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Operational risk management and customer complaints: The role of product complexity as a moderator
|
[
"Product complexity",
"Customer complaints",
"Operational risk management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Customer complaints are a daily critical issue faced by banks. It is also one of the performance indicators in commercial banks, besides customer satisfaction and the number of new customers and appreciation letters (Rahim et al., 2018; Tlig and Hamed, 2018; Eklof et al., 2017; Ali and Raza, 2017). Complaint(s) is defined as the manifestation of displeasure toward companies, with the express goal of making the service/product provider acquainted with internal attitudes and experiences having adverse effects, which is expected to subsequently prompt them to alter the criticized behaviors. It can be created verbally or via a written statement. Dissatisfied customers provide managers with an avenue to understand critical issues and take remedial action to affect improvements (Knox and Van Oest, 2014; Faed and Forbes, 2010). From the perspective of service providers, complaints are crucial to affect the sustainability of the service provider; potentially minimize the consequences of negative reactions; and help service providers sustain their respective businesses. Perceived service failures experienced by customers are a major concern for service providers due to their potential (negative) influence on service outcome(s) (Tronvoll, 2008). The management may not know that customers are dissatisfied until they defect from the banks, at which point it is too late to take action (Kim et al., 2019). Banks cannot afford to lose customers because the cost of getting new ones is higher, which means that banks are expected to deal with customer complaints by implementing special programs for service recovery (Angelova and Zekiri, 2011). It is important that banks minimize customer complaints and avoid future service failures (Stevens et al., 2018).\n2. Operational risk management: Banks with higher levels of operational risk could potentially incur high levels of operating losses. Due to higher operational risk having the potential of creating losses, regulators have been forcing the banking industry to improve their respective operations (Ko et al., 2019). Operational risk management encompasses the mechanisms, tools, policies, procedures and processes, including management oversight, to identify, assess, monitor, report and control operational risks (Giannone, 2018). Taking into consideration the losses suffered in the previous years, financial institutions prioritized operational risk management to obtain higher capital profitability, better capital allocation, the avoidance of unanticipated losses, the avoidance of a big number of losses of small value, the improvement of the operational efficiency, increased attention for the operational risk during the banking management process, increase service quality for the clients and strive for efficient information and human resources management (Stulz, 2015; Nicoletta and Cornelia, 2007). Risk management activities in the banking sector guarantee that capital allocation is done in an effective and efficient manner. Risk management enables this by providing the tools and processes to determine the appropriate allocation of economic capital required to keep a bank solvent (Elliott, 2014).\n3. Customer complaints: Customers' confidence toward a bank is determined by service quality components such as the employee-customer relationship, as well as other qualities such as convenience and service-specific factors (e.g. competitive interest rates) (Ali et al., 2014). Managers should probably consider the value/contribution to customer satisfaction of each dimension of the total service offering, and allocate resources accordingly. When it comes to customer complaints, managers should attempt to \"get things right the first time.\" When a customer lodges a complain, satisfactory problem recovery will maintain satisfaction; however, switching intentions would inevitably increase. Unsatisfactory problem recovery leads to dramatic decrease in customer satisfaction and increased switching intentions. Improving customer satisfaction, and thereby retention rates, can come from a variety of activities available to the firm (Ahmed et al., 2001). Oly Ndubisi and Yin Ling (2006) stated that managers should understand that no complains is not a good measure of customer satisfaction because dissatisfied customers might not complain directly to them. Dissatisfied customers might choose to complain to friends and family instead. Thus, the management may not know that customers are dissatisfied until they defect from the bank, at which point it is too late for remedial action. Furthermore, Oly Ndubisi and Yin Ling (2006) suggested that managers should recognize the seriousness of negative word-of-mouth on the banks' reputation. The result showed that customers are more likely to complain discreetly to friends and relatives. In this case, potential customers could be influenced, and they too may develop a negative perception of the banks' services. Donoghue and de Klerk (2006) concluded that it is essential for retailers and manufacturers to understand how consumers understand and clarify unexpected negative outcomes, such as product failures. Wali and Nwokah (2017) revealed that the following emerging themes: tripartite collaboration, customer focus, customer sensitization and solicitation of customer experience feedback - are key for winning customers' trust and enhancing customer satisfaction while presenting opportunities for effective market competition.\n4. Operational risk management and customer complaints: One of the non-monetary performance indicators in a bank is managing its customer complaints, due to excellence in customer service being the most important tool for sustained business growth and is part of the business life of banks and any other organizations (Gambetta et al., 2015; Malyadri and Sirisha, 2012). Banks recognize the strategic significance of customer value and continuously seek innovative ways to enhance and improve customer relationships. Since customers have more choice and control, long-lasting and strong relationships with them are critical toward achieving and maintaining competitive advantages, and, as a consequence of this, earnings. However, due to the similarity of the products and services offered by banks, loyal customers are valuable, since they are likely to spend and buy more, spread positive word-of-mouth, resist competitors' offers, wait for a product to become available, and recommend their service provider to potential customers (Petruzzellis et al., 2008).\n5. Product complexity as the moderator: Product complexity can be defined as the design state resulting from the multiplicity, and relatedness between product architectural elements (Jacobs, 2007). This definition is shown in Figure 1.\n6. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework, as per Figure 2, was developed based on previous research. In this framework, operational risk management is the independent variable, while customer complaints and product complexity are the dependent and moderating variables.\n7. Methodology: This research used a set of survey instruments containing questionnaires to measure the variables in this study. Data were collected using self-administered survey questionnaires. This study was performed on local commercial banks in Malaysia. The target population of this study is 1,845 local conventional bank branches across Malaysia. The local banks are the eight anchor banks of Malaysia, which are RHB Bank Berhad, CIMB Bank Berhad, Maybank Berhad, Allianze Bank Berhad, Affin Bank Berhad, AM Bank Berhad, Hong Leong Bank Berhad and Public Bank Berhad. Since this study is in the context of Malaysia, the selected banks are regarded as suitable due to similarities in product type, internal control system, the exposure of operational risk, customer complaints, and are all governed by Bank Negara Malaysia. Table IV shows the banks and their corresponding branches, as per ABM Annual Report (2012).\n8. Results: 8.1 Factor analysis\n9. Discussion: Since operational risks are encountered in several areas of business operations, financial institutions are facing a continuous increase in related regulations. Therefore, the top management cannot abide by inefficient operational risks management because it may lead to fatal consequences (Rose, 2009) Operational risk should not be viewed solely in isolation as a divisional or a business specific issue. It is often helpful to designate a person at a senior level to drive the firm-wide management of operational risk. Regardless of a firms' attitude toward risk, managers will need the tools to help them determine the effectiveness of operational risk controls. The application of and extent of an organizations' controls may vary depending on its culture and attitude vis-a-vis risk tolerance. Line and senior managers, however, need to be consistent on the application of policies and processes. This is an important component of risk management, both to address pressing issues and to shape organizations' strategic direction over time. Organizations also need to provide managers with the appropriate incentives to continuously lessen their exposure to unwanted operational risk and to continue expanding their commitment toward operational risk management (International Association of Financial Engineers (IAFE), 2001). Understanding risk and risk management positively affect risk management practices (Rosman, 2009; Hassan Al-Tamimi and Mohammed Al-Mazrooei, 2007). Regardless of any measurement methodology the banks developed, effective management of operational risk requires an integrated approach to the development of staff skills and training, optimization of the business processes, development of a risk awareness culture and a technological infrastructure that allows financial institution to effectively process, monitor and manage businesses (Namazian and Eslami, 2011).\n10. The relationship between operational risk management on customer complaints: Based on the regression results, there are negative and positive significant relationships between perceived operational risk management and customer complaints. Out of the eight hypotheses, only two are negatively significant, while two are positively significant. In this relationship, the practice of hazard identification and formulation of implementation of risk control has a strong and significantly negative relationship with customer complaints.\n11. Product complexity moderates the relationship between operational risk management and customer complaints: This study found that product complexity, when interacting with perceived operational risk management, was able to explain an additional variance in customer complaints. Additional explanatory indicates that the moderating variable generally influences the relationship between perceived operational risk management and customer complaints. Therefore, product complexity does moderate the relationship between perceived operational risk management and customer complaints. Post-interaction, only one dimension in operational risk management is significant, which is analyzes of risk control measure. This finding supports the role of product complexity as a moderator, as outlined in Swaminathan (2003), Dubey et al. (2017), Eckstein et al. (2015), Dubey and Gunasekaran (2015), d'Astous and Guevremont (2008), Kuester and Buys (2009), Croitoru (2011) and Blome et al. (2014). Kuester and Buys (2009) stated that products with many attributes is highly complex and contains detailed information. Subsequently, the probability of information overload and customer confusion occurring exceeds the purchase situations characterized by low product complexity. The difference between the amounts of information in highly complex products vs simple products is that the level of complexity for the former is higher.\n12. Conclusion: This study contributed to literature by establishing and using a model to conceptualize the outcomes of operational risk management in the banking industry. It also used the resource-based view to explain the relationship between operational risk management and customer complaints and the moderating effects of product complexity on the relationship of operational risk management and customer complaints. Resource-based view indicated that firms need resources to realize a competitive edge among its competitors and increase performance (Grant, 1996). Resources include physical capital resources, human capital and organizational capital, which include firms' formal reporting structure, it is formal and informal planning, controlling, coordinating systems and informal relations among groups within a firm and between a firm and those in its environment (Barney, 1991). This study confirmed that the components of operational risk management, namely practice of hazard identification and formulation of implementation of risk control, as having a negative and significant relationship with customer complaints. Therefore, both components of operational risk management are important resources in minimizing customer complaints in conventional bank branches. Based on these results, the usage of the resource-based view theory in the banking industry, as well as the operational risk management as a bank resource was confirmed. This study presented its findings on the operational risk management among Malaysian conventional bank branches. Hence, the practical implications of this study can be used by the banking industry, such as Malaysian banks, BNM, IBBM, ABM and the Basel Committee. Operational risk management is important for many organizations, especially banks. The study found some negative and positive significant relationships between the perceived operational risk management and customer complaints. The dimensions of operational risk management that reported a negative and significant relationship with customer complaints include practice of hazard identification and formulation of implementation of risk control, while analyzing risk control measure and actual implementation of risk control has a positive and significant relationship with customer complaints. Thus, it is essential for the banks' management to identify the correlation between the operational risk management and customer complaints. The management can improve their existing policies/strategies for mitigating risks in the bank and enhance customer satisfaction in the context of services rendered by tellers, which is in line with the aspiration of BNM to make risk management the fundamental component in safeguarding assets and bank reputations.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between operational risk management and customer complaints. It also determines whether product complexity moderates the relationship between the operational risk management and customer complaints.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study utilizes a quantitative method: quantitative data were collected using a questionnaire. The population of this study is 1,845 local conventional bank branches based in Malaysia.\nFindings: The findings revealed that components of operational risk management, namely practice of hazard identification and formulation of implementation of risk control, have negative and significant relationships with customer complaints. Empirical evidence confirmed the moderating effects of product complexity on the relationship between operational risk management and customer complaints.\nOriginality/value: From the perspective of developing countries, the main contribution of this study is the elucidation of the effect of operational risk management on customer complaints in commercial banks in Malaysia. This study confirmed the usability of the resource-based view theory in the banking industry, as well as operational risk management as a bank resource.\n",
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Splurge purchases and materialism
|
[
"Consumer behaviour",
"Purchasing",
"Consumer goods",
"Emotional dissonance"
] |
[
{
"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: Recently, a Wall Street Journal article before Christmas began with a heading: \"The shopping splurge has begun\" (Merrick, 2005) and included a description of a woman trying to decide whether to splurge on $560, designer logo handbags for her two daughters who both had this bag at the top of their wish lists. In this instance, a consumer was considering splurging on two items to be given as Christmas presents. In another recent article, a psychologist encouraged consumers to design a plan to afford their splurges and contended that consumers who plan for an occasional indulgence are less apt to \"blow your budget with impulse buys later\" (Bigda, 2006, p. 86). Consumers classify some of their purchases as \"splurges\" and these include the purchase of special items, which could be an item from their own wish lists, purchases that others can share, and purchases to be given to others. There seems to be an ongoing, or at least occasional, struggle between consumers and their temptation to splurge. Exploring consumers' definitions and descriptions of their own splurge purchases may provide insights into better understanding what distinguishes consumer splurge purchases from other purchases. Understanding consumers' feelings and reflections of their past splurge may help marketers better understand how consumer splurges may impact consumers' willingness, timing and tendency to splurge again.The objective of this study is to gain a better understanding of consumers' perspectives on splurges. This study explores consumers' own definitions of a splurge and collects information on consumers' past splurge purchases and current feelings of this past splurge purchase. In addition, this study compares splurge purchases for high-materialism consumers and low materialism consumers.\nCharacterizations of purchases: One of the key objectives of this study was to hone in on better understanding consumers' own classifications of their purchases, and specifically the splurge purchase. Researchers have investigated various purchasing behaviors including both compulsive buying (O'Guinn and Faber, 1989) and impulsive buying. Compulsive buying has been viewed as a type of behavioral disorder because it is linked with a higher level of compulsivity (O'Guinn and Faber, 1989). More recently, Roberts and Pirog (2004) have suggested that compulsive buying is a function of one's personal goals, rather than a desire to reduce psychological tension, and consumers with goal systems centered on intrinsic goals are less likely to be compulsive buyers than are consumers whose goal systems are centered on extrinsic goals. Compulsive buying is unlike impulsive buying in that the compulsive buyer gets enjoyment from the process of buying as opposed to getting enjoyment from the item purchased. \"Impulse purchases occur while a person is in the store and involve rapid decision making\" (Kacen and Lee, 2002). The essence of impulsive buying centers on the spontaneity of the purchase. Both environmental (e.g., retail atmospheric cues) and consumers' current mood states (e.g., positive feelings, depressed feelings) serve as triggers to impulse purchases (Youn and Faber, 2000).In contrast, a splurge purchase is a specific purchase item that consumers distinguish from other purchase items and consumers have an internal, self-referenced definition of what purchases are deemed splurge purchases. The process of engaging in a splurge purchase also differs from an impulse purchase. Whereas the impulse purchase is mainly triggered by the marketing environment, the splurge purchase may form by a consumer trying to fulfill a need and then, once the consumer is in a purchase environment, an internal trigger stimulates the consumer to engage in a \"should I or shouldn't I\" decision in which the consumer feels pulled back. Finally, an internal decision is made to move forward and intentionally go \"above and beyond\" in purchasing an item. The splurge, unlike the impulse purchase, is not triggered by a special marketing event (e.g., sales promotion). In summary, the consumer splurge is characterized as one driven by the consumers' own motivations to fill a need, yet go markedly beyond barely fulfilling that need, and involves a deliberation in which the consumer's purchase is the result of willfully acquiescing to the urge to splurge.In contrast to splurge purchases, self-gifts are context bound and likely to be acquired in response to a particular type of culturally defined circumstance. For instance, self-gifts serve either a therapeutic function, in the case of dealing with a negative event attributed to an external cause, or serve as a reward, in the case of dealing with a positive event attributed to an internal cause (Mick and Demoss, 1980). A vital characteristic of self-gifts is that they send \"even if only metaphorically, [as] messages between selves. For instance, an ideal self (well-disciplined) congratulates a real self (sometimes lazy) for perseverance toward a personal goal\" (Mick and Demoss, 1980, p. 328).\nHypotheses: Materialism\nMethodology: Data were collected from adults outside several urban and suburban shopping malls in the Northeast. The first part of the study included an audiotaped, personal interview in which participants were asked to identify a splurge made in the last six months. Participants were also asked to describe the splurge purchase, explain why that purchase was a splurge, define a splurge, and discuss the benefits received. A structured interview format was used to efficiently capture participants' top-of-mind responses. Because this part of the research study would require participants to engage in reflective thinking, the audiotaped interview format best allowed for participants to fully engage in reflective thinking and not be concerned with an additional task of writing responses to open-ended questions. Second, following the interview, participants were given a short questionnaire to complete and the questionnaires were collected.Measures\nResults: Content analysis of splurge definitions\nDiscussion: The exploratory study reported here provides initial insights into how consumers view their own splurge purchases. First, consumers defined a splurge as something that they did not necessarily need but really wanted. This theme was the most frequently occurring theme in this study and may hint at splurge purchases as being ones characterized by an internal struggle between desire and justification. Several other themes emerged (e.g., over budget, outside normal purchase, loosely spending money, self-indulgent) suggesting that consumers consciously engage in \"out-of-character\" purchases and distinguish typical/normal purchases from these non-typical ones. Second, splurge purchases were self-referenced and, therefore, the item itself did not seem to determine whether one classifies its purchase as a splurge. For instance, one woman considered buying candy a splurge purchase. Others viewed vacations to new locations a splurge and several identified splurging on clothes, footwear or makeup.High-materialism consumers did differ from low-materialism consumers in the types of splurge purchases they identified. High-materialism consumers were more likely to splurge on items that they could wear or display on themselves, as opposed to all other types of splurge items mentioned. When describing their splurge purchase, high-materialism consumers were more likely to use the term \"expensive\" in their description, compared to low-materialism consumers. On the other hand, high-materialism consumers were not more likely than low-materialism consumers to use a brand name to describe their splurge purchase.When asked to reflect back on their splurge purchase, high-materialism consumers did have stronger feelings of irresponsibility and guilt, compared to low-materialism consumers. In addition, these were the only feelings for which there was a significant correlation between the feeling and materialism. Some possible explanations include that high-materialism consumers may have more difficulty extracting enjoyment from their splurge purchases, may engage in so much purchasing anyways that a splurge purchase has diminishing marginal returns, or may feel less deserving of a splurge purchase, compared to low-materialism consumers. One may have initially expected low-materialism consumers to report feeling more irresponsible or guilty when they splurged on a purchase because, for these consumers, this type of purchase is not consistent with their self-concepts or values. However, results revealed that the high-materialism consumers were the ones who reported feeling more guilty and more irresponsible when they reflected back on their splurge purchase. Nonetheless, high materialism consumers, by definition, continue their purchasing even though their purchasing behavior consistently evokes negative feelings.\nStudy limitations and future research directions: This study is exploratory and these findings should be viewed from this perspective. Future research may be directed at testing these initial findings using a larger, random sample. Second, the idea that consumers identify and track purchases as splurge purchases leads one to consider the pattern of splurge purchases. Future research may be directed at investigating more than one splurge purchase per consumer to get a better understanding of the patterns of splurge purchases. Third, future research should be directed at understanding what motivates or triggers a consumer to engage in a splurge.\nManagerial implications: Marketers' ultimate goal is to have a consumer make a purchase and although marketers have classified purchases from their perspective, little attention has been paid at understanding how consumers themselves classify purchases. This study examines the concept of a consumer splurge and examines consumers' definitions of a splurge purchase. In summary, this research finds that consumers do identify some of their past purchases as a splurge and that typically consumers splurge on things they say they do not need but feel they have a strong desire to have.Splurge purchases ranged from inexpensive products to expensive experiences. The items that consumers purchased were not necessarily pampering, high-end items but, instead, were indulgent for the individual consumer. Consumers do consciously make some purchases to fill a want and not a need. More importantly, consumers identify and remember these particular purchases and they can stir feelings within the consumer months after the purchase was made. Although this study is exploratory, it does suggest that these feelings consumers have about past splurge purchases may influence future purchases and choices that consumers make. Marketers may want to consider whether their product that they are selling is or could be viewed as a possible splurge purchase by their target market. Understanding the way consumers themselves classify a purchase could help marketers more effectively communicate advertising messages and information to consumers.In addition, the study compared high and low materialism consumers in their splurge purchases and reflective feelings on a recent splurge purchase. Since high-materialism consumers felt more guilty and irresponsible when thinking about a recent splurge, this finding does raise some concerns for marketers. Although this study is exploratory, it does suggest that consumer splurge purchases are not necessarily viewed positively by a consumer over time and that marketers should be cautious when considering using an \"invitation to splurge\" message.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - This exploratory research aims to investigate the consumer splurge purchase and compare characteristics about the splurge purchase for high-materialism consumers versus low-materialism consumers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study sample was a convenience sample of adults over 25 years old and the sample consisted of 107 adults. Data were collected using two methods: an audiotaped, personal interview captured participants' reflections on a recent splurge purchase and a questionnaire which was administered with scales that are well established in the literature.\nFindings: - A content analysis of consumers' definitions of splurges revealed ten themes including that the purchase is: desired yet not necessary, self-indulgent, outside the normal purchase, and loosely spending money. High-materialism consumers were more likely, than low-materialism consumers, to splurge on items that were displayed on the person and were more likely to describe their splurge as expensive. When reflecting back on their splurge purchase, high-materialism consumers felt significantly more irresponsible and guilty than did low-materialism consumers.\nOriginality/value: - The results of the study suggest that consumers do classify some of their purchases as splurges, can reflect on a recent splurge, and have present feelings about past splurge purchases. These feelings do differ between high and low materialism consumers.\n",
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Motivating language and self-mentoring: a training program supporting the development of leaders in organizations
|
[
"Motivating language",
"Motivating language theory",
"Leadership communications",
"Self-mentoring"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In 1995, Mayfield and Mayfield called for a motivating language theory (MLT) training agenda to develop capacity in the implementation of strategic leader communications so that increase in employee productivity and organizational outcomes could be fully actualized. In 2002, Mayfield and Mayfield proposed a motivating language (ML) model so that organizations could support leader development, increase effective leader communications, and conduct leader communication assessments in support of that agenda. Today, 20 years later, research has established MLT's positive impact on employee and organizational outcomes, yet a clear MLT training agenda remains unrealized in the fields of practice and scholarship (Holmes and Parker, 2017; Mayfield and Mayfield, 2016). The 2016 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends Report noted:\nWhy is training in ML so important?: Training in ML is important due to the benefits gained from effective leader speech communication in the form of ML-centered communication on employees in the outcomes of innovation, job performance, attendance, self-efficacy, job satisfaction, decision-making, and leader effectiveness in addition to organizational accomplishments (Holmes and Parker, 2017). For ML to be effective, the key antecedents of leader walk and talk alignment and credibility must first be positively perceived by employees (Holmes and Parker, 2017). ML in leader speech communication contains three types of leader language:\nWhat is self-mentoring?: Self-mentoring combines elements of coaching, mentoring, and self-leadership into a comprehensive system for employee self-guided development and reflection, and completes a systematic organizational development and learning program consisting of corporate training, executive coaching, and employee mentoring (Carr, 2015). SM is a process in which leaders are working within their current organizational culture and structure self-initiate and lead themselves toward improvements in the core competencies needed to enhance job performance and career progression (in this case improvements in strategic leadership communication via enhancement in the application of ML). There are four-tiered self-paced and individualized levels in SM that build on skill development from the previous level: self-awareness, self-development, self-reflection, and self-monitoring. The first level, self-awareness, identifies leadership skills needed by the organization and are often hidden or underdeveloped within the leader. Through the next two levels, self-development and self-reflection, the individual undertaking SM identifies expectations and completes strategy development and implementation for the final level, self-monitoring. As a growth mindset, SM is both cyclical and forward thinking regarding expectations.\nHow do motivating language and self-mentoring go together?: ML and SM go together through combining the ML components with SM by the use of connective guiding questions.\nImplications for practice and research: Knowing communication is critical; Tengblad (2006) found managers verbally communicate over 70 per cent of their working time. Kotter (2007) stated leaders undercommunicate vision by a factor of ten (p. 100) and without leader communication, organizational change is impossible. Thus, communication between leaders and employees is of the highest importance and the essence of this type of communication is found within ML. ML is a reliable model for leaders to accomplish work more efficiently and improving employee/organizational outcomes through strategic leader speech communication. Yet, leaders often do not complete pre-employment or on-the-job education in leader communication skills, leaving their organizations with leaders needing this expertise. This non-education coupled with organizations often lacking the capacity to develop leader communication skills - the need for support is paramount. Thus, the necessity for ML and SM. While ML is a well-established model for leader development and organizational improvement, it is in its infancy as a curricular component for scholars and an institutional training element. Self-mentoring is an emergent framework within the coaching and mentoring research field and is growing exponentially among practitioners. Therefore, implications for those in scholarship are to focus on the explicit teaching of ML and SM as strategies for organizational development and leadership improvement in addition to the operationalization of ML and SM as processes for organizational learning and systematic leader growth in practitioner-based environments.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this article is to provide support for leader improvement, development, and learning as well as provide a twenty-first century training program that meets the needs of all organizations and employees within the context of motivating language (ML) and through the framework of a trending self-initiated training practice referred to as self-mentoring (SM).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The approach of this paper is to merge the robust and well-generalized ML model with the emergent SM model around a set of guided questions to create a framework for training.\nFindings: The integrated findings of the ML and SM models create a process for training that supports a well-developed organizational system, as well as a system that is void of systematic elements for leader development.\nResearch limitations/implications: The implications call for expanded scholarship in the ML model and SM as tools for leadership and organizational development (OD).\nPractical implications: Continued training in the ML model for leaders and application of SM as an institutional vehicle for training.\nOriginality/value: This is the first paper bringing ML and SM together.\n",
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HRD challenges when faced by disengaged UK workers
|
[
"Employee engagement",
"Human resource development",
"Post 2008",
"Working practices"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: Greater employee engagement, as a key component leading towards greater profitability, has been projected as a \"holy grail\" of people management thinking. Related to \"how connected\" employees feel towards their employer, direct benefits in improved customer service and resulting sales have been claimed from increasing engagement (Smith et al., 2012). It has been argued the current interest in employee engagement is questionable however, lying largely with anecdotal evidence (Boxall, 2013) and fashion (Guest, 2013).\nThe differing faces of employee engagement: Recognising engagement as a psychological state generates insights into organisations and facilitates its categorisation as 4 differing approaches: a needs satisfying approach; an antithesis for burnout; an involvement-satisfaction-enthusiasm relationship; or multi-dimensionally, incorporating cognitive, emotional and behavioural components of individual performance (Schaufeli, 2013). Of which each category helps in the understanding and examination of the dimension of engagement experienced within individual employees. Further, it is purported that Positive Psychology may assist also in the appreciation of workplace engagement. Positive Psychology seeks to distinguish between positive and negative meanings held by individuals to determine their emotional responses. By considering how we express our experiences of work and thus, our relationship with work, might allow a determination of how we might better assess any meanings held. This represents complexity within the concept of Positive Psychology (Robertson and Cooper, 2011) but it refers to the study of optimal human functioning, and what might allow individuals, or organisations, to thrive (Schaufeli, 2013). Furthermore, Positive Psychology does not set out to erase negative meanings but to capitalize on untapped potential (Youssef-Morgan and Bockorny, 2013). It seems that individuals are unlikely to become engaged just because they are told to do so by their employer (De Mello et al., 2008). Since individuals apply their strengths when engagement-friendly cultures exist, and where the work conditions are appropriate, then engagement may happen naturally. (De Mello et al., 2008). Cultures, which respect employee's needs, and value the diversity of talents that employees bring, result in employee reciprocation leading to increased performance.\nThe impact of context for engagement: In considering the impact on engagement of the recent economic changes to the UK climate, post 2008 therefore, this paper was informed by the work of Hassard et al. (2009). Their work did not set out to focus solely on engagement but considered changing work practices, post 2000, undertaken through interviews with managers. Hassard et al.'s (2009) work reflects 2000-2009 and there is a dearth of longitudinal empirical studies, which might otherwise inform studies of the changing workplace post 2000. Hassard et al.'s (2009) research study (see also McCain et al., 2004, 2008and Morris et al., 2008) was selected as the themes reported were viewed as providing a platform for understanding the nature of post 2008 working practices. Since Hassard focussed on managers, their reports limit evidence of the employee experience though. By contrast, this paper focuses on the wider workforce, given that post 2000 organisational philosophies and technologies have shifted towards a fragmentation of work, leading to flexibility for the employer potentially at the expense of the workforce (Colley, 2012).\nResearch and method: In the inquiry into engagement within post 2008 UK working practices, we undertook anonymised focus group research, utilising convenience samples, which were derived from contacts we had with existing employers operating within the UK. A qualitative stance was adopted in line with the exploratory nature of purpose of the research. While the representative nature of focus group study to provide comparative generalisations might have limitations, our study comprised of ten groups, of approximately seven participants (this is comparable to the UK element of the Hassard et al. (2009) study, where 62 interviews were conducted), including skilled workers or practitioners, equally divided between public and private sector workers from the UK.\nThemes: Changes to working practices\nLimitations: Limitations to the research should be recognised since this initial study provides a basis for further research. It is difficult to ascertain whether the management approaches perceived by employees reflect the realities, or intentions, of the management team, that is, could management intentions actually be more (or less) exploitative or even benign? Moreover, in times of profitability and growth there may be more focus by employers on providing an appreciative culture.\nConclusions and implications: In the objectives for our empirical study we set out to review the perceptions of the nature of change by employees within the UK workplace, post 2008 and further to identify the nature of employee engagement from UK employees in the post 2008 workplace. The narratives presented reflect different encounters that participants recounted in their discursive versions of the period, reflecting the realities and meanings, they co-constructed through focus group interaction. The analysis from the grouped categories, provide empirical evidence from shared perceptions of work within UK organisations, post 2008. By initially identifying themes from Hassard et al. (2009)'s earlier study, the issue of the changing nature of work was at the forefront of the participant's reflections. From this, the narratives reflect that participant contributions were considered further in terms of employee engagement and also, in terms of disengagement.\n",
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},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper seeks to consider employees' perceptions of engagement from their lived experiences of UK employees following the global credit crisis, post 2008. It draws from the prior studies of Hassard et al. (2009), which researched work practices in the period preceding the study.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research utilised focus group discussion, which was analysed by template analysis from an interpretive perspective and adopts narratives to facilitate a critical interpretive paradigm.\nFindings: There is clear evidence of theories surrounding the positive value of employee engagement, however the findings do not demonstrate that it is necessarily valued by UK management by their responses towards the work environment given post 2008 trading conditions.\nResearch limitations/implications: The limitation of the study lies with the size of the sample participating. While this reflects the need for further future research to be undertaken, the study also recognises that the findings are determined by the perceptions of employees which may not reflect the intentions of the management within the organisations which they work.\nOriginality/value: There is a dearth of empirical study into the post 2008 period. This research attempts to ground theories of engagement within the post global credit crunch timeframe.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Closing the management skills gap: a call for action
|
[
"Management training",
"Management development",
"Organizational performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An engineer is promoted into a supervisory position with no training whatsoever. A middle manager takes on a new functional area as part of restructuring with little forewarning or preparation. An organization develops a new performance appraisal system and simply hands it to managers to implement as they see fit. A new computer-based finance management system is rolled out in a large service enterprise and managers are expected to learn the system \"on the fly\". All of these examples have a common denominator in that they illustrate the fact that managers are frequently asked to do important, new and challenging things with little or no training. This happens, despite a growing body of literature that suggests that effective managerial training is critical to achieving or maintaining competitive advantage.\nUpdated findings on managerial training failures and proposed solutions: To understand better why organizations fail to train managers properly and how to deal with each of the problems cited, we now review the top ten managerial training failures identified by the enhanced sample of participants along with our proposed solutions.Training failure no. 1: management training is not a top management priority (54 percent)\nClosing: When these failures are part and parcel of an organization's culture and managerial belief system, management training will not be considered or developed into a source of potential competitive advantage and the organization will treat training in a cavalier fashion with problematic effect.The bottom line\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This article is intended to provide the necessary tools to attack the causes of management training failures.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The top ten managerial training failures identified from a sample of 323 seasoned managers in rapidly changing organizations are discussed along with specific suggested solutions.\nFindings: - A revised content analysis revealed the most frequently cited causes of why organizations fail to train their managers properly.\nOriginality/value: - The findings provide an up-to-date list of the causes of ineffective training and the discussion focuses on ways to close the managerial skills gap by providing specific solutions to identified problems.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The global employee volunteer: a corporate program for giving back
|
[
"Training",
"Globalization",
"Regional development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The history of philanthropic engagement in the developing world by the early leaders of the world economy is a long one. Out of the religious re-awakening of the nineteenth century in the US and UK came waves of missionaries from many different Christian denominations. Inspired by similar evangelical aspirations, members of holy orders and lay religious from other parts of Europe, in parallel with their colonizer contemporaries, traveled to Africa, India and China. Some went to proselytize, others to use their knowledge of health, education, engineering and agricultural science to help improve the material lives of the indigenous populations. Viewed through the lens of the twentieth century critique of imperialism and colonialism, many of these efforts have appeared less pure spirited to than they would have to the missionaries themselves, but contemporary records and memoirs suggest that the missionaries were generally well received by those they had set out to help.\nAnti-Americanism is reinvigorated in the 1990s: With the second Gulf War and the continuing occupation of Iraq, the anti-American sentiments bred by the expansion of the 1990s demonstrated a new vigor in specific governmental and popular opposition to US policies and practices. In a survey by the Pew Research Center of attitudes toward the US and 15 other countries conducted in June 2005, the US received a better than 50 percent favorability rating in just six countries. By contrast, China received that rating in 11 countries and Japan, France and Germany in 13[1]. On the policy level, US attempts to interdict future terrorist efforts after September 11 2001 through stricter visa and immigration controls embedded in the Homeland Security Act have created negative impressions even amongst those professionals, students and business people wanting to travel to, study or work in the US, a population otherwise most disposed to think well of this country.As if this chain of geopolitical events were not bad enough for business organizations with strong ties to the US, long running trends have also conspired to create a perfect demographic storm in human capital sourcing. With the baby boom cohort in the US and Europe slipping inexorably towards retirement, global businesses with American roots are faced with recruiting and retaining a global workforce in the teeth of an anti-American gale.\nThe Ulysses Program delivers globally competent employees: To their credit, many global organizations have taken up this challenge and are creating programs to address the need to recruit and retain top talent from all over the world. One such program, the Ulysses Program, was started in 2001 by the global accounting and consulting organization PricewaterhouseCoopers to respond to the need for an effective employee base steeped in the culture of global business. Along the way, the program has delivered in numerous other important ways: teaching employees how to work on multinational teams, giving them a broad perspective on world issues and instilling the values of community involvement that are fundamental to the PricewaterhouseCoopers' culture.The program's core activity is the deployment of PricewaterhouseCoopers partners on eight-week assignments helping international assistance organizations with their work in developing countries. Since the program's founding in 2001, 58 partners from 29 different countries have participated in 18 local development initiatives around the world. Potential participants are drawn from the pool of high performing young partners that the global network's management sees as its strongest potential future leaders. Ralf Schneider, the Frankfurt-based partner responsible for the organization's Global Talent Management, says:More than ever before, we are trying to nourish a culture of responsible leadership. The Ulysses Program not only helps us identify individuals who embody these values, but also gives them an opportunity to gain concrete experience in living these values with other future leaders of the network from all over the world.The projects of the Ulysses Program have run the gamut from helping villagers in the remote Namibian outback grapple with their community's growing AIDS crisis to helping the citizens of Belize develop a business plan model for eco-tourism. PricewaterhouseCoopers leaders have worked on agricultural issues in Zambia and helped create a model for micro-financed enterprises in Tajikistan (Table I).Integral to the Ulysses program are an intensive orientation phase for the participants prior to going into the field as well as a substantial feedback, follow-up and evaluation phase. The program's designers were sensitive to the potential pitfalls of sending young partners into the field without a clear understanding of the purpose of the program and their expectations of the experience. In order to be successful, it was vital that the process deliver clear value to the communities that PricewaterhouseCoopers teams were assisting, program partners such as the United Nations Development Program, the PricewaterhouseCoopers organization, and the participants themselves.\nPreparing employees for global citizenship: The Ulysses voyage begins with preparation in the participant's home location. Every Ulysses team member is provided with a sponsor who helps them begin to think about what Ulysses means for them and their development as a leader. Sponsors connect with the participant's families and friends, clients and colleagues, and begin to define how they will be engaged with the participant on their Ulysses journey. Program facilitators also work with participants to develop a deeper and more enriching preparation. Team members complete a 360-degree feedback questionnaire and an intercultural awareness profile questionnaire to prepare them for interaction with members of the communities where they will be working.Following these individual preparations, the teams travel to a six-day program that provides an opportunity to explore leadership, cultural diversity and sustainability in depth - with thought leaders in each content area, with their fellow Ulysses participants, facilitators and coaches, representatives from their field projects, and with some of the previous year's Ulysses participants. In addition to senior leaders of the network such as Ralf Schneider, the Ulysses Program champion, and Willem Brocker, Global Managing Partner for Markets, past participants have heard from representatives of the University of St Gallen's (Switzerland) Institute for Business Ethics, the MIT Leadership Lab for Social Responsibility in Business and experts in cultural diversity, organizational psychology and psycholinguistics.The depth of these preparations enables participants to fully embrace the mission of the program and focus their journey on achieving success under three headings:1. Sustainability. Producing long term outcomes for all in the pursuit of excellence.2. Leadership. Embodying responsible leadership through clarity of vision and strategic context.3. Diversity. Releasing the potential of diverse peoples through effective teamwork.\nA project in Belize: Typical of the Project Ulysses experience is that of Brian McCann, a partner based in the Boston office. In his Project Ulysses year, 2003, he was one of 14 partners selected for projects in Belize, Moldova, Namibia and Zambia for eight weeks of fieldwork from mid-July through early December. His three companions in Belize were Magnus Brandstrom, an audit partner from Stockholm, Jennifer Chang, a tax partner from Kuala Lumpur and Karl Gadesmann, an audit partner from Hanover, Germany. Their mission was to work with Ya'axche Conservation Trust (YCT) - a southern Belize-based NGO, the local government and the private sector in Belize in developing an independent evaluation of the growth and income generating potential of the eco-tourism market in Southern Belize.The team was located in Punta Gorda, the largest town in the southern part of the country (population 4,000). In addition to the eco-tourism study, the team focused its efforts on the needs of the Mayan people of Southern Belize as well as building capacity for the NGO to better serve the people of the region Belize. Ya'axche Conservation Trust's approach to conservation revolved around providing economic opportunities to the people rather than buying land for conservation and preventing the people from exploiting natural resources. This approach has proved to be crucial in a region with unemployment rates of more than 50 percent where two-thirds of the population were living on incomes of less than $200 per month.While the task of making a significant impact in eighth weeks weighed heavily on the Belize team, they took their cue from the economic development orientation of the trust and brought their collective experiences to bear by focusing on several small business development initiatives. Critical to the success of these initiatives was access to capital, a thin resource in Belize. Through on-the-ground diligence, the team learned about an internationally sponsored micro-grant program that was looking to provide resources to Belize but did not have a partner. With this valuable information, the team wrote a proposal for Ya'axche Conservation Trust to manage and administer a grant program for Southern Belize that could provide approximately 100 micro-grants to new and existing small businesses in the southern region of the country over a 12-to-24 month period. The partners also developed a guide to doing business in southern Belize and worked out a collaboration with a local business training organization to provide training, support and mentoring to those small business owners as part of the grant program.The team also looked critically at the mission of the Ya'axche Conservation Trust. While the trust had in the past been able to raise funds for training, the training programs did little to improve the lack of jobs for members of the local communities. Working with the Ya'axche Conservation Trust, the team helped put structures in place that enabled it to raise funds that could be invested in more established small businesses in need of capital, with the trust becoming a minority shareholder with a positive influence on the business practices of those small businesses. This creative private sector/NGO collaboration structure was very well received by the trust, which began by working out a deal with two local companies. Along the way, the PricewaterhouseCoopers team helped the NGO do preliminary due diligence on the companies under consideration.In the short eight weeks available to them, the team also created a business training workshop for the members of a Mayan women's craft center; developed a business plan for the Ya'axche Conservation Trust and its woodworking training center, selected and helped implement an accounting software program, QuickBooks, at the trust, and proposed revenue generating opportunities for the Belize forestry department. The team wrapped up their program with a two-hour presentation to the PricewaterhouseCoopers global board in London.\nProjects in Zambia and East Timor: While one team was digging into the world of micro-finance in Belize, Dinu Bumbacea, a PricewaterhouseCoopers partner from Romania, and his Project Ulysses team found themselves in rural northern Zambia. Here again, the assignment involved helping a struggling institution develop an independent source of income while at the same time maintaining stakeholder support. This time, it was an agricultural youth training facility run by the Catholic Church in Kasama. Along with teammates from Thailand, Australia and the UK, Dinu worked with the Elias Mutale Youth Training Centre, its funding partner, the United Nations Development Program and the project manager, Africare. In addition to their work with the center, Dinu's team also spent several weeks in the Copperbelt area of Western Zambia helping the United Nations Global Compact with an economic diversification initiative.Yet another world away, in Timor Leste (East Timor), another PricewaterhouseCoopers team signed on to work in 2004 with the United Nations Develop Program's Respect Program to assist a community decimated by a civil war which cost the lives of a third of the population and destroyed 85 percent of the island's infrastructure. In the world's newest nation, the PricewaterhouseCoopers team was deployed to help create stable employment opportunities through community-based micro projects and providing much needed managerial and technical expertise for a vocational school and sanitation and irrigation initiatives.\nAppreciating cultural differences: lessons and results: The lessons for the PricewaterhouseCoopers partners have been critical to their future roles as leaders of this global network. In follow-up reports, they commented on several key factors. Not surprisingly, they returned with a new appreciation for cultural differences and the difficult economic conditions facing many people around the world. They also observed that the diversity of the team itself contributed to the quality, innovation and acceptance of their work. Finally the experience showed them how important it was to include members of the local community in their initiatives. This was a vital factor in the ultimate success of the projects they worked on.For PricewaterhouseCoopers, the results of Project Ulysses have been palpable. All of the partners who have participated are still employed in the network, moving into positions of increasing leadership in their respective practices. Moreover with 125,000 employees in 142 countries, PricewaterhouseCoopers has found that the lessons for participants in intercultural leadership have been crucial in creating effective global collaborations for its clients around the world. Most important of all, the program has staked out new territory in the organization's quest to nurture \"responsible leadership\" in an increasingly interdependent global environment. The program joins together community development with executive leadership training in a way that moves corporate social responsibility in a new direction. In a developing world economy simultaneously impressed with and oppressed by \"American-style\" globalization, Project Ulysses offers an exciting glimpse of how private enterprise can contribute to the evolving public/private dialogue about how to build trust and understanding across the globe.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to describe the experience of PricewaterhouseCoopers' partners in functioning in teams engaged on global development projects in the context of the relationship, created by so-called globalization, between developed (particularly the US) and less developed countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The design of the paper sets the actual experience of the PricewaterhouseCoopers' partners who took part in Project Ulysses within the framework of contemporary geopolitical attitudes and briefly outlines the historical antecedents for Western (European and American) philanthropic efforts to assist economically less-developed countries.\nFindings: - The paper describes the parallel benefits of Project Ulysses in supporting the developmental needs of the countries in which participants conducted their projects and the cultural awareness/team building outcomes for PricewaterhouseCoopers and its partners.\nOriginality/value: - The value of the paper is that the case study it describes offers a model to other large multinational organizations faced with the challenges of creating cross-cultural teams while at the same time presenting themselves as globally aware corporate citizens committed to participating concretely in the development of less developed countries. The care in preparation, training, measurement and follow up exhibited by the program offers a road map for other organizations contemplating similar initiatives.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A longitudinal study of entrepreneurial firms opportunity recognition and product development management strategies: Implications by firm type
|
[
"Product management",
"Strategic management",
