyalty by delivering better products and services (Pansari and Kumar, 2017). More recently, managerial focus has shifted once again; it now aims to engage customers as active collaborators in various stages of product development and marketing (Malthouse et al., 2013). The notion of customer engagement is becoming increasingly important, especially in digital business environments, in which customers are recipients of and participants in company communications and products. Engaged customers are highly valuable to today's organizations; they have become cocreators of products and communications (Sawhney et al., 2005). Accordingly, firms focus strategically on customer engagement to stimulate active psychological states that encourage deeper, more meaningful, long-term connections between companies and customers (Henderson et al., 2014).\nBackground and conceptual framework: Satisfaction\nModerators of the satisfaction-loyalty relationship: By exploring the role of moderating variables that go beyond linear relationships, scholars increasingly acknowledge the importance of such variables for predicting consumer behavior (Baron and Kenny, 1986). Although early work on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty indicates a positive, direct relationship, more recent studies argue that several variables moderate the relationship (Bloemer and de Ruyter, 1998; Mittal and Kamakura, 2001; Ranaweera et al., 2005; Walsh et al., 2013), including demographic variables (gender, age, income) and psychographic variables (involvement, variety-seeking). Researchers have also explored firm- and customer-specific moderators, such as bargain-hunting propensity, number of visits to primary stores, loyalty cards and critical incidents (Walsh et al., 2013). In studies of both customer engagement and satisfaction as they relate to the customer satisfaction-loyalty relationship (Calder et al., 2013; Thakur, 2016), the results indicate a significant role of the customer engagement construct. Accordingly, it is worthwhile to explore the moderating role of customer engagement in the satisfaction-loyalty relationship.\nExploratory study: For this study, we recruited 25 respondents and screened them for suitability (McCracken, 1988), according to their experience using mobile devices for purposes such as reading newspapers, making purchases, performing banking transactions, booking flights and reading online reviews. Three scholars with research credentials in similar areas reviewed the screening tool before we administered it to participants (see Appendix 1) . Respondents included 15 executive students (6 female) aged 28 to 40 years and 10 undergraduate students (4 female) aged 18 to 22 years. The 18-to-40-year age group represents about 70 per cent of smartphone users in India, where we conducted the study (Ericsson, 2015), so the findings should be reasonably generalizable.\nModerating effect of customer engagement experiences: hypotheses development: Intrinsic enjoyment\nResearch program: We conducted our study in India, which in 2017 was the second-largest smartphone market in the world. Indian customers use the mobile internet for various activities, including reading news and shopping. The share of internet subscriptions as a proportion of total mobile subscriptions is projected to grow from 12 per cent in 2015 to 48 per cent in 2020 (Euromonitor Report, 2017), making India a suitable context for this study. The research consists of three quantitative studies: a pilot study to select and validate the scales used in main studies, Study 1 that uses the scenario of a mobile shopping app for lifestyle products and Study 2 that uses the scenario of a mobile app for travel.\nStudy 1: Research design\nStudy 2: Research design\nDiscussion: Consumers increasingly use mobile devices for productivity as well as enjoyment. Firms across different industries are using mobile devices to increase engagement and establish long-term relationships and loyalty. Accordingly, in this research, we examine multiple customer engagement experiences and their roles in the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty.\nConclusion: This research contributes to emerging academic literature on customer engagement, satisfaction and loyalty outcomes of mobile business platforms. It has especially important implications for firms that are investing in mobile commerce services to build engagement and strengthen relationships. It reveals the role of engagement in generating eWOM, which is very important in societies in which product information from fellow consumers on online and mobile platforms plays a critical role in consumer decision-making. The growing importance of mobile app use during the customer purchase journey and the growing prominence of eWOM suggests that our findings about the influence of customer engagement experiences in such settings have important implications for both marketing managers and researchers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine the moderating role of customer engagement experiences in satisfaction-loyalty relationship in the digital business environment. This paper looks at mobile apps for shopping and travel planning to understand these relationships.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper includes the conceptualization and validation of the proposed relationship through multiple studies. An exploratory qualitative study was conducted to identify the relevant engagement experiences. Subsequently, multiple quantitative studies were conducted to examine the proposed relationships.\nFindings: The effect of satisfaction on continuance intention is stronger among customers with higher levels of engagement. Further, the propensity to provide electronic word of mouth is non-linear in customers with higher levels of engagement and may not vary directly with satisfaction levels.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings of this study contribute to the emerging literature on customer engagement and mobile app-usage domains. Future studies may examine such a relationship in different businesses and on varied digital platforms.\nPractical implications: The findings of this paper may provide actionable insights to marketers, giving them a mechanism to segment customers based on engagement levels and using discretion while focusing on satisfaction levels among different segments.\nOriginality/value: This study validates the proposed moderating role of customer engagement in the satisfaction-loyalty relationship. The non-linear relationship between satisfaction and loyalty is also demonstrated.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Do you get what you ask? The gender gap in desired and realised wages
|
[
"Gender wage gap",
"Family",
"Marriage and work",
"Labour market mobility",
"Reservation wage",
"Wage expectations",
"J16",
"J13",
"D13",
"J31"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The unconditional and conditional gender wage gaps can vary a lot internationally and they are found to range from 3 to 30 per cent in the European Union (Christofides et al., 2013). There is already a wide range of literature seeking to explain gender differences in income. The main factors explaining the gender wage difference are found to be educational attainment; women's longer non-employment spells; vertical and horizontal segregation in the labour market; psychological attributes; personality traits; and gender identity (Altonji and Blank, 1999; Bertrand, 2010).\n2. Related literature and the background of the study: 2.1 Related literature\n3. Data: The paper uses two large databases, the job-search database from CV Keskus and the Estonian LFS. The job-search data set is drawn from the main Estonian electronic job-search site CV Keskus (CV Centre in English, see www.cvkeskus.ee/). CV Keskus is a part of the international CV Market Group with representation in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Hungary. CV Keskus is the largest job-search portal in Estonia. Job-seekers can upload their CVs to the site and apply directly for jobs on offer via this electronic environment. Employers can upload job ads or make job-seekers a direct offer based on their profile or even track how particular job-seekers click on their advertisement. This gives job-seekers an incentive to upload and update their CVs in the web and to provide correct information about their skills and work experience. The job-search service is free for job-seekers, while employers need to pay for the service.\n4. Results: 4.1 Decomposition of the gender gaps in desired and realised wages\n5. Summary: This study compared gender differences in desired wages, realised wages and reservation wages to reveal gender differences in wage bargaining. It is found that the unexplained gender pay gaps in desired and realised wages are very similar and are around 20 per cent in Estonia. \"You get what you ask\" is in this sense a valid description of wage outcome for women, as they ask for a 20 per cent lower wage and they get a 20 per cent lower wage. This result is in line with previous studies that find the gender income gap in expectations compares well with the realised income gap.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study gender differences in wage bargaining by comparing the unexplained wage gap in desired, realised and reservation wages.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The notion of desired wages is applied, which shows workers' first bet to potential employers during the job-search process. A large job-search data set is drawn from the main Estonian electronic job-search site CV Keskus.\nFindings: It is found that the unexplained gender wage gap is around 20 per cent in desired wages and in realised wages, which supports the view that the gender income gap in expectations compares well with the realised income gap. The unexplained gender wage gap is larger in desired wages than in reservation wages for unemployed individuals, and this suggests that women ask for wages that are closer to their reservation wages men do. Occupational and sectoral mobility is unable to explain a significant additional part of the gender wage gap.\nOriginality/value: The paper adds to the scarce empirical evidence on the role of the non-experimental wage negotiation process in the gender wage gap. In addition, the authors seek to explain one of the largest unexplained gender wage gaps in Europe, the one in Estonia, by introducing a novel set of variables for occupational and sectoral mobility from a lengthy retrospective panel.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Marketing culture to service climate: the influence of employee control and flexibility
|
[
"Culture",
"Flexibility",
"Market orientation",
"Service climate",
"Boundary spanner"
] |
[
{
"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: Marketing continuously evolves. The early work of marketing focused on product orientation where the firm facilitated the transfer of ownership and distribution of goods (Achrol, 1991; Gummesson, 1991). Now, out of necessity, many firms have shifted to market orientation in their pursuit of improved firm performance by increasing the value that products deliver to consumers through a better understanding of their needs (Kumar et al., 2011). As many markets become crowded with competition, it is increasingly important for firms to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Firms have done this is by increasing the value they provide customers through the services they offer (Gebauer et al., 2011; Karmarkar, 2004). Although the benefits of providing superior service are well understood (Day and Wensley, 1988; Zeithaml et al., 1996), the mechanisms through which firms can achieve such service are not. We explore the mechanisms that facilitate superior service, and thus, a competitive advantage for firms. Specifically, we investigate constructs at two different levels within the firm (i.e. employee and manager) that have the potential to influence service climate.\nLiterature review: Market orientation\nTheory and research hypotheses: Service-dominant logic\nResearch methodology: The sample\nDiscussion and implications: The presented research investigates firm service climate as part of a framework to explore how firms utilize service to differentiate themselves from competitors. First, we examined firm culture and the influence it has on the development of a service climate. Second, additional factors measured at both the manager and employee level were also considered as potentially shaping the service climate that develops within the firm. While our hypotheses do not support the direct influence of a market orientation culture on the service climate of the firm, we did find support for other factors that interact with market orientation to create a service climate.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore how firm market orientation, as a culture, affects the service climate that develops in the firm.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Empirical testing is performed at the managerial level and boundary-spanning employee level as part of this multilevel study. The sample includes participants from a US-based firm operating in the hospitality industry.\nFindings: Results indicate that a market-oriented firm culture interacts with other elements such as boundary-spanning employee flexibility and control to positively impact the service climate that develops.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research provides theoretical implications for the development of a service climate within a market-oriented firm culture and the influence of managers on boundary-spanning employees in the development of the climate.\nPractical implications: As managers attempt to develop a service climate through a market-oriented firm culture, they will find success by providing boundary-spanning employees with control and hiring employees that possess flexibility as a personality trait.\nOriginality/value: The framework developed in this research provides insights regarding the multilevel nature of service climate development and the impact of a market-oriented culture.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Experiences of TQM elements on organisational performance and future opportunities for a developing country
|
[
"ISO 9000",
"Libyan Industry sector (LIS)",
"Organisational performance",
"Total quality management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: TQM has been recognised as a very important approach for long-term success (Sharma and Kodali, 2008). The drive for TQM has always been at the top of the agenda of many organisations in their efforts to improve operational performance, optimise human resources, and to entice primary as well as secondary customers (Hunt, 1992; Rahman and Siddiqui, 2006). The concept of TQM provides an approach to realise the manufacturing strategy leading to fulfilling the corporate strategy, and therefore the importance of its adoption on a national level cannot be underestimated (Abdullah, 2010; Sharma and Kodali, 2008). However, many organisations are not sufficiently experienced in its use, in terms of knowing what needs to be implemented and on which areas to focus (Sharma and Kodali, 2008). Libya is committed to providing quality products and services, and to meeting both the current local and international market demands (Hokoma et al., 2006). Until recently, there have been very few studies, for example (Najeh and Kara-Zaitri, 2007; Hokoma et al., 2008) which have included the use of TQM in the Libyan context, but these have not explored the relationship between TQM and OP. To overcome this gap, the present paper will evaluate the extent of TQM implementation and its impact on OP in the LIS, which is an economic pillar of the Libyan economy. The country's economy, as in many other developing countries, is oil-led, accounting for 96.4 percent of its export earnings. This paper, therefore, focuses on the LIS, which though still small, is steadily growing in importance in terms of its contribution to total industrial exports (3.6 percent), and total labour force (9 percent of the total labour force), a growth from 2005, of 7 percent (Central Bank of Libya, 2007). The LIS, however, needs assistance in its efforts to improve the OP.\n2 Literature: 2.1 TQM implementation and organizational performance\n3 Methodology: 3.1 The questionnaire\n4 Results and discussion: 4.1 Response rate of demographic information\n5 Conclusions: This study focused principally on the implementation of TQM in the Libyan Industrial Sector, which plays a critical role in Libyan economic and social development. Focusing on six sub-industries: food; mineral; electricals and engineering; chemical; textile and furniture; and cement and building materials industries, a framework comprised of six TQM elements and nine performance measures was developed to investigate the extent of TQM implementation and its impact on OP. The study also examined the strength of the relationship between TQM and OP, both in the presence and absence of ISO 9000 Certification. From the data presented and discussed, the following results have been revealed:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of total quality management (TQM) implementation in Libyan manufacturing companies (LMCs), and its impact on organisational performance (OP). The paper further investigates the impact of TQM implementation on OP, both in the presence or absence, of ISO 9000.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper examines the extent of TQM implementation in LMCs, and its impact on OP. The paper further investigates the impact of TQM implementation on OP, both in the presence or absence, of ISO 9000.\nFindings: The results on the level of TQM implementation in the 56 companies surveyed revealed that Libyan companies are still struggling to embark effectively upon TQM. Data analysis indicated that each TQM element, except supplier quality management, was significantly correlated with at least one of the nine OP improvements. The results of the regression analysis showed that each OP measure was only predicted by one TQM element. However, process management and top management commitment were found to be the most important TQM elements in terms of their impact on OP. This study investigated the impact of TQM implementation on OP in both the presence and absence of ISO 9000 Certification. It was found that there were no significant differences between ISO 9000-certified companies and their non-ISO 9000-certified counterparts in OP, except in exports growth.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study did not examine OP in relation to how long the company had implemented TQM. Other limitations of this research are related to the unrevealed effect of the type of industry on OP, and also to the limited number of key performance indicators used.\nOriginality/value: This empirical study is the first to examine the relationship between all the proposed TQM elements and OP in the Libyan Industrial Sector (LIS). It further adds to the TQM literature on the impact of ISO 9000 Certification on various dimensions of OP. This research highlights the implications, and recommendations for LMCs to effectively adopt TQM elements and increase their OP, which in turn, will assist development of the Libyan economy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Bibliometric review of improvements in building maintenance
|
[
"Research",
"Building maintenance",
"Quality assessment",
"Bibliometric review",
"Building maintenance performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, the construction sector has experienced a slower pace of development. On the one hand, this has resulted in increased deterioration of the existing building stock, and while on the other hand, it has led to a failure to make progress in building rehabilitation policies and programmes - although in some EU countries this trend has been less noticeable. Another factor to consider concerns the need for a better understanding of building maintenance, given that this helps to ensure the conditions needed for optimal building performance and makes it possible to avoid rehabilitation projects, many of which are now needed earlier than anticipated and at increasingly costly price tags.\n2. Survey methodology - an overview of building maintenance: In the course of the research process, some 745 indexed scientific papers on building maintenance were subjected to review. Falorca et al. (2014) collected and organised data through the year 2011 and included indexed scientific journals as one of the direct indicators. These authors' global view of this area allowed them to conclude that there has been a steady increase in publications over time, reflecting growing attention to the subject. A large number of this research has appeared in prestigious journals, especially in the last two decades.\n3. Overall approach results and discussion: 3.1 Quality assessment of research work\n4. Conclusions: The research focuses on a bibliometric review of papers in scientific journals indexed in ISI or SCOPUS between 2000 and 2016 (first quarter), and whose contents deal with the subject of building maintenance and the topics and sub-topics identified in Section 3.1. This study is relevant insofar as it relates to the possibility of evaluating performance and obtaining concrete data on a particular area of knowledge, identifying any weaknesses and gaps.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the status of knowledge on the subject of building maintenance from an integrated perspective that incorporates the building lifecycle, that is, from the design stage to the end of life. This work considered the main aspects to be taken into account in determining and implementing maintenance strategies, which requires a cross-sectional view of the entire construction process. At the same time, this approach contributes to the organisation of building management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Bibliometric review has been carried out to identify relevant subjects and topics about scientific production on building maintenance by analysing the contents of about 745 publications, over the last 15 years, between 2000 and 2016 (first quarter). The survey results were gradually organised into a database grouped into seven main themes which were found to be more discussed and others six emergent themes with topics on building maintenance research.\nFindings: This research enabled a synthesis of the focal points in the literature on building maintenance, as well as debates among researchers and institutions in the field. The result is a view to the future regarding what issues merit further research and what content requires greater depth of understanding, allowing us to envision research directions that encompass topics and sub-topics for future development. To this end, this bibliometric study draws on knowledge developed over the last 15 years, using research studies published in refereed journals indexed in ISI/SCOPUS as its data source.\nOriginality/value: The novelty of this topic, and the aspect in which it differs from existing studies, is that the researchers analysed a single sub-topic: that is, content regarding maintenance. Thus, this bibliometric literature review allows us to achieve a comprehensive and integrated view of key issues developed in the field of building maintenance. The results show which topics have been more thoroughly developed and which still exhibit gaps and weaknesses. This review allows us to envision well thought out guidelines for future development that have the potential to be relevant to progress in building maintenance research. It also contributes to our understanding of the state of the art in this field of knowledge.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Framework for valuing the utilization of the environment
|
[
"Sustainability",
"Environmental economics",
"Aggregate factor income distribution",
"Environmental accounts and accounting",
"Valuation of environmental effects"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The environment can be valued as a consumption good using contingent valuation and travel cost method; the concept of opportunity costs can also be used to value environmental goods and services in the form of sacrificed income. For the purpose of this paper, the environment will be considered a factor of production with the aim of applying a methodology to value environment as a capital (KN) and observing the trend in KN utilization as an economy grows. Nature should be treated as capital for it is required as an input towards production. In order to attain a greater level of economic growth, more resources are used towards the production of greater output. This will result in higher levels of greenhouse gases (GHG) emission and severe environmental degradation. It is critical that these emissions and degradations are accounted for. Therefore, one method to appreciate the role of environment as a capital is via its inclusion in the factor utilization function. This approach is no different to arguments for energy to be included in mainstream theory of economic growth (Stern, 2010; Murphy and Hall, 2010).\n2. Factor utilization function from two-factors to three-factors: Existing literature explains the distribution of national income between two factors, namely, capital (KM) and labour (L). A widely used model is the Cobb-Douglas (C-D) factor utilization function which describes the relationship between income and the factor inputs KM and L. That is:\n3. Data source and empirical evidence of the EKC: The objective of the study is to apply a methodology for the valuation of environmental capital and observe the trend in its utilization as an economy grows. The results are presented in this section.\n4. Policy implications: The scope of this study is to identify the patterns of KN utilization as an economy grows. Without due consideration afforded to the environment, policies implemented base on a mistaken notion of economic performance will further exacerbate the environment. The illustration has been made with reference to two commodity-driven resource rich economies (Australia and Canada) and the findings serve as useful reference for resource rich economies. It is demonstrated by the empirical evidence in Section 2 that economic growth for an economy has been attained at the expense of environmental degradation. The findings show an inverse relationship between KN utilization and unemployment (conversely employment), that is, utilization of KN falls when there is low employment; and utilization of KN rises when employment is high. A low level of employment indicates that the economy has spare capacity while a high rate of employment (tight labour market) may create pressure on wages and prices.\n5. Conclusion: Although mainstream economics has started to recognize environment, there remains no consensual approach for the measurement of environment as a capital. The lack of a concerted approach does not suggest that the measurement of environment, critical to the development of sustainable macroeconomic policies is impossible. Unavoidably, there remain assumptions and limitations to the accounting for the environment. Daly (1997) argued that outcomes would differ if natural resources were included in the economics of production. A similar view was offered earlier by Nordhaus and Tobin (1972). To illustrate this view, Daly (1997) used a simple example of baking a cake without the ingredients. To bake a larger cake, the cook needs only to stir it faster in a larger bowl and bake it in a larger oven. The bowl and oven are the capital, and the cook is the labour. However, without the ingredients (natural resources), there will be no cake. Some may argue that fewer ingredients can be used towards baking a larger cake. But it is not \"macro-economically\" possible to bake a larger cake with fewer ingredients (Pothen and Schymura, 2015). Therefore, it is vital that natural resources are measured to ensure sustainable economic growth.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to apply a methodology (drawn from the literature) to value the environment as a capital.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The main analytic framework considered is a factor utilization function, which traditionally deals with labour and manufactured capital. The development of a three-factor function in terms of labour, manufactured capital and environmental capital enables the display of mistaken notions of economic performance.\nFindings: The purpose of this illustration is to identify the patterns of environmental capital utilization as an economy grows. Although there are some differences in the patterns of environment utilization between Australia and Canada, the patterns observed are in line with that of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC).\nPractical implications: This illustration is made with reference to two commodity-driven economies, namely, Australia and Canada. The findings could be used as a point of reference for resource rich economies.\nOriginality/value: This paper illustrates an approach for valuing the environment as an economy grows. This approach is applied to two selected resource rich economies and the findings demonstrate traits similar to that of the EKC.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Roadmapping the next wave of sustainable IT
|
[
"Sustainable IT",
"Green IT",
"Strategic planning",
"Technology roadmapping",
"Information technology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The notion of \"sustainable IT\" has gained in popularity as IT managers have become more aware of IT's impact on the environment and society. This recognition has developed slowly over the course of the past two decades starting with the Energy Star program in 1992. However, during the past decade it has been the internet-driven rapid growth of datacenters, their associated energy costs and carbon footprints that motivated the initial development of sustainable IT strategies, often called \"green IT\" or \"green computing.\" Datacenters can account for 25 percent or more of total IT budgets and account for up to 50 percent of energy costs for enterprise scale e-commerce companies (Mitchell, 2007; Forrest et al., 2008; McKeefry, 2008). Datacenter demand is expected to grow at an estimated 20 percent CAGR over the next decade (Wong, 2007). Green IT also includes the goals of controlling and reducing the environmental footprint of IT operations by minimizing the use and discharge of hazardous materials, conserving water and other scarce resources, and reducing IT-related waste. Accordingly, the heavy focus on green IT has led to well-defined energy efficiency strategies that can be quickly implemented and offer the benefits of lower costs, lower carbon footprints, and can often increase the performance of datacenters and IT operations. Going forward, those benefits and the push from new energy use and environmental regulations will ensure that green-IT development will remain a high priority for IT organizations well into the future (Harmon and Auseklis, 2009).The focus of green IT is on reducing the energy costs of IT operations. As beneficial as the cost reduction and energy use compliance activities are to the corporation, there is only indirect benefit for customers and other stakeholders. Companies may choose to not pass cost reductions on to customers in the form of lower prices. But, governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), unions, the media, and other stakeholders may demand that business do more to ameliorate the environmental, ethical and social consequences of their IT-related business activities on a broader scale (McKeefry, 2008). Corporations are expected to do much more in terms of improving product and service design, rethinking the value chain, and reengineering IT processes to minimize negative impacts and to solve the environmental and social problems that may result from their use (Daoud, 2008; Olson, 2008; Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, 2009).Accordingly, sustainable IT services (SITS) constitute the emergent second wave of strategies that is moving sustainable IT beyond the green IT emphasis on energy efficiency to one of creating a service-oriented sustainable IT innovation platform (Harmon and Demirkan, 2011). A SITS-based innovation platform enables the development of applications to address the broad range of environmental and social issues both within the corporation, throughout the value chain, and society at large. Where green IT is about internal cost savings, SITS is about innovation and positioning the corporation for IT-enabled corporate social responsibility (CSR) leadership (Zarella, 2008; Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, 2009). SITS holds the promise for enabling the IT organization to fulfill a much broader societal mission. This broader approach to sustainability will require changes in the nature of how value is conceived and delivered if competitive advantage is to be realized at the corporate and societal levels (Porter and Kramer, 2006; Esty and Winston, 2009). SITS strategies will spur innovation, develop new markets, redefine processes, and require both cultural and operational changes in IT organizations. The new sustainable IT charter will integrate the IT organization's business role with global sustainability and social responsibility requirements (Pohle and Hittner, 2008; Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, 2009; Harmon and Demirkan, 2011). These changes reflect a shift in customer requirements from a primary focus on tangible cost-benefits of IT as a product (e.g. reduced energy usage) to the more intangible green benefits of sustainable IT as a service for implementing socially responsible business models (Senge et al., 2008; Harmon and Demirkan, 2011).Given the complexity and evolving nature of the sustainable IT discipline, it is useful to consider what its future development might look like. This paper uses a strategic planning approach to develop a technology roadmap for the sustainable IT industry's markets, products and services, technologies, regulations, organizational changes, and value migration. The roadmap provides an industry-wide perspective of major components of the sustainable IT ecosystem. While considerable evidence from the literature and actual practice exists for the green-IT domain, the SITS domain is nascent and just beginning to come into view. Technology roadmaps, and especially the strategic planning variant, provide managers with the ability to identify new markets, assess opportunities and threats, anticipate technological change, plan new products and services, and facilitate organizational changes (Kappel, 2001; Albright, 2002; Phaal et al., 2004; Popper, 2008).Technology roadmapping methodologies typically includes the following steps as identified by Daim and Oliver (2008): identify key market trends and drivers; define products and services; assess technologies to support the products and services; establish linkages between markets; products/services, and technologies; develop plans to acquire or develop the technologies; and assign resources to accomplish the plans. In addition, strategic planning oriented technology roadmaps can assess the necessary organizational changes to adapt to the changes in the business environment and the type of value created (Phaal et al., 2004).The purpose of this paper is to develop a technology roadmap for the sustainable IT industry that provides insights for its evolution as it transitions from the green-IT product orientation to the development of sustainable IT services that can address the full range of corporate sustainability requirements. The presentation is organized as follows: section 2 provides a review of the background literature on sustainable IT, market trends, and value dimensions. Section 3 presents the sustainable IT technology roadmap and its development methodology. Lastly, section 4 addresses the roadmap's limitations; implications for future research; and insights for managers seeking to adapt their organizations to meet emerging sustainable IT requirements.\n2. Literature review: The development of sustainable IT, and its green IT and SITS domains, as a major strategy emphasis for IT organizations is the direct result of emerging market conditions driven by energy prices, environmental regulations, and customer and societal values. These factors have served to create new market opportunities, develop new technologies and solutions, and drive the rethinking of the role of the IT organization as an enabler of corporate sustainability strategy.2.1 Green IT\n3. Strategic planning roadmap for sustainable IT: Our technology roadmap project was developed to assess the future landscape of sustainable IT as the industry moves from green-IT dominance to the service-oriented SITS dimensions. We wanted to address the question: What changes in markets, products and services, technologies, compliance reporting, organizational development, and value goals would likely take place as the sustainable IT strategic transition occurs? The background work was initiated during the second quarter of 2009 and culminated in the initial roadmap development during the first quarter of 2010. Final revisions of the roadmap were completed by year end.3.1 Methodology\n4. Discussion and limitations: The sustainable IT technology roadmap provides an early-stage view of the emerging field of sustainable IT and its green IT and SITS dimensions. The literature on green IT has grown dramatically in the past few years. We are very confident in the segment definitions, focus, applications, and technologies, regulations, and organizational development aspects, and value goals of this first wave of sustainable IT as presented in the roadmap.The situation for SITS is quite different. There is almost no academic or professional literature on sustainable IT services. What evidence exists for SITS is found in reports by consulting firms, corporate annual and CSR reports, corporate advertising, IT conferences, and seminars. Cloud-based SITS applications are being commercialized, but most are not yet fully developed or integrated into well defined product and service platforms. However, we are confident that an eco-proactive segment is developing. Firms such as IBM, HP, Intel, and Cisco are bringing products and services that address the environmental needs of this emerging market (IBM, 2009; Watson et al., 2009; Wellsandt and Snyder, 2009; HP, 2010; Lindsay, 2010). Furthermore, we are confident that the IT organization will have to evolve from its internal orientation to be more externally oriented in terms of customers, the environment, and society. We see the need for the sustainable IT organization being fully integrated with corporate sustainability strategy.The limitations of the study are associated with the nature of the topic and our research approach. First, sustainable IT is a new discipline. Green IT is a relatively mature dimension, but it is still evolving. It is the green IT dimension that is most documentable from the literature. The SITS dimension is just starting to emerge. Smart systems based SITS applications from the large IT companies are just now starting to come to market. It will take some time to see how the SITS markets, services, and technologies play out. The SITS dimension is the most speculative, but our work does reflect the perspective of leading professionals from companies that are developing these approaches.Our research approach is qualitative and designed to map the sustainable IT domain. Its very nature is exploratory. The relatively small size of the research panel and the roadmapping team is offset by the realization that the IT-professional participants were all active in the development of the discipline from a practitioner's perspective. The research panel and roadmap team were very familiar with the concepts. However, as the field matures, new entrants, smaller entrepreneurial start-ups, and academic researchers will likely bring new conceptualizations and innovative technologies into play.\n5. Conclusions, future research, and implications for managers: This paper has presented foundational support for the emerging discipline of sustainable IT. The major contribution is the development of a strategic planning technology roadmap for sustainable IT that explores its green IT and sustainable IT services dimensions in terms of target markets, products and services, technologies, regulations and standards, organizational changes, and value motivations. We have defined the market trends and relevant value drivers that support sustainable IT's development.Future research will determine how disruptive sustainable IT becomes and determine if it achieves that status of a sustaining innovation. Some basic questions need to be addressed. Does corporate sustainability actually create business, customer, and societal value? How can such performance be measured? Can IT organizations actually use sustainable IT as a migration path to become better aligned with corporate social responsibility strategy? Research on the future development of smart-systems based SITS applications would seem to provide a potential avenue for this research.Finally, for managers working in this field the sustainable IT strategic planning roadmap can provide a benchmark for their current situation and insights on what is likely to follow as they plan for the next generation of solutions and strive for market leadership. In our opinion, sustainable IT will continue to be a major issue for IT organizations as they navigate the changing business requirements that are increasingly reflecting a greater concern about IT's environmental and social responsibilities. IT organizations need to change to remain relevant. Our roadmap should help them with that navigation effort.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to explore the strategic dimensions and drivers of sustainable IT and roadmaps its likely development as a disruptive innovative force over the next decade as it moves beyond the datacenter and throughout the IT organization, the firm, markets, and society at large. Its purpose is to provide a comprehensive view of the emerging industry to inform sustainable IT strategy development and stimulate future research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper uses a qualitative three-phase process to develop the technology roadmap for the sustainable IT industry. The phases are domain analysis, which features a comprehensive literature review and expert panel depth interviews; roadmap development, which involved two technology roadmapping brainstorming sessions; and follow-up activity, to confirm roadmap session results with the expert panel.\nFindings: - The paper defines the emerging field of sustainable IT and its green IT and sustainable IT services dimensions. It identifies market segments, products and services, technologies, compliance and reporting requirements, organizational changes, and value migration and roadmaps a likely future landscape for the development of sustainable IT strategy.\nPractical implications: - Developing a sustainable IT strategy is a major issue for most organizations. Managers and researchers can use the results of this study to better understand the dimensions of sustainable IT and its likely future growth paths. Researchers will find the comprehensive approach to the topic useful for planning future technological innovations and determining their disruptive potential. Managers can use the results to benchmark their current situation and develop strategies for the next generation of sustainable IT service solutions.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is the first to apply technology roadmapping to the emerging sustainable IT industry. It provides a strategic planning perspective of the future of the industry as it migrates from green-IT strategies for reducing the costs and energy use of computing to sustainable IT services that hold the potential for transforming complex environmental and social responsibility problems into business opportunities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Ownership control and debt maturity structure: evidence from China
|
[
"China",
"Profitability",
"Debt maturity structure",
"Ownership control"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In contrast to most developed countries, China has not yet established sophisticated and mature capital markets to support the funding requirements of companies and entrepreneurs. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the total value of bank loans is 100 times greater than the value of stocks and corporate bonds (Cai et al., 2008), such that bank loans are the main source of corporate financing in China. The four largest state-owned banks: Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China dominate the Chinese banking sector, and during the period of our study, controlled around three quarters of all banking assets (Allen et al., 2005; Berger et al., 2009). The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) controls lending by assigning quotas to each of the major banks and uses the Reserve Requirement Ratio (RRR) to further limit the funds a bank is able to lend.\n2. Literature and hypotheses development: In developed economies, banks conduct credit analysis to screen applicants and structure their lending according to their assessment of the applicant's risk. In China, such lending practices are likely to apply more to privately owned firms. State-owned banks may perceive private firms to be more risky, as the banks are less likely to be compensated through recapitalisation by the state[1] if the quality of these loans deteriorates (Lu et al., 2012). In line with this perception of risk, state-owned banks lending to private firms will prefer to provide short-term funds that have lower default risk than longer-term loans to the same firms.\n3. Sample selection and variable construction: 3.1 Sample selection\n4. Empirical results: 4.1 Univariate analysis\n5. Robustness test: 5.1 Impact of state ownership\n6. Conclusion: In developing countries, many banks are state-owned, and a large proportion of their credit goes to SOEs, but the effect of SOEs on credit allocation in China is even more pronounced (Cull and Xu, 2000). Cai et al. (2008) investigate the potential determinants of the debt maturity of Chinese listed firms by considering corporate ownership and governance, but do not refer the impact of ownership control types. This study extends Cai et al. (2008) to examine the impact of ownership control types on firms' debt maturity choices.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The authors examine the debt maturity structure of Chinese listed companies during the period when bond market was under-developed and the majority of commercial banks were owned by the state. The purpose of this paper is to answer why and how the different ownership control types impact the firms' preference and accessibility to either long- or short-term debts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The univariate analysis was used to test the differences of debt maturity choices for firms grouped by ownership control types, profitability and institutional development. Then, logit regression and ordinary least squares regression were applied to examine the determinants of ownership control types in debt maturity structures.\nFindings: Compared to privately controlled firms, state-owned enterprises had greater access to long-term debt and used less short-term debt during the sample period. Evidences also indicate that the on-going financial reform has increased the motivation of banks to consider company profitability in their lending decisions. However, state-owned banks still discriminate private firms in allocation of financial resources, particular in less-developed regions.\nResearch limitations/implications: Due to the research scope and data limitations, the authors cannot take some factors into consideration, such as collateral, guarantee, credit ranking, financing agreement and leasing obligation.\nOriginality/value: This study extends the existing literature in three ways. First, the authors investigate the bank discrimination problem into the loan term structure. Second, the authors recognise the effect of financial reform on alleviation in bank discrimination problem. Finally, the authors take the consideration of institutional development of firms' location areas in their analyses.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Coal containerization: Will it be an alternative mode of transport between north and south China in the future?
|
[
"Coal containerization",
"Coal logistics chain",
"Economic decision model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Containerization has developed from the specialization to generalization in terms of product transport. Technological advancements and market innovations have significantly reduced service barriers and costs once prohibitive for movement of lower-value commodities (Vachal et al., 2004). Traditionally, container transportation model is mainly applied for high-value manufactured commodities, such as electronic device, furniture, toys, apparel, sports equipment, works of art and so on. The majority of low-value products like grain, iron ore and coal are basically transported via bulk shipment. However, with the development of technology, for example, mega container ship, multiple-function container, the scale and scope of containerized intermodal transportation have expanded rapidly. Since the 1990s, an increasing volume of grain produced in North America has been delivered in container to export markets. Similarly, Australia has witnessed a growing amount of wheat transported to Indonesia via the container shipment. The extension of container transport to traditional bulk cargoes, such as food, is largely driven by the imbalance of cargo flows. As a case, there are 14.8 million twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) shipped from Asia to USA, while only 5 million are shipped in the opposite direction with traditional containerization cargos.\n2. Literature review: A number of works have been conducted on the food containerization since 1980s. Prentice and Craven (1980) first examined the economic potential in improving the Canadian grain handling system through containerization. Later, Prentice studied on re-designing the grain logistics chain in Canada by replacing bulk handling with containerization and concluded that technological advances in information collection and transmission have already made container shipment a rival to the bulk handling of grain.\n3. Current development of coal containerization in China: Coal reserves in Shanxi, Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia in the north of China account for 64.1 per cent of the whole nation. The coal production in these provinces is close to 60 per cent of the total amount of coal produced in China in 2012, and these regions contribute over 80 per cent to the increase in China's annual output. The volume of coal transported outside these provinces takes up over 90 per cent of the total cross-province transport volume in 2012. As shown in Figure 1, in domestic trade, the majority of coal is shipped from the north to the south of China via the port of Tianjin and a cluster of ports in Hebei province, e.g. Qinhuangdao, Huanghua, Caobeidian, Jintang and so on. In 2012, 410 million tons of coals were loaded at the three ports of Qinghuangdao, Huanghua and Tianjin. Major customers of the coal concentrate in the eastern and southern coastal regions of China. It was reported that five regions including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong provinces purchased 88.5 per cent of the coal from the northern China in 2012. In particular, more than 50 per cent of the coal was unloaded in three ports including Shanghai, Ningbo and Guangzhou.\n4. Discussions: To offer a better understanding of the coal containerization in China, three key issues are discussed in this section. The first is the driving force of the coal containerization, which sheds light upon how the coal containerization began and whether it will sustain in the future. The second is the evolution of coal container logistics structure, which gives a clue to the potential development of the coal containerization. The last part is about the cost and time differences between container transport and bulk transport. The feasibility of coal containerization heavily relies on whether the cost difference is acceptable to customers/shippers/traders and whether there is any other advantage, for example, shorter transport time.\n5. Conclusions: Although food containerization has been found very popular, coal containerization is still a novel thing and only found in China. After all, the price difference between container and bulk transport is supposed to be greatly large while the value of coal is relatively low. This paper aims to profile the coal containerization in China and determine whether it is a counter-intuitive phenomenon.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Shaanxi, Shanxi province and Inner Mongolia in north China are the nation's leading producers of coal. In the past decades, a huge amount of coal has been transported from these areas to the central and south China via ports in Hebei Province and Port of Tianjin. Traditionally, coal is transported in bulk shipment. However, in recent years, an interesting phenomenon is that the lump coal is sorted out in the north and then moved in containers to the south. This paper aims to ascertain whether the coal containerization will become an alternative transport mode for moving lump coal from the north to the south of China. Based on extensive field investigation and data analyses, it is found that although the container mode appears to be more expensive than the bulk shipping mode, the cost difference between the two modes is not as significant as our expectation if we also take into factors like fragmented demand, environment pressure, geographic distribution characteristics of customers and so on.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Extensive field investigation, data analysis and economic decision model.\nFindings: It is found that although the container mode appears to be more expensive than the bulk shipping mode, the cost difference between the two modes is not as significant as the authors' expectation if they also take into factors like fragmented demand, environment pressure, geographic distribution characteristics of customers and so on.\nOriginality/value: Although the major focus has been placed on the food containerization, the coal containerization is still a new thing and has attracted only limited attention. This paper is making an initial attempt to profile the phenomenon of coal containerization in China. This attempt is believed to not only enrich the literature of coal containerization but also support the literature of bulk containerization.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Development of ontology from Indian agricultural e-governance data using IndoWordNet: a semantic web approach
|
[
"Information technology",
"Semantic web",
"Information retrieval",
"Domain ontology",
"Artificial intelligence",
"Domain concept"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Agriculture is one of the most important domain of any country on which people's livelihood, food and basic needs depend. India is one of the countries whose dependency on agriculture and its related activity is mostly sought. In India, it contributes 16 per cent gross domestic product and provides employment to 52 per cent of the Indian population (Bhall and Singh, 2010). A country's population and agriculture is closely related, according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (Keita et al., 2010), and every country should make their strategy accordingly to reduce the cost of generation of census data and manage the resources well. Because of India's vast, rich and varied agricultural produces and its allied products, distribution of products and service to access remains untouched in some parts of the country. In India, naturally six seasons fall in a year, but in terms of agricultural favor, two major agricultural seasons are known such as in spring (known as Kharif) and another in autumn (known as Rabi) (Bahuguna, 2012). Also, because of its traditional multicultural and multilingual states, where 22 languages are spoken officially in different parts of the country, India faces huge challenges in the agriculture sector in terms of resource utilization, weather conditions, specially information communications between the farming community and its stakeholders, supply and distribution of agricultural products and produces, etc., which subsequently generates a chain of problems.\n2. Review of relevant literature work: The use of WordNet and domain-specific vocabulary-based information and data has been implemented since quite some time. In recent years, electronic forms of dictionary data have been used to generate ontologies of desired domain of interest, which categorically helps in many intelligence-based applications. Some projects related to natural language processing (NLP)-based applications has been developed in European, Chinese, Portuguese, Indian and Arabian languages, which significantly eases the work activities in diverse area of social, political, media, entertainment, and so on.\n3. Indian agriculture domain at a glance and prospect for semantic Web technology: Indian agriculture has been broadly categorized into 12 core subdomains, which are shown as in Figure 1. Agriculture engineering and technological inputs have made significant contributions in an increasing production and productivity in agriculture sector through timely farm operations, accurate metering and better placement of seed and fertilizer, conserving soil and water resources. All these add irrigational potential and efficiencies, reducing loss of produce by providing improved storage structures and technologies with value addition. The marginal farmers, tribal farmers and landless agricultural labors are worst affected, as their coping capability is very limited. The biggest challenge is to make agriculture profitable, and this will be possible only by reducing the cost of cultivation (as indicated by the\n4. An approach for implementation of semantic Web technology: Semantic Web technology is an advance form of current Web technology from its prior version, which implements the graph-based concept to express model of thoughts in the form of computational logic. This trusted layered model can be represented in taxonomy of terms, concepts, relations of specific domain into ontological form of real world of interest. Semantic Web technology that conform W3C standard, supports several architectural constructs and frameworks of its own that are necessary for creation and generation of model envisioned for ontologies such as OWL, RDF (Berners-Lee, 2009), description logic and reasoning capabilities, etc. Metadata is simply machine-readable dynamic data that makes vocabulary for other resource data. Machine-readable (as indicated in Semantic Web, 2010 for Setting Government Data Free) facts and information-related metadata contributes to input some intelligence in our digitized world of applications.\n5. Conclusion and summary of findings, limitations implications with future work directions: In conclusion, authors' present research work is a proof-of concept for partial automatic extraction and development of ontology from existing non-machine readable datasets of e-Government data to meet the standards of W3C specification. Authors have linked multilingual IndoWordNet support for Indian languages as a source to compare with natural language and extract information and data to generate ontology of agriculture domain in the uniform structured data (RDF/OWL) format. The unicode supported data helps to dynamically link open data in the Web, thereby making accessing information easier and sharable among various related domains and, hence, adds to the reusability of resources.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this explorative research study is to focus on the implementation of semantic Web technology on agriculture domain of e-governance data. The study contributes to an understanding of problems and difficulties in implantations of unstructured and unformatted unique datasets of multilingual local language-based electronic dictionary (IndoWordnet).\nDesign/methodology/approach: An approach to an implementation in the perspective of conceptual logical concept to realization of agriculture-based terms and terminology extracted from linked multilingual IndoWordNet while maintaining the support and specification of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard of semantic Web technology to generate ontology and uniform unicode structured datasets.\nFindings: The findings reveal the fact about partial support of extraction of terms, relations and concepts while linking to IndoWordNet, resulting in the form of SynSets, lexical relations of Words and relations between themselves. This helped in generation of ontology, hierarchical modeling and creation of structured metadata datasets.\nResearch limitations/implications: IndoWordNet has limitations, as it is not fully revised version due to diversified cultural base in India, and the new version is yet to be released in due time span. As mentioned in Section 5, implications of these ideas and experiments will have good impact in doing more exploration and better applications using such wordnet.\nPractical implications: Language developer tools and frameworks have been used to get tagged annotated raw data processed and get intermediate results, which provides as a source for the generation of ontology and dynamic metadata.\nSocial implications: The results are expected to be applied for other e-governance applications. Better use of applications in social and government departments.\nOriginality/value: The authors have worked out experimental facts and raw information source datasets, revealing satisfactory results such as SynSets, sensecount, semantic and lexical relations, class concepts hierarchy and other related output, which helped in developing ontology of domain interest and, hence, creation of a dynamic metadata which can be globally used to facilitate various applications support.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Exploring the dual nature of supplier relationship commitment on buyer behaviors: Considering the levels of buyer-leverage
|
[
"Survey",
"Survey methods",
"Commitment",
"Buyer individualized consideration",
"Buyer opportunism",
"Buyer-leverage"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In a crowded industrial supplier landscape, differentiating yourself can be a tough task.WSJ (2019)\nRelevant literature: Complex B-S relationships are characterized by several non-contractual exchanges (Tanskanen, 2015), and relationship commitment is well established as the cornerstone for such exchanges (Ganesan et al., 2010). Relationship commitment stems from two distinct types of commitment, affective or normative commitment and continuance or calculative commitment (Geyskens et al., 1996). Studies have considered the role of relationship commitment in furthering relationships from a buyer's perspective, and have largely ascribed it with positive relationship outcomes (Gao et al. 2005; Krause et al., 2007). For instance, Graca et al. (2015) highlighted the effect of relationship commitment on positive relationship outcomes such as enhanced communication, increased visibility, conflict resolution, cooperation and firm operational performance from a buyer's perspective.\nHypotheses development: Supplier affective commitment - buyer behaviors\nDesign, data and measures: We solicited responses from suppliers regarding their B-S relationships via survey methodology. This approach is befitting, as there is an alignment between the research questions, the hypotheses and the unit of analysis (Krause et al., 2018). To explicate further, suppliers should be in the best position to describe the individualized consideration and opportunism they are subject to while working with their buyers and can report on their commitment types and levels. Serving as an exemplar, Hill et al. (2009) examine buyer benevolence using data obtained from suppliers, and this research design approach was validated by Krause et al. (2018). More recently, a study by Mokhtar et al. (2019a) examined buyer leadership styles and supplier trust using data obtained from suppliers. Likewise in our study, key informants from supplier firms would make ideal respondents for assessing buyer individualized consideration, opportunism and supplier commitment types. Our primary constructs are within the purview of key informants in a supplier firm and thus, we asked them to reflect on behalf of his/her group's relationship with their major buyer (i.e. a buyer that contributes to a significant proportion of their annual dollar sales volume).\nAnalyses and results: The model presented in Figure 1 is tested using structural equations modeling via Mplus 7.1. The model fit indices suggest that the structural model has satisfactory fit (kh2=675.73, df=434, kh2/df=1.55, CFI=0.90, TLI=0.89, RMSEA=0.05). H1a predicts that supplier affective commitment positively influences buyer individualized consideration while H1b posits that supplier affective commitment negatively impacts buyer opportunism. Our results (see Table IV and Figure 2) suggest that there is strong statistical evidence to support H1a (b=0.85, p=0.00) while there is no statistical support for H1b (b=-0.02, p>0.05). Similarly, H2a and H2b posit that supplier continuance commitment has a negative effect on buyer individualized consideration and a positive influence on buyer opportunism. Our analyses reveal that there is no statistical evidence to support H2a (b=-0.16, p>0.05) while H2b is statistically supported (b=0.87, p=0.00). Moreover, we tested for the moderating effect of continuance commitment on the relationship between affective commitment and buyer individualized consideration and buyer opportunism, as articulated via hypotheses H3a and H3b. We did not find statistical evidence to support these relationships (b=0.09, p>0.05; b=0.04, p>0.05), respectively.\nDiscussion and managerial implications: The concept of \"attractiveness\" has been receiving increased attention in the realm of B-S relationships, and it is argued that attractiveness in a B-S relationship can be utilized to improve relationship outcomes (Makkonen et al., 2016). In this regard, relationship commitment is viewed as an important determinant of supplier attractiveness from a customer's perspective (Mortensen, 2012). Tanskanen (2015) notes that firms that are aware of the determinants to one's attractiveness can then use this knowledge strategically to influence their dyadic partner's behaviors. And, although prior studies have documented the role of relationship commitment in B-S relationships, the mixed findings (Yam and Chan, 2015; Handley and Benton, 2012) can limit the strategic use of relationship commitment to one's benefit. We attempt to contribute to the literature on B-S relationships by explicating the role of different types of relationship commitment in B-S relationships from a supplier's perspective. Particularly, we demonstrate that supplier affective and continuance commitment can potentially induce positive and negative responses from the buyer contingent upon buyer-leverage (i.e. the dual nature of relationship commitment). Our findings are consistent with the recommendation furnished by Nyaga et al. (2013), wherein they suggest that firms should consider their power position relative to their partner prior to using an influence mechanism.\nConclusion and future research directions: Despite the knowledge that a buyer might act opportunistically, studies have documented that suppliers may still be harboring relationship commitment. We explored the possibility of a surplus benefit to supplier relationship commitment - buyer individualized consideration. And, although excessive leverage typically exists in SCs, inadequate attention is given to understanding the role of leverage in shaping SC relationships. We find that supplier relationship commitment can serve as a double-edged sword that can promote buyer opportunism and individualized consideration contingent upon the specific configuration of buyer-leverage and relationship commitment type.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The authors argue that the supplier's perspective in managing buyers using relationship commitment is incomplete. The primary reasons for incompleteness are that: the effects of the two types of relationship commitment (i.e. affective and continuance) on buyer behaviors (i.e. individualized consideration and opportunism) are largely ignored from a supplier's perspective; there is quandary regarding the effects of the two relationship commitment types in a relationship, whether they are favorable or not; and there is also ambiguity regarding the conditions under which relationship commitment types might serve as effective relational governance mechanisms. The paper aims to discuss this issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors employ survey data obtained from 207 suppliers to test the hypotheses using structural equations modeling.\nFindings: The authors extend contemporary knowledge on supplier relationship commitment by revealing that at high-levels of buyer-leverage, supplier affective commitment can induce buyer opportunism and supplier continuance commitment can induce buyer individualized consideration. Furthermore, buyer-leverage positively moderates the interaction effect of supplier commitment types to promote buyer opportunism.\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors do not examine a buyer's perspective, but from a supplier's perspective, suppliers can maximize their benefits from their relationship commitment by embracing affective commitment while ensuring that buyers do not have excessive leverage.\nOriginality/value: The study presents a significant contribution to the extant literature on relationship commitment by probing the dual nature of supplier relationship commitment; albeit for specific configurations of commitment types and buyer-leverage.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The diet of prisoners in England
|
[
"Food service",
"Prisons",
"Diet",