"Entrepreneurialism"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Most management researchers adopt a point in time approach to entrepreneurial analyses and conclude with generalizable paradigms of behavior (Schwartz and Teach, 2000). As opportunity recognition is one of the major tenets of entrepreneurship (Kirzner, 1973), it is relevant to determine the nature of the process over time and its practice by differing firm types. It has been suggested that in technology-based firms continuous recognition of new opportunities is a critical competitive issue (West and Meyer, 1998) while others posit that opportunity recognition is a cognitive process (Keh et al., 2002), but can the two, i.e. a process model and a cognitive model be separated? If opportunity recognition is viewed as an activity (Singh et al., 2000) then perhaps the two views merge into one.\nBackground: Early in the study of strategy, Ansoff (1967) recognized that firms' strategic behaviour changed over time. Based on the opportunistic model of organizational adaptation, researchers should expect to find that firms in turbulent industries would seek new opportunities and not remain stable in their strategic focus. Further, these firms should be expected to evidence complex (and different) behaviors (Miller et al., 1996). Strategies then may be dynamic and thus, analyzing firms' strategies over time should be an appropriate methodology to study strategy (Miller et al., 1996). Howard Stevenson (Stevenson and Harmeling, 1991), one of the early participant/founders of the Babson College Conference on Entrepreneurship Research, suggested that firms evolved in a chaotic world. This world does not reflect the myriad of management studies which assume states of near equilibrium, with only small changes occurring over long periods of time. Rather, it is suggested that in real life there is evidence of minor changes that have profound influences on firms and moreover, the ability to analyze valid observations and to provide valid prescriptive advice depended on the nature of the industry the firm operated in and its stability. As there is no long-term equilibrium in nature, the only constancy is the constancy of change. Business events are more stochastic in nature, rather than repetitive and predictable hence, certain truths (typologies) may not be consistent over time (Stevenson and Harmeling, 1991).In turbulent industries, when environments change rapidly, strategic changes over time must be accounted for within the analyses. Parenthetically, \"observed\" and defined typologies would not then be considered to be acting for more than the time period of the analyses. However, strategy is a pattern of activities evolving over time (adaptive view), remaining relatively stable over time (Mintzberg, 1987), but \"every match at a given point-in-time between the environment and organizational form can be considered on average, as random\" (Boone and van Witteloostuijn, 1995). Thus, temporal and longitudinal studies are indicated as being efficacious in the study of entrepreneurial firms and firms in turbulent industries (Teach et al., 1998). A recent study of entrepreneurship in Japanese and US firms indicated differences in how Japanese and Silicon Valley firms conducted their entrepreneurial activities thus, one could a priori expect that cultural differences between the entrepreneurs might result in differences in their firms' strategies (Suzuki et al., 2002).In a paper on breakthrough innovation in large established firms, the authors suggested that \"opportunity recognition can be recognized as reactive or proactive\"(Colarelli O'Connor and Rice, 2000, p. 103). The article goes on to discuss various paradigms associated with different opportunities, so perhaps within the context of the large established technology firm, differing opportunity recognition processes are ongoing (Colarelli O'Connor and Rice, 2000). Elsewhere it is suggested that opportunity recognition among survey participants was largely market driven, with a majority basing their opportunities on what their customers indicated was of interest to them (Lumpkin et al., 2001). Consequently, opportunity recognition could be both proactive (market driven) and reactive (listening to customers).A number of researchers have also argued that strategies are not persistent, particularly in dynamic industries (Ansoff, 1967; Brown and Eisenhardt, 1998; Tucker, 2001), thus, a priori, one might expect opportunity recognition processes to not be persistent over time. Others, however, have argued the opposite (Mintzberg, 1987; Lumpkin et al., 2001). An historical analysis of opportunity recognition and the various posits about the phenomena suggested that it is a process; is creative insight; is entrepreneurial alertness; and is cognitive (Gaglio, 1997). This analysis implies a multifunctional process or perhaps a \"unified theory\" of opportunity recognition.Product development strategies and management of such in turbulent industries could be ever changing (Cooper, 2000) due to the extreme stochastic nature of technology-based industries. Clearly, there must be a balance between rapid market change and strategy versus tactical realignments. There may also be differing strategies for products as they range from low technology and low innovativeness and high technology with high degrees of innovation (Nystrom and Liljedahl, 2002). It has been demonstrated that technology based entrepreneurial firms have the same product development management strategies at two points-in-time. Prior research demonstrated similar results for an opportunity recognition strategy. In addition, the opportunity recognition strategies were subsequently found not to be age, but revenue dependent, i.e. smaller and larger firms had dissimilar strategies, but those strategies were the same at two points-in-time (Schwartz and Teach, 1999).\nThis study: Reflecting the greatly expanded interest in the field, an increasing number of researchers have studied entrepreneurship, its strategies, financing, and environments over the past 20 plus years (Gaglio, 1997; Teach et al., 1989). Traditional regression, factor analysis, discriminant functions and clustering techniques continue to be utilized to elucidate a diversity of entrepreneurial strategies. The majority of these studies use point-in-time data, from anonymous firms, in diverse industries, generalizing their conclusions. These studies have not been concerned with changes over time. The current study however, included two data sets: a 1998 survey of technology-based and non-technology firms located in US incubators; and a new 2003 study of technology and non-technology based firms in the Inland Northwest. All respondents indicated they considered themselves entrepreneurs; the firms were less than eight years old with sales under $5,000,000. The propositions studied resulted in a series of hypotheses that firms by type and over time will not have the same opportunity recognition and product development management strategies. Discriminant analyses were used to elucidate the hypotheses.This study further investigates the existence of a management model for firms in similar industries, i.e. while there may be differences in the application of strategies over time, the underlying structure of these strategies may be similar at two points-in-time. Further, a point-in-time study of firms by industry archetypes is an appropriate methodology to elucidate entrepreneurial strategies. However, entrepreneurs' own choices in the application of management strategies can result in differences in firm performance, a result demonstrated in prior work. Thus, while the characterization of one management process at two points in time may be similar, the results of the firms' various strategic choices may not. Both opportunity recognition and product development management strategies are investigated as an extension of work begun in 1989 and continuing to the present (Teach et al., 1989; Schwartz and Teach, 1999; Teach et al., 2003).\nMethodology: The samples\nResults: 2003 firm characteristics\nDiscussion: The overall results are consistent with other research studies and further substantiate the use of single industry data. While most of those results are point in time studies they are not as efficacious as data analysis over time. Prior analyses in 1989 (Teach et al., 1989) identified four technology firm entrepreneur types that had exhibited different processes for identifying opportunities. The processes ranged from a deliberate search and overall formal processes to an accidental process. A recent paper that was searching for a \"taxonomy of opportunity recognition processes\" (Chandler et al., 2002, p. 38) suggested, based on their data analyses, that such recognition could be proactive, reactive, or fortuitous. This result would be consistent with the 1989 work, but is not industry specific and represented a cross section of Finnish firms. This result suggests that there may be a universal process model of opportunity recognition or perhaps this result was simply fortuitous?Another recent paper suggested that the \"opportunity development process\" was \"insufficient to describe opportunity development in high growth SMEs\" (Karlsson, 2001, p. 151) and that cognitive processes needed to be added along with a major emphasis on resource acquisition. The author further suggested that his general model was (better) applicable. This was further supported by another researcher who noted the importance of socio-cognitive aspects of the identification of opportunities (de Koning, 2000).Certainly the search for opportunity occurs with all entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs (Lumpkin et al., 2001). The search is likely to be universal, but depending on time, the strategy variables chosen for study and the specific industry in which this searching takes place the process may be somewhat similar or substantially different. An \"equation of state\" for an opportunity recognition model or a product development management model is suggested by the empirical results reported in this paper as well as the diversity of other researchers' work. The opportunity recognition model could be defined by four functions: the first function is invariant over time and represents strategic persistence; the second changes over time as the economy and competitive environmental conditions change and represents emergent strategies; the third is industry specific, that takes into account cognitive process issues related to specific industries; and the fourth is a random error function, that accounts for cross interaction terms, and for other strategy variables not included in the analysis.\nSummary/conclusions: The following two findings suggest that the opportunity recognition process changed between these two dates: 1. 1998 and 2003 manufacturing firms did not utilize the same opportunity recognition process.2. 1998 and 2003 non-manufacturing firms did not utilize the same opportunity recognition process.Some of the authors' prior work suggested that the process, at least for technology-based firms, had been similar between 1989 and 1998. Industry changes over time, perhaps different firm types, and insufficient data could be rational reasons for the changes:* 1998 manufacturing firms and non-manufacturing firms utilized a different opportunity recognition process; and* 2003 manufacturing firms and non-manufacturing firms utilized a different opportunity recognition process.Thus, as far as the opportunity recognition process then, there is evidence that suggests that the process is different for manufacturing and non-manufacturing firms:* 1998 and 2003 manufacturing firms utilized product development management processes that were not different; and* 1998 and 2003 non-manufacturing firms utilized product development management processes that were not different.The product development management process was similar then at these two points-in-time. A prior study by two of the authors resulted in differences in the product development management strategies for technology-based firms in 1989 and 1998. It was surprising to see stability in this process, in spite of the economic differences in the environments of 1998 and 2003:1. 1998 manufacturing firms and non-manufacturing firms utilized different product development management process; and2. 2003 manufacturing firms and non-manufacturing firms utilized different product development management process.These two findings reconfirmed the prior conclusions above, i.e. manufacturing and non-manufacturing firms are different and combining data from both types of firms may lead to erroneous results.More differences (in terms of number of variables and significance levels) in both opportunity recognition and product development management strategies were found between firm types (manufacturing versus non-manufacturing) than across years (1998 versus 2003).The study of management and marketing processes should be performed by industry or business type over time.The researcher should consider that if the opportunity recognition or product development management processes reflect the changing nature of entrepreneurship over time, then characterizing those processes as constant models is inappropriate.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to analyze both the opportunity recognition and product development management processes not only among technology firms, but among non-technology firms as well at two points in time, 1998 and 2003.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The current study included two data sets: a 1998 survey of technology-based and non-technology firms located in US incubators; and a new 2003 study of technology and non-technology based firms in the Inland Northwest. All respondents indicated they considered themselves entrepreneurs.\nFindings: - Findings suggest that the opportunity recognition process changed between 1998 and 2003. Some of the authors' prior work suggested that the process, at least for technology-based firms, had been similar between 1989 and 1998. Industry changes over time, perhaps different firm types, and insufficient data could be rational reasons for the changes. Thus, as far as the opportunity recognition process then, there is evidence that suggests that the process is different for manufacturing and non-manufacturing firms.\nPractical implications: - The study of management and marketing processes should be performed by industry or business type over time. The researcher should consider that if the opportunity recognition or product development management processes reflect the changing nature of entrepreneurship over time, then characterizing those processes as constant models is inappropriate.\nOriginality/value: - The overall results are consistent with other research studies and serve to further substantiate the use of single industry data. An \"equation of state\" for an opportunity recognition model or a product development management model is suggested by the empirical results reported on in the current paper as well as the diversity of other researchers' work.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Consistency of strategic and tactical benchmarking performance measures: A perspective on managerial positions and organizational size
|
[
"Performance measurement",
"Benchmarking"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: For the past three decades, world-class organizations have utilized benchmarking to improve aspects of their competitive advantages such as cost, quality, delivery, and customer service. Benchmarking activities may be defined as the process of learning from the best-in-class organizations, determining how the best-in-class achieve their performance levels, and utilizing the best practices to their own organization to achieve superior performance (Watson, 1992, 1993; Whiting, 1991). Benchmarking is an effective means for learning and change because it exposes employees to new approaches, systems, and procedures (Kuebler, 1993). It is a flexible tool that can be used for gradual continuous improvement, as well as for major changes of process reengineering (Bogan and English, 1994). Deming (1982) and a number of other quality advocates have strongly recommended the use of benchmarking as an essential component of continuous improvement (Paulo et al., 2012; Venetucci, 1992; Dawkins et al., 2007; Blanchard, 2008). Since 1987, benchmarking has been a major component of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria. More recently, the practice of benchmarking is being widely used for six sigma process and for organizations seeking ISO 9000 series certification (Kafetzopoulos et al., 2013).\n2. Literature review: The use of benchmarking as an effective quality improvement tool was started by Xerox in the early 1980s to overcome severe international competition problems. Since then, application of benchmarking in diverse areas such as manufacturing, health care, marketing, supply chain, energy, investment decisions, hotel business, public transportation, and customer service has been reported (Zairi and Whymark, 2000; Raymond, 2008; Newman et al., 1995; Meybodi, 2010; Smith,1997; Goncharuk, 2011; Nassar, 2012; Hambly, 1997; Roth et al., 1997; Olli-Pekka Hilmola, 2011; Liang, 2009; Routroy and Pradhan, 2013). The use of benchmarking as an effective organizational learning tool has been presented by Ford and Evans (2001), Watson (2001), O'Dell and Grayson (2000), Evans and Dean (2003), Brue (2002).\n3. Benchmarking and performance measurements: Total quality management (TQM), just-in-time and lean systems, Six Sigma, and a number of other important events during the last three decades have awakened organizations to recognize the importance of performance measurements in managing complex processes. Managers across various industries have recognized the importance of managing processes and the truth that what gets measured is what gets managed and improved. Without effective performance measurement a company does not know the real problem, who is responsible, where improvement efforts are needed, and the amount and type of necessary resources. Top down bottom up consistency of performance measures with organizational goals and objective, organizational competitive priorities, and their competitive capabilities are among characteristics of effective performance measurements (Dewan et al., 2013). This requires that performance measurements to have a broad range of balanced mix of short-term financial and long-term strategic factors. Special focus of Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and ISO 9000 series on benchmarking and performance measurements is a clear indication of the critical role of these elements in managing and improving organizational processes (Kafetzopoulos et al., 2013).\n4. Methodology and data collection: A questionnaire-based survey was used to test the above hypotheses. The part of the survey related to this paper contained a series of questions on the use of strategic and tactical performance measurement factors. The focus of strategic factors are on setting organizational goals and objectives, developing core competencies, formulating organizational competitive priorities as well as understanding external environmental factors such as the state of competition, technology, and globalization. Tactical items are related to specific technical and/or financial performance measures such as cost, quality, cycle time, and delivery.\n5. Results: Table I shows the ranking of the mean importance score for each element of corporate goals and objectives. The respondents were asked to rate each element of Table I based on the degree of importance (1=low importance, 5=high importance) to their company for the next five years. Summary data indicates that the respondents' top three corporate goals and objectives are building market share, maximizing profits, and focussing on customer satisfaction. Being in a better competitive position with respect to quality and customer satisfaction is possible explanation for market expansion and profit making posture. However, the mean ratings for the last four factors of building core competencies, and understanding competition, globalization, and technology are significantly lower than the mean ratings of the first three factors. The factors marked with an asterisk in Table I indicate these factors are statistically larger than the factors with no asterisk marks at a 0.05 level of significance. This is perhaps an indication of conventional reactive strategy in which the primary focus of managers is on marketing and financial goals. Understanding external environmental factors such as competition, global issues, technology, and development of organizational core competencies to effectively deal with these factors are considered to be secondary. This is a disturbing posture because in today's global market world-class organizations focus more on understanding environmental factors and building their core competencies than on achieving marketing and financial goals. In fact, world-class organizations develop core competencies first, then utilize a proactive strategy and look for opportunities to exploit their core competencies to achieve a competitive advantage. Understanding the causes for such strategic misalignment between organizational goals and objectives and proactive development of their core competencies is extremely important. From preceding discussion as well as statistical results of Table I, it is clear that H1 and H2 are not supported by the data.\n6. Conclusion: This paper demonstrates how understanding organizational strategy is crucial to improve the effectiveness of benchmarking performance measures. The paper also investigates the impact of managerial positions and organizational sizes on the deployment of strategic and tactical benchmarking performance measures. A set of eight hypotheses was used to examine the consistency of the decisions and to examine the relationship between managerial positions and organization sizes on the selection of strategic and tactical benchmarking performance measures. Statistical results indicate the following:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the consistency of benchmarking performance measures and to investigate the impact of organizational size and managerial positions on the deployment of strategic and tactical benchmarking performance measures.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A set of eight hypotheses was used to examine the consistency of the benchmarking performance measures and the impact of organizational size and managerial positions on selection of strategic and tactical benchmarking performance measures. A questionnaire-based survey data were used to test the hypotheses. The target population was manufacturing firms in Midwestern USA; the sample covers organizations in a variety of industries. Out of 91 completed surveys received, 84 surveys were usable resulting in a response rate of 17 percent.\nFindings: The paper found evidence of misalignment between organizational goals and objectives and proactive development of organizational core capabilities. The result also indicates that managers with high-level positions as well as managers from large organizations placed higher emphasis on strategic benchmarking performance measures.\nResearch limitations/implications: Research is general and not industry specific.\nPractical implications: Effective performance measurement is a critical element of organizational success. It requires a thorough understanding of organizational strategy and deployment of the strategy into consistent sub-strategies.\nOriginality/value: For effective benchmarking, managers must develop a complete understanding of their own business strategy and choose long-term and short-term benchmarking performance measures that are consistent with organizational strategy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Consumer behaviour towards suboptimal food products: a strategy for food waste reduction
|
[
"Consumer choice",
"Food waste",
"Consumer food waste",
"Imperfect food",
"Suboptimal products"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Many areas of food systems can be improved to mitigate environmental impacts. An important aspect that has received increasing attention is related to food waste reduction. When food waste occurs, energy from agriculture, transportation, processing, food sales, storage, preparation and from the quality control activities throughout the supply chain are also wasted. Therefore, food waste represents a waste of resources (Kummu et al., 2012). One significant way of meeting such calls involves our food behaviour as consumers. An important contributor to food waste levels is consumers' preference for cosmetic standards (Parfitt et al., 2010). Individuals have a pattern of shopping behaviour in which only products with a certain visual characteristic are selected. However, this demand for \"cosmetically perfect\" food results in high levels of food waste and impacts the entire food supply chain.\n2. Suboptimal food: Food supply chain rejects food that deviate from the usual visual standards, even if its nutritional value remains the same (Gobel et al., 2015). This practice is considered an important contributor to food losses and waste (Gustavsson et al., 2011). First, it is important to distinguish between products that do not meet hygiene and quality requirements from food products with different visual appearance, but with the same nutritional quality (Salhofer et al., 2008). The first group is associated with safety issues, while the latter only is created due to market requirements, acting as barriers to food consumption (Hyde et al., 2001). Concerns regarding food safety and perceived risk are considered important aspects to food consumption (Galati, Moavero and Crescimanno, 2019), as well as for food waste issues (Canali et al., 2016). Nevertheless, consumers demand for food and packaging aesthetic appearance, selection of the freshest product and misinterpretation of date labels (Canali et al., 2016) equally represent a great impact on food waste levels.\n3. Methodology: Given the goal to research consumers' considerations about suboptimal food products, we used two different phases in this study. In the first phase, an open-ended question that captures perceptions about three suboptimal food products was analyzed (this question was part of an experimental study[1] about consumer food waste and suboptimal food products). The answers of the open-ended question were deeply analyzed in order to capture main thoughts and perceptions about three different suboptimal products. In the second phase of the study, we conducted a focus group discussion in order to deepen the results of the first phase and to capture different ideas about suboptimal food products with a different methodology.\n4. Results: In the sections that follow, we discuss the results of the first and the second phases of the study separately. In the end, a combined analysis investigating the correspondence between both phases is presented. Results of each phase are organized by themes emerged on data collection. A number of factors were mentioned by respondents after exposure to suboptimal food pictures. These factors are divided into the categories: suboptimal food products, with comments about the aspects of the three products in a general way, without any description of each product; product with an unusual appearance, with comments about the aspects of the carrot with a different appearance; product with reduced expiration date, encompassing comments about the yogurt with two days remaining to expire; and product with a package damaged, with comments about the broken biscuit.\n5. Discussion: This study presents original findings on consumers' perceptions towards suboptimal food products. Results of both phases showed similarities between the factors emerged towards the products. However, in the first phase, individuals had more negative (rejection) than positive (acceptance) impressions towards the products. This occurs due to the fact that respondents search for the \"perfect\" appearance when buying food products and associated it with product quality (Aschemann-Witzel et al., 2015). Moreover, it seems that individuals want to maximize their purchases, and when buying suboptimal food, they feel that they are losing some aspects of the product.\n6. Conclusions and limitations of the study: It is increasing discussion about the importance of consumers change their usual behaviours to cope with more sustainable practices. A way to achieve this is through purchase of suboptimal food, since preferences for these products affect both retailer and consumer food waste (Aschemann-Witzel et al., 2015). Findings show the extent to which suboptimal food choice is impacted by various factors. The results particularly highlight significant differences in perceptions about these products. Moreover, there was not a pattern of behaviour: some consumers would accept one product and reject the others, while other consumers would accept or reject all of them. This shows the importance of analyzing the results for each product individually, whereas the acceptance of suboptimal food depends on the type of suboptimality (de Hooge et al., 2017).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Food waste has received attention during the last decade, especially due to its environmental and social impacts. An important contributor to food waste is consumers' low preference for purchase fruits and vegetables with unusual appearance, products with damaged package and products close to the expiration date, technically called suboptimal food products. Researches show that consumers tend to reject these products when buying food, increasing avoidable food waste. However, consumer considerations when deciding to buy or not to buy suboptimal food are still unknown. The purpose of this paper is to use two different approaches to investigate consumers' perceptions towards suboptimal food and how they impact their acceptance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The first part of the study involved a qualitative analysis of participants' open-ended responses (282 answers), where participants were asked to write down the impressions they had about three suboptimal food images. The second phase explored consumers acceptance of suboptimal food through a focus group discussion.\nFindings: Results reveal that considerations about suboptimal food are divergent, with some participants rejecting them because they are impelled to search for perfection when buying food products. However, some individuals are disposed to accept suboptimal products, mainly because they have concern with the environment and cook abilities.\nOriginality/value: As a whole, this study contributes for food waste reduction strategies and has implications for marketing actions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Viable strategy configurations and new product development capability and performance: Evidence from Thailand
|
[
"Thailand",
"Strategic orientation",
"Dynamic capabilities",
"Emerging market",
"New product development capability"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Firms with new product development (NPD) capability can achieve faster speed-to-market, enhanced new product quality, and efficient development costs, which contribute to the firm's reputation, market share, long-term profitability (Gatignon and Xuereb, 1997), and value (Koski and Kretschmer, 2010). With new product failure rates at about 95 percent (Nobel, 2011), managers need appropriate configurations of organizational capabilities (Hamel and Prahalad, 1994) for efficient NPD. Such configurations are challenging for firms of emerging markets, as they tend to have less resources and experience than their counterparts in developed markets (Hitt et al., 2005).\nTheoretical foundation and conceptual framework: Emerging markets, which are characterized by rapid environmental changes, are ideal for observing dynamic capabilities (Zhou and Li, 2010). Dynamic capabilities refers to the firm's ability to reconfigure their existing capabilities so that it can adapt to and exploit opportunities that emerge under new market conditions (Teece et al., 1997). Dynamic capabilities exist at different organizational levels, e.g. zero-, first-, and second-order (e.g. Ambrosini et al., 2009; Winter, 2003) and may be interlinked, with second-order capabilities influencing the development of first-order dynamic capabilities (Schilke, 2013; Zollo and Winter, 2002). The organization's internal learning environment is crucial to the development of dynamic capabilities (e.g. Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000). Such learning involves the acquisition, retention, and transferring of knowledge among organizational members and the modification of behaviors that reflect new knowledge and insights (Huber, 1991). Learning mechanisms embedded in the organization create knowledge to build dynamic capabilities that enables the organization to adapt to changes in the business environment.\nMethodology: The sampling frame was the Thai Chamber of Commerce directory, which lists over 750 firms. A random set of 500 firms were telephoned to identify an appropriate key informant and to secure participation. The questionnaire was then sent to key informants at 279 firms. To ensure response quality and to minimize common method variance, informants were ensured of anonymity and confidentiality (Podsakoff et al., 2003). The final sample size is 156 (response rate of 56.9 percent), which is sufficient for cluster analysis (Formann, 1984) and larger than samples of several other strategy studies involving cluster analyses (e.g. Lai et al., 2007; Park, 2010). Sample characteristics are shown in Table I. There were no significant performance differences between early and late respondents, revealing no non-response bias (Armstrong and Overton, 1977).\nDiscussion: Findings\nConclusion: Understanding how complementary strategic orientations can build NPDCAP and increase NPD performance are of growing interest to academics. Although much of the strategy literature attempts to identify dominant strategic orientations, multiple strategic orientations' role on NPD in this study illustrates their essential role in the strategy dialogue. As such, managers must not consider NPD decisions independent of strategic orientation. This study is among the few to explore complementary strategic orientations, as well as NPDCAPs, in an emerging market context. It is hoped that this paper inspires future research to refine theory and to further our understanding of how firms in emerging markets may be stretching their resources to create complex dynamic capabilities.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify firm groups pursuing different configurations of customer-, entrepreneurial-, and information technology (IT) orientation and to compare their new product development (NPD) capability and NPD performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Hierarchical cluster analysis was used on the sample of 156 firms on the basis of their mix of customer-, entrepreneurial-, and IT- orientation. Then, analysis of variance was used to compare the groups' NPD capability (NPDCAP), NPD process efficiency (NPDPROC), new product effectiveness (NPEFF), and new product financial performance (NPPERF).\nFindings: Of the seven strategy configurations posited, four emerge and two unexpected configurations are revealed. Overall, firms simultaneously pursuing multiple strategic orientations have higher NPDCAP, NPEFF, and NPPERF. Interestingly, all six strategy groups have equally low levels of NPDPROC.\nPractical implications: To enhance NPDCAP and NPD performance, managers should consider more complex strategy configurations that act in complementary ways, in particular, customer-orientation complemented by either entrepreneurial- and/or IT-orientation. Moreover, more attention is needed to improving NPDPROC, as achieving gains in this area would contribute positively to firm performance.\nOriginality/value: This study presents initial evidence that, at least for firms in Thailand, resources must be configured by pursuing several strategic orientations simultaneously to enhance their dynamic capabilities in NPD, a strategic issue that has not been given much attention in previous literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Nocebo effects from negative product information: when information hurts, paying money could heal
|
[
"Perception",
"Evaluation",
"Pricing",
"Side effects",
"Negative information",
"Nocebo"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Maggi, an instant noodle brand, faced an intense phase of negative information in many markets across the world recently. Media coverage, with negative information regarding a range of packaged foods containing trans-fat and monosodium glutamate, created health concerns and fear among consumers. Should Nestle, the firm that makes Maggi, be considering a change in price or a discount? With the advent of multiple available sources of information, potential positive and negative effects of different product categories are at one's fingertips. Reading about positive effects can enhance positive experiences even when the physical product is the same (placebo effect; Price et al., 2008) while reading about negative consequences or side effects can exaggerate negative experiences even in inert situations (nocebo effect; Barsky et al., 2002).\nConceptual background: Positive information about an inert product that physically has no reason to modulate physiological processes (or impact objective product experience) can sometimes influence the perceived experience and also behaviorally increase the efficacy of the product. This finding has been called a placebo effect (see Price et al., 2008 for a review). Placebo is a term meaning \"I shall please\". In a typical placebo scenario, a subject is given an inert substance called placebo (such as sugar pills) but told that it is an effective substance with positive consequences (such as an analgesic). When subjects take a placebo and believe that it is an effective substance, they show changes in behavior such as reduction in both expected and reported symptoms (Benedetti et al., 2005). Even when a patient knows that the pill is a placebo, still some people report feeling better for certain medical conditions (Kaptchuk et al, 2010). Specific biochemical pathways have started showing there are real physiological changes mediated through expectations (Enck et al., 2008), thus linking perception with somato-sensation closely.\nPreliminary study: Fifty-nine graduate students from an Indian business school who declared that they had consumed health-drinks earlier participated in the study (Mage = 23.5, SD = 1.48). The experiment was introduced as a product pre-testing study on energy drinks. Respondents were told that there were many energy drinks being sold, with a range of chemical compositions and prices. They were also reminded of the typical price range in the local market by stating that for an approximately 250 ml pack (similar to the can shown to them), the majority of popular brands price the product between 35 INR and 115 INR. It was important to provide a price range because price-quality relationships are mostly piecewise linear within a range (Peterson, 1970) and hence we could manipulate low versus high prices in the same range. Then, respondents were informed that they would be looking at a new energy drink brand to be sold in the Indian market but that the name would not be mentioned to preserve anonymity. This was done so that there was no conflation of price effects with prior brand attitudes or experiences. A 250 ml can of an energy drink was wrapped in a tape and presented in front of the respondents to add credibility to the cover story and also because we wanted them to see the size of the product.\nExperiment 1: Customers were exposed to generic information about potential negative side effects about a product category. Price (low vs high) was manipulated orthogonally with exposure to information (negative information vs no information) on a commonly used product (skin cream). As previous experience with products can influence perceptions of placebo-type effects (Shiv et al., 2005), we only included those participants who reported to have used a similar product before.\nExperiment 2: One group of participants read about potential side-effects, and the other group read a similar passage but without any mention of product side-effects (see appendix for text). Three price frames were presented for a low, discounted price and high price. The dependent variables were perception of the cream and evaluations of the cream measured using two items: quality and desirability. The item \"intention to purchase\" was removed, because conceptually, evaluation of products can be distinct from intentions to purchase.\nGeneral discussion: Knowledge about aspects of a product such as brands or ingredients (McClure et al., 2004; Lee et al., 2006; Litt and Shiv, 2012) and price (Shiv et al., 2005; Plassmann et al., 2008) can have large influences on perception and evaluation. Our contribution is as follows. First, we document a clear nocebo effect on perception through the reading of information that is completely extrinsic to the product. Most previous works on nocebo effects has been in the medical domain and there are hardly any reported studies on consumer behavior. Second, we are not aware of studies that have examined the role of price when one is made aware about negative aspects of a product category. In the preliminary study, offering a discount backfired: people had higher preference for a product when sold at a normal market price compared to being offered at a discounted price in the face of negative information. As discounts can signal multiple aspects of a firm, we manipulated the price directly in experiment 1 and found that the same product at a lower price gives rise to a stronger nocebo-type perceptual effect when there is prior knowledge about negative side effects. Thus, the nocebo effect is more vivid at a lower price range than at a higher price range. Experiment 2 showed that even in comparison to a group, which read about a product (but did not read about any negative information), perceptual nocebo effects are observed. In addition, while fixed prices have been thought to convey a higher value than discount prices (Suri et al., 2000), both experiments show that the effects are observable with absolute/fixed prices too. This is important from the marketers' point-of-view. Not only would it be a questionable strategy to offer a discount when there is generic negative information about a product category, it is better to have a comparatively higher selling price. Thus, our study suggests that initiatives to boost short-term sales by lowering prices can be a bad strategy for the firm. Please note that in all the experiments, the negative information was about a class of products and not of a specific brand. Corrective measures for brand management thus would not be necessarily useful and hence it is important to look at other strategies such as pricing actions. Finally, we do not observe the effects on evaluation of the product measured by judgment of quality and desirability. Recent neuroscientific evidences suggest that perceptual judgments and evaluations are separate cognitive processes. Emotional circuits in the brain such as the insula and amygdala are associated more with perception while cognitive evaluations and actions are mainly codified in the cortical areas such as ventro-medial prefrontal cortex (Fitzgerald et al., 2009). Perception could be an earlier step followed by decision value computations leading to actual choices being implemented in the prefrontal cortex at a later stage (Grabenhorst and Rolls, 2011). Our results suggest while the step of perceptual judgments are affected by negative information, later evaluations leading to decisions might not be as easily affected.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This research aimed to find whether information about a product can give rise to negative perceptions even in inert situations (nocebo effects), and to understand how price levels impact such judgments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In all experiments, participants were exposed to negative product information in the form of potential side-effects. In an initial study, a higher non-discounted versus a discounted price frame was presented for a health drink after customers were exposed to negative aspects. Then, in experiment 1, price (high vs low) and exposure to information (no information vs negative information) was manipulated for skin creams where participants physically evaluated the cream. In experiment 2, price was manipulated at three levels (low, high, discounted) orthogonally with product information (no negative information vs with negative information) to get a more nuanced understanding.\nFindings: In the initial study, after exposure to negative information, the non-discounted group had more positive ratings for the drink. Study 1 showed that reading about negative information resulted in a nocebo effect on perception of dryness (side-effect). Moreover, when no information was presented, perception of dryness by low and high price groups were similar but in the face of negative information, perception of dryness by low-price group was more pronounced compared to a high-price group. Study 2 conceptually replicated the effect and also confirmed that not only discounts (commonly linked with product quality), but absolute price levels also show a similar effect.\nPractical implications: Nocebo effects have been rarely documented in consumer research. This research showed how simply reading generically about potential side effects gives rise to nocebo effects. In addition, even though marketers might find it tempting to lower prices when there is negative information about certain product categories, such an action could backfire.\nOriginality/value: To the best of our knowledge, the link between observable nocebo effects and its link with pricing actions is a novel research thread. We were able to show a nocebo effect on product perception after reading about negative information and also find that a higher price can mitigate the nocebo effect to some extent.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Functional heterogeneity and senior management team effectiveness: The mediating role of school leadership
|
[
"Principals",
"Boundary activities",
"Functional heterogeneity",
"Senior management team"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Schools face a more dynamic relationship with their environment than they did in the past (Ng, 2013). There has been an increasing trend toward the creation of senior management teams (SMTs) which consist of senior school staff (Bush and Glover, 2012). In addition to their teaching responsibilities, SMT members hold supervisory responsibility (Koh et al., 2011). SMTs have come to occupy a powerful place in the decision-making process in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and elsewhere (Barnett and McCormick, 2012; Cardno, 2010). However, research has mainly focussed on the internal, cognitive/social dynamics of SMTs, while there has been a dearth of studies on SMT composition as a factor that may substantially impact team processes and outcomes. Yet, research has tend to confirm that SMTs are characterized by high-functional heterogeneity (Somech and Drach-Zahavy, 2007). Although functional heterogeneity offers potential benefits, such as organizational innovation and renewal, studies have also indicated a potentially negative impact of heterogeneity in increased costs and conflicts (Yong et al., 2014). This suggests that functional heterogeneity may provide both benefits and challenges to team processes and outcomes.\nTheoretical background and literature review: Functional heterogeneity in an SMT and the principal's internal and external activities\nMethod: Setting\nResults: Table I illustrates the means, standard deviations, and correlations for all the study variables.\nDiscussion: Assembling a team that includes members from different functional backgrounds is often believed to contribute to organizational improvement (Bronstein et al., 2010). However, research has shown that such teams do not always achieve their potential. There is a trade-off relationship (Li et al., 2012); scholars talk of the \"double-edged sword.\" On one hand, low functional heterogeneity promotes commitment and a shared sense of purpose (Carpenter, 2002); on the other hand, high functional heterogeneity facilitates communication with individuals from outside the team providing the team with broader resources (Drach-Zahavy and Somech, 2010). The present study postulates a relationship between SMT functional heterogeneity and the principal's tendency toward internal and external activities and that such activities may promote SMT effectiveness.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: There has been an increasing trend toward the creation of senior management teams (SMTs) which are characterized by a high degree of functional heterogeneity. Although such teams may create better linkages to information, along with the benefits of functional heterogeneity comes the potential for conflicts that stem from the value differences among subcultures in an organization. These conflicts can adversely affect performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine how school leaders' activities mediate the relationship of SMT functional heterogeneity to SMT effectiveness (in-role performance and innovation).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data, which were obtained through a survey, was collected from a sample of 92 schools in Israel. Data were collected from two sources (principals and SMT members) to minimize problems associated with same source and common method bias. Data were aggregated at the team level of analysis.\nFindings: The results of structural equation model indicated that principal's internal activities enhanced SMT in-role performance whereas principals' external activities enhanced SMT innovation. The results also showed that principal's internal activities are full mediators of the relationship between functional heterogeneity and SMT in-role performance.\nOriginality/value: This study has implications for policies involving the design and implementation of leadership tools to effectively manage SMTs. The results of this study can help principals to establish priorities and allocate their time and resources more effectively, both inward and outward the SMT boundary so as to assist functionally heterogeneous SMTs translating the benefits of functional heterogeneity into significant achievements.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
How can very small SMEs make the time for training and development: skill charting as an example of taking a scenistic approach
|
[
"Training",
"Small to medium‐sized enterprises",
"Small enterprises",
"Training methods"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIssues confronting the small SME: This paper addresses the problems, identified and verified in several studies over the past 20 years, that confront the small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) involving the training and development of employees. Here we identify some of the problems and background information to help explain why the problems persist, particularly in very small businesses, those with fewer than 20 employees[1]. Then, we present a rationale and suggestions for training and development that is responsive to many of the issues that influence training needs in the small SME.\nThe importance of this topic: Size matters. Recent research (see, Admiraali and Lockhorst, 2009) indicates that very small SMEs (from one to 20 employees) do not engage in formal training for individuals and/or groups. Informal training, often conducted by the owner/manager, tends to be limited to activities such as an orientation to the business and its tasks, hands-on training in relevant job skills, and other as-needed guidance.Training and development of employees matters. Studies have shown (Ghassemich et al., 2005) that competitive advantage is compromised if employees are not adequately trained. Some key factors on what we currently know about training activities in SMEs are highlighted below:1. Characteristics. Hornsby and Kuratko (2003) found that in types of training examined, all but computer-aided instruction (CAI) declined in use from 1990 to 2002.2. Common practices. Studies find the most used methods for training in small manufacturing business were:* orientation for new employees;* in house, on-the-job, experientially-grounded supervised training; and* skills training for one's immediate job role.3. Sources of training. Aside from on-the-job, in-the-moment, skill training provided by the owner/manager of the very small SME, other sources of training include:* on-site training by a contractor;* off-site training;* purchased training materials in written, video, or audio form; and* online or distance education.4. Barriers to training. Disadvantages include issues of scale, time and resource constraints. Ghassemich et al. (2005) found that, in the small SME, bringing in an HR specialist or consultant to provide training was not very cost effective.5. Desired features for training:* inexpensive;* tailored;* on-site;* flexible;* involve the owner/manager and employees;* engage, motivate, and involve employees in learning and content of learning;* experiential and hands-on; and* usable across several skills needs.The small SME is an endangered species given the failure rate of small businesses and the challenges SMEs face daily. Competition is demanding enough but when employees of SMEs are less well-equipped in knowledge and skills than their counterparts in larger businesses, the small firm is further disadvantaged.\nScenistic methods as a possible solution: Scenistic methods are those that involve trainees directly in the creation of strategies to improve performance in some domain. The critical parts of scenistic methods are: performance in situ, and employees-as-participants in creation, production, and application of training activities and materials. Often, the result of the training is the development of scripts and guides that serve to improve future performance, and/or solve problems. Scenistic methods often use case material, stories, critical incidents, episodes, video material, etc., that are related to a particular performance context in the work setting, and/or outcome that stimulates a clearly identifiable training need (for example, managing customer complaints).The material used in the training and development process may be created for the employee (low involvement), or the material may be the creation of employees and/or managers (high involvement). Depending on the experience level and motivation of the group, it is far more desirable for employees to be participants in the training preparation. There is a developed theory and practice base for scenistic methods (see, for example, Leleu-Merviel et al. (2002) and Lyons (2010)). There are also several theory and conceptual bases for scenistic approaches including: situated learning/cognition (Kirschner and Whitson, 1997); constructivism (Jonassen, 1991), experiential learning (Kolb, 1984), and action theory (Frese, 2007). It is beyond the scope of this article to elaborate on the details of these conceptual bases.\nSteps for the scenistic method: The sequential process is one that can be adapted to a variety of training purposes. The process consists of steps arranged in a sequence that provokes learners' interest and motivation (Lyons, 2010):1. A body of information is identified (issues, problems, needs, etc.).2. Engagement and Clarification with Trainees. Group session of trainees:* Problem identification (focus on problem details).* Possible interventions (identify possible responses).3. Small group work (identity of practical alternatives, etc.).4. Intervention and script identity (resulting from small group work).5. Modeling the intervention (demonstration of actions to solve problems).6. Recognition of skilled intervention practices.7. Modeling - rehearsal.We commence with job-focused material (step 1) and then move to recognition of issues and problems (step 2). Conceptual knowledge cannot be set aside or abstracted from the situation in which it is learned; rather, it is situated in the context and culture in which it is developed. The idea is to create conditions in which the learners can directly experience the issues, complexity and ambiguity presented in a real, operating environment (steps 3-7).\nScenistic methods for the very small SME: skill charting: Skill charting offers managers the means to do several important, interrelated things that will result in an improvement in:* the quality and quantity of performance;* the learning of managers and employees;* employee job skills;* feelings of being \"in\" on things or connectedness; and* feelings of improved competence and positive self-image.The skill chart (SC) is the result of a process of listing critical skill and knowledge elements of a task, job, role, or unit so as to demonstrate or discover, or re-discover, what is needed for successful performance. SC listings are followed by activities that seek to create refinements of skilled behavior and create standards for measuring skilled performance. Its key is that it is a co-construction of the anticipated skilled behavior based on the collaborators' perception of the difference between existing and improved performance.For example, suppose our business has a sales function and we have individuals, or a sales team, primarily involved in direct selling to customers in-person or by telephone.1. The body of Information is identified. An initial analysis might identify:* Performance domain. To better assist the customer to define his/her needs.* Performance indicators. Information from customer satisfaction surveys, random telephone surveys of customer buyer experiences, unsolicited comments from customers, manager observations of associates' performance. This case/incident serves as a target to focus attention on needs and issues and is shared with trainees.2. Engagement and clarification with trainees. In a group session, we seek input and involvement from employees to help shape the need for training to improve employee knowledge and skill in dealing with customer needs. This involves the recognition that we have a performance gap. We move from the case/incident material to a voiced understanding of needs and problems.3. Small group work (with a single, small group of employees). The chart starts out as a graphical organizer of ideas that might be part of an episode where the employee needs to behave in a more skilled manner. As performance gaps are known, the group commences to chart, on poster sheets, whiteboard, or PowerPoint, the bits of information, data, intuition, guesses, or expert opinion that may influence improved performance.They list the major activities and actions that need to occur as part of a skillful repertoire of behavior to address the performance gaps. Significant component areas could be:* greeting, meeting/encountering the customer;* creating questions and using questions with the customer;* active listening to/with the customer;* reflecting and summarizing customer statements; and* focusing on how product/service choice meets customer needs.4. Intervention and script identity. The team identifies important performance activities or behaviors, each with subordinate parts. As the charting takes on complexity and details, participants create a script. That is, the participants construct the features, activities and language of a skilled performance. The graphical nature of the map helps to illuminate interrelationships and interdependencies among components allowing participants to view issues as holistic in nature.This process yields requirements for improved performance. All requirements are not of equal value; they will need to be placed in priority order according to team-developed criteria such as importance or perceived value to customer. The requirements must go through some valuation of what performance facilitation which may, or may not be a skill the owner/manager possesses. If not, the local SCORE chapter, a primary source in the USA for free business counseling, would be of assistance with facilitation training.Once a detailed and/or hierarchical set of actions or behaviors has been identified, the team may discuss the adequacy of the repertoire as a sufficient improvement to achieve the original goal: assisting the customer to define his/her needs. Each of the actions or behaviors can be examined in terms of skilled performance. These questions may be helpful:* What criteria would define each action as a skilled performance?* What criteria make sense in terms of quality or consequences?The team has to question where the gaps remain in the repertoire we are referring to as skilled behavior. This reflective dialog is very useful in aiding understanding. Once all the possible actions are discussed, adjusted, and agreed to, the details are documented.5. Modeling the intervention. The preparation for the actual changes in performance is, fundamentally, a codification of a script for a skilled repertoire of behavior. The team has created a script of behavior to result in improved performance. Then, each of the teams models or practices the repertoire for other trainees, who can offer advice, constructive criticism, and the like. In this way, the scripts and guides may be improved.6. Recognition of skilled intervention practices. Starting with the skill chart the employee group (trainees) have helped create scripts and guides to shape skilled intervention practices. Using their knowledge and experience the trainees have come to a more informed knowledge of skilled practice.7. Modeling - rehearsal. Together, they may continue to practice and rehearse what they have created and learned.\nSummary: By itself, skill charting can be used for many training applications in which the active participation of employees is key. However, the approach described in this article positively addresses the needs of very small enterprise in particular. The approach is inexpensive, flexible, is used on-site, is experiential in nature, involves management and employees, and has relatively broad applicability.Other applications of SC tools might include: the conduct of job analysis, in-depth task analysis, the development of new competencies and standards, performance analysis and appraisal. Virtually all of these matters influence individual learning and organizational performance and have positive implications for the competitiveness of a very small SME.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to make clear some of the issues and problems that confront the small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) when it comes to the training and development of employees. The paper aims to present a training methodology specifically for the small business.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The scenistic method, which involves trainees directly in the creation of strategies to improve performance in some domain, has been introduced in prior literature, and is proposed as particularly appropriate for the small business environment.\nFindings: - Very small enterprises provide workplace training in a significantly different manner than do larger organizations. Usually, the owner-manager conducts whatever training there is and the training provided addresses only what is needed at the moment rather than be part of an overall training strategy. Workplace training correlates with employee satisfaction and lower turnover. However, often the very small enterprise does not have the resources to provide such a training program. This paper proposes an on-the-job training model for very small organizations.\nPractical Implications: - The scenistic method provides an inexpensive training opportunity that is tailored to specific needs. It may be conducted on site. It is flexible. Both the owner/manager and the employees play key roles in the training experience. It is experiential and hands on. And, it provides a model that is adaptable across several skill needs.\nOriginality/value: - This paper introduces a training method to SMEs that can be easily adopted and used. Training and development of employees matters. Studies show that competitive advantage is compromised if employees are not adequately trained. Competition is demanding enough but when employees of the SME are less well equipped per knowledge and skills than their counterparts in larger businesses, the small firm is likely further disadvantaged. A trained, knowledgeable employee adds value to the firm and helps the firm to be more competitive. The scenistic method will allow the very small SME to effectively address these critical issues.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Can self-evaluation measure the effect of IEQ on productivity? A review of literature
|
[
"Performance measurement",
"Perception",
"Productivity",
"Ergonomics",
"Building evaluation",
"Post-occupancy evaluation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Building performance concerning indoor environment quality (IEQ) has gained increasing attention in recent years. The fact that people spend around 90 per cent of their time indoors (Klepeis et al., 2001) has made the implications of the indoor environment imperative to designers. There is evidence towards a consensus view that the IEQ conditions that result in comfort do, in fact, increase the productivity of occupants (Lan and Lian, 2009; Hameed and Amjad, 2009; Liu et al., 2010; Kekalainen et al., 2010). However, recent studies have findings that indicate that there is no causal link between occupant productivity and IEQ (Zhang et al., 2011; Mak and Lui, 2012; McCunn and Gifford, 2012; Healey and Webster-Mannison, 2012) in office environments. But this assumes that the methods of measuring productivity have validity. Perception study, expressly questionnaires and interviews that ask occupants to evaluate their perceived productivity (Leaman, 2012), is a conventional method that has been used to measure the cognitive performance of workers. A literature review carried out by Onyeizu (2014), wherein the author reviews past works on the relationship between IEQ and occupant productivity in Green office spaces, showed that majority of studies in this subject area had used self-evaluated productivity (questionnaires or interviews) as their method of investigation.\n2. Methodology: The objective of the review is to highlight issues associated with self-evaluation and barriers to its insufficiency in capturing occupant productivity in its totality. The literature reviewed includes referred journal and conference papers. A review of available literature was carried out on the subject of perception studies and self-evaluation as well as occupant performance in the office environment. A search of keywords, namely, performance, indoor environment quality, productivity, questionnaire and interview, was carried out through Google Scholar and ScienceDirect engines for studies published after the year 2000 to reflect the current state of the art in research and its relevance in this field. Studies that used self-evaluation (questionnaires or interview) as the sole method of measuring the effect of IEQ on productivity/performance were selected. It was also important that these studies are from peer-reviewed sources. The bibliographies of collected articles were examined to identify relevant articles that might have been missed during the search.\n3. Results: Table I provides basic information on each study reviewed. All the studies use questionnaires and/or interview as their method of measuring the effect of IEQ on productivity. The studies reviewed were found to focus mainly on IEQ factors such as temperature, noise, indoor air quality (IAQ), lighting and personal control over IEQ factors in the office environment. As shown in Figure 1, 35 per cent of the studies found a correlation between overall IEQ and perceived productivity, while 17 per cent found no significant correlation. Fifteen per cent felt noise was correlated with productivity and 12 per cent perceived temperature as an influencing factor. This is followed by lighting (9 per cent), IAQ (6 per cent) and visual privacy and control over IEQ (3 per cent).\n4. Measuring productivity in the office environment: In this section, we look into the various issues that can limit the accurate measurement of occupant productivity in an office environment. The issues discussed are inherent in a typical working environment, making it a complicated process to identify how external factors affect productivity.\n5. Conclusion: In this paper, we revisited the theory behind perception study and discussed the various potential issues that can affect the quality of results. The intention of this review is to highlight the insufficiency of self-evaluation in measuring occupant productivity (cognitive performance) and the influence of IEQ on it. The discussions carried out in this paper showed that self-evaluation is compromised by various issues that significantly affect the validity of their results. We also demonstrated that measuring productivity in an office environment is often limited by various issues. Thus, self-evaluation is insufficient and does not accurately measure productivity. As such, it cannot be claimed that a comfortable IEQ results in a productive occupant based on results from self-evaluation studies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this literature review is to investigate the reliability of self-evaluation as a method for measuring the effect(s) of indoor environment quality (IEQ) on the productivity of office workers. The aim of this review is to identify the various constraints to its adequacy in measuring productivity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Thirty studies were selected from peer-reviewed sources and reviewed on their method of measuring productivity. These studies used self-evaluation (questionnaires or interview) as the sole method of measuring the effect of IEQ on productivity/performance.\nFindings: This review provides insight on the insufficiencies and biases prevalent in self-evaluation. Various issues that compromised the reliability of self-evaluation results in an office environment were discussed. It was concluded that self-evaluation is not reliable and does not accurately measure occupant productivity.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study has been a review of past studies and their findings. Further studies that will provide empirical evidence are required to solely test the reliability of self-evaluation in measuring productivity and the effect of factors such as IEQ on it.\nPractical implications: The paper calls for further debate on occupant productivity measurement and how the various factors that affect it can be quantified into measurable entities.\nOriginality/value: This paper fulfils an identified need to revisit the technique of self-evaluation as a method for measuring occupant productivity.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Managing "a little bit unsafe": complexity, construction safety and situational self-organising
|
[
"Complexity",
"Safety",
"Management",
"Social constructionism",
"Construction site",
"Construction safety",
"Situational self-organising"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Construction safety has been improving in the developed world over the last few decades. For example, the rate of fatal injury in the UK is currently less than a quarter of what it was in 2000/2001 and less than a fifth of what it was in 1990/1991 (Health and Safety Executive, 2017). However, there were still 38 fatal injuries to construction workers in UK during 2017/2018, and it has been suggested that accident rates have now \"plateaued\" (Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, 2018), and reached the level at which established approaches to safety management on sites are unable to support further improvements. Whilst \"simple\" accidents have been reduced, for example, those now prevented by the inclusion of guards on plant and machinery, those accidents that remain are now more complicated; they can, for example, be a consequence of multiple work interfaces and workspace change, as undertaken within the wider context of production pressure.\nContext: Complexity and construction\nMethodology: In order to provide empirical illustration of our argument for the inclusion of situational self-organisation within the safety management strategies of construction sites, relevant data collected from a wider study exploring construction site safety overall has been unpacked, revisited and presented here through a lens of complexity theory.\nFindings: What is construction site safety?\nDiscussion: is construction ready to become adaptive?: Empirical work in the field of complexity has demonstrated the capabilities of people to detect, adapt and correct their systems as necessary (Hovden et al., 2010), and construction people should be able to do this, perhaps even more than most. Construction workers are some of the most adaptable and creative in the world, solutions and fixes are part of everyday construction work and the attitude pervades that there is \"nothing that can't be done\" (Sherratt, 2016). The examination of the dominant discourses of safety as found on large UK construction sites presented here has been able to empirically demonstrate a space in which the safety management approach of situational self-organising, as set out in the principles of adaptive safety, has the potential to be adopted.\nConclusions: The complex nature of the construction industry, both technologically and socially, means it is eminently suitable for both the unpacking of its processes from complexity-theory perspectives. A strong sense of purpose is needed for a system to self-organise effectively (Reiman et al., 2015), but construction has just that: working to drawings and specifications through agreed sequencing as defined by technologies, which lead to a tangible, finished product. It also has a workforce able to invent and innovate with regards to such technologically complex work, therefore why not also apply such innovation to safety?\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to unpack the shared understandings of safety held by workers on large UK construction sites using a complexity lens, and so provide empirical support for the inclusion of situational self-organising within construction site safety management systems (SMS).\nDesign/methodology/approach: A social constructionist epistemology supports the discourse analysis of talk (semi-structured interview and conversational), text (SMS and documentation) and visual (safety related signage) data collection from five large (+PS20 m) UK construction sites.\nFindings: Construction workers readily understand safety to be an emergent phenomenon with the complex system that is the construction site. Contemporary safety management approaches struggle with this complexity, yet there is the potential to mobilise situational self-organising on sites to improve safety in practice.\nResearch limitations/implications: Epistemological foundations mean no claim is made to generalisability as perceived by traditional positivistic parameters. The data are limited to large (+PS20 m) UK construction sites; however, underlying construction management systems are common to the industry as a whole and can find fit with practitioner experiences and other empirical academic work from both the UK and other countries.\nPractical implications: Situational self-organising of safety management within the construction workforce is proposed as a key contribution to a relevant, dynamic and effective SMS.\nOriginality/value: Data are analysed from a social constructionist perspective and considered through a complexity lens. This approach unpacks these data in an original way to seek synergy with existing adaptive safety approaches, specifically situational self-organising and make recommendations for practice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Decision support systems for sustainable logistics: a review and bibliometric analysis
|
[
"Sustainability",
"Logistics",
"Systematic review",
"Bibliometric analysis",
"Decision support system",
"Text visualization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Logistics is vital to the success of supply chains and inevitably linked with the overall organizational performance. The activities may involve freight transport, materials handling, storage and inventory management. Logistics has the potential of bringing tremendous impact on local as well as global trade by aiming to supply the right items at the right place and right time. In the past two decades, there has been a growing concern for environmental and social impacts of logistics besides economic aspects. In this regard, the term \"green logistics\" and \"sustainable logistics\" has been used by organizations and academic researchers.\nMethodology: According to Fink (1998), \"A literature review is a systematic, explicit, and reproducible design for identifying, evaluating, and interpreting the existing body of recorded documents.\" Systematic literature reviews are different from conventional narrative reviews in that they are more transparent and reduce bias in literature search and summarize them objectively (Petticrew and Roberts, 2006). A three-step process for the systematic literature review is described below, which was adapted from Fahimnia et al. (2015):\nInitial data statistics: The Scopus database classifies the shortlisted papers into a number of subject areas. The top ten subject fields are given in Table III. Some of the papers are mentioned in more than one field, as classified by Scopus. Furthermore, the publishing trend is shown in Figure 1, which shows the number of papers plotted against years. The first paper appeared in 1994 by Fischer (1994). He pointed out the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) principles and techniques in a geographic information system environment for applications including land-use planning, distribution logistics, etc. Afterward, the field is revived in 2001 following a long gap of seven years. Since 2001, there is an overall increasing trend of publications with some peaks and troughs. The publications have relatively increased in the past three years; however, the absolute frequency is still low. It is also observed that the 40 papers were published in 32 different journals. The top five journals that have published more than one paper and shared a total of 12 papers representing 30 percent of all articles are shown in Table IV.\nBibliometric analysis: This section mainly presents the analysis of authors, keywords and affiliations. Identifying the key researchers and universities across the globe will help scholars, students and organizations to conduct research with relevant researchers at various universities (Fahimnia et al., 2015). In this regard, BibExcel is used for this purpose which extracts and analyzes bibliographic data. The data of shortlisted papers that includes author name, affiliation, journal, paper title, abstract, publication year are exported from Scopus in RIS format which is compatible with BibExcel.\nText network visualization: The texts from titles and abstracts of papers were exported in comma-separated value file format and used as input for text mining using VOSviewer software to explore the text pattern presented in Figure 3. The size of circles and text visibility are proportional to the occurrence of words. The text visualization also shows links between terms that are appearing together. A total of 1,462 terms were found by the software out of which 156 words were selected to be mapped that appeared at least three times, although the data have certain noise and are not enough to perform rich analysis and clustering. However, the text visualization highlights the inferences made from the keywords analysis. Most of the papers are primarily concerned with proposing a model, framework, approach or decision support tool to solve logistics issues with a focus on reducing cost and environmental impact including the carbon footprint.\nConclusions, limitations and future directions: This paper presents a systematic review and bibliometric analysis of literature about DSSs for sustainable logistics. It is pertinent to note that the state of research in this area is still in its infancy and requires swift advancement given the dynamics of business environments. We have used bibliometric and visualization tools to analyze journal paper data and have drawn the following conclusions from this study: first, the publication trend in this area has been rising since 2013; however, the absolute frequency of these publications is still low. Second, there are only two top contributing authors in this area who are also found to be the only paired authors. Third, the only influential journal in this area is International Journal of Production Economics, which published four papers in the last two years. Fourth, the geographic distribution of contributing affiliations is focused at the eastern part of North America, Western Europe and Asia. Fifth, the top collaborating organizations are either within the USA or the UK. Sixth, the keyword statistics and text visualization reveal that certain models, systems and frameworks have been proposed to solve logistical issues concerning sustainability but the research area is partially covered regarding various DSS configurations as well as different types of problems within logistics.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Decision making in logistics is an increasingly complex task for organizations as these involve decisions at strategic, tactical and operational levels coupled with the triple-bottom line of sustainability. Decision support systems (DSS) played a vital role in arguably solving the challenges associated with decision making in sustainable logistics. The purpose of this paper is to explore the current state of the research in the domain of DSS for logistics while considering sustainability aspects.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A systematic review approach using a set of relevant keywords with several exclusion criteria was adopted to identify literature related to DSS for sustainable logistics. A total of 40 papers were found from 1994 to 2015, which were then analyzed along the dimensions of publishing trend, geographic distribution and collaboration, the most influential journals, affiliations and authors as well as the key themes of identified literature. The analysis was conducted by means of bibliometric and text mapping tools, namely BibExcel, gpsvisualizer and VOSviewer.\nFindings: The bibliometric analysis showed that DSS for sustainable logistics is an emerging field; however, it is still evolving but at a slower pace. Furthermore, most of the contributing affiliations belong to the USA and the UK. The text mining and keyword analysis revealed key themes of identified papers. The inherent key themes were decision models and frameworks to address sustainable logistics issues covering transport, distribution and third-party logistics. The most prominent sustainable logistics issue was carbon footprinting. Social impact has been given less attention in comparison to economic and environmental aspects. The literature has adequate room for proposing more effective solutions by considering various types of multi-criteria decision analysis methods and DSS configurations while simultaneously considering economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainable logistics. Moreover, the field has potential to include logistics from wide application areas including freight transport through road, rail, sea, air as well as inter-modal transport, port operations, material handling and warehousing.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first systematic review of DSS for sustainable logistics using bibliometric and text analysis. The key themes and research gaps identified in this paper will provide a reference point that will encourage and guide interested researchers for future study, thus aiding both theoretical and practical advancements in this discipline.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Anxiety about electronic data hacking: Predictors and relations with digital privacy protection behavior
|
[
"Information technology",
"Social media",
"Privacy",
"Anxiety",
"Electronic communication",
"Psychological stress"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: \"Information privacy\" - more specifically, digital privacy - has been defined as an interest held by individuals to control or influence how their private information is used (Pavlou, 2011; Smith et al., 2011). Digital privacy is often conceptualized from a value-based perspective, with the assumption that people have the legal and/or ethical right to keep their data safe. Additionally, this construct has been conceptualized as a commodity that may be bought or exchanged (Pavlou, 2011). However, context is important to the notion of digital privacy, which is defined and experienced differently depending on the specific culture studied, context, and situation.\nTheoretical background: There are numerous research streams and associated theories that have been used to model digital privacy protection behavior. One notable theory is privacy calculus theory (PCT). This theory suggests that individuals perform a risk-benefit analysis in determining whether to disclose personal information (Culnan and Armstorng, 1999). In arriving at a decision to disclose personal information online to a company, for example, an individual would consider perceived benefits such as coupons or discounts for retail services. However, the individual would also weigh the risks of disclosing such information, including, for example whether the company shares personal information to outside parties. PCT involves many psychological factors that influence an individual's decision-making process (Li, 2012). Cheung et al. (2015) used PCT, and discovered that perceived benefits and social influence drove self-disclosure on SNS. Perceived privacy risk did not inhibit SNS self-disclosure, possibly due to decreased knowledge of privacy risks, or such costs being offset by perceived benefits (Cheung et al., 2015). PCT has the advantage of parsimony in explaining decision making based on benefit and risk calculation, however it assumes that the individual uses a systematic risk-benefit decision-making process in arriving at conclusions.\nResearch model: Chai et al. (2009) used PMT's focus on fear appeals inducing behavior change, and applied this concept to understanding how information privacy concern can influence digital privacy protection behavior. The authors sampled 285 pre-teens and early teenagers from the USA. Specifically, Chai et al. (2009) tested a fully latent structural equation model (SEM) to explain anxiety about data hacking and associated digital privacy protection behavior. The authors also emphasized the importance of additional social-cognitive variables influencing privacy protection, including cognitive (e.g. news exposure), and affective (anxiety) variables. Chai et al. found support particularly for cognitive and environmental variables accounting for digital privacy protection behavior.\nHypotheses: Data hacking and anxiety about hacking\nMethod: Instruments\nResults: Descriptive information\nDiscussion: Our study explored hacking anxiety, its predictors, and the relation with digital privacy protection behavior. Unidimensional evidence was found for data hacking anxiety using the GAD-7-HACK, similar to the one-factor model found for the original GAD-7 (Dear et al., 2011; Ryan et al., 2013; Spitzer et al., 2006). IT profession status was not different on recent anxiety, but different on hacking anxiety. Thus given the relevance of internet privacy to IT professionals' work, their data hacking anxiety is more severe than people in other walks of life, and this construct hangs together more closely in that group based on higher factor loadings. This is important given recent estimates of more than one million IT jobs, and the fast growth of this industry in America (Csorny, 2013).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Despite concerns about digital privacy, little is known about emotional distress about data hacking and surveillance incidents. The purpose of this paper is to examine variables predicting anxiety about data hacking, and the role that such anxiety and other potentially important variables have in explaining the use of digital privacy protection behavior.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 305 participants from an online labor market were sampled who frequently use the internet, surveyed about recent anxiety (using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale (GAD-7)), anxiety about data hacking (GAD-7, in reference to data hacking), and issues of digital privacy: news exposure, perceived importance, self-efficacy, protection behavior, and previous hacking victimization.\nFindings: Profession (information technology-related) moderated the symptom structure for recent anxiety, but not data hacking anxiety. Using structural equation modeling, prior hacking victimization predicted anxiety about hacking. Digital privacy protection behavior was related to hacking anxiety and privacy self-efficacy. Data hacking anxiety mediated relations between hacking victimization and privacy protection. Privacy self-efficacy mediated relations between news exposure to hacking incidents and privacy protection.\nResearch limitations/implications: Limitations include the self-report nature of the instruments, and use of a selective, non-random sample.\nPractical implications: Results highlight knowledge, self-efficacy, and threat appraisal among IT managers in motivating better digital security practices.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study using a standardized instrument of anxiety to examine distress about hacking and predictors of digital privacy protection behavior.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The persuasive effects of emotional green packaging claims
|
[
"Branding",
"ELM",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Environmental",
"Green marketing",
"Food packaging"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: An important motivator of green consumer behavior is the type of packaging claims companies make regarding their products' \"greenness.\" Previous research on green claims typically focuses on branding and advertising (e.g. Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibanez, 2009; Hartmann et al., 2005; Matthes et al., 2014). The effect of green packaging claims has on the other hand been largely ignored. This is unfortunate, because packaging is one of the most important aspects of product strategy (Holmes and Paswan, 2012), it plays a significant role in value creation (Rundh, 2016), and some firms spend more money on packaging than they do on advertising (Rebollar et al., 2012). Due to its presence at the crucial moment when the purchase decision is made, packaging has significant effects on purchase intentions (Orth and Malkewitz, 2008; Underwood, 2003). More specifically, it is especially relevant to study green claims on packaging (as opposed to green claims in advertising) because as Fajardo and Townsend (2016) state:Due to its proximity to the product, a marketing claim placed on a package is more believable than a marketing claim placed in an advertisement [...] Such claim-to-product proximity is taken as a signal of the marketers' credibility, decreasing inferences of manipulative intent and thereby increasing claim believability and purchase likelihood.\nTheoretical framework and hypotheses: The ELM model\nThe empirical studies: Study 1: the effect of rational vs emotional green packaging claims\nGeneral discussion and contributions: Dual processing theories like the ELM-model are often criticized because they take a simplistic view of decision-making by dichotomizing complex phenomena (Melnikoff, 2018). This is a valid concern if one considers complex communication that flows two-ways. However, packaging claims constitute relatively simple, one-way communication that briefly holds the consumer's attention in-store, and marketers therefore have to clarify the point it tries to make. For packaging claims, dichotomizing rational and emotional appeals is therefore less problematic. This paper's shift from previous studies' focus on advertising to packaging allows us to recognize the similarities between the two types of marketing communications, as well as how they differ. This extends theory on green marketing in the food industry. The paper demonstrates that much of previous research on message processing in advertising is valid also for packaging claims. The results validate previous research, but also extend it by widening the scope from advertising to packaging, thus contributing to the research area of green marketing.\nManagerial implications: Managers should emphasize their product's \"greenness\" whenever possible. Whether to use emotional or rational green packaging claims depends on two things: whom they target, and the environment in which they sell their products. Only the most environmentally committed individuals, with the highest level of information processing ability, that are the least distracted, show no preference for packaging with emotional claims. It may therefore be possible for a brand that targets such consumers exclusively via a low-distraction channel like the internet to use rational claims. For everyone else, it is advisable to employ emotional green claims.\nFuture research and limitations: Although the use of students as representative of the general population has been criticized (e.g. Beltramini, 1983; James and Sonner, 2001), student samples are more acceptable and, indeed, more common in experimental settings because experiments primarily aim for internal validity, not representational power (Calder et al., 1981). As for generalizability, Oakes (1972, pp. 962-963) posits that:The generalizability of the results of behavioral research is not a function of the population sampled, but rather that the external validity of the research depends on the interaction of subject characteristics and the particular behavioral phenomenon with which one is concerned.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of rational green packaging claims vs emotional green packaging claims on consumers' purchase propensity for organic coffee.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three within-subjects experiment were carried out (N=87, N=245, N=60). The experimental design encompasses packaging with rational green claims, emotional green claims, as well as a neutral (control) claim. Measured variables are introduced to assess participants' environmental commitment and information processing ability. A manipulated between-subjects variable is introduced to test how distraction interacts with preference for the claims.\nFindings: Overall, consumers prefer products with green claims over those with neutral (control) claims, and products with emotional green claims to those with rational green claims. The studies also reveal that this effect is moderated by participants' environmental commitment, information processing ability and by distraction. The findings were statistically significant (p<0.05).\nResearch limitations/implications: As a lab experiment, the study provides limited generalizability and external validity.\nPractical implications: For most organic FMCG products, it is advisable to employ emotional packaging claims.\nSocial implications: The presented findings provide marketers with tools to influence consumer behavior toward sustainable choices.\nOriginality/value: The paper validates previous contributions on the effects of product claim types, and extends them by introducing comprehensive empirical data on all the Elaboration Likelihood Model's criteria for rational decision-making; motivation, opportunity and ability.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
System supplier's roles from equipment supplier to performance provider
|
[
"Suppliers",
"Knowledge management",
"Supplier relations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction and literature review: The study focuses on the strategic roles available for system suppliers providing large-scale, complex systems to industrial customers. In this context, interaction between the system supplier and the customer is often frequent and multidimensional, because the customer needs the supplier's expertise to be able to fully utilize the benefits of complex systems (Backhaus, 2003). Recently, many business suppliers have invested in professional management of service processes (Vargo and Lusch, 2004). A number of top managers in the system business have stated that their companies want to shift from a supplier of machines and spare parts to the role of a lifetime partner who provides maintenance and other services. In spite of this increasing interest in the strategic business roles of system suppliers, there is very little research and no articulated theory available about this domain. We address this gap by analyzing alternative supplier roles and especially how they can be achieved in demanding supplier-customer relationships. This aim will be approached through the following research questions:* What are the system supplier's roles for the customer?* What factors influence the supplier's role during the supplier-customer relationship?* How can the system supplier manage his roles for the customer?The study starts with the literature review and description of the case study methodology. Next, the key findings are presented. Finally, the theoretical and managerial conclusions are drawn. In more detail, the literature review consists of three parts. First, the previous discussion on the system supplier's roles for the customer is explored. Then, the industrial customer's resource and technology strategies toward the supplier are described. Third, the potential factors influencing the dynamics in the system supplier-customer relationship are analyzed.Roles of system supplier\nMethodology: The study is based on a qualitative multiple case study addressing both the system suppliers and their customers. This approach was seen to match the complexity and comprehensiveness of the focal phenomenon. The case study method (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 2003) allowed data collection from the key managers of both the customer and supplier companies, as well as the utilization of archival data. The case study approach was preferred, because the dispersed prior knowledge of the dynamic research phenomenon did not allow a hypothesis testing approach. The data were collected during February-December 2002 including altogether 50 interviews.The empirical research consists of a pilot study and the main study. The primary purpose of the pilot study was to explore how system suppliers perceive and define their roles. The selected seven suppliers are global system suppliers with a presence in Finland, three being active in the information and communications technology (ICT) and four in traditional engineering industries. Combined with extensive secondary data, the effectively performed eight theme interviews with senior managers in sales, business development and technical support helped to plan a proper structure for the demanding international main study.From the seven pilot companies we selected two global system suppliers with headquarters in Finland for the main empirical study. Supplier A from the ICT sector provides network infrastructure, for instance mobile networks, to telecom operators. Supplier B from the engineering sector sells tinting systems, including liquid colorants, equipment, software, color tools and service to paint companies.The focus of this European-based study was on the long-term development of seven customer relationships, of which three customers were related to supplier A and four to supplier B. Of each relationship, both the supplier's account team members and the customers' key decision makers were interviewed. Before the theme interviews, an extensive pre-study of each relationship was made based on customer satisfaction studies, financial statistics and other available secondary data. This documentation enabled us to include in the discussion difficult topics and views, which otherwise might have been easily neglected in the interviews. All interviews were tape-recorded. The customers were located in Hungary, Switzerland, France, the UK and Norway.In this retrospective longitudinal study, the length of the studied seven relationships ranged between 7 and 25 years. The analysis of each relationship followed the same \"phase-model\" structure. Because phase models based on pre-defined stages have been criticized for not being able to capture the dynamics of individual relationships (Halinen and Tornroos, 1995), we defined the phases per each relationship based on the critical events that each customer and supplier pair had recognized. For each phase, key events, supplier's role, supplier's main activities, and changes in the customer's strategy were identified and described. After all the seven relationships were individually described, the similarities in behavior and consequences, in other words the dynamics of these relationships, were analyzed and the authors drew conclusions. For detailed case descriptions see Helander (2004).\nSystem supplier's dynamic roles for customer: This section discusses the key findings of the empirical study following the order of the research questions. We start by introducing the three roles identified for the system suppliers. We also describe how the supplier's role may change during the long-term relationship and which mechanisms enable the supplier to manage the target roles.System supplier's roles for customer\nDiscussion and conclusions: The study offers several contributions. Most importantly, it provides not only a conceptual framework of the system supplier's roles but also a profound description of these roles, including requirements for each role, drivers for relationship dynamics, and mechanisms for role management. First, we will discuss the theoretical contribution in the order of the research questions. Second, we will draw key managerial conclusions. We will end up with suggestions for future research.Theoretical contribution\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The study aims to explore what kind of roles major system suppliers may have for their business customers, what factors may change the supplier's role for the customer during the relationship, and to analyze how the system supplier can manage his roles for the customer.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper provides a multi-company, international case study.\nFindings: - The study identifies three roles for system suppliers: equipment/material supplier, solution provider, and performance provider. The potential role the supplier may try to achieve is suggested to depend on the knowledge gap between the supplier and the customer, and on the strategies they adopt. The supplier can maintain and extend his role for the customer though carefully coordinated and integrated, proactive actions.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The developed structures on business dynamics need more empirical evidence, especially in terms of longitudinal analyses.\nPractical implications: - The models give various tools for top executives in industrial companies to develop more interactive and profitable customer relationships.\nOriginality/value: - The developed frameworks provide an articulated theory of the creation and implementation of the system supplier's business strategy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Toward circular economy of fashion: Experiences from a brand's product take-back initiative
|
[
"Case study",
"Business models",
"Fashion",
"Circular economy",
"Product take-back",
"Textile reuse and recycling"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Resource constraints and product end-of-life issues have become relevant topics for governments and businesses, regarded both as an environmental liability and economic opportunity (Lewandowski, 2016). The problems of material waste and resource efficiency are closely linked to the concept of circular economy, which opposes a linear economy and aims to achieve the decoupling of economic growth from natural resource depletion and environmental degradation through activities that reduce, reuse and recycle materials in production, distribution and consumption processes (Cooper, 1999; Murray et al., 2015). The core of circular economy is the circular (closed) flow of materials and the use of raw materials and energy through multiple phases (Yuan et al., 2006). Current trends, such as increasing consumption, new generations of consumers, urbanization and employment, tightening legislation and technological leaps, accelerate the transition to a circular economy (Antikainen and Valkokari, 2016).\nThe fashion industry and post-consumer waste: The fashion industry is a significant player in the global economy in terms of resource use and social and environmental impacts that occur during a garment's production, use and end-of-life phases (Allwood et al., 2006; EMF, 2017). The majority of today's fashion industry operates on a linear business model that follows a take-make-waste rationale with a large proportion ending up in landfills (Domina and Koch, 1999; Hawley, 2009, 2015; Bartlett et al., 2012; Fletcher, 2008; EMF, 2013; Birtwistle and Moore, 2007; EMF, 2017). This is closely linked to the dynamics of the industry, represented by an increase in the number of fashion seasons and changes in the supply chain, which has forced retailers to constantly seek lower costs and flexibility in design, quality, delivery and speed-to-market (Bhardwaj and Fairhurst, 2010). As a response to ever changing consumer demands, the industry increasingly offers low-cost clothing also known as of fast fashion. Fast fashion is a catalyst for increased clothing consumption and a throwaway fashion trend where large amounts of clothing are being disposed of before being worn out (Birtwistle and Moore, 2007). For example, 62 percent of Swedes dispose of usable clothes (excluding socks or underwear) that they no longer want to use in the garbage and 21 percent of Swedes dispose of clothing because they are tired of them (Ekstrom and Salomonson, 2014). The increasing volume of post-consumer textiles that end up in global landfills or being incinerated is one of the biggest challenges of circular economy within fashion (Hawley, 2009; Bartlett et al., 2012; EMF, 2017). It is estimated that worldwide 73 percent of used garments are landfilled or incinerated (EMF, 2017). This represents a significant loss of reuse and recycling value of products and materials that can be captured and re-introduced into the market (Hawley, 2008).\nToward circular business models: The concept of the circular economy has many variants and a rich set of historical antecedents. For example, Stahel and Reday-Mulvey's (1981) work on the ecology behind product life extensions and their sketched vision for \"an economy of loops\" or \"circular economy.\" Stahel (1994) links circular economy to resource cycling and product-specific and material-specific resource efficiencies or loops. McDonough and Braungart (2002) distinguish between \"cradle-to-grave\" flows of materials and cyclical, \"cradle-to-cradle\" flows, which evidently mark a difference in resource flow patterns that characterize linear and circular models. Stahel (1994) furthermore argues that product's reuse and recycling are waste reduction resource saving strategies that can be applied to production, use and post-use activities. Building on works by Stahel (1994) and McDonough and Braungart (2002), Bocken et al. (2016) introduce two fundamental strategies toward the cycling of resources. First, slowing resource loops, where through the design of long-life goods and product life extension the utilization period of products is extended and/or intensified, resulting in a slowdown of the flow of resources. Second, closing resource loops, where through recycling, the loop between post-use and production is closed.\nMethodology: This study looks at the development and implementation of the pilot initiative of in-store garment collection and the related challenges. The garment take-back system was introduced by Brand X, a leading Scandinavian fashion company. At the time of the research, only a few fashion brands had begun to experiment with various take-back systems to signal sustainability and circularity to the environment (see, e.g. Hvass, 2014; Stal and Corvellec, 2018). The case study was strategically selected so it was pertinent to the phenomenon of the study and allowed the phenomenon to be investigated fully. Data collection took place within the period of 34 months where the lead author become part of the phenomenon studied; an inside-out mode of inquiry, which is argued to serve both practical and theoretical purposes (Evered and Louis, 1981).\nFindings from the case study: The following section presents the Case study and discusses key findings on issues and challenges in innovating Brand X business model toward circular economy of garments by implementing a used product take-back scheme in physical retail stores.\nDiscussion: Bocken et al. (2013) argues that business model innovations impact multiple building blocks of the company's business model and multiple stages of the value chain and stakeholders throughout the value network. Furthermore, it is argued that a single company cannot implement and effectively run a circular business model on its own (Winkler, 2011). The current case study is supportive of these arguments and the findings illustrate that to implement a product take-back service in an existing business model involves modifications in all business model elements and reconstruction of the existing value chain.\nConclusions and implications: The aim of this paper has been to explore the challenges and solutions linked to development and test of a product take-back focused circular economy initiative in an existing business model.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges and solutions emerging when fashion brands develop and test circular economy solutions within their existing business models.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a 34-month case study in a global fashion brand, which launched a new in-store product take-back initiative.\nFindings: The results indicate that fashion brands need to cope with multiple challenges in the process of developing circular business models in the organization, including: diverging perspectives of value and unclear success criteria, poor alignment with existing strategy, limited internal skills and competences, and limited consumer interest.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results of this paper are grounded in a single case study and thus limitations associated with broad generalizations apply. In addition, the paper only investigated one aspect of circularity, namely, product take-back and did not investigate design for circularity, product reuse, recycle and other circularity related issues.\nOriginality/value: The findings derive from practical experiences of a fashion brand implementing an in-store product take-back system in the existing business model. The study reveals new insights into the actual process of making circular fashion operable.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The role of sexual orientation in entrepreneurial intention: the case of Parisian LGB people
|
[
"Entrepreneurship",
"Entrepreneurial intention",
"Sexual orientation",
"LGB",
"TPB theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: This paper investigates the impact of sexual orientation on entrepreneurial intention and seeks to contribute to the emerging literature on the topic of sexual orientation and entrepreneurship (Shepherd and Patzelt, 2015). It can also be integrated into broader trends to investigate better how minorities manage to enter and participate in entrepreneurial life (Edelman et al., 2010).\n1. Theoretical background: 1.1 Sexual orientation and LGB entrepreneurial intention\n2. Research methods: 2.1 Sample\n3. Results: Before testing our hypotheses, we checked the psychometric properties of our scales. The PCA verified the factorial structure of the scales of measure and resulted in one-dimensional scales with a good level of reliability as well as a good level of convergent validity. The results are presented in Table III.\n4. Discussion: There are two aspects of these results which invite discussion. First, our results confirm the robustness of our theoretical model, but is it generalizable across contexts, especially in \"less LGB friendly zones\"? Second, they partly contradict existing results on the recognition of minorities but is it time to call for an end to grouping all minorities into a single category?\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role that sexual orientation can play in entrepreneurial intention.\nDesign/methodology/approach: By conducting a survey on a sample of 654 individuals and, among them, 266 LGB people in the Paris region (France), and using linear regressions, The authors test the impact of sexual orientation on the antecedents of entrepreneurial intention, as defined by Ajzen (1991), and on entrepreneurial intention.\nFindings: The study reveals that LGB people express a higher entrepreneurial intention than non-LGB people. The study also reveals that sexual orientation positively impacts the three antecedents of entrepreneurial intention, namely attitudes, perceived behavioral control and subjective norms.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study was conducted in a specific context: an LGB-friendly region and among a population of well-educated people. One could also have investigated the impact of femininity and masculinity on entrepreneurial intention among this population.\nPractical implications: LGB people adopt entrepreneurial cognition different to that of other minorities, which tends to confirm that LGB entrepreneurial norms and beliefs are not really the same as those of the dominant culture. The study sheds light on the key antecedent one has to work on to increase the entrepreneurial intention of LGB people.\nOriginality/value: This study reveals that LGB people, even in friendly LGB geographical areas, are still suffering from a lack of self-esteem. The study also confirms that creating any new venture, as job creation process, is perceived as to be the alternative to difficult employment.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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CSR website disclosure: the influence of the upper echelons
|
[
"Managerial discretion",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Upper echelons theory",
"Ethical ideology idealism relativism",
"Perceived importance of CSR PRESOR",
"Website disclosure"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Although every company is expected to discharge its accountability duties through corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting, CSR disclosure practices significantly differ among companies (KPMG, 2015). Hence, a stream of research that investigates the drivers of CSR disclosure practices has emerged. These studies mainly attempt to explain the heterogeneity of CSR disclosure practices by looking at corporate characteristics, such as size, industry and financial performance (e.g. Cowen et al., 1987; Patten, 1991; Thorne et al., 2014; Cho et al., 2015) and general contextual factors, such as media pressure, and the legal or cultural context (e.g. Chen and Bouvain, 2009; Orij, 2010; Liesen et al., 2015). However, while in the strategic leadership literature the personal characteristics of organisational leaders are central and have been recognised as motives for CSR (e.g. Hemingway and Maclagan, 2004; Chin et al., 2013), the impact of the views and attitudes of key decision makers has rarely been examined in the CSR disclosure literature (Parker, 2014). Indeed, although different authors point to the importance of the views of organisational leaders in explaining CSR disclosure practices (e.g. Campbell, 2000; Adams, 2002; O'Dwyer, 2003; Cormier et al., 2004; Adams and McNicholas, 2007; Belal and Owen, 2007; Bebbington et al., 2009; Thorne et al., 2014; Bouten and Everaert, 2015; Higgins et al., 2015), there is a lack of research that explicitly examines the influence of the personal characteristics of corporate decision makers on social-accountability practices. This might be explained by the fact that legitimacy theory, which is one of the dominant theories in this field, mainly portrays disclosure as a rational decision that aims to please external audiences and, therefore, might not offer insights that are helpful in understanding the internal drivers of the CSR reporting process (Spence et al., 2010). However, there are two notable exceptions: Parker (2014) and Thoradeniya et al. (2015). Based on a historical analysis of four leading British industrialists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Parker (2014) illustrates how organisational leaders' personal philosophical and religious beliefs influence their orientation towards social responsibility and accountability. Thoradeniya et al. (2015) used a survey design to show that managers' behavioural, normative and control beliefs, regarding sustainability reporting, positively influence their intention to engage in CSR reporting and that managers' education and religion can influence these beliefs.\n2. Literature review and hypotheses development: 2.1 Strategic decision-making process and managerial values\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Data collection\n4. Results: 4.1 Descriptive statistics and correlations\n5. Discussion: Previous accounting studies acknowledge that executives' views might hinder or further CSR disclosure practices (e.g. Bebbington et al., 2009; Thorne et al., 2014; Bouten and Everaert, 2015). Drawing on the insights of UET (Hambrick and Mason, 1984; Hambrick, 2007), this paper empirically examines whether a CEO's ethical ideology and his/her perception on the importance of CSR influence their companies' decisions to disclose CSR information on corporate websites (see Figure 3 for a summary). Importantly, our findings suggest that UET can add insights into the CSR disclosure decision-making process if CEOs have some MD. This section discusses the findings of this study and the deeper insights these might bring to the role of CEOs' values and of their perceptions of CSR in the CSR disclosure decision-making process.\n6. Conclusion: While different studies have demonstrated the influence of corporate characteristics (e.g. Cowen et al., 1987; Patten, 1991; Thorne et al., 2014; Cho et al., 2015) and general contextual factors on CSR disclosure (e.g. Chen and Bouvain, 2009; Orij, 2010; Liesen et al., 2015), empirical evidence on the influence of internal contextual factors is still rather scarce. Hence, this study aims to extend the knowledge on the drivers of the presence/absence of CSR disclosure by focussing on the ethical ideologies of the key decision makers in unlisted companies, i.e., CEOs. More specifically, this paper investigates the impact of CEOs' ethical ideologies on the presence of CSR disclosure on corporate websites, while including as a mediator CEOs' perceptions of the importance of CSR.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Using upper echelons theory (UET), the purpose of this paper is to unravel the influence of a CEO's ethical ideology on the presence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure on corporate websites. It also considers the CEO's perception of the importance of CSR (i.e. the extent of the CEO's detachment from the stockholder-oriented logic and attachment to the stakeholder-oriented logic).\nDesign/methodology/approach: First, a survey was sent to CEOs of large unlisted Belgian companies. Its intention was to assess CEOs' ethical ideology along the idealism and relativism dimensions and their perceptions on the importance of CSR (PRESOR-detachment-from-stockholder view; PRESOR-attachment-to-stakeholder view), and to gather some demographics. Second, a content analysis of corporate websites was conducted so as to classify companies as being either CSR disclosing or non-disclosing. Third, the annual accounts of these corporations were investigated and follow-up phone calls were conducted to obtain data on managerial discretion (MD).\nFindings: CEOs' ethical ideology influences the degree to which they detach from the stockholder-oriented logic and attach to the stakeholder-oriented logic. Moreover, when MD is high, the degree of these CEOs' attachment to the stakeholder-oriented logic is the factor that influences the presence of CSR disclosure on their corporate websites. Finally, CEO's idealism indirectly influences the presence of CSR disclosure through the effect of idealism on the degree to which CEOs attach to the stakeholder-oriented logic.\nOriginality/value: This paper shows that, when MD is high, CEOs' values and perceptions influence CSR disclosure decisions. This study thereby enhances our knowledge regarding the internal drivers of CSR disclosure practices and offers UET as a lens through which the importance of CEOs' personal characteristics in the decision-making process might be further explored.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Comparing usage between selective and bundled e-monograph purchases
|
[
"Academic libraries",
"Consortia",
"Canada",
"E‐books",
"E‐monographs",
"Usage statistics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This study is the result of a quantitative analysis examining the variations in usage patterns recorded between e-book collections purchased by the J.N. Desmarais Library of Laurentian University[1] through two particular acquisition models: title-by-title and bundled purchases. Which of these two models is more beneficial to the library? There has been much debate in recent years pertaining to the most effective method academic libraries can adopt to build their e-book collections (Douglas, 2011; Romero, 2011; Schroeder and Wright, 2011; Shen et al., 2011; Bucknell, 2010; Sharp and Thompson, 2010; Grigson, 2009; Jackson, 2007; Ball, 2006). This study aims to determine which of these two purchasing models is best suited for the library.As with the majority of academic libraries, the J.N. Desmarais Library has acquired the bulk of its e-books through consortia bundles with smaller numbers purchased title-by-title from aggregators. Acquiring e-books in either large bundles or on a title-by-title basis are still the most two popular methods libraries use (Shen et al., 2011). Libraries also consider it to be critical for an e-book supplier to provide the ability to acquire individual titles rather than strictly through bundles (Taylor, 2007).In 2012, a total of $190,000 CDN was disbursed for the acquisition of e-books, representing nearly 11 percent of the total acquisition budget. Furthermore, $145,000 CDN was expended on the purchase of printed books, meaning that the library spent 31 percent more on e-books than on print. Consequently, the library now provides access to over 580,000 purchased e-book titles, representing 48 percent of the J.N. Desmarais Library's book holdings. That is far greater than the average of 27 percent of holdings reported for academic libraries in general (American Library Association, 2011), some of which possess only 10,000 e-books or less (Vasileiou et al., 2012).As patron demand for e-books continues to grow at an exponential rate, libraries have no choice but to redirect financial resources from print to digital content. McKendrick (2012) reported that 81 percent of libraries have experienced a greater demand from patrons for e-books. This is up from the 43 percent reported the previous year.With the J.N. Desmarais Library spending so much more on e-books than on print, it is of importance to see which of the acquisition models yields the most use for the money spent.\nMethods: Usage rates of e-books purchased individually from two different aggregators, NetLibrary and MyiLibrary, are compared to usage rates of e-books purchased in large consortially negotiated bundles from these same aggregators. Additionally, usage for e-books purchased in large bundles directly from a publisher, SpringerLink are compared to usage rates from individually purchased titles as well as from bundled titles from both NetLibrary and MyiLibrary. Data for this study include usage figures recorded between 2007 and 2012 inclusively.It is important to note that this study examined usage for electronic monographs only. Usage from electronic reference titles was not included whatsoever. Since patrons will use electronic reference books differently compared to electronic monographs (Lamothe, 2012, 2010), distinguishing usage between the two types of e-books is important because combining usage from one type to the other might skewer overall results (Staiger, 2012). For this reason and for the sake of simplicity, the term \"e-book\" will be used to represent e-monographs from this point onward.The number of e-books was obtained by simple count and includes titles purchased between 2003 and 2012, inclusively. NetLibrary consortial bundles were purchased in 2003 and in 2004 and were comprised of 3,400 and 3,700 titles, respectively. Title-by-title selection from NetLibrary began in 2005 and ended in 2007 after COUTTS became the library's main book supplier. It was much simpler to purchase e-books on MyiLibrary through COUTTS' Oasis system from which print books were already being acquired. The single MyiLibrary consortial bundle added more than 7,800 e-books in 2008. Title-by-title selection began in 2007 and continues to this day.In both NetLibrary and MyiLibrary cases, e-books in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities were purchased. The NetLibrary bundles contained 26 percent science, 48 percent social science, and 26 percent humanities content. The composition of the individually purchased NetLibrary titles was similar with 34 percent science, 49 percent social science, and 17 percent humanities content. The division of content was almost identical for MyiLibrary titles, with the bundled collection being comprised of 32 percent science, 40 percent social science, and 28 percent humanities content. Individually purchased titles on MyiLibrary were 41 percent science, 48 percent social science, and 11 percent humanities content.In 2007, the first SpringerLink consortial purchase occurred with a new bundle added annually. All SpringerLink titles were acquired in large packages, the first bundled containing over 13,000 titles and all subsequent bundles, of about 5,000 titles each. The difference with SpringerLink was that the majority of the ARtibundles contained science titles (86 percent), with a much smaller 8 percent social science and 7 percent humanities content.For e-book titles on NetLibrary and on MyiLibrary, the number of titles purchased in bundles was separated from the number of titles purchased individually. Numbers are also reported as totals and have not been separate by year of purchase.Statistics tracked also included the number of viewings, which have been defined as the act of manipulating a page or chapter from an e-book by either reading, printing, or downloading (Lamothe, 2013, 2010).Ratios were calculated to compare usage between e-book collections. Ratios are practical in that they allow for the control of population size (Scanlan, 2008; Pendleton, 2005). Since Lamothe (2013, 2010) demonstrated the impact that collection size can have on e-book usage rates, it is important to find a method of cancelling out this collection size factor when comparing two or more different collections of e-books comprised of vastly different quantities of titles. Ratios allow for this. The greater the ratio, the greater the relative use. All ratios were expressed in decimal form.Finally, e-books are made available to the Laurentian University community through the library's online catalogue as well as from the library's website.\nResults and discussion: Analysis I: comparing usage between e-books purchased individually and in large packaged deals from two aggregators\nConclusion: A quantitative analysis comparing e-book usage from a collection of e-books acquired selectively to a collection of titles acquired through large consortially negotiated packages from NetLibrary and then from MyiLibrary yielded similar results. Individually purchased titles experienced a greater level of comparative usage than titles acquired in large bundles.A second quantitative analysis comparing of two aggregated collections of individually selected titles to a collection built with very large packages acquired directly from a publisher yielded somewhat different results. A greater proportion of the NetLibrary and MyiLibrary individually purchased titles were accessed at least once compared to the very large SpringerLink package but SpringerLink's \"viewings per e-book viewed\" ratio greater than NetLibrary's individually acquired titles. Additionally, when comparing usage levels across all the bundled collections, the SpringerLink collection had a greater proportion of their titles viewed at least once compared to MyiLibrary titles. Additionally, the SpringerLink \"viewings per e-book\" ratio is at least three times greater than that calculated for NetLibrary or MyiLibrary and the \"viewings per e-book viewed\" ratio for SpringerLink and MyiLibrary bundled titles were four to five times greater than that calculated for NetLibrary bundled titles.This study demonstrates that it is by far more advantageous for a library to purchase titles individually from an aggregator. However, based on these results there seem to be some cases where acquiring large packages of e-books would be appropriate. Very large packages that are purchased directly from publisher that has removed as many access restrictions as possible seem to exhibit a high level of usage.It may be wise to begin building an e-book collection by purchasing very large packages that come with little access restrictions. A critical mass can be quickly reached upon which purchase of e-books can become more selective in nature.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present the results from a quantitative analysis comparing usage between collections of individually purchased e-books and collections of e-books purchased as part of large consortially negotiated bundles. The aim of this study is to determine if individually purchased e-books have recorded a greater level of usage than e-books purchased in large packages and, consequently, which of the two acquisition models is best suited for the library.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Usage rates of e-books purchased individually from NetLibrary and MyiLibrary were compared to usage rates of e-books purchased in large bundles from the same aggregators. Usage of e-books purchased in large bundles directly from SpringerLink was compared to usage of e-books on NetLibrary and MyiLibrary. The number of e-books was obtained by simple count. Additional statistics tracked include the number of viewings.\nFindings: - Initial results indicate that individually purchased titles from both NetLibrary and MyiLibrary have consistently recorded a greater level of usage than the bundled titles on their respective platforms. A second quantitative analysis comparing two aggregated collections of individually selected titles to a very large bundled collection acquired directly from SpringerLink yielded somewhat different results. For the most part, SpringerLink bundled e-books have recorded a greater level of usage when compared to bundled titles on NetLibrary and MyiLibrary.\nOriginality/value: - This research is one of very few studies systematically and quantitatively comparing usage levels between e-monographs individually selected and acquired as large bundles by a Canadian academic library.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Management competencies, complexities and performance in engineering infrastructure projects of Pakistan
|
[
"Project Management Competencies",
"Project Complexities",
"Project Performance",
"Public Sector Infrastructure Projects",
"Pakistan"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The construction industry is one of the main sectors of economy and it is constantly growing (Tsiga et al., 2016). This sector is believed to be one of the challenging sectors (Memon et al., 2014) in which new projects come with more complexities (Tsiga et al., 2016). The developing countries are showing a high interest in delivering construction projects to achieve economic growth (Zhang et al., 2014). Recently, they have allocated considerable amounts of capital budgets to infrastructure projects (Chang et al., 2016). These projects are mainly financed from public funds, so they are required to be delivered successfully (Nyariranwge and Oluwayomi, 2016).\nLiterature review: The literature review is categorized into four segments, i.e. competencies of project managers in general, competencies of project managers in the infrastructure sector, complexity in projects and linking of project manager competencies with complexities. The aim of the literature review is to justify in detail the conceptual model (Figure 1).\nMethodology of study: The research method adopted in this study is expert's interviews and a survey of recently completed public sector infrastructure projects in Pakistan. The study was carried out in two phases, i.e. expert interviews (first phase) and survey (second phase). Both these approaches and phases are explained below. All questionnaires were based on PMCD (Project Management Institute, 2007) and ICB (IPMA, 2006) frameworks for competencies, whereas the TOE model of Bosch-Rekveldt et al. (2011) was used for complexities. The 2nd ed., of PMCD (PMI, 2007) and 3rd vs of IPMA Competence Baseline (IPMA, 2006) Frameworks are used in this study as the study was designed in 2014 while 4th vs of IPMA Individual Competence Baseline (IPMA, 2015) was released in 2015 and 3rd ed., of PMCD was released in 2017. The reason for using the TOE framework of the project complexity of Bosch-Rekveldt et al. (2011) in this research is that the TOE framework is devised through literature and empirical data, hence covering elements of complexities derived from literature and actual practices. Also, it is a latest framework that includes the maximum number of complexity elements. The TOE framework has been found the most comprehensive complexity framework, with each element being operationally explained.\nResult and analysis: The results of the study are presented in detail, in this section, according to objectives under separate heading.\nDiscussion: Detail discussion of each segment of result is presented in this section with the support of earlier literature.\nConclusion and recommendation: The study confirmed the existence of all elements of the complexity of TOE framework (Bosch-Rekveldt et al., 2009) up to some levels in the public sector infrastructure projects of Pakistan. Five additional elements, i.e. adverse law and order situation, political instability, land issues, energy crisis and weak authorization of project managers, were identified that contribute in the complexity of these projects. It also confirmed the requirement of all dimensions of the personal competencies of PMCD (Project Management Institute, 2007) and ICB (IPMA, 2006) frameworks along with three additional dimensions, i.e. honesty, enthusiasm and dedication, for project managers to counter complexities and to successfully complete these projects.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The complexity of projects has become a serious issue and obstacle in their successful completion. In order to overcome these complexities, it has become imperative to identify the relevant management competencies of project managers. The purpose of this paper is to address the problem of cost, time and scope in engineering infrastructure projects due to their complexities through management competencies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In the first phase of the study, 32 experts were interviewed through semi-structured pre-tested questionnaire. In this phase, essential elements of complexities were identified initially. This was followed by finding required dimensions of competencies to counter these complexities and to acquire improved performance. In the final stage, required levels of competencies for specific elements of complexity were identified. In the second phase, 85 \"project managers\" were also approached to get feedback about their recently completed public sector engineering infrastructure projects in Pakistan.\nFindings: The study identified additional dimensions, i.e. honesty, enthusiasm and dedication, in the case of competencies and adverse law and order situation, political instability, land issues, energy crisis and weak authorization of project managers in the case of complexities. Leadership, management skill, communication skill, effectiveness and result orientation were identified as top quality traits required. The study concluded that there is a significant impact of management competencies and complexities on project performance.\nOriginality/value: The study contributes to a better understanding of how to improve performance in complex engineering infrastructure projects through adopting management competencies. It also empirically illustrates the relations among project management competencies, complexities and project performance. Although the research is grounded on public sector infrastructure projects, its findings may also be helpful for practices in project management of other sectors.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The flipped classroom, a review of the literature