"England"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Providing the opportunity to choose a healthy, nutritionally balanced diet is important in all catering operations. Equally as important, is equipping consumers with adequate knowledge so that they are able to make an informed choice. In addition, where the food and meals provided are the sole or primary source of sustenance, for example, in boarding schools, older peoples' homes, hospitals and prisons, the ability to choose and consume a healthy, balanced diet assumes an even greater importance; particularly over extended periods of time.\nPrison food service: Prisons, along with many similar food service operations, are required to provide an appealing, appetising and nutritionally balanced diet within very tight budgetary constraints. This is achieved in prisons by using a cyclical menu that offers a planned, varied diet, working within a budget ranging from PS1.20 in an open prison to PS3.41 in a Young Offenders Institute (National Audit Office, 2006). In practice, the daily food allowance is in the order of PS1.87 per person per day.Policy and standards for prison food service are set out in the Prison Service Catering Manual (Prison Service Order, 1999), and in the main, prisoners choose their meals between three and five days in advance using what the prison service calls a \"pre-select menu\". This was introduced in the late 1990s and enables prisoners to choose their main course component (entree) and dessert from a daily menu offering around five choices, including a \"normal\" and \"healthy\" option and where appropriate, vegetarian, vegan and Halal alternatives. Menus are also available to cater for other religions although none were encountered during the course of this research. All prison meals follow a similar format, which consists of breakfast, usually provided as a pack, which includes items such as a breakfast cereal, milk (UHT), bread, spread and conserve, tea bag, and a sachet of whitener and sugar. The midday and evening meals generally have a similar selection and include a choice of approximately five entrees, potatoes and vegetables. A lighter dish and roll/sandwich are also available. An example of a daily pre-select menu is given in Figure 1.Depending on the nature of the establishment, prisoners either go to a central dining room for their meals, or meals are transported to the prison wing. In the former case, meals tend to be eaten in a cafeteria-style dining room, and in the latter case, either at tables in the centre of the wing, but as is more usual, in prison cells. When collecting food from the hotplate/service area, a prison warder calls the name of the entree and dessert chosen by each prisoner, which invariably, is strictly portion controlled, and served by a fellow inmate. Potatoes, vegetables and bread tend not to be so rigidly monitored.\nNutrition and healthy eating: Nutrition and healthy eating standards are also set out in the Prison Service Catering Manual (Prison Service Order, 1999). However, what might be a healthy food to one person may not necessarily be a healthy food to another, hence, what is important from a foodservice perspective, is not healthy or unhealthy foods but the balance and variety within the diet and what is offered on a menu. This manifests itself in a prison in that the total diet provided, daily or over a short period of time, for example three days, should contain a combination of foods and nutrients, based on current recommendations. It is also equally as important to ensure that individuals have adequate knowledge and understanding to help make such a choice.\nPrison food service in context: Prisoners are a diverse and complicated group whose general health is not as good as the average population (De Viggiani et al., 2005) with poorer physical, mental and social health, and lower nutritional status (Smith, 2002). Most prisoners, especially long term, rely heavily on the food provided by the institution, which is responsible for providing a nutritionally balanced and healthy diet. The prison service can only, however, be expected to provide such a diet, ultimately it is an individual's choice that determines intake (Eves and Gesch, 2003).It is crucial to understand and appreciate the attitudes and opinions of this group towards the concept of healthy eating, as food habits are part of an individual's identity, \"inner being\" and culture (Booth, 1987). In addition, within a prison population, food is often regarded as \"currency\", used to bully, seen as a bonus and as a way to assert independence, therefore, an appreciation of the complex nature of food choice in this environment is essential.Although food consumption in a prison setting might be considered to be similar to other institutional food service provision, such as hospitals, it must be accepted that the nature of the individual is somewhat different. Food plays a major role within the day of both scenarios, relieving the boredom and monotony of a routine existence; however, the psychological profile of prisoners is such that it is not advisable to overtly manipulate a situation that will alienate their good will as food can be a catalyst for aggression and an ill-designed menu, inadequate portion sizes, lack of variety or poorly cooked food can contribute to serious complaints and dissension (Blades, 2001).The purpose of this research, therefore, was to establish whether the meals provided by the prison service enabled prisoners to follow government guidelines on nutrition and healthy eating and the extent to which they do.\nMethods: Selection of prisons\nResults and preliminary discussion: Methodological issues\nNutritional content of menus: A nutritional breakdown of the various menus along with current recommendations, are given in Table I for the four male prisons, in Table II for the two female prisons and in Table III for the two YOI prisons.In general, the menus provided by the prison service had a nutrient content close to current recommendations (DoH, 1991) and mirrored the guidelines given in the Prison Service Catering Manual (Prison Service Order, 1999) although there were some exceptions.Energy\nBalance of good health: Each of the prison menu cycles was analysed and compared with the Balance of Good Health Model, which all prisons have attempted to embrace, although some are more successful than others; results are summarised below.Bread, other cereals and potatoes\nDiscussion: The prison catering service has made considerable progress since the introduction of the pre-select menu (Edwards et al., 2001) and menus have been structured to enable prisoners to select a range of different meals hence, if a prisoner wishes to eat a vegetarian meal today, Halal tomorrow and healthy eating the following day, (s)he has the opportunity to do so.The overall balance of the menu, with minor exceptions, tends to be good with dishes being mainly \"traditional\" with the emphasis on starchy, high carbohydrate foods, a menu pattern not dissimilar to that seen during the Second World War, as a result of rationing (Burnett, 1979). Conversely, a number of dishes, including burgers and pies, are purchased frozen, ready made, as they are an extremely convenient and cost effective means of providing an entree. Even so, care must be taken to monitor their usage as historically, they tend to be high in salt (Mathews and Strong, 2005) and often fat (Stewart-Knox et al., 2003).The Government have pledged to provide guidance in selecting healthier choices (HM Government and DoH, 2005) although there is a dilemma in the term \"healthy choice\"; a food could be low in fat but high in salt. This issue arose in discussions with catering officers and their interpretation of the term \"healthy diet\" where many annotated menus based on their own interpretation which was invariably fat content. In the main, kitchen staff associated a healthy diet with dishes perceived as being low fat and salad items. This reliance on \"healthy\" salad items was epitomised in one prison where chipped potatoes had been substituted with Potato and Russian salad, both of which were made with full-fat mayonnaise resulting in a higher percentage of energy from fat than the standard menu. Other criteria, such as reducing salt, were also taken into account when considering what was healthy but generally this was not the governing factor. Some prisons rely heavily on boiled and mashed potatoes, whilst others continue to serve high fat options. Other potato dishes, such as Duchesse and Macaire, which could be finished in the oven, and which retain the healthy profile might be considered.\nNutritional guidance, advice and knowledge: If one of the purposes of a custodial sentence is to assist individuals to become more responsible members of the community on release, then good nutrition should form part of this strategy. It is essential, therefore, that during their time in prison, inmates have the opportunity to experience appetising, attractively presented food demonstrating a healthy balanced diet thereby illustrating what can be achieved and the benefits this can provide. It is essential, therefore, that a healthy eating advice/guide strategy forms part of this.When individuals first enter prison they are seen by \"Health Care\" and if necessary the doctor, where any health concerns, weight or dietary related problems can be discussed and addressed. They also receive an introduction to the gymnasium and where necessary, a voluntary remedial programme can be arranged. They have the opportunity during the course of their sentence to return for further exercise-diet related advice.In all the prisons visited, this seemed to work well, and staff were enthusiastic about offering information although prisoners had to actively seek advice and nowhere was there a \"programme\" which sought to give general dietary guidance on a regular basis. Similarly, with the exception of the education centres, there were no pamphlets or publications freely available giving dietary information.The healthy menu options were normally identified on the menu using symbols which, in some cases were unreliable, and in many cases quite misleading. At the service counter no guidance, either verbal or visual, was available to encourage or help prisoners, for example, to move away from the less healthy potatoes and select more healthy options; or to limit their portion sizes. As a result, the nutritional knowledge amongst inmates was patchy. Examples of this include one prison where the inmates were decrying the loss of doughnuts and refusing to eat yoghurts while at the same time demanding \"body building\" supplements such as those that could be purchased from the prison shop; \"protein is something purchased in the canteen and comes in a jar\".\nConclusions: This research sought to establish firstly whether the meals provided by the prison service enable all prisoners to follow government guidelines on nutrition and healthy eating. It can be concluded that with the exception of some nutrients, prisoners have access to and are able to choose a nutritionally balanced diet. All prisons have attempted to make available meals and menus that conform to the Balance of Good Health model; however, in some prisons this is hampered, primarily because menus have not been annotated accurately and some dishes are not always as healthy as they might or could be.Second, the research sought to evaluate the extent to which prisoners actually follow healthy eating guidelines and any factors that inhibit them. It can be concluded that, within any methodological limitations, prisoners, in the main, do consume a healthy balanced diet, which, with minor exceptions conforms to current guidelines. The main factor and barrier to consumption is that prisoners, in most cases, do not actually understand what constitutes a healthy balanced diet.Although advice and guidance may be provided, and the opportunity given to make a healthy choice, prisoners do not necessarily have to follow that advice and many claimed to be on a healthy diet, but at the same time chose to add foods such as chips. Even so, this is not a rationale for inactivity and it is important that individuals receive advice on healthy eating so that if they so wish, they can make a healthy choice. Clearly, any healthy eating strategy must be accompanied by information and education to empower the users and encourage involvement rather than alienate. Subtle changes within a food service operation can be made to improve the nutritional quality of menus without the client being aware and often this type of implicit rather than explicit change is more successful. Care must be taken with menu manipulation and should, wherever possible, reflect consumers' normal food habits. As one prison governor explained \"...it is far cheaper to give prisoners doughnuts, if that is what they want, rather than to pay for a new roof ... \".\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research is to establish whether the meals provided by the prison service enable prisoners to follow government guidelines on nutrition and healthy eating, and the extent to which they do so.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A total of eight prisons, four male (category A, B and C), two female and two young offenders' institutes were randomly identified and visited. Data collection involved taking three days of cyclical menus, the institution's recipes and methods and standard or average portion sizes to calculate the mean nutrient composition of standard, healthy, vegetarian/vegan and Halal menus. Menus were also analysed to establish how well they conformed to the \"Balance of Good Health\".\nFindings: - Results show that, with the exception of some nutrients, prisoners have access to and are able to choose a nutritionally balanced diet and in the main do so. All prisons have attempted to make available menus that conform to the Balance of Good Health model; however, in some cases, choice is hampered, primarily because menus have not been annotated accurately; some dishes are not always as healthy as they might or could be; and prisoners in most cases do not actually understand what constitutes a healthy balanced diet.\nOriginality/value: - There is a paucity of data on prison food service and as such this original work adds to the body of knowledge in the field.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Event study methodology in business research: a bibliometric analysis
|
[
"Event study methodology",
"Bibliometric analysis",
"Citation/co-citation analysis",
"Quantitative literature review"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Event study methodology, introduced by Fama et al. (1969), is a useful technique for studying the effects of unanticipated events. It is a powerful statistical tool that was initially developed to help scholars investigate the financial influence of corporate changes in finance, accounting and economics. Researchers can use this tool to determine whether an \"abnormal\" stock return ensues from the announcement of a certain event, decision or activity. Event study methodology is attracting an increasing level of academic attentions and, currently, it has already migrated into virtually all business disciplines, including management, marketing, operational management and management information systems (MIS) (Konchitchki and O'Leary, 2011).As scientific fields and their related methods mature, it is common practice for scholars to assess the state-of-the-art changes reported in the extant literature (Platt and Warwick, 1995; Ramos-Rodriguez and Ruiz-Navarro, 2004). With the proliferation of event study methodology in the context of business, several authors have reviewed the literature from a single disciplinary perspective, such as management (McWilliams and Siegel, 1997), marketing (Johnston, 2007) and MIS (Konchitchki and O'Leary, 2011; Roztocki and Weistroffer, 2008).These reviews, although illuminating, retain several research gaps. First, they are exclusively based on the authors' subjective analyses of the works of interest to them and thus may suffer from various subjectivity problems. Second, none of the related reviews have broken through the scope of a single discipline, yet the amassed knowledge about event study methodology tends to be unbalanced across business disciplines. Therefore, a review of the works related to event study methodology from an overall business perspective may facilitate the transfer of useful knowledge from the experienced to the relatively inexperienced disciplines. However, such a literature review has been neglected to date.Endeavoring to fill in the abovementioned research gaps, our work is the first to apply bibliometric analysis, a quantitative technique, to review publications related to event study methodology in business. Bibliometric analysis is a replicable, objective, scientific and transparent process that minimizes the problems of subjectivity and has been extensively used in prior business studies (e.g. Agarwal, 2016; Chen et al., 2012; Pilkington and Meredith, 2009). Using bibliometric analysis and taking a business perspective, our investigation is guided by two primary research questions:What are the state-of-the-art features of event study methodology in business?How has event study methodology evolved over time in business?To answer these research questions, we collected a sample of 1,219 publications from the Web of Science (WOS). Analysis of the sample consisted of three primary stages: (1) initial sample, (2) citation and (3) co-citation analyses. The initial sample analysis enabled us to identify publishing trends and supplementary techniques in event study-related research in business. Then, we used citation analysis, a classical bibliometric tool, to explore the influential papers and popularity trends in the focal field. Finally, we used another classical bibliometric tool, co-citation analysis, to explore the research clusters and their evolution in the focal field.We expect this study to contribute to the literature in the following respects.As a pioneering effort to review event study-related publications using bibliometric analysis, this study advances previous reviews in this area by overcoming potential subjectivity problems (e.g. self-selection bias).The information provided on publishing trends and evolution of the publication process will serve as a benchmark for the countless achievements related to event study methodology and provide future scholars with rapid access to useful knowledge.The summary of supplementary techniques used in the extant event studies may offer useful insights to event study scholars to overcome the potential concerns in their future works. The identification of influential publications offers event study researchers an easy means of identifying the classical event study-related publications.By shedding light on the key research clusters and their evolution, we present an overview of the numerous publications related to event study methodology in business and presenting a comprehensive event list that should be considered as compounding events in the future event studies.The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 briefly introduces event study methodology. Section 3 discusses the data collection procedure, and section 4 describes the initial analyses of the sample. Section 5 presents the results of the bibliometric analysis. In section 6, we draw our conclusions, identify directions for future research and note the research limitations.\n2. Background: event study methodology: We introduce event study methodology in this section. As numerous articles already provide guidance on the use of the methodology (e.g. Binder, 1998; Binder, 1985; McWilliams and Siegel, 1997; Pynnonen, 2005; Srinivasan and Bharadwaj, 2004), we do not intend to provide similar detailed information but only present a brief overview of a typical event study research design.Event study methodology was constructed to investigate the influence of unanticipated events on stock prices. A standard event study involves estimating a market model for each firm in the sample and then computing the associated abnormal returns. Based on the efficient-market hypothesis, these abnormal returns can reflect the reaction of the stock market to the arrival of the anticipated event. Table 1 delineates the general steps involved in an event study research (Binder, 1985, 1998; McWilliams and Siegel, 1997).Even if the research design of an event study is properly executed, the following two assumptions must also be valid to yield a precise analysis of the event's financial effects: (1) markets are efficient and (2) the event is unanticipated. First, the notion of efficient stock market, which refers to \"security prices fully reflect all available information\" (Fama, 1991, p. 383), provides a fundamental theoretical assumption for an event study (Fama et al., 1969). As new information is disclosed or announced to the market, investors are expected to use all relevant information and effectively impound such information into the relevant stock price to observe the incremental financial effects of the information. Second, another important assumption for an event study is that the focused event is unanticipated. The stock capital reaction represents investors' expectation adjustment on the firm's future cash flows. If information is leaked before news is made public, investors will react to the new information once the leakage occurs, thereby rendering the reaction at the public announcement just a residual adjustment of investors' expectations. In this situation, power of the relevant statistical tests is reduced.The applications of the event study methodology in business are extensive. As a methodology initially proposed in finance and accounting research, at the earliest stage, event study methodology was used to investigate market responses to certain events, such as regulation enforcement (Carroll and Lamdin, 1993; Whinston and Collins, 1992). Thereafter, this methodology has been extensively used in other disciplines to investigate how the market reacts in response to a variety of events. For example, management studies have investigated the market impact of certain events, such as director change (Kang et al., 2010; Lee and James, 2007) and quality certification (Corbett et al., 2005; Hendricks and Singhal, 1996). MIS research has focused on certain events, such as IT initiatives (Corbett et al., 2005; Hendricks and Singhal, 1996), IT outsourcing (Duan et al., 2009) and IT failures (Bharadwaj et al., 2009; Goel and Shawky, 2009). In the marketing field, event study methodology has been used to investigate market responses to specific events, such as product recalls (Chen et al., 2009), sponsorship announcements (Cobbs et al., 2012; Miyazaki and Morgan, 2001) and brand acquisitions (Wiles et al., 2012). Given the extensive applications of event study methodology in business, the current study attempts to present a literature review of event study-related research from a comprehensive business perspective.\n3. Sample collection: 3.1 Data collection\n4. Initial sample analysis: Based on the achieved sample, we firstly proceeded with a set of initial sample analysis, aiming to present an overview of the extensive event study methodology literature to date by a business lens. 4.1 Year of publication\n5. Bibliometric analysis: In this section, we used bibliometric analysis to objectively reviews the overwhelming volume of literature related to event study methodology. The literature reviews via bibliometric analysis differ from traditional reviews since they can employ a scientific and transparent process to effectively mitigate the selection-bias concern. Abasic assumption in a bibliometric analysis is that each citation, which serves as an indicator of previous and present scientific efforts, can indicate an explicit link between the citing and cited articles (Tahai and Meyer, 1999).Along with the accelerated surge in academic publications and the difficulties to objectively tracking extant works, bibliometric analysis has attracted a growing academic attention to determine influential research, identify related themes and provide insights for future research in terms of a certain topic or area. For example, Nerur et al. (2008) used co-citation analysis to analyze the overall structure of the strategic management field; they also delineated the subfields that constitute the focal area and investigated the relationships between these subfields. Chen et al. (2012b) focused on Business intelligence and analytics (BI&A) and used bibliometric analysis method to identify research themes and the potential opportunities associated with BI&A research. Fetscherin and Heinrich (2015) used a bibliometric citation analysis to analyze the impact of universities, authors, journals and articles in the field of consumer brand relationships; they also outlined the related potential research area by using a bibliometric co-citation analysis. Moreover, Wang et al. (2016) employed a bibliometric analysis to reveal the different development stages and identify the major research themes of cloud computing research.Given the two most widely applied bibliometric tools are citation and co-citation analyses (Garfield et al., 1964; Small, 1973), both the tools are used in the current study. 5.1 Citation analysis\n6. Conclusions and directions for future research: This study consists of three parts, namely, initial sample, citation and co-citation analyses. These three parts enable us to present the following major findings.(1) Business scholars' interest in event study methodology has not been short-lived but has continued to grow across decades. (2) Some techniques (e.g. content analysis, DT induction, Markov switching, PSM and bootstrapping) are often used to update or complement event study methodology to fulfill diverse goals. Based on our investigations, despite the powerful and effectively features, these techniques have all been used in a constraint scope by the extant event studies. (3) The works of Brown and Warner (1985) and McWilliams and Siegel (1997) are the two most popular publications related to event study methodology in business. (4) Event study methodology entered a period of great prosperity around the turn of the millennium and attracted attention from an increasing number of scholars from management, marketing and MIS. (5) The recent decade has seen that event study methodology remained its popularity in the areas of marketing and MIS. (6) In general, a total of 17 primary clusters exist in the field of event study methodology in business.These findings and conclusions have a variety of implications. First, this study, as a pioneering effort to review event study-related publications using the bibliometric analysis method, extends the extant related literature reviews by providing additional objective findings. This study is the first to provide researchers with information on publishing trends.Second, considering the unbalanced accumulation of knowledge related to event study methodology across business disciplines, our research may facilitate the inter-disciplinary circulation of useful knowledge. To the best of our knowledge, this study is also the first to present a relatively comprehensive summary of the supplementary techniques related to event study methodology. Future research may consider the use of these supplementary techniques to enrich their designs and improve the rigors of the analysis in their event studies. For example, future researchers may pay the particular attention to using the content analysis method as a complement to event study methodology in their investigations on how the content features of an announcement influence the CAR following the event.Third, the identification of influential publications should allow future event study researchers fast access to the classical publications in their fields of interest. The analysis in this part also suggests that event study methodology is drawing increasing attention from researchers in the areas of management, marketing and MIS. In addition, future researchers can also achieve a general takeaway of the theories used in prior event studies.Fourth, we present an overview of the extant publications related to event study in business and identify the primary clusters in the focal field. Scholars might choose to focus on recently popular topics related to \"environmental and CSR events,\" \"monetary policy,\" \"market-related events,\" and \"cross-border M&A.\" In addition, found that the extant long-term event studies paid relatively minor attempt to reduce the potential biases by using the proposed methods. Therefore, future long-term studies may further consider adopting these proposed methods to mitigate the potential biases.Given that the applications of the event study methodology involve variations in its procedures, several studies have reviewed the potential alternatives and issues in conducting an event study. Peterson (1998) reviewed the possible issues and compared the different options involved in each procedure of event studies. Binder (1998) reviewed and appraised historical studies that had investigated and exerted effort to improve the event study methodology, thereby paving the way for future research. Sorescu et al. (2017) discussed the main issues when designing event studies in the marketing research context. In particular, they reviewed how these issues had been designed to be solved in the prior marketing event studies.Our research has a twofold difference with the aforementioned studies. First, the preceding studies have merely focused on the development of an event study methodology rather than the evolution of topics. Alternatively, the present study reviewed the existing event study-related research from a business perspective and clustered these studies to scrutinize the existing knowledge clusters. Such an approach also enabled us to analyze the developing trend of each cluster. Second, the extant studies have merely reviewed the options and procedures that are compulsively involved in event studies. The present study represents an initial attempt to review the potential supplementary techniques (e.g. test analysis, PSM), the applications of which are not compulsive but may help improve the accuracy of or enhance the analyses in event studies.Similar to other studies, our results are also subject to limitations. Our research is primarily subject to certain limitations because of the sample used. Although we are confident that the sample we analyzed was representative, objective and sufficiently large in relation to event study methodology, certain works could not be identified for two reasons. First, the dataset obtained from WOS was comprehensive but not exhaustive. Some event study-related articles were excluded because the journals were unavailable in the WOS database. Second, a large number of studies that apply event study methodology were not identified because event study methodology was not specified in the title, abstract, or keywords. Such limitations in the sample selection may have resulted in a small amount of bias in our analysis.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: This study aims to provide an objective analysis of the state-of-the-art and intellectual development of publications related to event study methodology in business research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The sample includes 1,219 papers related to event study methodology, covering all business disciplines and spanning 34 years from 1983 to 2016.\nFindings: Through three stages of primary analysis, namely, initial sample, citation and co-citation analyses, the authors identified the publication trends, supplementary techniques, influential publications and intellectual clusters in the area of event study methodology in business.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings serve as a benchmark for the extensive literature related to event study methodology in business and may facilitate the transference of the amassed useful techniques among disciplines and the identification of future research directions.\nOriginality/value: The current study represents as a pioneering effort to review event study-related publications using bibliometric analysis.\n",
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Using experience sampling methodology to understand how educational leadership students solve problems on the fly
|
[
"Research",
"Emotions",
"Leadership development",
"Problem solving",
"Creative thinking",
"Cognitive interviews",
"Experience sampling methodology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The capacity to perceive and solve problems is a necessary and advantageous skill of educational leaders (Milstein and Kruger, 1997; Orr, 2006; Perez et al., 2011; Schmidt-Wilk, 2011) that requires high levels of emotional management (McDowelle and Buckner, 2002; Weick, 1996). Problem-solving orientations have been linked to a higher degree of program implementation and continuation in schools (Louis et al., 1981), and effective problem solving has also been related to a leader's ability to initiate organizational change and preserve survival (Reiter-Palmon and Robinson, 2009). Despite this research, few empirical studies have investigated the emotional and cognitive experiences of leadership students as they go about day-to-day problem solving in their roles as educational leaders. This paper reports on a pilot study using experience sampling methodology (ESM) and cognitive interviews (CIs) to study the cognitive and emotional states associated with students' abilities to sense difficulties (Torrance, as cited in Kerr and Gagliardi, 2003), or to problem solve \"on the fly.\"\nThe importance of problem solving in educational leadership: The influence of school leaders is second only to instruction for improving student outcomes (Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), 2008), making it critical to research how leaders mentally approach their daily leadership practice (Neck and Manz, 2010). This includes building an empirical understanding of school leaders' beliefs in their own ability to do their jobs (i.e. self-efficacy; Dee et al., 2003; Edwards et al., 2002; Tschannen-Moran and Gareis, 2004) as well as their ability to problem solve effectively (Law et al., 2003; Leithwood and Steinbach, 1995). Effective implementation of leadership charge such as promoting student learning and staff growth (CCSCO, ISLLC standard 2) can be complicated by administering new programs and state and federal mandates, thus requiring constant problem solving.\nTheoretical framework: Situated cognition theory (in education) and problem solving research (in psychology) inform the current study. Brown et al. (1989) emphasized the situational nature of cognition and learning, arguing that \"emergent problems and dilemmas\" can only be understood relative to context (p. 35). Understanding how school leaders authentically solve problems, then, is contingent upon the activities they are engaged in. This makes the act of problem solving especially suitable for using ESM, which examines multiple survey reports over time, as opposed to retrospective survey accounts. Scardamalia and Bereiter (2006) lend additional support to the importance of the contextual nature of problem solving by emphasizing understanding as emergent, discourse as collaborative, and knowledge advancement as idea improvement. For this study, four parts of the problem-solving process were discerned to help isolate the actual features of problem solving, and to understand the implications of past research for studying how school leaders solve problems in the moment: the importance of recognizing problems, the importance of setting aside sufficient and quality time to do so, identifying and classifying types of problems, and the necessity of complex emotional effort.\nMethodology: The purpose of the present study was to examine the self-reported, momentary emotional experiences of leadership students' attempts at solving problems while engaged in leadership activities over the course of five days. We adopted a contextual research approach advocated by Avolio (2007, p. 29) who suggested attention to the \"proximal context\" of how leaders work, as opposed to a laboratory setting. The ESM was used to gather multiple reports of momentary experience from a purposive sample of 15 leadership students. Once the leadership students completed the ESM surveys, they participated in individual CIs.\nResults: This section is organized according to the hypotheses. For each hypothesis, quantitative analysis of the survey responses is presented with the relevant qualitative analysis of the CIs, suggested by Creswell (2003).\nDiscussion of perceiving problems \"On the Fly\": The purpose of this study was to examine the self-reported emotional states of 15 leadership students' problem solving on the fly while engaged in leadership activities over the course of five days. Confirming the common-sense notion that leaders handle problems all the time, problem perception was a major part of workday activities reported in the ESM surveys (75 percent) and was laden with both positive and negative emotions. This is consistent with results found in other ESM studies of flow at work (e.g. LeFevre, 1988; Schallberger and Pfister, 2001; To et al., 2011) and leadership research on problem solving (Bridges, 1992; Cuban, 2001; Leithwood and Steinbach, 1995; Weick, 1996). With regard to what was considered to be a problem, leadership students identified only 23.9 percent of maintenance activities as problem-solving moments, but over 75 percent of all of the other types of activities were considered to be problem-solving moments. In particular, over 90 percent of the moments students spent in metacognitive and reflective activities or dealing with financial issues were also identified as problem-solving moments. This seems to confirm Isaksen et al.'s (2011) assertion that problem solving is more associated with reflection than basic tasks such as maintenance.\nImplications for leadership programs: This ESM study builds a formative understanding of how fifteen leadership students attempted to solve problems on the fly, focussing on a sample of 375 problem-solving moments. Here we draw implications from the results for further leadership research and practice. First, the study helps to fill research gaps such as a bias on studying positive emotions and a lack of mixed methods studies in this area (Gooty et al., 2010). By examining both negative and positive emotions, we were able to understand that problem-solving moments are infused with strong emotions of both kinds and that overall, students felt positive when interacting with students, colleagues, and/or supervisors. However, negative emotional states did not depend on whether the student was alone or interacting with others.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on a pilot study of the emotional states associated with educational leadership students' attempts at problem solving \"on the fly\" in their schools and organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Experience sampling methodology (ESM) was used to study 375 \"problem-perceiving moments\" in leadership students using iPod touches, followed by individual cognitive interviews (CIs).\nFindings: Students reported higher levels of intrinsic motivation and cognitive engagement when solving new vs old problems. Students experienced both more positive and more negative emotions when attempting to problem solve than when reporting that they were not solving problems, yet lower levels of self-efficacy coupled with insufficient time to reflect on their leadership goals while at work. Consistent with previous research, students reported engaging in metacognitive and reflective activities more frequently while with supervisors and colleagues. In the CIs, students' narrative descriptions generally supported the quantitative analysis. For example, students described \"putting out fires,\" and discussed multi-tasking as a deterrent to problem solving. They also talked about balancing the emotional \"highs and lows\" throughout their day as well as the role of social affirmation in the problem solving process.\nResearch limitations/implications: While the limitations of this small pilot study include a small sample using self-report data, the implications for educational leadership faculty are to explicitly integrate psychological research into leadership courses to expand students' knowledge of creative problem solving and focus on building their self-efficacy.\nOriginality/value: Even though students might not perceive they are good at problem solving, faculty can help them learn how to regulate their emotions and create teamwork conditions for constructively vetting problems. In turn, this kind of instruction and research can enhance leadership students' persistence as problem solvers, which may help prevent leadership burnout and turnover.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The potential problem of picky eating: a pilot study among university students of food and nutrition
|
[
"Vegetable intake",
"Food preference",
"Forced eating",
"Adult picky eating",
"Nutrition professionals"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Picky eating (PE) is generally regarded as the reluctance to eat a large proportion of both familiar and unfamiliar foods. PE is also described as fussy or choosy eating; it further includes food neophobia expressed as a rejection of new or unfamiliar foods (Dovey et al., 2008; Taylor et al., 2015). PE is characterized by strong food likes and/or dislikes and a resulting particularity about what one consumes. It can be associated with adverse health effects due to nutritional deficiencies and imbalances resulting from a lack of diverse food intake (Dovey et al., 2008; Taylor et al., 2015). PE has thus been the subject of many studies, a number of which have addressed its direct link to a decrease in vegetable and fruit consumption (Ellis et al., 2018; Tharner et al., 2014; Zickgraf and Schepps, 2016).The development of food preference involves a complex interplay of biological, social and environmental factors (Birch, 1999; Lafraire et al., 2016; Rozin and Vollmecke, 1986). Biological factors affect food preferences during early childhood, at which time individuals are more attracted to sweet and salty tastes, but more reticent to sour and bitter tastes. As such, it is not surprising that young children tend to dislike vegetables, which mostly taste bitter. However, these unlearned biological tendencies during early childhood can be cultivated and modified by repeated exposure to disliked foods, eventually promoting the acceptance of those foods later in life (Birch and Fisher, 1996; Birch, 1999; Rozin and Vollmecke, 1986). Food-related experiences in more positive and supportive social and environmental contexts during early childhood are thus emphasized as they can build strong foundations for the development of food preferences throughout the course of life, including later childhood, adolescence and young adulthood (Kotler et al., 2001; Lafraire et al., 2016; Nicklaus et al., 2005; Ventura and Worobey, 2013).Although PE generally improves with age, adult PE is likely to develop without timely interventions during childhood (Birch, 1999; Kotler et al., 2001; Nicklaus et al., 2005; Rozin and Vollmecke, 1986; Ventura and Worobey, 2013). Indeed, nutritional imbalances among adults are currently being recognized, particularly among those in their early 20s (Gupta et al., 2010; KCDC, 2019a; Roy et al., 2019). This problem appears to have resulted from a combination of multidimensional factors, but might also be related to adult PE behaviors having an unbalanced diet with insufficient vegetable and fruit consumption.Specifically, in South Korea, a previous study on the trends in dietary risk factors contributing to chronic disease in Korean adults aged 25-74 years revealed that the amount of vegetable and fruit intake changed little or decreased especially in early adulthood (KCDC, 2019b). This is in line with previous research reporting negative trends in the intake of red meat, alcohol and vegetables and fruits (three major dietary factors related to cancer) among young adults in their early 20s (Park et al., 2016). The Korean Healthy Eating Index for adults, which is based on the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, has also reported that when taken by age group, those in their 20s had the lowest average scores and that this was attributed to lower intakes of vegetables, fruits and grains when compared to those of other age groups (KCDC, 2019a).Individuals exhibit PE behaviors for some food items depending on their preference. However, since PE can become a lifelong dietary habit, it is necessary to identify the specific causes of PE and modify them with timely intervention during younger periods of developmental growth (Birch, 1999; Kotler et al., 2001; Nicklaus et al., 2005; Rozin and Vollmecke, 1986; Ventura and Worobey, 2013). These efforts to discover root causes of PE are especially urgent for university students who are majoring in food and nutrition and who therefore aim to become nutrition professionals including nutritionists/dietitians or nutrition teachers. These prospective nutrition professionals might find it contradictory to encourage their clients to engage in healthy eating habits while they themselves are picky about vegetable and fruit consumption. However, it is also possible that these professionals unconsciously avoid foods they personally dislike when providing food services for their clients.Most studies focusing on improving PE behaviors have been with infants and children (Birch, 1999; Dovey et al., 2008; Lafraire et al., 2016; Rozin and Vollmecke, 1986; Taylor et al., 2015) and few have examined adult PE. Further, no research addresses the status of (or problems associated with) PE among students majoring in food and nutrition. Rather, it has been taken for granted that students, as prospective nutrition professionals, have already developed well-balanced dietary habits. However, concerns are being raised over the current food environments university students in their early 20s have access to, which are changing rapidly in unfavorable directions (Kim and Choi, 2019; Roy et al., 2019). These changes in the food environments may indicate that the predisposition is no longer entirely valid. Therefore, this pilot study was designed to explore the potential problem of PE among university students majoring in food and nutrition. It identifies the causes of PE and further examines the possibility of overcoming it by using a self-designed Food Bridge program, which includes planning and practicing stepwise exposures to target foods that were the subject of PE. This study will contribute to efforts aimed at improving healthy dietary habits among university students majoring in food and nutrition, and it will further serve as the basis for future studies on adult PE in general.\nMethods: Participants\nResults: General characteristics of participants\nDiscussion: Numerous studies have been conducted on the dietary habits of university students mostly in regard to their nutritional perceptions or knowledge, dietary behaviors and weight control (Chung et al., 2002; Lua and Elena, 2012; Plotnikoff et al., 2015), but few have specifically focused on their PE behaviors. The current study, which was designed to explore PE among university students majoring in food and nutrition, revealed that vegetables accounted for an overwhelmingly high proportion (74.7%) of the most disliked foods mentioned by the surveyed students. It supported previous studies suggesting that adult PE in general is strongly correlated with decreased vegetable and fruit intake (Ellis et al., 2018; Tharner et al., 2014; Zickgraf and Schepps, 2016). This result is worthy of attention considering that the traditional diet in South Korea is generally characterized by a variety of vegetable-based foods. Recent studies in South Korea emphasize the problems associated with decreased vegetable intake in early adulthood including university students (KCDC, 2019a, 2019b; Park et al., 2016).This study revealed that 46.0% of total participants mentioned that their PE was influenced by negative experiences during early school ages, with almost half indicating that these experiences involved forced eating by school/nutrition teachers and parents. Moreover, PE resulting from these negative experiences was less likely to be overcome than that related to sensory properties of the disliked food items. This finding supports a previous study (Batsell et al., 2002) regarding the prevalence of forced consumption and its role in subsequent food preferences. The results of this study suggested that \"specifically, the most common type of forced consumption involved an authority figure (e.g. parent, teacher) forcing a child to consume a novel, disliked or aversive food\" and that \"this forced consumption appears to be a unique situation in which distasteful food combines with interpersonal conflict to result in long-lasting food rejection.\" Van der Horst (2012) also found that highly controlling feeding practices may increase PE, while eating enjoyment served as a key element to decrease PE during childhood.Unlike Batsell et al., (2002) study, the current study implied that it was the teacher rather than the parent who was most frequently seen as the authority figure providing negative experiences that cause PE. This result underscores the possibilities of the increasingly negative effects that teachers or dieticians, who have taken more responsibility for children's eating behaviors, may have in a modern society. Currently in South Korea, it is common for children to attend childcare centers beginning at 12 months of age due to the increased participation of women in economic activities. They are typically provided with more than one meal per day by nursery teachers or dieticians. However, many recent articles have reported frequent abusive behaviors related to the feeding practices of nursery teachers or dieticians at childcare centers (e.g. forcing children to eat food during mealtimes) (Chung et al., 2018). In this case, eating experiences may remain as unpleasant memories of coercion by authority figures rather than times of eating pleasure and eventually cause PE, which if left unchecked will track further into adulthoods (Birch and Fisher, 1996).Promisingly, 65.5% of the participants achieved relatively positive results in overcoming PE through the self-designed Food Bridge program. This suggests that the program may be beneficial for modifying PE behaviors in adults, which is consistent with previous studies showing improvements in child PE through similar programs (Laureati et al., 2014; Lee and Kim, 2013; Panunzio et al., 2007; Park, 2000). A previous review indicates that \"primarily hedonic-based preferences early in life can be shifted to preferences that involve consideration of the health, social and economic impacts of foods later in life\" (Ventura and Worobey, 2013). The current study included students majoring in food and nutrition, and it is presumed that their learned perception of healthfulness toward vegetables may have also positively affected the results.\nConclusions: PE should be confronted through timely interventions involving dietary education during early childhood either at home or at school. The participants of the current study were in their second or fourth year of university, majoring in food and nutrition, and were likely to pursue careers as nutrition professionals, mostly as nutritionists/dietitians or nutrition teachers. As the current study implied, students majoring in food and nutrition can be subject to PE, and if left unchecked, this habit may eventually have a negative impact on their performance as nutrition professionals. It was thus necessary for them to identify the underlying causes of their own PE and find solutions to treat the associated behaviors. This deserves more attention since these individuals were not only in a period of critical transition into adulthood as university students, but would eventually play expert roles in educating and promoting healthy and balanced diets among their clients. Additionally, in terms of pedagogy, their own experiences of overcoming PE can be useful for improving PE among future clients.The present study has some limitations owing to the nature of a pilot study design. First, the study was conducted exclusively with a small number of university students in South Korea. The results should therefore be interpreted or generalized cautiously. Secondly, a cross-sectional approach was used to judge the effectiveness of the self-designed Food Bridge program. Since this cross-sectional study can only offer suggestive support for improvements, a longitudinal approach would be required to draw conclusions about whether the program is effective in improving students' PE behaviors toward the selected food items. In addition, individual differences in the level of PE have not been considered; although, it is possible that the results could have been affected by such differences. Individual differences in the level of PE should therefore be included in future large-scale studies. Despite considerable limitations, this study is meaningful in that it raises concerns over the potential problem of PE and its treatment among students and prospective nutrition professionals. This study is also expected to serve as a basis for further research on adult PE.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This pilot study is aimed to explore the potential problem of picky eating (PE) among university students majoring in food and nutrition as prospective nutrition professionals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The current pilot study included a total of 87 South Korean students majoring in food and nutrition. The self-designed Food Bridge program was applied to identify the underlying causes of PE and examine the possibility of overcoming it. The program included planning and practicing stepwise exposures to target foods that were the subject of PE. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and distributive differences between the success and failure groups in the program were analyzed using a chi-squared test.\nFindings: Vegetables were the most commonly disliked foods (74.7%). About 46% of all students mentioned negative experiences as a reason for food dislikes. Almost half (45%) of these negative experiences were due to external coercion: forced eating (30.0%) and vomiting after forced eating (15.0%). About 66% of the students achieved relatively positive results in overcoming PE. The proportion of failures tended to be higher when the reasons for food dislike included negative experiences.\nOriginality/value: As the current study implied, students majoring in food and nutrition can be subject to PE. Despite study limitations, this study is meaningful in that it raises concerns over the potential problem of PE and its treatment among prospective nutrition professionals. This study is also expected to serve as a basis for further research on adult PE.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Patient-centred quality improvement audit
|
[
"Quality management",
"Quality audit",
"Patients",
"General practice"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The topic of quality audit for improvement in health care in the UK has become both complex and problematic. There have been a number of government initiatives for health care quality improvement, and audit is seen as one way to provide information about whether or not patients receive a care package with quality \"built in\".Audit, in the sense of carrying out some activity and then evaluating its impact, is not new to the National Health Service (NHS) - a version of audit has always been practised to some extent in the health care field. A departure from previous audits is the current practice of emphasising measurable outcomes.The next section discusses the range of quality audits currently in place throughout the NHS - medical, clinical, professional, managerial and consumer quality audits - followed by a discussion of the research process. Then the development of a patient-centred quality improvement audit tool is examined. The Podiatry and General Practice audits are then presented. The final section draws preliminary conclusions about the potential value of the audit tool as a contribution to the quality of health care debate.\nQuality audits: Medical audit\nThe research process: Ethical approval\nThe audit tool: The 17 statements which scored highly in the frequencies and the factor variables enabled the formation of the quality improvement audit instrument (see Tables I and II). The statements have a simple yes/no arrangement in tick-box format. Space is provided for written comments, should the respondents wish to make them. The audit tool is easy to complete and analyse, and is suitable to audit a variety of services. Another reason simplicity was considered to be important was that those who would be using and analysing the tool do not need prior training or continued intervention from the researchers to do so.\nThe two audits conducted so far: The completed audit tool has been tested in the Trust's Podiatry Service. A list of patients over 75 attending the Podiatry clinics over the period of the last week in September 1995 was sent to the researchers, who sent a covering letter, the audit questionnaire and a prepaid return envelope to all names on the list. Three hundred and ninety-five questionnaires were sent, and 298 responses were received, a response rate of 75 per cent. The responses to the audit tool were analysed using the simple count of the frequency of \"yes\" responses as a measure of the existing capability of the process - the current \"standard\" (see Table I).Podiatry service\nConclusion: The quality assurance of auditing services from the patients' perspective has a demonstrated usefulness in that it ensures that an empirical review of services and their improvement can be undertaken by those people who, though stakeholders in the services, are not the organisation's employees. This audit tool is not meant to challenge the effectiveness of health services, but to provide them with an aid to the provision of improved service. It provides relevant information about patients' views of their services, which the new NHS philosophy states should be taken into account in the planning and implementation of services. Where quality of services is concerned, the audit tool allows for the input of the patient's voice, which, until now, has been largely unheard or regarded as irrelevant.Health care professionals may not feel able to control this type of audit in the way that they can with medical/clinical/professional audit, which often involves the use of peer review. Non-clinical managers may also feel threatened by giving power to users in this manner. This, however, should not prevent the auditing of services from the user's perspective. Patient-centred quality improvement audit should be undertaken regularly so that both non-clinical managers and health care professionals can establish whether or not they are providing services that are patient-friendly and effective from the user's viewpoint. As highlighted during the discussion about the Podiatry service, users' viewpoints can increase efficiency.NHS managers are charged with establishing that NHS services are patient-friendly, and the tool outlined above represents an efficient and effective method of doing this. In the course of their work, professionals and managers discuss patients and speak on their behalf in various forums, and knowing what patients actually expect and perceive before speaking on their behalf may be of great benefit in such instances.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This article aims to describe the research process, and the development of the instrument now employed in auditing patients' perceptions of quality improvement in a community health care trust in a coastal town in Essex, England.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The new instrument is currently being implemented and the findings thus far are described.\nFindings: - The instrument has measured health outcomes in terms of quality improvement from the users' perspective, and has also highlighted gaps between what the service offers in terms of quality and users' perceptions of what is delivered. The study demonstrates the importance of the professional role in quality improvement.\nOriginality/value: - Patient-centred quality improvement audit should be undertaken regularly so that both non-clinical managers and health care professionals can establish whether or not they are providing services that are patient-friendly and effective from the user's viewpoint. In the course of their work, professionals and managers discuss patients and speak on their behalf in various forums, and knowing what patients actually expect and perceive before speaking on their behalf may be of great benefit in such instances.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
What drives intellectual capital reporting? Evidence from Kuwait
|
[
"Content analysis",
"Drivers",
"Disclosure",
"Annual reports",
"Intellectual capital"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the past few decades, intellectual capital (IC) has become a key source of wealth creation and sustainable competitive advantage for companies (Chahal and Bakshi, 2016). For example, Guthrie et al. (2006) argue that IC represents a significant proportion of total company value. The importance of IC resources in value creation has consistently increased due to the shift from industrial-based economies to knowledge-based economies (Orens et al., 2009). This trend has increased interest in IC and stimulated demand for disclosure and measurement (Liao et al., 2013). However, the problem of identifying and measuring IC means that traditional financial reporting often fails to include its value (Guthrie et al., 2006; Branco et al., 2010). The increased importance of IC information to the economy has led international accounting regulatory bodies to call for companies to voluntarily disclose such information in their corporate reporting (Oliveira et al., 2006). For example, in 2010 the International Accounting Standards Board issued a non-binding framework including IC reporting for the presentation of narrative reporting as a supplement and complement to traditional financial statements (IASB, 2010). Although many companies have already complied with the request, in order to improve transparency between management and stakeholders (Yi and Davey, 2010), complete disclosure remains nascent (Kamath, 2008).\n2. Theoretical framework, previous work, and hypotheses: 2.1 Theoretical framework\n3. Methods: 3.1 Sample selection and data\n4. Results: 4.1 Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis\n5. Discussion and conclusion: Motivated by the increased attention to IC disclosure from regulatory bodies, practitioners, and researchers and the recent calls for companies to supplement and complement their traditional financial statements with IC disclosure, the objective of this empirical study is to investigate the drivers of ICR among the companies listed on the KSE. Six hypotheses were developed as to the influence of company characteristics on the level of ICR in companies listed on the KSE in 2013. ICR was hypothesized to increase with company age (H1), leverage (H2), size (H3), performance (H4), and type of auditor (H5) and vary as a function of industrial sector (H6).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Motivated by the increased attention on intellectual capital reporting (ICR) from regulatory bodies, practitioners, and researchers and the recent calls for companies to supplement and complement their traditional financial statements with intellectual capital (IC) disclosure, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the drivers of ICR among the companies listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Content analysis was applied to the annual reports of all companies listed on the KSE in 2013. A multiple regression analysis was employed to explore the ICR drivers.\nFindings: Despite the growing importance of ICR in capital markets, the study findings reveal an overall relatively low level of ICR among KSE-listed companies. In addition, the level of ICR varies significantly between companies. The results show that the level of ICR for all KSE-listed companies in 2013 ranged from 0 to 96 percent and the mean was 28 percent. The multiple regression analysis suggests that older, highly leveraged, larger, and profitable KSE-listed companies are associated with higher levels of ICR. Industrial sector is a partial driver.\nPractical implications: Surprisingly, many of the KSE-listed companies do not disclose any IC information in their annual reports. Given the increasingly important role that IC information plays in capital markets, regulatory bodies should encourage, stimulate, and guide companies to report IC information. The findings offer insights as to the drivers of ICR that should improve efforts to develop recommendations that push for greater IC disclosure in corporate annual reports.\nOriginality/value: The study is the first examination of ICR drivers in Kuwait. It contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence about ICR in a market with specific economic, social, and cultural characteristics. It enhances our understanding of ICR by revealing some of its drivers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Trust formation processes in innovative collaborations : Networking as knowledge building practices
|
[
"Innovation",
"Collaboration",
"Networking",
"Trust",
"Virtual",