|
[
"Technology",
"Education",
"Flipped classroom",
"Inverted classroom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The objective of this paper is to review the literature, analyse the findings and provide discussion relating to considerations before using the flipped classroom method (FCM) will be used from now on. This is an important article for education as the FCM could be used as standard practice across the globe in the near future - the 2013 Horizon Report indicates the FCM as an imminent: within one to two years (Johnson et al., 2013). Findings from this paper suggest there is a need for further research and a clear, consistent model for the FCM.\nResearch methods: The methods used in this integrative literature review involve selecting a set of literature with specific selection criteria and from a specific timeframe followed by an analysis of the patterns of them. This article will review, critique and synthesise the flipped or inverted classroom phenomenon.\nSelection criteria: The literature is based on either Flipped or Inverted Classroom.\nSelected literature: Flipping the classroom and instructional technology integration in a college-level information systems spreadsheet course (Davies et al., 2013).\nTheoretical frameworks: The theoretical frameworks summarised below are taken from the reviewed literature and other relevant literature. The variety and inconsistency shown by these short summaries might offer some insight into the research of the FCM. The literature covered in this research explores a phenomenon that authors are critical of traditional lecture-style teaching, which is a method widely understood and accepted method of teaching in modern society.\nAnalysis: One observation from the literature is there is a lack of consistency of models of the FCM (Davies et al., 2013, p. 565) in addition to a lack of research into student performance, (Findlay-Thompson and Mombourquette, 2014, p. 65; Eunice et al., 2013) broader impacts on taking up too much of the students' time and studies of broader student demographics. In another literature review of the FCM, Bishop and Verleger concur with the observation that there is a lack of consensus as to the definition of the method and the theoretical frameworks (Bishop and Verleger, 2013).\nConclusion: The FCM literature reviewed in this paper indicate inconsistencies of the method, little evidence that the FCM improves student performance and that there is a need for further research. There is, however, a consistent outcome that the surveys indicate positive views of the FCM, a preference over traditional lecture methods from both students and teachers in addition to evidence that the method does not decrease student performance. The FCM is heavily reliant on technology and this is an important consideration for all who consider employing the FCM.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore a set of literature in order to clarify the flipped classroom methods (FCM) theoretical frameworks and to determine if the evidence shows improvements in learning for students in comparison with traditional teaching methods.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper took a literature review approach and explored five articles selected with specific criteria of being published within 2013-2014 and that used comparisons with flipped and traditional classroom methods that employed analysis of student assessment outcomes.\nFindings: The paper shows inconsistent theoretical frameworks and inconclusive evidence of an improvement in assessment outcomes for students. It finds the research undertaken in the literature is limited in scope and suggests further research into the FCM is required to determine consistent theoretical frameworks and methods.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings of the paper may be limited by the selection of literature reviewed and generalisability therefore researchers are encouraged to explore further.\nPractical implications: The paper holds potential implications to question the consistency, validity and benefits of the flipped classroom.\nSocial implications: Many anecdotal articles herald the flipped classroom as a method of improving learning outcomes for students, however, academic literature suggests the evidence is inconclusive and there are implications on using educational methods based on technology.\nOriginality/value: The paper identifies the need for further research into the flipped classroom and supports the advancement of educational methodology.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Social norm perceptions predict citizenship behaviors
|
[
"Social norms",
"Social influence",
"Organizational citizenship behaviour",
"Need to belong"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: At Wyatt's Widgets, a fictional leader in the manufacturing of widgets and widget-related components, nearly everyone approves of employees working late to maintain a competitive advantage in the cutthroat widget manufacturing industry. Yet, invariably, its plants become ghost towns each day at 5:01 p.m. In contrast, Wyatt's employees both approve of helping new workers \"learn the ropes\" while actually taking valuable time to decipher nearly inscrutable widget-related jargon, demonstrating beneficial widget-winding techniques, and sharing best practices for avoiding salmonella poisoning when using the company's notoriously bacteria-ridden break room. Thus, as is almost universally true of behavior in human social groups, the degree of approval for a citizenship behavior at the fictional Wyatt's is only sometimes consistent with the extent to which people actually perform that behavior. The prevalence vs the degree of approval for a behavior therefore represent different types of social norms that can potentially serve as independent guides to individual decision making.\nTheoretical background: OCBs\nMethod: Participants and procedure\nResults: Table I presents the means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations of study variables.\nDiscussion: Our first study goal was to demonstrate the utility of using social norm perceptions to understand and predict workplace OCBs. Although the value of distinguishing between descriptive and injunctive norms has been recognized in a number of research domains and these two norm types have been shown to affect an impressively wide range of behaviors across different social contexts, this perspective on normative social influence has largely been overlooked by management scholars (Goldstein and Cialdini, 2011). This study clearly demonstrates that perceptions of norms can be used to help explain the occurrence of this important class of work behaviors. Our second study goal was to test a key prediction derived from the focus theory of normative conduct - that NTB moderates the effects of injunctive but not descriptive norms. Study results also support this prediction, adding to the already impressive body of evidence indicating somewhat different motivational bases for the two norms.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which perceptions of injunctive and descriptive norms for workplace organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) affect an individual's frequency of performing such behaviors. The study also explores whether the effects of norm perceptions are moderated by the individual's need to belong (NTB) to social groups.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Hierarchical regression analysis was used to analyze data from 77 employed MBA students. Perceptions of OCB norms and NTB were assessed with an initial survey. Eight weeks later, a second survey assessed the individual frequency of OCBs.\nFindings: Descriptive norms, injunctive norms, and NTB independently predicted OCB frequency. Additionally, NTB moderated the effects of injunctive norm perceptions. The injunctive norm was particularly influential for employees high in NTB.\nResearch limitations/implications: Limitations of this study include its cross-sectional nature and the possibility of common method bias.\nPractical implications: Study results indicate that managers can encourage OCBs by drawing attention to the prevalence of OCBs in the workplace (descriptive norm) and by showing approval of OCBs (injunctive norm). Hiring those with high NTB will also increase OCBs and enhance the effects of any effort on management's part to signify approval of OCBs. OCBs can also be encouraged through new employee orientation and training that emphasizes the descriptive and injunctive norms for OCBs.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to demonstrate social norms and NTB as predictors of workplace OCBs. This study also provides the first evidence that the effects of injunctive norms are moderated by NTB.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Oh the possibilities: ebook lending and interlibrary loan
|
[
"New technology",
"Interlibrary loan",
"Resource sharing",
"Ebooks",
"Policies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: Over the past several years, ebooks have taken the academic library by storm. Many ebooks now serve as crucial texts or reference books for some of the most fundamental classes taught in universities. We are also starting to see the influence of ebooks in the public libraries. However, the arrival of ebooks has completely missed a fundamental library function that has existed for as long as there have been libraries. The ability to share books with patrons via interlibrary loan has been largely ignored by ebook vendors and publishers.\nA call to action: Academic libraries must begin to consider alternatives to vendor-provided interlibrary loan ebook systems. We must push forward to develop our own system that can handle both new ebooks and legacy ebooks which we have been collecting for years now. We believe such a system is possible, and creating it is critical for the future of academic libraries.\nConclusion: As we enter the digital age, academic libraries must defend their millennia-old model of interlibrary loan as one of the fundamental pillars of what it means to be a library. Development and testing are underway for an ebook lending system, but the solution is more than just software. Licenses and contracts should be negotiated from a position of strength, requiring ebook vendors to provide a method for interlibrary loan of ebooks or to allow lending through commonly accepted ebook lending systems like the one described above. We are in uncharted territory with ebook technology and the business models of digital publishers, but a universal ebook lending platform provides room for both libraries and ebook vendors to perform their essential functions without harming each other. After all, the simplest solution is often the most beneficial for everyone.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the impact on interlibrary loans presented by electronic books, and to provide a starting point for discussion.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors review the advantages and challenges to interlibrary loans presented by electronic books and recommend a course of action for the academic library community.\nFindings: The model of providing content in electronic book format threatens one of the oldest traditions in libraries: the tradition of sharing. Now libraries must take it upon themselves to create technologies that support their tradition of sharing while accounting for the uniqueness of ebooks.\nOriginality/value: This paper aims to initiate a discussion and brainstorming process within libraries which can honor the tradition of interlibrary loans by applying it to electronic books.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Exploring sustainable post-end-of-life of building operations: A systematic literature review
|
[
"Construction",
"Methodology",
"Supply chain management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Diversion of waste to landfills at the end-of-life (EoL) creates detrimental environment, economic and social impacts (Bevan and Yung, 2015; Schamne and Nagalli, 2016). To manage waste at the EoL, post-EoL concepts and operations need to be implemented. Reverse logistics (RL) and closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) are concepts which stimulate resource recovery at post-EoL. According to Nasir et al. (2016), RL ensures that EoL salvage is re-entered into the supply chain as value-added inputs supported by post-EoL operations, such as collection, sorting, processing and remanufacturing. RL focusses on waste management, material and product recovery. CLSC maximises recovery value over the life cycle of a material or product. The application of these concepts can be underpinned by the \"zero waste\" concept, which stimulates an infinite level of recycling. Both the RL and CLSC concepts are well established for the recovery of solid and industrial waste generated from the manufacturing industry. Noticeably, RL has been widely discussed over recent decades establishing holistic perspectives through numerous strategies in different manufacturing fields (Agrawal et al., 2015; Pokharel and Mutha, 2009). However, RL and CLSC concepts at post-end-of-life of building (PEoLB) have rarely been used for construction and demolition waste management. Despite the various research works based on construction and demolition waste management, the reverse supply chain perspective has been overlooked. According to Hosseini et al. (2014), RL in a construction context is misunderstood, lacks clear definitions related to the construction context and is confused with other related concepts. Thus, RL and CLSC require to be established as independent systems for construction and demolition waste management. This results in significant impediments such as barriers and risks in PEoLB operations. Henceforth, PEoLB concepts, such as RL and CLSC, and their drivers, critical success factors, benefits, barriers and remedial actions have been reviewed and investigated in recent literature reviews and descriptive research studies (Hosseini et al., 2014; Hosseini, Chileshe, Rameezdeen and Lehmann, 2015; Volk et al., 2014; Chileshe, Rameezdeen and Hosseini, 2016; Chileshe, Rameezdeen, Hosseini, Lehmann and Udeaja, 2016).\n2. Literature review: Waste at the end-of-life-of-building should be systematically and optimally handled during PEoLB. PEoLB means operations and processors initiated for regeneration of materials and products at the end-of-life-of-building result into value-added products which will be available in the secondary markets for construction industry. PEoLB operations conducted will support waste management. Figure 1 describes insights of PEoLB concept and operations.\n3. Research methodology: This paper employs an SLR to conduct a critical evaluation of widespread knowledge of the topic and synthesises novel concepts using content analysis (Fink, 2013). According to Elo and Kyngas (2008), content analysis provides new insights into data or knowledge found in existing literature and facilitates a practical guide. It can identify different patterns in the literature, and also provides a micro-level focus (Braun and Clarke, 2006). For example, Pokharel and Mutha (2009) used content analysis to develop different perspectives of the RL operation. This method therefore can be adopted to identify the interrelationships between the PEoLB-related concepts such as RL and CLSC, their operations under various themes, and additionally, to create novel opportunities. This study conducts an SLR according to three stages, as demonstrated in Figure 2. To enhance the accuracy of this method the stages used in this research are adopted from past research works such as Braun and Clarke (2006), Pokharel and Mutha (2009) and Fink (2013).\n4. Descriptive analysis: A descriptive analysis categorises the selected articles under research context, scope, year of publication and methodology. The findings related to these features are given in Table III.\n5. Thematic analysis: In the thematic analysis, the articles were coded and sorted to identify the themes derived from the content of the articles. According to Boyatzis (1998), a theme is \"a pattern in the information that at minimum describes and organises the possible observations and at maximum interprets aspects of the phenomenon\" (p. 161). Accordingly, the articles were coded and investigated. The following themes were determined: literature development, relationships between PEoLB concepts and operations, impediments in PEoLB operations, remedial actions or corrective measures and information-based strategic approaches in PEoLB operations.\n6. A conceptual research framework for PEoLB operations: The essence of the discussion on interrelationships, impediments, remedial actions and strategic approaches related to PEoLB is depicted in a conceptual framework as shown in Figure 6.\n7. Implications for research and practice: This research paper approaches the RL and CLSC concepts and their operations under the sustainable PEoLB concept which is found to be a novel. No study has yet used the sustainable PEoLB concept to elaborate the operations in between the end-of-life-of-building and the secondary market. This can be used as a common way to approach the RL and CLSC operations, issues and interrelationships. In particular, the conceptual framework illustrates and establishes the relationship between PEoLB concepts and operations towards sustainability. This review attempts to fill the gap by conceptualising SPEoLB concept and exploring the relationship between PEoLB operations and the importance of the information-based strategic approaches that are needed to develop understanding of the operations and their application. This study therefore has two types of implications, namely, managerial and research.\n8. Further research agenda: In response to the identified gaps, the following research questions emerge from the descriptive and thematic analysis and are beneficial for further investigations of the proposed sustainable PEoLB model.\n9. Conclusions: The SLR explored the synergies between PEoLB concepts, operations and strategic approaches using 65 articles published during 2006-2017. The selected articles were subjected to descriptive and thematic analysis. According to the descriptive analysis, the majority of the articles were on PEoLB operations (60 per cent), followed by PEoLB concepts (23 per cent) and strategic approaches (17 per cent). The articles selected were based on different geographical locations and employed both exploratory and descriptive studies. The thematic analysis highlighted the interrelationships between PEoLB operations and PEoLB operations enabling strategic approaches. However, barriers and risks caused significant failures in PEoLB operations. The main barriers include an unorganised knowledge flow, lack of regulatory and government support, reluctance to change behavioural patterns and attitudes and reluctance to adopt designing-out waste. These issues can be addressed through strategic approaches such as the designing-out waste concept which is underpinned by a sound information flow. It is a robust and exploratory approach that has been elaborated further in the conceptual research framework.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the synergies between post-end-of-life of building (PEoLB) concepts and operations to achieve sustainability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted using 65 articles published between 2006 and 2017, and it has been subjected to descriptive and thematic analysis.\nFindings: The descriptive analysis revealed that the majority of the articles were about (60 per cent) PEoLB operations, followed by (23 per cent) PEoLB concepts. Only 17 per cent of the articles have dealt with PEoLB-related strategic approaches. The thematic analysis elaborated on the literature development; interrelationships between PEoLB concepts and operations; impediments of introducing sustainability on these operations, remedial measures and information-based strategic approaches to achieve sustainability. Based on the findings, a conceptual framework for sustainable PEoLB operations is proposed. Furthermore, four areas of potential future research are discussed.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study presents a future research agenda including best practices to plan PEoLB operations and the development of optimisation models, risk management and information-based strategic approaches.\nPractical implications: The proposed conceptual research framework triggers and nurtures potential pathways to introduce sustainable PEoLB operations under sound information flow. This could create a basis for future empirical studies in filling the identified gaps in literature. The framework could also assist practitioners in mitigating risks associated with transportation, storing and contamination of salvaged materials through enhanced information flow. In addition, the framework provides some managerial guidance to organisations seeking ways of establishing sustainability during reverse logistics (RL) operations.\nOriginality/value: This paper presents an SLR of an emerging area of research that encapsulates closed-loop supply chain through sustainable RL operations. The study highlights the interrelationships between PEoLB concepts and operations. It develops a robust approach to effectively manage the PEoLB operations underpinned by a sound information flow to facilitate sustainability.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Brokering, buffering, and the rationalities of principal work
|
[
"Principals",
"Parents",
"Brokering",
"Buffering",
"Teacher evaluation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Principals in the USA confront expectations for constant improvement of their schools. Accountability policies and reform initiatives often press for rapid change, yet shift direction and focus frequently, creating a challenging context for educational leaders (Derrington and Campbell, 2015; Halverson and Plecki, 2015). Rather than assuming that principals always face reasonable pressures and expectations, this study begins with the premise that some policies may ask schools and educators to engage in what they perceive to be unreasonable activities. One way in which policies might do so is by amplifying seemingly rational presuppositions beyond their usefulness, creating hyperrational leadership situations. Thus the first goal of the study is to examine whether one policy - requiring teacher evaluation to include parent or peer evaluators - is understood by principals to involve elements of hyperrationality.\n1. Literature review: Effective school leaders are able to motivate teachers in the face of accountability pressures and maintain a sense of collective self-efficacy as multiple demands compete for their attention (Francera and Bliss, 2011; Leithwood et al., 2002). As teacher evaluation policies make more complex, more time-consuming demands, principals are expected to fit these policy requirements into schoolwide practices (Rigby, 2015). This study draws on research describing principals' leadership moves while assisting teachers to make sense of and enact policy, as well as research on recent shifts in teacher evaluation systems in the USA.\n2. Conceptual framework: This paper uses sociological theories of hyperrationalism to explore why and how principals respond to a particularly contentious area emerging in teacher evaluation: parent evaluators. According to Ritzer and LeMoyne's (1991) Weberian critique of post-modern America, the desire to maximize efficiency and control the outcomes of social systems has institutionalized harmful and ultimately irrational bureaucratic mechanisms. We use concepts from Ritzer and LeMoyne's (1991) hyperrationality framework to examine whether indicators of hyperrationality are present in principals' critiques of the use of parent evaluators in a new teacher evaluation policy.\n3. Methods: This study uses qualitative methods to examine principals' implementation of a new teacher evaluation policy. The state policy shifted local practices to include multiple data sources with set weights in annual teacher ratings. Three research questions are addressed:\n4. Findings: As the new policy took effect, principals acted in a variety of ways to ease its implementation (summarized in Table I). First, we examine whether principals indicated that the new parent evaluator component made hyperrational demands of their schools. We then explore principals' practices as they facilitated the new system, which fell into three types of responses: first, brokering additional efficiency of implementation, calculability of teacher quality, and predictability of evaluation practices; second, buffering teachers from time off useful tasks, parent feedback expectations, and unexpected outcomes; and third, practices that neither brokered resources nor buffered teachers from new policy demands.\n5. Discussion: Our findings confirm those of studies that have demonstrated the complexity of principals' leadership contexts (Derrington and Campbell, 2015; Halverson and Plecki, 2015). When faced with policy demands they deemed unreasonable, principals in this study acted to protect their teachers' interests. Principals in all participating schools took some action to reduce the amount of work teachers need to do in order to comply with the policy. These principals exhibited a great deal of agency as they brokered aspects of the new teacher evaluation policy and buffered their teachers from overwhelming evaluation tasks.\n6. Conclusions: The questions motivating this study ask whether the new teacher evaluation and development system in one state constitutes a hyperrational policy and, if so, how principals responded to hyperrational elements of the policy as they led implementation. In many cases, the actions of principals in this study represent rational responses to hyperrational policy demands. Policies, by their nature, set rules and expectations. Principals translated these rules and selected which aspects to highlight for their teachers as they implemented a new requirement to extend evaluation authority to parents. Such actions were carried out by principals in this study to help teachers avoid undue burden, yet the decision to broker pragmatic solutions or to buffer teachers from implementation requirements led to divergent realities for teachers. While neither brokering nor buffering practices extended much authority to parents as evaluators, they either promoted the expectation that the parent component of teacher evaluation should be implemented (as practical) or that the parent component was beyond the bounds of reasonable demands on schools.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Brokering and buffering represent two ways in which principals may respond to hyperrational elements of policy demands in the current era of accountability. The purpose of this paper is to examine how some principals broker more efficient, measurable, and predictable evaluation practices for teachers and others buffer their teachers from inefficient, immeasurable, and unpredictable aspects of policy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Qualitative data were obtained from 37 school principals and 363 teachers across 12 districts participating in a new teacher evaluation policy in one state of the USA. Principal interviews and teacher focus groups were conducted at the beginning, middle, and end of 2012-2013. Transcripts were coded to identify hyperrational elements of the policy and principals' brokering and buffering practices.\nFindings: All principals described elements of the new evaluation policy as inefficient, incalculable, or unpredictable - hallmarks of hyperrationality. Principals brokered efficiency by designing schoolwide parent goals and centralizing procedures; brokered transparency of calculation methods and focused teacher attention on measuring effort, rather than outcomes; and encouraged collective sensemaking to facilitate predictable procedures and outcomes. Principals buffered teachers by de-emphasizing the parent-based component; minimizing the quantitative nature of the ratings; ceding responsibility over calculations to district leaders; and lowering expectations to make ratings controllable.\nOriginality/value: The paper provides new understanding of principals' strategic leadership practices, which represented rational responses to hyperrational policy demands. Therefore, the paper includes recommendations for principal preparation, district support for policy implementation, and further research on principal practice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Patriarchal paradox: gender performance and men's nursing careers
|
[
"Gender",
"Nursing",
"Masculinities",
"Hegemony",
"Men",
"Patriarchy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Patriarchal socio-political forces have played a profound role in shaping the nursing profession's social context, and the experiences of men in nursing represent but one symptom of the gravitational force exerted by patriarchy on the trajectory of the nursing profession. The \"men in nursing\" literature is replete with personal accounts of challenge, discrimination, and pervasive low numbers of men within the numerically female-dominated nursing profession. Although there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that many men in nursing face significant obstacles in the course of their education and practice, the nursing profession cannot address men's challenges in isolation, without also engaging in a wider discussion of the effects that gender performances have within nursing as a whole. In particular, the influence patriarchal forces have exerted on the assignment of caregiving to the feminine domain (Poole and Isaacs, 1997), the social positioning of nursing's direct caring role as subordinate to that of medicine, and the construction of men's engagement in nursing as a marginalized performance of masculinity. Illustrated by a comprehensive review of men nurses' experiences from the nursing literature, the authors reframe the existing scholarship related to men in nursing within the broader gendered landscape of the profession and society. Additionally, we propose a shift in the dialogue about men in nursing from the current emphasis on documentation of personal experiences to collective action if nursing is to escape the gravitational pull of patriarchy on both men and women in the profession.\nCritical synthesis of the \"men in nursing\" literature: Contextualizing the low numbers of men in nursing\nDiscussion: The patriarchal paradox\nMoving forward: Reframing the discourse\nConclusion: The careers and practices of men in nursing are profoundly shaped by patriarchal power relations in society that situate caregiving within the realm of the feminine. Although patriarchy generally serves to advance the interests of men in society, it paradoxically hinders men in nursing because they have entered a primarily feminine world that experiences oppression and subjugation at the hands of patriarchy. Faced with a marginalization of their performance of masculinity, men's nursing lives are preoccupied with the contradictions and tensions inherent in maintaining a gender performance that is consistent enough with hegemonic masculinities to be considered a man in some contexts, while also enacting \"softer\" performances of masculinity in order to be viewed as an acceptable nurse and caregiver in other contexts. The consequences of this situation create many obstacles for men as they progress through their career, although membership in the dominant patriarchal group has its privileges. The \"men in nursing\" scholarship completed to date has provided a remarkably consistent and comprehensive understanding of men's lives in nursing, and we suggest that the time has come to move beyond the documentation of individual experience, by engaging in a collective action within the profession to address the negative consequences of patriarchy for both men and women in the nursing profession.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In this paper, the authors situate existing scholarship about men in nursing within the broader gendered landscape of the profession and society. As a consequence, the need to reframe the discourse about men in nursing from the current emphasis on personal or collective experiences to collective action becomes apparent. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A critical synthesis of scholarship addressing men in nursing serves as the basis for a conceptual paper which challenges the existing discourse on men in nursing.\nFindings: The experiences and careers of men in nursing are profoundly shaped by patriarchal power structures that situate caregiving within the realm of the feminine. Although men generally benefit in the context of patriarchal society, men in nursing are subject to a patriarchal paradox that marginalizes their performance of masculinity and situates them as unlikely caregivers. Therefore, men in nursing are preoccupied with balancing the contradictions and tensions in their lives associated with enacting a contextual performance of masculinity depending on the social context of their gender performance.\nOriginality/value: A comprehensive synthesis of the existing men in nursing literature is presented and these findings are situated within a broader discussion of gender in nursing and society. This analysis provides the impetus for a \"call to action\" for nursing to comprehensively and meaningfully address the negative consequences of patriarchal forces on the profession of nursing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
"Speaking truth to power": analysing shadow reporting as a form of shadow accounting
|
[
"Power/Knowledge",
"Shadow accounting",
"Shadow reporting"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Shadow accounting is now an established part of social movement processes and practices. Shadow accounting practices can generally be understood as a mean to elucidate the perceived deficiencies in the social and environmental accountability of corporations (Dey, 2007). Following Dey et al. (2011), shadow accounting in this paper is understood as \"a particular form of social accounting produced by external organisations, including campaigning NGOs, on their representation of the social and environmental impacts of others\" (p. 64, emphasis in original). These accounts systematically create \"alternative representations, new visibilities, and knowledge of existing situations in order to problematise, act as a catalyst for interventions, and typically represent the views of oppressed social groups or ecological systems\" (Dey et al., 2011, p. 64). Importantly, shadow accounting is noted to have significant emancipatory potential (Gallhoffer et al., 2006; Shenkin and Coulson, 2007; Bebbington and Thomson, 2007) and is \"in line with the social accounting project's concern to democratically consider the role of corporate power\" (Spence, 2009, p. 219)[1].\nShadow accounting and shadow reporting: A wide range of terms have been used to denote an array of practices that could be described as \"accounting for the other, by the other\" (Shearer, 2002). These include: social audits (Medawar, 1976), deindustrialisation audits (Harte and Owen, 1987), silent accounts (Gray, 1997), shadow accounts (Gray, 1997; Gibson et al., 2001), reporting-performance portrayal gap analysis (Adams, 2004), social accounts (Cooper et al., 2005), counter accounts (Gallhoffer et al., 2006), anti-accounts (Spence, 2009), external accounts (Thomson et al., 2015) and stakeholder-released information (Rodrigue, 2014). As identified above, in this paper, the term shadow accounting is used to denote this range of practices which constitute particular forms of accounting produced by external organisations which contain \"their representation of the social and environmental impacts of others\" (Dey et al., 2011, p. 64). Furthermore, shadow accounting is \"viewed as a technology that measures, creates, makes visible, represents, and communicates evidence in contested arenas characterised by multiple (often contradictory) reports, prepared according to different institutional and ideological rules\" (Dey et al., 2011, p. 64). The term shadow reporting is specifically used to signify the form of the shadow account - specifically the practice of presenting the shadow account in a report format - mirroring the style that corporations use when presenting their own accounts of their social, environmental and/or economic performance and impacts[2].\nFoucault, power/knowledge and truth: Foucault's writings on power/knowledge and truth are useful for the consideration of the practice of shadow reporting and its emancipatory potential. As recognised above, it is important to locate the practice of shadow reporting in the analytics of power within which they are situated. Such analytics of power include a consideration of accounting discourse and its governing effects, corporate reporting as a technique of knowledge and truth production, and also the status of both the corporate institution and shadow accountants. The writings of Foucault and those that draw on them are discussed here to frame the subsequent analysis:Each society has its regime of truth, its \"general politics\" of truth: that is, the types of discourse which it accepts and makes function as true; the mechanisms and instances which enable one to distinguish true and false statements, the means by which each is sanctioned; the techniques and procedures accorded value in the acquisition of truth; the status of those who are charged with saying what counts as true(Foucault, 1980a, p. 131).\nResearch approach and method: This paper analyses a shadow report as a form of shadow accounting through a case study approach. A case study approach is useful where there is a relatively bounded situation for analysis. It is also a useful approach when considering an event or situation from multiple perspectives. In this section of the paper a brief description of participants involved in the case is provided along with a discussion of how data were collected and analysed.\nFindings and discussion: Findings, presented and discussed in this section, range from an examination of the preparers' views of corporate reports and their status, including how these views motivated the form the shadow account took, through to an analysis and discussion of power relations within the arena and their effects.\nConcluding comments: The findings and analysis presented in this paper contributes to the literature on shadow reporting and shadow accounting more broadly and addresses calls in the literature to \"consider the multiple resistances against managerial discourses taking place in the wider realms of civil society\" (Spicer and Bohm, 2007, p 1691). In particular, an analysis of shadow reporting from multiple perspectives drawing on empirical data from the field has been presented offering unique insights into this established and growing practice. An examination of the practice of shadow reporting within an analytics of power/knowledge and truth undertaken has further contributed to understandings of the potential for shadow reports to problematise, create new visibilities and knowledge. Additionally, the paper has examined limits or barriers to the practice of shadow reporting through considering power, right, truth dynamics.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the act of shadow reporting by a social movement organisation as a form of shadow accounting within a sustained campaign against a target corporation. Situated within a consideration of power relations, the rationales underlying the production of the shadow report, and the shadow reports perceived value and limits as a shadow accounting mechanism, are investigated.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A Foucauldian approach to power/knowledge and truth is drawn upon in the analysis of a single case study. Alongside a consideration of the shadow report itself, interviews with both the preparers of the report and senior management of the corporation targeted comprise the main data.\nFindings: The paper provides an empirical investigation into shadow reporting as a form of shadow accounting. While a range of insights are garnered into the preparation, dissemination and impact of the shadow report, key findings relate to a consideration of power relations. The perceived \"truth\" status of corporate accounts compared to accounts prepared by shadow accountants is problematised through a consideration of technologies of power and power/knowledge formations. Power relations are subsequently recognised as fundamental to the emancipatory potential of shadow reporting.\nResearch limitations/implications: Results from a single case study are presented. Furthermore, given the production of the shadow report occurred several years prior to the collection of data, participants were asked to reflect on past events. Findings are therefore based on those reflections.\nOriginality/value: While previous studies have considered the preparation of shadow reports and their transformative potential, this study is, the author believes, the first to empirically analyse the preparation, dissemination and perceived impacts of shadow reporting from the perspectives of both the shadow report producers and the target corporation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Dipping their big toe into the blogosphere: The use of weblogs by the political parties in the 2005 general election
|
[
"Communications",
"Elections",
"Political parties",
"Internet",
"Politics",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Weblogs have literally burst onto the media and public consciousness with an estimated one new blog being created every second. The number of weblogs nearly doubled in five months from 7.8 million in March 2005 to 14.2 million by July 2005 (Technorati, 2005). The blogosphere is the latest potential challenge to the dominance of the mass media on political communication. It has introduced a body of people, bloggers, whose equivalent do not exist offline. Perhaps more importantly, where traditionally political communication has been vertical and top-down giving greater influence to political elites and political parties, the blogosphere opens up the possibility of horizontal communication. Communication between citizens could be a challenge to the control of discourse by political elites.Although the growth in the blogosphere has been initially bottom-up, large corporations and political actors have been increasingly considering how they can utilise weblogs for their benefit. In the run-up to the 2005 UK general election interest in blogs was primarily driven by the hype around their use in the 2004 US presidential election. The Democratic Presidential Primary hopeful, Howard Dean, in particular, was believed to have used a weblog innovatively, and to great effect in generating resources and mobilising support (Johnson and Kaye, 2004; Williams et al., 2005; Adamic and Glance, 2005). Indeed, Bloom and Kerbel (2005) suggest that the initial success was such that by the 2008 US presidential election they predict that blogs will be the must have communication channel for every candidate's campaign. The limited UK experience, however, did provide one word of caution. At the November 2004 Hartlepool parliamentary by-election, comments made on a blog by the Liberal Democrat candidate led to a media furore, and are believed to have lost her the by-election (King, 2004). Despite this set-back, in the run-up to the 2005 UK general election, a number of campaigners were considering whether a weblog was a bandwagon they should jump on to. What originally started out as a social phenomenon was being accessed for its campaigning value.\nLiterature review: What are weblogs?\nMethodology: The use of weblogs is a fairly recent development in election communications, indeed it was not recorded in either the 1997 or 2001 UK general elections. Therefore, the proponents of weblogs were largely experimenting with its use. As a result, this article seeks to provide exploratory research into how weblogs were used in the 2005 general election. The author seeks to answer three questions:1. Why did political parties use weblogs during the 2005 general election?2. Why did political parties choose not to use weblogs during the 2005 general election?3. How did political parties use weblogs during the 2005 general election?To assess how political actors used weblogs in the run-up to, and during, the 2005 general election we interviewed the e-campaigners of eight political parties to see how, if at all, they used a weblog. In addition, we assessed the weblogs of the five parties who had a weblog during the 2005 general election campaign.For the purposes of this research the parties were divided into three categories: major parliamentary, minor parliamentary, and non-parliamentary. Major parliamentary parties were the three largest parliamentary parties: Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrat. All three major parties were interviewed. Minor parliamentary parties were those other parliamentary parties who represented seats in Great Britain[1], with one minor party, Plaid Cymru, being interviewed. Non-parliamentary represented all those parties without parliamentary representation, four non-parliamentary parties were interviewed: the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), the Green Party, the English Democrats, and Third Way.\nPolitical parties and the blogosphere: Why political parties had a weblog?\nConclusion: Size does appear to have some influence on why parties had a weblog, with all three of the major parties doing so. This might in part reflect the fact that they employed dedicated e-campaigners who had the interest, knowledge and skills to recommend that some of the parties' key figures provide a blog. However, more likely it probably reflects the fact that the three largest parties had no option. Given the hype of 2004, they would probably have been criticised for not doing so. Although the English Democrats and Veritas would be considered on the right of the political spectrum, there is no evidence that political philosophy encourages parties to have a weblog: other right-wing parties did not have a weblog. As only two non-parliamentary parties provided a weblog, this probably reflects the interests of the personnel in those two parties. Clearly, for English Democrats the ease of blogging software compared to HTML for web sites was a major factor. In addition, they noted the promotional benefits of weblogs in helping them \"punch above their weight\" on search engines. Therefore, it is almost impossible to predict which parties will have a weblog and why.While we have considered why five parties provided a weblog, 19 with an election web site did not. Our four respondents suggest that the decision not to have a weblog (and they each took this non-decision) was not one of philosophy or resources. Rather, it seems to be a judgement on the tangible value of a weblog. Two parties, the Green Party and Plaid Cymru clearly took a watching brief, in that they provided candidate weblogs. This suggested that they wanted to see what happened at the local level this time before considering a national level blog at a future election. The two remaining parties, UKIP and Third Way, rejected weblogs because they felt the possible negatives associated with them would outweigh any possible benefits. This suggests that for most political parties, or their leading politicians, they require more evidence of the practical benefits a blog provides.The party weblogs, whether by the leader or not, were part of the background noise of the campaign. They tended to provide some insight into what politicians were doing on a daily basis. It is, therefore, likely that one of their main functions was to fulfil a voyeuristic need for some visitors to party web sites. With one exception, the blogs studied were one-way from the party to the visitor. Only the Kennedy Campaign Blog can justifiably claim to seek to encourage any form of conversation during the election. None of the blogs appear to be used for resource generating activities, such as fundraising or mobilising volunteers. Only the weblogs of Blair, Prescott and Kennedy were used as promotional tools. Overall blogs played a minor part, and the parties' toes did not dip very far into the blogosphere.There is no evidence from the use and effect of the party weblogs in the 2005 general election that there will be a significant movement towards their use at subsequent elections by political parties. As a promotional or campaign tool they suffer from a major disadvantage in that visitors expect them to be written by the author. Party leaders are unlikely to have the time to update their weblog daily. Nor are those blogs, such as English Democrats which provide links to other stories, likely to have a great deal of campaigning effect, unless it is to highlight what their candidates have done which is newsworthy. Therefore, while more parties are likely to have a weblog, it is probably the use of weblogs by individual politicians and candidates that is likely to be a more fruitful source of further research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of weblogs by political parties in the 2005 general election campaign. It seeks to identify why, why not, and how parties used their weblogs during the election campaign.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The weblogs of the five political parties which had a weblog were assessed, and eight party e-campaigners were interviewed.\nFindings: - The findings contrast with those of studies of the 2004 US presidential campaign where blogs appeared to play a significant campaigning role. Rather, in the UK, party blogs were essentially used as one-way communication channels which added colour to party web sites. As a result, such weblogs may have encouraged visitors to return because of some form of voyeurism, but they were not either effective conversational, campaigning, or promotional tools.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper is based on a UK general election of an experimental political communication channel.\nPractical implications: - Suggests the key elements required for the effective use of weblogs. Also suggests that individual candidate weblogs may be a more appropriate channel to reach electors than party-controlled weblogs. The motivation for using a weblog seems to be essentially a judgement that it might be worthwhile experimenting with one. However, until there is significant evidence that weblogs can have a tangible effect, it is likely that they will remain merely part of the background to a UK general election campaign.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides a means of judging the value of weblogs within political communication by political actors.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Student placement service: An exploratory investigation of employer retention and a "Priority Partner" intervention
|
[
"Student work placement",
"Employers",
"Action research",
"Cooperative education",
"Internship",
"Students"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This study was undertaken to investigate employer retention in the work placement programme of the Bachelor of Business Studies (BBS) (Honours) degree at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) in Ireland and to undertake action research (AR) to try and improve retention from one year to the next. For the purpose of this paper, employer retention refers to a third-level institution retaining an employer for undergraduate student work placement from one year to the following year. For example, if 100 employers take students on work placement in year one and 25 of the same employers take students again in year two, this represents a 25 per cent employer retention rate.The term work placement programme adopted here has been used interchangeably in the literature with internship, cooperative education, work-integrated learning, practicum and industry experience (see Ellis, 1999; Cooper et al., 1999; Fleming and Ferkins, 2005; Abeysekera, 2006; Zopiatis, 2007; O'Shea and Watson, 2007). Internship is defined as \"an undertaking with a focus on the provision of real world experience to those whose preoccupation has been with formal learning\" (Dodge and McKeough, 2003). The authors prefer to use the term work placement in this paper as the BBS degree work placement at WIT is a paid work placement programme for third year undergraduates lasting between six and eight months in duration.In the first year of the BBS work placement programme in the academic year 2006/2007, 166 students were placed with 101 employers. Anecdotal evidence from employers suggested that they were generally satisfied with the students' performance. In the second year of running, year 2007/2008, it was observed that only 26 per cent of the participating employers in the 2006/2007 year repeated their participation in 2007/2008.For the WIT Work Placement Team, there is a great deal of work involved in procuring work placement positions from new employers, ones that have not provided placement positions in the past. The competition in the region includes other colleges, e.g. the University of Limerick (doing work placement for over 30 years and with approximately 400 students from the School of Business to place each year), University College Cork, Carlow Institute of Technology and the Dublin universities and institutes. Therefore employer retention is important to the WIT work placement team and the low level of employer retention was the catalyst for this AR project.\nLiterature review: The approach to the literature review has been informed by AR literature, specifically Coghlan and Brannick (2005): \"not only are you reviewing the social context of your project, you also review and critique the research that has been done in that context\". There is a limited amount of literature on the key subject of work placement with calls for more research in the area (Ryan et al., 1996), notwithstanding a very strong mandate from employers for students to acquire more work experience (Dearing, 1997). One of the key points made in the literature reviewed is that the work placement function from the college perspective is markedly similar to a normal supplier/customer relationship where the supplier is offering a temporary labour service, like a professional recruitment company (Winfield and Ellis, 1993). As such, the management of the relationship between the supplier (the college) and the employer should be performed in a professional manner, just like a supplier/customer relationship.There is a three-way partnership between the employer, the student and the college in a work placement contract. This study examines specifically the relationship between the college work placement team and employers. While it has been motivated by the need to address a real organisational issue (i.e. a low-retention rate for employers), it also identifies a gap in the academic literature and therefore aims to make some contribution in that regard. There has been a disproportionate focus in research to date on the employer and/or employer/student perspective as opposed to the college/employer aspect. \"Prior empirical studies of internships have assessed the perspective of only one stakeholder group in isolation, or perhaps two groups (usually students and academics)\" (Alpert et al., 2009). There is more research on student and employer benefits of placement (see Walo, 2001; Morse, 2006; O'Shea and Watson, 2007) than on the placement service (Abeysekera, 2006). Given some observations of diversity in practice (Blackwell et al., 2001; Coll and Eames, 2000; Fleming and Ferkins, 2005), there is a need for colleges to formulate their own \"framework of good practice\" in placement management (Zopiatis, 2007), amidst competition for student placements (Cooper et al., 1999).\nThe conceptual framework: The major factors that impact the work placement relationship between employers and colleges are illustrated in Figure 1. This paper deals with four of the factors: employers' perception and experience of the college, the calibre of the students, the standard of service provided by the work placement team and the placement manager. The other factors are outside the scope of this study.Employers' perception of and/or experience with the college\nResearch objectives: The overall aim of this study was to investigate and address employer retention in a work placement programme through an AR mode of enquiry. This study looks at introducing relationship marketing ideas to the work placement service provided by the college and attempts to evaluate the outcome of their introduction by measuring improvement in the retention of employers from one year to the next.More specifically, the objectives were:\nThe AR project plan: The plan and the study began with mentor visits to students on work placement in the previous academic year, 2007/2008. These visits were used to garner employer feedback on the performance of the students and the work placement process. At the same time the analysis and reporting on the prior year programme was taking place. In total, the plan and this study lasted over a full calendar year and finished with the analysis and reporting on the work placement programme for the academic year 2008/2009. Figure 3 contains a simplified summary of the project plan and shows the timescale.Employer visits and feedback (diagnosis)\nFindings and analysis (action and evaluation): The findings are presented and discussed in line with the research objectives, namely the evaluation of the factors determining employer retention in work placement programmes and the outcome of an intervention made. There are three major findings sections: first, survey results (questions 1-14); second, Ellis and Moon replication survey results comparison (question 15); and third, PPs intervention.Section 1: survey findings and evaluation\nConclusions: This study set out to instigate change through AR in the context of increasing retention of employers for student work placement. These findings have implications for institutions with work placement programmes and contribute to the literature in the college work placement field. The targeting of selected key employers for priority treatment using customer retention techniques and the nurturing and fostering of closer relationships with these employers would seem to assist in the retention of employers for work placement from year to year and may reduce the time and the level of work required to place students as well as providing some certainty of availability of placement positions. The benefits include a more nuanced understanding of employer needs and less time and effort devoted to finding new employers (Luck and Lancaster, 2003; Kandampully and Duddy, 1999) with a more efficient use of college resources. It also provides the college with the possibility of exerting more influence on the placement experience for the students through the deeper and more developed relationship with the key employers. There is also by extension a potential for long-term leveraging of the employer relationships with PPs beyond work placement into areas of research collaborations, post-graduate recruitment possibilities, employer input into course curricula and employer sponsorship and scholarship provision.The findings also indicate that the role of the placement manager is important in the work placement environment; employers want to deal with a manager they can trust, who understands their needs and with whom they can collaborate. The placement manager needs to have good people skills. The study confirms that employers desire to deal with a professional, responsive, efficient placement service that provides accurate information and works at matching the students with the job specifications as well as providing an efficient interview process.This study is limited to one educational institution and one year of work placement activity and is limited to evaluating the outcomes of an AR cycle intervention over a one-year period. The impact of the customer-relations interventions may be felt over a longer time period. The study looks at student work placement from the perspective of the college and the employers involved and therefore excludes other stakeholders such as the students' perspective. Findings must also be interpreted in the context of PP selection. The process used in selecting PPs from the many employers at the beginning of the study could possibly place limitations on the interpretation of the results. It could be suggested that the PPs, by the nature of the selection process, had a greater chance of being retained than the other employers anyway.The work placement option was introduced to the BBS degree programme in the academic year 2006/2007. This study was conducted in the academic year 2008/2009, the third year of operation, which positions the placement process in the early phase of development. The survey question on the ranking by employers of various retention criteria was conducted with employers from one education institution whereas the survey conducted by Ellis and Moon in 1998 was among employers linked to or taking placement students from multiple education institutions. Therefore the comparisons between them should be viewed within this context. The replication of the Ellis and Moon survey has highlighted differences in the ranking of factors relevant to employers in taking on placement students. Why is the placement manager's understanding of client needs and trust between the client and the placement manager more highly ranked in an Irish context? Why is student chemistry and the cost of management time perceived to be of much greater importance in a UK context? Such questions would suggest that further research using in-depth interviewing might reveal answers to these questions. A further replication of the Ellis and Moon study on criteria for employer retention using employers from multiple colleges in Ireland would provide an interesting contrast to the original study and this study from WIT. This replication could keep the 18 questions that were in the original survey or some further criteria could be added. Such a study should investigate and compare the organisation sizes and industry sectors of the respondents. Perhaps such a study could be also be performed in the UK and comparisons made between both studies.Future research might consider examining characteristics of the placement manager and how these might influence the development of college-employer relations. Future research could also include more controlled field experiments in the area of unpaid placements or placement programmes with both paid and unpaid placements.Other factors outside the remit of this study that potentially can impact the retention of employers for work placements include changes in the general economic climate, changes in the length of time for placements or differences in length of placement time between institutions, changes in placement office personnel and changes in employer management structures including HR personnel in the recruiting employers. To understand their influence a study of a longitudinal nature would be more appropriate to evaluate the impact of such changes over time.While this study has focused on employer retention for the placement of students, future research could usefully distinguish between retention and recruitment variables in relation to the range of factors identified in this paper, for example the cost of gaining v. retaining employers for work placement. It was noted in this study that some employers did not participate in taking placement students because they hired the prior year placement students as permanent employees after graduation. This is likely to have an effect on all college work placement programmes and would be an interesting area for some future research across multiple colleges. Although not incorporated into the design of this study, the authors recommend the conducting of follow-up interviews with employers that were treated as PPs and with those who were not treated as such, to capture their perceptions of the placement experience.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors relating to retention of employers on an undergraduate work placement programme in a third level institution.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An action research methodology involving problem diagnosis, intervention planning, action and evaluation is employed. The diagnosis involved a survey of 130 employers that had taken students on placement during the first two years of the placement programme. The action research also involved workshops with the work placement team and the making of an intervention with respect to enhancing the placement process through the introduction of a Priority Partner initiative for 26 of the employers.\nFindings: - The survey findings reveal differences in the ranking of importance of college selection criteria by employers, as well the impact of the placement manager's characteristics on the placement process. The intervention findings show that the employer retention percentage increased for the Priority Partners but remained the same for the other employers.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study reports qualitative findings in the context of a placement programme in one institution which limits external validity.\nPractical implications: - Employer retention would seem to be improved with the development of a customer relations management orientation with employers. The role of the placement manager is pivotal to enhancing the retention of employers as is the quality and professionalism of the work placement service.\nOriginality/value: - New empirical data extends the very limited understanding of company retention on work placement programmes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Relationship between organizational citizenship and commitment in Puerto Rico banks
|
[
"Commitment",
"Organizational citizenship"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the current international financial scenario, the business organizational strategy is aimed at strengthening its competitive position in its main markets and providing more services efficiently for the consumer. Therefore, business organizations must develop strategies that promote an open culture of cooperation among employees focused on mutual trust, responsibility and the common good. As a result of this management vision, attention should be paid in organizations to the development of the manifestation of organizational citizenship behaviour.This topic has been studied by experts due to the interest shown in the management area (Smith et al., 1983; Bolino et al., 2002; Organ et al., 2006). Organizational citizenship behaviour are those qualities that are not mandatory for employees such as altruism, awareness, civil virtue, courtesy and tolerance but produce beneficial outcomes for the organizations. People, who exhibit organizational citizenship, model the attributes required to produce great resonance in the organization.In the years 2006-2016, the banking industry in Puerto Rico was affected by several negative aspects and among these employees were identified with deviant behaviour's that affected the organization. The bank went through consolidations orchestrated by FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp)), in which the banks remained insolvent and with major economic problems in Puerto Rico and in Europe. There were banking sales. The argument was that the banking system required further consolidation, due to the system's liquidity problems, and price competition in products and services.The scenery of Puerto Rican banking in mid-2009 showed a great deterioration. Of the nine (9) banks that operated in Puerto Rico under the FDIC, the assets were reduced from $87 billion to $86.7 billion and the deposits fell from $63 billion to $55.9 billion. It is perceived that there were great challenges regarding the banking sector, but it must have been astute and working as a team to become leaders in the market. The economy of Puerto Rico and that of the world is going through a period of contraction, fusion and evolution. Opportunities of two consolidations of different banks and the closing of others have been presented, closing at times (8) branches even of the leading banks in Europe that have operations throughout Latin America, the United States and Puerto Rico.From 2006 to 2018, the economy of Puerto Rico has gone through a strong contraction. There is a deep economic crisis that has not allowed its growth capacity. The economic challenges require processes of transformation in human resources. There is interest in innovative practices that help develop human capital to organizations that learn and healthy with a high level of commitment.Given that the situation of the economic crisis that Puerto Rico is going through, which affects organizations and does not allow them to develop their capacity for growth and competitiveness, the following question is asked: What are the practices of organizational citizenship of the employees of the branches of the banks in Puerto Rico that can be considered to face the existing problem? Also, is there a relationship between organizational citizenship behaviour and commitment?The objective of this research was to analyse the relationship between organizational citizenship and commitment of employees in the banking sector in Puerto Rico at times of crisis. Spreitzer and Cameron (2012) point out that there is a high relation between positive aspects such as virtuous practices and financial performance. The most compassionate, grateful and trusting companies are significantly more profitable than those that are not.Cameron and Caza (2004) pointed out that most of the studies conducted up to that date were conceptual and definitional rather than empirical and that it was necessary to continue exploring topics such as citizenship as a positive attribute in organizations.Topics such as happiness at work, satisfaction, work commitment and joy are known to improve the performance of the company. The negative aspects such as stress, exhaustion and depression diminish it and create additional mental health costs for stakeholders. Well-being in the workplace has rapidly strengthened its importance for human health within the social environment at work (Danna and Griffin, 1999). Good treatment involves dividing tasks and responsibilities, respecting schedules, making decisions in agreement, using resources responsibly and recognizing the structures of power and authority, all these actions show respect and consideration for others. The employee in the new economy is the engine of organizational development, this resource with specific characteristics that must be addressed through the genuine impact on the employee and that in turn allows them to understand the corporate values, and their role in compliance with the organizational goals.Citizenship in employment refers to courtesy and consideration for others. It is the ability to transmit courtesy, respect and order to the whole society and create a climate conducive to coexistence and citizen participation. It is the key principle to transform an organization and includes changes in policies and work patterns. It has been defined as: \"sociability, urbanity, restraint, attention and good mode. It is considered an admirable attribute\" (Elsner and Boggs, 2006; Sistare, 2004). According to Sistare (2004), it requires tolerance, listening and debating different points of view without harshness, violence or personal attacks.Guinnes (2008)defines it as respect for differences, discussing them firmly and treating oneself with dignity and honour.Carter (1998) points out that organizational citizenship is respect for fellow citizens, it is more than politeness and it is a prerequisite for democracy and the sum of many sacrifices that citizens make for the sake of better coexistence. Elsner and Boggs (2006) consider citizenship as a virtue associated with courtesy, good manners and decency. It is the ethical principle of promoting respect among people. Clark and Carnosso (2008) propose that \"citizenship is characterized by a genuine respect for others when disagreement, disparity or controversy are expressed; it involves time, presence and willingness to participate in a genuine discourse and a sincere intention to seek agreements and common points.\" It is suggested to recognize the additional work that the employee does, even if no immediate monetary reward is given, so they will know that their effort is appreciated.Behaviour theory defines it as discretionary behaviour that is not part of the formal requirements of the position, but promotes the effective functioning of the organization. Cooperation is the essential element and will depend on the incentives offered, financial, opportunities for growth, consideration, prestige and physical working conditions. The managers create and maintain a system of cooperative efforts to ensure the survival of organizations.Citizenship beliefs encourage an employee to perform tasks that they does not have to carry out, even if they have not given an additional reward to perform a task or they are punished for not performing it because of that refers to voluntary activities. Organizational citizenship emerges as a response to the unconditional devotion of labour efficiency in pro-social behaviours that go beyond the apprehension of organizational policies and regulations; where a collective conscience is provided that responds in facilitating and contributing significantly to the best organizational interests.Organizational citizenship behaviour has five different dimensions of a group, altruism (help with disinterested concern for the welfare of others), awareness (extra work, long days, not breaking rules and regulations), courtesy (prevention of related problems with work with others), tolerance (complaining about trivial matters always focuses on what is wrong, rather than the positive side) and civil virtue (the development of oneself in knowledge, skill, attitude, attending meetings/events of common interest) (Organ, 1988).This research is focused on organizational citizenship as the desired behaviour, and its relationship on commitment that is intended to be achieved. Thus, along with a focus in which the citizenship transforms the organizational commitment with an image of internal and external courtesy service. It aims to generate organizational behaviour that becomes a return on investment. Organizational citizenship behaviour can promote the effective functioning of the organization (Organ, 1988). Increasing academic attention is being assigned to effectiveness, efficiency in performance, group effectiveness and job performance (Gersick, 1988). In this research, the practice of citizenship within behaviour and its relationship with organizational commitment is viewing as a psychological contract and as a return on investment.Several authors have applied the theory of human values that examines the relationship of values with commitment. Empirical research was conducted in several countries, finding that openness to change was the value with the greatest impact on affective commitment. The theory of organizational commitment refers to communication, the interest of management, training, work and family reconciliation. On this subject, Cohen (2009) using the theory of values of Schwartz and Ros (1995) analysed it in relation to the commitment with employees.Understanding how individual values affect the company allows creation of a more suitable position between the values of the employee and those of the company. To the extent that there is better congruence between them it is easier for commitment to occur (Cohen, 2009). This research requires guaranteeing the emergence of the commitment of the bank employees of Puerto Rico in the action of a psychological contract as an intangible exchange, upon experiencing the behaviour of organizational citizenship. This study focuses on the attributes of altruism, awareness, courtesy, tolerance and civil virtue (Organ, 1988).The most powerful asset of any company is the employees. Human capital as a living resource provides innumerable intangible factors to the company such as ideas, skills, attitudes, values and knowledge itself, to achieve optimal performance. It is the people who make them a reality and give meaning to the companies, that is where the importance of retaining human capital for the success of companies lies (Werther, 2008). Committing human capital leads to evaluating the behaviour that promotes citizenship in the organization for operational success. Employees live and relate without being able to isolate themselves from other colleagues, decisions are made and a sequence of behaviours that make organizational life easier is executed. Organizations have formal processes, rules, policies and procedures that to a certain extent direct, limit and shape the behaviour of their employees.It seems clear that organizations need a behaviour of organizational civility, to make these areas more consistent and enjoyable for its members. Organizational citizenship behaviour is to develop events that exceed the expectations of the job, is a free intention to collaborate with others or with the organization itself. They are not recognized by the formal method of reward, which makes them less visible in the organization. These behaviours of civility undoubtedly favour the effectiveness of companies and even within society.These behaviours are what are called organizational citizenship behaviours. At the beginning of the 1980s, Dennis Organ developed the metaphor of the \"good soldier syndrome\" to refer to a concept that would later be called \"citizenship behaviour\" in the organization. It referred to a set of behaviours that contribute to the organization's results even if they go beyond the job description and are not formally recognized by the reward system. Some examples: helping a partner who has fallen behind on the job, volunteering for new projects, maintaining good humour, guiding new employees and encouraging the organizational climate, among others.Several studies have identified the positive effects that citizen behaviour generates on groups and the organization. These behaviours relieve managers of certain coordination and supervision tasks, reduce personal and group conflicts, improve the integration of groups and increase the retention of employees who feel supported and enjoy a better work environment. The critical analysis of this body of knowledge indicates that it is an organizational behaviour to which different denominations have been attributed many definitions and multidimensional character.Citizen behaviour is an aspect of interest both academics and experts, is the work welfare, because it has established a direct relationship between organizational behaviour and organizational commitment. Understanding the sociocultural element of organizations is a responsibility of the people in charge of managing them (Davila and Martinez, 1999-2000), since it involves understanding the person's relationship with the organization, their attitudes, expectations and aspirations. The review of the various studies on the subject suggests some association between various topics such as: job satisfaction, commitment and job stability; that the quality of supervision increases well-being and that the perception of well-being depends on the type of work and the dominant organizational culture (Cameron and Freeman, 1991; Hofstede et al., 1990).The intangible aspect is a construct that has been studied in organizations, the subject of its evaluation and its contribution to the benefit of the company is relatively new in the administration, especially in the areas of technology and related disciplines. Obviously, interest on the value of intangibles increases as the new economy develops based on the growth of companies and the search for satisfied employees. While it is challenging to estimate the monetary value of intangible resources, unlike employees, intangible resources can have a strong impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization.The factor of organizational citizenship is fundamental when determining the results, while, unlike most material or financial resources, they cannot be acquired in the market, but are the result of a human process that occurs within each organization. Through this study we seek to validate that the role of the organization's intangibles, especially organizational citizenship, positively contributes to the employee's commitment in the banking sector.Research objectives\nLiterature review: Organizational behaviour\nMethodology: Design of the investigation\nResults: The results confirm the presence of a significant statistical relationship between the organizational citizenship behaviour and commitment. Responses from employees in the banking sector regarding altruism indicated that they provide help to new employees on their own initiative with 69.1%. This represents the willingness to serve others and the interest in the scope of tasks with organizational commitment. The item of greatest impact of employees in the awareness criteria is their action to advise in advance if you need to leave with 73.1%, is an indicator of sense of responsibility of the employee and act of commitment to the company and get it. Courtesy was the item with the greatest scope of the employees who responded to the questionnaire, it is respect for the rights of other colleagues with 84.1%. In the item I am part of the solution to identify work problems, is an indicator of citizenship in tolerance towards the needs of others with 53.8%. The civil virtue item of greater scope showed that the employees answered, often share with the team what benefits them as employees, showing interest in the common good with 51.5%. The commitment indicates that 54.5% of the employees are perceived linked to the company.In the dimensions of citizenship perceived by the employee, the highest coefficients were civil virtue, awareness and tolerance in the multivariate analysis of the algorithmic trajectory through the highest coefficients in the betas. The unidirectional model is validated by internal validation for its consistency in the elements in the following sequence: awareness, civil virtue, tolerance, altruism and lesser importance courtesy, this in relation to commitment as dependent variable.Behaviour of citizenship in organizational commitment\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between organizational citizenship and commitment in a sample of employees of banking branches in Puerto Rico. The specific objectives were to identify the practices of organizational citizenship and determine the relationship of altruism, awareness, courtesy, tolerance and civil virtue with organizational commitment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research design was quantitative, descriptive, correlational and transversal. The research instrument was validated and obtained high coefficients.\nFindings: The results confirm a significant statistical relationship between awareness, civil virtue, tolerance and altruism with organizational commitment.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research has a positive impact on companies in increasing their finances with intangible strategies, and leadership styles can evolve towards civility. It suggests modifying the university curricula to prepare managers with intangible supervisory and performance management strategies through workshops, seminars and professional conferences.\nPractical implications: Organizations and employees develop their own traits and establish patterns of citizenship behaviour that allow them to create passionate and committed employees.\nSocial implications: The research was able to predict that citizenship is related in a positive way to reach operational goals and fostering an atmosphere and image of cordiality as a success strategy. The contribution to the organizational policy can be established in the development processes among partners, in training, regulations and policies. It provides the academic contribution of the model.\nOriginality/value: This is the first attempt to evaluate citizenship behaviour in the banking industry in Puerto Rico.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of national culture on the meaning of information system success at the user level
|
[
"Information systems",
"National cultures",
"Multinational companies",
"France",
"Canada",
"Germany"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper investigates how people from different national cultures define and perceive information system success at the user level.One of the most enduring research topics in the field of information systems is that of information systems success (Markus et al., 2000). DeLone and McLean (1992) argued that if information systems research is to make a contribution to the world of practice, a well-defined outcome measure is essential. On the other hand, cross-cultural researchers have largely suggested that it is not possible to take existing models and theories and apply them to different contexts or cultures (Hofstede, 1980; Laurent, 1983; Maurice, 1979; Tayeb, 1994; Trompenaars, 1993, Pauleen et al., 2006). This problem becomes apparent in large organizations or multinational organizations which conduct business activities in different cultures because \"the meaning of information and effectiveness of an information system can vary substantially in different cultures\" (Jordan, 1996, p. 2). This problem becomes even more complex in cases where a multinational organization seeks to standardize IS in its subsidiaries that are located in different cultures. The multinational organization would face two challenges. First, the system needs to be implemented successfully. Second, the multinational organization in due time, needs to measure the success of the system, that is, the outcome from implementing the new system. In reviewing the literature, we could not find specific studies that deal with how people in different cultures define and operationalize IS success. The intent of this research is to focus on this issue by developing culturally sensitive models of IS success at the user level.\nReview of the literature: IS success\nResearch question and method: Figure 2 shows the general framework that guides the research question, data collection and analysis procedures. The framework is made of two main components: national culture and the meaning of IS success at the user level. The aim of the framework is not to test relationships. Rather, the arrow only indicates the logic that national culture would affect the meaning of IS success at the user level. A user is a business end user. That is, an individual who is not IS professional. We will interview groups of users from France, Canada, and Germany. Data analysis will then determine how IS success is perceived by each group. If this perception differs from a group to another, we will then support the idea that in our case, these differences are mainly due to differences in national cultures.The following is the research question: how does national culture affect the perception of the meaning of IS success at the user level?The case\nAnalysis and results: Tables III-V provide the detailed data analysis in Canada, Germany and France, respectively. The first column of each of the following tables indicates the name of the emerging category and, in parentheses, the number of participants who provided at least one concept in the category. The second column indicates the corresponding concepts that determine the category. Each multi-determinant concept in column two is indicated by a number showing the amount of raw data that determines it. A multi determinant concept is a concept that is determined by at least two raw data. For example, \"decision making (5)\" in Table V in the second column specifies that five separate pieces of raw data determine the \"decision making\" concept. Appendix 2 shows examples of the multi-determinant concepts and the corresponding raw data in Canada.Table VI summarizes and compares the emerging categories of IS success at the user level in Canada, Germany, and France. A \"+\" sign indicates that the category has emerged in the corresponding culture and a \"-\" sign indicates that it did not.Table VI shows that four common categories of IS success emerge at the user level. These can be called \"universal\" or \"global\" categories. All the remaining categories are local to their corresponding cultures. Four categories are common across all the cultures (Canada, France, and Germany): \"impact on individual task\", \"impact on decision making\", \"impact on the user's career\" and \"user satisfaction\". These are the global categories that emerged in our studies. The results also show that there are local categories that don't emerge in all the three countries. Two in Canada (\"impact on individual skills and knowledge\" and \"impact on the user as a person\"), two in Germany (\"user independence from management and user dependence on the group\" and \"impact on the user as a person\", and four in France (\"user independence from IS professionals\", \"impact on individual skills and knowledge\", \"user power over the system\" and \"use\"). These are specific categories that emerge in only one or two countries.\nDiscussion: The results of our research reveal IS success is not perceived nor defined equally in our group of respondents. The perception of what makes an information system successful at the user level is not homogenous across all groups. This is not surprising. The social side of the system that includes the user and the impact on the user are indeed affected by cultural values (Rosenzweig, 1994).Canada scores low on both the \"power distance\" and \"uncertainty avoidance\" dimensions: 40 and 46. In his organizational model, Hofstede (1994) calls organizations that belong to this part of the model \"market organizations\". The \"individualistic\" characteristic of the Canadian culture supports and justifies the \"impact on individual skills and knowledge\" and \"impact on user as a person\" categories. People in \"individualistic\" culture search for recognition and promotion and look after themselves instead of putting much emphasis on the group, which characterizes the \"collectivist\" cultures.The low score on \"uncertainty avoidance\" (46) means that Canadians do not feel threatened by ambiguous situations. They like to innovate and produce new products. They prefer a creative approach. This is evident by the categories of \"impact on skills and knowledge\".Germany scores 35 on \"power distance\" dimension and this is a low score. Germans do not believe in the unequal distribution of power in the workplace. A low score on power distance means that people like to work together. Power between employees is low. A person's position depends on his or her knowledge. \"User's independence from management and user dependence on the group\" means that users do not rely on management because the decision making process is not in the hands of the managers alone. The fact that a successful IS supports decision making is found to be strong in the German group. This means that the German group believes that they would rely on the system to help them decide. The information provided by the system is crucial and the system is not considered as a tool. Users' dependence on the group is a continuation of the logic of teamwork.Germany scores 65 on the \"uncertainty avoidance\" dimension and this is considered a high score. This means that Germans do not like ambiguous situations. Everything must be prepared and rules and procedures must be implemented before tasks are undertaken. This is what Hofstede (1994) calls the \"machine\" type of organizational model.In France, the score of the \"power distance\" is 68. This is considered a high score on this dimension. This means that the French tend to accept unequal distribution of power in their organizations. This indicates that the decisions made by managers are likely to be considered legitimate and should not be disputed. Power is then believed to be an important value in French society. The \"user independence from IS professionals\" and \"user power over the system\" justify and support the high score of \"power distance\" dimension. This means that a successful IS should maintain the values held by the users of the system. Users prefer to maintain power over the system. They prefer to make decisions by themselves and not by relying on the system. They prefer to have more power over IS professionals. As power is legitimized, the users of the system hope the system will provide them with more power. They believe that a successful IS should enable individual skills knowledge development. This means that knowledge justifies the power they may have and they want to learn as much as they can in order to become more knowledgeable and therefore more powerful.France scores very high on the uncertainty avoidance dimension, 86 out of 100. This means that the French do not like unstructured situations and ambiguity. They would prefer to lower the risk and reduce surprises. Therefore they would implement strategies and procedures in organizations that all employees would follow.\nImplications: Our research has many implications. First, the research provides lists of categories of IS success at the user level as perceived by groups of people from different national cultures (France, Canada and Germany). These categories will help our case evaluate the performance of the information system that it decided to implement in our studied cultures by using the categories at the user level. Second, the research also recommends that organizations that standardize their IS in different cultures may need to fit the meaning of IS success as it is perceived by local users in each culture with the built-in success assumption of the standard system. Third, the study contributes to the continuous emergence of qualitative research importance in the IS discipline. The aim of this study is not to analytically generalize its findings. We do not claim that our findings are applied to all organizations that exist in our selected cultures. The statistical generalization may come later by using a more quantitative approach and after having our research replicated by other scholars.\nConclusion: It has been argued that national culture affect social and socio-technical system. This cross-cultural research was conducted to understand the affect of national culture on the perception of the meaning of IS success at the user level. A multinational organization has decided to standardize information systems in all its subsidiaries around the world. This organization was selected because it has subsidiaries of the same business activity in many cultures, and it was concerned about how its people would define the performance of Information systems before it actually implements a standard ERP package. We found that people from different national cultures do not define and perceive IS success equally at the user level. Our research is the first of its kind to study the meaning IS success in a multicultural environment. Researchers are invited to replicate our study in the same national cultures in order to add more knowledge to our findings. Researchers are also invited to conduct similar studies in different cultures.\nLimitations: This study has a few limitations. First the selection of our respondents was done by our sponsor in the multinational organization. We wished we could select them ourselves so that we can have perfect cocktails of different functional perspectives. Second the number of participants was not as high as we wished. Finally we were not able to stay for long time at the research sites to fully appreciate the site environment.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to understand how people from different national cultures; France, Canada and Germany, define and perceive information systems success.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This is exploratory research that used a grounded theory approach to analyze qualitative data that were collected using an open interview data collection technique. Grounded theory helps to develop new concepts and new theory.\nFindings: - The findings confirm the divergence thesis. The authors found that people from different national cultures define information systems differently. The authors developed models that groups information systems success as they are defined in France, Canada and Germany.\nResearch limitations/implications: - There are many limitations in this research. First, the findings concern only one single multinational organization. The authors' aim was analytical and not statistical generalization. Second, although the number of respondents was sufficient to develop a partial theory, the authors could not meet with a larger number of people to get more insights.\nPractical implications: - There are many practical implications. Multinational organizations that seek to standardize their information systems need to be aware that the implementation as well as long term success of the standard system will not be homogenous. Moreover, the results of the study reveal that information quality and other systems based concepts are not defined the same way in all cultures. Finally, the study proposes a tool that would help the case organization measure IS success in these three cultures.\nOriginality/value: - This study is unique in a sense that not only does it claim that culture does impact IS success, but it also goes a step further and defines what IS success is in different national cultures.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Why do they come to London? : Exploring the motivations of expatriates to work in the British capital
|
[
"England",
"Labour mobility",
"Careers",
"Expatriates",
"Cities",
"London",
"International mobility",
"Global careers",
"City attractiveness",
"Motivation to work abroad"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: It is presumably no accident that Michael Douglas, playing a rogue trader in the film \"Wall Street\", works in New York rather than in Atlanta, New Orleans, Seattle or San Francisco. It is likely that if an overseas fashion designer had a choice she would select working in Milan over Naples; a foreign-born investment banker would choose London over Leicester or a non-European automotive specialist Stuttgart over Kiel. While some specialist activities have \"regions or cities of excellence\", many cities are associated with strong images and reputations in the minds of individuals (Global Market Insite, 2006).Boundaryless careers involve the movement across physical and psychological barriers. Sullivan and Arthur (2006) examine international work and link it to high degrees of both physical and psychological mobility. However, the literature has hitherto neglected the influence of specific cities on the decision to work abroad. This paper attempts to redress this situation. In a first step we will explore the importance of a variety of influence factors that impact on the decision to come to work in the British capital. Second, based on the findings, this paper will draw up a framework of decision categories for working abroad. In so doing, we will contribute to the literature on boundaryless careers.Globalisation has been one of the triggers for the emergence of the boundaryless career (Gunz and Peiperl, 2007). There is some indication that organisations find that demand for competent global managers can be bigger than the supply (Quelch and Bloom, 1999; GMAC Global Relocation Services, 2008; Tarique and Schuler, 2010). Moreover, many potential expatriates do not seem willing to accept foreign assignments (Harvey, 1996; Ball, 1999; Dickmann et al., 2008). Therefore, it is important to understand the motives of individuals to accept a foreign position. However, the literature is lacking in several respects. First, there is a strong focus on western expatriates to the detriment of other international assignees (Richardson and Mallon, 2005). Second, most existing research tends to explore the willingness to accept a foreign posting rather than the attitudes influencing the actual decision process (Brett and Stroh, 1995; Tharenou, 2003). Third, there is a dearth of studies that attempt to capture the relative importance of factors on the decision of individuals. While Stahl et al. (2002) go beyond a simple list to provide a ranking, this does not facilitate a nuanced understanding of the importance and differences between the various items. Fourth, the impact of location factors which are more specific than national influences remains relatively neglected in the literature. The research presented in the paper attempts to address these points.\nUnderstanding the motives for expatriation: There are a range of categories that have been identified as driving the decision to expatriate. The existing literature distinguished between career and development considerations, organisational factors, individual interests, experiences and drives, family and partner considerations, including issues such as dual careers or influences of the extended family, as well as national factors (Gregersen et al., 1998; Hammer et al., 1998; Tung, 1998; Suutari and Brewster, 2000; Mendenhall, 2001; Stahl et al., 2002; Richardson and Mallon, 2005). We will briefly review each of these areas before arguing that a further category, specific location factors which are distinct from national factors, can have a major impact in the decision to work abroad.Career and development considerations\nLondon as a destination: About 7.5 million people lived in London in 2005 (ONS, 2007a). Working in London as a foreign-born individual is common as a third of all jobs in London are held by migrants (LSE, 2007). In 2004, approximately 30 per cent of London's inhabitants came from ethnic minorities and one-quarter of London's population was born overseas (ONS, 2007b). It seems that London is highly ethnically diverse.A PEST analysis, comprising political, economic, socio-cultural and technological factors, may be used to understand some of the location-specific attributes that influence the decisions of overseas nationals who seek to work in a specific city. In the case of London as with many other European countries and cities, individuals may be attracted by living in a stable, democratic society that has relatively high levels of security and extensive checks on the power of diverse institutions (Hollingsworth and Boyer, 1997; Lane, 1995). Inner London was the wealthiest region in Europe (Eurostat, 2005) and the gross value added per head was 53 per cent above the UK national average in 2005 (ONS, 2007b). Foreign workers may be attracted by the high salary levels (ONS, 2005), the general standard of living in the city (Eurostat, 2005) and the high skills base (Cushman & Wakefield, 2007). However, environmental concerns (ONS, 2007b) such as the high pollution levels (Cushman & Wakefield, 2007), higher unemployment levels than the average for the UK (ONS, 2007a) and cost of living in the British capital may act as a deterrent. In a recent comparison of cost of living in 50 cities, London was second highest (after Moscow) with 26.3 per cent higher living costs than New York (Mercer, 2007).In terms of socio-cultural factors, individuals considering moving to London may value the opportunities for education (Global Market Insite, 2005). In the early twenty-first century, London was home to 42 universities and colleges attracting over 70,000 students from outside the UK (GLA Economics, 2004). However, the crime rate in London was almost 30 per cent higher than the rest of the UK in 2005/2006 (ONS, 2007b) and the British capital was ranked in the lower third for quality of living by Mercer (2006). Some organisations in London also claim that much of the arts and culture created in the UK capital is important to foreigners and a source of high reputation for the city (London Tourist Board and Convention Bureau, 1996). Finally, London is highly integrated into the global financial (Global Market Insite, 2005) and transport systems, where it was ranked both for international and internal transport number one out of 33 European cities (Cushman & Wakefield, 2007).Overall, it might be that London is seen as an attractive place to live by foreigners. In contrast, the high cost and relatively low quality of living data indicates that there may be substantial barriers for individuals to come to London. More research is needed to investigate what drives the decision processes of individuals who come to work in London and how important these factors are.To summarise, this paper focuses, first, on exploring the influence factors on the decision of foreign professionals to work in the British capital. Because little is known about special attributes of cities and their influences on expatriation decisions, the research concentrates on exploring the nature and importance of location-specific influence factors on the decision to go to a particular city, in this case the British capital. Second, based on the data of this investigation and the insights of the literature it will suggest a framework of expatriation decision factors.\nMethodology: Qualitative study\nReasons to go to London: The findings section is first exploring the reasons individuals have to go to London. The literature review outlined that key categories of motivation to work abroad include career and professional development, organisational factors, personal interests, family and partner considerations, national as well as city location influences.Career and professional development considerations\nThe nature of influence factors on the decision to go abroad: In this part we discuss the two research themes posed at the end of the literature review. The first one addressed the nature of the influence of the specific location on the motivation of expatriates to go. The qualitative and quantitative findings suggest that a framework of influence factors on international mobility should include location factors that are more specific than the national state, national culture, climate or political stability as hitherto customary in the literature (cf. Black et al., 1992; Yurkiewicz and Rosen, 1995; Haslberger, 2005).Figure 1 depicts key categories of influences on the decision to go abroad. It outlines six categories and, within these, a wide range of key factors that can influence an individual's decision to go abroad. In so doing, it adds detail to the current literature that identifies career, job, development, expatriate package, individual factors, family and partner considerations and national issues as key variables in the international mobility decision.As a distinct contribution and based on the analysis of key influence factors a sixth dimension was identified: location. From our research a range of city-specific influence factors have emerged, namely the central role of London for many industries, its multi-culturalism with its links to cross-cultural tolerance and understanding, the learning opportunities, transport links, a general desire to live in London and the UK capital's reputation and fame. We summarised these under the sub-category headings behaviour and attitudes of citizens, centrality and reputation for business and other factors such as transport and multi-culturalism.If location is a substantial decision parameter for individuals it indicates that international mobility policies of companies should not only factor in cost of living differentials but could usefully explore the range of factors that may make particular locations interesting for individuals. While HR professionals and other superiors may use certain attributes to \"sell\" a move to a specific location to potential expatriates, companies' mobility policies seem to concentrate on uniform expatriation principles and reward-driven deals (Dickmann et al., 2008). In turn, Vance (2005) argues that individuals prepare for their international sojourns. If they identify locations that are especially interesting to them they may use a consciously tailored preparation approach, including acquiring the necessary language skills, local networks and other location-specific insights and experiences.The inter-relationship of the factors in Figure 1 can be substantial. This is the reason that the figure uses non-continuous lines as demarcations between categories. For instance, security can be both seen as a national or specific location factor by individuals. Other factors that can be seen from different angles include many aspects of the career and development category. For instance, professional development and the acquisition of social capital is impacted by both the organisation and individual (cf. Dickmann et al., 2008).\nSummary and conclusions: In the context of boundaryless careers, this paper explored the key factors that determined the decisions of foreign-born professionals to work in London. Almost 11 in-depth interviews generated insights that allowed a first understanding of the general and London-specific motives. Based on the literature review and the qualitative research a survey was developed that assessed the importance of 25 items for an individual's decision to work in the British capital. The data from the 348 survey responses and the qualitative research confirmed that the decision to work abroad is determined by many influence factors. One contribution of the present study is to present a picture of the influence factors that is more in-depth. It goes beyond the hitherto predominantly used rankings (e.g. Stahl et al., 2002) to outline numerical values, thereby enabling a better understanding of the actual strengths of these factors. Moreover, it identifies some relatively neglected factors such as time zones, colonial history or networking patterns that can act as powerful incentives to work in London.Existing studies into the motives of expatriates to accept foreign work neglect factors that are linked to specific cities rather than broader country influences. A second contribution of this research is the explication of location-specific decision factors, the assessment of their importance and the construction of a new framework (Figure 1) that delineates key categories of influences on the international mobility decision.There are some well-known drawbacks to the qualitative and quantitative parts of the study. These include the limited generalisability of findings of interview studies, especially as we interviewed \"white collar\" workers and managers. However, the interviews aimed to generate first insights into the rich context, the \"what\" and \"how\" of specific location decisions and the exploration of interrelationships (Yin, 2003). With respect to the survey, one limitation is that we had to balance the advantages of a large list of items (more than 60) with the parsimony needed. Obviously, survey respondents needed access to the internet. Moreover, respondents in both the qualitative and quantitative parts were volunteers making it very difficult to control the final geographical constitution and incorporating a degree of self-selection which restricts the generalisability of findings further. Thus, the reader is urged to interpret findings cautiously.Overall, the findings suggest that individuals make complex assessments guided by intrinsic career and development considerations, a sophisticated evaluation of location attributes and a consideration of the other factors outlined in Figure 1 before they accept overseas work. However, individuals can be more proactive than outlined in the sentence above. In a world where career boundaries seem to diminish, individuals are the owners of their careers. Individuals need to go beyond the image of a city to gather relevant information in order to make more informed choices and to develop and implement personal strategies to go to their preferred locations (Vance, 2005). Managers, in turn, would benefit from understanding the interplay of individual motivations and location context. Developing adequate organisational incentives might become an important tool to manage (potential) expatriates before, during and after their time abroad. In order to improve our understanding of global career strategies and behaviours a more in-depth exploration of the relative attractiveness of diverse cities and rural locations is needed.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The literature has hitherto neglected the influence of specific cities on the decision to work abroad, implicitly treating all locations within countries as similar. Using a boundaryless careers and expatriation perspective, the purpose of this paper is to investigate a range of specific motives that individuals have when working in London, the British capital.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The results of semi-structured, in-depth interviews and a large-scale quantitative survey shed light on the relative importance of individual drives, career and development motivations, family and partner factors, organizational context, national and city-specific considerations to come to London.\nFindings: - A range of London-specific attributes are identified and their importance assessed. A new framework of individual international mobility drivers is developed.\nResearch limitations/implications: - There is limited generalisability of findings of interview studies, especially as \"white collar\" workers and managers were interviewed. Theoretical contributions consist of the development of a framework for city attractiveness assessment and further insights into international mobility drivers and barriers.\nPractical implications: - The findings reiterate the importance of individual preparation of international sojourns based on proactive location choice. They also inform city policy considerations and organizational strategies, policies and practices with respect to international mobility.\nOriginality/value: - The paper moves the literature on new international careers and global mobility to go beyond the organizational perspective to assess city attractiveness factors. The paper develops a framework for evaluating city attractiveness and assesses London's \"pull factors\". This results in major implications for public policy, organizational resourcing and individual decision making.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Dynamic positioning matters: uncovering its fundamental role in organization's innovation performance
|
[
"Dynamic positioning",
"Exploratory innovation",
"Exploitative innovation",
"Knowledge base"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Previous research on collaboration network has highlighted the importance of network positioning to organization's innovation performance (Tsai, 2001; Dolfsma and Eijk, 2016). For instance, Tsai (2001) proposed that centrality of an organization in the collaboration network is positively related to its innovation. Besides, Zaheer and Bell (2005) proved that there is a positive impact of structural holes positions on the extent to which an organization adopts new technologies. These research studies verified the relationship between network positioning and organization's innovation performance in a static fashion. However, little attention has focused on the dynamic change of the network positions over time and its effect on organization's innovation.\n2. Literature review and hypotheses: 2.1 Dynamic positioning\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Setting and data collection\n4. Results: The descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations for all variables are shown as Table I. Additionally, the estimation of the inflation factors (VIF) for each variable is below the recommended threshold level of 10 (Powers and Mcdougall, 2005), which indicates that multicollinearity is not a problem in this study.\n5. Discussions: This study extends the existing literature by examining how dynamic positioning impacts organization's innovation performance, and further explains this rational by investigating the mediating role of knowledge base. Using data of smartphone collaboration network, gathered from the Derwent Innovation Database, this study empirically confirms the inverted-U-shaped relationship between dynamic positioning and organization's innovation performance. Furthermore, organization's knowledge base mediates the relationship between dynamic positioning and its innovation performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to propose the following questions: How does dynamic positioning influence organization's innovation performance? Does knowledge base mediate the relationship between them?\nDesign/methodology/approach: The empirical setting of this study is the smartphone collaboration network from 2004 to 2017; the authors selected one-site schemes and data of patents from the Derwent Innovation Database. Furthermore, the authors adopted the negative binomial model with random effects to test the hypotheses.\nFindings: The regression results show that organization's dynamic positioning has an inverted-U-shaped relationship with its exploratory innovation. Similarly, organization's dynamic positioning has an inverted-U-shaped relationship with its exploitative innovation. Besides, knowledge base mediates the relationship between dynamic positioning and organization's innovation performance.\nOriginality/value: This study empirically confirms the relationship between dynamic positioning and organization's innovation performance by separately examining exploratory and exploitative innovation. Furthermore, this study provides a contribution to the literature linking dynamic positioning and organization's innovation performance by investigating the mediating role of knowledge base.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Assessing and improving authentication confidence management
|
[
"Message authentication",
"Data security",
"Trust"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Human history and mythology reveal the use of many different measures of identity and authority. These things are usually classed in the digital age as belonging to a class of \"authentication factors\" commonly known as \"something known,\" \"something held\" and \"something inherent,\", respectively. However, not all factors fit into these categories, fitting into either multiple or none of the factor classes.The usual approach is to use a defense in depth approach surrounding the choice of factors when setting factor requirements for authentication. This has at least two detrimental effects on security if not very carefully deployed. It necessarily increases complexity of use and it does not consider the inherent strength/confidence of a particular factor.There is no guarantee of increased security simply because of the class of factor used; a factor's strength is dependent upon both its individual properties and how it is used. For instance, an electronic token usually offers good protection against accidental disclosure, but does very little to protect against theft of the token itself (O'Gorman, 2003). There is a lack of quantitative measures of factor security, and how that security interacts when multiple factors are used. To make matters worse, many current systems make yes or no decisions independently for each factor; each time a decision is made the distance of the real confidence from the acceptance threshold is lost.Also worth considering is the fact that while many current factors exist purely for the purposes of controlling access, there is useful data in information which can be assessed about an entity, but does not exist purely for the purpose of authentication. Many current authentication approaches are incapable of dealing with this data, and thus are incapable of utilizing all available and/or relevant data about an entity. Therefore, such approaches make decisions based on a subset of the data.A system which addresses these issues can provide many benefits to all stakeholders of authentication systems. Individual end-users could, from the moment of deployment, experience quicker authentication in medium- or high-security systems, while at the same time being allowed more flexibility of factor choice. Organizations would find that while at first the level of authentication complexity would increase, the resulting level of security would increase as well. Owing to the use of meaningful metrics, organizations could much better manage risk to meet regulatory and/or legal requirements. The integration of quantitative risk management into authentication systems would amount to more realistic risk insurance and cost-benefit oriented security assessments.\n2 Existing authentication techniques and procedures: Humans use many types of information to make judgments about identity. In the technical domain, however, most of the sources of information are specific and chosen in advance. The information given or attained is checked against a stored value that was previously attained through trusted means and treated in a binary decision manner. To authenticate an agent a measured or given form of information is assessed. If it matches the expected value then it counts towards a positive authentication; if it differs it generally does not. Biometrics complicates this a little, as will be explained below, but still functions in a very similar way in most implementations.2.1 Identity factors\n3 Weaknesses of current multi-factor authentication: By their very nature, current multi-factor authentication approaches have inherent weaknesses. They tend to be complex, inflexible, non-granular, and require decisions to be made at the factor-level (such as a password which is either entirely correct or entirely incorrect, with no provision for mistyping). Making yes or no decisions at each factor (factor level) puts a limit on the granularity of authentication confidence, and as we shall discuss, this will often result in authentication information getting ignored or discarded.3.1 Complexity of multi-factor authentication\n4 Proposed improvements: We need a system, which can provide authentication that is easily understood, considers all available information, and has meaningful metrics with the result of enhancing authentication risk management.4.1 Continuous granularity\n5 Related work: The field of authentication has been extensively studied for decades, but we argue that the specific areas that have the potential to give the best improvements in future authentication systems are those that have focused on: factor accuracies and failure conditions, multi-modal fusion, quantitative authentication and quantified trust levels.5.1 Factor accuracy and failure conditions\n6 Proposed approach and its benefits: Systems which meet the objectives described will not only assist in solving the problems outlined earlier, but potentially also offer advantages over existing systems for both end-users and organizations that deploy it. Users can benefit from improved factor flexibility, which can lead to smoother and quicker authentication. Organizations can also benefit from better authentication risk decisions with additional benefits that extend beyond secure authentication alone, such as improved systems usability for stakeholders.Since a system that meets the criteria given is factor independent and does not necessarily reject based on a single factor failure, users may expect to be able to log in with fewer failed attempts. This factor independence can also offer a more flexible choice of factors. If the security policy allows, this would mean that users can choose factor types that best suit their needs. Organizations will not be beholden to the traditional factor classes but only to the risk management implications.Quantitative authentication also fits in a quantitative or semi-quantitative risk management context because the extra granularity offered allows not only finer grained risk measurement, but also more levels of managed authentication risk. Continuous granularity and meaningful metrics applied to authentication offer a better approach to authentication security. Stakeholders can manage their risks more carefully, and make decisions with full knowledge of any associated risks.Furthermore, if factor ratings are visible and meaningful to users, the users can decide how they should be used and how important individual factor failure is. Humans reuse authentication factors such as passwords all the time, but even a reused password can offer some degree of authentication confidence if the associated increase in risk that comes from reuse is accounted for.Authentication cannot only be more granular, but it can be grounded in real meaning. Using levels of authentication assurance can \"greatly help to mitigate (unauthorized access) risks and provide more secure and fine grained access control\" (Nenadic et al., 2007) This added security is significant because the trust levels are based upon calculated risk values.Organizations can benefit from better authentication risk management knowledge, and if this is coupled with authorization decisions as well as use of audit trails, then they potentially have a powerful new tool at their disposal.6.1 Transition to enhanced authentication systems\n7 Conclusion: Current approaches to multi-factor authentication are not optimal, they impose requirements on their use that add complexity, reduce flexibility, restrict the types of factors that can be used and in many cases may in fact add only the illusion of security. By applying quantitative techniques to authentication practices many of these problems can be not only overcome, but authentication as a whole can be improved.These techniques can make authentication smoother and more easily understood by end-users while also enabling more flexibility of factors used. The primary benefit of applying quantitative authentication that meets the requirements that we have outlined is that they enable better security decisions to be made by accounting for as much authentication risk as is known.Furthermore, migration to quantitative authentication approaches is relatively simple for existing systems. This is because existing factors and systems can be integrated into a quantitative system with a gradual transition, requiring only incremental investment.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to address some weaknesses in the handling of current multi-factor authentication, suggests some criteria for overcoming these weaknesses and presents a simple proof of concept authentication system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - First, this paper evaluates some of the underlying practices and assumptions in multi-factor authentication systems. Next, the paper assesses the implications of these when compared to a quantitative authentication risk management approach. Based upon these implications this paper next note the requirements for an improved system and detail some related research areas that meet these requirements. Finally, this paper discussed how a system that meets these requirements through the application of that research could provide benefits and outlined a simple points-based authentication system.\nFindings: - The paper proposes that many of the weaknesses in authentication confidence management could be effectively mitigated through the deployment of a factor independent multi-modal fusion quantitative authentication-based system. This paper details a simple point-based approach that does this and discuss how addressing the problems in handling authentication confidence could further optimise risk management in multi-factor authentication systems.\nPractical implications: - This paper's suggestions for optimising multi-factor authentication have many implications within medium to high-security commercial and government applications. Correct authentication risk handling enables decisions regarding risk and authentication to be made more accurately.\nOriginality/value: - This implications of the issues discussed in this paper have relevance to anyone who deploys or uses any medium to high-security authentication system. As the bottom end of the medium to high-security range includes online banking, there are implications for a wide range of stakeholders.\n",
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] |
Exploring lean construction practice, research, and education
|
[
"United States of America",
"Brazil",
"Construction industry",
"Education",
"Lean construction",