"Knowledge"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Innovation plays a key role in maintaining competitive advantage. This is especially true for small firms in the biotechnology sector, the focus of this study. Schumpeter (1934) pointed out innovation requires new combinations; especially new combinations of knowledge to develop new products (McAdam, 2005). For most small firms this means they have to collaborate to acquire such information and most do this through their networking (Jack et al., 2010b). Customers can play a key role in this networked innovation, not least because they can help shape how the innovation develops (Antikainen et al., 2010; Chorev and Anderson, 2006). Accordingly, our study examines the networking processes of small biotech firms as they engage with customers to produce innovation.Although the importance of biotech innovation is well recognised, much less is known about how productive collaborations emerge and how they are sustained (Ortt and Van der Duin, 2008; Taatila et al., 2006). Nonetheless, we note that many scholars allude to the importance of trust. For example, Camen et al. (2011) propose that trust plays a significant role in most business relationships; or as Batt and Purchase (2004) put it, trust is the critical determinant of a good relationship. But few studies actually explain the role played by trust. Indeed, at one level trust is employed to \"explain\" almost everything in relationships; but in detail explains very little. The trust literature is replete with descriptions of different types of trust, but lacks examples of how trust is formed, developed and maintained in collaborative innovation. This study attempts to address this research problem. We examine the processes of collaborations, what Bjerregaard (2009) calls the social practices of collaboration, between innovators and their customers. We pay close attention to what sort of trust is invoked and how it is engaged in the innovation practices of our respondents. Small businesses are well suited to this enquiry because their small size makes processes more visible (Anderson, 2000; Varis and Littunen, 2010). We employ an inductive, qualitative approach to capture and analyse data about the collaborative practices for innovation of 11 small biotech firms.The development of trust was seen by all of our respondents as crucial for collaboration, but especially for the exchange of tacit knowledge. Trust helps overcome the tension between knowledge sharing and protection (Bogers, 2011). We found that different types of trust were invoked at different stages of the collaboration, but we could readily distinguish between the dimensions of trust based upon technical capability and trust built from more personal dimensions. In networking terms, we saw how weak ties with their capacity for non-redundant knowledge become strong ties (Bergenholtz, 2011). Moreover, trust was the mechanism for this development. Interestingly, we found that in the virtual networking environment, personal trust only emerged with closer, face-to-face contacts. However, trust was maintained through e-mail when strong ties are built. We argue that trust works by creating a stable platform for collaboration. Confidence arises through trust by reducing perceptions of vulnerability risk. Importantly, the evolvement of trust determined the extent of tacit knowledge exchanged, which in turn shapes the success of collaborative innovation. We found that the use of virtual networks complements, rather than substitutes for, face-to-face meetings.Having set out our research problem, we next explore the literature to establish what is already known about the topics. The literature identifies that collaboration is indeed important for innovation, especially the sharing of tacit knowledge. Yet there is a research gap in our knowledge about the trust formation process that facilitates the transfer of knowledge. Our next section explains how our methodology addresses the research problem. We then present our findings; essentially that there are two different approaches. The technical approach is used to show competence whilst the social is employed to build confidence in capability. Finally we discuss the implications and limitations of the study.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Innovation, networking and trust\n3. Methodology: Our research objective was to find out what happens in innovative networks, especially trust process and virtual networks to develop some explanatory account of why they happen in this way. We aim to understand how entrepreneurs build, develop and maintain trust with customers in their innovation practices. We also want to know if and how, virtual interaction affects the processes. Given the importance of distance in collaborative relationships, we selected respondents whose customers did not share a location with our respondents. Our fieldwork was conducted in 2009 over several months and involved two stages. The initial stage was participant observation in a respondent's office, attempting to map how a collaborative network relationship operated (Van Manen, 1990). Participant observation of networking activities combined with access to documents (e-mails) provided insights about interactions and behaviour in a real-life context (Waddington, 2004; Mason, 2002). Although time consuming (Hussey and Hussey, 1997), this initial stage provided a grounded understanding for the next stage.In-depth interviewing formed our next stage. One interviewer had previous involvement in new product development which helped establish rapport with the respondents (Patton, 2002) as connections were built through shared experiences (Liamputtong and Ezzy, 2005).3.1 Sampling\n4. Findings and analysis: A primary and consistent theme was the importance of innovation for these small firms. G provided a very typical comment:Innovation is important [...] we're looking at the problems within the industry and coming up with the solutions through those problems (G, CR).This theme demonstrated the business philosophy, and helped explain what drove the entrepreneurs to actively engage with new product development. Indeed, P at Alb, sees innovation as the company's raison d'etre:If there is a problem and there isn't a solution, let's invent the solution [...] that's why we set up (P, Alb).All respondents expressed similar attitudes towards innovation. We saw a passion for proactively dealing with challenges and creating innovation. New product development defined the nature of their businesses. But the importance of innovation, especially in solving customers' problem, was prioritised in customer relationships:[...] in terms of the parties that facilitate innovation generation, customers I would say are the first (I, CML).All, save one, explained how customers contributed most in generating ideas leading to incremental innovations. The exceptional respondent described how ideas generally originated in-house, but customers contributed. Thus we were fairly confident that our data were well suited to investigating the processes of innovation.Our analysis then examined differences in the networking approaches. Two distinctive types were identified, the technical approach and the social approach to trust building. What distinguishes these strategies is the different emphasis. The technical is about demonstrating technical competencies and abilities, whilst the social is about building a social connection. Nonetheless, both approaches seem intended to promote trust as a linking mechanism for collaboration. We begin by looking at how connections commenced.Initiating collaboration: ten firms published their research in bioscience journals, but all had web sites. These were a shop window for their capabilities:[...] so everything we have got [...] all of our intellectual property is all on the website, so we are sharing it with our customers, so you want to know what are global warming and coal efficiencies? It's there. Do you want to know [...] when you dilute it with water? It's there [...] (D, Bit).This shared information demonstrated technological capabilities and performance, offering customers a basis for confidence and potential for collaboration. It could be construed as a marketing strategy. For example:[...] in terms of new business [...] we go out and actively market, present the company, we present at scientific meetings, so it's a whole marketing push, to tell people what CR can do, so the customers who come to us know what we can do [...] (G, CR).But note how the focus is on what they can do. As a marketing strategy, it works by demonstrating knowledge as a hook to \"catch\" prospective clients, knowledge is displayed. Cognitive legitimacy (Aldrich and Fiol, 1994) is offered as a basis for presumptive trust about what they can do. Note too, that the initial contact point can be virtual and relatively passive using a web site; or proactive, as demonstrated in the last quote. Knowledge was used to attract customers into collaborations. In this preliminary stage, codifiable knowledge flows one way, from the shop window to potential customers. Knowledge is presented in terms of capability and expertise, so can be clearly described as offering a basis for competence-based trust. But as the collaboration begins to form, we saw a shift towards more detailed, relevant and tacit knowledge exchange, the technical approach.4.1 The technical approach to trust building\n5. Conclusions: Trust, in its varied dimensions provides an enabling mechanism for collaboration. Trust seems to build confidence in two distinct areas; the ability of the partner to deliver and the reliability of the partner to deliver. Although the extensive trust literature categorises trust in a number of ways, we found that trust behaviours in collaborative innovation practices follow a simpler dichotomy; a distinction between trust in the technical and trust in the person. The qualities of trust in this distinction help explain tie strengths in the networking strategies of our respondents. We saw how they build confidence in what they could do, albeit from different starting points, and how both types of trust are employed to demonstrate commitment in what they would do.We contribute to the literature on trust in collaboration. This study helps fill gaps in the literature by explaining trust evolvement as process and by showing how trust enables different types of knowledge exchanges, in particular tacit knowledge, in innovation practices. From a starting point of codified and explicit knowledge, trust seemed to foster the exchange and development of more contextualised tacit knowledge that was employed to develop the innovation. We found an increasing level of tacit knowledge exchange in the innovation processes when trust grew between the respondents and their customers. In identifying two approaches to trust building as a means of facilitating and building collaboration for innovation, this study offers a more conceptually parsimonious typology of two different types of trust. Nonetheless, we conclude that trust is created by human interactions, and trust itself is a relational artefact.When we looked at how the virtual was used, we found that it did not replace face-to-face meetings. Rather it could be seen to extend the collaborative relationship and served as a complementary mode to face-to-face meeting. The study contributes by showing how the virtual mode provided an effective way of communicating when the platform of trust had become, or was becoming, established. Our findings also demonstrate that e-mail social conversations facilitate the maintenance of trust. Existing studies (Daft and Lengel, 1984; Daft et al., 1987; Lengel and Daft, 1988) argued that e-mail is a lean communication mode. But we show that it can become a rich mode if trust is in place and strong ties exist between network actors who have a prior stock of inter-personal knowledge.There are some practical implications from our study. In showing how trust is developed in practice, we make apparent the strategies that collaborators can use. We show the relative strengths and weakness of each approach and indicate how sequences of trust types can be usefully deployed at different stages of collaboration. We also highlight the benefits and consequences of virtual communication. From a practical perspective it may be useful for prospective participants in collaboration to recognise the importance of trust. Moreover, an awareness of how these processes operate may offer some guidance on how best to go about creating useful relationships. Finally we note the importance of face-to-face meetings, which should caution against a reliance on the virtual.5.1 Limitations and future research\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the practices and processes of trust building and use in collaborative networking for product innovation and to compare face to face with virtual networking.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Guided by a literature review and preliminary participant observation, 16 open ended interviews collected data about the processes in 11 small biotech firms. These data were inductively analysed by the constant comparative method to develop explanatory themes.\nFindings: - Trust was seen as a requirement for successful collaborative innovation, but the paper identified how different dimensions of trust are located in the trust building processes. Trust works by creating a platform of confidence that fosters flows of information and the exchange of tacit knowledge. Two types of trust relationships, the technical and the social, work in different ways to produce different, but complementary, types of trust. Virtual environments suit technical trust building but are less suited to developing deeper, more enduring forms of trust.\nResearch limitations/implications: - These different approaches to collaboration are often implicit. But if practitioners are made aware of how they work, they can use the most appropriate approach to build trust.\nPractical implications: - The method and sample restrict general application, but the explanatory framework may be conceptually generalisable.\nSocial implications: - Networking for innovation is seen as much social as technical.\nOriginality/value: - The paper contributes conceptually by theorising the trust building process and its role in knowledge sharing and collaborative innovation. It addresses a gap in the literature in identifying how trust is produced, developed and employed in furthering innovation, in particular the behavioural patterns of using virtual networks in furthering innovation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Public sector reform in Kazakhstan: issues and perspectives
|
[
"Public sector reform",
"Governance",
"Public sector organizations",
"Kazakhstan"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The public sector is the entity that is entrusted with the delivery of goods and services by, and, for the government at the national, regional or local levels (Mansour, 2008). Unequivocally, the public sector in modern politico-administrative settings merit to be characterized in many ways. Peters (2006) identifies that it can be described in terms of the types of public policies that organizations in the public sector deliver for citizens (for example, the Welfare State), by the degree of democratic control exercised over those policy choices, or any number of other political and administrative variables. In an increasingly turbulent environment, the public sector lately has been experiencing a bumpy journey as its tasks seem overwhelming and beyond human capacity to perform satisfactorily (Caiden, 2007). Public sector monopolies in developing countries are often associated with inefficiencies and inability to meet rapidly growing demand. Studies estimate the annual losses from inefficiencies and unsustainable pricing policies to be nearly equal to the annual investment in infrastructure (The World Bank, 1994 cited in Araral, 2008). As a result, the contribution of the traditional public sector is largely questioned, suggesting the need for a major overhaul. Public sector reform (PSR) in both developed and developing countries has now become a routine matter of public policy - reform is almost continuous if not always successful (Pal and Ireland, 2009). PSR initiatives aim to create and maintain an effective governmental structure, and procedures to formulate and implement development policies and programs for the benefit of the citizens (Liou, 2007).The challenges associated with PSR have emerged as a daunting task of governments. The context and the nature of advancing PSR between developed and developing countries vary considerably on a number of issues (Kim, 2009). The focus of developed countries is to make their public sector more competitive and effective because they are not generally struggling with political instability, corruption and poverty. On the other, developing countries face much more serious tasks: not only government reform, but also political and legal reforms, as well as the pursuit of basic economic well-being (Kim, 2009). Over the past three decades, governments across the world have made efforts to improve the efficiency and quality of public services and its cost-effective delivery to citizens. These efforts have involved restructuring, an increased use of technology to offset staff cutbacks, the introduction and enforcement of service standards for employees and managers, an increase in managerial discretion, the contracting out of service delivery, and the adoption of flexible staffing practices (Foley, 2008). These measures are part of the PSR movement, which have been prevalent in recent public administration practices. Some major ideas of PSR include: structural devolution and decentralization; vertical coordination and autonomy within single agency; managerialism and management techniques; contractualism, privatization and entrepreneurship, market-driven techniques; deregulation and market transactions, performance management and output. Table I succinctly summarizes a cross-country study on PSR. A total 63 countries out of 99 attempted to privatize, followed by decentralization, downsizing, Civil Service reform and other strategies. Around the world, these trajectories have been utilized in the public sector of many countries, although the degree of such reforms might differ from country to country (Kim, 2007).For effective application of PSR principles, governments must explore, assess, and engage in opportunities for collaboration both within and outside the public sector. Making the provision of public services more efficient and responsive through the incorporation of civil society and business organizations is one of the major challenges faced by governments that can be addressed through PSR initiatives. Public sectors have embarked on profound change processes to confront the problems of inefficiencies and inadequacies of the state in addressing public problems. These reforms relate to the quality of relationships between the governments and the governed. It also involves relationships and cooperation among the public sector, private agencies and civil society organizations in policy processes, and the delivery of services (Siddiquee and Mohamed, 2007). Consequently, PSR requires a redefinition of the role of the state in society and its relationship with the market, alongside efforts for improving the competence of public bureaucracies (Mulgan, 2008). This implies that governments must explore, assess, and engage in opportunities for collaboration both within and outside the public sector (Mendoza and Vernis, 2008). Public agencies must be prepared to work in partnership with other public, civil society and business organizations (Huque, 2005). This multi-institutional operational arrangement improves cost-effective delivery of public services, and thus enhances the quality of governance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the application of PSR in Kazakhstan within the contexts of decentralization of responsibilities, Civil Service reforms, e-governance, and the role of civil society. The rest of this paper is structured as follows: Section 2 provides the background of the study. Section 3 reviews the literature on PSRs. Section 4 discusses the methodology of the study, while Section 5 illustrates four types of PSR initiatives: decentralization, Civil Service reform, e-governance, and civil society in Kazakhstan. Section 6 makes a critical assessment of the benefits of PSR in Kazakhstan, and Section 7 succinctly concludes the paper.\n2. Background of the study: Kazakhstan (see Table II for summary information) is located in Central Asia and was a member of the former Soviet Union, declaring its independence from the Soviet Union in December 1991. The country has a unitary form of government and adopted its first post-Soviet constitution in 1993. A popular referendum approved the introduction of a new constitution in August 1995. After the 1997 territorial reorganization that merged some provinces (oblasts), the government has been structured along the lines of the national government with 16 territorial divisions (Perlman and Gleason, 2007). Constitutional amendments were later adopted in October 1998. PSR is particularly relevant for Central Asian countries that were part of the Soviet bloc (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) and experiencing political, social and economic transitions. The issues of good governance and public service delivery have thus become the fundamental concerns of Central Asian governments. After the dissolution from the Soviet Union, these republics faced three different issues of transition: economic shock, transformation to market-based economy and political transition (Linn, 2002 cited in Saner et al., 2008). All these republics have chosen their own ways to reform their countries, and these reforms have had an impact on their current economic, political and social institutions. Reforms in the region also have varied during the transition period. The most active reformers in the region are Kazakhstan and making the Kazakh government more efficient in the delivery of public services (see Table II).Kyrgyzstan, followed by Tajikistan, while Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan lag behind with the former command-administrative system of economy still largely in place (EBRD, 2005 cited in Saner et al., 2008). PSR initiatives in Kazakhstan are progressing in the midst of hazy political climate, where the Nazerbaev regime consolidates its control by redistributing the spoils of political office among the loyal clients and beneficiaries who control the pro-presidential parties (Dave, 2005). As a result, in Kazakhstan, like other Central Asian countries, political opposition struggles to exist, rulers practice varying degrees of authoritarianism and rely on networks of patronage, clans and corruption that constitute important pillars of governance (Fritz, 2007; Koehler and Zurcher, 2004; Matveeva, 2008). The country remains effectively a one-party state, as the president's party (Nur Otan) is the only one represented in parliament, which is a much weaker institution than the presidency (Olcott, 2008). It is in this context that this paper intends to explore whether the reform initiatives have contributed to making the Kazakh government more efficient in the delivery of public services.Admittedly, Kazakhstan is in transition. The country is gradually accommodating many transitional challenges; an important one is the move from a centrally planned economy to a market-driven, privatized policy regime. As markets become liberalized, public sector organizations face extreme vulnerability unless they can identify and develop the competencies necessary to thrive in these competitive spheres (Gurtoo, 2009). As there is a dearth of research on PSR in Kazakhstan, this paper attempts to make an important contribution to this growing field of scientific inquiry.\n3. Literature review: Various studies have examined the application and success of PSR initiatives in a number of countries. These studies have investigated PSR in developed, developing, and transitional countries.3.1 Selected PSR studies in developed countries\n4. Methodology: Research for this study is based on analysis of secondary sources and a review of published articles in academic journals. This conforms to Webster and Watson (2002), which states that literature review is a significant component in the relevant study of a field, because it provides an opportunity to synthesize and reflect on prior research. This study also reviewed reports, surveys, and policy documents published by international development organizations on Kazakhstan. These include:* ADB (Asian Development Bank) (2007), Overview of NGOs/Civil Society: Kazakhstan;* CSA (Civil Service Agency) (2008), Civil Service of the Republic of Kazakhstan;* ITU (International Telecommunication Union) (2008);* Transparency International (2008), Corruption Perception Index, 1999-2008 (Kazakhstan);* Transparency International (2006), Global Country Report, 2006 (Kazakhstan);* UN (United Nations) (2008), United Nations e-Government Survey, 2008;* UNDP (United Nations Development Program) (1995), Public Sector Management, Governance and Sustainable Development;* UNESC (United Nations Economic and Social Council) (2008), National Report on the Achievement of Kazakhstan's Strategic Priorities to 2030 in the light of the Millennium Development Goals;* (The World Bank (2008)The) World Bank (2008), Kazakhstan: Data and Statistics; and* (The World Bank (2006), Kazakhstan E-Government Program and the Road Ahead, World Bank (a joint economic research program with the Government of Kazakhstan.The websites of a number of organizations were reviewed. Three such websites are:1. Fund for Peace website (www.fundforpeace.org);2. Freedom House (www.freedomhouse.org); and3. (Agency of Statistics of Kazakhstan (n.d.) (www.stat.kz).\n5. Key areas of PSR in Kazakhstan: As Kazakhstan is experiencing transition from the Soviet era Communist party administration (which lacked elements of public sector reform), to a public administration reform model, it has tried to incorporate these four key PSR initiatives: decentralization, Civil Service reform, e-governance, and the role of civil society. First, decentralization as element of PSR in Kazakhstan is important because during the Soviet era, all political and administrative decisions were centralized in Moscow, with minimal inputs from the Republics. Second, while much work still needs to be done in its Civil Service, Kazakhstan has been making efforts to reform its Civil Service system inherited from the Soviet Union, to gradually conform with Western standards. Third, e-governance, while a relatively new phenomenon, is a mechanism being used by governments around the world to enhance the delivery and efficiency of public services, and thus is considered an essential tool of public sector reform that will be particularly useful for a transitional country like Kazakhstan. Finally, the role of civil society is relevant in contemporary Kazakhstan, since during the Soviet era, civil society organizations, had limited or non-existent roles in addressing the needs of the society.5.1 Decentralization of responsibilities\n6. The impact of PSR on Kazakhstan's development: 6.1 Government effectiveness\n7. Conclusion: Kazakhstan has embarked on the global trend of PSR and has introduced several PSR initiatives. These reform efforts are designed to make the government more responsive to the needs and demands of its citizens. This paper examined four PSR initiatives in Kazakhstan: decentralization, Civil Service reform, e-governance, and the role of civil society. Decentralization has been recognized as a major tool in bringing governments closer to the people and responding to citizens' needs (Antwi and Analoui, 2008). GoK has made efforts in this regard similar to efforts made in other countries (Borghi and Berkel, 2007). The Civil Service reforms in Kazakhstan have been aimed at ensuring a professional Civil Service system based on principles of transparency, accountability and corporate governance. These measures are prerequisites for a professional Civil Service system (Bowman et al. 2006).The essential roles of e-governance are to improve transparency, accountability and quality in public service delivery (Kudo, 2008; Morgeson and Mithas, 2009). Kazakhstan is following the global trend in using e-governance as a means of facilitating efficiency, effectiveness, access, quality, transparency and accountability in its public service delivery.Civil societies help to ensure good governance by making governments and the public aware of salient issues, and working with governments to improve quality of governance (Kernaghan, 2009). GoK has made some progress in this area by registering almost 5,000 NGOs, even though only 800 of them are actually active. While more progress needs to be made here, NGOs in Kazakhstan are still in much better position than in other CIS countries.These reform efforts have helped Kazakhstan facilitate its economic development and enhance the possibility for it to attain its goal of being one of the top 50 competitive economies in the world. While the reform efforts considered in this study are a first step in helping the country towards the part of being a competitive player on the global stage, it is suggested that more robust efforts should be directed towards other PSR initiatives in order to make the country well-grounded in good governance, and enhance its competitiveness in the global economy.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to investigate public sector reform (PSR) initiatives in Kazakhstan, and how such reform efforts have helped the government to be more responsive to the needs and demands of the citizens.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper examined four key PSR initiatives: decentralization, Civil Service reform, e-governance, and civil society in improving governance in post-Soviet Kazakhstan.\nFindings: - In light of Kazakhstan government's efforts to reform the public sector, the study finds that substantial progress has been made in improving its service delivery systems and enhancing good governance.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study is an investigation of four out of several PSR initiatives aimed at improving good governance.\nOriginality/value: - The study provides insights into how aspects of PSR can be fundamentally useful in promoting good governance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Integration of queuing network and IDEF3 for business process analysis
|
[
"Simulation",
"Knowledge management",
"Business process re‐engineering",
"Process management",
"Queuing theory",
"Modelling"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: IDEF3 is a descriptive process modeling method, which graphically represents the process knowledge of a given system in order to improve the communication between project members. However, since it does not provide any quantitative analysis for the system, some researchers tried to integrate the simulation with IDEF3 by generating a simulation model from an IDEF3 model to numerically explain the behavior of the systems. For example, KBSI (1995) and Resenburg and Zwemstra (1995) developed the mechanism to generate a WITNESS and a SIMAN simulation model from an IDEF3 model, respectively. Although these approaches have been widely used, the extensive computer running time for simulation has been considered as a main disadvantage of any simulation-based approach, which motivated this research. If an analytical method can be used as a substitute for simulation in some situations whose modeling objectives do not require simulation-level modeling efforts, why not we integrate that analytical method with IDEF3?In this study, we selected the general open queuing network (GOQN) as a substitute for the simulation since it can measure the resource contention and its effect on the overall system through the resource utilization and the system cycle time, etc. In fact, the GOQN can be applicable to many real life cases such as a flow shop and a job shops, and business process improvement as addressed in Bitran and Morabito (1996) and Shanthikumar and Buzacott (1984). The GOQN is robust in terms of data requirement since it is defined by:* mean and variance of entity's external interarrival time;* mean and variance of entity's processing time at resource; and* entity's routing between resources.That is, it does not require any specific form of a distribution as in simulation. However, we recognize that there are some analytical limitations and difficulties in the GOQN approach. For example, if a finite buffer or a non-First-In First-Out queue discipline issue is critical in a given domain, it may not properly work as a substitute for simulation. However, as Law and Kelton (1991) pointed out, the model needs to capture the essence of the system for which it is intended without excessive details. Hence, if none of the finite buffer or the queue discipline is a critical constraint or if it can be appropriately abstracted to reduce the complexity without violating the modeling requirements and objectives, the GOQN can still work as a solution method. Hence, if a GOQN analysis is available within IDEF3 environment, analysts can have an opportunity to deploy it as a substitute for simulation, and obtain rapid results without a detailed and time-consuming simulation model.\n2 Modeling views: It is important to recognize for further study that IDEF3 uses a process-centered modeling view (PCMV) to capture the process knowledge in a given system, and GOQN uses a resource-centered modeling view (RCMV) for a quantitative analysis. If we define a process as a set of sequenced time-related activities performed by resource(s) to provide a service to an entity flowing through a system, i.e. products or customers, the PCMV defines the sequence of activities from the entity's perspective regardless of the resource, and then it provides the resource information to each activity. Hence, the same resource may be represented multiple times in a process with the same or different names. For example, a process plan in a manufacturing system is a good example of the PCMV where the process is defined first to determine a product manufacturing sequence, and then specific resource information is assigned to it. However, in the RCMV, each resource is first recognized and uniquely defined, then the input and output flows of the entities to and from the resource are defined. Hence, each resource can be represented only once in the RCMV. Many analytical modeling methods such as the Petri net and the GOQN use the RCMV.Figure 1 shows the difference between two modeling views. The flow of the two entities - e1 and e2 - is represented as a solid arrow. The first diagram (a) shows a type of the PCMV representation where a sequence of the named circles represents a process defined for each entity. Note that, the name of each resource providing a service to each entity in an activity is denoted under the activity. The same resource R1 is repeatedly used in the different activities at each process. The second diagram (b) describes the same system from the RCMV perspective where resource name is uniquely represented in a circle, and all flows are represented between R1 and R2. In general, the PCMV is more intuitive and commonly used in a descriptive model while the RCMV is more popular in a quantitative model since it is easy to quantify the amount of flow between resources. Hence, to integrate the IDEF3 with the GOQN, we need to convert the PCMV-based knowledge in IDEF3 to the RCMV-based knowledge in GOQN.\n3 Overview and concept of a proposed framework: The conceptual architecture of the integration is shown in Figure 2, which shows the four modules; knowledge acquisition and representation (KAR), modeling view converter (MVC), database, and queueing network analyzer (QNA). The KAR module is composed of the IDEF3 and the queuing network (QN) graphics module.A typical operation among the modules has the following sequence:* the IDEF3 graphics module captures the process knowledge using the PCMV;* the MVC translates this PCMV-based knowledge into the RCMV-based knowledge;* the QN graphics module refines the RCMV-based knowledge; and* the QNA performs the GOQN-based QN analysis in order to numerically explain the IDEF3 process model.Keeping all knowledge in the database facilitates the knowledge reusability since all captured and processed knowledge is separated from the IDEF3 and the QNA, which can be easily accessed via Structured Query Statement. Hence, if analysts want to deploy another analytical tool, i.e. simulation later, this knowledge can be reused easily.Now, we are ready to explain each module. All italicized words refer to the objects or tables in the database module.3.1 IDEF3 graphics module\n4 Prototype software development: Software \"SmartQueue\" was developed to implement the proposed concept and framework. It provides a user-friendly graphic interface for the IDEF3 process descriptions and the QN analysis.The QN diagram is built from an IDEF3 schematic diagram, and all IDEF3 syntax is reused for the QN diagram. For example, an XOR junction and UOB rectangle are reused to represent the probabilistic routing and a resource node, respectively. All artifacts constructed in \"SmartQueue\" are stored in a pool for reuse. It also allows users to build their own sub- QN (template) in a library. Users can retrieve this template when they want to expand or make the QN model in more detail. Once this template is used, the users are supposed to connect the template with the existing QN. Figure 4 shows a screen shot of a template with its entity queue information window that is a part of the QN graphics module. It is noted that, a resource name is represented inside each rectangle. The \"Entity Queue Information\" window shows all the required input data for each product at each node in a template, which includes:* number of servers;* mean service time;* variance of service time;* external arrival rate; and* variance of external interarrival time.In addition to this input data, the node type information should also be specified for QN analysis. For example, any arriving product enters the template only through input node(s) and leaves it through output node(s). The input and all other nodes except output node(s) are considered as a transient node, and any output node is considered as an absorbing node. The template is connected to the existing QN through input and output nodes. Once all information is provided, the \"SmartQueue\" performs QN analysis based on the GOQN theory.\n5 Case studies: A machining shop was used as a case study to implement the proposed concept with \"SmartQueue\" software. Once we obtained the results with \"SmartQueue,\" we developed the simulation model from the same database used in the \"SmartQueue\" to compare the performance of the QNA with the performance measures in the simulation. The system cycle time - time for each product to spend in a system - is used as a major criterion.The machining shop produces gearboxes used for automobiles. This shop are handling about 50 different part types of gearboxes manufactured through various operations including metal cleaning, cutting, lining, drilling, grinding, welding, pressing, heat and chemical treatment, and inspection. Among these, this shop performs only metal cutting, drilling, grinding, milling, and pressing related operations while vendors and other shops perform remaining and other operations such as cleaning, welding, heat, and chemical treatment, etc. The shop manager wants to reduce the system cycle time via the setup time reduction and re-layout of resources such as equipment and operators. New equipment may be purchased if required for setup time reduction. However, before making any decision, they decided to analyze current shop performance as a first step.Since, the IDEF3 syntax in \"SmartQueue\" can provide a visualized process model, it was used to improve communications between shop managers and the project team. Through the IDEF3 model, we captured 35 different equipment types performing all the operations for 50 part types across all the facilities, each of which will eventually correspond to an individual node in the GOQN theory. Inside the machining shop, the 11 equipment types out of 35 were used to provide diverse operations. It was also observed that the routing between this equipment was not continuous. For example, the products may leave and revisit the machining shop in the middle of the whole manufacturing process since most of cleaning and chemical-related operations are performed at other shops and vendors. Eventually, all the finished products go through the non destructive test (NDT) operation, and are delivered to the final assembly shop located at other areas if the NDT result is successful. Otherwise, products need additional steps or they are destroyed. Since, we focused on the machining shop analysis, all other operations beyond this shop were considered as a time-holding block with an infinite capacity.Table II shows the major equipment information in the shop; the average setup time per lot and the run time per individual piece in a lot. It should be noted that some information was masked to protect the company proprietary. This shop operates two 8-hour-shifts per day in which 1 hour is used for lunch or break. It also deploys five different operator teams responsible for operating the equipment as seen in the last column. The Deburr and press team have two members while all others have one member per shift. Figure 5 shows an annual demand distribution for all parts. The minimum, average and maximum values are 20, 450.52 and 5,406 units, respectively. The lot size for each part varies from 3 to 98 with average 14 units. To accommodate the variations existing in the demand and process time, the squared coefficient of variation for interarrival time and process time is assumed to be 0.3.Once all the data were collected, the QNA in \"SmartQueue\" was executed, and the corresponding simulation model was created using the Enterprise-Dynamics simulation library (Enterprise Dynamics, 2005) from the relational database. It was observed that a single run of simulation took about 15 minutes for two-year length. Figure 6 shows the comparison result of system cycle time for each part type in which the cycle time from simulation is the average of five runs to filter variations.The average cycle time discrepancy between two methods was 6.22 percent using the following formula: Equation 5 The shop managers were convinced with the fact that they could directly access the relational database to develop a simulation model if the future modeling objectives require more detailed analysis than done in the QNA. In practice, this knowledge reusability was considered to provide flexibility in performing an analytical modeling project. Additional tests were performed to show the effect of resource utilization on the performance of the QNA. Low utilization- and high-utilization cases were created based on this case study data. The same comparisons were performed for each case, and the results were summarized in Table III. It is noted that, the original case study is denoted as the medium utilization case. According to Table III, the QNA underestimated the system cycle time, and the discrepancy between two methods increased as the resource utilization increased. These results are consistent with Desruelle and Steudel (1996) and other researches. Therefore, users need to consider the requirements and objectives of the modeling project before deciding an approach. Alternatively, users can use the QNA first, and then build the simulation model if additional analytical requirements are added.\n6 Conclusions and further studies: The concept of transforming IDEF3 model into a QN model was provided and implemented through \"SmartQueue\" in order to show the feasibility to improve knowledge reusability and to add quantitative analysis capability to the domain knowledge descriptions captured in IDEF3. Within the scope of the case study, the accuracy of the QNA compared to simulation was reasonable in case of the moderate resource utilization. The integration and knowledge reusability through an independent relational database was considered to improve flexibility in choosing an appropriate analytical approach since we can avoid the times and efforts in developing and executing simulation models if the corresponding QN can satisfy the objectives of the modeling work. More research may be required to improve the capability of the QNA, i.e. computing an optimal lot size for each part to minimize cycle time. Another possible extension of this research is to develop a hybrid approach where both QN and simulation's advantages are integrated.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework and prototype software to use IDEF3 descriptions as a knowledge base from which a queuing network (QN) analysis is performed to compute system performance measures as part of quick response manufacturing. This intends to help domain experts obtain informative quantitative performance measures such as resource utilization, waiting time, and cycle time without relying on a time consuming simulation approach.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A general open queuing network is used to extract the related resource information from the process knowledge captured by IDEF3 method. The relational database is used to integrate the open QN and IDEF3, which also improves the knowledge reusability. In addition, the performance of the open queuing network analyzer (QNA) is compared to the simulation through case studies.\nFindings: - The domain experts usually do not own much technical modeling knowledge. However, through this integration, it is found that they could obtain several meaningful system performance measures without simulation. They could also perform the diverse \"what if\" scenario analyses with this prototype without difficulties. It is another finding that the system performance measures generated by the open QNA are reasonably close to the values obtained from simulation, articularly when the system utilization is low.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The open QN analysis used in this integration is not as generic as the simulation approach in terms of the modeling scope and capability. Hence, this integration supports only the exclusive OR (XOR) out of three junctions in IDEF3 grammars.\nPractical implications: - Some system analysis problems do not require a complex simulation modeling approach. Domain experts need a modeling tool to quickly obtain some system dynamics and insights. This integration framework suffices those requirements.\nOriginality/value: - This paper describes the first attempt to generate informative system performance measures from the IDEF3 model using the open QN. It also offers practical help to the domain experts working in the system analysis area.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Rights, welfare and morality: Re-appraising L.T. Hobhouse's theoretical contribution to the British New Liberalism
|
[
"Distributive justice",
"Rights",
"Common good",
"Liberalism",
"Philosophical idealism",
"L.T. Hobhouse"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: While many works have addressed the intellectual roles that the so-called political ideology of the \"New Liberalism\" played in the formation of the early British welfare state, there seems to have been a curious lack of interest in its leading thinker, Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse (1864-1929). Despite the high praise given to his Liberalism (1911), which has been viewed as a canonical text of the New Liberal ideology, there has been little systematic analysis of the theoretical characteristics of his works as a whole. This makes a sharp contrast with the other leading New Liberal thinker, J.A. Hobson, on whom several monographs have already been written (Allett, 1981; Long, 1996; Caine, 2002). Indeed, some of the major works on the New Liberalism have concluded that its theoretical originality was mainly provided by either Hobson or T.H. Green, the latter being a forerunner of British idealism and liberal social reformer to whom Hobhouse himself paid great respect (Clarke, 1978, pp. 25-27). It seems that scholars have found mainly historical rather than theoretical value in Hobhouse's texts, insofar as his political thinking has been seen as a typical but not necessarily original expression of the intellectual transformation characteristic of British Liberalism at the turn of the twentieth-century[1].\n2. Theory of rights: the critical inheritance from Mill and Green: Hobhouse's rights theory was formed through his critical appropriation of Bentham and J.S. Mill's respective forms of utilitarianism. While endorsing some elements of Benthamite utilitarianism such as its consequentialism and criticism of natural rights theory, Hobhouse rejected Bentham's hedonism by defining happiness not as a sum of pleasure but as a long-standing and stable feeling, obtainable only through the pursuit of a consistent moral purpose in life. Mill, on the other hand, was to be evaluated much more highly, as a thinker who \"span[s] the interval between the old and the New Liberalism\" (Hobhouse, 1911/1994, p. 51 (hereafter LIB)). In particular Hobhouse praised Mill's notion of happiness as the autonomous development of personality, as well as that of liberty as a positive concept, meaning, in Hobhouse's own words, an \"inner harmony\" of one's thought, action and feeling (Hobhouse, 1921, p. 97 (hereafter RG)).\n3. Theory of distribution: connecting ethics to social reform: The previous section investigated the core elements of Hobhouse's ethics of harmony which were expressed in his rights theory. In terms of their theoretical contribution to the New Liberalism, they were significant in the sense that they provided a clear standard for individual morality to follow. Presenting the mutual recognition of rights and duties as a means of integrating the inner and social dimensions of harmony, Hobhouse gave greater theoretical sophistication to the conception of individual morality that underpinned contemporaneous New Liberals' arguments on social reform.\n4. Conclusion: In this paper, I have shown that the uniqueness of Hobhouse's socio-political thinking resided in his construction of an ethical theory of harmony, which became his major contribution to the New Liberal position on social reform. As we saw in the first section, this was an outgrowth of his critical appropriation of J.S. Mill's modified utilitarianism and T.H. Green's idealist moral philosophy. By associating his ethical theory of harmony with those of these thinkers, Hobhouse could place himself safely in the tradition of nineteenth-century liberalism. Moreover, one of the concepts to which Hobhouse paid particular attention was welfare, posited as the individual's inner and social harmony, indicating the realization of happiness through the pursuit of self-development in co-operative relationships with others. This was a process focused on the recognition and practical actualization of moral rights and duties. It is noteworthy that Hobhouse's ethical theory had a markedly \"individualistic\" aspect, in the sense that primarily it endorsed the autonomous development of the individual's personality as inner harmony rather than the collective good viewed separately from each individual. At the same time, however, by introducing the concept of social harmony, he presented moral relationships with others as a necessary condition for such self-development. Hobhouse's conception of welfare, built on these two dimensions of harmony, was the crux of his New Liberal ethics.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to clarify how L.T. Hobhouse (1864-1929) theoretically contributed to the British New Liberalism, focusing particularly on the issue of social reform in turn-of-the-century Britain.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The question is approached in two ways: by exploring the theoretical structure of Hobhouse's ethical theory (which can be termed an \"ethics of harmony\") through a textual analysis of his rights theory and distributive theory; and by comparing that ethical theory with that of J.S. Mill, T.H. Green and J.A. Hobson so as to identify their commonalities and differences.\nFindings: It is found that Hobhouse's contribution to the New Liberalism was twofold, both of which grew out of his staunchly moralistic perspective. Hobhouse showed in his rights theory a direction towards which the morality of individuals should be developed; and provided a guideline based on a notion of justice for wealth redistribution by the state which he saw as a necessary external condition for realizing such development.\nOriginality/value: Existing literature on the British New Liberalism has paid less attention to Hobhouse than it has to T.H. Green and J.A. Hobson. Hobhouse has been relatively neglected due to a wide-spread view that his role was mainly in his expressing a typical but not necessarily original direction for the transformation of British Liberalism at the turn of the century. Against this received view, this paper demonstrates that Hobhouse made a significant contribution to the socio-political thinking of the New Liberalism by providing a distinctive ethical theory of harmony, which enabled New Liberal protagonists to address the important issue of the conceptual place of individual morality within a programme of collectivist social reform.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Bodies, sexualities and women leaders in popular culture: from spectacle to metapicture
|
[
"Vision",
"Leadership",
"Sexuality",
"Embodiment",
"Bodies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself (Berger, 1972, p. 46).\nWays of seeing women leaders: A significant obstacle facing women leaders arises through them being seen primarily as bodies, rather than as leaders. In contrast to white male leaders' bodies, which enjoy the privilege of not being \"seen\", \"women's identities, gender and bodies are routinely tied together and attributed meanings antithetical to leadership\" (Sinclair, 2013, p. 242). Research confirms that women in senior societal and organizational positions are routinely scrutinised and measured against a masculine stereotype. These judgements are applied to their bodies, clothes, demeanour and sexuality in ways which conflict with images of good leadership (Eagly, 2011; Ely et al., 2011). Even when senior women are judged as equally competent as male colleagues, they are typically penalised for their success and considered \"less likeable\" (Heilman et al., 2004; Ely et al., 2011; Ibarra et al., 2013).\nWoman as spectacle: Woman then stands in patriarchal culture as a signifier for the male other, bound by a symbolic order in which man can live out his fantasies and obsessions through linguistic command by imposing them on the silent image of woman still tied to her place as bearer, not maker, of meaning (Mulvey, 2009, p. 15).\nLooking at leadership differently: However, popular culture does not simply reinforce and intensify historically dominant visual metaphors of women-as-bodies which are gazed upon rather than agentic (Coleman, 2008). Although it remains important to critique the new ways in which women are objectified and subordinated through media representation, including social media (Penny, 2014), cultural texts such as film and television offer opportunities to repudiate norms and represent phenomena such as women's leadership[1]. Popular media offers the potential to represent convincing lived experience, to be meaning-making (Czarniawska, 1999, 2006), and politically mobilising, providing spectators with role models which they may choose to emulate (Bell, 2008; Buzzanell and D'Enbeau, 2014).\nLooking into leadership in Borgen: Borgen (2010, 2011 and 2013) is a three-series political drama that tells the story of Birgitte Nyborg, the leader of the Moderate Party, who unexpectedly becomes the first female Prime Minister of Denmark. Aimed at Scandinavian audiences, the popularity of the series with international audiences was unanticipated by its creators. Series screenwriter, Adam Price, set out to create a \"strong but feminine central character\" in a situation of power to generate a discussion among viewers about the personal and political aspects of the narrative and the moral actions of characters[2]. After filming the second series, Denmark elected female Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, in a case of life imitating art[3].\nMetapictures of women in leadership: In this article, we have argued that academic analyses and popular portrayals about women in leadership often fail to engage with the lived and embodied experiences of women leaders, including the scrutiny, pressures and contradictions they experience. The norms and conventions that position men, their bodies and sexualities as \"natural\" leaders, render women more visible and problematic in leadership. Women's struggles to gain and hold leadership positions and be seen as credible leaders cannot be separated from issues of image and representation. In many representations of leadership in film and television, women occupy a spectacular role, serving only as mirrors or counter-displays in narratives that are defined and driven by male characters. Drawing on psychoanalytic feminist theory, we have argued that the visual representation of women leaders as fetishised subjects - passive objects of the male gaze - means they cannot be taken seriously as leaders. Such representations rely on the metaphor of the spectacle. This draws attention to the role of spectatorship, including practices of observation, surveillance and visual pleasure, in constituting leadership, and potentially casting women as unable or too flawed to occupy leadership positions.\nConclusion and implications: In this article, we have argued that popular culture, including news and social media as well as fictionalised portrayals in film and television, provide a means of representing women leaders that reinforces powerful gender norms. Numerous examples of \"real\" woman leaders demonstrate the effects of these portrayals on their ability to be seen as successful leaders. For example, current US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton describes the effects of pervasive media scrutiny of her body, clothes and hair on her career and describes the strategies she has deliberately adopted in response to this (Clinton, 2014). Similarly, in her autobiography, former Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has spoken of the role of news and social media in damaging her credibility as a leader by focusing on her gender and portraying her body as unsuitable for leadership (Gillard, 2014; Bell and Sinclair, 2016). Women's leadership is constituted through these visual and embodied representations in ways which tend to constrain and curtail their engagement with leadership.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper focuses on visual representation of women leaders and how women leaders' bodies and sexualities are rendered visible in particular ways.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The arguments are based on a reading of the Danish television drama series, Borgen. The authors interpret the meaning of this text and consider what audiences might gain from watching it.\nFindings: The analysis of Borgen highlights the role of popular culture in resisting patriarchal values and enabling women to reclaim leadership.\nOriginality/value: The metaphor of the spectacle enables explanation of the representation of women leaders in popular culture as passive, fetishised objects of the masculine gaze. These pervasive representational practices place considerable pressure on women leaders to manage their bodies and sexualities in particular ways. However, popular culture also provides alternative representations of women leaders as embodied and agentic. The notion of the metapicture offers a means of destabilising confining notions of female leadership within popular culture and opening up alternatives.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
How does corporate social responsibility benefit firms? Evidence from Australia
|
[
"Australia",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Customer satisfaction",
"Employee turnover",
"Stakeholder analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Can firms benefit by engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR)? According to the literature, for over three decades scholars have studied the relationship between CSR and firm performance (FP) to answer the question (Margolis and Walsh, 2003). Although results are mixed, the trend seems to suggest a moderately positive CSR-FP relationship (Griffin and Mahon, 1997; Stanwick and Stanwick, 1998; Orlitzky et al., 2003). However, purported benefits of CSR are numerous and include those beyond the \"pure\" financial, from maintaining the license to operate, to risk reduction, to efficiency gains, and to tax advantages (Weber, 2008). Although vastly smaller in scope to CSR-FP studies, a few scholars have dedicated effort to empirically test additional benefits of CSR.In their study, Maignan et al. (1999) find that in a sample of American firms, CSR is positively linked with employee commitment and customer loyalty. In a similar study, Maignan and Ferrell (2001) find that CSR is positively linked with employee commitment in a sample of French firms. Brown and Dacin (1997), Sen and Bhattacharya (2001) and Scholder et al. (2006), in studying US firms, find that CSR positively influences both consumers' purchase intent and their perceptions of companies' products. Lastly, studying US firms from the Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini & Co. database, Greening and Turban (2000) and Turban and Greening (1997) find that demonstrating CSR is important for attracting prospective employees. While each one of these studies offers important insight, they fall short of empirically testing predicted benefits (Weber, 2008). Continued research is therefore necessary to further untangle our understanding of how CSR benefits firms, given strong instrumental undertones of the concept (Rowley and Berman, 2000; Mellahi and Wood, 2003). Additional benefits that have seen little to no empirical study include employee turnover, customer satisfaction, and firm reputation, especially in contexts outside of the USA and Europe.According to the literature, employee turnover, company reputation, and customer satisfaction are highly important to scholarly study (Shaw et al., 1998; Mahon, 2002; Homburg et al., 2005). Employee turnover is important because the loss of human capital in firms can have dramatic effects on competitive advantage (Barney, 1991; Huselid, 1995). Reputation is important because it reflects how a given firm compares to its competitors (Rao, 1994), while reflecting stakeholder impressions of the firm's disposition to behave in a certain manner (Clark and Montgomery, 1998). Each of these can affect the ability to raise prices with consumers (Kihlstrom and Riordan, 1984), provide a cushion to recover from crises or threats (Gregory, 1998; Peloza, 2006) and can create mobility barriers within an industry (Wilson, 1985). Customer satisfaction has long been studied in the literature and is seen as critical to firms' profitability and an overall mechanism by which a firm can achieve loyalty among the customer base (Anderson et al., 1997). Further, the importance of reducing employee turnover, building a strong reputation, and improving customer satisfaction continue to be among the top priorities of corporate executives around the world (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2007).Is there something inherent in CSR that might lead to benefits such as lower employee turnover, higher reputation, and improved customer satisfaction? The literature suggests that there is. For example, Aguilera et al. (2007) suggest that CSR meets the justice needs of employees thereby leading to lower turnover rates. Similarly, customers develop either positive or negative perceptions of firms through their evaluation of the fairness they demonstrate through product use and service interactions, for example, Fornell et al. (1996). CSR is expected to demonstrate equity or fairness towards customers, leading to higher satisfaction. Lastly, reputation is a general attribute of firms and reflects the extent to which a firm is perceived as good or bad (Roberts and Dowling, 2002). CSR is expected to signal to stakeholders a positive ideal of corporate behavior, thereby increasing reputation.This study attempts to contribute to the literature in three ways. First, organisations today have moved beyond equating success with accounting-based financial results (Ittner and Larcker, 2003; Maltz et al., 2003; Kaplan and Norton, 2007). Research on CSR has not kept pace in that the vast majority of studies examine the CSR-FP link. Extending the realm of study is important because multiple theories predict different benefits, and assessing the value of CSR therefore requires multiple approaches. Second, the Australian context is particularly relevant: although institutions appear to be increasing pressure on firms to demonstrate more socially responsible actions (Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, 2006), many executives in Australian corporations remain skeptical as to the benefits of CSR (Birch, 2002). Positive results from this study will supplement the research base, the majority of which come from the USA, and to a lesser extent, Europe. Lastly, evidence from the research is significant for management researchers and practitioners. Addressing posited questions will allow scholars to offer relevant advice on the likely outcomes of demonstrating CSR across international contexts.\n2. Theory and hypotheses: 2.1 What is CSR?\n3. Methods: 3.1 Sample and data collection procedures\n4. Analysis and results: 4.1 Analysis\n5. Discussion: All three of the hypotheses were supported by the findings in this study. As a result, this study offers some level of confirmation for scholars who have theorized that CSR is a value creating activity important to firms beyond direct financial benefits, such as those measured by traditional accounting-based measures. For example, the work of Aguilera et al. (2007) suggests that meeting employees' justice needs through CSR should have the effect of lowering turnover rates. This study finds that CSR does appear to reduce employee turnover. On the other hand, customer satisfaction is a cumulative, global evaluation of product or service use based on experience with firms over time and is a fundamental indicator of past, current, and future performance (Anderson et al., 1994). This paper argued that, based on equity theory, firms can improve their consumption experiences with customers by demonstrating CSR. The results indicate that CSR is positively linked to customer satisfaction. Lastly, Neville et al. (2005) argue that reputation is the overall evaluation received by an organisation from its stakeholders concerning the credibility of the organisation's identity claims. The case was made, based on signaling theory, that CSR sends signals to stakeholders that generates positive impressions or associations which, in turn, affect reputation. The findings from this study confirm that CSR is positively linked to reputation.\n6. Implications: Taken together, the findings of this study have two important theoretical implications. First, the findings supplement a small research base of studies empirically examining benefits of CSR beyond those that rely purely on financial-based dependent variables. For example, while Greening and Turban (2000) find that CSR acts as a means to attract new employees, the present study finds that CSR reduces employee turnover, suggesting that CSR might create a symbiotic relationship between acquiring and retaining employees. By expanding studies beyond the USA and Europe, the findings of this study are particularly important as scholars have called for researchers to further study how and under what conditions CSR benefits firms (Rowley and Berman, 2000). This requires an international body of research and the results here should give scholars additional confidence in predicting whether or not - and how - CSR benefits firms.Second, there is debate among scholars as to which dimensions of CSR are most important (Rowley and Berman, 2000). According to Carroll (1979), firms have four responsibilities; however, do firms necessarily need to demonstrate responsibility across all dimensions equally to be considered a socially responsible company? By separately evaluating the four dimensions of CSR as an additional component to the main tests, the results of this study suggest that some individual dimensions of CSR might be more important than others. In the case of reducing employee turnover, legal, and discretionary dimensions had the biggest impact. One explanation might be that firms who meet or exceed legal requirements or offer outstanding care for employees or communities may be in the best position to diminish turnover due to employees' positive justice perceptions. On the other hand, economic, legal, and discretionary dimensions of CSR were positively associated with customer satisfaction. The finding suggests that, for example, firms who are demonstrating strong commitment to their economic responsibility (e.g. through offering highly valued products), ensuring customers are not harmed in any way by meeting legal standards (legal CSR), or who are treating employees well through benefits and high salaries (discretionary CSR) might ultimately be reaping the rewards of higher customer satisfaction.Most surprising, perhaps, was that the ethical dimension of CSR was not significantly associated with any of the dependent variables. This does seem at odds with previous studies that have found firms' ethical practices to impact on organisation outcomes (Choi and Jung, 2008). An implication of the finding suggests that all CSR activities do not necessarily have equal impact on organisational outcomes. For example, in their study, Maignan and Ferrell (2001) found that only the economic and discretionary dimensions of CSR were significantly associated with outcomes such as employee commitment and financial performance. However, further research would need to investigate why and under what conditions the ethical dimension of CSR is less important to organisational success relative to the other three dimensions.As for practical implications, firms throughout the world are challenged to demonstrate responsible corporate behavior. However, demonstrating responsible corporate behavior is not without opportunity costs. On the plus side, evidence is mounting to suggest that proactive CSR is directly related to financial performance indicators. The findings of this demonstrate that CSR also appears to reduce staff turnover, while increasing both customer satisfaction and reputation levels. This is important as some executives in Australia (Birch, 2002), and around the world (McKinsey & Company, 2006), continue to believe that CSR is an activity to avoid, other than their economic responsibility. Thus, companies should realize that CSR activities can represent a robust strategy, particularly in an environment where stakeholders, such as customers, employees, and the government, have increased social concerns (Davis and Stephenson, 2006). In fact, Porter and Kramer (2006) suggest that CSR may become the new battleground for competitive advantage.\n7. Limitations and conclusion: There are limitations to this study. First, as with much data used in organisational science, the data are cross-sectional. As a result, the research did not assess the degree to which employee turnover, customer satisfaction, or reputation changed over time; nor did it measure the extent to which changes in CSR affect these variables over time. Clearly, longitudinal research is needed to develop richer insight. Second, all of the data were self-reported by the participating firms. While CEOs were expected to be in a good position to assess the variables used in this study, common method bias is a concern. However, a Harman's ex post one-factor test (Podsakoff et al., 2003) revealed that a single factor solution did not emerge, nor did any factor account for a majority of the variance. Hence, common method bias appears to be minimal. Lastly, the generalizability of the study is limited by the sampling frame. While the firms sampled do represent a wide range of industries and sizes, they are limited to the Australian context. Replicated studies in other countries are required to validate the findings in this research.In conclusion, CSR has long been a controversial topic in discussions on business firms, mainly with respect to diverting corporate attention - and capital - from maximizing shareholder value. Thus, to legitimize the field, empirical research has mainly concentrated on testing the relationship between CSR and financial performance; results increasingly demonstrate a positive link (Griffin and Mahon, 1997; Orlitzky et al., 2003). While studies of the CSR-financial performance relationship are numerous and mainly conducted in the USA, they leave a gap in empirical tests of the benefits of CSR. To extend the research stream, this study explored the relationship between CSR and employee turnover, customer satisfaction, and firm reputation in the Australian context. The findings suggest that CSR is linked to all three dimensions. Thus, extending previous research, this paper demonstrates that CSR appears to offer valuable benefits; namely, benefits beyond those that are associated with traditional, financial-based outcomes.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - There is a small but growing body of empirical research examining benefits of corporate social responsibility (CSR) beyond traditional, accounting-based financial benefits. To extend this body of research in contexts outside of Europe and the USA, the purpose of the present paper is to empirically examine three potential benefits of demonstrating CSR: reduced employee turnover; increased customer satisfaction; and improved reputation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper collected data on latent constructs through a survey of chief executive officers across a spectrum of industries in Australia. Confirmatory factor analysis assessed psychometric properties of the constructs, while regression analysis was used to examine posited hypotheses.\nFindings: - The findings suggest that firms engaging in CSR can benefit in ways beyond a pure bottom-line outcome. First, due to exhibited fairness, socially responsive activities appear to be a means to reduce employee turnover. Second, by meeting justice needs of customers, CSR is likely to increase customer satisfaction. Lastly, CSR activities provide visible signals from which stakeholders infer various positive characteristics of firms, thus creating an avenue to increase overall firm reputation.\nPractical implications: - Firms can choose to do nothing with respect to their social responsibilities to doing much. While proactively engaging in CSR is not without opportunity cost, the results of this paper suggest executives should not dismiss CSR altogether.\nOriginality/value: - Value from this paper is derived in three ways: relying on non-financial dependent variables, it supplements limited CSR research conducted in this stream; the data and implications drawn come from Australia, thereby adding needed international insight into the benefits of CSR; and the paper supplements financial-driven theories used in CSR research by focusing on employee justice perceptions, equity, and signaling theories.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Nomological validity of the Net Promoter Index question
|
[
"Nomological validity",
"Satisfaction",
"Word-of-mouth",
"Re-purchase intention",
"Customer satisfaction",
"Customer loyalty",
"Banking"
] |
[
{