"Construction management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction[1]: Lean Production (LP) concepts, principles, and tools have been studied by academics for over 20 years (e.g. Schonberger, 1982; Womack et al., 1990). Nonetheless, for many the term LP is still considered an ill-defined concept which needs further exploration and agreement in academic as well as in professional settings (Hines et al., 2004; Green and May, 2005; Jorgensen and Emmitt, 2008; Pettersen, 2009). The application of LP in construction is almost as old, as the term Lean Construction (LC) first appeared in 1992 (Koskela, 1992). At this point in the construction industry, as in other sectors, a large body of \"Lean\" literature and implementation examples abound (e.g. International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC), 2010; Lean Construction Institute (LCI), 2010).The need for change in construction practices has been discussed time and time again throughout the years and their echoes are still present in people's minds (e.g. Laufer and Tucker, 1987; Latham, 1994; Egan, 1998; Koskela and Howell, 2002 to name a few papers published in the past 25 years). These calls for change did not merely request the adoption of new technology and tools, or the acquisition of the new skills needed to operate them. Rather, they called for a change in the way the industry fundamentally operates and invariably focussed on the management of the entire construction process.The industry is clearly facing a change of paradigm, and whether or not this combination of theory and related practices will still be called LC ten years from now is yet to be seen. However, early adopters in the industry are reaping benefits, which cannot be achieved without a change in the current mindset as suggested by previous studies (Miller et al., 2009).In this paper, the authors focus on how LP has evolved in the construction industry and speculate about the implications that evolution brings to LP's widespread dissemination in this industry through academic and industry communities of practice located all over the world. The authors discuss one way to bridge the gap between theory and practice through education and applied research. Even though this is not the only way to advance LC as an applied theory, it certainly has its merits which are discussed throughout the paper. According to Kuhn (1970, p. 169): \"The scientific community is a supremely efficient instrument for maximizing the number and precision of the problem solved through paradigm change.\" Additionally, educators in many institutions in the field of Construction Management carry out applied research, are in close contact with the industry, and can bring back to the classroom examples to be discussed with students who will join the industry and help in promoting changes in the current modus operandi. LC practitioners and academics have been trying to expose the flaws of old systems to move on with the new (e.g. Koskela and Howell, 2002; Miller et al., 2009). However, most practitioners do not have time to write papers and textbooks to inform future generations, and currently few candidate textbooks are available to discuss the topic (and some are hotly criticized, e.g. Howell, 2011).\n2. Research method and goals: This paper discusses the challenges related to the current understanding of LC and its development and dissemination in the industry and academia. Overall, the paper aims to discuss important aspects related to LC learning and training programs, in order to create a basis for further research into sustainable approaches for teaching LC in different settings within the construction industry.The discussion presented here has its limitations as it presents the authors' interpretation of facts and existing literature reviewed to support the arguments made. Moreover, while the literature reviewed addresses sources from different parts of the world, the preponderance of the authors' research activities and experience are limited to two countries, Brazil and the USA. These countries have very active academic institutions promoting practice, research, and education in LC. Also, in the US professional institutions have led the dissemination of LC in the country and elsewhere (e.g. the LCI chapters in the USA and abroad, or the American Institute of Architects which have promoted the use of LC concepts in one of its families of contracts).The identification of the challenges was made via literature review, first-hand interactions with companies attempting to deploy LC in research-related projects carried out by the authors, and the authors' interaction with different communities of practice in the USA, more specifically in California, and in different parts of Brazil (based on previous work developed by the first author).The idea to write this paper, and the first step taken toward it, came after a discussion on LC education in a seminar held at University of California, Berkeley during the Fall 2009. The second author invited a group of companies located around the San Francisco, CA, Bay Area to participate in a meeting to discuss the topic. Participants shared their experiences about LC education, including the challenges and rewards their educational efforts offered for them and others who work with their organizations. Some companies had developed their own programs to teach LC, and others seemed to be searching for guidance. During the meeting, the second author of this paper moderated the debate, and the first two authors gathered comments for further discussion and potential development of an LC educational curriculum. After reviewing the discussions and outcomes of that meeting a few conclusions were made: participants had different interpretations of important tenets of LC; to some companies the focus of LC implementation was more on tools and marketing than the development of a deep understanding of LC; and even though participants wished to see some sort of structured LC education, and potentially certification to attest proficiency on the topic, no one could agree on how that could be done. Not surprisingly, similar issues had been noted by the authors in the communities of practice in which they had been working or previously worked.In a following stage, the authors gathered evidence from the literature on the topic and from current developments related to the advance and implementation of LC practices in the construction industry in the USA and abroad. We searched the literature in academic conferences and journals, and professional publications (e.g. Engineering News Record magazine in USA, books such as that of Miller et al., 2009) for different cases about LC implementation. Finally, the authors organized their thoughts into three main challenges, which are presented for discussion in this paper:*Challenge 1 (C1): \"There are many meanings (whether denoted or connoted) for Lean when applied to construction.\"*Challenge 2 (C2): \"Academics should work closely with the industry (organizations and consultants) in the translation of concepts from the manufacturing industry to construction and to promote the systemic use of concepts/systems and not only the use of tools.\"*Challenge 3 (C3): \"Without a sustained effort to engage people in meaningful learning experiences which mix instruction, exchange of ideas and meanings, and guided practice, Lean Construction may be viewed as a fad in the construction industry.\"\n3. Discussion of challenges: Challenge 1 (C1): \"There are many meanings (whether denoted or connoted) for Lean when applied to construction\"\n4. Recommendations: In order to address points raised by this paper, recommendations are presented and may represent opportunities for research into effective methods for disseminating LC. Creating sustainable initiatives to implement and teach LC requires academics and practitioners to come to grips in terms of what is fundamentally wrong with current practices and how LC can address these problems, as pointed out in the LC literature, instead of treating old problems with new names:*Developing an undergraduate curriculum that incorporates LC: some may be in favor of a class to teach LC basics while others will favor that the concepts be introduced in the existing course material. This way the new generation will decide on how to mix and match LC concepts with the most traditional practices in the industry.*Developing a professional curriculum that incorporates LC: professional associations have started to offer short seminars and workshops on LC, which could become part of their continuous education programs.*Using metaphors to explain concepts and how they are related: metaphors are extensively used in the Lean literature to present concepts and how they are related. The fable of the \"tortoise and the hare,\" and the need to \"lower the river to reveal the rocks\" are examples (Ohno, 1988).*Working toward the \"a-ha moment\": simulations are usually a group activity which have the power to create the \"a-ha moment.\"*Using educational videos: a multitude of videos explaining concepts related to Lean implementation can be found in sites such as YouTube, practitioners', and professional associations' web sites.*Partnering with professional organizations and research institutions: currently, the LCI, research labs, and academic programs still work closely with many organizations to train professionals in LC and develop case studies to advance the knowledge on LC. Many practitioners are experimenting with LC but do not have an in depth understanding of Lean. That requires academics to analyze these experiments for other variables that could impact success or failure, to analyze these multiple streams of experimentation for common practices that can be attributed to the success or failure. This is important to future adoption and dissemination as well as identification of practices adopted by organizations.\n5. Conclusions: This paper discussed challenges related to the evolution of LC in the industry with the aim of forming a basis for an informed discussion on how to promote sustained and informed learning in construction.The basis of LP is somewhat undefined (C1), even at its source at Toyota, and most books on the topic do not define LP is a theory. That has not been detrimental to its growing popularity. However, in the process of abstracting ideas away from their original context, packaging them for transfer, and later for implementation, biases are introduced. According to the discussion presented in C2, academics should work closely with industry practitioners to aid in the translation and test of LC concepts and to promote their use not solely focussed on tools but rather in a more holistic understanding of the concepts. Without a foundational definition to use as a touchstone, it is difficult to assure that throughout its dissemination it will keep its core concepts. The lack of agreement in terms of what LP means may have an impact on the way LC practices are understood and disseminated across the industry.Having a holistic understanding of what LC entails would also help in disseminating the concepts to the broader society, and in the education of the future workforce. For instance, owner organizations that hire construction-related services in private and public sectors would benefit from distinguishing companies that have adapted its practices to promote value and banish waste from those simply stating it as part of their marketing campaigns. For public owners, this would mean the potential for projects that address the population's needs with more efficient use of public resources.By partnering with industry practitioners who are already implementing LC or want to start the journey, academics have access to projects (labs in the real world) and can bring back to classroom examples to educate future generations of professionals who can push for changes in the industry. This partnership also helps the validation of experiments regarding LC implementation as data can be collected and analyzed in a scientific way, and can be documented for dissemination within the industry.Challenge (C3) builds on the previous two challenges. The promotion of meaningful learning experiences and informed discussions about LC concepts, principles, and tools should contribute to the advancement of LC in a sustainable way and promote uniformity in the way concepts are learned across the industry. Sharing experiences in communities such as the IGLC, EGLC, LCI, and many research labs helps industry professionals to engage in new experiences, share their successes and failures, and make the implementation of LC scalable in a sustainable fashion.In order to prevent LC from becoming a fad, the problem in C1 should be addressed, the roles discussed in C2 should be defined, and research needs to be done on evaluation/validation of current suggestions and an understanding of the components necessary for successful dissemination of LC (C3).\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the history of dissemination and use of lean concepts in construction and potential challenges for continued use, as application of lean concepts transitions from a small group of first adopters to an industry-wide community.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using insights obtained from a meeting with industry practitioners, literature review, and published cases in which different approaches were used to disseminate lean production/construction, evidence is presented that supports these challenges.\nFindings: - The authors identify three challenges facing lean construction (LC) practitioners, researchers, and educators. One challenge is lean has many meanings (whether denoted or connoted) when applied to construction. Another challenge is to have academics constantly working with industry practitioners to keep working on the adaptation of concepts/systems and not only tools. The third challenge is that without a sustained effort to engage people in meaningful learning experiences, LC may be viewed as a fad in the construction industry.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The discussion presents the authors' interpretation of facts and existing literature reviewed to support the arguments made. Moreover, while the literature reviewed addresses sources from different parts of the world, the preponderance of the authors' research activities and experience are limited to two countries, Brazil and the USA.\nPractical implications: - In the face of overwhelming interest in lean by the construction industry, research on effective methods for disseminating lean concepts is overdue.\nSocial implications: - By partnering with industry practitioners who are already implementing LC or want to start the journey, academics have access to projects (labs in the real world) and can bring back to the classroom examples to educate future generations of professionals who can push for changes in the industry. This partnership also helps the validation of experiments regarding LC implementation, as data can be collected and analyzed in a scientific way, and can be documented for dissemination within the industry.\nOriginality/value: - The paper discusses challenges related to the evolution of LC in the industry, with the aim of forming a basis for an informed discussion on how to promote sustained and informed learning in construction.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Use and linkage of source and output repositories: interviews with chemistry researchers
|
[
"Chemistry",
"Interviews",
"Research",
"Digital libraries",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A repository is a store where electronic data, databases or digital files have been deposited, usually with the intention of enabling their access or distribution over a network. Research in repositories has attracted attention from many different stakeholders. Examples of repositories are digital libraries, speciality repositories, institutional repositories, research data repositories and e-learning repositories (Zuccala et al., 2006). The Joint Information Systems Committee has commissioned several projects aiming to assist in the deployment of digital repositories in the learning and research communities. During 2005, JISC commissioned a digital repositories review in order to provide to interested parties the background for the future activity in the digital repositories. That review set the framework for several JISC funded projects under the digital repositories programme (www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/programme_digital_repositories.aspx) that aimed to investigate the interoperability and feasibility of access across the different repositories.The Source-to-Output Repositories (StORe) project (http://jiscstore.jot.com/WikiHome) is funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC, www.jisc.ac.uk/) and is a collaboration between seven universities across the UK and the Johns Hopkins University in the USA, focusing on seven disciplines, including chemistry, seeking to develop new ways of linking academic publications to repositories of research data. Among the project deliverables are:* Published surveys of researchers that identify workflows and norms in the use of source and output repositories, including common attributes across disciplines, the functional enhancements to repositories that are considered to be desirable, and perceived problems in the use of repositories.* A generic technical specification of the functional enhancements to source and output repositories that were identified by researchers participating in the survey.* Pilot middleware built using this generic technical specification and demonstrated through the linking of holdings in the UK Data Archive to research papers stored in output repositories.* Published independent evaluations of the pilot system and of the project, with recommendations for future work, including the potential development of the pilot middleware as a generic platform for linking repositories (StORe, 2006a).This paper presents findings from face to face interviews with chemistry researchers that aimed to identify the issues around the use and linkage of source and output repositories and the expectations of the chemistry research community about their use. This research is particularly relevant to deliverable 1 of the StORe project. The interviewees provided feedback about how useful or not they considered the linking of research data to publications, the types of data they produce and the formats in which they are saved, the level of metadata that is considered important and the ways in which it is assigned. In addition, they indicated perceived advantages of sharing their data, how access to data can be achieved and what barriers are present. They also indicated their preferred means of searching at output repositories.\nDefinitions: Several key terms were used during this research. They are defined as follows:* Repository. A repository is a store where electronic data, databases or digital files have been deposited, usually with the intention of enabling their access or distribution over a network.* Source repository. Source repositories contain the source or primary data produced during a programme of research, and comprise the source from which research publications will be developed.* Output repository. An output repository usually contains published articles or other texts, although it may hold other data objects that have been published. The contents of an output repository will typically include publications at a pre- or post-refereeing stage, working papers, research reports and PhD theses.* Metadata. \"The term 'metadata' refers to the information or labels that you use to identify and describe your data. The principal purpose of metadata is to make it easy to recognise, access and retrieve data. A familiar example of this would be a library catalogue, which is a collection of metadata records that in their simplest form might contain details about the title, author and date of publication of each item in the library. So, assigning metadata enables one to understand what is contained within a set of data, when and how it was created and by whom, and the relationships it may have to other data\" (StORe, 2006b).\nLiterature review: The most comprehensive and reliable source of chemical and physical property data is the chemistry literature. In many cases, a literature search may be the best option for finding this type of data (NIST Data Gateway).Several studies had identified the extensive use that chemists make of the literature and as a research community they are considered to be those with the highest reading rates among scientists (Tenopir and King, 2002). Chemistry is a science with a long and established history. Some of the characteristics of chemistry research include its interdisciplinary nature, the production of vast amounts of data that lead to a comprehensive literature in which the relevance of the articles does not decline over the years, and the use of information technology to conduct research.Despite this, there is a generalisation that has followed chemists over the years, citing that in general they are reluctant in using information systems. More than ten years ago, Philip and Cunningham (1995), in a British Library Research and Development study, surveyed chemists across the UK, to find out about the availability and the use of automated chemical information systems. The study found that more than half of the respondents who did not make use of chemical information systems claimed this was because they did not have a need for them. Those that were thought to make the most extensive use of automated chemical information were theoretical chemists, for whom it was noted that although some physical chemists would have need for information based on chemical structures, the majority would not, as their information would be suited to alpha-numeric format.Since its inception in 2001, developments initiated by the e-science programme (www.rcuk.ac.uk/escience/) have been well documented in the literature. Of particular importance within the field of chemistry is the eBank project (www.ukoln.ac.uk/projects/ebank-uk/), which addressed the role of repositories in linking research data to peer reviewed papers and how such a service has an impact in scholarly communication and publication (Lyon, 2003; Lyon et al., 2004). Coles et al. (2006) described how the UK National Crystallography Service has developed the eCrystals repository in which electronic files produced in the process of the crystal structure determination, are captured and validated. They are also assigned relevant metadata that is automatically generated with the aim to support publication and dissemination of the information. Other relevant projects initiated by the e-science programme were Comb-e-Chem (www.combechem.org/) and ECSES (www.it-innovation.soton.ac.uk/research/grid/comb_e_chem.shtml). They were both run by the iT Innovation research centre (www.it-innovation.soton.ac.uk/) at the University of Southampton and aimed to \"develop an e-Science testbed that integrates existing structure and property data sources within a grid-based information-and knowledge-sharing environment\" (CombeChem, 2007).\nMethods: The StORe project (http://jiscstore.jot.com/WikiHome) employed two methods to gather information about the use and the linkage of source and output repositories, based on the opinions and experience of researchers in seven scientific domains. These were: an online questionnaire survey, and interviews with members of academic staff from academic institutions across the UK.Respondents to the questionnaire survey[1] were invited to indicate if they would be willing to participate in an interview. Initially, 11 of the chemistry respondents expressed an interest, however, once the interviews had commenced, several more researchers and academic staff, after discussing the project with their colleagues, asked if they could participate. The project was running to a tight schedule and in order for all the interviews to be conducted in May and June 2006 and also for the results to be analysed during this period, it was decided to restrict the number of interviews to 17. The researcher acknowledges that time constraints imposed by the project's timescale and constraints in the number of people agreed to be contacted across all disciplines (in order to facilitate uniformity in the analysis of results across the seven different disciplines that the StORe project surveyed) made it difficult to include researchers from as many universities as we would have liked and from as many sub disciplines within chemistry. The majority of the respondents represented two fields of chemistry research (experimental/synthetic chemistry and theoretical/computational chemistry) and therefore results should be seen under the light of this observation. The number of interviewees and information about their role and fields of interest are presented in Table I.\nResults: Identities\nConclusions: This paper presents results from face to face interviews, undertaken as part of the StORe project, aiming to identify the issues around the use and linkage of source and output repositories and the expectations of the chemistry research community about their use. From the outcome of these interviews, the following conclusions can be made:* A total of 59 per cent of the interviewees were researchers in theoretical/computational chemistry and 18 per cent from experimental/synthetic chemistry. Other fields of interest represented in the study were members of the crystallography community and one from each of the following areas: biological, physical and polymer chemistry. Almost half of the interviewees (47 per cent) were academic staff at a very senior level within their disciplines. In particular, four professors, two readers and two lecturers were interviewed. The remaining interviewees were either postdoctoral contracted researchers (29 per cent), or postgraduate research students (24 per cent). Some of the concerns that the interviewees expressed about the use of source repositories were related to how such a service can compete with and/or complement existing services provided by commercial/publishers' repositories. Aspects such as the quality of data and mechanisms for quality assurance, the comprehensiveness of data and the ways it can be accessed, were raised as very important considerations if the use of source repositories of primary research data is to become more widespread. Other factors that it was felt would contribute to the success and/or the increased use of source and output repositories were the publicising of the potential benefits that such a service could have for the research community and the involvement of scientists in its development. Also important were issues regarding the sustainability, management and maintenance of both source and output repositories.* Internet-based services such as Google Scholar are amongst the most popular means of searching for information. Theoretical/computational chemists tended to use many Internet based repositories and services, depending on the type of data that they were looking for. The speed of information retrieval, the quality of the information and the comprehensiveness of the repository were important factors in their choice of output repositories.* The assignment and use of metadata as a minimum set of requirements that facilitate the deposition and retrieval of research data, did not appear to be popular or in some cases, even understood by the majority of chemistry researchers that were interviewed. Those chemists that were familiar with metadata, however, possessed an in-depth knowledge of its use, application and functions. The assignment of metadata automatically or by implementing a system that relieves the depositor of having to do it, was also commented upon positively.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to report research findings from interviews with chemistry researchers about the use and linkage of source and output repositories and the expectations of the chemistry research community about their use.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A total of 17 face-to-face interviews were conducted with members of academic staff and postgraduate research students (PGRs), in chemistry departments at a number of UK universities.\nFindings: - As part of the StORe project (http://jiscstore.jot.com/WikiHome), which sought to develop new ways of linking academic publications with repositories of research data, 38 members of academic and research staff from institutions across the UK provided valuable feedback regarding the nature of their research, the type of data that they produce, the sharing and availability of research data and the use and expectations of source and output repositories.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Interpretation of the results must recognise that the majority of the interviewees worked in the area of theoretical/computational chemistry and therefore their views may not be representative of other chemistry research fields.\nOriginality/value: - Studies about the workflows and the norms in the use of source and output repositories are limited in the literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Gathering and communicating information about school bullying: Overcoming "secrets and lies"
|
[
"Bullying",
"Assessment",
"Safety"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Concerns about school violence, victimization and student health have led many educators to ask whether their school has a bullying problem. They may wish to know if bullying reduction programs are making a difference at their school. They may also want to identify youngsters who need more guidance than is provided by universal interventions. In each case, educators want accurate and valid information. In the current article, we describe formal and informal strategies for learning about bullying in your school.\nGetting accurate information from adult observations: Getting accurate information about bullying is the first challenge. Bullying is a covert activity, especially as practiced by students who are skilled at bullying behaviors. Adults greatly underestimate its prevalence in their schools (Smith and Shu, 2000). To complicate the issue, there are adult misconceptions about the type of student generally involved in bullying. This point was driven home for me when our trained observers were coding the playground bullying of more than 600 children. While learning to identify students we were able to talk with teachers about the aggression they witnessed.We learned that teachers had no problem identifying the aggressive children who were disruptive in class. These children often had difficulty managing frustration and frequently got in trouble with adults. In addition, many were favorite targets for bullying. Their exaggerated emotional responses provided an entertaining spectacle for their tormentors. From our vantage point as playground observers, we concluded that these poorly regulated children comprised the most visible, but not necessarily the most abusive aggressors on the playground. That distinction was sometimes held by model students, ones that teachers assured us were \"no problem.\" Based on these students' upstanding classroom behavior and engaging manner, few adults would suspect the cruel behavior we observed.How were we able to identify aggressive students that were unbeknownst to teachers? One answer lay in the setting. Unlike aggressive children, those considered to be 'non aggressive' rarely bully others in class, but their involvement in playground bullying is about equal to that of \"aggressive\" children (Craig et al., 2000). Another answer lay in our powerlessness as mere observers. As one misbehaving student cheerfully assured another, observers were not in a position to \"do anything\". Far more than we expected, we became privy to a coercive world that few adults see.Although too costly for most school uses, research observations suggest ways in which educators may increase their knowledge of bullying. Understanding that socially skilled youngsters are the most skilled at escaping detection may alert adults to the importance of brief slurs as possible indicators of more extensive bullying. Despite the \"handicap\" of being an authority figure, educators who observe in the play yard, lunch room or bus queue can gain insight into whether their school's climate encourages bullying. They will also become more knowledgeable about the social and emotional strengths of the individuals involved in bullying. Teacher ratings of a student's competencies provide a useful guide when developing and an individual intervention plan\nA student perspective: Student reports are frequently used to estimate the magnitude of bullying problems and the suffering that is causes. Typically, surveys ask students how frequently they are involved in bullying, and what role they play. Items that measure attitudes toward bullying, distress at being victimized, or how confident students feel about their ability to respond to bullying provide important information. Students, who are victimized, for example, appear less distressed by the experience if they are confident of their ability to respond calmly and assertively. Information on student self-perceptions can alert teachers to the need to provide additional tuition in this arena.Students approaching secondary school become increasingly reluctant to acknowledge being victimized. Therefore, asking young people about the bullying they witness may provide more objective information about the magnitude of bullying problems. Researchers are currently experimenting with strategies that may \"train\" students to provide more accurate estimates. Collecting reports of the days' events on two or three occasions rather than asking for estimates over more extended periods of time is one promising strategy. Another is to ask students to provide examples of the behaviors, locations, and circumstances in addition to their frequency estimates. Besides \"training for accuracy\" this strategy helps identify locations (e.g., bathrooms, the internet) that require additional monitoring, Surveys may also ask students to suggest possible solutions to bullying problems.\nFoiling attempts to \"skew the results\": Students worry about bullying. While evaluating the effectiveness of our intervention, I found that bullying surveys stimulated more student interest, and more problems, than any type of survey I had previously undertaken. Students who bully may attempt to coerce others into keeping bullying secret. After all, revelations of high levels of intimidation and fear may elicit adult intervention and threaten the status of dominant students.I encountered one problem in a 6th grade classroom right after I indicated we were there to survey students. One girl began pressuring two others to not provide any information. Her arguments were echoed in a somewhat more menacing tone by a fourth girl, who appeared to function as a bullying assistant (Salmivalli, 1999) or \"enforcer.\" This posed a tricky ethical situation, because I needed to uphold the right of the first girl to opt out, and the rights of her two targets to participate (without placing pressure on them to do so). In this case, the pressured girls chose to participate once they were separated from the other two.The two girls who coerced the others chose not to participate. In general, we found that students who initially indicate they will not participate sometimes change their minds after being assured that that they have the right to refuse the survey. For children who bully, being in control is paramount. Having choices and knowing what's in the survey both provide a sense of control. Once they are given a choice, their curiosity may encourage participation.A few students may be motivated to participate because they hope to control the responses of their classmates. I saw one student \"dictate\" survey answers to a classmate by covertly pointing to particular responses. The exchange was clearly intimidating, even though it occurred in a supervised setting. The targeted classmate pretended to circle the demanded response, and then covertly circled another option.Student coercion is reduced and anonymity improved when students are seated at some distance from each other. Dividing a class into smaller units helps adults monitor efforts at coercion. We liked having two adults on hand so that one could continue monitoring whilst the other attended to any problems. In essence, we used the same strategies needed to reduce bullying at the school level: take proactive steps to limit bullying opportunities, and monitor carefully.The events we observed during surveying testify to the ubiquity of bullying problems in many schools. As we were able to observe on the playground, these events were just the tip of the iceberg. In addition to the information that surveys provide on the student perspective, observations during surveys may provide educators with first hand information about some of the bully-victim relationships in their classrooms.\nInsuring the safety of students: Because students risk retaliation when they reveal bullying, some UK researchers recommend that bullying surveys not be undertaken without a planned intervention (Austin and Joseph, 1996). Educators always need to follow-up bullying reports with interviews and intervention. Even with complete confidentiality, many young people are as reluctant to disclose victimization as they are to confess bullying. Bullied students may be more forthcoming, and may experience fewer threats to their self-esteem, if interviewers begin by inquiring about victimization that the student has witnessed rather than experienced. Similarly, students who bully may be more likely to disclose if they are encouraged to talk about bullying they've observed and experienced before being confronted with evidence of their own wrongdoing. This strategy also enables educators to provide \"cover\" for the victimized students, by noting that the educator sees and hears about bullying from many sources.The results of such investigations can be surprising. Educators at one large middle school told me how shocked they were to discover that the school was effectively \"run\" by one student. Although it is unusual to have so much power vested in one individual, the existence of a shadow power structure that works in opposition to a civil school community is not unusual. Such situations clearly call for concerted adult intervention.\nCommunicating and utilizing the results of bullying assessments: Efforts to intervene greatly benefit from the support of parents, which is more likely to be forthcoming when information about their child's involvement is communicated sensitively. We keep the focus on bullying behavior by avoiding the pejorative term, bully. While a few parents may react belligerently to reports of their child's involvement, many more are shocked and embarrassed to discover that their child has engaged in harassing, even cruel behavior.Putting bullying behavior in a developmental context can be particularly helpful. Our observations in the United States show that playground bullying increases steadily between nine and 13. A majority of our children appear to experiment with domineering and bullying behavior during this time. Such experimentation is less likely to become habitual if it is not rewarded by increased status or control of resources. I compare this bullying behavior to the tantrums of two-year-olds. It's pretty typical for the age group, and it does not mean kids are going to grow-up to be antisocial. What it means is that adults need to create conditions that help children move beyond their reliance on immature behaviors that, if continued, threaten the academic progress, emotional adjustment and the physical welfare of themselves and classmates (Andershed et al., 2001; Hawker and Boulton, 2000).We have found that parents and educators have a more practical understanding of the problem, and feel more empowered to act when information about bullying is presented in a non-stigmatizing, developmental context.Health educators may be especially well-equipped by their training to provide colleagues and parents with realistic information and options for positive action. While bullying is a difficult problem, evidence shows that schools have succeeded in reducing bullying when adults undertook systematic efforts to stop it (Frey et al., in press; Olweus, 1993). Without intervention, student power structures based on intimidation and coercion will continue to undermine adult efforts to foster young people's academic, emotional and ethical development.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to discuss multiple methods for gathering information about school bullying and provides a developmental framework for communicating the information to parents and teachers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Formal assessments of bullying consisted of student surveys and systematic observations of the playground behaviors of more than 600 students. Bullying that was informally observed during survey administration, and interviews with students involved in bullying also provided insight into the magnitude of school problems.\nFindings: - The extent of a school's bullying problem is difficult to asses by informal observations alone. Educators are most likely to be aware of bullying that it is performed by socially unskilled, poorly regulated students. Socially skilled students are much more adept at keeping their bullying secret. Formal observations by trained coders provide an important window into the world of children, but are too costly and labor-intensive for most applications.\nPractical implications: - Student surveys provide alternative means of assessing the impact of bullying. Accuracy of information derived from surveys and student interviews may be improved by protecting students from coercion, starting with questions about witnessed bullying, and asking students for concrete examples.\nOriginality/value: - Efforts to research or intervene in school bullying require accurate information about the problem. Parents and staff are more likely to support intervention efforts when educators and researchers present bullying information using a non-stigmatizing, developmental framework\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of a management training program for university administrators
|
[
"Management development",
"Leadership",
"Learning",
"Social factors",
"Competences",
"Canada"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Management training is perceived by both organizational leaders and academics (e.g. Conger and Benjamin, 1999; Hunt and Baruch, 2003; Zenger, 1996) as one of the most effective ways to improve skills in all areas of management, increase productivity and change corporate culture. The need for management development in post-secondary educational settings specifically has received attention of late, with scholars noting that \"the increased demand on academic leadership is reflected in growing volumes of leadership and management literature\" (Kekale, 2003, p. 281). In this regard, several recent studies have assessed the particular training and development needs of academic leaders (e.g. Filan and Seagran, 2003; Hornyak and Page, 2004; Kekale, 2003; Raines and Alberg, 2003).\nFormal training and informal learning: Formal training in organizations is \"structured learning that takes place in a classroom environment\" (Enos et al., 2003, p. 370) where \"learners are removed from the day-to-day work to engage in lectures, discussions, simulations, role plays, and other instructional activities\" (Enos et al., 2003, p. 370). According to Bassi and Van Buren (1999), formal training is the educational approach most widely used for management development. However, while formal training is \"one answer to helping people learn ... organizations have found that training is not enough to meet the demands of continuous learning\" (Watkins and Marsick, 1992, p. 288). Clearly, the learning needs of managers in complex, evolving organizations cannot be met by formal training alone. Marsick (2003, p. 390) cites data gleaned from interviews in 42 companies in North America and Europe in which stakeholders reported that: \"...they increasingly use informal learning integrated with work activities to drive individual, work group and organizational learning and change\" because, as one respondent put it: \"We have learned that managers and even employees are not interested anymore in things that are completely disconnected from their jobs. If you don't integrate [learning] with people's work, they might not utilize it\" (J.M. Huber Institute for Learning in Organizations, 2002, p. 11, cited in Marsick, 2003, p. 390).Informal learning is \"a broad term that covers many kinds of learning from experience\" (Watkins and Marsick, 1992, p. 290) and may include a range of strategies including \"self-directed learning, networking, coaching, mentoring, performance planning systems that are used for developmental purposes and trial-and-error\" (Watkins and Marsick, 1992, pp. 290-1). Morrison and Hock (1986) argue that on-the-job work experiences, as one form of informal learning, are the main source of learning for individuals in organizations. Regardless of the strategy, Watkins and Marsick (1992, p. 288) propose that informal learning \"can be planned or unplanned, but it usually involves some degree of conscious awareness that learning is taking place. Watkins and Marsick (1992, p. 294) describe the informal learning process as follows:Learning begins with a trigger of surprise or discomfort that prompts intentional reflection on experience. Reflection, in turn, leads to a search for new information, challenging of one's own initial beliefs, and experiments with new thinking, behaviors and feelings.This trigger of surprise or discomfort, then, leads to informal learning in order to fill a need. This need could be met through any of the above informal learning strategies. Given the important outcomes of informal learning, it would seem that effective training must encourage and support informal learning both during and after training.\nA case study: Like public and private sector organizations across Canada, the University of Ottawa (UofO) has recognized the need for management development activities. To this end, in 1999 the University's Human Resources Department commissioned an in-depth assessment of the training needs of the University's senior directors of administrative units (such as Human Resources, Material Management, Security, Finance and so on) and identified development of leadership and communication competencies as high priority. To meet these needs, and to provide support for administrative managers in their efforts to achieve their core competency requirements, the 13 modules of the Management Leadership Program (MLP) were designed and offered. The 13 modules are the following:1. Leadership and Management Foundation (This module is the foundation of the curriculum, incorporating self-awareness and leadership skills essential to management leadership development. Various personal assessment tools are completed (e.g. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and 360-Feedback).2. Self and Time Management (using tools and techniques to set priorities and manage stress).3. Coaching and Developing Others (motivating, coaching and mentoring skills).4. Leading Teams (leadership techniques and teambuilding skills).5. Project Management (tools and techniques to manage large and complex projects).6. Managing Change and Maintaining Employee Motivation (change management theories and techniques to support employees through organizational change).7. Effective Partnering (characteristics of the university milieu and the skills for forming partnerships with other sectors and individuals on the campus).8. Effective Public Speaking and Influencing (presentation skills).9. Risk Management (pro-active strategic planning).10. Advanced Conflict Resolution (strategies and techniques to manage conflict).11. Performance Measures (principles and tools for performance evaluation).12. Interest-Based Approaches to Problem Solving and Reaching Consensus (principles of interest-based problem solving and their application to the university setting).13. Meetings that Work (conducting meetings more effectively).In September 2001, the first of the 13 modules was introduced to the University's administrative directors. A total of 36 directors have since participated in some or all modules of the training program (and recently, a training program was introduced for academic leaders such as departmental chairs and deans. The present study only assesses the administrative management program.). Since its inception, no formal evaluation of the effectiveness of the training program has been conducted.The goal of the current study was to assess the impact of the MLP on the core competencies of the participants. Specifically, the following research questions were posed:RQ1. What do participants learn in the MLP?\nMethodology: Subjects\nResults: In terms of the impact of the MLP, six themes, or success markers, emerged. Each theme will be briefly defined here and followed by several subcategories of the theme and, finally, direct quotations from the narratives to illustrate the theme. When quotations were originally in French, they have been translated into English by the author.1. Chance to get together with colleagues\nDiscussion: The MLP provides a professional, applicable and practical learning experience for managers of the University of Ottawa. This section will specifically discuss the learning that occurred, the means by which participants learned and the impact overall.What do managers learn?\nConclusion: Clearly the MLP is having a positive impact on the development and reinforcement of skills, the establishment and maintenance of networks, and the opportunity for senior managers to meet, discuss and solve mutual challenges. These outcomes are critical both for the professional development of the directors, as they work to achieve their core competencies, and for the University of Ottawa's ability to meet the challenges of change and growth facing this institution.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Management training is perceived as one of the most effective ways to improve management skill, increase productivity and change corporate culture. To reap these perceived benefits, the University of Ottawa has delivered, since 2001, a Management Leadership Program (MLP) to better hone the core competencies of senior directors of administrative units at the University. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of this program on the participants in terms of learning, behavioural change and achievement of core competencies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Semi-structured in-depth interviews.\nFindings: - The study found that informal learning strategies are the primary means by which University directors develop core competencies. However, the MLP provides a forum for informal learning through greater self-awareness, the establishment and maintenance of social networks or social capital, for discussion and problem solving by senior managers and for the development and reinforcement of skills.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Given the time that has passed since the first training modules were completed, it is likely that internal validity will be affected by maturation. Further, because the number of subjects is small, semi-structured interviews were used to elicit rich, highly informative data. Using multiple coders enhanced reliability.\nOriginality/value: - This article provides insights into the particular development needs of university administrators and emphasizes the role of informal learning in management development and the importance of formal training as a forum for learning to occur. Also, the article highlights the critical role of social capital in management effectiveness\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Spiritual development in executive coaching
|
[
"Religion",
"Leadership",
"Management development",
"Coaching",
"Executives",
"Spirituality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Interest in the intersection of the spiritual and business domains has grown in recent decades (Benefiel et al., 2014; Karakas, 2010), a trend ascribed to factors such as rapid and turbulent change in business and society, growing social consciousness (e.g. the triple bottom line or people, planet and profit), and the desire for spiritual fulfillment in an era of materialism (Chen and Sheng, 2013; Fry and Nisiewicz, 2013; Giacalone and Jurkiewicz, 2010). Executive leaders, like other workers, experience a spiritual aspect to their work and seek to understand and grow the spiritual facet of their lives (Delbecq, 2008).\nExecutive coaching: EC is typically a paid-for professional service offered to executives and sponsored by the employing organization to assist executive leaders in developing and achieving personal and organizational performance outcomes. It may be combined with training, assessment (e.g. 360-degree feedback) and other interventions (Sperry, 2004) as a part of an organization's broader leadership development program. Peltier (2010) defines EC:Psychological skills and methods are employed in a one-on-one relationship to help someone become a more effective manager or leader. These skills are typically applied to specific present-moment work-related issues (than general personal problems or psychopathology) in a way that enables this client to incorporate them into his or her permanent management or leadership repertoire.(p. xxxi)\nIntersections of spiritual direction, spiritual development and executive coaching: Leaders have sought out spiritual counsel throughout the ages, sometimes only as the need arises, or through forming lasting relationships with friends, mentors, mystics or consultants (Western, 2017). It seems likely that some of the personal challenges and development that EC may target could relate to the individual's worldview and spiritual life. Western's (2017) discourses of coaching recognize the role of the soul guide, acknowledging a long history of executive-level leaders seeking spiritual guidance and development. This seems especially relevant to the ethical dilemmas executives face, many of which are resolved through drawing upon spiritual, religious, and philosophical principles and traditions (Delbecq, 2006; Hall, 2019).\nIntegrating spiritual development in executive coaching: Including a spiritual focus in EC raises numerous questions regarding ethical EC practice, particularly when a private corporation is sponsoring the coaching, when the coach and client differ in religion or worldview (Duncan, 2012; Iordanou et al., 2017), or where the coach is unable to recognize their lack of preparation to engage in providing spiritual support (Western, 2017). Therefore, suitable contexts and practical guidelines for including a spiritual focus in EC are explored as a management or leadership development intervention.\nConclusion: It may be easier to suggest that EC and SDev should remain separate practices, but there is hope that SDev, if judiciously applied, can be included in EC. Separating the practices may not ensure better coaching outcomes for executives. Comparisons were made between SDev, SDir and EC, indicating areas of commonality and conflict, as well as areas where the practices may complement each other. Organizations', clients' and coaches' likely concerns about such an integration were addressed. Suitable contexts, principles, a basic developmental framework and steps for executive coaches considering the inclusion and practice of SDev in EC were presented.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Spiritual topics emerge in executive leadership coaching. However, the scholarly literature has emphasized the performance development aspects of executive coaching (EC) more than the development of executives' inner lives, although there is some evidence of practitioners addressing spiritual topics. Executive leaders have spiritual needs and executive coaches may be well positioned to address the intersection of the leaders' work and spiritual lives, provided coaches observe skill boundaries and the limitations of the coaching context. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the merits of including spiritual development (SDev) in EC and how executive coaches can incorporate it in their practice.\nDesign/methodology/approach: EC, SDev and spiritual direction are compared, drawing attention to conflicting and complementary aspects of SDev applied in EC. Organizations', clients' and coaches' likely concerns about such integration are explored and addressed. Suitable contexts, principles, a basic developmental framework and practical steps for executive coaches considering the inclusion of SDev in EC are proposed.\nFindings: The paper provides coaches, consultants, executives and those charged with executive development with a foundational understanding of the role of SDev in EC.\nOriginality/value: A framework is provided for professionals involved in executive management development to address executive leaders' spiritual needs through EC.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Disclosure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its implications on company value as a result of the impact of corporate governance and profitability
|
[
"Corporate governance",
"Profitability",
"CSR",
"Partial least square"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: One of the main objectives of the company is to increase the prosperity of the shareholders. The way to measure the level of prosperity of shareholders is through the company value. High increase in company value is a long-term goal that should be achieved by the company which will be reflected in the market price of its shares because investors' valuation of the company can be observed through the movement of stock prices of companies that are traded on the stock exchange for companies that have gone public. Samuel (2000) in Nurlela (2008) explained that firm value (EV) or also known as firm value is an important concept for investors, because it is an indicator for the market to assess the company as a whole. Therefore, a company has a responsibility in planning how to maximize the firm value, so that the company can remain trusted and in the interest of the shareholders.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Firm value\n3. Methodology: The population of this study was all companies listed in the LQ 45 Index group in the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2013-2014. The population was selected by the author, because in Indonesia, one of the indexes trusted by the investors is the LQ 45 Index which lists 45 most active companies in IDX that have the best ratings in terms of frequency of stock trading and financial performance. Thus, these companies will surely try to keep their reputations through CSR reporting. Therefore, the authors took the companies listed in LQ 45 index group in the Indonesia Stock Exchange as the object of study.\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion: First, this study rejected the first hypothesis that corporate governance has an effect on CSR disclosure. There were two indicators used for measuring corporate governance, namely, the proportion of independent board of commissioners and audit committee. The proportion of independent commissioners and audit committee in the companies listed in LQ 45 may have less effect on the CSR disclosure policy. CSR disclosure policy is mostly affected by the management of the companies, namely, the board of directors and board of commissioners, and supported by other stakeholders.\n5. Conclusions and suggestions: 5.1 Conclusions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of corporate governance and corporate profitability on firm value with corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure as the intervening variable.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The population of this study was all companies listed in the LQ 45 Index group in the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2013-2014. The inferential statistics used in this study applied the partial least square (PLS) based structural equation model (SEM) method with the assistance of SmartPLS 2.0. The PLS method was selected based on the consideration that there was a construct formed with reflective indicators in this study.\nFindings: From the results of this study, it can be concluded that corporate governance does not have any effect on CSR disclosure, profitability of company has an effect on CSR disclosure, CSR disclosure has an effect on firm value. In addition, CSR disclosure does not mediate the effect of on firm value. These results showed that corporate governance can have an effect on firm value directly, and there is no role of CSR disclosure in mediating the effect of corporate governance on firm value, and profitability of company has an effect on firm value through CSR disclosure.\nOriginality/value: The originality of this research is on the reason that many studies that have been conducted still indicated the inconsistency in the results and diversity of the indicators, so that a similar research was conducted by involving the indicators used for measuring the corporate governance variable, which were the proportion of independent commissioners and audit committee. Meanwhile, for the profitability variable, return on assets and return on equity were used as the indicators.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Agendas, alternatives, and collective labour law: A case study of local collective bargaining legislation in South China
|
[
"China",
"Trade unions",
"Collective bargaining",
"Policy process",
"Labour legislation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Local government regulations on collective bargaining (Ji Ti Tan Pan ) or collective negotiation/consultation (Ji Ti Xie Shang )[1] are slowly becoming common practice in China. As early as the 1990s, a few local regulations specifically on collective contract were promulgated, such as the Regulations of Enterprise Collective Contract of Fujian Province (1996) (People's Forum, 1996) and of Guangdong Province - 1996 (People's Voice, 1996). In every case, they followed the Collective Contract Regulation (2004) issued by the former Ministry of Labour[2]. It has been only since 2008 that many provinces have started to amend these collective contract regulations or to discuss legislation of collective wage negotiation (Gong Zi Ji Ti Xie Shang ). The years 2011 and 2012 witnessed the most intensive local legislations. By July 2012, 25 of China's 34 provinces and municipal cities had promulgated regulations on collective contract and another 13 issued or were about to issue documents on wage negotiation[3]. In addition, new clauses on collective bargaining were also added to legislations about democratic management or harmonious labour relations, with the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone on the Promotion of the Harmonious Labour Relations - 2008 (Government Online, 2008) being a typical example.\n2. Literature review: In previous studies, some scholars analyzed China's purpose in promoting labour laws as well as the actual impact of such laws (e.g. Gallagher, 2005, Lee, 2007; Chan, 2011). Other scholars compared the legal text in specific laws and regulations (e.g. Chang, 2005; Brown, 2006, 2015; Zhai, 2015). A few explored the different roles of workers, employers and the state in making China's labour laws, particularly highlighting the impact of collective labour actions in 2010 (e.g. Chang, 2013; Chan, 2014; Chan and Hui, 2017). But the one area that connects the political purposes, legislative designs and legal texts together has rarely been studied: the legislative process. This study explains how the state's intentions were, or were not, translated into the enacted legislation; and describes the political forces and specific conditions that shaped the collective bargaining legislation.\n3. Findings: 3.1 The process of legislation\n4. Conclusion: In China, the collective labour law legislation is expected to be controversial if the main actors take the law seriously, as the CCR shows. Previous studies have provided insights on the labour-capital struggle on labour legislation, but this study offers details about the forces that existed and how they impacted the process. In particular, what is happening in the policy stream cannot be fully explained by the power structure approach. Moreover, the narrative of a local legislation helps to understand the dynamics in an authoritarian state, which can differ greatly from Kingdon's US-based cases. Unlike Gallagher and Dong's (2011) description of a largely unpredictable and fluid scenario, this paper emphasizes a combination of accidental and structural factors in shaping the final outcomes in China.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how different actors interacted to influence local labour legislation in the case of the collective bargaining regulations in Guangdong Province, China, using long-term observation and in-depth interviews.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper uses the case study method to investigate the process of local labour law-making in China. First, the primary data focus on a series of in-depth interviews conducted in 2014. In Guangdong Province, the author collected the thoughts of three well-informed provincial and municipal-level trade union officials, one government official, five scholars and lawyers, four enterprise union chairs and three labour activists. Second, these interviews are triangulated with legislative documents and the author's observation of three public meetings. Held at various times from 2011 to 2014, these meetings were organized to discuss different legislative drafts on collective bargaining.\nFindings: The six-year process of adopting collective bargaining legislation in Guangdong presents a complex picture as different actors joined the process at different times and engaged in different ways. Labour strikes were a crucial force in drawing the attention of both the local and central governments and functioned as a means to repeatedly make collective labour relations a policy \"issue\" for the government, particularly in 2010. Another actor - the local official trade unions - played a decisive role by not only putting the \"issue\" into the decision-making agenda, but by also providing policy alternatives based on workers' bargaining practices. At the same time, business associations, using slow economic growth as an excuse, exerted their economic leverage to pressure for suspension of the first two rounds of legislation. Nevertheless, the new political leadership assuming office in 2013, using an adoptive but restrained logic, pushed for the enactment of the compromise regulation.\nResearch limitations/implications: Guangdong Province and its emerging collective labour regimes are not representatives of China, but they are at the frontier of the labour field. Thus, this case study was an example of the \"most dynamic\" interaction with the \"most participative\" actors and perhaps the \"most pro-labour\" of China's official trade unions.\nOriginality/value: This paper is original and draws special attention to the dynamic process of the local law-making and the rationales of different actors in China.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Transformative experiences via Airbnb: Is it the guests or the host communities that will be transformed?