"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: Customer loyalty has been one of the most studied marketing topics. Loyalty is a complex psychological construct and defined by Oliver (1999, p. 34) as \"a deeply held commitment to rebuy or repatronize a preferred product/service consistently in the future, thereby causing repetitive same-brand or same brand-set purchasing, despite situational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behavior.\" Such loyalty is largely generated by a customer\nTheoretical background: Levels of analysis of voice of customer metrics\nMethodology: Sample\nResults: Tests of hypotheses\nConclusion: The objective of the empirical study is to evaluate the performance of the NP question as a substitute for an established WOM construct within a nomological network. The correlation analysis reveals high and significant correlations between the two measures. Although these are high values, they demonstrate that the two concepts are similar but not identical. Similar results are revealed in the model, which was tested for three services. Based on the test results in Table IV and Table V, several conclusions can be made. First, the explained variance in NP by satisfaction with the service is lower compared to the explained variance in WOM. This discrepancy is most pronounced in the hairdresser/barber industry, where only 48 percent of the variance is explained in NP compared to 70 percent of the variance in WOM. The other two services, banking and cell phone, reveal similar results. Therefore, NP does not seem to be related in the same way to satisfaction as WOM does.\nManagerial implications and future research: To summarize, the key conclusions from the review of the current literature are:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is twofold. First, it aims to provide a review of the Net Promoter(c) Index (NPI), the evidence of its ability to predict financial performance, and the evidence of its superiority to other voice of customer metrics. Second, it seeks to investigate the nomological validity of the Net Promoter question. It aims to view the NP question as an alternative to the traditional word-of-mouth measure, which is one of the components of customer loyalty. The nomological validity of NP was evaluated in a model including customer satisfaction as an antecedent and repurchase intention as a consequence.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data for empirically addressing a set of hypotheses related to the nomological validity were collected via self-administered questionnaire. A total of 159 participants completed questions for banking services, 153 individuals completed questions for hairdresser/barber services, and 132 completed questions for cell phone services. The hypotheses were tested using partial least square analysis.\nFindings: The results provide evidence for the nomological validity of the NPI question; albeit, the traditional word-of-mouth measure seems to perform equally as well or even better.\nPractical implications: A set of pros and cons related to NPI are developed. The paper recommends including the NPI in a portfolio of voice of customer metrics but not as a standalone diagnostic tool. Further, given the present state of evidence, it cannot be recommended to use the NPI as a predictor of growth nor financial performance.\nOriginality/value: The paper provides further insights into the validity of the Net Promoter Index as a measure of customer loyalty.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Customer engagement and the operational efficiency of wine retail stores
|
[
"Wines",
"Retailing",
"Customers",
"Canada"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The sale of alcoholic beverages is highly regulated in Canada. Regulations for the purchase and sale of alcoholic beverages fall into two broad areas: the sale of packaged goods for consumption in the home, and the sale of open alcoholic beverage products served in restaurants, bars, trains, ships, and aircraft. Some provinces, notably Alberta, have privatized the sale of packaged goods to the consumer. Consumers in Ontario, one of the largest, most populous and prosperous provinces in Canada, may purchase packaged wine direct from winery or state-owned monopoly stores operated by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (the LCBO). Regardless of where the packaged alcoholic beverage products are purchased, every product has a regulated, standard price.LBCO monopoly stores exist in virtually every community in the province, and carry large inventories that cater to broad tastes. In addition to the inventories in each store, consumers can order wines from anywhere in the world. Regardless of how remote the community, prices are standard, selection and service is excellent.Due to high retail distribution costs imposed by the LCBO, wineries are better off selling their wine direct to the consumer. Consequently all wineries have their own retail operation located on the winery grounds; and it is through their own retail operation that the smaller wineries generate the majority of their profits. Smaller wineries have led the way in terms of the evolution of a region that simply produces wine into an agri-tourism destination by introducing complimentary guided tours, opening winery restaurants and developing educational wine-centric seminars. A significant amount of the winery tourism and winery retail infrastructure was built over time around the existing wine making operation. These older concepts are a \"creep build\" kind of facility that has evolved in size and complexity as the winery, and wine regions grew. Creep-built facilities are characterized by having been designed and built on a piece-meal basis over many years. While these facilities have been adapted to offer many services similar to new-build stores, they lack an optimized retail design and facilities.\nNew trends in wine retail environments: In southern Ontario, consumers have seen a new trend developing in the retail environments in some LCBO and winery retail stores. Several recently-built LCBO stores have gone beyond the tradition of clean stores, well-stocked shelves, helpful staff and cash-out stations. These new-build retail stores include rooms where wine tasting, cooking demonstrations and education programming are offered to consumers. They also have an area built to display special product offerings that are not ordinarily available or in short supply. Some LCBO stores have started to sell non-beverage retail items, such as wine glasses, bottle openers and other paraphernalia.Several large wineries have taken note, and in contrast to the small wineries have constructed large, purpose-built winery retail stores that are highly sophisticated retail platforms. One wine corporation has built a large winery retail store in a wine region with minimal wine making operations on site. The design of this winery retail concept was able to optimize the tourism/retail functions and operational efficiencies by positioning the retail store, tasting bars, restaurant, meeting space, storage, seminar venues, and parking in optimal locations relative to each other.\nCustomer engagement: Research suggests that product sampling, educational programs and the availability of product consultants will increase wine sales. Hussain et al. (2007) found that the volume of wine consumed was correlated positively with the knowledge of the consumer. Engaging the customer and developing customer involvement is the goal of product sampling, seminars, and demonstration activities. Product sampling is widely practiced in food, health, and cleaning products, even though it is a relatively under-researched topic.Samples serve as a direct source of information to the consumer and have a greater effect on sales than indirect experiences such as advertising (McGuiness et al., 1992). It has been shown that customers who sample a new product have an increased probability of immediate purchase, and an increased level of goodwill towards the product and retailer. It is interesting to note that sampling can increase the sales of related category products (Lammers, 1991). Even though in-store sampling is expensive, it is highly effective because it targets specific consumers and is also conducive to product training (Heiman et al., 2001).Product education and training is the same means by which infomercial producers instill product knowledge among viewers. Hawthorne (1998, p. 52) states that, \"The more you tell, the more you sell\". While infomercials are unable to accomplish product sampling, they do so vicariously using product demonstrations, testimonials and expert comments (Brett et al., 2002).The research question addressed by this paper is inspired by the difference between the older, creep-built retail stores and the trend towards enhanced new-build retail environments found in both private winery retail stores and government monopoly stores. The question arises, \"are the new-build retail environments with their tasting rooms, educational programming and product consultants more efficient than the older type of retail infrastructure?\"\nRetail efficiency: New purpose-built and older creep-built winery store types attempt to maximize the revenue stream generated by the sale of their respective wine brands using two important factors. Seminars, tours, tastings and product consultants is considered part of the over-all experience and is offered because of its perceived value in attracting traffic and driving retail store sales. An additional dynamic is the relative cost of goods sold of each of the wine brands sold within the store. Whether the guest purchases a current entry level brand of vintage wine at $10 per bottle, or a premium wine at $100 per bottle, the cost of producing the respective bottles does not fluctuate to the same extent. As such, the respective profit margins are vastly different: selling premium wine becomes synonymous with maximizing operating profits.\nMeasurement: Operational efficiency is defined in many textbooks as the ratio of outputs over inputs. As simple as that relationship is in principle, determining how to measure productivity in a service environment is difficult. The difficulty arises from three considerations; namely:1. What are the output objectives and how these measured?2. What input resources are available and how are these inputs measured?3. How does the manager measure the trade-off between inputs deployed against the resulting outputs obtained?Traditional measures such as gross margin, net margin, inventory turnover, and earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation/amortization (EBITDA) are used by accountants and investors in large corporations, but are not a functional part of the retail manager's daily life which typically deals with stocking shelves, arranging displays, staffing the cash register, ordering stock and many other important day-to-day functions. Does achieving an industry standard EBITDA or other measure necessarily mean that the business unit is operating as efficiently as it can?To evaluate the operating efficiency of wine retail operations, a manager might decide that total retail sales are the relevant output. Others may think that the total number of transactions, or the total number of bottles sold are the outputs that matter. All these are, in different ways, useful measures of a retail operation's output.The inputs could be determined to be the labour hours deployed, or the inventory used, the square feet of retail space, or any combination of these and other inputs. The problem is further complicated because of interactions between the inputs: for example, the amount of retail space may impact both the amount of labour deployed and the amount of inventory. Even more puzzling would be trying to measure the impact on operating efficiency in spending $100 less in labour but $100 more on inventory.\nMethodology: Unlike many statistical approaches based on central tendencies, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is an extreme point methodology that compares all units against the best unit. For this reason, DEA is a technique that is often used to compare the efficiency of multiple service units against each other. It has been used to analyze such differences in retail banking (Frei and Harker, 1999), restaurants (Reynolds, 2003) and retailing (Donthu and Yoo, 1998) among many other applications. An important feature is that DEA does not compare a service unit against the average of all other service units; but rather, it compares each service unit within the comparative set against the very best unit(s) in the comparative set. For DEA to be useful the service units within the comparative set must have commonalities in terms of inputs, outputs and the nature of the service provided.There are several other advantages to a DEA analysis. Input and output data do not have to be in the same units, consequently sales, labour or inventory could each be measured in a different unit (such as dollars, hours, number of bottles, litres, etc.). Furthermore, there is no need for any known functional form (such as product margins or sales mix) relating different inputs and outputs. Among DEA's disadvantages is the inability of the technique to compare units to a theoretically defined performance level. The results are always in the context of the unit(s) with the best actual performance and do not lead to conclusions about how the best unit may be improved. DEA involves the iterative solution to a linear program, and thus can be computationally intensive. Analyses that involve smaller numbers of input and output variables use substantially less computer time than situations which call for a large number of variables.Central to DEA is an assumption that if the most efficient service unit can create one hundred units of service outputs using ten units of resource inputs, then every other service unit in the comparable set should also be able to achieve the same optimal result. Taking this assumption one step further, DEA categorizes a service unit as inefficient if it is unable to produce the same outputs with the same number of inputs as the most efficient service unit. Additionally, DEA incorporates the assumption that efficiency is not impacted by the capacity for which the service unit was designed. A service unit built to produce ten thousand service outputs per day is no more efficient that the service unit built to produce one thousand service units per day. This Constant Returns to Scale (CRS) means that the relationship between outputs and inputs is linear.DEA is an excellent way to compare the retail efficiency of existing operations, and will be used in this analysis.\nApplication of DEA to wine retail environments: The service output measure used is total retail sales (dollars) for bottled wine with corresponding inputs of labour, measured in hours paid to retail employees, and wine inventory depleted (sold), measured in litres.Sales, labour hours and inventory depletion data were obtained for eight LCBO stores, two from each of four major population centers in the Province of Ontario. For each population center, one store was a newly-built (or extensively renovated) store and the other was an older-style store. Each of the new-build stores had a wine tasting/seminar room, wine product consultants on duty, specialty products area (Vintages section) and featured programming such as wine tastings, food and wine pairing seminars, etc. on a regular basis. The older style stores had attractive retail environments and similar product selection to the new-build stores, but not the programming features and specialized facilities of the new-build stores.In addition to the LCBO store data, data were also available for two winery retail stores in a nearby wine region. One of these is a newly-built free-standing facility, the other is an older winery retail store sharing space in a fairly large wine production facility. These two stores are within 5 km of each other, owned by the same corporation and bear different company names. Both stores are on the same leg of a major wine route with comparable visibility and drive-past traffic.The newly-built winery retail store includes tasting rooms, product seminars, wine production displays, and other active customer programming opportunities. The restaurant and banquet facilities are integrated into the structure. The older store has limited opportunity for customer programming, and offers a comparable selection of wines, a tasting bar and a cash station. This winery also has a restaurant and banquet facility, however they are in different buildings and not integrated into the wine retail environment.\nConstructing the DEA linear program: Definition of variables:* let Es be the efficiency of unit s, where s=the service unit being evaluated;* let Os be the service output of retail wines sales in dollars, where s=the service unit evaluated, as above;* let us be a coefficient for output of retail sales, where s=the service unit evaluated;* let v1s be a coefficient for labour hours used, where s=the service unit evaluated;* let v2s be a coefficient for liters of wine inventory depleted (sold), where s=the service unit evaluated;* let I1s, be the number of actual labour hours I1 used by service unit s during one time period.* let I2s, be the number of actual liters of wine I2 sold by service unit s during one time period.Objective function\nConclusions: It is clear from Table II that for each location, the new-build retail service unit is more efficient than its corresponding old-built or old style retail concept. It is also interesting to note the new-build winery retail store concept is equally efficient as the most efficient LCBO new-build store concepts.Now that it has been shown that the old-build store is inefficient when compared to the new-build store, the question arises: how can the old-build store adjust to become as efficient? The answer can be determined using the labour and inventory coefficients obtained from the linear program solutions. Each coefficient measures the relative increase in efficiency for each unit of input reduction. For the older Toronto store (Tor old) to reach optimal efficiency, its efficiency rating of 0.868 would have to improve by 0.132 (1.000-0.868=0.132). To improve its efficiency, Tor old would have to either:1. reduce the labour hours; or2. reduce the amount of wine inventory consumed.The calculation to determine the reduction in labour hours required to achieve 100 per cent efficiency is: Equation 5 Store managers would have to find ways of maintaining sales revenue with significantly less staff.A reduction in the amount of inventory depletion (a similar calculation yields 82,352 liters for Tor old) would also enable the Tor old concept to achieve 100 per cent efficiency. In order to reduce the inventory depleted without reducing sales revenue, stores would have to remove lower-priced products from their shelves and re-stock with products that have higher prices. A less draconian approach would be to encourage the sale of premium priced products. The inference is that new-build stores are effective in getting customers to purchase more expensive brands.It is interesting to note that a labour reduction alone could not bring the efficiency of the old Richmond Hill store up to the 100 per cent level, since eliminating all the employees would not be sufficient to reduce labour by 128 per cent. The alternative, an inventory depletion reduction of 25 per cent seems more likely. Some combination of labour and inventory reduction may improve this store's efficiency substantially.Despite the fruitfulness of these computations, it is clear that the situation in any one store is much more complex than just making changes within these variables. Obviously a much wider range of variables will have an impact on the efficiency of winery retail platforms.In conclusion, the Data Envelopment Analysis has shown that the new-build wine retail environments are dramatically more efficient in obtaining sales with lower labour and inventory depletion costs.\nOpportunities for further research: A gravity model approach (Huff, 1966) with store popularity directly proportional to size and inversely proportional to distance shows that location and size would also be important factors in retail efficiency.One of the shortcomings of this research is that the old and new stores in the paired samples are different in size and location within each municipality. Another approach to evaluating the retail performance of new-build and old-build stores would be to obtain \"before and after\" data for older stores that have been extensively renovated to include new store facilities and services. While it is clear that the new store features (tasting rooms, seminars, cooking demonstrations, etc.) increase retail efficiency, it remains to know the contribution of each of feature to the improvement in retail performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to show that new-style retail wine stores with features such as tasting rooms, lecture theatres and demonstration kitchens used to educate and engage customers have better retail efficiency than old-style stores.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Sales dollars, labour hours and litres of inventory depletion from a paired sample of old-style and new-style facilities located in five different communities are submitted to a data envelopment analysis to determine the retail efficiency of the stores.\nFindings: - All the new-build stores had higher retail efficiency than the older stores, and input reductions in older stores were unlikely to bring their performance up to the level of the new store concepts.\nOriginality/value: - One of the shortcomings of this research is that the old and new stores in the paired samples are different in size and location within each municipality. While it is clear that the new store features (tasting rooms, seminars, cooking demonstrations, etc.) increase retail efficiency, it remains to know the contribution of each of feature to the improvement in retail performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Adoption of mobile technology in business: a fit-viability model
|
[
"Mobile communication systems",
"Transaction costs"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Mobile commerce is viewed as the next generation e-commerce. It refers to any transactions, either direct or indirect, via mobile devices, such as phones or personal digital assistants (PDAs). The most significant features of mobile technology are mobility and portability. The ability to access services ubiquitously, on the move, and through wireless networks and various devices. To date, mobile technologies have been applied to consumer-oriented areas, and most applications focus on voice communication rather than wireless data transformation. Large-scale usages are still scare in the business world (Gebauer and Shaw, 2004). Although there is a general notion in which mobile technologies could be applied in business, very little has been done in exploring how to enhance business processes, what the implications of mobile technologies are, or what critical factors affect the success or failure of mobile technology applications.Adopting mobile technology may create two kinds of impacts on business operations. The first is to facilitate communication among employee, customer and supplier. Through the enhancement of communicating efficiency and information timeliness, mobile technology can increase organizational productivity and profitability. The second is to re-vitalize business processes through changing data access patterns. For example, insurance agents are able to use mobile technology to provide timely services.Quite a few studies on the application of mobile technology have been published (Matskin and Tveit, 2001; Lee and Ke, 2001; Kannan et al., 2001; Balasubramanian et al., 2002). Most of them focused on exploring the effect of short massage advertising (Tsang et al., 2004), investigating how to design a proper mobile device, how to enhance the accuracy of contents of short massage via information technology (IT), and how to add value into products and service (Raisinghani, 2001; Varshney, 2003; Tarasewich et al., 2002; Varshney and Vetter, 2002). Few have studied how a company decides on adopting mobile technology and what factors affect the success or failure of adopting mobile technology.In an early work, Liang and Wei (2004) proposed a fit-viability model (FVM) that combines the theory of task/technology fit with the general notion of organizational viability of IT. In their research, a two-dimensional matrix that includes fit and viability as its frames was used to assess the likelihood of successful applications. This conceptual model provides a useful guide for further elaboration and evaluation of a general framework for successful technology adoption.The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, we would like to extend the conceptual model and develop operable instruments for using the FVM. Second, we would like to evaluate the model and examine factors that may lead to successful adoption of mobile technologies.In the remainder of this paper, extant literature is reviewed to identify factors that may affect the adoption of mobile technology in business. We then describe a multi-case study to examine the relationship between fit, viability and performance. Finally, research findings are reported. Our results show that the FVM can indeed help organization evaluate whether it is advantageous to adopt mobile technologies.\nLiterature reviews: M-commerce\nResearch framework and methodology: The research framework, as shown in Figure 3, illustrates the constructs described in the previous section. Fit is measured by matching the characteristics of task and technology. Viability is measured by the economic, IT infrastructure and organization readiness of the project.Task characteristics related to mobile technology include timeliness and mobility. The timeliness of task characteristic means that performing the task needs timely information to support, and mobility means that the user has to do his job on the move in different place. Nature of the adopted mobile technology includes the portability of the mobile device and the ability of the mobile device to access and provide timely information.For measuring the viability of an organization, asset specificity (need for special investment), uncertainty, and usage frequency are criteria for the economic aspect. IT infrastructure is measured by the software and hardware maturity, data management and the competency of the IS staff. Organizational factors include the process reengineering, employee and top management support. We adopted Adair's research to divide the business process reengineering into four categories: maintenance-based (that reengineers about 10 percent of the original process scope), continual-based (that reengineers about 10 to 50 percent), thorough-based (that reengineers about 50 to 90 percent), and redesign-based (that redesigns process). The performance of adopting mobile technology is measured by system usage and user satisfaction.All items for measuring fit and viability use the seven-point Likert-scale (1=strongly disagree and 7=strongly agree). The Appendix shows a sample instrument.Since, mobile technology is new and this research is exploratory in nature, we use the multi-case approach to demonstrate the use of the FVM. The research process includes the following steps:* defining research framework and scope;* designing research instruments, including questionnaires;* identifying sample firms and key contact persons;* data collection from interviews, web sites, and other available sources; and* data analysis and conclusion.After an extensive search, we selected four firms in different industries for further investigation. The firms selected include a convenience store chain, an air conditioner manufacturing, a medical logistics company and a life insurance service. Each of them has implemented mobile technology for more than one year. Firm C has three applications and Firm D has two applications, which made a total number of applications under study to seven. Table I shows their background information. The key informants in the study include chief information officers and leaders of the mobile commerce project. Four informants were interviewed in each case.\nResearch findings: The researchers interviewed key informants in the sample firms using the instrument developed in the previous section. The fit and viability in economic, IT infrastructure and organizational aspects were assessed. The resulting scores on different aspects from the study were shown in Table II. They are described below.Firm A\nResults and discussion: Figure 4 shows the relative position of these seven mobile applications. As we can see, most of them have high fit, but system B had a low viability. The implication of this is that most organizations were aware of the importance of fit in selecting mobile applications, but might not assess the viability properly. A high fit does not guarantee system success.For the mobile applications that we have investigated, six of them fall in the category of good target and one fall in organizational restructuring. This means, most applications had a good possibility of success and one would need organizational re-structuring before the implementation to ensure its success.A major problem with the system in Firm B, located in the organizational restructuring category is lack of top management support. Without the support of the top management, the project was endangered. In addition to budget shortage, the user had low motivation to adapt the system. It also lacked assistance from the IS department. The system eventually failed. This confirms existing argument that top management support is crucial to system success.The results from the case study show that the FVM is useful in evaluating the adoption of mobile technology. The data obtained from the case study also allow us to derive the following propositions for future study:P1. The fitness between the nature of mobile technology and task characteristic is a critical factor for an organization to adopt mobile technology.In our study, all seven cases have a high degree of fit. This implies that low-fit applications would have a low possibility of surviving management review in selecting new technology, although we cannot conclude that low-fit applications are impossible. Another issue with our findings is that we do not have a reliable instrument for measuring the degree of fit between task requirements and technology capabilities. If we can develop a more reliable instrument in the future, we may be able to assess the effect of different fit levels on system adoption:P2. Organizational viability plays a key role in mobile system performance.The only system that was unsuccessful was the B system that had low-organizational support. More specifically, it had poor IT infrastructure and low-organizational support. Systems A, C2, C3, D1, and D2 had low user competence but did not significantly affect their performance. This implies that user competence may be built through training and other means, but weaknesses in IT infrastructure and top management support may be devastating. Hence, we can further elaborate into the following two propositions:P3. The maturity of IT infrastructure, as measured by the readiness software and hardware platform, data management, and competence of IS staff, is critical to a mobile system to perform.P4. Organizational support, as measured by impact on business process, user competence, and top management support, has a significant impact on the performance of a mobile system.\nConclusions: The purpose of the paper is to present a framework for assessing the successful use of mobile technology in organizations. Based on the seminal work of Liang and Wei (2004) that extended the TTF model to become the FVM, we have successfully refined the FVM to become a useful tool.In particular, we have defined the criteria for measuring fit and viability. Fit is measured by the match between task requirements and technology capabilities. Viability is measured by the economic feasibility, maturity of the IT infrastructure, and organizational support of an organization. They were further decomposed to include more detail items for measurement. The instrument provides useful guidelines for assessing the possible outcome of adopting a technology.A multi-case analysis was then performed to explore the application of the FVM model in mobile technology applications. Seven applications in four companies were investigated through interviews and case analysis. The results show empirical support of such a model in assessing system use. Our findings lead to the development of four propositions.The results of our study provide several theoretical and practical contributions. First and perhaps the most significant implication, is that managers need to take into account both TTF and organizational viability when considering the adoption of mobile technology. Most previous literature focused either on the fit aspect or organizational factors, which are incomplete by any means. Furthermore, we have successfully validated the fit-viability framework and show its applicability in practice. This should provide useful guidelines for practitioners.Another implication of the research is that managers should take different strategies when they face system applications in different cell. For those in the good target category, they should go without hesitation. For those in the restructuring category, actions to strengthen organizational support are essential for their success. For those in the alternative technology and forget-it categories, a thorough and extensive evaluation before adoption is strongly suggested.Despite its theoretical and practical contributions, this paper has some limitations. First, it is exploratory in nature and needs further studies for confirmation of the findings. Second, it is unclear to what extent the fit-viability framework can be generalized to other technology and issues. Its theoretical generalizability needs to be more carefully observed in future studies. Finally, we are not sure whether the nature of an industry or any other factors may play some roles in the model. Although, we have intended to include environmental and transactional uncertainty in our model as part of the transaction cost factors, but there may be more items that need to be examined when we evaluate the transaction cost and impact on process re-engineering. They will rely on future research to explore.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to study the adoption of mobile technology in business and its determinants. A diagnostic tool for proper adoption of mobile technology is developed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Grounded on the fit-viability framework, the paper uses a multi-case study via the fit and viability dimensions to examine the success or failure of mobile technology applications in business.\nFindings: - By drawing upon multiple streams of theory building, the paper is able to develop a set of measurement instruments to assess the fit and viability in adopting mobile technology. The findings demonstrate that the fit-viability model (FVM) provides useful guidelines for enterprises in their decisions on whether to adopt a mobile technology.\nResearch limitations/implications: - First, the theoretical generalizability of the FVM needs to be more carefully observed in future studies. Second, the findings are exploratory and more extensive studies may be necessary.\nPractical implications: - Chief information officers and managers can use the developed instrument to measure the fitness and viability of implementing mobile technology in organizations. This should be able to increase the possibility of success.\nOriginality/value: - This is one of the first papers to combine the fit and viability aspects and to empirically demonstrate the value of this two-dimensional model.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Creativity and innovation in science and technology: Bridging the gap between secondary and tertiary levels of education
|
[
"Quality education",
"Creativity",
"Innovation",
"Quality mindset"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The government decision to open access to tertiary education to 100,000 international students by 2025 (Strategic Paper, 2013-2025) is indeed a daunting task although not an impossible one. Mauritius, an island state which does not have any natural resources, has been struggling to keep and maintain a high status (The Guardian, 2011) in the continent. Its human resources are the key agents which, until now, have been the determining factor for Mauritius to be one of the most flourishing economies in the region. The education system is expected to change to be able to address the requirements of the new technology-savvy generation. For learning to be meaningful, the integration of technology in education has to be realised within a dynamic paradigm to allow updates to be effected progressively. The extent to which the secondary and tertiary sectors have brought about appropriate adjustments in the way teaching and learning take place is what will be investigated in this study. Any changes happening in society inevitably impact on life processes in society and the search and development of new approaches are part of the normal process of a dynamic society.\nProblem statement: This paper thus focuses on a study conducted with a sample of teachers and students at secondary and tertiary levels with a view to answering the following research questions:\nTheoretical foundation: The dynamism prevailing within a society depends significantly on the innovativeness of its population, as well as their ability to create knowledge that contributes to the welfare of society (Meek et al., 2009). Schools have a crucial role to play in developing students' critical mind that would allow them to see and interpret things differently and thus be creative. Creativity and innovation are closely intertwined and are the basis of any developments in society.\nMethods: The research project was undertaken as a survey employing both the qualitative and quantitative methods. The quantitative data were obtained by means of student and teacher questionnaires. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to triangulate the data.\nData analysis and discussion: Questionnaire and interview\nLimitations: First, only three institutions were involved, with a small sample of students, so that the findings cannot be generalised. Another limitation is that individual interviews could have provided more in-depth information. Moreover, gender is a variable that has not been taken into consideration and which could be incorporated in a future studies.\nRecommendations: This study has revealed a number of salient issues related to the gap existing between the secondary and tertiary levels of education in the country, with special bearing on creativity and innovation in Science and Technology. The following recommendations are proposed to enable students (at secondary and tertiary levels) to develop creativity and hopefully become innovators.\nConclusion: In an era of globalisation, the present education system does not respond to the upcoming threats that Small Island States would have to experience. SIDs are very vulnerable to socio-economic challenges and our survival is dependent on how creative and innovative we are. Because of the complex and dynamic nature of the job market, a paradigm shift in the education system will bring a breath of fresh air to our human capital. The only resources that we have are human resources and filling the loopholes will certainly bring a new dimension to how secondary and tertiary education should evolve.\nFurther research: The findings from the data generate avenues for further research in exploring whether there is a gender variance in the transition from secondary and tertiary levels of education.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper stems from a study which was conducted as a means to first, find out whether there is a gap between the secondary and tertiary education levels, second identify any existing gap in Science and Technology education, and third, examine the impact of the above upon students' creativity and innovativeness at university level. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: As such, a group of teachers and students at both secondary and tertiary levels were selected as the sample of the study. Questionnaires were administered to trained secondary school teachers and to university students. Interviews were also conducted to triangulate data. These enabled an analysis of the current situation in terms of students' engagement/creativity/innovativeness in Science and Technology at secondary and tertiary levels.\nFindings: The findings reveal a problematic situation arising with respect to beliefs and what truly prevails in the education sector at secondary and tertiary levels. This study has revealed a number of salient issues related to the gap existing between the secondary and tertiary levels of education in Mauritius, with special bearing on creativity and innovation in Science and Technology.\nResearch limitations/implications: Only three institutions were involved, with a small sample of students, so that the findings cannot be generalised. Moreover, gender is a variable that has not been taken into consideration.\nPractical implications: The study has proposed a number of recommendations to enable Mauritian students (at secondary and tertiary levels) to develop creativity and hopefully become innovators. This leads us to believe that the recommendations emerging from this study will be beneficial to various stakeholders who wish to understand the gap existing between secondary and tertiary education in Science and Technology education.\nOriginality/value: This study takes a case study approach adopting a mixture of interviews, surveys and observations to understand the research problems with regards to the younger generations need to be equipped with scientific and technological advances in acquiring knowledge, new sets of skills and values. Therefore, this study endeavours to document the perceptions of learners and faculty staff.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Friend and foe? Self-deception in organisations
|
[
"Organizational change",
"Self-categorization",
"Self-deception",
"System justification"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Devotion to a sports team, unwavering allegiance to a political party, and enduring commitment to a company are examples of a strong affiliative stance towards organisations and their guiding principles. This sense of affiliation often means that individuals turn a blind eye to institutional failings, and focus on confirmatory evidence that bolsters its merits. But why is this averting gesture so pervasive? To what degree are we aware of our biases towards organisations and even personal attributes? What organisational practices reinforce or mitigate these biases?\nA tripartite model of self-deception: The topic of self-deception has ignited rich academic debate, one that spans over five decades and intersects numerous disciplines. This debate covers the phenomenon's conscious and unconscious nature, and its association with belief formation processes and cognitive-affective mechanisms. We concur with Bachkirova's (2016) view that an interdisciplinary outlook is essential to fully grasping the nature of self-deception, as each discipline provides unique insights. Thus, we draw on philosophy, psychology and management disciplines and propose a socially embedded perspective of self-deception in organisations. Self-deception is defined here as a subconsciously motivated phenomenon, resulting from ongoing interactions between intrapersonal and relational factors in organised environments. It denotes a tendency to both hold on to a belief, even when the evidence available undermines its validity, and to influence one's external environment based on this belief. Figure 1 depicts our proposed conceptualisation of self-deception in organisations. Cognitive processes, motivational biases, and individual differences (i.e. intrapersonal self-deception) represent core elements of the phenomenon. Importantly, the intrapersonal factors are inextricable from the relational tactics individuals employ to maintain self-deception (i.e. social self-deception), and from the strength of shared motives and goals that sustain group beliefs (i.e. collective self-deception) (Dings, 2017; Smith et al., 2017). Further, we contend that ways of organising influence, and are influenced by, the three model components.\nSelf-deception in organisations: friend and foe: Self-deception as friend\nConclusion: Self-deception reflects the disavowal of belief-challenging information about personal attributes, social standing, and even institutional merits and failings. We argue that intrapersonal and relational factors interact with the organisational environment to determine levels of self-deception. High levels of self-deception are deemed maladaptive, and typically stem from, or further contribute to, practices and norms that impede critical reflection about the self or a social system. An organisation's ability to manage self-deception is predicated on its capacity to identify self-deception tactics and dynamics, how the organisation is contributing to self-deception, and to understand the implications of self-deception to organisational development. Future research can rely on organisational surveys, network analysis, and other methods to test the tripartite model proposed here, and use this knowledge to proactively manage self-deception.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Self-deception is generally deemed an adaptive psychological mechanism that ensures well-being, a sense of identity and social advancement. However, self-deception becomes maladaptive in organised environments that undermine the critical thinking essential to development and change. The purpose of this paper is to advance a theoretical model of self-deception, specifying and contextualising its intrapersonal and relational components in organisations. Further, it provides guidelines for practitioners to identify self-deception tactics, and minimise maladaptive self-deception.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Drawing on affective coping, system justification and self-categorisation theories, the paper illustrates how the interplay of intrapersonal and relational factors with organisational practices explain self-deception.\nFindings: Maladaptive self-deception is pervasive in organisations that deter critical reflection, and intensify motivated biases to self-enhance and self-protect.\nOriginality/value: This paper proposes a socially and organisationally embedded model of self-deception, specifies how self-deception develops and manifests in organisations, and suggests ways of identifying and managing self-deception towards positive organisational development and change.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Fuels sales through retail chains and their store traffics and revenue
|
[
"Promotions",
"Gasoline price dispersion",
"Grocery expenditures",
"Store traffic"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Grocery retailing is a highly competitive industry in the USA. Dozens of different types of store formats now operate to gain their shares of consumers' food expenditures, and conventional grocers have lost their shares to retailers in the new formats. In particular, convenience stores have dramatically expanded their reach to customers, and supercenter stores such as Walmart and Costco have become the largest sellers of food. Although the competitive environment in the grocery retail industry is not a worldwide phenomenon, other industrialized nations exhibit similar patterns. For example, in Korea, which we will explore in this paper, traditional supermarkets are facing a decline in revenues as alternative shopping formats continue to attract value-driven customers.\n2. Literature review: Two major issues in marketing and economics are related to our paper. The first is a vast literature in marketing on store choice decisions, which addresses a wide range of retailers' efforts to attract customers using different econometric techniques. For example, this stream explores variable costs of shopping such as price promotions, price formats and product assortments (e.g. Bell and Lattin, 1998; Briesch et al., 2013; Choi, 2017; Hampl and Loock, 2013; Mulhern and Leone, 1990; Walsh et al., 2011), along with the fixed cost of shopping associated with consumer store choice decisions such as store location and the associated travel costs (e.g. Brown, 1989; Huff, 1964). Yet, the establishment of fuel sales by a grocery retail chain is qualitatively different from such variables addressed in the past research. For example, unlike many consumer goods, customers tend to shop for a single homogeneous product on a given trip to a retailer and can determine the actual prices from the displayed list before visiting the station. Thus, due to unique characteristics of the shopping environment, only a restricted perspective about the effect of the fuel sale can be extrapolated from the extant studies on store traffic, and our research adds substantive empirical knowledge to the grocery retail sales.\n3. Data: The data were drawn from the largest consumer-rewards program in Korea. The data contained information on gasoline and grocery transactions for 100,000 households between 2008 and 2010[1]. The households were randomly selected from one of the satellite cities neighboring Seoul. This city is a primarily residential commuter town, from which most of the workforce commutes out to Seoul.\n4. Store traffic and revenue: To study the effect of the introduction of fuel sales at a supercenter store, we first focused on the traffic to the supercenter store. Using a linear specification that has traditionally been used to model retail chain data, we developed a difference-in-differences model of store traffic. This technique is ideal for estimating the effect of a treatment in the presence of possible selection bias and has been widely employed in many social-science studies on policy intervention (e.g. Athey and Imbens, 2002). Thus, we calculated the effect of fuel sales by a supercenter store on its store traffic by comparing changes in the focal supercenter store's average store traffic over a short and longer time horizon with the changes in store traffic for the other supercenter stores in the control group.\n5. Discussion: We found that the effect of fuel sales on supercenter store traffic did not remain significant in the long run. However, such findings contradict what has been observed in the USA. For example, gasoline stations attached to US retail chains maintain gasoline prices that are lower than those of local competitors by a considerable margin, and fuel sales through retail chains account for an increasing share of total gasoline sales.\n6. Conclusion: In this paper, we have explored the effect of fuel sales by a retail chain. Given that gasoline sales through retail chains account for an increasing and substantial share of total fuel sales in the USA, we predicted that this strategy should enhance the store traffic of retail chains. However, introducing fuel sales did not increase retail chain store traffic or revenue in the long run, despite having statistically and economically significant effects in the short run.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Using panel data on gasoline and grocery transactions in Korea, the purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the effect of a retail chain store's establishment of on-site fuel sales. The empirical analyses present strong empirical evidence that the sale of fuel had statistically and economically significant effect on retail store traffic and revenue in the short run. However, the effect did not remain significant in the longer run. To explain the dramatic decrease in the effect of the fuel sale, the authors consider the enhanced competition in the local gasoline retail industry and examine cross-sectional price variations at the station level. The results suggest that the increased competition led to the reduction in the price dispersion across stations and thereby to an increase in consumer welfare.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a linear specification that has traditionally been used to model retail chain data, the authors developed a series of difference-in-differences models. This technique is ideal for estimating the effect of a treatment in the presence of possible selection bias and has been widely employed in many social-science studies on policy intervention.\nFindings: In a certain environment, introducing fuel sales did not increase retail chain store traffic or revenue in the long run, despite having statistically and economically significant effects in the short run. The results document empirical evidence of myopic management in a common marketing practice, which often leads to a negative impact on the firm value in the long run.\nResearch limitations/implications: The span of data and sample size were limited to meet the company's data protection policy.\nPractical implications: Considering that many of developed countries are characterized by a gasoline retail environment similar to that which is investigated in this paper, the authors believe that the implications of the results are particularly valid for practitioners and policy makers.\nSocial implications: The findings document empirical evidence of myopic management in a common marketing practice, which often leads to a negative impact on the firm value in the long run. Marketing researchers should make efforts in establishing metrics to help identify myopic management decision.\nOriginality/value: This paper addresses an interesting and practical issue related to the effects of the introduction of gasoline sales by a supercenter store on its store traffic.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Thinking about service encounters boosts talking about them
|
[
"Word-of-mouth",
"Thinking",
"Customer satisfaction",
"Autobiographical memory",
"Service encounters",
"Talking"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Word of mouth (WOM) from existing customers is an important marketing variable because it has the potential to provide credible and persuasive information to new customers without any particular costs for the firm (Raassens and Haans, 2017; Sivadas and Jindal, 2017; Sirakaya-Turk et al., 2015; Soderlund and Mattsson, 2015). Therefore, it is not surprising that many studies have made attempts to identify antecedents to WOM transmission, such as customer satisfaction (Anderson, 1998; Brown et al., 2005; Verma et al., 2016; Yu et al., 2017), perceived service quality (Danaher and Rust, 1996; Kim et al., 2015), perceived value (Sirakaya-Turk et al., 2015; Sweeney and Soutar, 2001), absorption (Chu et al., 2018) and trust (Gremler et al., 2001; Verma et al., 2016). Several antecedents related to customers' motivation to engage in WOM, such as impression management motives and concern for others, have also been examined (Berger, 2014; Kim, 2017). However, one potential antecedent has been neglected in the existing literature: the extent to which the customer has been thinking about what subsequently becomes the topic in conversations with others.\nTheoretical framework and hypotheses: Thinking about a service encounter after it has occurred\nStudy 1: Research approach\nStudy 2: Study 2 was conducted to:\nDiscussion: Contributions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine the impact of thinking about an event as an antecedent to subsequent talk about this event with others (i.e. word-of-mouth). Thinking has been a neglected variable in word-of-mouth research, despite the fact that several conceptual arguments indicate that thinking is likely to enhance talking. Here, the thinking-talking association is examined in the context of service encounters.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected with a critical incident method, and the main variables were measured with questionnaire items.\nFindings: Thinking about a service encounter - after it has been completed - had a positive influence on subsequent talk to others about the encounter. The association was mediated by the memorability of the service encounter and the extent to which what had happened had been subject to rehearsal with the purpose of telling others about it. In addition, with respect to antecedents of consumer thinking, the results indicate that service encounter incongruity had a special role in why the consumer thinks about encounters after they have been completed.\nOriginality/value: The findings should be seen in relation to the dominant position of customer satisfaction as an antecedent to word-of-mouth in the existing literature. The present results, however, indicate that satisfaction's contribution to the variation in talking about the encounter was modest.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Long-run dynamics between cost of quality and quality performance
|
[
"Quality management",
"Manufacturing strategy",
"Operations management",
"Quality costing",
"Production economics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent years, fulfilling customer expectations of reliable products has become increasingly important for manufacturing firms. Many companies today consider product quality to be a central customer value and a critical factor for achieving competitiveness (Schiffauerova and Thomson, 2006). However, using product quality in the race for top company performance also requires a close and careful look at the costs involved in sustaining and increasing quality performance. As quality management gains renewed interest (e.g. Honarpour et al., 2017; Farooq et al., 2017; Junior, 2016), this motivates us to reassess some of the central findings of this stream of research.\nLiterature review: The concept of quality costing was first mentioned by Juran (1951) in his Quality Control Handbook. He referred to quality cost as \"the costs which would disappear if no defects were produced\" (Juran, 1951). Juran's broad definition was later extended by Feigenbaum (1956). He divided total quality cost into cost of control and cost of failure of control. Costs of control are incurred to ensure that a product meets its specifications while costs of failure of control result from a product not conforming to requirements. Both these groups are further separated into two categories. Costs of control are separated into prevention and appraisal cost, and costs of failure of control into internal failure and external failure cost (Lorente et al., 1998). Feigenbaum's classification is referred to as the prevention-appraisal-failure (P-A-F) model in the literature.\nConceptual model: Having set the theoretical background, we now develop our conceptual model that forms the basis for our research. We do not provide numerical examples in this paper as the primary goal of our work is to focus on empirical data. However, we refer to the study of Kim and Nakhai (2008) at this point. They developed a similar formulation and focus on mathematical modeling in their research.\nData and methodology: We use a unique data set with 408 observations collected by way of a questionnaire to address these questions. Supply chain, production, operations and executive managers were targeted by announcements in a professional magazine. Participation was by self-selection and incentivized by receiving an individual feedback report on one's relative position among the other participants. The participating operational units included smaller manufacturing companies as a whole and individual production sites of bigger firms.\nAnalysis and results: Having described our data and methods employed, we begin testing the stated hypotheses one by one and interpret our results.\nDiscussion and managerial implications: In the course of our research, we have collected strong evidence of how quality performance and quality cost evolve in the long-run. First of all, we observe increasing quality performance in the long-run, reflected in a significantly lower defect rate between the first and the second of paired observations.\nConclusion and recommendations for future work: The dynamics of quality performance and quality cost are gaining renewed interest in quality management literature. Surprisingly, besides anecdotal findings from case studies, theory and simulation exercises, empirical evidence is limited to a few publications. Using large sample secondary data with more than 400 observations for the first time, our research built up empirical evidence for increasing quality performance in manufacturing in the long-run. We then examined whether it is possible to reduce internal and external failure cost over time without increasing prevention and appraisal expenditures in return. Finally, a scale effect in reducing quality cost is measured to clarify the long-run dynamics between cost of quality and quality performance. Significantly higher quality performance and lower quality cost are observed in the long-run. Quality costs grow less than half as fast as sales volume, pointing to a significant scale effect in quality cost reduction.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The dynamics of quality performance and quality cost are gaining renewed interest in quality management literature. Using large sample secondary data, the purpose of this paper is to build up empirical evidence for increasing quality performance in manufacturing in the long-run. The authors then examine whether it is possible to reduce internal and external failure cost over time without increasing prevention and appraisal expenditures in return. Finally, a scale effect in reducing quality cost is measured to clarify the long-run dynamics between quality cost and quality performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors conduct statistical analysis on a large sample secondary data set to reveal relationships between total cost of quality, its components and overall quality performance.\nFindings: Significantly higher quality performance and lower quality cost are observed in the long-run. Quality costs grow less than half as fast as sales volume, pointing to a significant scale effect in quality cost reduction.\nPractical implications: Businesses can use these implications for targeting failure costs and budgeting appraisal and prevention costs. Based on company-specific historical learning behavior through prevention and appraisal activities, an increasingly reliable prognosis of failure cost shall be possible.\nOriginality/value: For the first time, quality performance and cost dynamics are assessed using a secondary data set with more than 400 observations. A scale effect for quality cost reduction is measured. The results are of great importance to quality management practice and research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
HR leaders hold the key to effective diversity management: ... as more and more important decisions are taken at local level
|
[
"Diversity",
"Leadership",
"Human-resource management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: \"From a very early age, we are taught to break apart to fragment the world. This apparently makes complex tasks and subjects more manageable, but we pay a hidden, enormous price. We can no longer see the consequences of our actions; we lose our intrinsic sense of connection to a larger whole\", said Senge (2006, p. 3). Yet it is not unusual to find organizations handling diversity management (DM) in a fragmented way.\nDM integration and performance issues: What is the likely impact of DM integration on team, organizational and business performance? And what role do FLMLs play in DM integration or DM synergy? An understanding of this role should help the perception of integration.\nThe FLML DM role and the four-factor HRM/strategic-fit framework: Typically, the FLML's team will consist of people from diverse backgrounds, of diverse genders, with diverse talents, knowledge, skills, competencies, experiences, ethnicities, cultures, physical appearance, age and psychological contracts. Such wide diversity is evident in UK manufacturing companies (Ozbilgin and Tatli, 2005). This vastness of diversity means that FLMLs play an even more crucial role in selecting, as well as retaining, their team members. Furthermore, forces such as increased globalization, and the demand for sustainable human-resource management practices make DM a core HRM responsibility for FLMLs. In view of these FLML challenges, organizations cannot escape understanding the key factors affecting their DM performance.\nConclusion: DM is central to the HRM function in work organizations, and the past decade has seen employers seeking to establish more devolved management structures[4] that place more emphasis on local-level managerial decision-making. An important component of this shift in many organizations has been the reconfiguration of the role of FLMLs to encompass a wider range of HRM responsibilities. Hence, diversity management and leadership in this regard are a key HRM role for LMs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Observes that diversity management (DM) is central to the human resource management (HRM) function in work organizations, and the past decade has seen employers seeking to establish more devolved management structures that place more emphasis on local-level managerial decision-making.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Argues that an important component of this shift in many organizations has been the reconfiguration of the role of first-line managerial leader (FLML) to encompass a wider range of HRM responsibilities. Hence, diversity management and leadership in this regard are a key HRM role for leaders and managers.\nFindings: Highlights case-study evidence to illustrate how far the success or otherwise of such a process of change is explicable in terms of the role played by four inter-related sets of factors which are key elements linked to organizational learning and strategic fit.\nPractical implications: Advances the view that organizations that wish to enhance the HRM/DM role and performance of FLMLs need to adopt a holistic strategic approach which encompasses organizational learning and FLML strategies.\nOriginality/value: Demonstrates that organizations that use an integrated framework to help with the close co-ordination of business and HRM activities are likely to perform better as they engage in effective learning.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Co-entrepreneurial ventures: A study of mixed gender founders of ICT companies in Ireland
|
[
"Entrepreneurialism",
"Joint ventures",
"Family firms",
"Ireland"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction and background: Female entrepreneurs not only contribute to employment creation and economic growth but also offer diversity to entrepreneurship in the economic process. They set up business in different sectors, develop different products, pursue different goals and have different management and organisational solutions to business problems (Brush, 1992; Carter et al., 1997; Verheul and Thurik, 2001; Verheul, 2003; Verheul et al., 2004; OECD, 2004). However, despite the recent increased attention on women's entrepreneurship, the percentage of female entrepreneurs in Europe still remains low (OECD, 2004) with more men being actively involved in entrepreneurship than women (Reynolds et al., 2002; Minniti et al., 2005). Research suggests that female entrepreneurs face obstacles and difficulties that are different to those of other entrepreneurs (Gundry and Welsch, 2001; Chaganti and Greene, 2002; and Greene et al., 2003.).In the UK, it is estimated that women-owned firms account for 26 per cent of all businesses, however, this does not include an account of women's entrepreneurial efforts within family owned businesses or those masked by co-ownership (Shaw et al., 2001; Carter et al., 2001; OECD, 2004). Indeed, most OECD countries do not collect gender-disaggregated data on business ownership (OECD, 2000). According to Elliot et al., 2001, only 7 out of 17 countries collect data on the gender of business ownership[1], and only 3 countries out of the 17 collect data on the gender of start-up entrepreneurs. Furthermore, many firms today start as a team effort and, although same gender teams tend to dominate, mixed gender teams are also very frequent and it is not unusual for a man and woman, who are not necessarily married couples, to be working as equal partners in a business (Ruef et al., 2003).These limited statistical data on gender ownership make it difficult for research into the extent of the phenomena of \"co-entrepreneurship\". Indeed, the term \"co-entrepreneur\" is not widely recognised, even by those organisations that represent or support small businesses, and is typically associated with the role of women as working spouses in small family firms. The lack of inclusion of non-family partnerships undermines female entrepreneurship and the significant role that these women can play in the economy of any country.\nAims and objectives of the study: This paper discusses the nature of co-entrepreneurs (i.e. those companies that have a mixture of male and female founding members) within the ICT sector in Ireland. For the purposes of this study, the term \"co-entrepreneurship\" is used to describe male and female business partnerships. The characteristics of co-entrepreneurs; their educational, skills and family backgrounds; their current role in the company; the team founder structure and the factors that influenced their initial partnerships and relationships are examined. A discussion on why the team approach was selected is included and the key differences between the co-founders are identified. A particularly interesting contribution of this paper is the provision of insights into the co-entrepreneurial partnership through ascertaining the extent to which there is a lead entrepreneur (whether perceived or otherwise) in the venture; his/her gender and how important he/she is to the company. Other issues explored in the paper include the company's funding strategy, the particular funding contribution of each of the founders, his/her ownership percentage and his/her current level of strategic decision-making.\nCo-entrepreneurial ventures: The concept of teams\nResearch conducted and methodology used: According to the latest IBEC (2003) report, there are currently 980 ICT companies in Ireland. As part of on-going research in this field, the researchers built a database of 1,026 companies in March 2003 from all of Ireland's indigenous ICT companies listed on the National Software Directive website (www.nsd.ie), the Irish Software Association website (www.software.ie) and County Enterprise Board websites[2]. Further companies were added from the 2001, 2002 and 2003 reports on the software industry produced by HotOrigin, an investment and consulting company based in Ireland. In addition, companies that came to prominence in the media or to the specific attention of the researchers were subsequently added. These companies were surveyed electronically[3] in April 2003 to ascertain which of them produced software, the nationality of the ownership of the company and the gender of the company's founder members. The response rate to this survey was 33.8 per cent (n=347) and, of those who responded to the gender question, 24 per cent (n=81) indicated that there was a mixture of male and female founding members; 73.6 per cent (n=248) had all male founders and 2.4 per cent (n=8) had all female founders. (These figures compare favourably with SBS[4] who found that 22 per cent of SMEs in England were co-owned by both at least one woman and one man (Elliot et al., 2001). Two of the mixed gender companies were not Irish owned, thus giving a sample selection of 79 Irish companies for this study.A questionnaire containing a total of 42 questions and structured in four sections was designed to gather data on the following areas:1. general background to the company;2. profile of the co-entrepreneurs and reasons for the co-ownership structure;3. co-entrepreneur's motivations and past work experience; and4. co-entrepreneur's role within the company and relationship with co-founders.A total of 34 companies (43 per cent) responded, however, ten of these companies indicated that they did not actually have a mixture of male and female founding members and another company could no longer be contacted. Thus, the sample size was reduced to 23 companies. Of these 23 companies, a total of 28 individual co founders responded to the survey. The 5 extra questionnaire responses came from 2 spouse/partner team companies, 1 parent/child company and a 4 person previous work-colleague team company where 3 of the founders responded.\nResearch findings: Co-entrepreneurs' company profile\nConclusions: This small exploratory study has contributed to enhancing understanding of mixed gender co-entrepreneurial ventures within the ICT sector in Ireland in several ways. Firstly, the study suggests that the family business or spouse/partner structure represents a major component of mixed gender companies in this sector. Such companies tend to be small, with less than 50 employees and typically in operation for around six years. Secondly, based on the profile of the company founders suggested by this study, it can be concluded that Irish copreneurs tend to be well educated; married (at set-up stage) with children; experienced in administration and product development but inexperienced in sales and marketing, with no previous experience in founding companies, but clear previous experience in the IT industry. This latter point would appear to be supported in the literature, as previous research by Handelberg and Vyakarnam (1999) found that knowledge of the industry was essential for the success of a venture and, therefore, a team requires a member who can provide knowledge of that industry. At least 66 per cent[8] of the founders in this survey had previous experience or knowledge of the industry, having worked either in high-tech companies or having been directly involved in a technical position.Thirdly, while the strong family component indicated in this survey may, in some cases, be due to the Irish legal requirement for two company directors, more than half of the founders claimed to have adopted the team approach to improve the company's chances of success through shared skills and knowledge. Thus, as identified in earlier studies (see, for example, Garavan et al., 1997), there would appear to be a recognition among co-entrepreneurs that complimentary skills and knowledge are critically important in the exploitation of an opportunity for successful new venture creation, especially in the IT industry.Fourthly, although over 85 per cent of the respondents in this survey referred to themselves as either the \"Director\" or \"Managing Director\", it would appear that more men then women perceive themselves as the Company's Managing Director or lead entrepreneur. It can also be concluded that female copreneurs tend to work more in administration and finance roles; roles regarded as typically female, while their male counterparts describe their roles as sales/marketing or product development. However, further research is needed to help us understand the differences between male and female copreneurs and the reasons for such differences. The complementary aspect of mixed gender co-preneurial ventures also needs further exploration so that, where appropriate, such ventures can be encouraged.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research is to discuss the nature of co-entrepreneurs (i.e. those companies that have a mixture of male and female founding members) within the ICT sector in Ireland. For the purposes of this paper, the term \"co-entrepreneurship\" is used to describe male and female business partnerships. The characteristics of co-entrepreneurs; their educational, skills and family backgrounds; their current role in the company, and the nature of the team founder structure are examined. A discussion on why the team approach was selected is also included. Other issues explored in the paper include the shareholding percentage of the co-entrepreneurs and the extent to which the business has a lead entrepreneur.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In 2003 the authors compiled a database of 1,026 indigenous ICT companies, which were electronically surveyed for information regarding software production, ownership of company and gender of founding members. A total of 24 per cent (81) of the responding companies from this survey indicated that there was a mixture of male and female founding members. These companies were subsequently sent another survey designed to gather information on company background, profiles of co-entrepreneurs, co-entrepreneurs' motivational factors and co-entrepreneurs' roles. A total of 34 (43 per cent) of the companies responded, of which 23 were suitable for the research.\nFindings: - The findings of the study indicate that the family business or spouse/partner structure represents a major component of mixed gender companies in the ICT sector in Ireland, and that such companies tend to be small, with well-educated and experienced founders.\nOriginality/value: - A particularly interesting contribution of this paper is the provision of insights into the co-entrepreneurial partnership through identifying the key differences between the male and female co-founders. A key conclusion of the study is that there would appear to be a recognition among co-entrepreneurs that complementary skills and knowledge are critically important in the exploitation of new business opportunities, especially in the IT industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Dysfunctional leadership: organizational cancer
|
[
"Leadership",
"Dysfunctional",
"Cancer",
"Management",
"Organizational performance",
"Management strategy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Most people confuse leadership and management. Motivating, coaching and developing subordinates are good skills for any manager or leader to have but do not necessarily constitute leadership. Planning, organizing and controlling are essential management skills. Persuasiveness is not leadership. It is important to understand what leadership is all about so that we can really have an appreciation of how it affects the organization as a cancer.\nLeadership: There is no general specific definition of leadership Bass (1985). Stodgill (1974) captured what he considered an accurate definition of leadership; he defined leadership as a process of influencing the activities of an organized group in efforts towards goal setting and goal achievement. The above definition focuses on the importance of influence and that ability to create followership. As the old Chinese proverb states, \"If anyone thinks they are leading but has no-one following them, they are merely taking a walk\". Leaders need to take into account the importance of followers; without followers there is no leadership. Leaders set goals and goals are futuristic, which brings the aspect of visionary leadership. They deal with the future; as Napoleon Bonaparte said, \"Leaders are dealers in hope\". Leadership involves dealing with the actualization of what was previously unseen.Through extensive investigation into leadership in South Africa in 1983, Schilbach in Gerber et al. (1996) defined the concept of leadership as follows: leadership is an interpersonal process through which a leader directs the activities of individuals or groups towards the purposeful pursuance of given objectives within a particular situation by means of communication. Kotter (1988) states that leadership is the process of moving a group (or groups) in some direction through mostly non-coercive means. Kotter (1988) further suggests that effective leadership is defined as leadership which produces movement in the long-term to the best interest of the group(s). Maxwell (1993) outlines a misunderstanding about leadership, because most people define leadership as the ability to achieve a position. Therefore, they pursue a position, rank or title and upon attaining it, think they have become a leader. There are many leaders in organizations who are not leading anyone, and they are moving in different directions with their followers, so the implication is that they will be taking a walk rather than leading. In leading, followership is very important, followers have power (Table I).Marshall (1991) sums it up by stating that you can have a leader who is also a good manager or a manager who is a leader, but the two functions are quite different and must not be confused.\nSigns of dysfunctional leadership: Poor communication\nEffects of dysfunctional leadership: Sabotaging organizational activities: when employees lose confidence in leadership they can resort to sabotage, such as advising customers to buy from competitors where products maybe cheaper.Generally the company or organization's performance will suffer and employees will lose confidence in the leadership.When there is bad leadership employees are frustrated, and when employees are frustrated they do not perform up to standard. They deliver frustrated service; a frustrated employee delivers frustrated service. In some organizations visited, it has been difficult to tell whether employees were performing slowly or not, looking at the pace they were doing things and everything that surrounds them.Consequently the organization will lose key talented professionals because of the bad organizational political environment. This reputation will also make it difficult to attract talented staff. Faith will be lost in the organization's leadership, and even if they bring good ideas, followers will not accept them because of a lack of trust (Jones, 2008).\nTreatment challenges of the cancer: It is usually difficult to treat dysfunctional teams and organizational politics because: a board of directors may be part of the challenges benefiting from organizational politics and dysfunctional leadership, especially in the case of cross directorship. Management in different organizations form a political powerhouse of bad leadership and organizational politics.Bad culture spreads in an organization easily, like cancer in a human body, to such an extent that it becomes difficult to treat even with new leadership. It becomes very difficult to change the culture, thus, it may be necessary to sacrifice a number of employees who may be the custodians of bad culture, especially if they refuse to change.\nBusiness processes re-engineering may face serious resistance: It usually takes more time to build than to destroy: building trust, confidence and healing the wounds may take a long time. New leaders may find it difficult to put things in order because of deliberate concealing of information by subordinates and also misinformation.A leader should check if any of the above symptoms are present in their organization, for example in teams and departments. If any of these symptoms are present, he/she should find strategies for managing politics and improving organizational performance and strategic outcomes.\nBest practices for curing bad politics and dysfunctional leadership: Organizations are political entities; it is impossible to have a political free organization, because people in organizations differ in the way they perceive things and as a result political games surface. It requires prudent leadership to take the organization to the next level in the midst of political games.\nCEO to be the champion of change: The CEO should appreciate how bad organizational politics can negatively impact on the performance of the organization and they should strive to lead the change process and be practical and consistent in dealing with organizational members and issues (Jones, 2008).\nCommunication: The leader must be a good communicator so that people or employees do not complete the stimulus on their own. Communication to organizational members should be through various means such as notice boards in departments. With the current technology the internet will be the best means of communication. Information should be disseminated to employees, for example: paydays, people who have joined the organization, those who have resigned and any other relevant information for organizational members. This keeps employees well-informed about organizational activities rather than speculating on issues that can be communicated to all employees just by the tip of a finger on the internet. Effective communication reduces anxiety, speculation and gossiping. For example in one organization employees went on strike when their salaries were increased but management did not communicate with them.\nSupport of new leadership: If a new leader joins an organization, there is need for the board of directors to give him/her maximum support to achieve the organizational vision. Responsibility and authority: he should have the power to hire and fire, especially those who continue to follow the old system of playing political games at the expense of the organization.\nTeam building: There is need for a strong team building in an organization and for it to be effective, it should start from top management cascading down to lower level employees. Executive programs and learning teams will be necessary to develop strategies and solve problems; these may include having sporting activities for the whole organization. For example, the founder of Kingdom Bank in Zimbabwe will play football with his employees and other games as a way of getting closer to employees and developing a team spirit.Kouzes and Posner (2002) identified five key actions for successful leadership which are as follows; the first one is modeling the way, which means being exemplary and consistent in leading other people. The second one is inspiring a shared vision where people are motivated by ideas rather than rewards and communicating the vision effectively. The third is challenging the process, meaning that leaders learn from challenges and adversities they encounter. Leaders also adopt innovation earlier than their followers. They should be leading in everything. The fourth is enabling others to act, meaning that leaders should provide followers with opportunities to implement ideas. The fifth is that the leader should encourage the heart, meaning that people need to be encouraged, so that they are passionate about what they do, and leaders should also be passionate about what they do so that the spirit is uncalculated in the followers.\nBe available to lead: All leaders claim to have an open door policy; some even went further to say we have a door-less policy, and they have said we are there for the people. But in reality most of all organizational levels have complained that the leaders were not accessible. But before you start backtracking and justifying your availability, let me say a couple things:*You cannot lead in a vacuum.*People would not follow an absentee leader for long.*Saying your door is open is very different from being available. The door can be open or even door-less but there will be nobody behind it.*What people want is access to a leader and attention when they are with the leader.\nLeadership action: It is the action, not the fruit of the action that is important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power and may not be in your time, that there will be any fruit. But that does not mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result (Mahatma Ghandi).Eastman (2010) described the seven elements of human character, pointing out that: faith is the ability to come up with values and support them through actions, not just statements written down. Justice is doing the right thing when leading, even when the leader or close associates will be disadvantaged, the right thing should be done. Temperance is showing interest in leading followers and exercising self-control even when followers offend you as the leader. Hope is leading followers by articulating a bright future even when things are looking bad, instilling a sense of confidence that things will be fine. Wisdom is leading using accumulated knowledge and experience to deal with situations encountered, even if the situations are new. A leader should be able to use experience to make a sound decision on them. Love is showing concern and being considerate to the people you lead. Finally, courage is exploiting and grabbing opportunities and developing strategies to deal with challenges.\nConclusion: Leadership is not a one-day event. It is a constant commitment to attain global excellence, courage and responsibility, power to do good things, and act as a role model to everyone. Organizations and the world at large have suffered because of dysfunctional leadership. There is need for leaders to partake in self introspection and continuously check whether he/she still has followers, otherwise leadership cannot occur. The instability in many countries is a true reflection of how dysfunctional leadership can be cancerous. One of the most brilliant executives, former CEO of Microsoft South Africa Pfungwa Serima and now Managing Director of SAP South Africa in an interview was asked a question, what he thought was the mark of a good leader; his answer was; there are two key elements in any professional life: values and performance. A good leader has to have both - they need to live the values and deliver results. Achievement of goals is vital, but you cannot compromise the organization's values in order to attain the desired level of performance. Other things a good leader should have are an eye and an ear for good people. One person is too small to ever achieve greatness; the people you surround yourself with will determine whether you are successful or not.A good leader is also someone who realizes that leadership develops daily, and not in a day. It is an ongoing journey so you need to be open enough to listen to other people. Finally, in every organization, someone has to remain sane, regardless of how tough the situation. People often comment that I appear not to be under pressure, but as a leader part of my role is to contain the pressure, manage the stress and keep a cool head. He was asked his opinion on the key to get the most out of people in business; he said respect and trust. People work for other people, not for organizations. If you earn people's trust and they respect you, they will work for you. On what gets him up every morning; he said success, and the ability to make a difference, both for myself and for others.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to help managers and leaders with the necessary information to implement a cure for poor organizational performance\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The author has conducted research in organizations and has found out that many organizations are being affected by dysfunctional leadership, which is acting as a cancer, eating up many organizations.\nFindings: - Dysfunctional leadership has been found to be the cancer that eats many organizations.\nPractical implications: - Best practices are provided to cure challenges caused by bad leadership.\nOriginality/value: - This paper gives practical advice from situations in organizations and helps organizations to identify signs of bad leadership and how they can be cured.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Improving the effectiveness of workplace training: The value of situational judgment tests
|
[
"Learning",
"Workplace training",
"Situational judgment tests"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nWorkplace learning: Training and development is widely recognized as a critical factor in organizational success. It is thus normal for organizations to invest substantially in the quest to extract maximum value from the talent they have at their disposal.\nSituational judgment tests as a training technique: Simulations are a well-established learning methodology for complicated work scenarios. On the negative side, they are expensive and take considerable time to develop. A growing number of analysts are therefore proposing SJTs as a viable alternative when replication of important facets of real work situations is needed. That SJTs are potentially much more cost effective adds weight to their argument.\nSituational judgment tests in action: The potential advantage of using SJTs is illustrated in an experiment conducted in the Gulf Coast Region of the USA. Student volunteers participated in a program devised to train them how to respond in the event of a hurricane.\nComment: The review is based on: \"Using situational judgment tests (SJTs) in training: Development and evaluation of a structured, low-fidelity scenario-based training method\" by Cox et al. (2017). Use of SJTs as a workplace learning technique is advocated here. The authors compare the methodology to other more conventional approaches and detail a program conducted in the USA to highlight its potential to impact more strongly on knowledge acquisition and learning.\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: Training and development is widely recognized as a critical factor in organizational success. It is thus normal for organizations to invest substantially in the quest to extract maximum value from the talent they have at their disposal. To this end, most firms will use an array of different learning techniques. However, wise operators will also be on the lookout for original approaches that could help give them an advantage over the competition. Perhaps, situational judgment tests (SJTs) might fit the bill in this respect. Evidence confirms that SJTs are proven for such as personnel selection and organizational psychology. In the context of training though, the methodology remains under-explored by comparison. This is despite their use as an assessment tool prior to training or afterwards.\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"
}
] |
Positionings in healthcare: diabetes training for Arabic-speaking immigrants
|
[
"Training",
"Healthcare",
"Ethnic groups",
"Professionals",
"Health education",
"Diabetes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As western societies become more multi-ethnic, demands on healthcare professionals regarding cultural competencies and cultural sensitivity have been given more focus (Castro et al., 2004; Hawthorne et al., 2010; Hjelm et al., 2003; Lanting et al., 2008; Lawton et al., 2006). For example, Hjelm et al. (2003) found that among immigrants from ex-Yoguslavia, immigrants from Arabic countries and Swedish people with diabetes, culture, religion and traditions influenced beliefs about health and illness and self-care practices differently. Ex-Yugoslavians emphasized enjoyment of life and a passive self-care attitude, while Arabs stressed the importance of being a believing Muslim, and Swedes showed active self-care behaviour. Lawton et al. (2006) found that abstinence from physical activity among diabetes patients of Pakistani and Indian origin in the UK was influenced by cultural norms. Others have warned that the notion of ethnic minorities' or immigrants' \"culture\" is given too much attention in the literature and that - despite good intentions - it is used as a simplifying explanatory factor for problems encountered and co-created by healthcare professionals (Borovoy and Hine, 2008; van Dijk, 1998; Johansen, 2007). As an alternative to \"culture\", some authors highlight that healthcare professionals should take into account socio-economic and migration-related circumstances when planning and implementing healthcare for ethnic minorities (Bhopal, 1991; Jacobsen et al., 2004; Netto et al., 2010). However, there are very few accounts in the literature of how healthcare professionals themselves perceive and enact their roles in such targeted health interventions.\nMaterials and methods: Study design\nResults: Before we describe the healthcare professionals' positionings, we will briefly account for the purpose of the training. There were no details of purpose or learning goals of the trainings in writing. In interviews, however, healthcare professionals at the respective centres highlighted three similar purposes: first and foremost that participants learn to take responsibility for their own health; second, that they acquire factual knowledge about the body, diabetes and lifestyle; and, third, that they learn to navigate the Danish healthcare system. The first two purposes are common components in diabetes training (Willaing et al., 2005). Healthcare professionals, however, highlighted that all three purposes were particularly important in relation to ethnic minorities, as they considered them to be further away from these goals than were the majority population. In addition to the three learning-oriented purposes, healthcare professionals stressed how giving time and care was central in the service offered, as will be discussed further.\nDiscussion: Our focus was on two key aspects of healthcare professionals' practice: the multiplicity and reciprocity in their positionings. We assert that this perspective opens up a new understanding of healthcare professionals' practice, and we point to both the risks and potentials for practice.\nConclusion: Our findings did not prove the investigated healthcare practices to be right or wrong and this was not our aim. Rather, we provided new reflexivity regarding healthcare practices, articulated different tensions in practice as well as risks and potentials. We showed how healthcare professionals flexibly, although mostly unconsciously, shifted between multiple positionings. This made practice less rigid and more dynamic. We showed how the positionings were reciprocal, and drew on images of an ethnic other in two cases. The other-positionings, especially as difficult students, created distance between professionals and participants and entailed the risk that healthcare professionals saw teaching challenges as rooted in an ethnic differentness compared to ethnic Danish participants. We argue that becoming more reflexive and explicit about one's positionings and other-positionings - and the rationalities or images behind them - would make teaching practice more conscious, confident and strengthen the room for flexibility further. Furthermore, such reflexivity might create room for a more attentive and open-ended teaching practice in line with healthcare professionals' ideals. We believe that positionings and other-positionings take place in health education practices in general. Reflexivity on these processes, therefore, has a broader relevance and application.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how healthcare professionals in Denmark perceived and enacted their role as diabetes trainers for Arabic-speaking immigrants in three new local authority settings. The paper used positioning theory, which is a dynamic alternative to the more static concept of role in that it seeks to capture the variable, situationally specific, multiple and shifting character of social interaction, as the analytical tool to examine how people situationally produce and explain behaviour of themselves and others.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper generated data through observation of diabetes training and of introductory interviews with training participants in three local authority healthcare centres over a total of five months. The authors conducted 12 individual interviews and two group interviews with healthcare professionals.\nFindings: Healthcare professionals shifted between three positionings - caregiver, educator and expert. The caregiver was dominant in professionals' ideals but less in their practice. Healthcare professionals other-positioned participants correspondingly as: vulnerable, difficult students and chronically ill. The two first other-positionings drew on dominant images of an ethnic other as different and problematic.\nPractical implications: Becoming more reflexive and explicit about one's positionings offer the potential for a more conscious, confident, flexible and open-ended teaching practice. Such reflexivity may also reduce the perception that teaching challenges are rooted in participants' ethnic background.\nOriginality/value: The paper provides a new understanding of healthcare practice by showing professionals' multiple and reciprocal positionings and the potential and risks in this regard. The paper demonstrates the need for healthcare workers to reflect on their positionings not only in relation to immigrants, but to all patients.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Enhancing innovation capability through relationship management and implications for performance
|
[
"Innovation",
"Channel relationships",
"Distribution management",
"Business performance",
"Quality",
"Hong Kong"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A key factor in the success of firms is the extent of their innovation capability also referred to in the literature as innovativeness and defined as cultural readiness and appreciation for innovation (Hult et al., 2004). It has been argued that a firm must be innovative to survive in a volatile environment (Johnson et al., 1997). Innovation is central to differentiation and hence, competitive advantage (Porter, 1985), whereas innovativeness has been found to have a positive influence on business performance (Deshpande et al., 1993; Yamin et al., 1997). It follows that studies aiming at identifying what enhances innovation capability in an organisation and performance consequences thereof should be at the forefront of organisational innovation research.Studies on the general factors that give rise to innovativeness in the firm have produced mixed results (Abratt and Lombard, 1993; Henard and Szymanski, 2001; Poolton and Barclay, 1998). Some studies have contended that organizations use inter-organizational relationships as an important source of innovation (Pennings and Harianto, 1992; Powell et al., 1996; Van de Ven et al., 1999). Researchers have emphasized the importance of building relationships as a means for promoting technological innovations (Holmen et al., 2005) as well as firm innovativeness (Hausman, 2005).However, research on the influence of inter-organizational relationships on innovation requires further inroads and contributions (Marshall, 2004). In addition, while it is generally agreed that innovation contributes to business performance, relatively little is known about what drives innovativeness and how innovativeness may influence other factors towards the improvement of firm performance (Hult et al., 2004).To address these issues, this paper reports on an empirical investigation that examines relationship orientation of logistics services providers (LSPs) as an antecedent to innovativeness and the effects of innovativeness on improving the quality of logistics service and firm performance. LSPs have been chosen because they represent a sector of industry that facilitates efficient transportation of goods and information where integration and innovativeness are essential parts of operations. The results contribute to the identification of factors that may give rise to innovativeness and the effects of innovativeness on service quality and firm performance, essential goals of business enterprises. Findings can help the management to better understand what types of orientations drive innovativeness and what should be encouraged with a view to increasing the quality of delivering the logistics service and firm performance.The following section presents a review of the relevant literature that underpins the theoretical conceptualizations and the development of the research hypotheses that are put forward. This is followed by a description of the methodology that is used to facilitate the empirical investigation of the hypotheses and the results of the data analysis. The results give rise to implications for theory development and managerial practice. Finally, the limitations of the study are highlighted and recommendations for further research made.\nConceptual framework and construct definitions: The review of the literature provided the theoretical base upon which the research hypotheses have been formulated. It is suggested that relationship orientation in the LSP-client relationship will give rise to enhanced capability for innovation, improvement in logistics service quality and consequent impact on firm performance for the LSP. Relationship orientation will also positively influence logistics service quality. The conceptual framework is shown in Figure 1.Relationship orientation refers to the proactive creation, development and maintenance of relationships with customers and other parties that would result in mutual exchange and fulfilment of promises at a profit (Harker, 1999). Relationship orientation may be viewed as a philosophy of doing business successfully and as an organizational culture that puts the buyer-seller relationship at the centre of a firm's strategic and operational thinking. Among the benefits advanced for such relationships are reduced transaction costs, enhanced productivity, and higher economic returns for customers and suppliers (Narayandas and Rangan, 2004). Despite the proliferation of relationship marketing research, few papers have actually elaborated on a comprehensive set of items that would make up relationship orientation (Frazier, 1999). Key components of relational exchange were identified by Dwyer et al. (1987) and include trust, planning and non-economic and social satisfaction outcomes. Siguaw et al. (2003) define relational exchange as those ongoing behaviours which create and transfer value to an independent channel member, as determined by the interactions and associations of channel partners' personnel and manifested by the level of idiosyncratic investments, communication and customer orientation. Other studies attempting to measure the concept of relationship quality included such aspects as trust, communication, satisfaction and long-term orientation (Jap et al., 1999; Lages et al., 2005). It is generally agreed that relationship orientation is a multi-dimensional concept that has been conceptualized by various authors to include such dimensions as communication, trust, bonding and other non-economic and social dimensions (Morgan and Hunt, 1994; Siguaw et al., 2003).The extensive literature on innovation suggests that it is present in various forms such as product or process innovation, radical or incremental innovation, administrative or technological innovation (Cooper, 1998). Innovation is a means for changing an organisation, whether as a response to changes that occur in its internal or external environment or as a pre-emptive move taken to influence an environment (Hult et al., 2004). The importance of innovativeness in organizations was addressed as far back as the late 1950s by Drucker (1959). Hurt et al. (1977) define innovativeness as a normally distributed underlying personality construct, which may be interpreted as a willingness to change. Rogers and Shoemaker (1971) called one person or group's propensity to adopt a new idea or technology early, relative to others, innovativeness. Innovativeness has also been defined as the adoption of an idea or behaviour - whether pertaining to a device, system, process, policy, programme, product or service - that is new to the adopting organisation (Zaltman et al., 1973). Innovativeness relates to the firm's capacity to engage in innovation and it is through innovativeness that industrial managers devise solutions to business problems and challenges which provide the basis for the survival and success of the firm well into the future (Hult et al., 2004). Hurley and Hult (1998) define firm innovativeness from a collective perspective, that is, openness to new ideas as an aspect of a firm's culture. Wang and Ahmed (2004, p. 304) defined organisational innovativeness as \"an organisation's overall innovative capability of introducing new products to the market, or opening up new markets, through combining strategic orientation with innovative behaviour and process\". They go on to develop a second-order construct of organisational innovativeness made up of the five key dimensions viz. product, market, process, behavioural and strategic innovativeness. Firm innovativeness has been perceived to be of extreme importance in a firm's quest to survive in a volatile environment (Damanpour, 1991; Rogers, 1995; Rogers and Shoemaker, 1971).Logistics service quality is an area in which firms can create positional (or competitive) advantage (Mentzer and Williams, 2001). Mentzer et al. (1989) argue that two elements exist in service delivery, viz. marketing customer service and physical distribution service which is composed of availability, timeliness and quality. Bienstock et al. (1997), following qualitative methodology (interviews) and a follow-up quantitative survey, developed a second-order construct of physical distribution service quality composed of three first-order dimensions of timeliness, availability and condition.However, logistics service quality is a broader concept than physical distribution and a conceptualization of LSQ should include additional dimensions. Recognizing this, Mentzer et al. (2001) applied aspects of service quality found in the marketing literature. Prominent studies on service quality and its dimensions have been carried out by Gronroos (1984, 1990) and Parasuraman et al. (1985). The dominant framework for studies in service quality has been the refined SERVQUAL scale (Parasuraman et al., 1991). In the context of logistics service quality there has been recognition that an alternative conceptualization is required (Bienstock et al., 1997).In their approach Mentzer et al. (2001) introduced items such as personnel contact quality, order release quantities, information quality, ordering procedures, accuracy, condition, order quality, discrepancy handling and timeliness. In the context of third-party logistics, logistics service quality studies have included measures such as timeliness, flexibility, accuracy, responsiveness, problem solving ability and delivering on promises as important service quality and service performance dimensions (Lai, 2004).Studies of firm performance have adopted various approaches to conceptualise and measure performance. It has emerged that performance is a multidimensional construct that cannot be adequately reflected in a single performance item (Dess and Robinson, 1984). These arguments suggest that a composite measure of performance would reflect more accurately firm improvements as opposed to a single quantitative or accounting-related performance measure. Firm performance in this study is defined in terms of improvements in market share, profitability, sales growth, return on investment and overall performance.\nHypotheses: Relationship orientation and firm innovation capability\nMethodology: Measure development\nDiscussion: Theoretical contributions\nManagerial implications: One of the key managerial implications of the paper is further understanding of what influences the level of innovativeness within a firm. The study found that creating a client relationship enhances the development of the innovativeness capability. This may be attributed to the better mutual understanding of what needs to be done for improving processes and procedures, from the increased receptiveness of ideas from clients and from the better communication between the parties that could influence the crystallization of needs, wants and solutions. It follows that client relationship management can actually enhance the organisation's innovation capability and hence should be emphasized by managers wishing to achieve positional advantage though innovation.In addition, managers may emphasize the development of innovativeness per se. Orienting a firm's culture towards innovation is likely to enhance service quality and service delivery. This can be achieved by firstly showing commitment to innovation from the top, encouraging development and implementation of new ideas and processes and rewarding creativity that can occur anywhere in the organisation. However, instilling an innovation culture requires the investment of resources, especially managerial time, whereas the outcomes may not be readily apparent. Innovativeness may be manifested by encouraging and targeting more frequent introduction of products and services in the marketplace. Innovativeness will ultimately lead to higher firm performance.Building a mutually beneficial and sustainable relationship requires a level of commitment and understanding on behalf of both parties. In an outsourcing relationship, it is absolutely critical that trust between the parties is established. This can be achieved by viewing the relationship not merely as a business transaction between two separate entities but as a joint venture instead; a LSP should be viewed as an extension of the client's company. The parties should work together to identify improvement areas and introduce innovations that will facilitate timely performance and efficient information exchange. Investment in technology and systems that will improve integration and contribute towards the longevity of a relationship will be beneficial. Creation of this \"atmosphere\" would allow the relationship to flourish and with it the ability to learn about the client and provide services to them in a truly seamless and effective manner.Limitations and implications for further research\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the antecedents and consequences of innovativeness or innovation capability of logistics service providers (LSPs). In particular relationship orientation is examined as an antecedent to innovativeness that will in turn lead to higher levels of logistics service quality and firm performance. The outcomes aim at contributing towards understanding the main drivers of innovativeness and the outcomes of developing the capability to innovate.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data to empirically analyze the four research hypotheses on the relationships between relationship orientation, innovativeness, logistics service quality and firm performance are collected via a survey of a random sample of LSPs in Hong Kong and analyzed using structural equation modelling via LISREL 8.52. The LISREL diagnostics indicated good fit of the measurement and structural models, providing supporting evidence to the hypothesized causal relationships.\nFindings: - The empirical findings indicate that relationship orientation in the LSP-client relationship will lead to higher levels of innovativeness, improvement in the quality of logistics service and improved performance for the LSP.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study has indicated that innovativeness is influenced by relationship orientation between two partners in a business-to-business setting. The findings add credence to the relational paradigm, which suggests beneficial performance outcomes of strong relational ties. In addition, that innovativeness is an important determinant of logistics service quality and in consequence customer value and firm performance. Future research may address the issue by adopting a longitudinal rather than a cross-sectional approach and also extend the study to other industrial and cultural contexts.\nPractical implications: - Managers should emphasize the development of client relationships and inter-organisational capabilities that can lead towards higher levels of innovativeness. The study supports the notion that the ability to provide high quality logistics services and fulfil customer requirements requires building client relationships and introducing innovations in processes and techniques.\nOriginality/value: - The originality of the paper arises from the fact that innovativeness is examined for the first time as a consequence of relationship orientation and a contributing factor to logistics service quality and performance. In this regard, the paper extends theoretical knowledge and also provides valuable managerial implications to LSPs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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An approach to service-oriented architecture using web service and BPM in the telecom-OSS domain
|
[
"Service delivery",
"Communication technologies",
"Operating systems",
"Worldwide web"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As service providers compete to generate revenue and maximize profits, service providers will be differentiated by how quickly and effectively they can make their way into new markets. Business agility is attained through their ability to open up their infrastructure to partners, content providers, and even consumers more quickly. Most telecommunication service providers make use of their own Operations Support System (OSS) to improve their business agility. The traditional OSS approaches, however, have difficulty to keep up with the new demands for revenues, as changing one interface of the current OSS solutions can affect thousands of others.Web services provide a standard means of interoperating between different software applications, running on a variety of platforms and/or frameworks. Web services are delivered on the Internet using XML, web Services Description Language (WSDL), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), and Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI). The advent of Web services has renewed interest in Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), which is an architectural style for building software applications that allows for the reuse of existing IT infrastructures.This paper proposes an approach to SOA using web services for the service delivery domain from the perspective of telecommunication OSS design and implementation. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we introduce the web services and Business Process Management (BPM). Section 3 presents the concept of SOA to design our system. Based on Section 2 and 3, we describe our approach to designing and implementing service-oriented OSS architecture in Section 4. Section 5 concludes the paper and discusses our future work.\nRelated works: According to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a web service is a software application identified by a URI, whose interfaces and bindings can be defined, described and discovered by XML artifacts. In addition, a web service supports direct interactions with other software applications using XML based messages via Internet-based protocols. A web service's interface is described in a standard format written by WSDL (W3C web site, 2001), which is an XML-based document format for describing web services as a set of functionalities on messages regardless of messaging formats or network protocols. Enterprise applications interact with the web service in a manner prescribed by its description using SOAP messages (W3C web site, 2004).Through the exchange of self-descriptive messages written by standard XML over the web, services and applications describe their functionalities, exchange messages with each other and call on other functions for their necessary operations. Service providers can publish their capabilities and service requestors can get communication information to invoke those capabilities. The service locator acts as a registry and locator service for providers' Web services; the requestor can access registries in order to find the information they need to complete their transactions. Figure 1 shows three distinct roles in Web Service Architecture and the interactions between them.BPM is a method of describing an organization's business processes in accordance with their goal or strategy. BPM is a commitment to the automation and coordination of the assets and tasks that comprise business processes responsive to an environment of internal and external events. Effective BPM requires the coordination of people, information and communication technology (ICT) assets. Because of this, BPM technology provides not only the tools to define, simulate and analyze business process models, but also the tools to implement business processes in such a way that the execution of the resulting software artifacts can be managed from a business process perspective (Leymann et al., 2002). In order to manage business process efficiently, it is important that every business process should be reengineered into well-defined business activities where the boundaries are defined explicitly and its objectives and parameters necessary to be performed are identified (McGoveran, 2004). The scope of individual business activity is generally limited to a particular department; it may require inter-organizational collaboration to achieve long-term goals.In proportion to the increase of web services, each business activity, inter-enterprise service or intra-enterprise service, is implemented into a service component by web services. The BPM engine choreographs individual services that refer to the business rules.\nService oriented design concepts: Service Oriented Computing is similar to Component-Based Development (CBD) from a conceptual point of view, in that they both include interface-based design, black-box modeling, design patterns, design by contract, dependency modeling, etc. The CBD approach has been designed and implemented as a software system based on a specific platform or protocol, such as the Microsoft.NET and Java/J2EE platform or the HTTP, IIOP and SMTP protocols. SOA, however, attaches importance to standards and protocols for interoperability of loose-coupled software agents across the Internet. SOA is a new architectural software design paradigm that defines an interface between services, builds the entire application topology of interfaces, and choreographs the interaction of a number of services in order to achieve business objective.In order to be efficient in designing, implementing and interacting, the SOA frameworks should commonly be equipped with the enterprise service bus, which is enable to transform message formats, route requests to the correct provider, and convert transport protocols between requester and provider (IBM Corporation web site, 2004a,b). Interface-oriented architecture, namely SOA, has to provide a platform for building application services with the following key elements (Huhns and Singh, 2005):* Services interact through explicit message passing over well-defined boundaries. A service's boundary is published via WSDL and may include assertions dictating the expectations of a given service.* Services are autonomous: they deployed, managed, and versioned independently.* Services encapsulate reusable business functions, and each service has a self-describing interface in platform-independent XML documents.* Services are maintained by a registry, which acts as a directory listing, and applications can find the services in the registry, and as a result, invoke the service.The layered structure of SOA is depicted in Figure 2. We will focus on the modeling of the service layers in this paper. These consist of the persistent store layer (database), the data access layer (entity service), the application layer (activity service and complex process service) and the presentation layer. Each layer provides the layer above it with a set of services and accepts services from the layer below. In addition, each layer interoperates with its peer layer in other systems. We will discuss our architectural design and implementation approach of SOA more fully in the next section.\nDesign and implementation of SOA based system: In this section, we propose the architectural baseline to design and implement OSS. We also present specific service definition of our SOA based OSS model by means of arrangement for service delivery of a Wireless LAN. We think that the complex functionalities for WLAN service delivery make an apt example to describe how to approach the SOA concept.Architectural design for service delivery\nConclusions: In this paper, we proposed service-oriented architecture for service delivery in the telecommunication domain. Our proposed architecture consisted of several layers, which were designed in terms of the concept of service-oriented computing. We defined the services to deliver diverse telecommunication services, and showed presented how to choreograph simple services into complex business services in order to create new business processes.In order to realize SOA, we focused on the services by means of abstractions of basic activities and several composite processes. We also presented our service delivery model, which is designed to interact with several web services of composite business processes or abstracted services.Our future work will focus on extending the service delivery system to some other domain, such as diverse service provisioning or assurance of services, based on the proposed service architecture and the abstracted services. The goal of our SOA work is to design the agile OSS platforms that enable us to compose their additional functionalities.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - In order to implement Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) in the telecommunication providers' Operations Support System (OSS) domain, this paper aims to propose an architectural baseline to design and implement the SOA based OSS model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper proposes an approach to SOA using Web services for the service delivery domain in the area of telecommunication OSS design and implementation. The paper defines the operational activities needed to serve customers, rearrange these activities to support autonomous services, and designs a systemic process that is composed of numerous services. The new OSS is implemented for wireless LAN services delivery process. In order to realize this SOA based OSS, the interfaces of these well-defined services are described and each service is implemented within its own boundaries. Services can be orchestrated with a composite objective, so that operational expenditures for new business objectives can be reduced.\nFindings: - The paper finds that, through the implementation of the SOA-based OSS platform, business agility can be achieved in rapidly changing market circumstances.\nOriginality/value: - The paper shows that in the move towards service-oriented computing, Service-Oriented Architecture provides flexible, cost-effective operations support solutions through interoperability, reusability and composability between loosely coupled services.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Chinese cultural influences on knowledge management practice
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Knowledge mapping",
"Culture",
"China"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Nowadays, practitioners and academics working on knowledge management (KM) are increasingly aware of important linkages between KM and competitive advantages of an organisation. From the perspective of this research, competitive advantage will be synonymous to unique selling feature of products of an organisation. Many firms that embrace KM as a key organisational policy often act as leaders in their business area. Their success shows the importance and necessity of effective KM for an organisation. The concept of KM from a subjective perspective has been introduced into China only in the 1990s, though \"knowledge\" has been discussed at length in ancient Chinese philosophical literature. KM in most Chinese organisations is still at an initial stage. Only few studies have explicitly concentrated on KM within Chinese companies. The limited research that exists in this area lacks cultural explanations of current KM practices within Chinese organisations. In order to contribute to this topic, the present paper intends to investigate how Chinese national cultural values affect current KM practices within Chinese manufacturing organisations.The authors achieved the above research purpose by conducting a case study in Lotus. Lotus is a recently created mobile phone manufacturing company in China. It was established by a group of 15 working professionals within the mobile phone industry who decided to come together in 2005. Lotus designs and manufactures tailor-made mobile phones and other wireless terminal products for markets in China, South America and Europe. Their clients are brand manufactures, mobile phone distributors and small-medium sized wireless product operators. With respect to the management mode and employees' perceptions toward KM, Lotus can be a very representative case for Chinese manufacturing organisations.This paper is structured as follows. The next section explains key concepts in KM and reviews the theoretical background of related topics of this study. The third section describes the research methodology used in the present case study. The fourth and fifth sections present findings of the case study and analyse them from a perspective of Chinese cultural influences. The sixth section stresses the need of formal KM approaches within Chinese manufacturing organisations by revealing potential KM issues within Lotus, and recommends an explicit KM strategy - knowledge mapping. Finally the paper concludes with observations and remarks.\n2. Theoretical framework: The significance of this study is emphasised by highlighting important concepts and related issues in KM. Discussion within literature review reveals several gaps within this research area and raises a number of research questions for subsequent study. Examples grounded from the case of Lotus were described to explain adapted theories.2.1 Knowledge and knowledge management\n3. Research methodology: Theoretical review indicates that the topic of the present study is a contemporary issue and the research questions are more of a \"how\" and \"why\" nature, not of a \"what\" nature, so a case study methodology was adopted (Yin, 1994). To ensure that adequate care was taken in structuring and analysing the case, four steps were followed:1. Learning day - The learning day is designed to help employees to have a common understanding of KM, and the purpose of this case study. It was arranged at an organisational day trip, so the researchers could communicate with all employees in a relaxed environment.2. Observation at the workplace - The observation at work place lasted three days, in order to have an overview of knowledge flows within Lotus, and identify the key interviewees for in-depth interviews. Furthermore, observation was useful for the researchers to get familiar with the potential interviewees' working language.3. In-depth interviews with the management team and selected employees - The interviewees included the chief manager, R&D director, human resources manager, five R&D design team leaders, and ten selected general employees. Questions were asked in all interviews aiming to explore in-depth information on pre-defined topics. Interviews with the management team were conducted with intention of collecting a few examples of critical knowledge sharing incidents across Lotus, and exploring the organisational policies and rules linked to these incidents. Current situation of executing KM related organisational policies within Lotus was also investigated from the managers' point of view. Findings summarised from the management team interviews were validated by ten general Lotus employees in later interviews. Given the fact that 80 per cent of employees at Lotus head office are R&D staff and the role of the R&D department to this organization's KM practices is decisive, 10 selected general employees are all from five different teams under R&D department. They were previously identified as either key knowledge contributors or major knowledge receivers within Lotus knowledge flows, which were visualised through researcher's observations at work place and interviews with the management team. Three of those ten selected interviewees are recently recruited employees, while the other seven had been working in Lotus for a while. Interviews with general employees were designed to investigate their perceptions towards knowledge sharing with colleagues, their attitude to organisational sharing policies with Lotus, and their preferred knowledge sharing behaviour at the work place. As this study aimed to investigate Chinese cultural influence on KM, the focus of those conversations on planed topics in interviews was from the cultural perspective. Each interview lasted approximately one-and-half hours. The language used in all interviews is Chinese Mandarin. The interview contents have been tape-recorded and subsequently transcribed and translated into English.4. Findings validation - Regular meetings were held to ascertain validity of findings. At the same time, consultations with the management team on findings created opportunities to introduce necessary KM improvement to business processes. The study process also resulted in consensus and commitment of research participants on formal KM approaches. It was agreed that creating knowledge maps will be their first KM activity.\n4. Current KM practice within Lotus: Like other Chinese manufacturing organisations, the majority of workforce in Lotus is the workers in the manufacturing department, which routinely creates several product lines. However, the nature of business determined that R&D department plays a decisive role for the company, in order to survive within keen competition with other similar organisations, Lotus needs to possess an experienced R&D team capable of leveraging competitive advantages.4.1 Informal knowledge sharing\n5. Influence of Chinese culture: During the study it was found that Lotus employees like to keep their knowledge implicit and are willing to informally share some of it. Obviously, to a certain extent, management mode and organizational policies had influenced such KM practices within Lotus. Without support and encouragement from organisational policies and the management team, knowledge-sharing activities always do not have high execution priority. When such activities conflict with other organizational policies (such as bonus/competition policy in Lotus), KM is always situated in an ambivalent organizational environment. However, the focus of this case study is the influence of Chinese culture. The affects of different Chinese cultural characteristics on knowledge sharing preferences of Lotus staff have been repeatedly pointed out in the interviews.5.1 Key Chinese cultural characteristics\n6. The need for explicit KM approaches: Though intra-personal trust actually protects Lotus from obvious knowledge sharing obstacles, at the macro organisational level there is still need to manage knowledge using explicit KM approaches.6.1 Potential issues of keeping knowledge implicit\n7. Conclusion: Though current KM practice within Lotus demonstrates that strong trust in intra-personal relationships can partly mitigate the negative influence of several Chinese cultural characteristics, there is still need for explicit management of fundamental knowledge (embodied, embedded and encoded knowledge) at a macro organisational level. Analysis shows that constructing knowledge maps through social network analysis and work process break down can be a feasible action to explicitly start KM in Chinese manufacturing enterprises. Of course, organisations need to provide supportive KM policies and qualified KM practitioners to constantly foster such KM strategy. The present research can help related academicians and practitioners to sharpen their view on current KM practice in Chinese manufacturing organisations, and to understand implications of Chinese cultural expectations for KM. Future research will focus on the practical process of knowledge mapping within Chinese manufacturing organisations, and the effectiveness and impacts of such method on the organisation's KM practices.\n",
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},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to explore national cultural influences on knowledge management (KM) practices within Chinese manufacturing enterprises.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A qualitative case study in four steps was conducted within a Chinese mobile phone company (referred to as Lotus). Data collection was based on observations and in-depth interviews.\nFindings: - It was discovered that employees in Chinese manufacturing enterprises like to keep their knowledge implicit and are willing to share it informally. A series of factors derived from Chinese culture such as hierarchy consciousness, fear of losing face, a sense of modesty, competitiveness and a preference for face-to-face communication, can act as barriers to KM initiatives within Chinese manufacturing organisations. Trust in intra-personal relationships among employees can partly mitigate the impact of the above cultural characteristics. However, at a macro organisational level there is still need to share tacit knowledge using explicit/formal KM approaches.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Though knowledge mapping is recommended as a feasible means to promote formal knowledge sharing within Chinese organisations, evidence showing the efficacy of such a method are only grounded in related literature here. Therefore, practical experimental evidence should be collected in future research.\nPractical implications: - KM strategies proposed for an organisation based in China should take revealed cultural influences into account.\nOriginality/value: - Few studies have explicitly concentrated on KM within Chinese organisations. The present study provides useful information for academics interested in cultural issues in KM and impartial advice for knowledge managers within Chinese enterprises.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The integrated competing values framework: its spatial configuration
|
[
"Management roles",