|
[
"Authenticity",
"Experience economy",
"Sharing economy",
"Airbnb",
"Short-term rental",
"Tourism impacts"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The act of tourism is essentially a collecting of experiences, and the quest for authentic, unique, and memorable experiences long has been recognized as an integral driver of modern day travel. For example, in his seminal work on the authenticity of tourism experiences, MacCannell (1976) wrote, \"The value of such things as [trips, events, and sights] is not determined by the amount of labor required for their production. Their value is a function of the quality and quantity of experience they promise\" (italics in the original) (p. 23). The importance of such experience-making is arguably greater today than ever before, as evidenced by the abundance of travel suppliers branding their (sometimes fairly mundane) services as \"experiences\" (Sheivachman, 2018). This ongoing shift toward an experience-oriented paradigm, which looks to continue well into the future, is particularly obvious in the lodging sector. In fact, Gilmore and Pine (2002), originators of the \"experience economy\" concept, specifically described how the lodging sector was ripe for an experiential overhaul because it had become characterized by a high degree of commoditization. Gilmore and Pine (2002) offered various examples of hotels striving to create more experiential stays, and many more examples abound today. For instance, Marriott's recently launched Moxy brand consists of \"experiential hotel[s]\" that encourage \"communal engagement\" (Marriott International, 2018); Wyndham is incentivizing its guests to be phone-free (and therefore more socially interactive) at its hotel pools (Williams, 2018); myriad luxury hotels have begun offering cultural and artistic programming (Shankman, 2019); and numerous hotel companies, including Four Seasons and Hilton, have begun offering curated excursions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how the growing presence of Airbnb rentals, resulting partly from tourists' increasing desire for transformative travel experiences, is ironically much more transformative for the host communities than the tourists themselves.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper provides a conceptual analysis linking the motivations of Airbnb guests with the impacts of Airbnb on host communities. It uses an experience economy lens, and is based on a review of the academic literature and of media stories related to Airbnb.\nFindings: Many tourists are increasingly seeking transformative travel experiences, and Airbnb commonly will be appealing to such tourists. However, the capacity of Airbnb lodging to independently foster personal transformation is questionable. On the other hand, there is little doubt that Airbnb and its guests are producing significant transformations in host communities.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes toward understandings of Airbnb and its impacts on destinations around the world. It, for the first time, links Airbnb guests' travel motivations with Airbnb's community impacts, and in doing so demonstrates parallels with past critiques of alternative tourism. This paper is also one of the first to examine Airbnb from the perspective of the experience economy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The use of social media for engaging stakeholders in sustainability reporting
|
[
"Facebook",
"Social and environmental accounting",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Twitter",
"Social media",
"Stakeholder engagement"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the last two decades stakeholder dialogue and engagement have played a fundamental role in defining the contents of social, environmental, or sustainability reporting (hereafter, SESR) in accordance with the principle of materiality and relevance of information disclosed (Unerman and Bennett, 2004; Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), 2013). Stakeholder engagement is a milestone corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy because it allows one party (the organisation) to interact with another (the stakeholder) in a two-way dialogue in which the engager and engaged mutually learn from such contacts, deeply revising their expectations and preconceptions (Manetti, 2011; Owen et al., 2001). In this sense, stakeholder engagement is a powerful tool of dialogic communication and accounting (Bebbington et al., 2007a; Brown, 2009; Brown and Dillard, 2013b) that offers interactive mutual learning processes that are capable of promoting transformative action and social change (Bebbington et al., 2007a, p. 357).\n2. Theoretical framework: Stakeholder theory scholars have tried to classify the relational models between organisations and stakeholders by assuming a gradual growth of stakeholder involvement and participation (Svendsen, 1998; Waddock, 2002). First, the organisation identifies and maps its stakeholders, if possible distinguishing between primary parties (those who are strategic in the middle to long term) and secondary parties (stakeholders that do not affect its sustainability) (Clarkson, 1995, pp. 92-117). Second, it tries to manage stakeholders' expectations and the claims they support in accordance with their salience (Mitchell et al., 1997), while also balancing these various positions through a process of stakeholder management (O'Dwyer, 2005). In the last step, organisations try to engage primary stakeholders in decision-making processes, making them participants in organisation management and governance, sharing information, dialoguing, and creating a model of mutual responsibility.\n3. Methodology: We studied a sample of 332 sustainability reports in English, Italian, Dutch, and Spanish, all of which were drawn up in accordance with the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (version 3.1 and 4.0) issued by the GRI (2010, 2013). As of 1 March 2014, we collected all the reports published in 2013 in the GRI online database at the highest levels of accordance with the guidelines:\n4. Results: This section presents the results of our content analysis for each type of social media.\n5. Conclusions: In this study we assessed if online interaction through social media, particularly Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, represents an effective stakeholder engagement mechanism in order to define the contents of SESR. We think this is an increasingly relevant topic, as social media is becoming one of the main channels through which organisations promote their activities and communicate with customers, users, communities, and other primary stakeholders. Moreover, within an interdisciplinary accounting research perspective, our study aims to explore the link between accounting and social media since, as corporations and markets increasingly become mediatized, issues of accountability become more prominent and prevalent (Jeacle and Carter, 2014).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess if online interaction through social media, particularly Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, represents an effective stakeholder engagement mechanism in order to define the contents of social, environmental, or sustainability reporting (SESR).\nDesign/methodology/approach: After examining 332 worldwide sustainability reports for the year 2013, drawn up according to the guidelines provided by the Global Reporting Initiative, the authors conducted a content analysis on the Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube pages of the organisations who rely on these types of social media. This was done in order to assess the scope of interaction between the organisation and its stakeholders.\nFindings: The authors found that a small number of organisations use social media to engage stakeholders as a means of defining the contents of SESR, and that the level of interaction is generally low. Rather than assuming a deliberative approach that is aimed at forging a democratic consensus on how to address specific corporate social responsibility or SESR issues, these types of interaction focus on gathering divergent socio-political views in an agonistic perspective.\nResearch limitations/implications: Further research could complement this exploratory research with statistical analyses. It could focus on how comments/replies by users are used by organisations and examine the impacts of SESR on companies' performances.\nOriginality/value: The authors contribute to the literature on social accounting by understanding whether social media can be reliable instruments of stakeholder engagement and by examining the relevance of information that is voluntarily disclosed by corporations in SESR.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Learning at work through the 3Ps: Partnerships, projects and practice development
|
[
"Workplace learning",
"Partnership",
"Project management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: US author Brian Tracy believes that any problem can be overcome through learning and application of what has been learned. Such sentiments will no doubt be music to the ears of those companies whose biggest challenges include how to tackle the skills shortages that can blight their efforts to prosper and grow.\nAn individualized learning: A core aim of WBL is to initiate development and change within the specific workplace context. This obviously covers a vast number of topics and issues, allowing considerable scope for various work-based projects (WBP) to be undertaken at different HE levels. Agreeing a suitable level of study depends on the:* learner's entry status in both professional and academic terms;* demands of the project;* context in which learning is applied; and* amount of independence enjoyed by the learner.Because every project must be tailored specifically to meet the requirements of different individuals and their organization, it means that one cap can never fit all. This further increases the already difficult challenge facing academic tutors charged with the responsibility of ensuring that each individual undertakes a suitable project.And this is not the only obstacle to overcome. What about the anxieties and fears involved in returning to learning after a gap of several years or even decades in some cases? Wise voices constantly remind us that no one is too old to learn but fail to recognize the difficulties that such a commitment invariably brings. Anxieties aside, other issues to address can include inadequate IT skills, unfamiliarity with HE and the likelihood of ignorance about WBL concepts.The result? A confidence crisis that is heightened among learners whose self-esteem is low at the outset. Throw in the requirement to handle project demands alongside normal work responsibilities and a climate of uncertainty is virtually guaranteed.\nWhy support is crucial: The best way to address these issues? With an effective support structure that contains both academic staff and work based advisors. In situations where the learner enjoys only minimal contact with a HE tutor, the role of work based advisors has proved particularly crucial. These support mechanisms serve to:* clarify academic and professional requirements;* set relevant aims and objectives, learning outcomes, methodology and project scale for each individual learner; and* ensure that all seminars, workshops and group activities cater for the diversity of the learners and the different study levels.On the surface, WBL may well appear less daunting since it typically allows learners to investigate an area where they already have some knowledge of practice. But others may opt to focus on less familiar aspects in their field and therefore need additional support as they move away from their comfort zone into relatively new territory.The importance of support should never be underestimated and some learners have achieved beyond expectation when highly effective structures have been in place. And while the nature of WBL guarantees that the bulk of any project will be undertaken in the workplace, evidence suggests that time spent within a university setting can significantly enhance learner motivation and confidence.Support from fellow learners is also of paramount importance, not least because the interaction that occurs through shared experiences and different communication channels can only enhance the learning experience.WBL involves a partnership between learner, organization and HE institution. Many perceive the concept as being similar to action research, albeit learner rather than problem centered. This difference? A learner-centered curriculum enables a clearer focus on achieving objectives related to such as role evaluation and personal development.A WBP will typically contain several distinct stages:1. initial learner enquiry into their organization and its practices in order to identify potential project opportunities;2. negotiation with HE tutor and employer to establish the focus and scope of the project;3. research the subject and determine suitable methodology;4. planning and implementation; and5. presentation and evaluation of the project.WBL helps the individual to acquire or improve the various interpersonal, professional, intellectual and practical skills needed to properly engage with theory, practice and the context of the project. Completion of a project earns the individual credits that can stand alone or count towards larger WBL or academic honors.\nGetting assessment right: AWBP is usually subject to both formative and summative assessment. At the UK's Northumbria University, the initial proposal constitutes part of the formative assessment, as does an oral presentation. Feedback given on the presentation by academic tutors, workplace mentors and co-learners is then used to write a final report that is summatively assessed.The murmurs of discontentment at Northumbria highlight the need for the assessment procedure to be both appropriate and capable of providing a comprehensive evaluation of learner performance and development. Some learners at the university have questioned the relevance of the final report, considering it a time consuming exercise that significantly increases the project workload and thus demands even greater levels of commitment. Others claim that the task favors those with a more academic background, while simultaneously disadvantaging learners who do not require writing skills to fulfill their normal responsibilities.How can those involved deflect such criticisms and respond to accusations that assessment merely serves to ensure academic credibility? By deploying assessment criteria that permits the recognition of other forms of learning in addition to description, research and reflection. In an ideal world, this will mean that both product and process are properly evaluated.When planned, implemented and assessed appropriately, WBL carries the potential to make a real difference to both learner and organization. Some of the benefits and outcomes include:* improved understanding of different practices and roles within the workplace;* opportunities to specialize or adopt a new role;* greater impact at work through employee participation in practice development;* a sense of ownership and empowerment; and* increased levels of enthusiasm, job satisfaction and sense of purpose.\nComment: The review is based on: \"Meeting the needs of the workplace and the learner through work-based learning\" by Garth Rhodes and Gillian Shiel. The authors provide an interesting article revealing how UK companies are using WBL as a key part of the attempt to address the current skills shortage in the country. They discuss the role of HE and detail WBL as a partnership between organization, learner and HE provider. Many of the challenges and benefits surrounding WBL are emphasized, and the authors illustrate the valuable points made using case studies of WBP undertaken at a leading UK university. The article contains a wealth of strategic implications that any practitioner will find extremely useful.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The 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: - US author Brian Tracy believes that any problem can be overcome through learning and application of what has been learned. Such sentiments will no doubt be music to the ears of those companies whose biggest challenges include how to tackle the skills shortages that can blight their efforts to prosper and grow. In the UK, this has led to an increased focus on work-based learning (WBL) and the establishment of links between individual business organizations and universities. One important outcome of this relationship is higher education (HE) support for innovative learning practices in the workplace. A core aim of WBL is to initiate development and change within the working environment. This covers a vast number of topics and issues, allowing considerable scope for various work-based projects (WBP) to be undertaken at different HE levels.\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"
}
] |
Corporate social responsibility: the effect of need-for-status and fluency on consumers' attitudes
|
[
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Attitudes",
"Processing fluency",
"Need for status"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs have become an integral part of many companies' public relations strategies (Bhattacharya and Sen, 2003). Effective CSR programs have been shown to have numerous benefits for companies, including a value-based bond with consumers (Bhattacharya and Sen, 2003), strong consumer-company identification (Bhattacharya and Sen, 2003), enhanced reputation (Lii and Lee, 2012), increased customer loyalty, higher revenues, positive word of mouth, willingness to pay a premium and resilience to negative press about the company (Du et al., 2007). The majority of CSR studies in the hospitality industry have focused on the sustainability issues such as sustainable tourism and green hotels. However, CSR initiatives can go beyond the environmental issues. For example, Marriott defines its CSR as three components: environment, local community and responsible business. Besides being an eco-friendly business, Marriott also supports organizations such as the American Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Similarly, Hyatt Hotels Corporation has launched a corporate philanthropy program called Ready to Thrive, which focuses on providing educational support in an effort to create economic opportunities that lead to healthier communities and improved lives (Koo, 2013). This paper focuses on the subject of CSR with particular reference to the hotel sector and a non-sustainability-related CSR initiative.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Corporate social responsibility\n3. Method: 3.1 Study design\n4. Results: The manipulation of processing fluency was successful. The results shown that participants in the high-fluency condition (vs low-fluency condition) responded more positively toward the statement \"the CSR message was easy to understand\" (adapted from Oppenheimer, 2006) (MHfluency = 6.18, MLfluency = 5.80, t = 2.39, p < 0.05).\n5. Discussion and conclusions: CSR programs have become an important part of many companies' business strategy. However, customers' individual traits such as NFS have been largely ignored. In this study, we examined the effect of NFS on customers' attitude towards the hotel after exposure to information related to the firm's CSR initiatives. The results indicate that high-NFS individuals tend to have a more positive attitude, knowing that companies are engaged in CSR programs to benefit society. Interestingly, such an effect is only observed when the CSR message is easy to understand. When the message is difficult to process, customers' attitudes toward the hotel remain the same regardless of NFS.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand the joint effects of individuals' need for status and processing fluency on customer attitudes toward hotels' participation in corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses a 2 (Need for status: high vs low) x 2 (Processing fluency: high vs low) experimental design with processing fluency being manipulated and individuals' need for status being measured.\nFindings: The results indicate that although high-need for status customers exhibit a more positive attitude than low-need for status customers when the CSR message is easy to process, they show similar attitude levels when processing fluency is relatively low.\nOriginality/value: This study makes great contribution to the literature of status consumption by examining CSR as one of the new areas that consumers use to signal social status beyond luxury products. For practitioners, the results of this study offer suggestions on how to design CSR messages to increase its effectiveness.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Forms of graduate capital and their relationship to graduate employability
|
[
"Higher education",
"Policy",
"Employability",
"Skills",
"Capitals"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The issue of how and why graduates succeed in the labour market and what can be done to enhance their \"employability\" continues to dominate discussions on the economic impact and role of higher education (HE). It is 20 years since the Dearing (1997) report made active recommendations for the enhancement of graduates' \"employability skills\" and calls for university curricula to be more attuned to the needs of the economy. Such concerns have been given a renewed momentum in light of recent UK Government proposals linking institutional effectiveness and quality to graduates' returns in the labour market (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (DBIS), 2016). However, what makes a graduate desirable to employers and what role HE plays in this has been subject to considerable academic debate and employer analysis (Hinchliffe and Jolly, 2011). Whilst it is often assumed that graduates who possess the most desirable level of skills - or indeed \"attributes\" - are more employable, much analysis has shown graduate employability to be broader and more complex (Jackson, 2016; Holmes, 2013; Tomlinson, 2012; Brown and Hesketh, 2004).\nThe dominance of the employability skills discourse: Much of the current understanding of graduate employability, particularly in relation to the role of HE, has been framed around the enhancement of graduates' employability skills. Further developing graduates' employability skills, beyond their formal academic learning, is seen as a way of equipping them for meeting the challenges of graduate-level work. HEIs in particular have been very responsive to the language of skills adopted by employers and been prone to reproduce such discourse both in relation to institutional strategies and specific pedagogic initiatives (McCowan, 2015; Holmes, 2013). The discourse inflation on skills and attributes within HE would appear to have eclipsed even what employers have espoused on such matters.\nHuman capital - knowledge, skills and future performance: Human capital refers to the knowledge and skills which graduates acquire which are a foundation of their labour market outcomes. This form of capital bears the closest relation to skills approaches given that it is concerned with what and how graduates can make connections between their formal education and future employment outcomes. The concept of human capital was developed by the economist Gary Becker (1993), who has referred to the \"marginal\" productive value attached to higher level qualifications in the labour market. Human capital acquired through HE inculcates wider knowledge, technical and embedded, that graduates utilise in higher-end professional labour. In essence, the development of human capital in the form of formally acquired knowledge through higher levels of education and training empowers individuals in the labour market.\nPractical dimensions of human capital: University-acquired human capital may, in some instances, be tangible and transferable as in the case of those who have undertaken specialist programmes (e.g. medicine, nursing, law, accountancy). However, in the main, HE provides a general education rather than a specific training. Skills have purchase if they are applied in manifest ways which impact on graduate outcome and performance. If a graduate's employability is closely linked to the successful execution of a specific skill, then its acquisition and deployment are likely to have significance. However, whilst this may work in tightly defined occupational areas where there is substitution between HE learning and labour market performance, in the UK's flexible labour market context such links are far less defined. One function of universities is to help graduates harness their knowledge in ways that frame its future economic utility. Working out which skills matter and how these align to targeted industries is clearly of significance, as is the capacity to demonstrate the productive value of generic knowledge.\nSocial capital - networks and human relationships: Social capital in relation to graduate employability can be understood as the sum of social relationships and networks that help mobilise graduates' existing human capital and bring them closer to the labour market and its opportunity structures. Social capital can shape and facilitate graduates' access and awareness of labour market opportunities and then being able to exploit them. Bourdieu's (1986) outline of social capital makes reference to the resources that individuals have access to as a result of their membership or connections to particular groups. Their participation in HE provides them with the basis to develop the necessary \"bridging ties\" with other key social actors (Putnam, 1999). Such awareness is partly derived from experiences within the students' social and cultural milieu and linked to salient social influences, such as family and community members and peers. The important issue is finding ways of tapping into such resources in the pursuit of accessing employment.\nPractical dimensions of social capital: The main issue at stake here for graduates' transition into employment is the ability to discern and then exploit opportunities, particularly when significant others in their lives have (or not) played a bridging role in helping them learn about and access employment opportunities. For instance, considerable policy attention is now given to the progression levels and labour market outcomes of students from lower socio-economic backgrounds (Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, 2013), in light of continued under-representation of this group in elite professions.\nCultural capital: employability and cultural synergy and alignment: Cultural capital can be conceived as the formation of culturally valued knowledge, dispositions and behaviours that are aligned to the workplaces that graduates seek to enter. This concept was developed by Bourdieu (1984, 1986) who discussed the transference of such valued cultural knowledge between individuals' socio-cultural milieus and the educational context in which it was validated. This is further institutionalised through formal credentials whose status enhancing functions provide privileged access to the labour market. This approach is still valuable, particularly when exploring how the relative acquisition and deployment of cultural capital, often formed outside of formal education, can provide access to employment (Bathmaker et al., 2013; Burke, 2015). However, in the context of mass HE, formally institutionalised cultural capital signalling elite achievement and knowledge formation may be less potent in shaping access to employment. In mass HE, the so-called \"field rules\" between HE and the labour market have shifted in terms of what currencies graduates potentially trade-off in the market.\nPractical dimensions of cultural capital: The challenge to this form of capital is that it is differentiated across the student and graduate population, which may be reinforced through mass HE. One of the salient findings from research by Bathmaker et al. and Burke on graduates from different socio-economic backgrounds is the different understandings of field rules, as well as knowledge and confidence in being able to negotiate them. This is also manifest in decisions and orientations, including in the case of lower socio-economic graduates, precluding areas of the job market that their middle class colleagues may feel comfortable in approaching. Likewise, the intangible, interpersonal qualities which employer research has shown to make a discernible impact on recruitment decisions (Brown and Hesketh, 2004; Hinchliffe and Jolly, 2011; Morley, 2007; McCracken et al., 2015) also appear strongly connected to graduates' wider cultural make-ups.\nIdentity capital: self-concept and personal narratives: Identity capital is defined here as the level of personal investment a graduate makes towards the development of their future career and employability. This also extends to their abilities to draw on experiences and articulate a personal narrative which aligns to the employment domains they seek to enter. The key here is a graduate's capacity to develop emerging identities and then warrant and perform this in the early stages of the labour market. Such formation is likely to provide advantages if the personal investment people make toward future work propel them actively towards the labour market. The self-perception and self-concepts graduates form around future work can therefore provide a frame through which they may be able to channel their experiences and profiles.\nPractical dimensions of identity capital: If the emerging identities graduates form impel them towards thinking proactively and imaginatively about their future careers and employability then finding ways of developing these may have some significant impact on their immediate futures. Previous research indicates that students who invest more strongly in their careers tend to show higher level of identity capital (Tomlinson, 2007) - future careers are a strong part of their on-going and anticipated future \"life project\". Finding ways of enhancing students' self-perceptions and emergent identities so that they form more cohesive and crystallised career goals may be significant in shaping the early management of their employability. Jackson (2016) has discussed the importance of the informal dimension of the university experience for work-related identity, particularly students' interactions through HE's diverse experiential offerings. It appears important, therefore, that identity formation moves beyond simply a formal disciplinary milieu.\nPsychological capital: resilience and career adaptability: Psychological capital is a potentially significant form of capital as it is based on the psycho-social resources which enable graduates to adapt and respond proactively to inevitable career challenges. The level of challenge and adversity has clearly increased for graduates leaving HE and fewer graduates expect the process of finding employment to be straight forward. Of increasing importance is graduates' level of adaptability, not only in terms of navigating more uncertain terrain, but also withstanding challenges and set-backs such as potentially sustained periods of under-employment and unemployment (Fugate et al., 2004). The notion of career adaptability as developed by Savickas and Porfeli (2012) refers to individuals' capacities to respond and adapt to change and flux across working lives. Other research (Brown et al., 2012) has illustrated the importance of various forms of career adaptability-related learning for managing challenge across work transitions, including learning from others, level of challenge and being open to novel experience. As this research highlights, greater levels of career adaptability enable individuals to more readily re-orientate goals and make more proactive decisions when encountering de-stabilising job market experiences.\nPractical dimensions of psychological capital: Some of the dispositions related to psychological capital are more abundant in some graduates than others. Other related elements of psychological capital, including enabling mindsets, openness to experience and risk tolerance may also further mediate how potentially adverse job market circumstances are dealt with. Whilst it may not be a straight forward task for those working in HE to develop a graduate's adaptability and resilience levels, there are ways of promoting its significance when transiting to paid employment. The more graduates are able to internalise the significance of managing their responses to career challenge the more equipped they may become at managing adverse situations (Koen et al., 2012).\nDiscussion and synthesis: HE institutions continue to be ascribed a significant role in developing graduates' employability and future labour market prospects. The policy imperative around this has recently intensified (DBIS, 2016). The challenges this brings to HE, as well as the strong supply-side orientation to these policy goals, has been given critical attention (Wilton, 2011; McQuaid and Lindsay, 2005). There is, however, a need to think more broadly and conceptually about graduate employability and introduce new vocabularies that connect with its relational complexities and also graduates' lived experiences through and beyond HE. This paper has presented a novel approach, one which combines many different facets of students' and graduates' formations of skills, knowledge, social relations, cultural praxis, identities and psycho-social dispositions. The forms of graduate capital outlined here are conceived as crucial resources which are cumulative and recursive in nature, potentially empowering graduates when making the transitions into the job market. The formation and application of capitals further potentially expands the parameters of their choices and capacity to act in economically advantageous ways. At their most direct level, they can inform a graduate's immediate relations to the job market and shape how they and others perceive their potential and scope.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In the context of far-reaching changes in higher education and the labour market, there has been extensive discussion on what constitutes graduate employability and what shapes graduates' labour market outcomes. Many of these discussions are based on skills-centred approaches and related supply-side logic. The purpose of this paper is to develop an alternative, relational conceptualisation of employability based on the concept of capitals. It discusses how this provides a more detailed and multi-dimensional account of the resources graduates draw upon when transitioning to the labour market.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper presents a new model on graduate employability, linked to five areas of capital which are seen as constitutive of graduates' employability and significant to their transitions to the labour market. The paper draws together existing conceptual approaches and research studies to illustrate the different features of the model and how they relate to graduate employability. It also discusses some practical implications for those helping to facilitate graduates' transitions to the job market.\nFindings: The paper argues that the graduate capital model presents a new way of understanding graduate employability which addresses the challenges of facilitating graduates' transitions and early career management. The forms of capital outlined are conceived as key resources that confer benefits and advantages onto individuals. These resources encompass a range of human, social, cultural, identity and psycho-social dimensions and are acquired through graduates' formal and informal experiences.\nResearch limitations/implications: Whilst this is a conceptual model, it has potentially strong implications for future research in this area in terms of further research exploration on the core components and their application in the labour market.\nPractical implications: This re-conceptualization of graduate employability has significant implication for graduates' career management and strategising in developing resources for enhancing their transitions to and progression within the labour market. It also has implications for career educators in developing practical employability strategies that can be used within institutional settings.\nSocial implications: The paper raises salient implications for the effective and equitable management of graduate outcomes post-graduation which has clear relevance for all stakeholders in graduate employability, including students/graduates, career educators and employers.\nOriginality/value: The paper develops a new model for conceptualising graduate employability and illustrates and applies this to discussion of graduate employability. It also raises practical applications around the different components of the model.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Examining gender diversity on hospital boards in Ghana
|
[
"Healthcare quality",
"Health policy",
"Governance structures",
"Emerging healthcare delivery structures",
"Quantitative research",
"Health law or regulation",
"Clinical leadership and culture"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Board gender diversity has been identified as an important determinant of performance with a number of studies suggesting that it can improve governance, performance and disclosure (Carter et al., 2003; Barako and Brown, 2008). Board diversity is broadly defined to include the various attributes that may be represented among directors in the boardroom in relation to board decision making (see Van der Walt and Ingley, 2003). This study focusses on board diversity with reference to gender.\n2. Literature review: In more general terms, board diversity refers to the various features that may be present among the board of directors that can affect decision making (Carter et al., 2003; Van der Walt and Ingley, 2003). These board characteristics, with respect to board diversity include those that are more visible, such as gender, ethnicity and age and those that are less visible, including religion, occupation and education (Mahadeo et al., 2012). Board diversity provides access to unique resources otherwise difficult if not impossible to reach (Goodstein et al., 1994), as supported by the resource dependency theory. In the view of Carter et al. (2003), board diversity is essential in governance for two basic reasons. First, it promotes a better understanding of the market place, increases creativity and innovation and makes problem solving effective. Second, it promotes more effective global relationships and increases board independence because people with different gender, ethnicity or cultural background might ask questions that would not come from directors with more traditional backgrounds (see Arfken et al., 2004).\n3. Methodology: This study sought to examine gender diversity of hospital boards. The study randomly sampled 100 hospitals comprising of both private and public hospitals in Ghana. There is a rule of thumb of the choice of n=30 for a boundary between small and large samples and for the purpose of estimating a mean, 30 observations are enough (see Hogg and Tanis, 2011). Therefore, sampling 100 hospitals gives us sufficient degrees of freedom.\n4. Presentation and analysis of results: 4.1 Descriptive summary statistics\n5. Discussion of findings: The results of the study indicate that all hospital forms have female representation on the board though females represent less than half of total board size.\n6. Conclusion: The need for strong leadership and increased diversity is a prominent issue in healthcare governance. The findings of this study have shown that all hospital forms (public, for-profit and not-for-profit) sampled in this study have female representation on their boards. However, in all cases, the proportion of female representation is less than half of the total board size. The appointment of more women on both for-profit and not-for-profit hospitals might as well be a ploy or a way to attract donor and funding support from international organisations, which believe and insist on women empowerment and gender diversity on boards, as a measure of good performance by boards.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The issue of gender diversity on hospital boards plays a significant role in the financial health and clinical performance of hospitals. The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of gender diversity of hospital boards in Ghana. Specifically, this study examined the proportion of females on hospital boards and considered how hospital-level characteristics such as hospital size, age, location and ownership structure explain the board gender diversity of hospital boards in Ghana.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A quantitative approach based on 100 hospitals was used.\nFindings: The results of the study indicate that women are represented on all hospitals with governing boards but with different proportions depending on ownership form. In all, women represent less than half of board membership. Smaller and older hospitals were found to have more female representation on their board. Also, not-for-profit mission and for-profit private hospitals tend to engage more females than their counterpart public hospitals.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study examined female representation on hospital boards depending on only hospital-level characteristics such as hospital size, age, location and ownership. Other factors could be determining the appointment of females on hospital boards other than hospital characteristics.\nSocial implications: Efforts on improving the role of women on hospital boards need to be encouraged.\nOriginality/value: Evidence from this study clearly suggests underrepresentation of women in the top echelons of hospitals owned by government or the state, bigger and newer hospitals.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An exploration into the relationship between management and market forces: The railroads of Australia and the American West, 1880-1900
|
[
"Structural change",
"Strategic management",
"Management theory",
"Railways",
"Creative management",
"Historical events"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Management history necessarily sits at an intellectual crossroads. This has both fortunate and unfortunate consequences. Management history is fortunate in that its inquiries are central to understanding the modern world, which is characterised not only by material plenty but also by the steady displacement of the individual entrepreneur by a large class of professional managers. Numerically and socially significant, it is this class of professional managers that leads and administers not only the institutions of business but also those of state. Management history's location at an intellectual crossroads, nevertheless, has two unfortunate consequences. First, it suffers difficulties in enunciating how its perspectives differ from other business disciplines such as economics, entrepreneurship, strategic management and organisational psychology. A perusal of the pages of JMH over the last ten years will reveal, in consequence, many articles outlining the development of theoretical frameworks in entrepreneurship and strategic management. One looks in vain for studies that consciously seek to develop management history theory.\nProblems of understanding: the relationship between railway rates and the value of custom: Among business and management historians, any discussion of nineteenth century railway management is invariably coloured by Chandler's (1965, 1977) famed studies, wherein America's long period of managerial dominance was traced back to the nation's private-sector railway managers, under whom - as we noted previously - \"control through statistics quickly became both a science and an art\" (Chandler, 1977, p. 109). The association of nineteenth century railways with private-sector management is, however, a partial misnomer. Australia was far from unique in having state-owned railroads. State-ownership also figured prominently in Norway, Germany, Russia, India, Belgium and The Netherlands. By 1910, a third of the world's railway mileage was in state hands (Bogart, 2010, p. 158). Evidence of private-sector managerial superiority in railway operation is also by no means clear. Bogart (2010), for example, in estimating the \"railway efficiency\" of the various national systems that existed between 1880 and 1912 - by which he means the capacity to transport a given value with the smallest cost inputs - finds little evidence that \"state railway bureaucrats\" were less effective managers than their private-sector counterparts. On the contrary, Bogart (2010, p. 158) concludes that in the 1890s, Australia boasted one of the \"most efficient railway sectors\", whereas the US system was one of the \"least efficient\". Bogart's (2010) conclusions as to the comparative efficiency of private and public-sector railway management sits at odds, it should be noted, with the prevailing literature in both Australia and the USA. Butlin (1971, p. 360), in his epic account, argues that Australian governments chose \"to disregard profits in railway operation\", thereby creating a \"highly inefficient\" system. Without exception, Australian economic historians (Coghlan, 1918; Shann, 1948; McLean, 1979) have come to similar conclusions. In contrast, US studies are agreed that competition drove operational efficiencies, forcing down costs of service as well as the amounts the railways were able to charge their customers. Partial respite from such competitive pressures, it is argued, was only found through the formation of regional cartels or local monopoly control (Chandler, 1977; Grodinsky, 1950; Hadley, 1885; Klein, 1968, 1990; White, 2011). Permanent respite was only obtained with the regulatory efforts of the Interstate Commerce Commission - a body established in 1887 but whose activities only became economically meaningful by the century's end (Berk, 2009; Kolko, 1950).\nMeasures of railway efficiency: The most common measure of managerial efficiency used in railroads of the nineteenth and early twentieth century world were Working Expense (WE) ratios, which expressed total expenses (excluding interest costs and, in most situations, depreciation) as a percentage of gross revenues. As a rough rule of thumb, WE ratios above 60 per cent were regarded poorly by investors. WE ratios above 70 per cent were indicators of impeding financial distress. By this measure, as Figure 1 indicates, operations of the railways in each of the four regions we are considering were in problematic territory by 1890. However, whereas WE ratios continued to increase in the American South-West and Northern Plains, in the two Australian colonies, they fell sharply between 1890 and 1895.\nThe ripple effects of rural custom on railway finances: In The Visible Hand, Chandler (1977, p. 126) notes that \"the first principle for setting rates was to charge what the traffic would bear\". That this shaped the fortunes of railroads servicing predominately rural regions hostile to the vagaries of commodity markets is suggested by a comparison of Figures 5 and 6, the former tracing variance in the per-ton freight income of our four regional railway systems and the latter recording changes in the annual average wheat price paid in the USA (the \"Chicago\" price) and Australia, where the price paid in Victoria (the principal wheat exporter) is taken as the national benchmark. In both figures, we can ascertain the same broad pattern as regional freight rates and wheat prices fall sharply in the early 1880s, stabilise, and then fall away again. Significantly, in all regions, a temporary recovery in both freight rates and wheat prices is evident around 1890; a recovery that ends in another fall that continues to the century's end. Except for 1896-97, when Victorian wheat prices spiked due to crop failure, Victorian and Chicago prices followed an almost identical trajectory. In Queensland -where corn was the main crop and where a protective tariff of US$0.16 (8 pence) applied to wheat -wheat prices were typically 10-15 per cent higher until 1897, after which export prices were identical with both Chicago and Victoria (Dalrymple, 1901, pp. 158-159).\nEfficient managerial systems and poor strategic management: For all their financial problems, the railways of Australia and the USA were, without doubt, among the most complex, efficient and sophisticated managerial systems of the nineteenth century world. This is particularly the case in the Antipodes. In a continent that lacked even a single steel works until 1915, the railways were the largest employer in every mainland colony. Similarly, in most regional towns, the local railway workshop was the largest manufacturing establishment and the largest repository of skilled labour.\nConclusion: the \"managerial revolution\" and market forces: Writing at the dawn of what we now think of as the \"managerial revolution\", Smith (1776/1937) correctly identified the emergence of a class of professional directors and managers as one of the seminal events of his time. Rather than seeing this new class as agents of a more productive society, however, Smith (1776/1937, p. 700) saw them as an impediment to progress, declaring that \"being the managers of other people's money rather than their own, it cannot well be expected that they should watch over it with the same anxious vigilance [as] [...] their own\". \"Negligence and profusion\", he added, \"must always apply\" in such circumstances. In many ways, it is arguable, \"management\" as a profession and as a discipline has had difficulty in freeing itself from the illegitimacy bestowed by such aspersions. Even more significantly, management has struggled to assert its primacy as the driver of material progress over the market forces that Smith highlighted. The negative consequences of this, as we noted in the introduction to this paper, are evident on a number of fronts. There is continuing confusion as to what distinguishes modern \"management\" from earlier forms of economic coordination. There is also a tendency to see management and managerial leaders as, to cite Pfeffer (1977, p. 104), a mere \"phenomenological construct\", personages who are captives of - rather than the shapers of - the economic world. Such problems, this study has suggested, stems from the tendency to give equal weight to the two elements that Chandler (1977) identified as defining the \"managerial revolution\", these being (a) a class of professional middle managers who efficiently linked outputs to costs, and (b) new multi-department forms of business organisation that allowed for superior \"strategic management\". If, however, we are to see - as Chandler did - the railroads of the nineteenth century world as the defining institutions of the \"managerial revolution\", our international comparison indicates that only in the former is there convincing evidence of progress. In their scale and complexity, the railroads of the American West and of Australia were - as in other New World societies - by far the largest and most important business institutions in their respective nations. They operated services day and night, in all types of weather, transporting millions of passengers and vast quantities of freight. Servicing predominately rural economies, they also had an acute understanding of seasonal variations in demand.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Are business outcomes due primarily to entrepreneurial and managerial ability or are they mainly the result of business content? The purpose of this study is to explore this question by comparing the railroads of Victoria and Queensland (Australia) and the South-West and Northern Plains of America between 1881 and 1900. Given the commonalities of the four railway systems in terms of their economic orientation towards rural custom, and their marked difference in terms of ownership, one would expect similarities in their financial circumstances if outcomes were primarily determined by fluctuations in global commodity markets. Conversely, marked differences would be expected if outcomes primarily resulted from managerial initiative.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Conceptually, this study is informed by the idea that social and economic outcomes are shaped by long historical movements, with meaningful structural change occurring rarely but to great effect. In exploring this concept through a comparison of the railways of Australia and the American West, the study draws on two forms of archival evidence. One source of evidence relates to railroad management, operations and finances. Figures cited come primarily from Australian railway commissioners' reports and Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the USA. The other source of evidence relates to agricultural statistics. These are drawn from official reports.\nFindings: This study argues that effective strategic decision-making can only occur if we understand the structural changes that alter our world. In the late nineteenth century, the Australian and American railroads servicing newly settled rural regions were financial failures because management failed to appreciate the structural changes that the revolution in steam-powered transport had initiated; a revolution which resulted in commodity prices - and hence, the railway rates for farm produce - being determined by global demand and supply balances rather than by local factors. As a result, they continued a policy of expansion that was no longer financially justified.\nOriginality/value: This study seeks to contribute to a fundamental debate in historical studies and management about the drivers of social and economic change. Increasingly, there is acceptance of the view that historical circumstances are inherently unstable and what counts is the particular change cascading through a myriad of \"events\". This study points in a contrary direction, suggesting that business outcomes are primarily determined by deep structural shifts that can be understood and steered but seldom opposed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Average and avid: preservice English teachers' reading identities
|
[
"Identity",
"English language arts",
"English teaching",
"Literacy and identity",
"Literacy teaching",
"L1 English teaching"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: \"I think of reading as a chore,\" Jill stated firmly at the beginning of class (all names are pseudonyms), sitting in a makeshift circle of clunky desks, all eyes turned to the back of the room where Jill sat with her chin leaning on her fist. Jill described how her negative association of reading was tied to \"forced\" school assignments. Many may be surprised to learn that Jill is a preservice English teacher, preparing for a future teaching assignment where she will be responsible for with teaching reading. Currently, her schedule includes psychology and literature courses, so her reading - even though only for school - is multifarious.\nSociocultural theories of identity: Proponents of sociocultural theories of identity believe that identities are socially constructed (Moje and Luke, 2009; Gee, 2000). Individuals construct their identities through interactions with others. As people interact socially, they become aware of who other people believe they are and adopt alternative conceptualizations of themselves. In this way, identity is a process continuously shaped by our experiences in social contexts and how we conceptualize those experiences (Holland et al., 1998) . A complex concept, people perform multiple identities dependent on context. According to Thein et al. (2017), \"Identity is understood as enacted through different ways of being and becoming by adopting different practices in different contexts\" (p. 70). When people repeatedly perform a certain identity, it becomes recognizable. People navigate social situations by performing certain identities in certain contexts. In doing so, they position themselves in relation to others in the situation.\nResearch on reading and writing identities: Within the subsets of possible identity work with English PSTs, reading identity is one avenue. Other possibilities are that of professional and writing identities. A review of the literature revealed more research on secondary teachers' (i.e. in-service and PST) professional and writing identities than reading and more research on adolescents' reading identity than secondary teachers.\nProfessional and writer identities of teachers: Alsup (2019) argues that a professional teaching identity is essential to being an effective teacher and affects the pedagogies teachers enact. The development of a professional teaching identity happens when teachers reflect and are aware of how narrative, discourse, self, and others influence how teachers position themselves as educators. In addition, a robust writing identity stands to act as an indicator of both the quality of writing pedagogy a teacher can provide (Morgan, 2017) and the ability to provide writing instruction in ways not possible for teachers who lack such an identity (Whitney, 2017). This heightens the importance for teacher educators to discuss PSTs' writing identity in methods courses (Premont et al., 2020; Pasternak et al., 2014; Zimmerman et al., 2014), so PSTs can one day share their writing identity in appropriate pedagogical ways. Since research demonstrates the need to position PSTs as teachers and writers, we find it appropriate that reading identity be emphasized in teacher education as well.\nAdolescents' reading identities: There is a paucity of research on teachers' reading identity. However, there is research on adolescent reading identity, and this research can help inform our understanding of teachers' reading identity. Reading identity has been investigated with diverse adolescents. In two qualitative multiple case studies, Learned (2016, 2018) found that the way in which school authorities positioned ninth grade participants was a greater indicator of their success or failure in school than their reading ability. The school positioned students as \"struggling readers\" based on below proficient scores on standardized tests, and teachers positioned students as \"deficient readers\" based on undesirable behavior issues (Learned, 2018, p. 195). In a telling example, a participant was escorted out of a reading intervention class by security personnel for reading a book rather than doing what the teacher asked her to do on a computer. In other words, this participant was engaged in reading yet labeled as \"unengaged\" because of not meeting the classroom behavior expectations of the teacher. Participants who had teachers who believed in their ability to learn and demonstrated this belief to students were more successful. While the school's reading identity of the participants was static, the research findings showed that participants held a variety of reading identities and even negotiated complex texts with teachers who believed that engagement is flexible, and not a static label (Learned, 2018). Hall et al. (2010) corroborate that the labels assigned by schools, such as poor or struggling reader, affect students' reading identities. But with support, some develop a reading identity that resists institutional labels (Glenn and Ginsberg, 2016; Skerrett, 2012).\nTeachers' reading identities: We only found one study focused specifically on the reading identities of secondary English PSTs, thus showing an area of need for more research. However, we found related studies that investigated elementary PSTs and teachers, and two studies on secondary English teachers' reading identities that will also be discussed in this section. Lesley (2011) and Hsieh (2016) investigated literacy identities of PSTs in a content area literacy class. Lesley (2011) found that the preservice English teachers viewed literacy ability as fixed and that their reading identities included \"bad,\" \"average,\" and \"reading has always been easy for me\" (p. 30). Lesley and Hsieh used literacy narratives to help participants deconstruct and reconstruct models of literacy in school so that they could develop more positive experiences with literacy. Via autobiographies, Grenado and Puig (2015) conducted an exploratory study examining the development of preservice elementary teachers' current reading identities. Their findings suggest as follows:\nMethods: This qualitative collective case study was bounded by a literacy course PSTs took at a large land-grant research institution in the Midwestern U.S. In a collective case study, data from multiple participants is analyzed simultaneously (Stake, 2010). Research questions included the following:\nParticipants: Participants included 19 undergraduate students enrolled in a course on literacy in secondary English classrooms. There were three male and 16 female students. Two identified as people of color and 17 as White. Participants were mostly juniors and admitted into the English education program.\nCourse context: The methods sequence of the program included three courses: writing, literature and literacy. The literature course focused on teaching literary analysis while the literacy course focused on pedagogical moves teachers could use to improve adolescents' reading fluency and comprehension. Requiring a standalone course focused on literacy for English teachers provided a unique space to develop participants' reading identity and reading teacher identity, separate (but possibly related) to writing and literature teacher identities. This space was especially intriguing to the first author because when teaching English, she found herself surrounded by teachers who were passionate about literature and about teaching the particular authors they loved. She, on the other hand, was more interested in helping students love reading rather than literature. However, she began to wonder if one was possible without the other. Was falling in love with literature the only path to falling in love with reading?\nData sources: Data sources included the following:\nData analysis: Once the data were collected, we read the data as a corpus using Thomas's (2006) inductive analysis protocol. We independently identified key quotes that represented answers to the research questions. We each entered these quotes into the same collaborative digital spreadsheet. We then used open coding informed by our theoretical framework to label key quotes with 208 initial codes that provided brief summaries of the data. For example, a PST wrote, \"I personally relate to this image because each new material I read or look into is a growing process like this tree\" and the code given was \"reading is growing.\" Other initial codes included the following: \"a strong reader deconstructs texts,\" \"teacher-student relationship impacts reader identity\" and \"relevance is key to motivate readers.\"\nFindings: Participants' course artifacts were investigated to understand their reading identities and their perceptions of teaching about reading identity in secondary English classrooms. Overall, findings suggest that participants took up the stance that a positive reading identity is tied to valuing reading in multiple contexts and that reading identity is dynamic and can shift based on interactions with others and with texts.\nVariety of reading identities from average to avid: Although all participants were enrolled as English majors, we were surprised by the number of participants who did not use words with positive connotations to describe their reading identity. Our data exhibited multiple and complex reading identities. Participants' self-described reading identities ranged from average to avid. One participant described his reading identity as \"average\" on the questionnaire. He added in the class discussion: \"I'm not a huge reader,\" describing for the class how reading in school was a \"struggle\" for him. Another participant sympathized: \"I'm not a very good reader either.\" On the questionnaire, a participant described herself as a \"casual reader\" because she only reads \"for pleasure.\" The word \"casual\" stood in contrast to other participants who spoke of \"passion\" and \"love\" of reading and identified as \"avid\" and \"frequent\" readers. However, the fact that she reads for pleasure is encouraging as a future English teacher. Another participant demonstrated a contrast within her reading identity by saying, \"I would describe myself as a lazy, but strong reader.\" Our data show that not all PSTs who aspire to be English teachers do so because they love reading nor did they all choose terms with positive connotations to describe their reading identities, though most participants did.\nPositive reading identities tied to learning and pleasure: Codes that described a positive association with reading tied value to reading to learn and reading for pleasure. Overwhelmingly, participants valued reading because they valued learning, and reading was one way in which they could learn. Reading to learn was utilitarian as it served a practical purpose in their academic, personal, and professional lives, and reading to learn was enlightening as it helped participants broaden their horizons and learn about people and places they had never experienced. Participants described positive associations with reading to learn in academic contexts, providing 19 of the 28 codes about academic reading. Six codes related to negative associations with academic reading, three codes were neutral and described identification as an academic reader with neither positive nor negative evaluation. In addition, six codes related to valuing reading in order to learn about the world but not necessarily about academics or tied to academic contexts. As an example of reading to learn in academic contexts, on the questionnaire a participant said, \"I have found that content-rich texts and building knowledge from those texts have been as enlightening as a story.\" This quote demonstrates the participant's positive reading identity and how she values reading to learn from academic texts. Other participants said, \"I would describe myself as a studious reader, or one who reads to learn\" and \"I am a strong, analytical reader of literature.\" Both of these participants readily identified as readers, and using the academic discourse of \"studious\" and \"analytic\" suggests a relationship to academics. Thus, participants positioned themselves as capable and confident readers, demonstrating a positive reading identity in academic contexts.\nShaping of positive reading identity through interactions with people and texts: Data showed that participants believed that literacy and identity are dynamic and that the development of positive reading identities could be an important component of English classrooms. When discussing what shaped their reading identities, the strongest patterns related to positive interactions with people and texts. Participants spoke of teachers and family members as contributing to holding a positive reading identity.\nShaping of reading teacher identities: After an extensive literature review and national survey, Caughlan et al. (2017) describe teaching reading versus teaching literature as a \"tension\" in the field, with some respondents believing ELA should focus on reading comprehension skills and some on literature and literary analysis (p. 285). When asked on the questionnaire whether they identified as a literature teacher, reading teacher, or both, eight participants identified solely as literature teachers, seven as both, and one as reading teacher. Thus demonstrating a continued tension between how English teachers identify and the role of \"literacy expert\" that is now expected of them in their classrooms (Lannin et al., 2014).\nDiscussion and conclusion: Overall, the findings of this study illustrate that not all PSTs come to English education programs with positive reading identities nor do all develop identities as reading teachers. According to Bakhtin (1981), learning is a social activity. Therefore, literacy learning takes place within social communities. As the PSTs in our study participated in conversations with each other and the instructors about reading, their reading identities shifted in various ways. While reading can be an independent activity, the PSTs communicated their beliefs that reading needs to be nurtured by students' communities (i.e. peers, family, and school). English education programs can be one community that nurtures PSTs reading so that they in turn can nurture their students.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Previous research shows that identity and academic learning are interdependent, so affecting one can affect the other. The purpose of this case study was to explore preservice English teachers' reading identities and their perceptions of reading identity development in the context of English classrooms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study used qualitative collective case design. Data sources included analogy exercise about participants' reading identities, participant-generated observations of reading identity instruction, questionnaire on reading identity, class discussions about reading identity and final written reflection.\nFindings: Data showed examples of participants' reading identities as taking a variety of forms, but when discussing what shaped their reading identities, the strongest codes related to positive interactions with people and texts. The data showed that participants related positive reading identities to both reading to learn and reading for pleasure. More participants' perceived their professional identity as that of a literature teacher than a reading teacher.\nResearch limitations/implications: Future research is needed on how to support preservice teachers' positive reading identities in English education courses.\nPractical implications: Our data suggest that learning about reading identity may help preservice English teachers think of reading as something that is developing in themselves as well as their students over a lifetime. By providing space in English methods programs to attend to preservice teachers' reading lives, we can help them rekindle or find their love of reading.\nOriginality/value: This research is needed because helping preservice teachers construct and enact positive reading identities in turn aids guidance of their future students' reading identities, and having a positive reading identity is in turn linked to positive student outcomes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Selecting key capabilities of TV-shopping companies applying analytic network process
|
[
"Balanced scorecard",
"Television",
"Electronic commerce",
"Taiwan"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent years, TV shopping is like a sunrise industry in Taiwan. TV shopping has become one of the major channels for consumers to make their purchases. After annually restructuring TV channels in 2005, Government Information Office of Taiwan retained exclusive channels for emerging TV-shopping industry. As TV-shopping channels have been increasing and the industry prospering, a more specified and scientific selecting method is essential to the more complex decision making of determining key capability, a critical source of core competitiveness.Balanced scorecard proposed by Kaplan and Norton (1992) links financial and non-financial, tangible and intangible, inward and outward factors is suitable for key capabilities selection. The balanced scorecard acknowledges the presence of dynamic relationships among the perspectives or criteria. In other words, perspectives and criteria for selecting key capability are interrelated (Leung et al., 2006), as shown in Figure 1. Due to the interdependent perspectives and criteria as mentioned above, a decision-making approach, analytic network process (ANP), appears to be one of the feasible solutions for us to handle such problems.In Section 2, the literatures about capability and balanced scorecard are reviewed. The method applied in this paper is proposed in Section 3. Section 4, an empirical study is illustrated. Finally, conclusion is presented.\nLiterature review: Capability\nConclusion: Core competencies are valuable capabilities of the firm. The firm can own competitive advantage by fully exploiting its core competencies. Selecting key capabilities is the first and foremost step for TV-shopping companies to own competitive advantage. In this paper, we apply the balance platform using both financial and non-financial measures for TV-shopping companies key capabilities selection. Balanced scorecard which links financial and non-financial, tangible and intangible, inward and outward factors is suitable for key capabilities selection. Due to the interdependent perspectives and criteria, we apply ANP which considers the interdependencies among and between levels to select the key capabilities of TV-shopping companies.In this paper, we review the literatures about the balanced scorecard and interview the 40 executives to collect the selecting criteria. The questionnaires based on Likert seven-point scale are applied to obtain their opinions about the importance of criteria. According to the geometric mean values, we retain the ten important criteria, including proposal, employee satisfaction, data integrity, risk, treatment, customer satisfaction, brand, revenue growth, cost, budget.According to the ten important criteria, Taiwan TV-shopping companies could select the optimal key capabilities more effectively. We employ EXCEL software to compute the data made by the decision makers to derive the optimal alternative. In this paper, the consistency ratio of each pairwise comparison is less than 0.1 which means the reliability of data is accepted. Moreover, a practical application of ANP presented in Section 4 is generic and also suitable to be exploited for Taiwan TV-shopping companies.The hierarchy proposed in this paper for Taiwan TV-shopping companies key capabilities selection considers ten critical criteria of the balanced scorecard. We suggest that future research studies can incorporate more criteria relate to key capabilities selection in order to conduct more accurate estimates. We also suggest that researchers may apply the other concept, such as total performance scorecard to solve such problem in the future. Moreover, ANP ignores the fuzziness of executives' judgment during the decision-making process. We suggest that the follow-up researchers could analyze this topic with the concept of fuzzy sets.Opens in a new window.Figure 1.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to help Taiwan TV-shopping companies to effectively select the key capabilities by introducing a multiple criteria decision-making method, the analytic network process (ANP), that has been employed in many areas of managerial decision making.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Reviewing the literatures about the balanced scorecard and interviewing the executives obtains the perspectives and criteria to construct the hierarchy for selecting the key capabilities of TV-shopping companies. Selecting perspectives and criteria of the balanced scorecard are interrelated. Owing to the interdependent relations in decision making, ANP is applied, which captures the outcome of dependency between the perspectives and criteria for handling such problems.\nFindings: - After reviewing the literatures about the balanced scorecard and interviewing the executives, ten critical criteria are retained: proposal, employee satisfaction, data integrity, risk, treatment, customer satisfaction, brand, revenue growth, cost, budget.\nPractical implications: - According to the ten important criteria, Taiwan TV-shopping companies could select the optimal key capabilities more effectively. Moreover, a practical application of ANP presented in section 4 is generic and also suitable to be exploited for Taiwan TV-shopping companies.\nOriginality/value: - As TV-shopping channels have been increasing and the industry prospering, a more specified and scientific selection method is essential for the more complex decision making of determining key capability, a critical source of core competitiveness. The paper contributes to selecting the optimal key capabilities more effectively.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Are UK SMEs with active web sites more likely to achieve both innovation and growth?