"Leadership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: During the last two decades of the twentieth century, Robert Quinn developed and then with associates[1] extended the competing values framework (CVF) to explain the various managerial roles required for personal effectiveness in complex organisational environments (Quinn, 1988; Quinn and McGrath, 1982; Quinn and Rohrbaugh, 1983). Quinn was one of the first researchers in the field of management to recognise the inherently paradoxical nature of effective management, which must at once be adaptable and flexible yet stable and controlled, and which must be strategic and goal-oriented while also behaving pragmatically, attending to human resources and managing risk. Since Quinn's initial work, the model has been applied in a number of settings.\nCompeting values framework (CVF): At the heart of Quinn's model is the observation that there are two key dimensions to effective management:1. a flexibility-stability dimension; and2. an external-internal focus dimension.He uses these two dimensions to create a four-quadrant model (see Figure 1). Within the quadrants, Quinn locates eight operational roles for the manager - two to each quarter. He defines these roles \"in terms of a set of skills necessary to perform each role\" (Denison et al., 1995). He identifies the roles as:1. innovator;2. broker;3. producer;4. director;5. coordinator;6. monitor;7. facilitator; and8. mentor.A brief description of the behaviours associated with each of these roles is provided in Table I.For each quadrant there are different organisational outcomes, as shown in Figure 1. For example, the organisational outcomes for quadrant 1, in which the manager is innovative and creating business opportunities, are expansion and adaptation. Quadrant 1 demands a manager who is flexible and has an external focus. It represents an environment of expansion, adaptation and change. The roles associated with the quadrant are innovator and broker. Staff are motivated by a common vision, the excitement of the change and risk taking.Contrast this with quadrant 3 and the paradox becomes apparent. In times when the organisation requires consolidation and continuity, the manager must demonstrate an internal focus and seek stability. The roles associated with this quadrant are monitor and coordinator. Staff in this environment seek certainty and predicability.The paradoxical demands placed on mangers under quadrants 1 and 3 become evident. Managers need to be externally focused under quadrant 1 and internally focused under quadrant 3.Within quadrant 2, the organisational outcomes are maximisation of output. The manager is required to complete the tasks at hand, to motivate staff, set goals and objectives and to clarify roles. The producer and director are the roles associated with this quadrant. Staff are motivated by desire to complete the task at hand.In contrast, in quadrant 4 the focus is on human commitment. Here the manager is required to seek opinions, negotiate, be aware of staff needs and support and develop staff. The two roles in this quadrant are mentor and facilitator. Staff here are motivated by the concern shown by their manager.The conflicting demands placed on managers under quadrants 2 and 4 can also be illustrated. The manager needs to be focused on the demands of the task and getting the work done under quadrant 2, and in quadrant 4 the manager needs to be focused on their staff and their needs.An active process\nResearch on the CVF: Supporting the CVF\nThe ICVF: Because of the CVF's versatility and resilience, the model continues to offer itself for consideration by researchers as business environments change. In conjunction with other studies that have either supported, challenged or complemented Quinn's original hypothesis, Vilkinas and Cartan (2001, 2003) have recently examined the 20-year-old premise, and offer another interpretation of the framework, which they refer to as the \"integrated competing values framework\". While these researchers have not taken issue with the four-quadrant model in earlier studies, observation of the interaction of the eight roles has led them to the conclusion that a ninth role is central to the successful operation of the others. They term this role the \"integrator\", and locate it centrally in the model, as illustrated in Figure 2 (Vilkinas and Cartan, 2001).The integrator role has previously been described as the behavioural control room for the other eight operational roles (Vilkinas and Cartan, 2001). In this role, the manager gathers and processes data from the environment, which provides guidance as to the most appropriate role to adopt in any particular situation. The manager also reflects on and analyses their previous personal experiences relevant to the situation and uses this data to inform decisions about role usage. In this sense the integrator role has two parts:1. critical observer; and2. reflective learner.The purpose of the critical observer is to decipher which of the operational roles is required at any particular time in response to any environmental stimuli. In this way it assists in the appropriate execution of the chosen role. It ensures a \"fit\" between context and behaviour.The purpose of the second part, the \"reflective learner\", is to reflect on past and current usage of the operational roles and to learn from those experiences. Here the manager demonstrates a heightened and accurate self-awareness. This requirement has been emphasised in much of the contemporary general management literature (e.g. Covey, 1991; Bennis, 1992, 1997; Cooper and Sawaf, 1997; Goleman, 1998; Hayashi, 2001; Kouzes and Posner, 1995). This introspection and self-awareness provides a manager with opportunities to learn from their previous experiences and to inform future behaviours. This process is similar to the action learning cycle (Kolb, 1984) and is consistent with the work of Argyris and Schon (1996). They talk of the need for single-and double-loop learning, recognising the inherent difficulty of the latter because it requires \"learning that results in a change in the values of theory-in-use as well as its strategies and assumptions\" (Argyris and Schon, 1996, p. 21).Application of the ICVF\nMethod: Participants\nAnalysis of the data: Multidimensional scaling (MDS) was used to determine the spatial representation of the ICVF. This form of analysis shows similarities between roles in terms of their relative distances (Cooper and Emory, 1995). MDS provides a visual map of the relationship among the roles:With MDS, items that are perceived to be similar will fall close together in the their multidimensional space, and items that are dissimilar will fall further apart (Cooper and Emory, 1995).MDS was also used to identify the key dimensions underlying the ICVF. Spatial validity was determined by examining the extent to which the nine roles mapped spatially and comparing the results to the model predicting where they would map (Hair et al., 1998). MDS has been the tool of choice for research on the CVF by earlier researchers (Denison et al., 1995; Howard, 1998; Lamond, 2003).\nResults: Table III provides inter-role correlations. It can be seen that the correlations between each of the roles are all positive and significant. These results are consistent with Quinn's model of CVF and with the results of Denison et al. (1995).In the MDS procedure the two dimensional model (Kruskal stress index=0.149; variance accounted for by the model=88.6 per cent) was judged to be acceptable. It passed Lingoes' test for good fit, which states that the Kruskal stress index should be less than 0.15 for the fit to be acceptable (Denison et al., 1995). The two dimensional model was accepted as it has a strong theoretical rationale with the ICVF and also with previous research findings on the CVF (Denison et al., 1995). Table IV contains the dimensional weights for the nine roles and Figure 3 graphically depicts the two dimensions and the location of the nine roles in this multidimensional space.The horizontal axis (dimension 1) strongly supports the internal-external focus interpretation, but the vertical axis (dimension 2) does not support a control-flexibility interpretation. On one end of the vertical axis falls the mentor and on the other end the monitor. It is proposed that the vertical axis is better represented by a people-task interpretation.\nDiscussion: Dimensionality\nFuture research: Further work is needed to determine if different cultural settings will have an impact on how managers configure the roles they need to perform. The present study focused on which roles managers displayed. Future research could focus on which roles managers believe they should display. It would also be valuable to know if effective and ineffective managers have a different mental map of the models they use to deliver their managerial roles, which Denison et al. (1995) reported to be the case. And in addition, research that took account of gender differences would also contribute to the understanding of the spatial map of managers.\nImplications: The ICVF makes two contributions to the leadership literature. First, most of the previous theories do not refer to the paradoxical nature of leadership. And second, none have included a dimension that helps managers to critically observe their own behaviour, to reflect on the appropriateness of that behaviour, and to learn from those reflections.The research also has significant implications for managers and management development practitioners. It is critical that they have a very clear understanding of the configuration of the leadership function. This research has refined and clarified the nature of leadership roles. Managers applying this model will be better able to analyse their own performance and assess their own effectiveness. They will for example be able to make judgements about their ability to adopt quite the quite diverse roles required in leadership.Management development practitioners will find the research useful for the design and delivery of training and development initiatives. The structure of the model offers a validated and intuitively appealing leadership training agenda. Other applications might include competency profiling, recruitment and selection and performance review activities. The model could prove a useful core framework to integrate with these types of organisational processes.One of the fundamental premises of the model should not be overlooked by practitioners. This is the undisputed requirement for balance and flexibility from those performing leadership functions. While leaders will no doubt have natural preferences for discrete roles within the model (say the deliverer) they must be willing and able to adopt quite different roles (for example the mentor) as circumstances dictate. This paradoxical aspect to the model cannot be overlooked nor overemphasise. The challenge is for practitioners to develop this capacity.The research also reinforces the critical nature of the integrator role. This is the role which drives the selection and adoption of the various operational roles. It recognises the importance of the developing capacity to scan the environment, select the appropriate role to deal with the contingencies, and to adopt that role. The integrator also highlights the importance of learning to leadership effectiveness. The ability to reflect on one's experiences and make necessary adjustments is emphasised. Merging these elements into one discrete role, with its components identified and simply described, will be of benefit to the management development practitioner.\nConclusion: The results support the Vilkinas and Cartan proposition that the ICVF is a two-dimensional model with the integrator performing a central function. One of the dimensions identified is the same as that proposed previously having an external-internal focus. But the other dimension differs from the predictions of both Vilkinas and Cartan and Quinn. It was predicted that the second dimension would have a stability-flexibility orientation but a people-task orientation was found. There is also one other difference in that producer, director and coordinator cluster to form a new role called the \"deliverer\".This study has improved our understanding of leadership in two ways. The findings support the importance for managers to be able to critically observe their own performance and to reflect on their observations so that they can learn from them; the role of the integrator. Support is also found for the key functions of a manager's job being around getting the job done (task) and managing the people (people).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study seeks to identify the spatial relationships between the managerial roles within the integrated competing values framework (ICVF). The study also aims to identify the central role the integrator performs with its critical observing and reflective learning function.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The current study investigated the spatial configuration of Quinn's original eight operational roles and Vilkinas and Cartan's ninth role to each other. A total of 100 middle managers participated in a 360deg feedback program that sought responses from 928 of their \"significant others\". Multiple discriminate scaling (MDS) was used to determine the spatial representation of the ICVF.\nFindings: - The results of the MDS found that the ICVF was a two-dimensional, four-quadrant model. However, one of the dimensions from the CVF, stability-flexibility, was retitled to reflect more truly the roles that anchored this dimension. It was anchored by people-task focus. The integrator, as predicted, was found to have a pivotal role for managers. In addition, three of the operational roles - producer, director and coordinator - combined to form a consolidated role called the \"deliverer\".\nResearch limitations/implications: - The model needs to be further researched for gender and cultural differences. In addition, the spatial maps of effective and ineffective managers need to be compared.\nPractical implications: - The paper assists managers to gain a clearer understanding of managerial roles, their interrelationships to each other and how to apply them more effectively. The paper would also be of value to those charged with the responsibility for the selection and development of managers.\nOriginality/value: - This paper clarifies the relationship between the paradoxical roles in the ICVF. It also further develops our understanding of the role of the integrator with its critical self-analysis and reflective learning capability and the central role it plays in the development of effective managers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Developing an evaluation tool for disaster risk messages
|
[
"Disaster preparedness",
"Risk management",
"Health communication",
"Public health practice"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Having accurate and timely communication from credible organizations is crucial in times of disasters so that the public receives information about the health risks involved and actions they need to take (Bradley et al., 2014; Glik, 2007). Public health agencies serve as authorities during emergencies and are responsible for communicating information to enable and empower communities to protect themselves (Gesser-Edelsburg et al., 2014; Koskan et al., 2012). Risk communication represents this exchange of information about the existence, form, and severity of risks (Glik, 2007; Health Canada, 2006; Weinstein, 1999). The term exchange is important as risk communication is an evolving, interactive, two-way process where both the authority on the matter and the public convey important information, opinions, and reactions about the situation (Bennett, 1999; Covello and Sandman, 2001; Frewer, 2004; Lang et al., 2001; Lundgren and McMakin, 2009). The purpose of this dialogue is to help people make the best possible decisions during a disaster situation (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014; Covello and Allen, 1988; Glik, 2007; Health Canada, 2006; Palenchar and Heath, 2002).\nMethods: A pilot evaluation tool was developed for the purposes of examining the effectiveness of disaster risk messages (Bradley et al., 2014; Edwards and Elwyn, 1999; Fischhoff et al., 2011). Effectiveness refers to whether the message had the intended effect of providing information and facilitating informed decision making among its target audiences (Fischhoff et al., 2011).\nResults: Content\nDiscussion: This short paper described the development and initial assessment of an evaluation tool focusing on content, reach, and comprehension of public health disaster risk messages. Creating this pilot evaluation tool is an important first step in developing a practical instrument for assessing risk communication messages during public health disasters and emergencies. Other than Weinstein and Sandman's (1993) work which mainly focused on risk message comprehension, this is the first tool available for message evaluation during such emergencies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Risk communication is a critical component of individual health decision making and behavior. In disaster situations, it is crucial that risk-related messages are communicated accurately and that they reach and inform target audiences about the steps they can take to protect their health. Despite a global recognition of the importance of risk communication in responding to disasters, there remains a dearth of evidence on how to evaluate the effectiveness of risk communication messages. The purpose of this paper is to develop and assess a pilot tool to evaluate the effectiveness of disaster risk messages.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A pilot evaluation tool was developed using the existing risk communication literature. An expert assessment of the tool was conducted using an open-ended survey and a focus group discussion with 18 experts at the Public Health Agency of Canada in February 2013.\nFindings: The tool measures content, reach, and comprehension of the message. It is intended to be a quick, internal evaluation tool for use during a disaster or emergency. The experts acknowledged the practicality of the tool, while also recognizing evaluation challenges.\nResearch limitations/implications: This pilot exploratory tool was assessed using a relatively small sample of experts.\nPractical implications: This tool offers public health and disaster preparedness practitioners a promising approach for evaluating and improving the communication and management of future public health emergencies.\nOriginality/value: This is the first practical tool developed to evaluate risk communication messages in disaster situations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Motivations of wine travelers in rural Northeast Iowa
|
[
"Marketing strategy",
"Consumer behaviour",
"USA",
"Survey research",
"Conceptual/theoretical",
"Wines",
"Tourism development",
"Structural equation models"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Rural regions and communities seek ways in which to attract visitors. A combination of wine and tourism can help a rural community reposition itself in a new global environment (adapted from Hall and Mitchell, 2000). On one hand, tourism can help the wine industry build relationships with customers, and on the other hand, wine can serve as a major motivating factor for tourists to visit (Hall et al., 2000). In other words, a mix of wine and tourism can offer a rural community a meaningful opportunity to embrace a path of sustainable development (Poitras and Getz, 2006; Plummer et al., 2005). This path however requires certain conditions to be met, among them ensuring visitor satisfaction in order to attract the most suitable tourists to the area (Poitras and Getz, 2006), developing effective destination marketing and development strategies, as well as understanding existing and potential forms of consumer behavior in order to maximize potential gains in sales and long-term customers (Charters and Ali-Knight, 2002). With the number of wineries increasing and the number of wine tourists growing every year, the need for effective segmentation and consumer marketing strategies is becoming critical. Consumer behavior research is important for existing and newly established wineries and vineyards, striving to attract new and generate repeat visitors, as well as effectively segment their markets based on the nature of wine tourists, their intentions, motivations, and preferences (Brown and Getz, 2005; Charters and Ali-Knight, 2002; Jaffe and Pasternak, 2004).\nPromises of wine tourism development in rural areas: In search of innovative ways to diversify their agricultural bases through tourism-related consumption and production, many rural areas are turning to food and beverage tourism (Hall et al., 2000; Plummer et al., 2005). Wine tourism, being one subset of food and beverage tourism, offers localities a wide range of benefits, including foreign exchange earnings, creation of full- and part-time jobs, as well as generation of secondary economic activity (multiplier effect) (O'Neill and Charters, 2000; Wargenau and Che, 2006). Furthermore, with wine having an agricultural base, it has the potential to benefit local communities and play an important role in rural tourism development as well as local economic development (Plummer et al., 2005; Telfer, 2001). Successful development of wine tourism is however a lengthy and complex process (Tomljenovic, 2006).\nIntegrated wine tourism experience: Wine tourism is not just visiting wineries and purchasing wine (Carmichael, 2005). It involves unique experiences of the wine region including landscape, environment, culture, food and ambience - what Peters (1997) calls \"winescapes\". Specific attributes of the wine and cultural heritage form the core of the region's identity and can become valuable assets for rural communities pursuing wine tourism as a development option. As Sparks and Malady (2006, p. 77) point out, every region \"needs its own authentic identity with product to complement that identity\". In other words, unique rural landscapes, farms, and other attractions not only add to the regional diversity and help educate visitors about the region, they also serve as additional attractions for wine tourists, creating a \"local experience package\" (Carlsen, 2004). Demand for these experiences has been on the rise, defined in the literature as the \"Hermann Hesse Syndrom\", or interest in tourism that allows visitors to mingle with the local community and rediscover the sense of identity of place through tradition and direct contact with the local people (Asero and Patti, 2009b).\nUnderstanding a wine traveler: In order to understand intricacies of wine tourism it is important to develop a profile of a wine tourist (Hall et al., 2000). Several studies have argued that not all winery visitors can be considered \"true\" wine tourists, as they can also include those engaged in leisure or recreation (Alant and Bruwer, 2004), or those attracted by \"rural ambience [...] as well as other natural attractions\" (Carlsen and Dowling, 1998, p. 25). In other words, the definition of a wine tourist is rather complex and includes those visitors traveling through and stopping by, as well as those specifically visiting a chosen winery or a vineyard. A review of literature reveals a broad range of descriptors from \"wine connoisseurs\" or those genuinely interested in learning about grapes and wines (Edwards, 1989) to \"mobile drunks\" (Spawton, 1986) and \"winery crawls\" depicting those tourists seeking intoxication rather than education (Bruwer, 2003). To make matters more complicated, characteristics of wine tourists differ from one area to another and depend upon unique demographic, environmental, production and entrepreneurial factors specific to wine regions, thus rendering the study of this group a rather complex undertaking (Alonso et al., 2008). Carlsen (2004) goes as far as to state that most visits to wineries are only a part of an overall holiday in, or adjacent to, a wine region, thus questioning the very existence of a discrete wine tourism market. In general, however, most agree that:\nFrom corn to grapes: winemaking and grape growing in Iowa: Famous as a \"corn state\", Iowa has a long winemaking and grape growing history. In the years preceding the Civil War, European immigrants established small vineyards on their farms to supply fresh grapes and to make juice, wine, and jam for their families. In the Council Bluffs area grapes were grown as early as 1857, when A.S. Bonham planted a vineyard on a hill overlooking the city. In the 1899 Census of Agriculture, the state was ranked 11th in grape production; in 1919, it was the sixth (Pirog, 2000). But by the mid-1900s the Iowa grape industry was nearly gone. First, in 1916 Iowa passed a strong statewide prohibition law (four years before the US Congress passed the 18th Amendment outlawing alcohol in 1919). Then, on 11-12 November 1940 the Armistice Day Blizzard killed every apple tree and grape vine in the state. In the mid-1940s, newly planted grape vines were greatly damaged by a chemical drift brought by the widespread use of the corn herbicide 2, 4-D. Gradually over time, farmers shifted their focus to growing corn and soybeans, not grapes. It was not until the 1990s that the state wine making industry entered a modern resurgence. The number of wineries has exploded from two native wineries in the 1990s, to 13 wineries in 2000, to 101 licensed wineries and over 300 vineyards in 2012 (Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, 2012), with new vineyard acres going into production each year.\nWine trails and wine tourism development in Iowa: Establishing strong links between wine and the tourism industry has been argued to play an important role in successful wine tourism development. Not only does it enable shared marketing strategies and more efficient use of resources, but also results in adding greater value to the wine and food product in rural areas (Hall and Mitchell, 2000; Telfer, 2001). Wine trails (also known as wine routes, or wine roads) are tourist routes connecting several wine estates and wineries in a given area (Bruwer, 2003). Most are characterized by a bounded space whether it is an officially demarcated wine region or a geographical descriptive name such as Napa Valley (California) or Champagne (France).\nStudy design and methodology: Data for this study were collected using a questionnaire based survey that sought responses regarding visitors' party and trip characteristics, spending patterns, travel motivations and satisfaction with the visit. Demographic and socio-economic characteristics of travelers were also gathered. An instrument was pretested at three participating wineries prior to the beginning of the project in spring 2005. After slight modifications questionnaire surveys were mailed to the wineries on the Iowa Wine Trail for further self-administered distribution over the period of June-November 2005.\nStudy area: See Figures 1 and 2.\nDemographic characteristics: See Table I.\nParty and trip characteristics: See Table II.\nTravel motivations and satisfaction: Visitors were asked to indicate their agreement with several motives for visiting the wineries/wine trail on a five-point Likert-type scale (5 - strongly agree, 4 - agree, 3 - neither agree nor disagree, 2 - disagree, 1 - strongly disagree). The list of motivation questions was drawn from the literature, discussed with the wineries and modified to suit the local context.\nConclusions, implications and recommendations: A. The Iowa Wine Trail attracts typical wine customers, but also younger visitors and females\nFinal remarks: This exploratory research sought to examine demographic and behavioral characteristics and motivations of wine travelers on the recently established Iowa Wine Trail in rural Northeast Iowa. Regional tourism and community development groups can utilize knowledge of the factors that lead to decisions and tourism consumption behavior in crafting an effective destination marketing strategy (adapted from Goossens, 2000), while local businesses can utilize knowledge of the main factors that draw people to the wineries to develop effective management and marketing strategies and ensure highly satisfying visitor experiences as a prerequisite to sustainable tourism development (Poitras and Getz, 2006).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this exploratory consumer research study was to examine demographic and behavioral characteristics and motivations of wine travelers on the recently established Iowa Wine Trail in rural Northeast Iowa. An array of data on visitor lifestyles, interests, attitudes and values can provide more powerful and actionable research information than demographics alone. Equipped with an understanding of visitor motivations, wineries and vineyards can provide their customers the experience they want and expect, and not products and services they are assumed to desire.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data for this study were collected using a questionnaire-based survey administered at three participating wineries over the period of April-November 2005.\nFindings: The demographic profile of visitors on the Iowa Wine Trail falls within a common stereotype of a wine tourist: middle aged (36-55 years old), highly educated (college or postgraduate), in the moderate to high income bracket (higher than the median household income in Iowa), living in close proximity to the Iowa Wine Trail (mostly Iowa residents). The main motives for visiting the wineries were (in order by mean scores) \"to taste wine\", \"to enjoy the scenery\", \"to have a good time with friends and family\", \"to relax\", \"to support local wine producers\", and \"to taste locally produced foods\". This finding supports the statement that wine tourists are often drawn by the whole \"local experience package\", and not only by the wine product itself.\nResearch limitations/implications: Findings of this study provide demographic and behavioral characteristics and motivations of wine tourists in rural Northeast Iowa only and should not be generalized to other rural areas.\nPractical implications: The Iowa Wine Trail attracts typical wine customers, but also younger visitors and females. Rather high incidence of repeat visitors for a trail that is still in its infancy (52 percent), with the mean number of previous visits being 2.64. Importance of word of mouth and eMarketing: over 40 percent of visitors to the Iowa Wine Trail based their choice on word of mouth (to include prior recommendations, suggestions, or reputation), and almost a third of travelers indicated utilizing web sites for information seeking - a number that is higher when compared to other specialized markets in Iowa. The Iowa Wine Trail appeals both to stereotypical wine tourists and those visitors who are not primarily involved with the wine product but nonetheless still visit wineries. Power of rural ambience and appeal of the Iowa landscape: while wine tasting appeared to be the main motive of visiting the wineries, scenery and landscape of the Upper Mississippi River, along with the opportunity to enjoy time with friends and family and taste local foods, scored similarly high.\nOriginality/value: While demographic characteristics of wine tourists have been explored, few studies focused on visitor motivations. In addition, most of wine tourism research has focused on established and functioning wine regions/appellations. Not much is known about the emerging wine culture in rural Midwestern states embracing opportunities of wine and tourism development, en route to diversification from traditional agriculture.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Determinants of operational efficiency in the oil and gas sector: A Balanced scorecards perspective
|
[
"Performance",
"Oil and gas",
"Knowledge management",
"Structural equation modelling",
"Organization culture",
"Balanced scorecards"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Considering knowledge as an inevitable source within the competitive context of businesses has gained traction in recent years. In fact, it is considered that knowledge is the only reliable source that can help in the creation of a sustainable and competitive advantage within a company (Lee and Choi, 2003). Companies have come to accept the fact that knowledge is intellectual capital (Nonaka, 2008). This has led to organizations putting in the effort to take advantage of their knowledge resources and environment (David and Fahey, 2000). This approach has led to the development of what is generally known as \"knowledge management\" (KM). Many studies on knowledge creation (KC) and organizational learning have indicated that knowledge management practices (KMPs) are strongly affected by cultural values of individual (Jennex, 2007; Hutchings and Michailova, 2004; Hofstede and Hofstede, 2001; Pfeffer and Sutton, 1999). Research also suggests that the performance of an organization depends on the extent to which the organization's cultural values are shared (Lai and Lee, 2007). Ford and Chan (2003) argued that if companies want to gain a competitive advantage through knowledge sharing, an appropriate culture and environment should be in place. Hence, organizational culture (OC) has been found not only influencing the successful achievement of knowledge sharing, but also knowledge workers' morale and productivity (Phusavat, 2013; Ruppel and Harrington, 2001; Carayannis, 1998). However, several authors raised concerns that a lack of trust and a knowledge-holding mentality of the staff leads to situations where sharing knowledge within the organization are ineffective (Moffett et al., 2003). Therefore, an OC that creates knowledge-friendly exchanges needs to be encouraged to ensure successful execution of KM strategies (Rai, 2011; Choi et al., 2008; Ryan and Prybutok, 2001; Wild et al., 2002; Gupta et al., 2000).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Organizational culture\n3. Background theories and hypothesis development: 3.1 OC and KMPs\n4. Research methodology: This research tries to conduct quantitative survey in order to study determinants of OE in the oil and gas organization using BSC's perspective.\n5. Discussion and implications: The study proposes and tests the research model that examines the influence of OC with mediating impact of KMP on OE based on the BSC approach. The empirical analysis demonstrates several major findings. Explanations based on these findings are discussed below. First, the result provides clear support for H1 (OC on KMP) and H2 (KMP on OE). The result is consistent with the finding that the success of firm can provide basis for future success as Valmohammadi and Ahmadi (2015) indicate that the culture of confidence and trust in knowledge sharing is a fundamental aspect and leveraging culture within the organization leads to better in the performance of employees as well as growth in the firm. When the followers in the organization have trust, they will be more agile for change acceptance and have an affinity to adaptation with new terms and collaboration between members in the organization. Pearlman et al.'s (2002) emphasis on the impact of trust management toward OE was demonstrated in this study by differences in trust of the employees toward CEOs and line managers. Within the oil and gas sector, firms that win the trust of its people see a higher rate of skills growth. Organizations in oil and gas industry should take the lead in applying KM without focusing on the organizational size as a goal (O'Brien and Rounce, 2001). An organization cannot excuse itself for not having implemented and adopted KM strategies (Grant, 2013). Once committed, the parties are more willing to contribute toward the task at hand and work harder to prove that they are reliable. A robust process with leadership commitment will be vital to its success and lead to improvement in the organizational performance (Gino and Staats, 2015).\n6. Conclusion and future research: To sum up, allocating more money for formal learning will not necessarily lead to positive organizational performance results, unless it is supplemented by changes in organizational culture and managerial practices. The management and culture of the organization should put emphasis on taking time to learn, to reflect on the mistakes made, to analyze situations and to integrate new knowledge. Learning as an activity should be an integral part of an organization's daily practices and instead of seeing it as a cost; it should be seen as an investment to better the future of the company. For this, learning should be seen as a cultural element of the organization. Also, a company may provide training courses, professional development opportunities, mentoring; coaching and it may even invest in a learning management system and attempt KMPs. However, this alone will not guarantee that the organization will achieve organizational or financial success. This is because even when an organization has all of these going on, their organizational culture may be something that limits learning among the employees. Therefore, it results in an organization that is good at supporting individual learning, but not so good at providing group learning or allowing new knowledge to flow through the organization. In order to develop this flow of knowledge, the organizations should become learning organizations and develop learning cultures. This learning culture is a vital factor that makes superior organizational performance possible. However, the progression from individual to group to organizational learning is not smooth and cannot be guaranteed, and there are many intervening components that can inhibit the progression of learning through organizational levels. In order to avoid this problem, learning must be managed strategically and systematically, so that the organization can reap benefits of the same and ensure it transcends organizational levels (Fuentes, 2008). A dedication as well as skilled workforce is truly an asset for an organization that cannot be easily replaced and can help the company implement right business strategies (Marimuthu et al., 2009). Human capital encompasses firm's technological character. Whether or not a firm is technology advanced, human capital affects the productivity and the market value of the firm (Ramirez and Hachiya, 2006). Investing in human capital can be mutually beneficial for a firm in terms of productivity as quantified by its return on assets (Marimuthu et al., 2009).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: There is limited research that indicates the relation between knowledge management practices (KMPs), organizational culture (OC) and operational efficiency performance (OE) by using Balanced scorecards (BSC) specifically in oil and gas sector. This relationship is not yet acknowledged through empirical tests. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by providing a better understanding of that relationship and its importance with regard to business outcomes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In order to examine the relationship between OC and OE, this research takes a BSC perspective with the mediating impact of KMPs. Three hypotheses were developed using literature review and tested through the application of confirmatory factor analysis in structural equation modeling. Altogether, 568 valid responses were collected from one of the biggest oil and gas companies in the UAE.\nFindings: All KMPs were found to have significant relationship with OE and OC. Also, KMPs mediate the relationship between OC and OE. In addition, the results show that the standardized coefficients of these paths and the loadings of the indicators on their factors are significant. Pearson's correlations indicate strong evidences of the joint impact of OC and KM practices on OE, with a possible mediator impact of KM practices on OE.\nResearch limitations/implications: One of research limitations is the type of organization. Future research may include other industries such as manufacturing and construction. Only the operational variable is evaluated and there is no consideration of other dimensions such as leadership type, organizational structure and technology.\nOriginality/value: This paper is the first in the UAE and the region to examine the relationship between OC and KMPs by considering OE from a BSC perspective with the mediating impact of KMPs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Performance appraisal powers growth at Havell's India : Company identifies and invests in talented people early
|
[
"Performance management",
"Organizational performance",
"Career development",
"Employee development",
"Performance appraisal",
"Electrical manufacturing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Fixed graphic\nIndian human resource manager appointed: A joint venture with the German company Geyer in the early-1980s, Havell came increasingly in the years of rapid expansion that followed to rely on its Indian workforce to fill top-management vacancies. One particularly important change was the arrival of an Indian HR manager in 1992. He was especially well qualified in human resource development, employee relations and organizational development and carried out his tasks with zeal.\nStep-by-step to rigorous performance appraisal: Performance appraisal had previously consisted of mangers writing a short essay on each employee's performance on the basis of an overall impression. The descriptions were expected to be as factual as possible but, in practice, varied according to the writing style of the manager involved. As a result, it was difficult to compare appraisals from different managers.\nAdvice for other companies: Havell's suggests some essential steps for a successful appraisal system that build a performance-driven culture.\nDriving a performance culture: The Havell's performance-appraisal system evaluates not only the \"what\" of performance but also the \"how\". The system of providing feedback from superiors, peer groups and subordinates ensures a holistic and objective evaluation. The outcome is communicated to all employees to help them to build the competencies they need for success.\nNote: Dr Geeta Rana works at Roorkee Institute of Technology - Management, 467 Hanuman Colony Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttrakhand 247667, India. Geeta Rana can be contacted at: geetaphd@rediffmail.com\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to explores the development of a new performance-appraisal system that has enabled Havell's, one of India's largest and fastest-growing electrical and power-distribution-equipment manufacturers, to identify and invest in talented people early to build their skills.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A wide range of performance-appraisal issues has been examined.\nFindings: This paper reveals that appraisals are plotted on a performance matrix tool that not only evaluates the \"what\" of performance but also the \"how\". The system provides feedback from superior, peer group and subordinates. Assessment on potential is communicated transparently to all employees for building the competencies linked to successful performance.\nPractical implications: It is suggested that organizations should develop a transparent performance-management system to bring out the best in people.\nSocial implications: This paper argues that, if performance-appraisal practices are effectively managed and successfully deployed, they could increase the long-term satisfaction of employees.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides plenty of useful information about an important issue.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
New pay in European civil services:is the psychological contract changing?
|
[
"Pay",
"Europe",
"Civil service",
"Public service organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: New public management has long been referred to as the public sector trend to align itself with private sector management practices (Hood, 1991; Bach and Della Rocca, 1995). The reasons behind this change in organisational strategy are the increasing pressures to perform, to deliver results and the need to focus on customer friendliness and flexibility (Marsden, 1997). Human resource management (HRM), and more specifically reward management, are important factors in the attainment of these new organisational goals. As Schuster and Zingheim (1992, p. xv) remark: \"Pay programs are visible and powerful communicators of organizational goals, priorities, and values. Proper alignment with what is to be accomplished is essential.\"Comparative research indicates a trend in European central governments towards individualisation and decentralisation of HRM and an increasing focus on performance management (OECD, 2004). In the more specific area of reward management, there are elements pointing in the direction of a trend toward \"new pay\" reflecting the new organisational goals of flexibility and delivery of results. Traditionally, pay systems of civil servants in central governments were based on fixed salary scales with pay progression founded mostly on seniority (OECD, 2004; White, 2000b; Risher, 1999). Performance-based pay is, however, on the rise in European central governments (OECD, 2004; Marsden, 2003; White, 2000b). Research also indicates a decentralisation of public service labour relations. In the area of pay determination the importance of bilateral bargaining methods has increased (Nomden et al., 2003).These findings, however, mostly stem from comparative research that focuses on only one aspect of pay systems, for the most part on pay for performance (OECD, 2004; Marsden, 2003) or collective bargaining (Nomden et al., 2003). In order to compare pay systems, one needs to include other pay characteristics into the comparison. Up-to-date comparative empirical research on public sector pay systems as a whole, including a wide range of pay characteristics, is scarce[1]. The question thus arises whether public sector pay systems have developed, as a whole, from a traditional model into a more \"modern\" one that is based on private sector pay practices? Have public services held on to traditional pay features? And how is this related to the specificity of employment in the public sector and the psychological contract of public servants?This paper seeks to formulate an answer to these questions by studying the current features of civil service pay systems in several European countries, based on a theoretical division of traditional and \"new pay\" systems.\n\"Traditional\" vs \"new\" pay systems: main characteristics: The literature and research on reward management describe several new developments in the area of reward management in the last two decades. The \"new pay\" paradigm, with Schuster and Zingheim (1992) and Lawler (1995) as its major advocates, emphasises the importance of linking pay to the organisational strategy and includes elements such as variable pay, flexibility and individualisation. In this section we briefly discuss the main characteristics of \"new pay\".Firstly, the general framework for reward management, the way that pay and jobs are structured, has evolved. The traditional pay structure, based on grades, established a hierarchy of responsibility and linked this to pay. Searching for a more objective and systematic way of classifying jobs, organisations turned to the use of quantitative job evaluation methods, using a number of criteria to weigh jobs. As organisations' structures flattened and the need for organisational flexibility grew, the rigid hierarchical job classification systems had to change with it, for a number of reasons. For one thing, it established limits on the tasks individuals are willing to perform, since they only get paid to do what is listed in their job description (Risher, 1999). Also, in flatter organisations, the hierarchical move upward is no longer an option for employees wanting to develop and learn. Employees need to be able to move horizontally, but job-based pay systems work against this as they punish individuals making horizontal moves (Lawler, 1994). Thus, classification systems are shifting away from the traditional focus on job value to the competency-based approach, where the individual employee with his or her skills and competences is the building block for a more flexible work design (Marsden, 1997; Risher, 1997; Lawler, 1994).One of the main, very concrete shifts in remuneration is the \"new\" emphasis on performance pay. In the private sector, this can hardly be called new. Especially, for manual work, performance bonuses have been given for decades. Public sector organisations have discovered the benefits of performance management - and especially performance-related pay - more recently. Two decades ago, nearly all civil servants were paid according to service-incremental salary scales (OECD, 2005). The previously discussed grade system had a scale of fixed increments that were awarded automatically. Moving up the scale simply depended on seniority (Freibert, 1997). The underlying assumption was that experience and therefore performance increased with years of service. This pay system is closely linked with the system of internal promotion and the internal labour market, typical in the public sector. Influenced by the private sector values of individual accountability, public sector organisations have in recent years started adopting some form of pay for performance. Risher (1999, p. 334) describes this trend as a \"symbolic break from the entitlement culture that is all too common in government\". In the past, promotion was the main reward for good performance and even then promotion sometimes became more or less automatic (Freibert, 1997). According to Druker and White (2000) \"new pay\" writers argue that the reward package should include pay which is \"at risk\" as well as pay that is guaranteed, following the logic as since organisational performance varies, so too should pay levels.Strongly linked to the trends listed above is the move toward a more decentralised HR and reward management. Typical of \"new pay\" collective bargaining seems to have become less important in the private sector, being replaced by systems that depend on management discretion (White, 2000a). Organisation-based structures have taken the place of industry-wide pay determination. The increasing demand for flexibility led to the demand for pay systems that were more adapted to the needs of organisations. Decisions on pay are decentralised even further, to local departments having the authority to develop their own pay strategy. Pay for performance also means a greater role for line managers in the area of pay setting.\"New pay\" also encompasses the trend to move away from internal equity considerations toward market-based pay strategies (Risher, 1999). In the private and the public sector, tight labour markets have increased the need for competitive pay levels. In the private sector, pay surveys that determine and analyse competitive pay levels are quite common. For public organisations, however, shifting from the traditional focus on internal pay relationships to a heightened interest in external pay levels is a significant strategical turnaround. The traditional public sector pay structures were often developed without paying a lot of attention to pay rates in other organisations (Risher, 1999).Flexibility in reward itself is a last evolution we wish to discuss. The new pay theory focuses on the value of variable rewards, suited to the needs of the individual. This is especially visible in the area of benefits. In \"new pay\" systems flexible, cafeteria-style benefits are offered to staff. This means employees can make an individual choice between benefits, for example, trading in wages in favour of supplementary holidays (Smith, 2000). To attract different kinds of employees, private sector organisations also offer more and more diverse remuneration packages (Marsden, 1997).Freibert (1997, p. 295) sums up nicely the main features of traditional reward management in the public sector:In the past most public service pay systems, in spite of national and regional variations, shared certain common features, including centrally determined pay structure, across-the-board increases, pay scales based on grade rather than job content, occupational category, or individual merit, and progress up the scale according to seniority rather than performance.The various trends in remuneration management described above are presented in Table I. It lists the main characteristics of the traditional and the \"new pay\" models. The list is not all-inclusive but meant to illustrate the major differences between the two systems that are most often referred to in reward management literature.The \"new pay\" trends set out in this section have been described in reward management literature for several years now. They mostly refer to private sector organisations, however. The following sections examine the occurrence of \"new pay\" systems in central governments in Europe We look at six national pay systems and, based on the characteristics listed above, try to situate them in the typology and determine whether these systems are traditional, new and more NPM-based or whether they contain elements of both types.\nMethodology: database on pay systems in European central governments: The data used in this paper were collected in 2005 through an online survey. An e-mail invitation, with link and personal password to the database, was sent to pay experts within the ministries or departments responsible for HRM at central government level. The questionnaire was divided into several topics such as pay structure (fixed salary scales vs pay bands or ranges, use of job evaluation), bases for pay (seniority, age, diploma, job weight, performance of individuals, teams or organisation, competencies), source of pay decisions (laws, decrees, collective agreements between social partners and others), level of pay decisions (national/federal, regional, sectoral, department/ministry, individual level or other), form of pay decisions (strictly regulated or guidelines) and fringe benefits (list of financial and non-financial benefits). Respondents were then asked to indicate only those elements that occur in the pay system of their central government. They were also given the opportunity to report whether certain pay features only apply to a limited number or specific groups of personnel. The result of respondents' answers is a detailed map of the pay system. Currently, the database includes the pay systems of the civil services in the UK, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Denmark and Sweden.\nResults: comparison of pay system elements: Pay structure\nConclusion: This study has some limitations. First, we only looked at a few European countries. To determine whether central government pay systems in Europe are still following a more traditional model or whether they have incorporated several \"new pay\" elements or have entirely moved on to \"new pay\" we need to include more countries into our study. It would be especially interesting to take a look at the Southern and Eastern European pay systems, to see whether they follow the same trends as the western and northern European countries listed in this paper. In line with the previous remark, it would also be interesting to include other public sector organisations or other government levels into the comparison. How do for instance, pay systems in the health sector or municipalities in Europe compare to central government pay systems? Have they developed more along the private sector line?Despite these limitations, we can conclude that central government pay systems in this study have far from developed into \"new pay\" systems, with Sweden (and the UK and Denmark to a lesser degree) being the exception. Most countries have some form of decentralised authority, and have adopted performance pay elements, but it remains a question whether the performance element has truly penetrated the organisational culture. As Risher (1999, p. 334) states, \"the transition to a true performance culture takes time, an investment in training and a commitment to make it successful\".The importance that civil servants attach to fair treatment in their psychological contract and the reluctance of line managers to give negative evaluations and differentiate between staff members when giving performance bonuses, indicates that pay equity remains an important issue. This is perhaps one of the reasons why the \"new pay\" system is not fully embraced by the central governments in this study. The highly individualised \"new pay\" systems are, after all, more prone to lead to inequities (Risher, 1999) and do not coincide with the collectivistic culture. It is a huge step for the civil service to change from collective pay grades to individual pay setting. Especially, in countries with a civil service statute the question arises whether this statute is compatible with a decentralised pay system. The statute is after all inherently made up of general regulations, which should be applied equally to all civil servants with the same employment conditions.Furthermore, a psychological contract consists of a delicate balance between employee and employer expectations. Reforms in reward systems involve changing the terms of the psychological contract (Marsden, 1997). These changes often lead to (temporary) breaches that cause demotivation and subsequently diminishing performance. Elements such as length of service increments provide an important element of stability for staff (Marsden, 1997). This security element disappears with the introduction of newer, variable reward components such as performance or competence-based pay. It is not unthinkable that the specific exchange relationship between the civil servant and the employer is so deeply rooted, that it makes radical changes difficult.The ability to change is further hindered in countries such as Belgium and Germany because of a strong legalistic culture. Strictly regulated pay systems that describe rights and obligations in great detail could promote an entitlement culture. Relinquishing former attainments is a lot harder when they are laid down in laws. It seems much easier to change systems relying less on laws and decrees, such as the Swedish model.Finally, the question remains whether \"new pay\" is the way to go for European public services. \"New pay\" in the strict sense, means adapting the pay system to the organisational strategy. If public services want to perform better and to achieve more efficiency, will they be able to better motivate their staff by offering them individualised, performance- or competence-related pay? This would not coincide with research showing that public employees are still motivated by intrinsic, rather than extrinsic rewards (Brown and Heywood, 2002).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This research paper analyses the extent to which national systems are following \"new pay\" trends, or whether there are still traditional features, which reflect the specificity of employment in the public sector and the psychological contracts of public servants.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The data used in this paper was based on an online survey of six countries and was completed by pay experts in each case.\nFindings: - Previous comparative research on civil service pay systems has focused mostly on specific aspects of pay but this paper looks at a wide range of pay characteristics. It finds that although there have been changes in pay systems in the six countries studied, the \"new pay\" model has not been fully adopted and traditional reward systems are still strong, with the exception of Sweden and to a lesser extent the UK and Denmark. This is related to the importance that civil servants attach to their psychological contract in which equity and collectivism remain central values\nOriginality/value: - The paper demonstrates that cultural factors and psychological contracts are important in influencing both practices and attitudes towards change in reward systems across countries and that traditional identities of public service are still evident.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of open innovation on SMEs' innovation outcomes: New empirical evidence from a multidimensional approach
|
[
"Entrepreneurship",
"SMEs",
"Cooperation",
"Innovation",
"Open innovation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Entrepreneurship theory considers innovation as a key driver of competitive advantage in the business sector (Madrid-Guijarro et al., 2009), a critical factor for business performance and survival, especially in the case of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (Pett and Wolff, 2009). SMEs are commonly defined as reactive, flexible and risky organisations, being able to obtain profits from a quicker and more flexible adjustment to environmental changes due to simplified hierarchies and quick decision making (Terziovski, 2010). In this context, innovation represents an opportunity for small entrepreneurs to improve their business performance through a better market positioning in the Schumpeterian sense. Thus, the introduction of innovations represents an additional opportunity for SMEs to stand out from competition and improve their business performance to remain competitive (Tan et al., 2009).\n2. Theoretical framework and hypotheses: The role of innovation in SMEs\n3. Data and methodology: Sample\n4. Results: In Table III, we report the results for Models I to IV estimated by using logit regressions without interaction effects. The omnibus test is always significant (p<0.05), denoting the acceptance of the hypothesis that b coefficients are different from zero. The variance inflation factors (VIF) and the condition indexes indicate that multicollinearity is not a problem in these models. The highest condition index is 13.40 and the highest VIF is 2.07 (for the variable experience).\n5. Discussion: Innovation seems to be characterised as a multifaceted phenomenon with different types of potential performance benefits for a firm that depends on the type of innovation developed and the factors that stimulate it, such as OI practices (Exposito and Sanchis-Llopis, 2018). For SMEs, innovation activities are generally subject to resource limitations, of both a financial and human capital nature. Thus, OI practices represent a way to alleviate these deficiencies (Cheng and Huizingh, 2014; Spithoven et al., 2013). Nevertheless, our sample of SMEs shows that OI practices, both with market and institutional agents, are used only by 24 and 15 per cent of the firms surveyed, respectively. For those using them, OI cooperation strategies in SMEs have positive effects in three dimensions of innovation outcome: product, process and marketing. So, different OI strategies are beneficial for different innovation outcomes, as is also highlighted by Parida et al. (2012) in the case of high-tech SMEs. In this same line, Cheng and Huizingh (2014) argue that the impact of OI is not limited to a particular aspect of innovation performance, hence affecting a broad range of innovation performance outcomes. Our findings confirm this argument.\n6. Conclusions: This paper contributes to the literature by empirically assessing the effects of OI practices (measured by R&D collaboration strategies with market and institutional agents) on the innovation outcomes of SMEs. The main hypothesis is based on the idea that OI collaboration positively impacts on SMEs' innovation activity. Yet, it tries to analyse this impact from a multidimensional approach by differentiating between alternative types of innovation (i.e. technological and non-technological). In this respect, this work extends the scope of previous studies in this research field, considering four types of innovation behaviour that IO may impact. Likewise, this paper also provides new empirical evidence about the factors that stimulate or hinder SMEs' innovation behaviours. In particular, it focuses on the interaction of firm age on the relationship between R&D cooperation and innovation, a question which is yet to be answered. Moreover, the empirical analysis has been carried out on a large database with a wide representation of different sectors (e.g. manufacturing, services, construction).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of open innovation (OI) cooperation strategies on innovation outcomes of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), considering the mediating effect of firm age. The data come from six Spanish regions in the period 2009-2011. The authors analyse the impacts of two different types of innovation cooperation (with market and institutional agents) on four types of innovation outcomes: product, process, organisational and marketing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analytical method is based on logit regressions in order to assess the impact of OI variables on SMEs' innovation outcomes. The regressions include a number of control variables related to the characteristics of the business, the entrepreneur and the environment.\nFindings: The empirical results show that OI plays a significant role in explaining the innovation outcome of SMEs. Firm age is found to moderate this relationship. R&D cooperation with market agents exhibits the highest relationship to innovation, while the impact of institutional cooperation is comparatively lower.\nOriginality/value: There are few studies on OI addressing OI practices in SMEs. This research contributes to shedding light on the role of OI in innovation processes in SMEs. It also shows how this relationship changes depending on the partner, the type of innovation and the age of the firm.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Investigating consumer ethics: a segmentation study
|
[
"Australia",
"Segmentation",
"Consumer ethics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Global businesses have been consistently plagued with many unethical practices (e.g. Volkswagen cheating on emission test in the USA; FIFA corruption scandal; Toshiba accounting scandal) (Kottasova, 2016). A report shows that shoplifting, employee theft and vendors' fraud cost $32bn annually in the USA (Stores, 2002). Moreover, the rate of digital piracy continues to rise dramatically. A study in Australia shows that 254 million music tracks, 95 million movies, 82 million television programs and 9 million video games were consumed by Australian copyright infringers in 2015 (Smith, 2015). The prevalence of unethical behaviour has motivated much research on the role of ethics in today's business and society (Arli and Pekerti, 2016; Steenhaut, 2006; Vitell and Muncy, 2013; Vitell, 2015). Nonetheless, most studies have only focused on macro-environmental variables (e.g. geographic location, culture) to define consumers (Kahle, 1986; Amine and Cavusgil, 1990). Macro-level approaches to segmentation have fallen short of offering managers with an effective tool to formulate a tailored and more effect strategic plan (Souiden, 2002; Al-Khatib et al., 2005). Hence, researchers have suggested segmentation through the use of micro-level consumer behaviour variables, such as values, lifestyle, situational and moral development (Al-Khatib et al., 2005). Market segmentation has been considered one of the most effective tools for marketers to define target markets (Chan and Armstrong, 1999; Marcus, 1998). Each consumer is unique; however, similarities in needs and behaviours may nevertheless exist across social, psychological and demographic groupings (Straughan and Roberts, 1999; Wedel and Kamakura, 2002). Nonetheless, the most difficult challenge for marketers is the choice of appropriate variables for segmentation (Al-Khatib et al., 2005; Kumar and Nagpal, 2001). Micro-level variables have been deemed to be better at producing the insights needed to formulate effective strategies targeting a specific segment (Souiden, 2002). Hence, the purpose of this study is segment ethical consumers based on consumer-ethics variables (i.e. actively benefiting, passively benefiting, questionable behaviour, no-harm, recycling and doing good). There are only a few empirical studies that have segmented ethical consumers (i.e. Al-Khatib et al., 2005; Bucic et al., 2012). Al-Khatib et al.'s (2005) study was conducted in the Gulf market (Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait) which limit the generalizability of this study, whereas Bucic et al.'s (2012) study was using one sample group - millennials and focusing the cause-related purchasing only. Hence, this study will extend the previous studies by using sample from a general population in Australia and linked them with various consumers' ethical beliefs developed by Vitell and Muncy (2005). This is one of the first few studies to segment consumers based on the consumer ethical scales developed by Vitell and Muncy (2005). By understanding different segments within consumers, the results of this study will assist researchers, managers and public policy makers addressing unethical behaviour in the society.\nLiterature review: Theory of marketing ethics and consumer ethics\nMethodology: Data collection\nResults: A TwoStep cluster analysis was conducted using baseline consumer ethics psychographic measures. Dolnicar (2004) suggested that the posteriori segmentation approach is recommended when the number, size and structures of sub-markets is unknown, and consequently, multivariate analysis (i.e. factor analysis, cluster analysis) is usually used to profile consumers into segments. People in the same demographic group can have very different psychographic profiles (March and Woodside, 2005). Studies indicate that despite a significant amount of past research attention, demographic criteria are not adequate as a profiling method compared to psychographic criteria (Dietrich et al., 2015; Straughan and Roberts, 1999).\nDiscussion: The Good Samaritans\nTheoretical implications: The results show that the Consumer Ethics Scale is a reliable indicator to identify segments among consumers. The results clearly reveal that segments do exist among consumers in regards to their ethical beliefs. Hence, this study contributes to the general theory of ethics. Based on the results of this study, the deontological and teleological component of the evaluation may be influenced by various unethical situations. Consumers can be segmented based on their ethical beliefs. Hence, from an individual moral perspective, it will be difficult to conclude that majority the majority of consumers will operate according to deontological or teleological perspectives (Ferrell et al., 2013). The findings support Fraedrich and Ferrell (1992) argument that individuals changed their orientation to a teleological perspective when they were in different ethical situation such as in a work environment. Hence, future research utilizing theory of ethics should consider using an ethical situation to test the theory.\nManagerial implications: The study makes several contributions. First, the pattern of variations within ethical beliefs has several implications for managers and public policy makers. For example, in regards to cross-cultural studies, we are no longer able to categorize ethical consumers in developed countries as one homogenous segment that is more ethical than segments of consumers in developing countries (Arli and Pekerti, 2016). There are segments within consumers, irrespective of the context of the study.\nLimitations and future research: Despite some important findings, there are some limitations in interpreting the results. The data employed are cross-sectional in one country (Australia), thus definitive statements about causal relationships among variables cannot be made. Future studies should attempt to obtain data from another culture or country to compare and contrast the various segments that may exist within the total group of ethical consumers. Moreover, this study only focuses on consumer ethics and did not include consumers' ethical ideologies (i.e. idealism and relativism), which may explain differences among consumers' ethical beliefs, especially between religious and non-religious consumers (Forsyth, 1980). Future research may include these constructs to understand better the differences among segments. In addition, future research should investigate the Good Samaritans segment to discover how and why they have higher ethical standards than the majority of the population. This knowledge will assist researchers, educators and public policy makers create effective ethical training for the targeted consumers. Moreover, the role of consumers' religiosity needs to be investigated further, not only for differences among the level of religiosity or spirituality but also between religions and the sub-denominations within the religions. Finally, this study may suffer from social desirability bias. Some respondents in this study may have simply provided the socially desirable response to appear ethical (Al-Khatib et al., 2005). The possibility of bias in responding to these questions has been indicated by other cross-cultural researchers in business and marketing ethics (Arli and Tjiptono, 2014; Al-Khatib et al., 1997, 2005). Future studies should examine the inclusion of measures for controlling such bias which may limit the effect of social desirability bias.\nEthical approval: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The plague of unethical practices in global businesses has sparked much research on the role of ethics in today's business and society. One of the most effective tools to understand consumers' motivation and behaviour is segmentation. Hence, the purpose of this study is segment ethical consumers based on consumer-ethics variables (i.e. actively benefiting, passively benefiting, questionable behaviour, no-harm, recycling and doing good).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a sample from the general population in Australia (N = 517), a TwoStep cluster analysis was conducted using baseline consumer ethics psychographic measures. The analysis resulted in three distinct segments: \"The Good Samaritans\", \"The Mainstream Ethical Consumers\" and \"The Unethical Consumers\".\nFindings: The results clearly reveal that segments do exist among consumers in regards to their ethical beliefs. The study shows that a large percentage of consumers are ethical, there is also a segment consisting of unethical consumers.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study shows that only a small percentage of consumers are highly ethical (i.e. The Good Samaritans). This shows an opportunity for educators and public policy makers to push the \"Mainstream Ethical Consumers\" to become the \"Good Samaritans\". The Good Samaritans are consumers who will go above and beyond to be ethical and more likely to do good toward the society.\nPractical implications: Unethical consumers comprise a unique segment where researchers, educators and public policy makers need to focus on when addressing unethical consumer behaviour in the society.\nOriginality/value: This is one of the first few studies to segment consumers based on the consumer ethics scales. By understanding different segments within consumers, the results of this study will assist researchers, managers and public policy makers address unethical behaviour in society.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
"Welcome to Holland!" People with Down syndrome as vulnerable consumers
|
[
"Stigma",
"Public policy",
"Consumers",
"Down syndrome",
"Barriers to consumption",
"Vulnerable consumers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The article's title is inspired by the fable \"Welcome to Holland,\" written by Emily Perl Kingsley in 1987. The narrative of this mother who has a son with special needs has been reproduced a thousand times since its release (Solomon, 2012). The fable suggests that the experience of becoming a parent to a special-needs child is like a person who has spent their life planning to fly to Italy for their vacations, when the plane unexpectedly arrives in Holland. Despite the initial shock with the sudden change in destination, the place, which becomes a permanent part of their lives, is rendered in the tale as a location where it is possible to live well. Metaphorically speaking, Holland represents an unexpected place where parents find themselves when a baby with disabilities is born. The objective is to show that the quaint country of Holland can be beautiful and special. In our \"Welcome to Holland\" study, Holland is where the consumption experiences of adults with Down syndrome (DS) and their families take place.\n2. Down syndrome stigma and barriers: DS is associated with the complete or partial addition of a third 21 chromosome in a person's genetic code. This excessive genetic load is why the chromosomic condition of DS is called \"Trisomy 21.\" Bearers of the syndrome have a mild to moderate level of intellectual disability. They also have phenotypic characteristics that identify them, such as almond-shaped eyes due to epicanthal folds, protruding tongue and a small oral cavity. These physical features may be completely or partially present.\n3. Data-collection methods: People with disabilities may have characteristics or impairments that make it difficult to strictly follow the research methods used for consumers without disabilities. Data were collected by the first author who trained in qualitative research methodologies. This included studying how to conduct interviews with vulnerable groups such as poor people almost illiterate, blind people and how to use of projective techniques. Data collection was consistent with university ethics procedures. Turmusani (2004) calls on researchers to share their experience conducting research with PWD. We carefully adapted methods and techniques for use with PDS. Few studies on PWID listen to their point of view (Braithwait and Thompson, 2000) because of the stereotype of mentally disabled people as people who are unable to speak about their own lives and opinions (Braithwait and Thompson, 2000). Turmusani (2004) suggests that researchers should use methods that involve direct interactive contact between researchers and their PWID informants. We selected PDS and their families and excluded PDS who were children or who belonged to low income families. This decision was based on the assumption that being very young or lacking financial resources could hamper our interpretation of research results. The intention was to interview parents and siblings, but only mothers and siblings were interviewed. In some families, fathers had little or no contact with the PDS and in the remaining cases, the fathers preferred not to speak. Overall, 18 families were included in the study which involved 44 interviews. Table I presents a summary of the profiles of the informants with pseudonyms to preserve anonymity.\n4. Findings: We initially considered building a typology of families, but a closer look at the findings showed that this would involve judgments that do not contribute to TCR's proposal of creating well-being (Mick, 2006). Solomon (2012) ratified our decision by noting differences among families that face the challenge of dealing with a child with Down who brings a characteristic unusual to the parents. Solomon (2012) notes that families who reject their different children have much in common in regards to their unhappiness, while those that make an effort to embrace them, are happy in several ways. We had a similar perception when trying to differentiate the families by their narratives about consumption meanings and practices. In a continuum, in one extreme we may place the families that look for a more inclusive consumption that contributes to their \"happiness,\" while on the other extreme, would be the families whose consumption does not affect their \"unhappiness\" state. Nevertheless, our findings reveal that all families face various barriers which interfere in their consumption experiences and prevent PDS from access to emancipatory consumption activities. Different barriers were considered to guide and structure our main findings, given that all the analyzed findings place PDS as vulnerable consumers (Beudeaert et al., 2016; Pechmann et al., 2011). By unveiling these barriers, we show how PDS are socially excluded with the stigma of the eternal child and how their families endure in their quest for the social inclusion and independence of the PDS. We then show how social exclusion can drive a desire for products that offer social inclusion and a transition to an autonomous consumer identity with agentic products that can help with mobility and freedom.\n5. Discussion: People with an intellectual disability (PWID) are present in all countries. Yet despite recognizing the importance of consumers with disabilities (Pechmann et al., 2011), the marketing literature is relatively silent about PWID. Our research examined the consumption of PDS and offers several important contributions, from the perspective of the vulnerable consumer, which may also be adopted in studies of consumers with different disabilities and in other situations of social vulnerability. This research also broadens the debate on consumer vulnerability as it sheds light on the reality of a social group - the family. The research makes it possible to reflect more critically about the market experience of people with intellectual disabilities, something that is perhaps experienced by people with different disabilities and their families. The accounts not only unveil labels associated with the vulnerability of people with disabilities in their experiences with the market, but they also reveal social standards and norms which stigmatize and exclude consumers with intellectual disability. PDS are at the same time quite physically present, yet rendered physically invisible. This research gives voice to silent stories in our area of study, characterized by the construction of knowledge predominantly subjected to the need for generalizations. Here we bring a study that aims at unfolding stories, revealing secrets concerning the exclusion of vulnerable consumers, as well as prejudices and existing preferences within marketing theory and practice.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Consumers with Down syndrome are present in all countries, but there has been little marketing research examining their consumption experiences. The purpose of this exploratory investigation is the analysis of the consumption meanings and practices of Down syndrome adults from their own point of view and from their families' perspectives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data was drawn from 44 narratives interviews that included families'stories, description of album photos and projective techniques.\nFindings: The research shows from the families' perspectives how barriers to consumption prevent Down syndrome adults from becoming agentic consumers. The findings reveal the \"labels\" associated with the vulnerability of people with Down syndrome and their families in their market experiences.\nResearch limitations/implications: Research is limited to a single country and location and is focused on a specific group of overlooked consumers. We encourage the expansion of the research to a wider group and different locations.\nPractical implications: The research identifies barriers to social inclusion that can support public policy and marketing manangement that contribute to a more humanistic marketing.\nOriginality/value: The research presents narratives of adults with Down syndrome, their mothers and siblings. The findings contribute to a comprehension about the welfare of this traditionally neglected, vulnerable group of consumers, which is useful for consumers, Down syndrome people and their families, marketing managers and public policymakers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Credentialism and demand for private supplementary tutoring: A comparative study of students following two examination boards in India
|
[
"Credentialism",
"Curricular load",
"Examination boards",
"High-stakes examinations",
"Private supplementary tutoring",
"Shadow education"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Many students receive private tutoring in academic subjects to supplement mainstream schooling. Private supplementary tutoring, widely known as shadow education, has become a global phenomenon and is expanding rapidly around the world (Aurini et al., 2013; Bray, 2009; Zhang and Bray, 2017). Tutoring can enhance students' academic performance, but it also increases their study burdens and consumes leisure time. Further, teachers may face disparities in classrooms when some students receive private tutoring but others do not; and although some teachers assist slow learners, others may take tutoring as a norm and allow the gaps between students to grow. At the societal level, private tutoring can exacerbate inequalities because it is more easily accessible to the rich than the poor.\nDefinitions: In line with much of the literature (e.g. Bray, 1999, p. 20; Zhang, 2014, p. 437), private supplementary tutoring is here defined as tutoring provided for a fee in academic subjects to supplement mainstream schooling. This definition excludes extra-curricular subjects such as music and fine arts. It also limits the focus to tutoring provided by individuals and institutions for profit motive. The tutoring is provided outside mainstream school hours on weekdays, at weekends and during school vacations. It may be one-to-one, in small groups or in large classes. Tutoring may also be provided online, but the present study is concerned with face-to-face modes.\nConceptual lens: credentialism: Credentialism can be defined as \"the pressure to upgrade formal educational pre-requisites for entry into and promotion through labour markets\" (Davis, 1981, p. 649). Many societies attach strong emphasis to educational credentials. Attainment of educational credentials does not hold significance in the labour market alone but also in social, political and cultural dimensions shaped by historical and national contexts (Brown, 2001, p. 25). A major aspect of credentialism is stronger emphasis on qualification than on education. Dore (1997, p. 8) distinguished between \"education\" and \"qualification\" by stating that \"If education is learning to do a job, qualification is a matter of learning in order to get a job\". Another aspect of credentialism is credential inflation or qualification escalation. An increase in the number of qualified persons for limited numbers of jobs reduces the usefulness of existing certificates in acquiring those jobs. Therefore, individuals are pressed to obtain higher levels of education (Collins, 2002, p. 228; Dore, 1997, p. 5).\nDemand for private tutoring: Private tutoring has expanded globally in recent years and is especially evident in Asia (Bray and Lykins, 2012). This section notes micro-level, meso-level and macro-level drivers of demand for private tutoring, adopting the hierarchical framework proposed by Lee et al. (2009, p. 907). Micro-level factors include student motivation and achievement, parental education and income, grade level and gender. Meso-level factors include school policies, transition structures between levels of schooling and curricula set by examination boards or other bodies. Macro-level factors include broad economic, cultural, social and political forces.\nBackground: India's education structure and examination boards\nMethodology: The study used a mixed methods approach. A major strength of mixed methods is the ability to use qualitative and quantitative methods complementarily, informing the results of one with the results of the other, thereby giving a more robust picture. The approach also facilitates triangulation, enhancing the validity of the study (Greene et al., 1989). A questionnaire survey was carried out among 687 students in Grades 8-10, and 51 face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were conducted. The questionnaire was adapted from a Hong Kong instrument (Bray and Kwo, 2015). The interview guide was initially adapted from the Hong Kong study and developed during the fieldwork.\nFindings and analysis: The findings are presented in three main sections. The first discusses the differences between the ICSE and State boards. The second section explores inter-board variation in the demand patterns of private tutoring; and the third section identifies the statistically significant drivers of decisions to receive tutoring at micro, meso and macro levels.\nDrivers of demand for tutoring: Reasons given by students for receiving tutoring\nDeterminants of the decision to receive tutoring: This section identifies the main factors that impact on the decision to receive private tutoring at the micro, meso and macro levels, and examines whether tutoring decisions were significantly related to school boards. Six key variables that had been empirically important in previous studies and fitted the Bengaluru's context were selected at the micro and meso levels (Table I). The results of binomial logistic regression are shown in Table II.\nConclusions: This paper has conducted a comparative analysis of demand for tutoring among students of two examination boards, with one having a heavier perceived curricular load than the other, in the context of a credential society. The two cohorts displayed differentiated demand for tutoring, with students having greater perceived curricular loads being likely to receive more hours, seek more professional forms and bear higher expenses for tutoring. However, the findings point out that in a credential society where students mainly received tutoring to compete with their peers in order to score high in their respective examinations, perceived curricular burden did not play a significant role in the decision to receive tutoring.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Private supplementary tutoring is expanding fast around the world. Recognising that examination boards are major shapers of curricular load, the purpose of this paper is to identify the roles of examination boards at Grades 8, 9 and 10 in Bengaluru, India. Two boards were chosen, with one having a heavier perceived curricular load than the other.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study used mixed methods with a questionnaire survey of 687 students in Grades 8, 9 and 10, and 51 face-to-face, semi-structured interviews.\nFindings: Perhaps surprisingly, the findings did not reveal significant differences in tutoring demand by students. Both groups viewed the board examinations as having high stakes, and accordingly invested in extensive private tutoring. Competition emanating from credentialism was the main driver of the decision to receive tutoring among both cohorts.\nOriginality/value: Although previous studies have explored various components of demand for tutoring, to the authors' knowledge, this is the first to explore the impact of examination boards on demand for tutoring. Since the system of schools being affiliated to examination boards is common not only in India but also in many other countries, the study has broad international relevance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Making sense: unleashing social capital in interdisciplinary teams
|
[
"Social capital",
"Social network analysis",
"Professional capital",
"Sense-making",
"Interdisciplinary teams",
"Large teams"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The problems currently facing education and educational research are complex and seemingly intractable. The field of education continues to wrestle with issues like a nineteenth century schooling model that must now integrate twenty-first century technologies, a persistent achievement gap that disadvantages students of color, the need to ensure school accountability and teacher quality without over-testing students, and how to fund schools and school districts in a way that is more egalitarian and fair. Each of these issues involves a complicated interplay between multiple contextual factors, from local issues like state-level school funding, local housing prices, and the regional job market all the way up to national factors like Title I funding, Race to the Top, and the Common Core Standards. Yet, too often, previous attempts to address these problems have focused on discrete parts of the educational system or have pulled from only one disciplinary perspective (Bryk et al., 2015). While this siloed approach may lead to temporary or incremental improvements, it rarely results in deep and meaningful change. This is because when team members all share a set of disciplinary beliefs, these beliefs can prevent the consideration of the problem through anything other than that narrow lens (Bryk et al., 2015; DiMaggio and Powell, 1984). Interdisciplinary teams comprised of members from various relevant backgrounds and working on a well-specified common aim stand to leverage and synthesize the perspectives and expertise of multiple stakeholders, and therefore have the potential to grapple with complex problems.\nOur theoretical framework: Moving roadblocks: the context of this study\nMethods: We used an exploratory, concurrent mixed methods research design to examine the social ties and collective sense-making between Students Discover project team members. Data were to be collected in annual iterative cycles, so that the findings could be shared with the project team and used to drive team growth. The first round of data collection took place during the summer of 2015, and is reflected in this paper. We included only partner groups who were currently active on the project, so that we could adequately bound our system. For example, several district partners would not be involved in the project until the final two years of the grant. By this definition, the project team was comprised of seven project partners and 42 individuals. We gathered social network data from 34 of 42 project team members, and interview data from 25 project team members. The goal of the social network data was to gain a deeper understanding of both the quantity and quality of social ties on the project team. With the interview data, we hoped to obtain insight into how individual members of the team conceptualized key aspects of the project.\nResults: Upon analyzing the network survey and interview data, three key findings emerged: although the survey data revealed a fairly dense communication network, we found a sparse network for weekly/daily collaboration between project team members; project team members expressed a range of opinions and beliefs as to what the ultimate goal of the Students Discover project actually is; and even project team members who have proximity in the communication and weekly/daily collaboration networks espouse differing views on the ultimate goal of the project.\nDiscussion: In the course of this study, our endeavor has been to illuminate the underlying social network structure of our large, interdisciplinary project team so that we may collectively understand the impact of this structure on ability to leverage our potential social capital and achieve our project goals. In the following sections we discuss our findings, the implications of our findings for other large, multi-disciplinary projects, and the limitations of the study.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Previous attempts to solve complex problems in the field of education have often focused on one disciplinary perspective. This impedes the creation of meaningful solutions and lasting change. While an interdisciplinary approach has the potential for complex problem solving, it has often proven difficult. The purpose of this paper is to apply social capital and sense-making lenses to facilitate complex problem-solving on a large, interdisciplinary, National Science Foundation funded team.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Social network analysis (SNA) and interviews allowed for the examination of the existing underlying social structures of the project team, and the ways in which these underlying structures were impacting the team's ability to leverage its own social capital.\nFindings: Findings demonstrated that decentralized, low levels of weekly and daily collaboration may constrain the team's capacity for collective sense-making and its ability to achieve coherence around project goals.\nPractical implications: Using SNA to systematically study the underlying network structure of a team, with the intention to use that data to drive change, can allow teams to shape their networks over time to allow for sense-making and successful collaborations. It may be that, while large teams are studying their intended phenomena, they should also make time to study themselves.\nSocial implications: Increasing the successfulness of large teams stands to positively impact researchers' abilities to create workable solutions to intractable problems.\nOriginality/value: While SNA is a popular approach to understanding school districts and the spread of educational innovations, this study uses SNA to understand the creation of solutions and innovations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Authenticity in cultural built heritage: learning from Chinese Indonesians' houses
|
[
"Authenticity",
"Cultural built heritage",
"Ethnography method",
"Indonesia Chinatown"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Authenticity is a complex concept, which is critical in heritage management. The term authenticity usually refers to \"original\" or \"genuine\" (Jokilehto, 2009; Labadi, 2010; Zhu, 2015). In the preamble of the Venice Charter issued in 1964, authenticity is often related to materiality such as design, material, workmanship and setting. Later in the Nara Document, the concept of authenticity extended not only relates to materiality but also to non-material aspects. However, these approaches still neglect the relationship between people and the heritage sites, and how people perceive and negotiate the authenticity of heritage sites. For cultural built heritage, this point is significant because it is closely related to the creation of sense of place and identity (Jones, 2009).\nBackground: Chinese Indonesians\nLiterature review: Cultural built heritage, identity and community\nResearch methodology: In order to get a comprehensive understanding on the concept of authenticity in cultural built heritage, the ethnography method was employed. Two areas were investigated for this research; they are Lasem and Semarang Chinatown. In total, 33 participants were interviewed using a life story interview approach. This approach is believed could encourage the participant to recall and reflect their past life used (Bornat, 1999). Participant observation is the second technique conducted in this research because it allows the researcher to observe daily activities of Chinese Indonesians. The third strategy is investigating text-based documents, such as regulations regarding Chinese Indonesians from each Indonesian regime, newspaper, also blog posts on social media. Lastly, the researcher conducted physical survey on nine Chinese Indonesians' houses in both Chinatowns by documenting physical aspects of the houses. Two theories were employed to analyse data, and they were Technologies of the Self from Foucault and Habitus from Bourdieu.\nFindings and discussion: Cultural values of Chinese Indonesians\nConclusion: This study shows that the authenticity of cultural built heritage is not fixed because it lies on the community cultural values that own that cultural built heritage which are continuously reinvented. This occurs because the community needs to maintain their connection to the place as well as to others. In the context of post-diaspora, this sense of place is created with the help from their domestic space. Post-diaspora community utilises their houses to express their \"passable identity\", an identity that can be accepted by mainstream society. In other words, house of post-diaspora can be considered as an apparatus to combat discrimination towards them. Therefore, as illustrated in previous sections, the transformation of cultural built heritage is inevitable. Drawn from this, it would inappropriate to determine that the later transformation of cultural built heritage is inauthentic. Although they may transform into something that is visually far from the traditional style, it is still constructed based on similar foundation relating to the former style.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore authenticity conception of cultural built heritage. As a core of heritage management, authenticity is often seen as a validation of certain identity. In the cultural built heritage context, authenticity is vital for the community, particularly the ethnic minority community, because it can be viewed as a tool to tackle discrimination and misrecognition issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research was conducted in two Indonesian Chinatowns, namely, Lasem and Semarang Chinatowns. An ethnography method was employed to address the research aim. Four techniques to carry out data collection were used in this research; they were life story interview, participant observation, documentary research and physical observation through house tour. Two theories were used to analyse the data, and they were Technologies of the Self from Foucault and Habitus from Bourdieu.\nFindings: Result shows that authenticity conception in cultural built heritage is not fixed because it lies on the immaterial aspect (the community's cultural values) that is continuously reinvented. This research also reveals that the immaterial aspect of cultural built heritage, the community's cultural values, becomes the core of the conception of authenticity. These cultural values become the foundation for the community to create their cultural built environment.\nSocial implications: This research brings an important perspective on authenticity to be applied in heritage management. Interestingly, by adopting this perspective, heritage management could become a tool to create an inclusive society.\nOriginality/value: This research offers a unique perspective on heritage authenticity, which was constructed through sociological and materiality approach.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Key drivers of an agile, collaborative fast fashion supply chain: Dongdaemun fashion market
|
[
"Supply chain collaboration",
"Supply chain agility",
"Dongdaemun fashion market",
"Fast fashion market"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Supply chain management has for some time been a major strategic concern of firms that are striving to secure competitive advantages, enhance buyer-seller relationships, and achieve success (Hines and McGowan, 2002). Various industries - particularly those in the fashion, food, toys, and e-product sectors - operate in a competitive business environment that poses challenges and risks stemming from intensive globalization, shortening product life cycles, rising customer expectations, higher market volatility, lower demand predictability, stronger cost reduction pressure, increasing outsourcing, and diminishing supplier bases (Chen et al., 2013; Bruce et al., 2004). Firms must better manage and process ever-changing flows along the entire supply chain (Derrouiche et al., 2008). Effective and efficient supply chain management is therefore needed in order to plan and control a network of interconnected parties - internally, within a company, and/or externally, between companies - in an agile and collaborative way (Shankar et al., 2013; Doyle et al., 2006).\nTheoretical background: Supply chain management is defined by Mentzer et al. (2001, p. 18) as \"the systemic, strategic coordination of the traditional business functions and the tactics across these business functions within a particular company and across businesses within the supply chain, for the purposes of improving the long-term performance of the individual companies and the supply chain as a whole.\" In practice, supply chain management incorporates the planning and management of all operational activities in sourcing and procurement, production and conversion, and delivery and logistics. Its success requires cooperation and coordination among different channel members, who may be suppliers, manufacturers, intermediaries, third-party service providers, and/or customers (Fawcett et al., 2007; Ballou, 2004).\nResearch method: In the present study, we adopted a qualitative approach to investigate the industrial structure and critical success factors of a fast fashion supply chain using Dongdaemun fashion market as an example. A qualitative approach is particularly suitable for undertaking exploratory research to build theories or conceptual frameworks (Barnes and Lea-Greenwood, 2006; Ngai et al., 2011). Since the current study is exploratory in nature, this approach fits our objective of investigating the industrial structure and business operations of Dongdaemun fashion market from the perspective of the practitioners, as well as allows us to establish a conceptual model to express the key drivers of success for a fast fashion supply chain.\nFindings: The findings of this interview study show that there are five factors perceived by the interviewees as the most significant factors related to the competitiveness of Dongdaemun fashion market. These factors are summarized in Table IV and discussed in this section. Direct quotes from the informants and references from the preceding desk research are also included to support the findings.\nSummary and discussion: Dongdaemun fashion market is an \"all-in-one\" complex in which all relevant supply chain activities (i.e. design, production, distribution, sales, and after-sales service) take place within a two-kilometer radius (Nam, 2003). The functional structure of the market includes a group of modern shopping malls and numerous individual retail stores; a huge and fragmented wholesale district; a large number of industrial clusters with small-scale sewing factories and material/subsidiary providers; and a primitive but responsive multichannel distribution system.\nConclusion: Supply chain agility and supply chain collaboration are widely considered to be two major strategic tools that firms can utilize to enhance their competitiveness in response to a market characterized by intensifying globalization, ever-increasing competition, and deepening volatility (Derrouiche et al., 2008; Shankar et al., 2013; Barnes and Lea-Greenwood, 2006; Min et al., 2005). The findings of our study demonstrate that the success of Dongdaemun fashion market has not been achieved by chance. Its competitive position in the fast fashion marketplace is due to its incredible supply chain agility and intensive supply chain collaboration, which are supported by a number of factors: self-sufficient structures, multiple-integrated network, strong entrepreneurship, close and long-lasting buyer-seller relationships, and quick-response product delivery and inventory replenishment. In conclusion, the results of this study have some implications for small and medium-sized firms in the fast fashion industry, regarding the development of effective supply chain strategies to help reduce turnover rates, address market complexities, lower operational costs, maintain smaller inventories, and achieve rapid distribution.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the market structure and the key drivers of the competitiveness of an agile and collaborative fast fashion supply chain using South Korea's Dongdaemun fashion market - one of the world's largest and most competitive fashion hubs - as an example.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach is employed with a two-stage study. The first stage is a preliminary study based on a desk research and several field visits, while the second is an in-depth interview study with seven informants collectively representative of the members of all echelons along a fashion supply chain.\nFindings: The findings demonstrate that the Dongdaemun fashion market has a complex market structure and a unique business pattern. Supply chain agility and collaboration are two important components of its success, which are supported by five factors: self-sufficient structure, multiple-integrated network, strong entrepreneurship, close and long-lasting buyer-seller relationships, and quick-response product delivery and inventory replenishment.\nOriginality/value: This study extends our knowledge of supply chain management in the fast fashion industry and provides insights to assist in the development of supply chain strategies in other fashion markets and/or other industries. The extended conceptual framework as well as the proposed questions may serve as points of reference for future studies in the subject area.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Optimizing distribution strategy for perishable foods using RFiD and sensor technologies
|
[
"Distribution",
"Information strategy",
"Quality",
"Food safety",
"Identification"
] |
[
{
"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: Food quality is related to consumers' evaluations of food acceptability that is inextricably linked to various subjective factors such as taste, palatability, aroma, and appearance (Gardner, 1999). The need for having safe foods in the food supply around the world is of paramount importance. The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about 25 percent of the population will suffer, at some time in their life, from an illness associated with a food-borne pathogen. Meanwhile, the economic impact due to unsafe foods or quality loss is huge. In the USA, the direct cost of food losses in various distribution stages accounts for more than $1 billion per year (Gould and Russell, 2003), while the total economic loss due to food-borne disease is estimated to be more than $6 billion per year. Regulations are established to protect the safety of foods during the distribution process. For instance, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) demands the establishment and maintenance of records which must identify the previous source and subsequent recipient of foods in the US supply chains.Perishable foods are usually distributed in temperature-controlled supply chains, namely, cold chains. In the distribution process from raw material suppliers to consumers' refrigerators, food products deteriorate progressively due to the growth and activity of microorganisms. The microorganisms can be introduced during food processing or be present in the food ingredients, and they may grow slowly if the environmental parameters (e.g. temperature) are under control or rapidly if not. To combat the threats of quality deterioration, monitoring mechanisms have been developed based on sensor technology. Studman (2001) surveys the post-harvest applications of sensor technology. It shows that sensors are used in monitoring the storage conditions of food products, inventory controls, sorting and weighing of various food and produce, transportation, and further handling at the distributors and/or the grocery stores and supermarkets.Radio frequency identification (RFiD) technology is an effective technology for tracking products in supply chain. It can provide real-time information on the inventory, logistics and the freshness in the cold chain. In the meantime, it helps to reduce manual labor activities as well as theft and misplacement incidents of the food products. Prater et al. (2005) evaluate the impact of RFiD on supply chains. It is claimed that efficient RFiD tracking can improve the visibility of supply chain, which reduces the uncertainty on product flow and thus decreases the inventory levels in the entire supply chain. Smith et al. (2005) point out that many traceability requirements for food products in the USA are voluntary rather than mandatory. Thus, the link between the farms, ranches, finishing facilities and packer/processor is weak. Additional measures are required to strengthen the link and provide a comprehensive traceability and accountability of products. Furthermore, the industry and research community have realized that sensors coupled with RFiD technology carry tremendous potential for the food industry (Wang et al., 2006). The food products can be tracked and traced. During the processing and distribution, food products can be closely monitored, stored and evaluated. However, research on the integration of sensor and RFiD technologies for cold chain applications is still in its early stages.Both the delivery of safe food products to customers and the availability of products at every stage of cold chain are the fundamental requirements that marketing sets for logistics management. Effective logistics is urgently needed to ensure the customer satisfaction and meet marketing requirements. Despite the existing efforts, real-time monitoring of the quality and flow of perishable foods in cold chain remains a challenge. The major difficulty comes from food quality and identification detection, and data transmission during transportation. In this paper, a potentially robust and economical solution to this challenge is proferred by integrating extant technologies in the marketplace. The primary focus of this research is to address how organizations may fully take advantage of RFiD and sensor technologies as a managerial mechanism for optimizing product flows. For instance, if significant quality deterioration for some products in a shipment is detected, the transportation plan may need to be changed so that the products can be delivered to a distribution center nearby. In this way, the impact on customer satisfaction is minimized in that the re-distribution plan can maximize the chance of delivering good products in the right amount. Mathematical decision making models are developed in this paper to optimize the distribution planning for a cold chain network with the complete visibility and quality information. In addition, a case study is used to empirically showcase the procedure of decision-making in distribution planning for a simple cold chain network.\nAchieving complete visibility for cold chain distribution: Proposed framework\nDistribution planning of perishable foods in cold chain network: The proposed framework provides a technical solution to achieve the complete visibility of cold chain. The question is how to take advantage of the real-time information on product flow and quality, and assess the associated benefits. One may notice that RFiD technology has been proposed for tracking and tracing in supply chains for more than five years, but the evaluation of benefits has been focused on qualitative discussion. The literature quantitatively addressing the benefits of RFiD is very limited. A discrete event simulation model is developed in (Lee et al., 2004) to investigate the impact of RFiD on supply chain dynamics. For a simple supply chain model with one manufacturer, one distribution center, and one retailer, better replenishment decision and more accurate shelf replenishment can be made with RFiD so that the inventory level in the retailer store can be significantly reduced. A similar study by (Kang and Gershwin, 2005) shows that compared with other compensation methods for inventory inaccuracy, the perfect knowledge of inventory due to RFiD can achieve the best stock-out inventory compromise. Liu et al. (2008) develop a dynamic pricing model for retailers to maximize the profit of selling perishable products with real-time information on product quality by RFiD technology. The misconception of their paper is that RFiD technology can provide product quality information. Pioneer work on cold chain distribution planning with RFiD can be found in the work of Li et al. (2006). By envisioning the availability of food quality information from sensors, the distribution-planning model optimizes the order quantities to minimize the total cost. However, the model actually ignores the benefits of real-time information. In other words, the optimal decision is made based on historical data and does not consider the real-time dynamics of distribution. Therefore, this research intends to bridge this gap by proposing a novel decision making model to capture the planning dynamics due to information update, and determine distribution strategies for a cold chain network.Cold chain network\nCase study: In this section, a simple case is presented to illustrate how the multi-stage planning is carried out using the decision-making model proposed in previous section, and demonstrate how the real-time quality information affects the decision on the distribution of perishable products. The case study adopts a cold chain network comprised of four farms, two packers, three distribution centers, and seven retailers.Data inputs for the case study\nFurther discussion: From the numerical case of three scenarios, it can be seen that the availability of complete visibility and dynamic decision making based on updated information help the optimal arrangement of product flow in cold chain network. Another direct benefit may be the saving of transportation and processing costs. This is because if a shipment, is found to be spoiled, the product flow should be stopped, and the products should be properly disposed immediately. Nevertheless, there are many other benefits that the current multi-stage planning model is not able to capture.First of all, the social benefits to human beings from avoiding unsafe foods are enormous in that the technology detects and prevents spoiled products reaching consumers. The cold chain partners may suffer the economic loss, but it defends health of human being and reduces the food borne sickness. The social benefits are usually difficult to measure, obviously far more significant than the potential economic loss. A recent food safety incident in the USA is the E. coli O157:H7 outbreak from spinach in September 2006, which sickened nearly 300 people and killed three in 26 US states and Canada. The economic cost was clearly large, but the illness and loss of life was devastating.Second, the real-time quality information makes it possible to promptly respond to urgencies so that remedy or correction can be made on time. For instance, if the temperature of a refrigerated shipment is out of control during transportation, the informed driver can make correction right away. Sometimes, the temperature shift may not be pronounced but can still significantly affect the growth of bacteria. In this case, knowing current quality information can help us to develop a tight temperature control plan so that the deterioration will slow down. Also, it may help the decision makers to divert the shipment to the closest downstream partner so that the sales can still be made.Third, the quality information indicates the product shelf life, and knowing the shelf life brings economic benefits to retailers. For example, instead of using first-in/first-out method of inventory management, the retailers should sell the products with shorter shelf life so that the revenue can be maximized. Also, different pricing schemes for food products of different quality levels may be developed. Promotional sales may be used for products that are exposed to marginally unfavorable conditions.\nConclusion: Food is one of the basic human needs. For retailers, it is always a challenge to provide enough fresh food at a low cost to meet customer needs and expectation. For farms, supplying high-quality and affordable food products to customers can enhance their competitive advantages and increase their market shares. Complete visibility of perishable food products in cold chain distribution is critical to providing enough safe food in right marketplace. In this paper, by integrating RFiD, sensor, and wireless communication technologies, a comprehensive solution framework is proposed for tracking and tracing, environment parameter monitoring, and food quality assessment in cold chain. Using real-time quality and inventory information, retailers can promote the product with shorter shelf life, and dispose spoiled food products to avoid delivering them to customers. Thus retailers can build a good relationship with customers and keep their market share in communities.Meanwhile, this study focuses on the economic side of cold chain distribution. With the objective of minimizing the overall transaction cost, a three-stage planning model is proposed for decision-making in the distribution of perishable food products. The linear programming models can provide decision makers an initial optimal food distribution plan, and also can update optimal distribution plans at each stage using real-time quality information available in the food distribution network. If the system detects quality deterioration before food reaches retailers, the proposed decision making model can suggest how to alter the original distribution plan to minimize the overall transaction cost for all stakeholders, and also forecast unmet demands. With the unmet demand information, retailers can proactively take actions, such as preparing more alternative food products or temporarily purchasing from the distribution centers outside, to reduce the negative impact of food loss during distribution logistics. In summary, product flow visibility and quality information provided by the solution and the associated decision making model can help logistics management to better meet the requirements from marketing.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Delivery of safe products while meeting customer demand is a critical marketing requirement for logistics. To meet this requirement, this paper aims to develop a decision-making model for distribution strategies in cold chain network with the real-time flow and quality information of perishable foods.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper first presents a real-time monitoring solution for cold chain distribution by integrating radio frequency identification (RFiD), sensor, and wireless communication technologies. With the enhanced visibility of product flow and quality information, a multi-stage planning model is developed to determine optimal distribution plans so that the overall cost of the entire cold chain network is minimized.\nFindings: - The proposed distribution-planning model can capture the dynamics of logistics due to frequent update of product quality information during distribution. Therefore, the distribution decision will be adjusted at sequential stages to optimally preserve the product value and meet demand. The proposed solution and model can ensure an effective cold chain logistics and thus meet the marketing requirement.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The current planning model cannot quantitatively capture all benefits, such as the social impact, due to the implementation of RFiD and other technologies.\nOriginality/value: - The proposed solution to achieve complete visibility of the cold chain is innovative and addresses the urgent requirements for cold chain logistics from marketing perspective. For the first time, the economic benefits of real-time information on product quality can be quantitatively evaluated by the multi-stage planning model and this has been verified by a numerical case study.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Workplace identity as a mediator in the relationship between learning climate and job satisfaction during apprenticeship: Suggestions for HR practitioners
|
[
"Apprenticeship",
"Workplace identity",
"Job satisfaction",
"Learning climate"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The recent literature on the learning climate has shown that specific organizational conditions may be capable of either hampering or stimulating learning activities as well as being a motivation to learning (Eraut, 2004; Nikolova et al., 2014). In particular, the climate and culture towards learning may play a crucial role (Tracey and Tews, 2005; Cervai et al., 2013; Cervai and Polo, 2015).\n2. Theoretical background and hypotheses: 2.1 The learning climate\n3. Method: 3.1 Sample\n4. Results: Table I presents the preliminary analysis of the data set: the means, standard deviations and inter-correlations of the main study variables.\n5. Discussion: These significant mediation models provide support for the prediction that apprentices experience differences in job satisfaction due to their different workplace identities. Consequently, these results suggest a series of guidelines for HR managers during apprenticeship. Indeed, they should develop specific training plans and seek to appreciate every single learning outcome in apprentices, along with an adequate error management, while they should, at the same time, invest in workplace identity, supporting organizational socialization also for newcomers in every manner and means available.\n6. Limitations and future research: The finding of the present study should be interpreted in the light of some limitations. First, our study is cross-sectional in design, which limits our capability to draw out the causal relationship between the variables under investigation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to explore if and to what extent workplace identity can mediate the relationship between learning climate dimensions and job satisfaction in a group of apprentices.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were gathered thanks to a non-profit organization devoted to vocational training. Participants (N = 87) were apprentices working in different job contexts in central Italy.\nFindings: Results showed that the relationship between learning climate and job satisfaction was mediated by workplace identity.\nOriginality/value: To the author's knowledge, this is the first attempt to evaluate the effect of learning climate and workplace identity on job satisfaction during apprenticeship.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Nanook of the North (USA, 1922/1947/1976/1998) and film exhibition in the classical silent era: A document unbounded?
|
[
"Archives",
"Films",
"Documentation",
"Analysis",
"Documents",
"Audiovisual media"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Traditional documents like printed books (independent of genre) or films (either in cinema, on television or on DVD) are usually considered as self-contained, complete units with clear borders. New media[1], often a shorthand for digital documents, on the other hand are more often discussed in terms of their complicated materiality and whether they have borders or not. The annual meetings of the Document Academy (DOCAM), an international network of scholars, artists, and professionals in various fields, who are interested in the exploration of the concept of the document, might illustrate this development. While the notion of document, different definitions and the relevance of definitions, as well as analytical concepts, and oral documents can be considered \"classical DOCAM themes\" (Latham and Lund, 2014), the last two meetings have focused on Documents without Borders (2014) and Documents unbounded (2015)[2], foregrounding \"the unbounded nature of new media, including social media\" (Scifleet et al., 2015). The present paper is the revised version of a presentation given at DOCAM'15, discussing the border between the inside and the outside of Robert J. Flaherty's first film Nanook of the North that premiered at the Capitol Theater in New York City in the Summer of 1922. By taking Gerard Genette's concept of the paratext as point of departure and focussing on the exhibition of Nanook during the silent era, the paper discusses elements neglected in most of the academic writings about the film, thereby illustrating the highly problematic notion of film as one original or authentic document that comes as a repeatable unit with clear borders.\nThe exhibition of Nanook: \"unitary text,\" text and paratext, or document complex?: As Ross Melnick shows in his study on Samuel \"Roxy\" Rothafel, motion picture exhibitors such as Roxy played an important role in the presentation and promotion of films from the silent film era (cf. also Groskopf, 2012, p. 84). Not only were they able to decide which films were shown; they made decisions on the film music and editing, and they incorporated individual films into a larger program. In his study, Melnick uses the term \"unitary text\" to discuss the \"wide range of live performance and recorded media\" (Melnick, 2012, pp. 14-15) that could surround feature films during the silent era. While Melnick (2012) goes into greater detail on Roxy's program compilations for the premieres of the German movies Passion (p. 191) and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (p. 193) at the Capitol Theatre, in Nanook's case he refers primarily to elements outside the program like the Capitol's lobby:\nThe exhibition of Nanook: a document unbounded?: When we watch a film of the silent era today, we see it as an individual film; a self-contained, complete unit. Even in the case of DVDs with extra material we see either the film or the extras. And although the user is given choices regarding the order and selection and some DVDs offer the possibility of listening to an audio commentary during the film, it is usually not possible to see the parts of a DVD as a unified program. This doubtlessly affects our reception of these films, as Stephen Bottomore (2001) shows for \"all the travelogues, industrial, interest, advertising, scientific, and other films made from the 1890s\" (p. 161). In rediscovering these films that were frequently forgotten in the writing of film history and screening them at film festivals according to the principal of \"collecting the similar\" (Bottomore, 2001, p. 162), we diverge increasingly from the original context in which the film was shown: \"The point is,\" Bottomore (2001) argues, \"that early cinemagoers never saw a collection of similar films screened together; they almost always saw a mixed programme\" (p. 163). However, in contrast to Bottomore (2001), who claims that this only applies to shorter films, as \"each long film is more or less a programme in itself, and a modern screening is largely reproducing what audiences of the time would have seen\" (p. 163), the archive material[7] on the premiere of Nanook of the North shows that this was by no means the case.\nNanook after its premiere at the Capitol: Although the archive material on Nanook is very extensive and includes information on when, where and how the film was shown after the premiere, no complete picture of its exhibition history emerges. On the one hand, apart from a few exceptions the material is limited to the English-speaking world; on the other, the collection seems to be dependent on what material Flaherty was sent by cinema operators and other individuals and what was collected by a press clipping bureau. Furthermore, not all newspaper articles are dated precisely and some only have partial source references, so that it can be difficult to place the information both geographically and chronologically. Nevertheless, the material shows how difficult it is to speak of the performance of Nanook and its reception in general terms.\nConclusion: More a \"one-time performance\" (Hansen, 1991, p. 93) than identical repetition of the film is one argument for talking about Nanook as a document unbounded. Considering the fact that the different parts of that performance could change from performance to performance, from theater to theater, from town to town, and from country to country makes that argument even stronger. For in actual fact, for the Capitol alone we are speaking here of 21 performances or 21 documents that might differ from each other over the course of a week.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a discussion on whether more traditional documents like a film of the classical silent era can be discussed as an unbounded document.\nDesign/methodology/approach: By taking Gerard Genette's concept of the paratext as point of departure and focussing on the exhibition of Nanook of the North during the silent era, the paper discusses elements neglected in most of the academic writings about the film, thereby illustrating the highly problematic notion of film as one original or authentic document that comes as a repeatable unit with clear borders.\nFindings: More a \"one-time performance\" (Hansen, 1991, p. 93) than identical repetition of the film is one argument for talking about a document unbounded. Genette's concept of the paratext provides a tool to handle the fluid character of these performances and makes us conscious about the complexity of elements both outside and inside the document and on the border between the inside and the outside. In documentation studies the concept of the paratext provides us with a terminology that allows us to place and name elements of a document belonging to its materiality.\nOriginality/value: In providing a case study based on archival material that has not been used before and is not available to a wider public, this paper shows the relevance of investigating films not as a repeatable unit with clear borders, but rather as an unbounded document.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Secure or fearful, who will be more resentful? Investigating the interaction between regulatory focus and attachment style
|
[
"Regulatory focus",
"Attachment styles"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: One of the causes for negativity toward brands is brand failure, which happens quite often in today's marketplace. For example, a controversy about Wells Fargo started in 2016 when an analysis revealed that employees have been opening millions of fake accounts over the course of several years (Egan, 2018). It was later showed that the third largest bank in the nation not only opened 3.5 million of credit cards and bank accounts that were not authorized by customers but to charge customers for mortgage fees, car insurance and other products that customers did not understand (Egan, 2018). In addition to paying hefty fines, replacing longtime CEO, firing 5,300 employees and revising sales practices, the newly appointed CEO at the time said: \"We apologize to everyone who was harmed by unacceptable sales practices that occurred in our retail bank\" (Egan, 2017). Consumers were deeply unhappy about this failure; for example, Kennedy told CNNMoney that \"I didn't sign up for any bloody checking account, they lost me as a banking customer, and I have warned family and friends\" (Egan, 2016). However, do consumers always develop negativity toward brands at the time of brand failure? When brands fail, some consumers might develop negative emotions and attitudes toward the brand, such as anger, dissatisfaction, dislike, sadness and even worry, and may even adopt negative behaviors toward the brand by switching to other brands, engaging in negative word-of-mouth (WOM) and complaining (Romani et al., 2012). However, other consumers might decide to maintain their positive attitudes and behaviors toward the brand by staying loyal and continue purchasing from the brand (Aaker et al., 2004). Why do individuals differ in their reactions to brand failure? This paper offers explanations for why consumers may engage in negative or positive behaviors toward the brand. The authors propose that psychological individual differences lead consumers to respond differently at the time of brand failure. Specifically, they argue that consumers' attachment style and regulatory orientation help explain why they behave differently at the time of brand failure. Thus, the focus of this research is on understanding how consumers who have close relationships with a brand will react at the time of brand failure, and under what circumstances they might respond with more positive than negative reactions. As brand relationships can take on norms similar to interpersonal relationships, individual difference factors that affect these relationships could influence consumers' reactions to brand failure. In particular, this study takes attachment styles and regulatory focus as appropriate constructs, as previous research has shown that these variables can explain the individual differences occurring in interpersonal relationships (Hazan and Shaver, 1987; Fournier and Alvarez, 2013). For example, Winterheld and Simpson (2011) show that regulatory orientation can explain why individuals behave in certain ways in their romantic relationship; while individuals with a promotion focus tend to have a more positive attitude toward their partner and the relationship in general, those with a prevention focus are more alert and cautious and are more likely to end the relationship to distance themselves from future negative outcomes. Hazan and Shaver (1987) also showed that individuals with different attachment styles differ in their behaviors in romantic relationships; for example, secure people are more likely to trust their partner and be forgiving in times of conflict than those who feel insecure in their relationships.\nTheoretical background and hypotheses: Regulatory focus and brand failure\nMethod: Study 1: an exploratory study\nGeneral discussion: Theoretical contributions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine the impact of consumers' individual differences on their reactions to brand failure.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three studies (one qualitative, one survey and one experiment) were conducted. Study 1 aimed to understand consumers' thoughts at the time of brand failure. Studies 2 and 3 investigated the impact of regulatory focus and its interaction with consumers' attachment style on their reactions to brand failure.\nFindings: This research establishes that consumers demonstrate different types of behaviors at the time of brand failure. Specifically, those with a promotion focus display less negative (revenge and brand avoidance) and more positive (trust and loyalty) behavior than those with a prevention focus. Furthermore, this research shows an interaction between consumers' attachment style and regulatory focus. The impact of regulatory focus holds only for secure consumers; for fearful consumers, regulatory focus does not change their behavior.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study reveals the impact of regulatory focus and attachment styles on consumer behavior at the time of brand failure. Future research might examine the impact of these factors over time, rather than only at the time of the incident.\nPractical implications: Marketers should be aware of the impact of attachment style and regulatory focus after a brand failure. This knowledge will enable them to customize their communication tools to trigger their desired condition. This research also emphasizes the role of customer service at the time of crisis.\nOriginality/value: This research is the first to investigate the impact of regulatory focus and attachment style on consumers' reactions to brand failure.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Metacognition, cultural psychological capital and motivational cultural intelligence
|
[
"Perspective taking",
"Broaden-and-build theory",
"Cultural psychological capital",
"Metacognitive awareness",
"Motivational cultural intelligence"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In an increasingly global environment, cross-cultural researchers have focussed on the experiences of global work force. Most expatriate and overseas work assignment studies have focussed on individual's adjustment, its antecedents and consequences (e.g. Shaffer and Harrison, 1998; Kraimer et al., 2001; Kraimer and Wayne, 2004; Wang and Takeuchi, 2007) while employing a stress-strain perspective. Only a few studies have taken a non-stress approach in understanding the global work climate and individual's experience (e.g. Chen et al., 2010). In particular, research has focussed on expatriate outcomes such as job performance and premature return intentions (e.g. Shaffer et al., 2006; Wang and Takeuchi, 2007). Another stream of research has focussed on individual outcomes for cross-cultural experiences such as cognitive complexity and creativity (see Maddux and Galinsky, 2009; Tadmor and Tetlock, 2006). However, metacognitive awareness has not been examined as a beneficial outcome in cross-cultural management literature. Metacognition has been extensively studied in the field of education and learning as a critical component of adaptive learning (see Schunk, 2008). Employing a positive psychological perspective, we introduce metacognitive awareness as an important outcome of cross-cultural experiences. Individuals, who relocate to foreign places, inevitably experience learning in order to become successful and well adjusted; we inspect how psychological resources play a role in the motivational process, which in turn relates to metacognitive awareness for individuals who gain cross-cultural experiences.\nTheory and hypotheses: In this section, we introduce the theory and develop our hypotheses. Broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (Fredrickson, 2001, 2004) is predicated upon the idea that positive emotions broaden one's momentary-thought-action repertoires. Broadened mindsets carry indirect and long-term adaptive value because broadening builds enduring personal resources (Fredrickson and Losada, 2005). Positive affect, in the long term, builds more accurate cognitive maps of what is good and bad in the environment. Positive affect further influences the behavior of individuals and the intrinsic motivational process for many kinds of tasks (Isen, 1999). Several studies have established a positive relationship between positive affect and intrinsic motivation (e.g. Kraiger et al., 1989; Estrada et al., 1994) (Figure 1).\nMethods: Data collection and sample\nData analysis and results: Descriptive statistics, reliability estimates, and correlations are presented in Table I. To test our hypotheses, we used multiple hierarchical regression analyses.\nDiscussion: Moving beyond the traditional outcomes of job performance, adjustment, withdrawal cognitions, cognitive complexity, and creativity in cross-cultural management literature, we focus on metacognitive awareness as an important outcome of cross-cultural experience. Our study shows evidence that cultural psychological resources such as hope, optimism, self-efficacy, and resilience have a positive impact on motivational cultural intelligence. Individuals who have higher levels of cultural psychological capital are able to show more motivational cultural intelligence, which is associated with increased metacognitive awareness. Studies in educational literature connect metacognitive awareness to better problem solving skills and adaptability (Paris and Winograd, 1990). By identifying cultural psychological capital as an important associate to motivational cultural intelligence, we extend our knowledge about motivational cultural intelligence, and add cultural psychological capital as a critical component of motivational cultural intelligence. Further, we examine the moderating role of perspective taking on the relationship between motivational cultural intelligence and metacognitive awareness. Based on previous evidence, we suggested that high levels of perspective taking would strengthen the relationship between motivational cultural intelligence and metacognition. However, our findings did not support the enhancing effects of perspective taking. It is possible that when individuals are motivated to learn about other cultures, perspective taking may be redundant as individuals are already engaged in learning and adapting to the new cultural setting.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concept of cultural psychological capital, its impact on motivational cultural intelligence (CQ), the influence of motivational cultural intelligence on metacognitive awareness, and the moderating role of perspective taking on the relationship between motivational cultural intelligence and metacognition.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Collected data from international management program alumni to test the hypotheses.\nFindings: The results show that cultural psychological capital has a positive relationship with motivational cultural intelligence, which in turn relates to metacognitive awareness, and perspective taking does not moderate the relationship between motivational cultural intelligence and metacognition.\nResearch limitations/implications: The data were collected from a single source. The study supports broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 2001) by demonstrating that cultural psychological capital has an important association with motivational cultural intelligence.\nPractical implications: Cultural psychological capital can be improved. Therefore, organizations that desire to increase the motivation of employees may consider improving the cultural psychological capital of employees. Learning is an important outcome of motivational cultural intelligence, and it is an asset for today's organizations.\nOriginality/value: The study takes a positive perspective for cross-cultural experiences and identifies cultural psychological capital as an important resource for expatriates. Metacognitive awareness, as an outcome, provides support that cross-cultural experience results in higher learning for individuals who are motivated.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Hotel managers' career strategies for success
|
[
"Careers",
"Career development",
"Hotels",
"Managers",
"Greeece"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Career success can be viewed as a means to fulfill a person's needs and desires through achievements, accomplishment and power acquisition (Lau and Shaffer, 1999). Career success and career strategies are elements within the broad tradition of career theory (Riley and Ladkin, 1994). An understanding of the strategies used in order to develop a successful career can help individuals choose the best way to achieve promotion to the top of a company's hierarchy (Aryee et al., 1994). Within a specific professional environment, it is useful for career development to identify the specific individual or environmental characteristics and requirements that lead different people to career success in different industries or organizational structures (Reklitis and Trivelas, 2002). The practical meaning of this knowledge or information is important for both companies and individuals as it enables companies to have the ability to plan more effectively the systems of staff training and development, and individuals can develop career strategies that will offer them greater career success in terms of job position, satisfaction and salary (Ellis and Heneman, 1990).This research aims to discover which career strategies have lead to career success for managers in the Greek hotel industry. The rationale for undertaking this research is to highlight elements of managerial career strategies both in general terms and in relation to careers of hotel managers. Despite the wealth of research into the careers of hotel managers, no research to date has been undertaken in the Greek context. The value of exploring the Greek situation is that as a developed international tourist destination, it has an established infrastructure (hotels, travel agencies etc.) and approximately 25 percent of its population is employed directly or indirectly in the tourism sector (Pavlopoulos, 1999). Moreover, the human resource asset employed in this industry is supported by a continuous increasing number of tourism schools which offer a variety of studies at all levels.Previous research has explored profiles and general characteristics of hotel managers, much including a discussion of career strategies. For example, in the UK (Corcoran and Johnson, 1976; Ladkin and Riley, 1996); the USA (Nebel et al. 1995); Greece (Akrivos, 2004); Korea (Kim, 1994); Croatia (Sehanovic et al., 2000); Mauritius (Ladkin and Juwaheer, 2000); and in Egypt (Hannan et al., 2003). The present research integrates the previous studies, including the prevailing theories in general on leadership characteristics. Importantly, the above research findings are tested in Greece, which is a major employer.In order to achieve its aims, the paper is organized in the following way. First, a discussion of career success and career strategies in relation to chief executive officers (CEOs) is presented as a background to the present research, as there are parallels in the roles and responsibilities between these occupations. Career success and strategies specific to hotel managers are then outlined. The research methodology for the research is explained, followed by a presentation on the results of the survey. Results are provided in the areas of career strategies used by the hotel managers, and conclusions outlining the relevance of the findings for industry are discussed.\nCareer success and strategies of CEOs: Because of the perceived and actual importune of a CEO's job, there is a wealth of research that has explored career success and career strategies that can help to achieve success for CEOs. At the individual level career success is related to acquisition of wealth and power along with personal satisfaction (Gattiker and Larwood, 1990, 1988, Judge et al., 1995; Poole et al., 1993). The knowledge of what someone has to do in order to achieve career success assists individuals to follow the appropriate career strategies during their career development (Aryee et al., 1994, Ellis and Heneman, 1990). The study of the career path in a contingency model (Reklitis and Trivelas, 2002) identifies which parameters influence career success of people with different demographical characteristics in different organizational contexts. This is useful for both individuals and organizations as organizations have the ability to design more effective staff development systems, and individuals have the possibility to develop these career strategies that would make them successful in their career in terms of job position, satisfaction and salary (Ellis and Heneman, 1990). Contented managers are instrumental in the success of an organization.The nomination of a person as a CEO of an organization is one of the most important decisions an organization must take, and is crucial to the success of an organization. The CEO is the person that is exclusively responsible for the company's decisions about strategy formulation, planning, performance design and its environment. The CEO is legally responsible for the company, has the final responsibility for any action the company undertakes and holds the highest position in the organizational structure (Vancil, 1987; Dalton and Kesner, 1983). The role of a CEO is determinant in the company's decision centers, in the control and direction of the company towards goal achievement (Brady and Helmich, 1984 cited in Ashcraft, 1999), and it is the CEO who defines the core concept of an organization (Finkelstein and Hambrick, 1996). This decision influences all the members of the organization and forms the organizational culture (Hambric et al., 1998).Previous research into career success of manages has identified a number of different themes. For example, the ability to match appropriately the opportunities and threats of the firm's environment by Olsen et al. (1994). Personality traits, as they relate to career success is another common theme. Howard and Bray (1988) designed a mechanism which attempted to relate personality characteristics to career success. In the tourism industry, the study of the personality characteristics that make a successful manager have been identified by Wilson (1998) and Worsfold (1989a, b). Attitudes and predispositions of a person as determinants of career success have been discussed by Lent et al.(1994). In studying the attitudes and predispositions of a person, much research explores the specific person as a critical parameter to his/her career success (Finn and Rock, 1997; Winfield, 1991 cited in Perrone, 2001; Wang and Gordon, 1994 cited in Perrone, 2001; Samuel et al., 1994). Finally, specific career success strategies have been considered in previous research. Berenbeim (1995) highlights the characteristics of the CEOs of a number of companies located in five different countries. Orpen (1994) and Hall (1990) from a psychological point of view have identified specific strategies that lead to career success. Strategies followed by CEOs in order to develop their career reflect their personality characteristics, their abilities, their knowledge and their education (O'Reilly and Chatman, 1994). The right strategies and tactics will promote individuals to the top of a company's hierarchy. CEO career success depends on the consistency and the stability of the performance of a person. In other words success is associated with a person's passion with his/her vision and his/her ability to go a step further from all his/her competitors (Sarros and Santora, 1994). The person must have the ability to mach appropriately the opportunities and threats of the firm's environment (Olsen et al., 1994). Personality traits affect also dramatically the career success according to Howard and Bray's (1988), who have designed a mechanism though which it is attempted to relate the personality characteristics with the career success.Career strategies for success in hotels\nResearch methodology: The value of using a case study approach in research is well documented (Yin, 1993; Cohen and Manion, 1995; Blaxter et al., 2001). The present research is based on a sample of 65 Greek deluxe hotel's general managers who were not owners or members of the family who owned the hotel. The deluxe category was chosen as the majority of the deluxe hotels in Greece are managed by professionals while the majority (97.5 per cent) of lower class hotels are managed by members of the owner's family (Papanikos, 2000, p. 52). As Schein (1996) mentioned the study of career development must focus on individuals who after a range of promotions reached the top of the corporate hierarchy. The explanation of his statement is based on the fact that hotel owners display a high level of diversity and would be very difficult to conclude in scientifically accepted results. The owners who are managers could be the subject of future research. Career histories were gained from the managers using a postal questionnaire. Within the questionnaire, managers were asked to indicate career strategies they had used in order to be successful in their careers. It is assumed that as all sample hold general managers positions, they have been successful in their careers. The sample represented the 85 percent of the population of this hotel category in Greece. The respondents were presented with a list of 33 career strategies and were asked to indicate whether they had used them in pursuing their careers. The response scale was anchored with \"not at all\" and \"to a very great extent\" for all items. The strategies were adapted from Ladkin and Riley (1996). The selected strategies are not only those which were tested in the industry from previous research but also those which are valued by the management theory to be most important in all industries. This research aims to classify and evaluate the importance of the strategies in the tourism industry and use them as a tool of leadership development for the hotel managers. The career strategies presented are listed in Table I.\nResearch findings: The research findings are in the areas of career strategies used by the hotel managers in four categories, starting with the most frequently used. The rating scale was from one to five, with one being the least important strategy and five the most important. They are grouped into four categories, the dominant strategies, the less dominant strategies, those of limited use and the least used. This categorization was undertaken in order to show the most important strategies for the industry and to define those which are less important for those who want to develop their career in the hotel industry. The practical implication from this categorization is that professionals can see those that have been most used, and what they could avoid.The dominant strategies\nConclusion: This research has outlined career strategies that have been used by Greek deluxe hotel managers in order to achieve success in their careers. The findings are similar to previous research (Ladkin and Riley, 1996; Ladkin, 2002) and indicate that mobility, training and willingness to be adaptable are commonly used strategies. The least used are family contacts and money as a motivating factor in career advancement. The contribution of this study is not only the confirmation of the results of previous researches, but also the ranking of the examined strategies and the integration of the theories in career development.The implications for the industry are in three main areas. First, in terms of recruitment individuals look internally rather than externally in order to advance their career opportunities. Therefore the organizations internal labor market dominates job-searching activities. The implications for human resource practitioners are that internal promotions are one way of developing the careers of individuals to ensure they are not lost too the external labor market. If individuals have been identified as being of value to an organizational, internal promotion can keep them from moving to another company.Second, with regard to training it is clear that individuals are constantly striving to improve their skills. Training opportunities may be one way in which organizations can look assist the retention of those developing a managerial career. This is related to the first point, that if opportunities are available within the company, employees will not look elsewhere in the external labor market. Related to the retention of staff, it does not appear that money is a motivating factor in the development of careers. Whilst salaries would be important in attracting staff, they are not the main driver behind career development. The practical implication of this finding is that organizations need to seek ways other than financial rewards if they are to keep key staff.A final point is that has this research has shown similarities to UK and Australian hotel managers in terms of career strategies used, and there does not appear to be obvious differences according to country or nationality. The markets globalization is growing rapidly especially in the tourism sector worldwide but even with the global nature of the hotel industry, it appears that individuals who become general managers use similar career strategies for success. Taking this assumption, the practical implication for international companies is that recruitment and retention practices can be standardized at the global level. The results of course reflect part of the long Greek tradition in hospitality especially at the dominant strategies of this study such as the enthusiastic and smiling behavior and the establishment of good personal relations with hotel owners and tour operators.In terms of further research, it would be useful for human resource practitioners to understand if careers strategies are primarily a function at the individual level of individual personality traits and characteristics, or at the organizational level, organizational structures and opportunities. Attempts to match personality characteristics with available career opportunities could be a way of ensuring satisfactory career development that benefits both the individual and the organization.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore career strategies used by Greek hotel managers in order to advance their careers successfully.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using a case study sample of 65 hotel general managers working in deluxe hotels in Greece, data on career strategies were collected using a postal questionnaire.\nFindings: - It is revealed that the managers use a range of different strategies in order to advance their careers. The most commonly used are in relation to career opportunities, skills, mobility, interpersonal relations and handling diverse situations. The least commonly used ones relate to family contacts, job search techniques and pay.\nPractical implications: - The strategies are discussed in terms of recruitment, training and retention of managers in the hotel industry.\nOriginality/value: - This paper builds on the knowledge of careers strategies used for career success.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A study of male participation in early childhood education: Perspectives of school stakeholders
|
[
"Hong Kong",
"Gender",
"Professionalization",
"Equality",
"Chinese kindergarten",
"Male teacher"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Female predominance in school teaching has long been a global phenomenon. The issue of gender imbalances in the teaching profession has been the concern of governments in many counties (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 2005). In general, the percentage of women teachers is highest at early childhood education (ECE) level. This global phenomenon is closely related to the value of ECE, the social status of women, and cultural definitions of masculinity (Drudy, 2008). \"Men are breadwinners; women are homemakers.\" This saying has been deeply rooted in Chinese societies where men play a dominant role in many aspects of life. It would seem that culture plays a large role in defining masculinity and femininity in a social context. Historically perceived as an extension of mothering (Ho, 2006), ECE in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, can be understood as a good example of the low male participation in the teaching profession. Since 1997 the local government has introduced policies to improve the service quality of kindergartens (Chan and Chan, 2003). The investment in teacher education has been rapidly increased over the last decade. Upgrading the qualification of kindergarten teachers has been used as a means to professionalize the teaching workforce. Kindergarten teachers are required to obtain a two-year higher diploma in ECE and principals to receive a bachelor degree by 2012. The public perception of the role and functions of ECE has shifted from mothering to nurturing child development in recent years (Ho and Tikly, 2012). The social image of kindergarten teachers in the local context has changed. Teaching in ECE has become more attractive to men who are interested in educating young children. In spite of these changes, the public has concerns over whether kindergartens should employ male teachers. Some people regard taking care of young children only to be suitable for females, as it relates to a mother's role. Thus, men are not suited for teaching responsibilities in kindergartens. However, others think that males can play important roles in ECE and should be employed in kindergartens. The gender balance in teaching has a significant effect on the quality of education (Lyons et al., 2003; Sakellariou and Rentzou, 2007). What are the perspectives of kindergarten principles, teachers and parents on the employment of male teachers in kindergartens in Hong Kong? What roles do they perceive that male teachers can play in educating young children? These questions need to be addressed in the process of professionalization. Relatively little is known about male participation in ECE in a Chinese context. This paper explores the perspective of school stakeholders on male participation in the local settings of a sample of Hong Kong kindergartens where teaching in ECE has become more attractive to men who are interested in educating young children. A local kindergarten was selected for the study. Though the results of the case study cannot be generalized to the whole picture of male participation in ECE in Hong Kong, it does shed some light on the latest developments. This study also establishes a platform for future studies focussing on male participation in ECE in Chinese societies.\n2. Male participation in ECE: This section provides a review of the relevant literature and research to lay the foundation for discussion. The teaching profession in ECE has long been dominated by women, both in the west and the east. Low social status is the main reason why relatively few men choose teaching (Drudy et al., 2005). In the USA, the National Education Association survey (2006) showed that more men than women stated that salary is a significant factor in them pursuing other careers than teaching. Women who enter the fields that are traditionally dominated by men are perceived by the public to be stepping-up; while men who choose to work in traditionally female professions are regarded as stepping-down (Williams, 1992). Recent studies of gender roles critically analyze the patterns of gender variations in the teaching profession and present debates on the impact of feminization on learning (Fu, 2000; Gray and Leith, 2004; Haywood et al., 2005). Adopting a psychological perspective, MacNaughton and Newman (2001) suggest that involving males in ECE not only provides children with a male role model, but also cultivates the modern concept of gender roles. It helps children to learn that males are not only brave, crude, strong and resilient, but also have a side that is gentle, considerate, caring and understanding, which helps to break the arbitrary gender role of traditional culture. Because of the innate personality traits of males, there are special features when they design games, such as relay races and model war games, which are liked by young children. Therefore, with male teachers, young children not only get to fulfill the need for physical exercise, but also have psychological enjoyment. This is very important for the psychological development of young children (Lin, 2004). According to this argument, male teachers are more able than female teachers to respond effectively to boys, because they have a better understanding of boys' perspectives and experiences (Jensen, 1998). A study conducted by Mancus (1992) found that elementary school children who were taught by male teachers were more likely to demonstrate non-stereotyping attributions than those children who were not. Moreover, Sumsion (2000) emphasizes that there are different gender roles and personality traits of males and females, and young children need to experience caregivers of both genders to get a balance. Li (2007) also points out that it is easy for girls to find role models in kindergartens, where most of the teachers are female. Consequently, girls display behaviors that are more in accordance with female teachers' expectations, and being praised reinforces their obedient personalities. This can make girls more feminine and encourage them to conform to the existing sex stereotype. Since there has been a lack of male teachers in kindergartens as role models for boys, boys tend to be \"weak and timid, not generous enough, some of whom even have the tendency of being feminine\" (Sumsion, 2000, p. 138). This implies that male role models are important for the personality development of young children.\n3. Research methodology: The primary aim of this study is to explore the views of school principals, teachers and parents on male participation in kindergartens in Hong Kong. The initial intention for the study was to focus on schools in which male teachers were employed. However, there are very few kindergartens employing male teachers, as males constitute only 1.2 percent of the ECE workforce in Hong Kong in 2012. The study therefore had to draw on a sample kindergarten which did not employ any male teachers. Purposive sampling was used in selecting the case study school. There were two criteria of selection. First, the kindergarten was chosen because the various school stakeholders including kindergarten principal, head teacher, teachers and parents were willing to participate, so that the views of the research participants who were in different positions could be captured. The rationale was that the set of values, beliefs, attitudes and behavior patterns are often associated with a particular social position in an organization (Hallinger and Leithwood, 1998). Second, the kindergarten was chosen because foreign teachers were employed there. As the employment of male teachers is a gender issue, the views of foreign teachers might provide an understanding of male participation in ECE from a cultural perspective. Consequently, the study drew on a sample kindergarten which did not employ any male teachers but employed foreign teachers and where the various stakeholders were willing to participate. There are several limitations in the research methods used in the study. First, a single case study was used in the research design, so the results cannot be generalized to the whole of ECE in Hong Kong. Second, semi-structured interviews were mainly used for data collection. This limited the possibilities for the triangulation of sources of data in the study. Under these circumstances, cross-references between the responses of the research participants were made to see whether there were any internal inconsistencies and gaps in what the researchers had been told. Third, as the sample kindergarten does not employ any male teachers, the opinions of research participants can only be understood as a proposed explanation for a hypothetical situation. Therefore, their responses should be regarded as statements about the potential employment of male teachers rather than their actual employment. Despite the limitations imposed by selecting a sample kindergarten which does not employ any male teachers, the views of the participants does shed some light on the issues associated with male participation in ECE in Hong Kong. Indeed, it could be argued that the views of the school principal, teachers and parents in kindergartens where no males are employed are more important in understanding any barriers to the employment of males than attitudes in kindergartens where males are already employed. Having acknowledged the limitations of this study, future research would be improved by using a sample of kindergartens which employ male teachers, if such a sample could be found for the case study.\n4. Results and analysis: The interviews with different stakeholders revealed that 23 (i.e. 82 percent) of them supported the idea of hiring male teachers, while five (i.e. 18 percent) were against it. Among the 20 school staff, 18 (including 12 Chinese and six foreign teachers) supported the idea of hiring male teachers, while two Chinese teachers were against it. Of the eight parents, five supported hiring male teachers, while three (including one male parent and two female parents) were against it (see Table I).\n5. Discussion: In general, the majority of the school stakeholders in the study (i.e. 23 out of 28 interviewees) supported hiring male teachers in kindergartens. They thought that male teachers could act as gender role models for young children, which is important for personality development in the early stage of childhood. To some extent, this finding is consistent with the study of MacNaughton and Newman (2001) (cited in Section 2) that involving males in ECE provides children with a male role model and cultivates the modern concept of gender roles as well. The research participants who supported the hiring of male teachers in kindergartens also recognized that male teachers could complement the work of female teachers in educating young children. This finding is similar to that of the study conducted by Lin in 2004 (cited in Section 2), which found that the collaboration of teachers of both genders makes the psychological development of young children more rounded. In particular, all staff members who had obtained a higher level of professional training (i.e. Certificate of Education or bachelor degree) welcomed the ideas of hiring male teachers, while only two teaching staff that had lower professional qualifications rejected the idea. The findings revealed that professional training may be a positive influence on attitude change. In terms of their position in the school, all staff members at the senior and middle management level supported hiring male teachers. This is a positive factor for changing existing practice for hiring male teachers in kindergartens. All the foreign teachers in the study maintained that male teachers could play a key role in educating young children, as female teachers do. The findings indicate that teachers from Western countries might possess the cultural value of gender equality. In addition to the support of management, the positive influence of foreign teachers could be another factor conducive to hiring male teachers in local kindergartens. On the other hand, the views of parents who participated in the study were divided. Three out of eight parents did not support hiring male teachers. Five of the total supported hiring male teachers but expressed concern about whether male teachers were appropriate for taking physical care of young children. Implicitly, the parents who participated in the interviews worried about the potential for sexual abuse. In reality, if young children need procedures in place to protect them from abuse by males, then they need the same procedures in place to protect them from abuse by females. This reflects gender bias on the part of parents. The reason for making it difficult for men to enter/remain in the teaching profession in the local ECE sector is in line with the argument of Rentzou and Ziganitidou (2009) (cited in Section 2) relating to the stereotypes about those male teachers. The study indicates that only a few of the teaching staff (i.e. two out of 20 interviewees) did not support hiring male teachers, while the parents had a greater gender bias. There are implications for both school management and parent education.\n6. Some final thoughts: Relatively little effort has been devoted to seeking the perspectives on male participation in ECE held by school principals, teachers and parents in a Chinese context. This study attempts to explore this area through a case study of a kindergarten in Hong Kong, a mixture of western daily living and traditional Chinese culture. Though the results of this study cannot be generalized to the whole field of male participation in local ECE sector, it does shed some light on the latest developments at a time when teaching in local kindergartens has become more attractive to men who are interested in educating young children. Male participation in ECE has therefore attracted the attention of the public. Lyons et al. (2003) argue that the involvement of male teachers in ECE is beneficial for the personality development of young children and can increase the social status of the teaching profession. Therefore, efforts need to be made to change the attitude of school stakeholders toward the employment of male teachers in kindergartens in Hong Kong. The school management should help their teaching staff to see the importance of male teachers in the socialization and the personality development of young children, and facilitate collaboration between male and female teachers. This would enable female teachers to overcome gender bias through day-to-day interactions. Moreover, male teachers are usually good at game design, computer education and information technology. The school management might consider providing opportunities for male teachers to use their talent and knowledge to complement the work of female teachers. In order to change the parents' attitudes toward the gender roles of teachers, the school management might need to educate their parents. In addition, as parents worry about the potential for sexual abuse when male teachers take physical care of young children, the school management might take that into consideration when allocating duties, for example by providing support staff to assist male teachers when helping young children to go to the toilet. This arrangement would be a first move that might help parents accept male teachers working in kindergartens. As Sargent (2004) argues, overcoming the low participation of male teachers in ECE will require changes in deeply rooted institutional practices.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The function of early childhood education (ECE) has shifted from mothering to nurturing child development in Hong Kong. Teaching in kindergartens seems to be more attractive to men nowadays. The purpose of this paper is to explore the issues of male participation in ECE through a case study of a local kindergarten.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A case study methodology was used in the research design and the data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The interviewees all came from a single, case study school, and included the kindergarten principal, head teacher, teachers, both Chinese and foreign nationals, and parents.\nFindings: The findings of the study indicated that most of the school staff support hiring male teachers in kindergartens and perceive that male teachers play an important role in educating young children. On the other hand, the views of parents who participated in the study were divided. This reflects gender bias on the part of parents.\nOriginality/value: Minimal research on male participation in kindergartens has been conducted in Hong Kong. The findings of the study shed some light on the issues of male participation in ECE in a Chinese context. It is argued that overcoming the low participation of male teachers in ECE will require changes in deeply rooted institutional and management practices. From a wider perspective, providing better career prospects and improving the professional status of kindergarten teachers will attract more men to teach in kindergartens.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Friends with benefits: Can firms benefit from consumers' sense of community in brand Facebook pages?
|
[
"Facebook",
"Social media",
"Brand community",
"Sense of belonging"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Social media create even more opportunities for marketers to engage with their customers and for customers to engage with each other - in ways that benefit the brand (de Vries et al., 2012; Muk and Chung, 2014; Shamari and Schaefers, 2015) and these opportunities extend brands' global reach (Okazaki and Taylor, 2013). However, simply \"liking\" a brand by clicking on a \"like\" button is not the same as interacting with a brand and its brand community, as expressed by \"following\" a brand in social media (Logan, 2014). For meaningful consumer engagement, it has to go beyond a mere \"liking\" (Naylor et al., 2012). Therefore, \"following\" a brand through its Facebook site is the important stage that permits the individual to join the brand community, and to start to contribute to such a community (Logan, 2014).\nTheoretical background: The development of computer-mediated communication formats provides a myriad of ways for individuals to initiate and maintain social relations in pursuit of belonging. Facebook brand pages provide one such example. Zaglia (2013) reports that Facebook brand pages have all the characteristics of brand communities. Firstly, the consciousness of a kind, which indicates a feeling of belonging. Members, therefore, often derive a sense of belonging from their membership of the brand community (Algesheimer et al., 2005). Secondly, a sense of moral responsibility can develop, and finally, a common thread can be found that helps to unite the community members.\nCountry selection: Wilson et al. (2012) argue that the broad composition of Facebook users provides a remarkably useful opportunity to examine trends both within and across countries. However, a review by the same authors revealed that although many articles have explored social media and Facebook trends within developed countries, even basic comparisons of samples across countries were rare. Additionally, the behavioural data gathered from Facebook are well-suited to explore cultural differences and to compare trends across groups.\nMethod: Procedures and sampling\nResults: Sample characteristics\nDiscussion and implications: In the age of social media, everything is about community building and gaining customers' engagement with the community and the brand. Successful marketing strategies mean exploring and seizing the opportunities of social network environments, presented in online brand communities such as Facebook brand pages. As a result, this study investigated antecedents and outcomes from a sense of belonging to a social media community, comparing consumers in Australia with those in South Africa.\nConclusion: In conclusion, although social networks can be integrated with other traditional marketing channels, unlike traditional media that often need to be adjusted to a particular country or culture, it seems as if social media users are more homogeneous and global in nature. It is evident that there is a movement towards a more globalised Facebook consumer, as is evidenced in the similar results obtained for four of the eight hypotheses in Australia and South Africa. Such findings support the notions of Facebook being a multi-cultural marketplace (Demangeot et al., 2015) and hosting global consumers in their social media communities (Pookulangara and Koesler, 2011). As such, the findings suggest that a more homogeneous approach could work well for international brand marketers when developing content and posting strategies for their brand's Facebook pages. In conclusion, our study suggests that Facebook is becoming a truly virtual multicultural marketplace, regardless of the variation in consumers or countries' technology readiness, infrastructural limitation or uneven retail conditions, as suggested in Rippe et al. (2015) and Tanusondjaja et al. (2015).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This two-country comparative study's purpose is to investigate antecedents to, and the consequences of a sense of belonging to a firm's Facebook community.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The model was grounded in the theory of sense of community and tested through structural equation modelling. Consumer panels were used via online surveys.\nFindings: Of the three antecedents hypothesised to influence an individual's sense of belonging, enjoyment is a very strong predictor in both countries; while the credibility of posts was also a significant predictor for Australia, but not for South Africa. The findings also show no direct relationship between a sense of belonging and continuing behaviour. However, for both countries, there is a strong relationship between a sense of belonging and the involvement with firm offerings in Facebook; and that involvement is significant for the intention to continue engaging with firms through this social media environment.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings support the framing of the study, in the sense of community theory and enhance researchers' understanding of the role of a sense of belonging in moving visitors from simply clicking \"like\" to a deeper sense of engagement with the firm's social media community and the flow-on effect to managerial relevant outcomes.\nOriginality/value: The model is developed from the theory of sense of belonging, thus providing a fresh perspective to this research context. Additionally, there is limited research into the psycho-social antecedents and the outcomes of consumers' sense of belonging to a firm's Facebook community.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Repurchase intention of Korean beauty products among Taiwanese consumers
|
[
"Marketing",
"Taiwan",
"Repurchase intention",
"Korea",
"Beauty product",
"Structural equation model (SEM)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: \"Appearance rules the world\" (Johann Friedrich Von Schiller, 1759-1805). Attractive appearance is more important for women (Elder, 1969). It is common that people judge the first impression by outward appearance. Hence, people are willing to spend money on appearance-related products, which will enhance their self-concept and make them feel, look and smell good (Wan et al., 2001). People's concern with their appearance is not anything new, the history of cosmetics products spans at least 6,000 years of human history (Khraim, 2011).\nLiterature review: Global beauty market has been growing stably and has ability to be continuously growing even in some unfavorable economic conditions (Lopaciuk and Loboda, 2013). Although having being affected by the global economy crisis in 2008-2009, beauty product industry easily booms again in 2011. According to William Reed Business Media, the market researchers predict that the market will reach $630 billion in 2017.\nModel and hypotheses: Hellier et al. (2003) develop a general service sector model of RI by using a consumer theory to incorporate customer perceptions of equity and value and customer brand preference into an analysis to integrate RI. They find that customer RI is influenced by service quality, equity and value, customer satisfaction, past loyalty, expected switching costs and brand preference. We modify their model to the structural model illustrated in Figure 1 to test consumer RI.\nResearch method: Instrument development\nResult and findings: Demographic analysis\nConclusion: The tests of hypotheses in this research examine three factors (PP, COO, and WOM) that influence consumer's RI. This study identifies the factors to be basic consideration for consumers in repurchasing cosmetics products. Our findings support the selection of Taiwanese consumers for Korean Cosmetics products is a good choice because all the statistics suggests that our hypothesized model fits the data very well. We discuss our conclusion for each of our hypothesis one by one in the following.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to bridge the gap in the literature to examine key factors that influence Taiwanese consumers to repurchase Korean beauty products.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses a quantitative approach to test the proposed hypotheses using structural equation modeling. Causal research design is used in this research to identify cause-and-effect relationship among the constructs. Primary data collection is used to gather data. This study provides the better understanding about key factors that influence Taiwanese consumers' repurchase intention (RI) of Korean cosmetics products.\nFindings: Results show that perceived price (PP) and country of origin (COO) significantly influence word-of-mouth (WOM). PP, COO and WOM significantly influence RI. WOM is the most influential variable toward RI, followed by COO and PP.\nOriginality/value: Very few studies have examined a general construct of RI related to beauty product. The findings of this study imply several practical directions for marketers of beauty product industries specifically for Taiwanese consumers. This study helps to know what factors become basic consideration for Taiwanese consumers in repurchasing Korean beauty products. Second, it underscores the role of WOM between the independent variables (PP and COO) and RI as the dependent variable.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
How do an alliance firm's strategic orientations drive its knowledge acquisition? Evidence from Sino-foreign alliance partnership
|
[
"Market orientation",
"Knowledge acquisition",
"Entrepreneurial orientation",
"Contract control",
"Sino-foreign alliance partnerships",
"Trust control"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Existing literature suggests that firms in emerging markets typically acquire knowledge from firms in developed countries to strengthen competitiveness, accelerate internationalization and enhance performance (Jones et al., 2003; Bonaglia et al., 2007; Gaffney et al., 2016; Li et al., 2011; Liu and Giroud, 2016). The scope of knowledge acquired may contain knowledge about market development, new products or services, and managerial knowledge in operation and production, firm management, and inter-firm relationship management (Lyles and Salk, 2007). Since organizational knowledge is internally embedded within each organizational process and \"cannot be easily blueprinted and exchanged through market transactions\" (Muthusamy and White, 2005), firms in emerging markets are striving to acquire valuable and scarce knowledge through establishing strategic alliances with advanced foreign enterprises (Chen et al., 2016).\nTheory background and conceptual model: Knowledge acquisition in a strategic alliance refers to a firm's learning of production, process, technology, management, and like skills from its partner in a strategic alliance partnership (Lyles and Salk, 2007). According to organizational learning theory, a firm is a knowledge system, and the process of acquiring and creating knowledge through inter-organizational learning is the source of a firm's sustainable competitive advantage (Grant, 1996). Numerous studies in strategic alliance literature suggest that often one of the most important goals for a firm involved in an alliance partnership is to acquire various skills and/or knowledge from its partners (Dyer and Nobeoka, 2000; Easterby-Smith et al., 2008). Compared with large firms, small- and medium-sized firms are more likely to rely on business partners other than universities and related R&D enterprises for knowledge acquisition (Zubielqui et al., 2015). Among the various types of knowledge, acquire of technical know-how might achieve faster while transfers of knowledge in management concept, operation and culture needs a relatively longer period (Nonaka, 1994).\nHypotheses development: Strategic orientation and control mechanisms\nMethodology: Sample and data collection\nResults: Table VI shows the path relationships using structural equation modeling (SEM). The indexes indicate that the data fits the model (chi-square/df = 1.353, under 3.0; RMSEA = 0.045, under 0.05; AGFI = 0.826, over 0.80; NFI = 0.901, NNFI = 0.959; IFI = 0.972 and CFI = 0.971, over 0.90 respectively). The relationship between EO squared and contract control is significantly negative (b = -0.066, p < 0.1) while the relationship between EO and contract control is not significant (b = -0.476, p > 0.1), suggesting an inverted U-shaped relationship between EO and contract control and thus providing support for H1. Meanwhile, the relationship between EO and trust control is significantly positive (b = 0.601, p < 0.05), which provides strong support for H2. For MO, the relationship between EO and contract control is significantly positive (b = 0.195, p < 0.01), providing strong support for H3. Additionally, the relationship between MO squared and trust is not significant (b = 0.220, p > 0.1), while the correlation between MO squared and trust is significantly negative (b = -0.051, p < 0.01), suggesting an inverted U-shaped relationship between MO and trust control and lending support for H4. Finally, the correlation between contract control and knowledge acquisition (b = -0.367, p < 0.1) and the relationship between contract control squared and knowledge acquisition are both significantly negative (b = -0.059, p < 0.001), which indicates the inverted U-shape between these two factors and thus provides strong support for H5. Moreover, the relationship between trust control and knowledge acquisition is significantly positive (b = 0.256, p < 0.01), providing strong support for H6.\nConclusion and discussion: This study extends the existing literature by examining how a Chinese firm's strategic orientation impacts its knowledge acquisition from foreign partners through use of control mechanisms. Using data gathered from 198 Chinese firms engaged in Sino-foreign alliances with foreign partners, we find that both moderate and high levels of EO can promote Chinese firms' knowledge acquisition from foreign alliance partners, while only a moderate level of MO is appropriate for accelerating Chinese firms' knowledge acquisition from foreign alliance partners. Further, contract helps to stimulate knowledge acquisition only when it is used at a proper level, while trust is conductive for knowledge acquisition in any degree.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate how a Chinese firm's strategic orientation impact its knowledge acquisition from its foreign alliance partners through governance mechanisms used in the Sino-foreign alliance partnership.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research first proposes an integrated model which links a firm's strategic orientations (entrepreneurial and market orientations), governance mechanism (contract and trust controls), and its knowledge acquisition together. Then, this research collected data from 198 Chinese firms involved in Sino-foreign alliances to test the conceptual model.\nFindings: For entrepreneurial-oriented alliance firms, a moderate level of contract and a high level of trust are the most efficient uses of control mechanisms for Chinese firms' knowledge acquisition. In comparison, for market-oriented alliance firms, both contract and trust control mechanisms should be used at the moderate level to achieve maximum knowledge acquisition from their foreign partners.\nOriginality/value: By introducing a new antecedent for the choice of control mechanisms in the context of Sino-foreign alliance relationships, this study empirically finds a non-linear relationship between contract control and knowledge acquisition and confirms the significant role of trust in facilitating knowledge acquisition between alliance partners from the perspective of alliance firms in emerging markets.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Explaining the premium to NAV in publicly traded Australian REITs, 2008-2018
|
[
"Australian REITs",
"Developer REITs",
"Gearing ratio",
"Premium to NAV"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The Australian-listed property market has been a leading player in global real estate markets over the past decades. The history of listed Australian Real Estate Investment Trusts (A-REITs) can be traced back to 1971 when the first A-REIT was listed, and today there are 43 REITs trading on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) with a total market capitalisation of approximately $162bn[1]. The market is one of the most developed REIT markets in the world (Stevenson and Dimovski, 2014), experienced tremendous growth and investor interest following the crash of unlisted property funds in mid-1990s, and consistently outperformed common stocks until the September 2008 financial crisis (Yong and Singh, 2013).\nA review of literature on REIT Premium/Discount to NAV: The discount (or premium) to NAV in REIT pricing has been widely studied in many countries with a focus on the US and the European countries. The discount to NAV is often referred to as the \"closed-end fund puzzle\" (Lee et al., 1991; Malkiel, 1995) and has been studied on numerous occasions. It has generally been argued that REITs, as a whole, are undervalued as REIT share prices are too low relative to NAV per share. This section summarises several empirical studies that have used two most common approaches, namely, the traditional and the noise trader approaches to explain NAV discounts in REIT markets. Second, the section presents a review of the latest studies on the A-REIT market to review the current knowledge of the A-REIT market.\nData and the model variables: This section describes data sources and the model variables used in our study. We use Thomson Reuters Eikon database to perform cross-sectional and time series analysis of NAV premiums (or discounts) for 42 A-REITs listed on the ASX during the 2008-2018 period. While 18 out of 42 A-REITs are trading in the S&P/ASX 200 A-REIT Index, the remaining 24 A-REITs are trading in the ASX all ordinary shares index[5]. Our NAV-based REIT pricing model variables are computed from the semi-annual data set, with the longest time period from June 2008 to June 2018 (i.e. 21 observations). The whole sample period covers both the GFC period of September 2008 and the after-GFC recovery period in the Australian economy and real estate markets.\nData analysis and empirical findings: After Japan, Australia has the second largest and most developed REIT market in the Asia Pacific. The Australian-listed property market, commonly represented by the S&P/ASX 200 A-REIT Index, is comprised of 18 A-REIT companies that own property and derive a significant proportion of income from rental returns. Figure 1 displays the end-of-month values for the ASX All ordinaries index and S&P/ASX 200 A-REIT index between December 1999 and March 2009. Both the Australian stock market (ASX All Ordinaries Index) and REIT market (S&P/ASX 200 A-REIT Index) reached their peak values in September 2007 and then experienced sharp declines up until March 2009. While the stock market recorded 46.3 per cent decline during the September 2007-March 2009 period, the A-REIT market experienced a sharper decline of 73.1 per cent over the same period. After the bottom end in March 2009, A-REITs have recovered faster than the stock market and recorded a 127 per cent cumulative increase from March 2009 to March 2019, whereas the ASX All Ordinaries Index increased by 74 per cent in this period.\nConcluding remarks: The listed property market in Australia has experienced higher volatility than other asset classes over the last two decades with the most significant turning point being the GFC of 2008-2009. High levels of borrowing incurred during the sector's boom phase from 2001 to 2007 eroded the value of A-REITs during the GFC (Yong and Singh, 2013), when S&P/ASX 200 A-REIT index stocks experienced an average 47 per cent stock price discount to NAV. In the three years after the crash, the A-REIT market experienced a strong recovery as A-REIT stocks bounced back robustly and continued to trade at significant premium to NAV. The main reasons behind this rapid recovery are the low interest rate environment driving down the cost of debt, falling bond yields, and rising property prices. As major beneficiaries of the low interest rates and significant growth in foreign capital into Australian property market A-REITs have performed well through acquisition of impaired assets and rising rental rates. This paper explores both the levels and determinants of NAV premiums or discounts for the A-REIT industry and its sub-sectors of office, retail, industry, residential and specialty property stocks during the last decade.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the levels and determinants of net asset value (NAV) premiums/discounts for publicly traded Australian Real Estate Investment Trust (A-REIT) market during the last decade. A-REITs were severely affected by the global financial crisis as S&P/ASX 200 A-REIT index-listed property stocks experienced 47 per cent discount to NAV, on average, in 2008-2009 crisis. Since 2013, A-REIT sector has exhibited a strong recovery from the financial crisis and traded at high premiums to date. Understanding the relationship between pricing in the public and private real estate markets has taken on great importance as A-REITs continue to trade at significant premium to NAV unlike their counterparts in the USA and Europe.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper follows a rational approach to explain variations in NAV premiums and explores the company-specific factors such as liquidity, financial leverage, size, stock price volatility and portfolio diversification behind the A-REIT NAV premiums/discounts. The study specifies and estimates a model of cross-sectional and time variation in premiums/discounts to NAV using semi-annual data for a sample of 40 A-REITs over the 2008-2018 period.\nFindings: The results reveal that A-REIT premiums to NAV can be explained not only by the liquidity benefit of listed property stocks but also positive financial leverage effect. During the past decade, A-REITs have followed an aggressive approach in financing their growth by using borrowed funds to purchase assets as the income from the property offsets the cost of borrowing and the risk that accompanies it. Debt-to-equity ratio has to be considered as an important source of NAV premiums as highly geared A-REITs that favoured debt financing over equity financing traded at significant premiums to NAV of their underlying real estate assets.\nPractical implications: The paper includes implications for the REIT market investors. The regression analysis shows that specialty A-REITs with a focus on creative market niches traded at higher premiums compared with other property stocks, especially in the post-GFC recovery period. Specialty REITs are more highly valued by the market than their traditional specialised counterparts (e.g. office and retail REITs), and those pursuing a diversified strategy.\nOriginality/value: This paper presents an Australian case study as the A-REIT market provides a suitable environment for testing the effect of financial gearing on the REIT premium to NAV. The study provides empirical evidence supporting the importance of debt-to-equity ratio in explaining the variation in A-REIT NAV premiums.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Consumers' expenditures and perceived price fairness
|
[
"Prices",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Greece"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Theorists in the field of economics, psychology and other social sciences stress the need for enriching the explanatory power of economic theory with more comprehensive views and assumptions about human behavior (Ackerman, 2002; Tversky and Kahneman, 1986; Wolozin, 2002). One of the most pervasive views regarding human behavior is fairness underlying people's transactions. To the extent that fairness affects economic phenomena, Baumol (1982) suggests that the fairness criterion can be operationalized and applied to concrete problems in order to \"derive results which are not all obvious in advance\" (Baumol, 1982, p. 650). A growing body of literature is dedicated to this issue. The economists' focus is on incorporating fairness into the economic theory and generating stylized facts regarding the effects of the notion of fairness upon individuals' choices (Karni and Safra, 2002; Rabin, 1993). On the other hand, psychologists emphasize the value construct of the notion of fairness and argue that human behavior may be best explained by analyzing the framework of options that are available to individuals (Carpenter, 2003; Tversky and Kahneman, 1986).The present paper analyses perceived price fairness as a variable causing treatment effects upon the level of observed consumers' expenditures. Consumers' expenditures are viewed as an allocation choice problem that is determined by their perceptions of price fairness underlying a specific transaction. Within that context, perceived price fairness is analyzed as an endogenous variable causing treatment effects to the consumers' expenditures equation. Fairness is acknowledged as one of the reasons why individuals undertake certain actions (Maital, 2004). Nonetheless, fairness is also acknowledged as an extremely complex construct that can take on a number of forms when analyzing individual decisions and actions (Rabin, 1993). As such, the present study utilizes consumers' definitions of fairness by means of reporting the price fairness that they themselves ascribe to a transaction. This draws from Piron's (1985) argument that fairness as the outcome of a value construct is asymmetrically related with a process whose optimality may directly be related to a logical construct. In that sense, the present study focuses on consumers' perceptions of price fairness regarding an observed outcome while acknowledging that reported perceptions subsume and weight an individually specified number of factors that affect fairness judgments.Given the above, the analysis undertaken here aims at analyzing perceptions of price fairness and consumers' expenditures as interrelated decisions. This way the effect of individually determined price fairness judgments upon observed consumers' expenditures may be more thoroughly analyzed. This approach provides an analytical framework that can be used to empirically test the widely acknowledged relationship between price fairness perceptions and economic transactions outcomes.Empirical analysis refers to consumers' expenditures on super markets which are assumed to depend upon individuals' fairness judgments underlying their transaction with a specific retailer. The hypothesis that perceptions of price fairness interact with consumers' decision on how much money to spend, if any, at a given provider can be tested with the use of a treatment effects model. The latter allows for the examination of self-selection procedures resulting from individuals' perceptions of price fairness. Empirical model results provide support to this hypothesis. Thus, the effect of price fairness perceptions upon the level of consumers' expenditures should not be measured as the effect of an independent variable on the dependent one. In other words, we cannot know whether the individuals would have realized the observed level of expenditures irrespectively of whether they considered the transaction as fair. Rather, results of the empirical model indicate that individuals' perceptions of fairness enhance the analysis of observed economic transactions outcomes.In addition, results indicate that price fairness judgments are mainly based on contextual variables, which relate to the framing of options that are available to individuals. On the other hand, the level of expenditures depends on both contextual variables and individual socio-economic characteristics. Empirical results support the hypothesis that consumers patronize retail stores and that they form their economic decisions regarding expenditures' allocation on the basis of contextual as well as socio-economic factors.\nConsumers' expenditures and the role of fairness: Theorizing consumers' expenditures as an allocation choice problem\nEmpirical application: model and case study: The model\nResults: Consistent estimates of the system of equations (5) and (7) were obtained using Barnow's et al. (1981), two step procedure of estimation. First, a probit equation was estimated for the variable capturing the treatment effects, that is the fairness variable, and the fitted values from this estimation were included as an instrumental variable in the two stage least square estimation of equation (5). Apart from correcting for the self-selection problem occurring in equation (5) estimation of the probit model for fairness presents an additional interest in providing information on how perceptions of price fairness per se are established. Thus, marginal effects have been estimated so as to measure the magnitude of the effect that the explanatory variables exercise upon the probability of consumers perceiving a transaction as price fair. Results are presented separately, first for the price fairness establishment equation and then for the consumers' expenditures equation.Results of the price fairness establishment equation\nDiscussion: The present study utilizes a treatment effects model that allows for the examination of self-selection procedures resulting from individuals' perceptions of fairness underlying their transaction with a specific retailer. The very satisfactory fit of the estimated model provides support to the hypothesis that consumers' perceptions of fairness should be treated as an endogenous variable in a consumers' expenditures equation. Thus, the effect of price fairness perceptions upon the level of consumers' expenditures should not be measured as the effect of an independent variable on the dependent one. In other words, we cannot know whether the individuals would have realized the observed level of expenditures irrespectively of whether or not they considered the transaction as fair. Thus, analysis of observed economic transactions outcomes should account for consumers' perceptions of fairness. Results also indicate that a positive relationship between individuals' perceptions of fairness and their level of expenditures may be inferred. Indeed, consumers will tend to spend more money when their transaction with a specific provider is perceived as fair. This finding is consistent with Rabin's (1993) stylized facts suggesting that individuals positively associate with someone who has been kind to them.In the context of the present study, perceptions of fairness refer to a consumer's judgment of the prices associated with the overall service that they are provided with that is the price of the transaction experienced. Regarding the factors affecting the construction of fairness judgments results indicate that these refer, mainly, to contextual variables. Age is the only socio-economic variable that affects positively, and significantly, the establishment of price fairness perceptions. Indeed, results of the fairness establishment equation indicate that contextual variables carry the bulk of explanatory power as regards price fairness judgments. Thus, variables such as the type of the store, availability of parking space, product offers and the ability to pay by credit cards, are the prime determinants of perceived fairness. This finding challenges the succinct assumption of mainstream economic theory suggesting that preferences are given and fixed and any preferential differences may be subsumed to socio-economic indicators. Rather, preferences are transactionally formed and thus this finding is consistent with studies emphasizing the importance of situational variables in both theory (Guerin, 2003; Stikkers, 2003) and experimental/empirical analysis (Foxall, 1999; Oliveira-Castro, 2003).Regarding the factors affecting the level of consumers' expenditures results of the consumers' expenditures equation indicate that fairness judgments and contextual variables may well complement the explanatory power of typical socio-economic indicators. Contextual variables may provide new insights on the economic phenomenon under study. On the other hand, including fairness as a self-selection mechanism allows heterogeneity in human value constructs and beliefs to enter the analysis of consumers' behavior. Thus, a more comprehensive analytical framework might be provided that greatly improves the analytical validity of empirical investigations aiming at interpreting real-world economic behavior (Foxall, 2003).\nConclusion and implications: The present study analyzes price fairness perceptions as an endogenous variable determining the outcome of a consumers' allocation problem. The analytical approach used here allows for more thorough insights regarding the effect of price fairness perceptions upon the dynamics underlying human decision-making. Thus, we cannot know whether an observed outcome would have realized irrespectively of whether the individuals hold positive or negative fairness perceptions. Also, the role of context in human decision-making processes is analyzed.The small cross-sectional sample utilized in the present study may be viewed as a limitation. However, the very satisfactory fit of the estimated empirical model, supporting the hypothesis examined here, allows for the empirical findings to be a useful basis for future research comparisons. Indeed, the analytical approach proposed here allows for human values, like perceptions of fairness, to enter the analysis of economic actions and decisions that are traditionally analyzed under more strict frameworks. Such an approach may be used for empirical investigation of other aspects of consumers' behavior in order to enhance the analytical power of survey research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To analyze the role of price fairness perceptions as a construct underlying individuals' transactions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper formulates and empirically tests the hypothesis that price fairness perceptions endogenously determine consumers' expenditures decisions. Economic transactions are viewed as an allocation choice problem with fairness perceptions being an endogenous variable determining problem outcome. A treatment effects model is utilized, allowing for the analysis of the effects that price fairness perceptions exercise upon both the consumers' decision to realize a transaction as well as upon their consequent level of spending.\nFindings: - Consumers do patronize stores and one important variable determining their level of spending is their perceptions of fairness underlying the transaction with a specific provider.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The small usable questionnaire sample may be considered as a limitation. However, the very satisfactory fit of the estimated model allows for the results to be a comparison basis with future findings.\nPractical implications: - Analysis of price fairness perceptions provides new insights regarding consumer behavior, enhancing the analytical validity of typical household demand models.\nOriginality/value: - Analysis allows for price fairness perceptions to enter a consumer's expenditures equation usually expressed in terms of socio-economic indicators.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Modifying the cash conversion cycle: revealing concealed advance payments
|
[
"Working capital",
"Advance payment",
"Cash conversion cycle",
"Financial supply chain management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The processes and performance of companies need to be measured in order to manage them successfully (Kohlbacher and Gruenwald, 2011). The efficient management and new improvements in processes require specific measurements that give detailed information to managers and researches (Schlafke et al., 2012). The information needed is diverse and therefore also the single measurements and measurement systems are different. Managers need information, in practice measurements, which identify the nodes of the processes which affect the performance of the companies (Mehrabad et al., 2011). The information provided by the measurement system enables that the processes or management procedures can be improved (MacBryde et al., 2012).\n2. Measuring of working capital in the academic literature: Working capital management is problematic, as it involves different departments in a company and can be viewed from different aspects (Farris and Hutchison, 2002). It is difficult to determine the optimal level of working capital, and working capital management is balancing between the risks related to a too low level of working capital and investments in current assets (Garcia-Terual and Martinez-Solano, 2007). The measures of working capital can be categorized into position measures, activity measures and leverage measures (Smith and Begemann, 1997).\n3. mCCC: In this section, we extend the traditional cycle time of working capital (CCC) to consider also advance payments, and introduce the mCCC. We argue that advance payments should be added to the calculation of the cycle time of operational working capital to reflect the real cash movements in a company and the efficiency of operations. Many companies have significant amounts of advance payments. The mCCC gives a more accurate view on the efficiency of working capital management in these companies. Advance payments can be seen as the operational items of working capital, such as accounts receivable and accounts payable. The mCCC visualizes the fact that prepayment is one term of payment, as any other trade credit term which determines the length of the cycle time of accounts receivable. Industries have very different practices in the utilization of advance payments. The CCC, which does not take prepayments into account, may offer faulty results about the efficiency of working capital management.\n4. Empirical testing: 4.1 Data\n5. Conclusions: This paper has introduced an extension to the widely used measure of working capital management, the CCC. The new measure, the mCCC makes it possible to add other components of working capital beside traditional DIO, DSO and DPO in the observation of efficient working capital management through a cycle time. The mCCC is demonstrated by adding the cycle time of advanced payments (DAO) to the cycle time of working capital. As an operational item of current liabilities, advanced payments should be considered when observing the efficiency of operational working capital management.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The cash conversion cycle (CCC) is widely used in the academic studies of working capital management and supply chain efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a modification of this measure that takes into account advance payments as a component of operational working capital.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A new measure, the modified cash conversion cycle (mCCC) is introduced and tested with empirical data of companies in Helsinki Stock Exchange.\nFindings: The mCCC reveals the real efficiency of operational working capital in companies that receive advance payments to a remarkable extent.\nResearch limitations/implications: The mCCC can be used in empirical analysis in academic studies. In this paper, the empirical data are used only for testing the mCCC. The paper concerns received advance payments, but the mCCC can also be extended also to other components of operational working capital ignored by the traditional CCC.\nPractical implications: The paper offers insights into the variations of CCC for class teachers, and business practitioners, particularly financiers, who deal with operational working capital, cash flow predictions and calculations.\nOriginality/value: There are current items that may have a remarkable effect on operational working capital, but traditionally only inventories, accounts receivable and accounts payable are discussed. The authors argue that also other current items should be taken into account, if they affect the efficiency of operational working capital. The new mCCC is encouraged to be used instead of the CCC when observing working capital management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Mood and stock returns: evidence from Greece
|
[
"Mood",
"Behavioural finance",
"Stock trading performance",
"C30",
"D14",
"G11",
"O16"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Traditional financial theories have been criticised in terms of their explanatory power and the validity of their assumptions (Takahashi and Terano, 2003). Barberis and Thaler (2005) claim that investors are not fully rational, in contrast to the traditional finance theories, which assume that investors make rational decisions in an attempt to maximise their expected returns (Siegel, 2007). In fact, some studies support that investors act in irrational way, in some of their investment decisions, and that financial models fail to explain investors' real behaviour (Kiyilar and Acar, 2009; Firat and Fettahoglou, 2011).\n2. Literature review: 2.1. Mood effects\n3. Research method: 3.1. Associations development\n4. Results: 4.1. Overall sample analysis\n5. Summary and conclusions: The aim of this research was to confirm whether mood is correlated with trading performance and, additionally, to understand the Greek investor profiles' and test if there are differences among them as far as their trading performance is concerned. The sample included 328 Greek individual investors and the survey examined the psychological predisposition to find whether mood affects stock performance over time.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of investors' emotional state (mood) on their trading behaviour and performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A sample from a representative survey of 328 Greek individual investors has been used to empirically test the validity of the proposed associations. An iterative data collection process was followed, where individual investors had to complete a questionnaire every time they were trading in the Athens Stock Exchange, for a period of ten months. Exploratory factor analysis was first used to analyse the data set, followed by cluster analysis (to identify investor profiles based on differences in their mood).\nFindings: Two clusters have been identified. The first cluster profile includes investors with high score of positive mood (thus, high energetic arousal and hedonic tone, low tense arousal and anger frustration), while the second profile consists of investors with negative mood (low energetic arousal and hedonic tone, high tense arousal and anger frustration). The comparison between the two profiles has shown that investors with positive mood achieve higher stock returns than investors with negative mood.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge there is no other similar study.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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