|
[
"Internet",
"Innovation",
"Growth",
"SMEs",
"E-commerce"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: It is often presumed that a more innovative orientation will increase the growth of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) (McAdam et al., 2004). This is because the ability of a firm to generate knowledge for innovation is increasingly viewed as one of the main determinants of competitive advantage (Freeman and Soete, 1997; Teece, 1998; Freel and Robson, 2004; Bilbao-Osorio and Rodriguez-Pose, 2004). This means it is usually assumed that innovation in SMEs is positively associated with stronger performance in terms of the growth of sales, employment, and profitability (Wigand, 1997; Freel, 2000). The evidence that such a relationship exists is not as clear cut (Freel and Robson, 2004). Some studies have found conflicting evidence whereby attempts to innovate disrupt the activities of businesses to such an extent that performance is put at risk (Christensen, 1997; Christensen and Raynor, 2003). Such effects are attributed to the resources that are required for innovation. These resource requirements could divert critical resources away from other day to day activities, which could put the survival of the firm at risk (Bergemann, 2005). Given this stretching of resources more risk averse managers will shy away from investments in new ideas (Souitaris, 2001). Thus, SMEs may achieve growth or innovation, but achieving both could be problematic.\n2. Literature review: innovation, SME performance and the internet: There is considerable evidence that with greater globalisation and the loss of more protected markets, firms of all types will face greater competition (Zhu et al., 2006; OECD, 2010; Jehangir et al., 2011). In the face of such competition the need to innovate to remain competitive seems clear (Cefis and Marsili, 2006; Robertson et al., 2009). Studies such as those by Engel et al. (2004) and Roper (1997) have found strong links between innovation and firm sales growth. However, empirical evidence for the UK suggests that the links between innovation and performance are not necessarily simple and straight forward (Freel and Robson, 2004; Rosenbusch et al., 2011), and growth is not necessarily dependent on innovation (Edwards et al., 2001). This section outlines those studies that have investigated: performance and growth, innovation, and the complex relationship between the two within the SME context. The literature considering Information Technology (IT) adoption, specifically that associated with engagement with the internet and web site development, is then considered to provide an understanding of how these investments may or may not allow SMEs to achieve both growth and innovation.\n3. Data and methods: In order to investigate the use of company web sites by SMEs and their influence on the relationship between innovative orientation and performance we utilise data from a recent Federation of Small Businesses' (FSB') Lifting the Barriers to Growth Survey from 2008. The reasoning for using the FSB survey is that it is the largest small business trade association in the UK, with approaching 200,000 members. The FSB survey is conducted on a biennial basis with surveys sent to all members of the Federation, with the alternative of an identical electronic version of the survey made available through their web site. The survey was originally mailed early in 2008 with a number of reminder e-mails sent out directing respondents to the FSB web site where the electronic version of the questionnaire was accessible. A formal pilot was not conducted due to the determination of the types of questions and suitability of language having been developed previously. The survey covers a wide range of issues relating to the membership of the Federation and therefore does not specifically deal with the use of web sites and e-commerce by their membership. It does provide a relatively large sample size, with over 4,500 observations available. The data also covers a large number of firm and owner characteristics that can be used to control for the resources available to the SME. However, the survey does include some specific items relating to internet based topics, which were deemed appropriate to this study. Included within these is a question which seeks to determine whether the firm has a web site and if so what actions the functions of the web site allow customers and suppliers to undertake. This was stated as follows:\n4. Results: evidence of innovation and growth in UK SMEs: The proportion of SMEs that are classed as high growth in terms of sales (+20 per cent over the last two years), or profits (+10 per cent over the last 2 years) is shown in Table II below. As other studies have found, the proportion of SMEs achieving high growth rates, both in terms of profits and sales, is relatively low. This may be because survival is the most important objective of many small firms (Storey, 1994). Similarly relatively few SMEs indicated they had an innovative orientation (rating the objective of increasing spending on R&D as 4 or 5 on a five point scale).\n5. Discussion: This paper has examined the relationship between SME growth and innovative orientation. As with previous studies, such as Cooke et al. (2005), the study found for the sample as a whole, UK SMEs experience a positive relationship between innovative orientation and performance measured both in terms of higher sales growth and higher profits growth. Only a tiny minority of SMEs achieve both. The literature in Section 2 suggested that the costly disruptive nature of innovation may explain part of this (Zhu et al., 2006; Fruhling and Siau, 2007; Lee et al., 2010; Ordanini and Rubera, 2010). The possibility that interactive web sites may provide SMEs with the ability to undertake collaborative innovative activities, or simply reduce costs enabling both positive outcomes to be achieved was explored. Consistent with studies (such as Freel and Robson, 2004; Loof and Heshmatt, 2006 and Hodges, 2010) analysis also suggested that many contextual factors such as firm age, firm size and industry play an important role in distinguishing this group of growing innovative SMEs from those that have an innovative orientation, but have not displayed any signs of benefiting from this innovation in terms of performance. Attempting to control for these factors through multivariate analysis the study found mixed evidence that using company web sites to conduct transactions with customers and suppliers enabled growth and innovation to be jointly maintained.\n6. Conclusions: The results of the paper find that those firms using their web sites for more activities are more likely to be innovative. However, those firms with active web sites are not only more likely to innovate and grow, but are also more likely to fall into the innovative but low growth group. This means that the presence of an active web site may increase the probability of innovative activities, but has less influence in ensuring that this innovation leads to growth as well. From a policy perspective one possible explanation for the lack of benefit from the internet in helping both innovation and growth to be achieved by UK SMEs simultaneously could be the lack of IT skills present in most SMEs (Weltevreden and Boschma, 2008; Thompson et al., 2010). This lack of proficiency could result in the internet being more of a distraction than a benefit. Given the investments being made in digital infrastructure it might be that further investment needs to be made in complementary training to allow SMEs to utilise this digital technology to its fullest extent, but this requires further analysis.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine the impact of developing more active web sites and increasing e-commerce on the relationship between innovation and growth performance in SMEs. Using the existing literature and empirical analysis the study seeks to consider the potential of engagement with the internet to achieve the often hard to attain ambition of both innovation and growth.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In order to examine the relationship, data are drawn from the Federation of Small Businesses' Lifting the Barriers to Growth Survey. In order to establish whether the use of more sophisticated web sites are associated with being an innovative high performance business, while controlling for other firm and entrepreneurial characteristics, multivariate analysis in the form of multinominal logits and discriminant function analysis are utilised.\nFindings: The results suggest that although theoretically web sites with tools allowing interaction with customers or suppliers could benefit SMEs through a reduction in transaction costs and wider access to information, enabling them to jointly experience innovation and growth, in practice there is less evidence that this occurs. Those firms with active web sites are more likely to be innovative, but less likely to be both innovative and achieving growth.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper suggests a framework for analysing the impact of e-business at process level that can be used with other SME case studies.\nPractical implications: These results suggest that further work must be undertaken to establish whether SMEs should be encouraged to make such investments and if so what additional help is required to ensure that investments in this digital infrastructure achieves an appropriate return on investment.\nOriginality/value: The results are of importance to both SMEs and policy makers providing insight into the nature of potential benefits from web site development using a large dataset. A clear need to investigate further how more innovative SMEs can benefit from company web sites and ecommerce to grow is identified.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
An examination of the causes for retail stockouts
|
[
"Stockouts",
"Instore logistics",
"Retail operations",
"Service‐dominant logic",
"Retailing",
"Operations management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Stockouts are a persistent problem in retailing (Grewal and Levy, 2007). On a global average, 8.3 percent of retail items are not available on the shelves (Gruen and Corsten, 2008). Despite the initiatives designed to improve the collaboration of retailers and their suppliers, such as efficient consumer response (ECR)[1] and despite the increasing use of new technologies such as radio-frequency identification (RFID) and point-of-sales data analytics, this situation has improved little over the past decades (Aastrup and Kotzab, 2010).Stockouts have a direct impact on retailer financial performance, because they lead to lost sales when shoppers decide to purchase some items elsewhere or to cancel their shopping trip altogether. Immediate sales losses due to stockouts are estimated at 4 percent of sales (Gruen et al., 2002), which is about the same as the average 5 percent of sales retailers spend on logistics (Sivakumar, 2010). Over time, frequent stockouts are known to diminish the store and brand loyalty of shoppers, and consequentially jeopardize future sales (Zinn and Liu, 2008). Further, stockouts reduce profits through a wide array of operational issues which are difficult to measure in terms of costs, and seldom reported (Zipkin, 2000). Examples include store staff attending shoppers who cannot find an out of stock item and deficient forecasts based on sales data distorted by stockouts and shopper substituting behaviour. Reducing stockouts, therefore, represents retailers with the opportunity of increasing sales and reducing cost. However, this also requires a detailed understanding of the causes for stockouts.Recent surveys suggest that most retail stockouts are caused in the store. Following the seminal work by Gruen et al. (2002), several studies have highlighted the potential of improving store operations for the purpose of decreasing retail stockouts. The studies report up to 98 percent of stockouts to be caused by defective shelf replenishment practices, and far less being caused in the upstream supply chain, such as a shortage of supply from a brand manufacturer (Aastrup and Kotzab, 2009 (98 percent); Gruen et al., 2002 (72 percent)). In their comprehensive review of the past 40 years of retail stockout research, Aastrup and Kotzab (2010, p. 158) conclude that:[...] the problem of causes originating at the store-level is well known but no changes can be observed in that matter. [...] The retail supply chain up to the store has been the focus during the last decades and has been significantly optimized [...], a logical next step would be to include and emphasize the in-store logistics or store operations in the analysis of retail supply chains.This study thus aims at contributing to the literature by detailing the factors which can lead to retail stockouts with a particular focus on store operations. Inspired by Vargo and Lusch (2004), it takes on a service-dominant (S-D) logic view of retail stockouts, in which the timely interaction of retailer and supplier resources to enable the creation of value through on-shelf availability. In this view, the retail store links the logistical activities of the retail supply chain and those of the shopper, who can then go on to use the value embedded in the physical goods as desired. In the case of stockouts, value creation is obstructed or prohibited.We apply Creswell's (2009) mixed methods approach of collecting, analysing and corroborating both quantitative and qualitative research within a single study, as well as investigating the long-term effects of operational improvements in a two years field study (Bryman, 2006; Creswell and Plano Clark, 2006). We contribute to the literature by providing a comprehensive list of the causes for retail stockouts, conducting a longitudinal study on the causes for retail stockouts as well as calling for research into several issues concerning retail stockouts that were previously overlooked.The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. First, we review the literature on retail stockouts. Second, we provide a methodology section describing the research design, data collection, and analysis in detailing the causes for retail stockouts with special reference to store operations. Third, we report the observations from a interviews, observations and a two years field study, which tracks causes for stockouts for one European retailer as well as action steps taken towards stockout reduction. Finally, we discuss our findings and conclude with opportunities for further research.\n2 Literature: 2.1 Shopper response to retail stockouts\n3 Detailing the causes for stockouts: 3.1 Methodology\n4 Discussion and conclusions: Stockouts are frequently reported as a large problem for retailers. Considering the growth of online retailers, and readily available logistics services such as next-day delivery, providing high on-shelf availability is vital to the success of brick-and-mortar retailers. In this research, the causes for stockouts were investigated. Our results indicate that the causes for stockouts are specific to retailer, store, category and item. We shed light on the causes for stockouts in-stores and provide an itemized list of stockouts. We observe that improvements to store operations and the coordination of store delivery and shelf replenishment are most effective for improving on-shelf availability. Even for a retailer with a sophisticated store ordering system and data warehouse, manual stockout audits provided useful in lowering stockout levels over a period of two years. From the field study, we identify store organization, and the coordinating store delivery and shelf replenishment as key drivers for reducing stockout levels. The retailer takes on the role as the prime resource integrator, with the store being central to the improvement projects, and suppliers taking on the role of supporting network partners and is treated by the retailer as an operand resource, i.e. acted upon rather than actively involved in the value creation process.We contribute to the literature in several ways. First, the knowledge of the logistical causes for stockouts was extended by conducting instore observations and interviews. Only by determining the precise extent of stockouts in the store and understanding the deficits in the supply chain, can retailers successfully reduce stockout levels. Previously, research in this area has largely been conceptual in nature and stockout levels and stockout causes have been studied independently. Further, previous studies provided snapshots of three- to four-day observations and interviews (Fernie and Grant, 2008; Aastrup and Kotzab, 2009). This is in contrast to the marketing research on shopper response to stockouts. For instance, Zinn and Liu (2008) conduct repeat interviews with shoppers 30 days after stockout incidents to compare purchase intent and actual behaviour, accounting for stockout encounters in between interviews. Paralleling the efforts in marketing research to investigate long-run effects of stockouts on shopper response, we studied the long-run effects of stockout monitoring and retail operations.Second, we provide a procedure to help retailers to reduce stockouts. While previous studies have contributed to understanding where in the supply chain stockouts occur, research has not developed a procedure to reduce stockouts (Trautrims et al., 2009). For validation, stockouts were studied across an entire assortment and over a period of two years, which improves the generalizability of the results obtained. Manual audits identify the extent of stockouts in the store and attribute a cause to each stockout. The information gathered is triangulated, cross-checking for internal consistency with retail data warehouse information. This research therefore adds new depth to the instore causes and shows solution mechanisms, both on the store-level and in the supply chain.However, the results of the research conducted here differ from previous research with respect to the overall level of stockouts identified and stockouts caused by promotions. In the field study, stockout levels are substantially lower than those of the stockouts studied in other contexts (0.98 percent compared to a global average of 8.3 percent). Similarly different, promotion-related causes for stockouts were negligible. This is in contrast to several studies report to be up to twice the rate compared to non-promoted items (Gruen and Corsten, 2008). This indicates that the causes of stockouts are likely to be retailer and store-specific. Moreover, this research also added evidence to the growing body of logistics research that derives in-depth knowledge from a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches to solving persistent logistical problems (Aastrup and Halldorsson, 2008), and provides guidance to researchers on conducting field studies at the retail-shelf level.The results also have implications for the study of retail demand and retail supply chains when using sales data. As starting points of supply chains, capturing customer demand at the retail shelf is vital to demand and distribution management. Persistent stockouts distort demand in an unobservable way. Reducing stockouts improves the data accuracy within the supply chains. Acknowledging that stockouts are a persistent problem in retailing, and that retailing is the starting point of many supply chains, researchers need to be aware of the logistical causes that may distort their data. Any research using retail sales data may be prone to distortions due to stockouts. As shown, these can in some cases not be observed from inventory systems or other sources readily available to researchers. To account for this problem, researchers could employ the procedure outlined to assess the extent to which the occurrence of stockouts in their data distorts results. We are unaware of research testing their sales data for stockout-based distortions. Developing a control measure for stockout-induced data distortions may be a starting point for addressing this issue, and would benefit both the marketing and operations disciplines. Besides, sufficient knowledge of the extent of stockouts, this would include estimates of lost sales as well as estimates for substitution behaviour and other effects, such as non-purchases of complementary purchases and is subject to further research.The research results have several implications for retail management. Most importantly, they demonstrate that retailers can reduce stockouts to levels far below the global average of 8.3 percent by focusing on item-level causes and store-level solutions. The procedure presented here provides clear guidelines to managers on how to identify stockouts and their causes. The resulting information allows retail managers to prioritize their efforts at reducing stockouts. The procedure requires no investment in technology and can be integrated into routine inventory checks at low cost. The research indicates that:* identifying stockouts and their causes manually;* assigning clear logistics roles and responsibilities to store staff; and* scheduling deliveries for shelf replenishment leads to improvements in on-shelf availability.Our research has several limitations, which provide avenues for further research on retail stockouts. First, a continuous set of data is not considered; this could be achieved by incorporating automated techniques for stockout detection into our procedure (Papakiriakopoulos et al., 2009). In a similar vein, comparative studies from other retailers may add further insight into the role of the store in retail stockout management. Second, the concern here is with mitigating stockouts, rather than finding optimal levels of on-shelf availability. Instead of attempting to provide maximal on-shelf availability, retail research could focus on providing on-shelf availability as justified by demand. To date, such an approach has been used only in Lee (2004), who describes how a Japanese retailer successfully adapts her assortment of goods during the day and deliberately initiates a stockout when an item is low in demand. This shopper-focused approach to supply-demand integration may be studied from a S-D logic perspective, investigating the operational and cost impact of incorporating demand seasonality in inventory control and shelf replenishment practices. Third, future research could investigate why the global average of retail stockouts has remained constant over the last 40 years (Aastrup and Kotzab, 2010). This research suggests that retailer operant resources (e.g. stockout detection capabilities) and channel power (e.g. supplier involvement) may play key roles in this stagnation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to increase our understanding of the causes for stockouts in retailing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Mixed methods study, using instore observations, interviews with key informants in consumer goods and retailing, and a field study of stockouts and their causes in multiple wholesale stores over two years.\nFindings: - The results indicate that the causes for stockouts are specific to retailer, store, category and item. Improvements to store operations and the coordination of store delivery and shelf replenishment are most effective in reducing stockouts. Manual audits of stockouts and their causes benefit instore execution and provide the level of detail necessary for management to prioritize areas of improvement.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Future research may investigate the operational and cost impact of incorporating demand seasonality in shelf replenishment that may lead to an improved coordination of replenishment and demand cycles.\nPractical implications: - A procedure is proposed to help store managers reduce stockouts well below the global average of 8.3 percent.\nOriginality/value: - The paper extends the literature by providing a comprehensive set of itemized causes of retail stockouts and reflects implications for sales-data driven research. It adds to the emergent research that applies service-dominant logic to retail stockout research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Using best-worst scaling to reveal perceived relative importance of website attributes
|
[
"Brand management",
"Consumer experience management",
"Choice modelling",
"Internet retail"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Pure online shopping has increased in popularity in recent years for consumers because of its ease of operation when used to search and/or purchase multiple brands or products (Griffiths and Howard, 2008; Kyoung-Nan and Dipti, 2009). Traditional bricks and mortar retailers have responded to this online competition by providing combined online/offline offerings (Benedicktus et al., 2010) for customers who do not separate internet shopping from other forms; rather they view it as an extension of the search and purchase experience (Kaufman-Scarborough and Lindquist, 2002). In this context the multi-channel (or omni-channel) retail strategy is a contemporary imperative for many retail brands as consumers demand greater flexibility in their shopping experience (Grewal et al., 2004). Therefore, a major goal of multi-channel retailing is to integrate offline (the retail outlet) and online (website and/or social media) operations allowing consumers to purchase products in a way best suited to their buying preferences and that integration be seamless (Barlow et al., 2004; Carlson et al., 2015).\n2. Research framework: 2.1 Website communication effects on consumer attitudes towards brand image\n3. Method: BWS is a method of understanding consumer choice that places a value on the utility of choice selected from range of attributes representing the unit of analysis (Herve and Larry, 2009). The theoretical framework of BWS is random-utility theory which assumes people make errors, but when choosing repeatedly the choices they make indicate how much they value certain items (or attributes) over others in the same choice set (Louviere et al., 2015; Thurstone, 1927). In this research, respondents were required to make trade-offs between the representations of the retail brand image in an online context against the perceived benefits of those attributes (in this case brand image), thereby revealing a rating of the salient attributes under investigation (Cohen and Neira, 2004; Marley and Louviere, 2005). These key aspects of the retail brand image were measured by presenting attributes of website performance (communication and aesthetics) against the overall attitude toward the retailer brand image. By choosing statements representing specific attributes of online communication, aesthetics, and brand image, and pairing them off against each other, results could be interpreted as more definitive for which images engage the consumer, and which images have the potential to do harm (Janonis and Virvilaite, 2007; Kwon and Lennon, 2009a, b). Testing the importance and effect of this engagement process and how brand image is communicated across retail channels in a best-worst scenario can more effectively reveal consumer attitudes toward more important aspects of online communication and/or aesthetics. So the survey consisted of brand attribute statements, as presented in Table I, designed to assign utility considered most salient to consumers (Lancsar et al., 2007). The attribute statements were clustered into broader constructs so results could be presented more effectively.\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Average best-worst\n5. Conclusions: The findings of this study support aspects of previous research (Carlson and O'Cass, 2011), that in order to initiate consistent implementation of branding programs across retail channels a coordinated (functional) communication programme is necessary to convey consistency of the brand and improve consumer engagement with the brand image. However, the BWS approach reveals a bifurcated customer cohort where, on one side, a clear and concise communication strategy is more important across channels, especially in contexts where consumer/retailer interaction is limited (in this case a one-off sporting event). But on the other side, aesthetics drive consumer attitudes (and subsequent engagement) towards the focal brand. Brand managers need to blend these alternate website functions in order to mediate conflicting customer views.\n6. Future research: This research is limited in its scope so a range of suggestions are provided for future research. This study has reported on one brand within one product category using one experimental (BIB) design with a pencil and paper instrument. Clearly other experimental designs, including manipulation of website content, will provide insights for strategy development (Huang, 2010). Exploration of other retail categories is also needed to generalise our findings. We also suggest an online survey to determine respondent's decision-making process in a simulated retail environment.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review and extend previous work involving branding and website performance and aesthetics by applying a best-worst scaling (BWS) approach. Respondents were tasked with choosing the best and worst from 16-brand attribute statements representing website communications and aesthetics, a more effective understanding of consumer segmentation is revealed between the offline facility to the online retail experience.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A research design utilising BWS was deployed to provide an alternate perspective of consumer choice in an omni-channel retail environment.\nFindings: Findings indicate a bifurcated audience with one-half reliant on communication and the other half on aesthetics is most important in the online environment when generating a positive relationship towards the retail brand.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study was conducted within a single retail format category (sportswear and apparel) so future studies need to estimate cross-category implications. The authors also suggest online experimental designs for consumers to compare traditional retail brand images. Finally as this study utilised Australian responses only the authors suggest cross-cultural comparisons to better understand the universal nature of website functionality and its link with traditional retail formats.\nPractical implications: Retail executives will find the results from this study useful in two ways. To ensure consistency of brand image across channels managers must communicate efficiently and effectively. Brand managers must mediate between customer segments with some preferring clear concise website communications and others well established aesthetics.\nOriginality/value: This study adopts a BWS approach to better understand consumer choices in an online/offline branding environment.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Benchmarking public school performance by unionized status
|
[
"Performance measurement",
"Benchmarking",
"Data envelopment analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There are proponents and opponents of teacher unions, that is, collective bargaining agreements, in conjunction with the effectiveness of education in the USA. In some states, politicians see teacher unions as gatekeepers against changes and have passed hostile bills to eliminate or weaken the unions. Other states such as Colorado do not allow a teacher union with collective bargaining power. Teacher unions are still ongoing issues in states such as Wisconsin and Ohio. In fact, the literature has shown mixed results on the relationship between teacher unions and student achievement (Peltzman, 1993, 1996; Steelman et al., 2000; Lindy, 2011; Lott and Kenny, 2013). This study will examine if the unionization of education has an impact on the comparative performance of public education in the USA.\nRelated studies: Our literature review consists of two parts: a review of empirical studies on teacher unions and student performance and a review of DEA studies on teacher unions and student performance. We use student performance and school performance interchangeably. That is, we view student performance as school performance or productivity in this study. In fact, many studies have used student performance or achievement as school performance at various levels such as school districts, states, and countries as presented in the following literature review.\nMethodology: We employ DEA for measuring the comparative efficiencies in public education of a group of highly unionized states to a group of less unionized states. DEA is a special application of linear programming (LP) based on the frontier methodology of Farrell (1957). Since Farrell (1957), major breakthroughs for developing DEA were achieved by Charnes et al. (1978) and by Banker et al. (1984). DEA is a useful approach for measuring relative efficiency among similar organizations or objects. An entity that is an object to be measured for efficiency is called a decision-making unit (DMU). Because DEA can identify relatively efficient DMUs among a group of given DMUs, it is a promising tool for comparative analysis or benchmarking.\nData and variables: For this study, it was necessary to identify the degree of union representation by state. The relevant data were available through the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), divisions of the US Department of Education (US Department of Education: National Center for Education Statistics, 2009a, b, c). A Schools and Staffing Survey provides the percentage of public school districts having specific agreements with teachers' associations or unions (see the Appendix). This means the teachers' unions and appropriate professional organizations have the power to negotiate on behalf of their membership; generally, such items include salaries, benefits, and conditions of employment. States were then categorized as highly unionized and less unionized states. Those states having collective bargaining scores greater than 87 percent were identified as \"highly unionized,\" while those with scores less than 2 percent were identified as \"less unionized.\" This provided us with two groups of 11 states each (see the Appendix), which are compared using appropriate DEA models. Following is a discussion of the variables that were selected to evaluate the efficiency of these 22 states and to compare the \"highly unionized\" group to the \"less unionized\" group. Our data were collected at a state level. Accordingly, our study did not include data for individual schools or school districts.\nHypotheses: Due to a recent unprecedented recession, many states in the USA suffer budgetary shortfalls. As a consequence, some states such as Wisconsin and Ohio have attempted to limit the rights of teacher unions by raising questions on student performance and budgetary efficiency. Teacher unions are now in the heart of the debate regarding political and social issues. To address these issues in a timely manner, we assess the efficiency of schools at the state level in two stages. First, we dichotomize states by the levels of unionization such as 11 least unionized (2 percent or less) and 11 highly unionized (87 percent or more) and evaluate their efficiency using the bilateral DEA models that are good for comparing two groups of DMUs. Next, we rank the states using the efficiency scores computed by the models and conduct non-parametric rank-sum tests. Applying different DEA models, we can identify the sources of inefficiency such as pure managerial aspects (PTE), different operating conditions (SE), and input excesses/output shortfalls (MIX). We compare the two groups of states using a bilateral BCC model for PTE, a bilateral CCR model for TE that is the product of PTE and SE, and a bilateral SBM for SBM, which is the product of TE and MIX. First, we attempt to detect the performance difference between less unionized and highly unionized states from a pure managerial perspective. We test the following hypothesis using the bilateral BCC model:\nResults and discussion: Using the efficiency scores of the three bilateral models, we ranked the states and performed Mann-Whitney rank-sum tests. The summary of test results is shown in Table II.\nConclusion: The US public is right to be concerned about the condition of our educational system. Resources are scarcer than ever during these recessionary times. School administrators have an obligation to use financial resources wisely, while improving student achievement. The decades of throwing money at the problem have not solved the pressing issue of student performance. Teacher unions are helpful for improving working conditions, providing benefits, and for affording stability to teachers in the form of job security and compensation. However, the goal of attaining greater student achievement may not be served well by the collective bargaining agreements that are so beneficial to the educators.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: There are elevated debates on the role of teacher unions on the effectiveness of education in the USA. The purpose of this paper is to examine if the unionization of education has an impact on the comparative performance of public education in the USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors classify states into two groups such as highly unionized states and less unionized states for comparing their performance differences. The analyses consist of two stages. First, the authors apply data envelopment analysis (DEA) to the key performance indicators of the groups. Next, the authors use statistical analysis for confirming the statistical significance of the performance differences that may exist between two groups.\nFindings: The authors have confirmed the adverse impact of unionization on public education using DEA models and non-parametric rank-sum tests. However, the authors are cautious for generalizing the finding due to the limitations described in the research limitation section.\nResearch limitations/implications: The finding is limited within the selection of the variables and model specification and requires additional studies using different variables and models. The authors hope that the study motivates researchers to conduct further studies in this area.\nOriginality/value: Major contributions of the study include a novel approach for measuring the performance of primary and secondary schools at the state level by classifying and choosing less or highly unionized states and suggesting insights for improvements.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Investigating the triangular relationship between temporary event workforce, event employment businesses and event organisers
|
[
"Talent management",
"Events",
"Event intermediaries",
"Temporary workforce"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Talent management (TM) is defined as a strategy to effectively attract, recruit and retain high value and difficult to replace employees (Steward, 1997). This is a key topic of debate within the hospitality, tourism and events sectors (Sheehan et al., 2018; Shulga and Busser, 2019; Sparrow and Makram, 2015). These sectors are heavily reliant on human capital (Deery, 2009; Sheehan et al., 2018). The debates focus on strategies to reduce turnover, improve upskilling and creating attractive long-term roles, often in the context of a mobile and temporary workforce (Baum, 2008; Baum et al., 2009; Clark et al., 2017; D'Annunzio-Green and Teare, 2018). These debates are critical and arguably under-researched in the context of events (Baum et al., 2009; Deery, 2009; Michopoulou and Melpignano, 2019; Vaiman et al., 2011).\nTheoretical background: TM is acknowledged as a strategic process at the core of any organisation, enabling the identification of the type of resources (humans) and capabilities required to match the organisational strategy. The main limitation of this definition, however, rests in the lack of appreciation of different industries, the different organisations operating within them and how they may perceive, develop and manage \"talent\" in different ways (Baum, 2008; Bolander et al., 2017; Krishnan and Scullion, 2017; Meyers et al., 2013; Thunnissen et al., 2013).\nThe triangular relationship among temporary event workers, event employment businesses and event organisers: The defining characteristic of any agency worker group is the unique triangular contract that forms the basis of the group's relationship with their two employers, namely, the agency and the client organisation.\nResearch methodology: A mixed method parallel convergent design was used to address the aim and objectives of this study (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2018). The deployment of such a design allowed the concurrent collection of quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative and qualitative components of the study are identified as QUANT + QUAL + QUAL (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2018). The data sets were firstly examined separately and then jointly for interpretation and triangulation.\nFindings: Quantitative survey sample profile\nDiscussion and conclusions: Conclusions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine issues of talent management (TM) in events. Specifically, it investigates the triangular relationship that exists amongst temporary event workforces, event employment businesses (EEBs) and event organisers (EOs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: A mixed method design was used including a quantitative survey of UK temporary event workers (TEW) to examine their characteristics and motivations to work at events; a qualitative survey with (EOs) to understand the reasons for using TEW and (EEBs) and interviews with EEBs to understand their challenges in delivering best-fit between TEW and EOs.\nFindings: This study sheds light on the complex relationships amongst temporary event workforces, EOs and event employment businesses. Findings show TEW who display high levels of affective commitment towards their employment organisation and possess the characteristics of extraversion and contentiousness, are highly motivated to work at events. EOs suggest their operational restrictions (such as limited resources, time and expertise) are fuelling the need to use EEBs to source staff with the right skills and attitudes. In turn, these recruiters demonstrate they play an active role in reconciling the often-conflicting needs of EOs and TEW.\nOriginality/value: This study extends knowledge and understanding on TM in events by providing insights into the characteristics of TEW as a growing labour market segment in the event sector. Significantly, the study contributes to a better understanding of the critical role that EEBs play in the construction, development and management of talent in events.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Modelling roles of commitment on rapport and satisfaction
|
[
"Affective commitment",
"Rapport",
"Normative commitment",
"Satisfaction",
"Calculative commitment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Interpersonal relationships and service interactions are among the most important factors for any organisation (Yoo, 2013). In this context, front line service employees play a key role in building and maintaining relationships with customers (Grandey et al., 2005). Considering this, an emerging attention among relationship scholars currently focuses on the customer-employee bond, or rapport. In defining rapport, Gremler and Gwinner (2000) mentioned two characteristics: enjoyable interaction and personal connections. While enjoyable interaction is similar to \"positive cognitive evaluation\", personal connection refers to strong bonds between two parties (Gremler and Gwinner, 2000). However, customers' intention for relationship continuation depends largely on their pre-existing level of commitment (Velnampy and Sivesan, 2012).\n2. Literature review and hypotheses development: 2.1 Affective, calculative and normative commitment\n3. Method: 3.1. Sampling and data collection\n4. Data analysis and hypotheses testing: 4.1. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)\n5. Discussion and conclusion: Rapport has been significantly investigated in service literature for its significant role in interpersonal interactions (Gremler and Gwinner, 2008; Hennig-Thurau et al., 2006). This study therefore aims to explore the influence of the affective, calculative and normative commitment of customers on rapport, and the mediating role of rapport between each type of commitment and customer satisfaction.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of calculative, affective and normative commitment on bank employee-customer rapport and customer satisfaction. The mediating effect of rapport between each of the three types of commitment and customer satisfaction is also examined.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Structural equation modelling by Partial Least Square method is used for analysing the data on 212 bank customers in Bangladesh.\nFindings: Results indicate that affective and normative commitment of customers has strong influence in developing rapport, whereas the impact of customers' calculative commitment on rapport was found to be non-significant. The study also found that rapport has a complementary mediation effect between the three types of commitment and customer satisfaction.\nPractical implications: While providing training to front line employees, bank management should make them aware that not all customers may have the same level of positive attitude or cooperation for the rapport-building procedure. Employees should understand that different customers will respond differently to their efforts for building rapport due to their pre-existing commitment levels towards banks. Bank management should acknowledge that customers' current level of commitment may be further strengthened or weakened by successful or unsuccessful rapport building with banks' employees and thereby re-evaluate their satisfaction level with the bank.\nOriginality/value: The study contributes to the relationship literature by exploring the mediating role of rapport between commitment and customer satisfaction, and by considering the influence of normative commitment on customer-employee rapport in financial services.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
ICT as a tool for building social capital in higher education
|
[
"Croatia",
"Universities",
"Information technology",
"Communication technologies",
"Social capital",
"Higher education"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A common understanding among social scientists is that social capital is a relational resource composed of a variety of elements, most notably social networks, social norms, values, trust and shared physical resources (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992; Putnam, 2000). In recent years, social capital has become one of the relevant notions for measuring the impacts of information and communication technologies (ICT) on communities (O'Neill, 2010). The study focusses on how educational use of ICT plays a role in strengthening the academic social capital in terms of knowledge sharing, targeted training and ensuring education quality standards. Using the case study as a main source of information, the article investigates how ICT may be employed to build social and human capital in higher education.Zagreb School of Economics and Management is a higher education institution founded in 2002 to provide a quality business education comparable with similar schools around the world. Since its foundation, ZSEM started integrating new communication technologies in its educational activities. Various educational programs offered at ZSEM have been actively using ICT in order to reach both students and international faculty beyond national boundaries. From the very beginning, ZSEM uses so-called hybrid model of education which combines classroom teaching with intensive e-learning. Since e-learning aspect is a mandatory part of the program, today's 150 courses have all integrated e-learning system in their curricula. Also, ZSEM's mission directly reflects the nature of business education in a global network society by thus supporting the implementation of ICT as an internationalization tool: \"The mission of ZSEM is to transfer values, knowledge, and skills that students need for long-term success in a globalized business world undergoing constant technological and market transformations.\"Besides the instructional delivery and administration, ZSEM utilizes ICT in its international activities. Those activities include mobility of programs, faculty and students, offering courses in languages other than Croatian, accepting more international students and enlarging the partner institutions base. ZSEM therefore uses ICT in order to support and coordinate its international activities, develop curricula in accordance to European and global standards such as Bologna process and The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation and stimulate mobility of both students and faculty.\n2. Building social capital at ZSEM: 2.1 Education quality standards for institutional and system internationalization\n3. Research results: New digital technology has affected the process of education, transfer of information and knowledge creation in a global networked society. ICT enables higher education institutions to reach out students, teachers and researchers in foreign countries without physically moving them. Besides directly lessening the costs of global academic cooperation, ICT increases possibilities of academic interaction and cooperation. The following text examines ICT implementation at ZSEM and analyzes how ICT use impacts targeted training, student interaction and knowledge sharing because all these aspects represent education targeted ICT use which enables global academic cooperation and by thus help building social capital.3.1 Management information system (MIS) course: an example of borderless student interaction\n4. Statistical research: Students that take part in an international exchange programs are generally more open in accepting new challenges such as the use of new technologies. The assumption is that those students that participate in an international exchange program have better technical knowledge than those students that study in only one place. Student results from ICT course (Aleksic-Maslac et al., 2008a) offered in the first semester were taken into account as a base for students' technological competence. Calculation of correlation is based on the sample of 178 students (out of which 27 participated in exchange programs in their seventh semester while ten students participated in exchange programs in other semesters during their undergraduate education) (Table IV).Pearson's correlation coefficient is statistically significant here since there is a slight correlation between students' grade and their participation in student exchange programs.Out of 37 students that have a grade in ICT grade and participated in international student exchange program, 26 students have an above the average grade (70.27 percent). Out of 141 students that have a grade in ICT and did not participate in student exchange program, 50 students have a grade higher than the average (35.46 percent) (Tables V and VI).The most frequent grade of no-exchange students is good or 3 (41.8 percent), while excellent or 5 is rare (11.3 percent) (Table VII).The most frequent grades of international exchange students are 4 and 5 (35.1 percent, with total of 70.2 percent), and a more rare grade is (29.7 percent) (Tables VIII and IX).Standard deviation and variance are big, meaning that there is big deviation from the average results (Table X).Average WebCT activity of all students in analyzed MIS course is 809.55 clicks. Average WebCT activity of no-exchange students is bellow the class average (801.60), while the average WebCT activity of exchange students is above the average (846.49). Evidence suggests that 40.45 percent of exchange students were more active than the average compared with 31.40 percent of no-exchange students. Since communities are dynamic and their development is affected by wider social, political and economic environment, ICT use influences communities but is also influenced by the community. In other words, international academic collaboration and educational exchange changes the way the individuals interact because the concept of community exists both within and outside of geographic boundaries. This influences the uptake and application of ICT expanding the concept of community to groups not bounded by geography and by thus building the social capital.\n5. Conclusion: Implementation of new technologies in education process is closely linked with globalization of education markets and student and professor mobility. This study shows positive practices from Zagreb School of Economics and Management which is a leading higher education institution in terms of e-learning and mobility of students which is more than ten times higher than the country average. For this reason, ZSEM students are more open toward accepting new technologies and taking part in different exchange programs. ICT acceptance is important because it facilitates cooperation on multiple levels and helps connecting networks and information beyond their immediate environment. As growing ZSEM's international cooperation and academic partner base show, ICT strengthens the academic social capital in terms of facilitating knowledge sharing, targeted training and ensuring education quality. Different examples of ICT use at ZSEM such as DL or videoconferencing show that ICT not only contributes to support quality assurance in an international market for higher education, but also increases communication capabilities by reinforcing existing relationships and forming and extending new ones, and by thus represents valuable tool for building a social capital in higher education.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in building social capital and human capacity, in terms of knowledge sharing, targeted training and developing education initiatives in higher education institutions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The critical organizational form in the information age is networking. This new organizational principle is manifested through the processes of internationalization and global academic cooperation, which have become inevitable strategies for every higher education institution in order to be competitive in a global education market. The focus of this paper is on such positive practices implemented at Zagreb School of Economics and Management (ZSEM). Since its foundation in 2002, a systematic use of new technologies in education has been encouraged, which in turn has provided the basis for major advances in development. Today ZSEM has around 1,400 students and about 150 courses with an integrated e-learning system, while currently 7 per cent of students take part in various types of international exchange.\nFindings: - The effective use of ICT, such as synchronous and asynchronous methods of distance learning, enables higher education institutions to reach out students, teachers and researchers in foreign countries without physically moving them. Besides improving communication and exchange of information followed by opportunities for cross-cultural learning, effective ICT implementation enables expansion of social and economic networks and strengthens institutional and academic ties by thus building social capital. Availability and use of new technologies in education process is closely linked with globalization of education markets and student and professor mobility.Research limitations/implications - The current work has involved one institution utilizing a wide range of courses. Implications are that the approach could be positively transferred and used with other institutions and across countries.\nOriginality/value: - This work is one of the few that has examined ICT as a tool from the perspective of its application for building social capital in higher education. The work presented investigates in-depth this provision in a specific institution.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Service climate: how does it affect turnover intention?
|
[
"Psychological capital",
"Turnover intention",
"Service climate",
"Quality of work life",
"Theory of work adjustment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Hospitality employee turnover is well documented as a global industry problem (Yang et al., 2012). In the USA, the turnover rate for lodging and food service employees has increased annually over the past five years (US Department of Labor, 2015). Furthermore, the hospitality industry has distinguished itself by having the highest employee quit rate among private sector industries (US Department of Labor, 2015). The significance of this industry problem has resulted in a great deal of interest from researchers (Kang et al., 2015; Tews et al., 2014; Yang et al., 2012).\nLiterature review and research hypotheses: Theory of work adjustment\nMethod: Participants and procedure\nAnalysis and results: Respondent characteristics\nDiscussion: Conclusions\nLimitations and future research: The data collected on employees were cross-sectional, with survey responses provided for the predictor and criterion variables at a single contact. Several methods were implemented to minimize potential CMB, including designing the survey, collecting the data and performing statistical checks. However, the data may still be subject to CMB. To address CMB in future research, the measurement of predictor and criterion variables should be separated by time (Podsakoff et al., 2003) to confirm the solidity of employee attitudes and behaviors, using a longitudinal study.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to develop a conceptual model of service climate in hospitality, which tests its relationship with psychological capital (PsyCap), quality of work life (QWL) and turnover intention.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected among hotel employees by using an intercept approach and Qualtrics online survey system. Structural equation modeling examined the hypothesized relationships among the constructs in the conceptual model.\nFindings: Service climate showed a positive relationship with PsyCap and QWL, and PsyCap partially mediated this relationship. Employees' level of PsyCap had a powerful impact on QWL. Specifically, employee QWL was a critical mediator (full mediation) between service climate and turnover intention. Finally, PsyCap and QWL showed combined mediating effects between service climate and turnover intention.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study extends the service climate literature in hospitality by offering a new conceptual model representing employees' perceptions of service climate that influence their willingness to leave the organization with the mediating effects of PsyCap and QWL based on the theory of work adjustment.\nPractical implications: The theory of work adjustment provides a deeper understanding of how employees' perception of service climate affects their turnover intention in hospitality, based on a sample of hotel employees.\nOriginality/value: This study demonstrates the importance of service climate in understanding the turnover intention of hotel employees.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Organizational constraints as root causes of role conflict: The situation of physician-managers and their responses
|
[
"Hybridization",
"Clinician manager",
"Doctor manager",
"Organizational role theory",
"Role expectations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Healthcare facilities in the great majority of western countries have, over the past 30 years, been increasingly called upon to find solutions to new management challenges, particularly as regards increased performance expectations involving improved quality standards and cost reductions (Baker and Denis, 2011; Ranawat et al., 2009).\nTheoretical background: Professional hybridization\nMethodology: Study setting and design\nResults: The first objective of this study was to gain a better understanding of the difficulties encountered by P-Ms in hybridizing their dual roles. Based on Katz and Kahn's role theory, we analyzed expectations surrounding those roles, on the part of the different groups concerned to see if the communication of those expectations was a source of role conflicts. Those groups were: the people assigning roles or role assigners (medical directors and clinical co-managers) and the people assigned those roles or role assignees (the P-Ms). As the literature indicates (e.g. Denis et al., 2012; Klopper-Kes et al., 2009), P-Ms face many constraints in their day-to-day activities. Thus, the second objective of our study was to probe the impact of those organizational constraints on the role conflicts P-Ms experienced, by exploring the relation between expectations around the role they would play and the particular organizational constraints they had to deal with. The third objective was to deepen our understanding of the hybridization phenomenon (Noordegraaf et al., 2015; Spehar et al., 2015) by examining the different approaches adopted by P-Ms in hybridizing their professional roles and dealing with their role conflicts. A later section of this paper will propose three professional hybridization profiles for P-Ms.\nDiscussion: The main purpose of this paper was to gain a better understanding of the complex issues raised by the dual role of the P-M, with reference to Katz and Kahn's (1966) role theory. The results obtained from our analysis of the organizational factors contributing to role conflict led us to refine the role episode model proposed by those authors and to situate role conflict within an organizational dynamic. Thus, organizational constraints provide an addition to the role episode model by expanding our understanding of the factors that can trigger role conflict. Our results prompted us to treat those organizational constraints as variables affecting the capacity of P-Ms to meet the expectations placed on them. By consulting different reference groups, as proposed by Katz and Kahn's role theory (here, two groups of assigners of roles and one group of assignees), we were able to assemble a broader range of material bearing on the dual roles required of P-Ms, then validate it through triangulation. As Figure 1 shows, our results indicate that role conflict for P-Ms does not lie in the role expectations on P-Ms' dual role, as communicated by role assigners (medical directors and non-medical clinical directors). Neither does it stem from how role assignees (the P-Ms) interpret the role they are to play. The role conflict experienced by P-Ms is the result of the gap between the role as understood by the assignee and the role actually carried out. It is at this level that organizational constraints seem to come into play and hamper P-Ms' capacity to fully perform the duties required by this dual role. Organizational constraints appear to function as determinants in the role conflicts experienced by P-Ms. As Katz and Kahn (1966) also showed, both individual and interpersonal variables also have an influence on the role assignment process. Moreover, this study and especially the discussions following the presentation of the results enabled the participants to establish a feedback loop, as proposed by the role episode model of Katz and Kahn (1966), to evaluate whether the actions of the person assigned that role (here, P-Ms) reflect the expectations expressed for the position.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the difficulties encountered in the hybrid roles of physician-managers (P-Ms), examine the impact of organizational constraints on the role conflicts experienced by P-Ms and explore the different ways their two roles are integrated.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach was adopted, using six focus groups made up of clinical co-managers, medical directors and P-Ms. In all, 43 different people were interviewed to obtain their perceptions of the day-to-day realities of the role of the P-M. The data collected were subsequently validated.\nFindings: Although the expectations of the different groups involved regarding the role of P-Ms are well understood and shared, there are significant organizational constraints affecting what P-Ms are able to do in their day-to-day activities, and these constraints can result in role conflicts for the people involved. Such constraints also affect the ways P-Ms integrate the two roles. The authors identify three role hybridization profiles.\nPractical implications: The results afford a better understanding of how organizational constraints might be used as levers of organizational change to achieve a better hybridization of the dual roles of P-Ms.\nOriginality/value: This paper seeks to reach beyond a simple identification of constraints affecting the dual roles of P-Ms by analyzing how such constraints impact on these professionals' day-to-day activities. Results also enable us to further refine Katz and Kahn's (1966) role model, in addition to identifying hybridization profiles.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Redesigning one-warehouse n-retailer routing model in inter-store stock transfer operations of an international retail chain distribution
|
[
"Factor analysis",
"Vehicle routing",
"Retail logistics",
"Inter-store stock transfer"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Nomenclature\n1. Introduction: Complex distribution networks, coupled with the growth of short lead time manufacturing and responsive supply chain have stimulated investigations on ways to improve retail distribution management. The availability of products and the order fulfilment for a retail store affect the in-store shopping experience of customers (Deb and Lomo-David, 2014). It is important to capture the time-strapped customers' dwell time in a retail store under a limited sales floor area displaying a variety of products. Bagaria (2014) compared the fashion retailing models among Uniqlo, Zara, and H&M. He highlighted the success of Zara on its high responsive supply chain that supports the delivery of new fashions. Petro (2012) evaluated the business models of H&M and revealed the success of H&M on pursuing vertical integration with its own distribution network. He stressed the importance of an efficient distribution system with short lead time manufacturing. Fernie et al. (2010) reviewed the retail global supply chain, particularly on the grocery and fashion sectors, for example, Marks and Spencer, Tesco, Zara, and H&M. The research studied the logistical transformation of retail and reflected the importance of retail distribution management and delivery networks. Burt et al. (2002) examined the retail internationalisation strategy of Marks and Spencer. A study on the exit and failure of particular segments of retail business was carried out. It reflected the importance of retail management and business control on a decentralised model. Various studies on stock replenishment operations in retail stores have also been published. Hubner et al. (2013) proposed a decentralised approach in coordinating and planning of interrelated activities among the operations of the grocery retail stores while Aastrup and Kotzab (2009) analysed the centrally controlled retail chain stores on handling an out-of-stock situation. The capabilities in logistics and supply chain management in retail operations helped to build the foundation for a company's sustainable competitive advantage (Sandberg, 2013; Wiese et al., 2012).\n2. Methodology and operations review: The distribution and replenishment operations of the retail stores have been reviewed and analysed through a methodology integrating Six Sigma, factor analysis, and optimisation modelling. Different tools have been used, and a series of steps have been taken after the kick-off of the project, including operations review and data collection. Measure and analysis phases in Six Sigma have been adopted, in addition to the use of process stability and capability review, normality test, and failure mode and effect analysis. After the identification of the one-warehouse n-retailer distribution problem, an improvement model has been developed with mathematical formulation and programming modelling. Several scenarios of inter-store stock transfer operations have been simulated and reviewed. Significant factors affecting decisions on route planning have been evaluated with the use of factor analysis to refine the developed model. The flow of the integrated methodology to enhance the inter-store stock transfer operations is shown in Figure 1.\n3. Inter-store stock transfer quality improvement model: Various one-warehouse n-retailer distribution models have been proposed to systematically improve the performance of retail operations. Huang et al. (2015) studied the basic vehicle routing problem, with the objective to minimise the sum of all route costs. A VRP Spread Solver has been applied in Huang et al. (2015) to solve the problem. Rahim et al. (2016) studied a two-stage one-warehouse n-retailer supply chain system with the coordination of the incoming shipments into the warehouse and the outgoing shipments from the warehouse to the retailers. The objective of Rahim et al. (2016) is to minimise the system cost, which includes the inventory holding costs at the central warehouse and all retailers, as well as the transportation cost for incoming shipment into the warehouse, and outbound shipment for the replenishment for the retailers. In this paper, we shall study the stock transfer in a one-warehouse n-retailer system, where the stock-out of the retail stores can be served by the transfer from other stores. In particular, we shall focus on the stock transfer within the stores, rather than passing through the central warehouse, i.e. the pick-up and drop-off are done alternatively by a single vehicle. The objective of this problem is to determine the vehicle route by minimising the relevant vehicle utility function. The notations are defined as follows.\n4. Extended inter-store stock transfer model: Decisions in route planning for inter-store stock transfer are often affected by various significant factors rising in retail stores, road, and warehouse. The inter-store transfer model proposed in Section 3 considered the factors of travelling time and distance, which may not reflect the transfer process comprehensively. An extension of this research line is concerned with the model that involves all 11 factors listed in Table VI. However, representing the objective function with 11 factors is not necessary since the correlation exists among the factors. Principal component analysis (PCA), as a type of factor analysis, is adopted in the evaluation of the possible factors. PCA transforms the original set of variables into a smaller set of linear combinations, accounting for most of the variances of the original set. With the adoption of PCA, the factors determined in the analysis are able to represent as much of the total variation in the data as possible with minimal factors being used (Dillon et al., 1984). Table VI provides the descriptive statistics of 11 critical factors and 4 principal components identified with sample data from the warehouse, weather reports, and retail stores. Among the 11 important factors and their corresponding values observed in the daily operations, the dimensionality can be reduced into a smaller number of factors, i.e. the principal components. Table VII shows the correlation matrix among the 11 influential factors.\n5. Conclusion: Continuous upsurge in retail shop rental price, increasingly complex transportation networks, and higher expectation in customer responsiveness in supply chain have stimulated the need for improving retail distribution management. A one-warehouse n-retailer distribution model of an international retailer is examined to improve the inter-store stock transfer delivery service. The operation process of the retail distribution from a warehouse to the designated retail chain stores is reviewed. The retail stock delivery service stability and process capability are evaluated, followed by a survey on the gap between the expected and actual delivery time to the customers. The risks of failure in the key inter-store stock transfer process are reviewed and the enhancement on route planning process is identified. Two optimisation routing planning systems, e.g. ProRP and LNS are developed to assist the decision-making process of a personnel in planning the order pick-up schedule and routing. The inter-store stock delivery scenarios are simulated with the results analysed. From the 23,790 possible routes, an optimal routing plan is derived from the system, with the pick-up and drop-off points listed. The total travelling time and distance of each scenario are generated. The recommended routing and order pick-up sequence aim to assist planners in the retail distribution and retail frontlines to improve their inter-store stock transfer services. The fulfilment of the expectation of customers to less than two days for the inter-store stock transfer is hence achieved.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The effectiveness of product replenishment and responsiveness of customer service delivery impact largely on satisfaction and retention of customers in retail chain logistics distribution. The fast moving goods in the complex delivery network and limited vehicle resource often lead to long customer waiting time in stock replenishment. With lack of literature systematically reviewing factors affecting retail distribution in inter-store stock transfer services and improving the operations, the purpose of this paper is to analyse and enhance this service for the retail to reduce customer dissatisfaction by developing an integrated quality service improvement methodology and an optimisation tool to improve the product delivery services.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper reviews inter-store stock transfer operations and the process capability of an international retail chain, and proposes improvements by integrating Six Sigma, factor analysis, and optimisation modelling. User experience and expectations are evaluated through an empirical survey. A novel principle component factored inter-store stock transfer model is developed to improve replenishment operations. A total of 11 factors affecting inter-store stock transfer delivery time are analysed. An extended model with principal component factors incorporated is developed for the simulation.\nFindings: The Cpk value of 0.51 shows significant difference between the experienced and expected waiting time. With the inter-store stock transfer optimisation model developed, the model assists traffic personnel on the vehicle route planning with multiple pick-up and drop-off locations. The system also ensures the best routing with a minimal travelling time planned, facilitating a reduction of the inter-store stock transfer time, thus improving the customer waiting time. Four significant factors affecting the delivery time are also identified from exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The results are analysed with an extended principal component factored inter-store stock transfer model.\nPractical implications: The developed inter-store stock transfer models minimise stock transfer time, increase customer satisfaction, and reduce loss of sales. An integrated service quality improvement methodology has been developed and applied in reviewing significant factors affecting inter-store stock transfer operations.\nOriginality/value: This paper presents an analysis on inter-store stock transfer operations of an international retail and proposes enhancements on the operations by integrating Six Sigma, factor analysis, and optimisation modelling. A novel principal component factored inter-store stock transfer model is developed to improve the stock replenishment operations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Study abroad education in New England higher education: a pilot survey
|
[
"Higher education",
"Colleges",
"United States of America",
"Overseas students",
"Curricula"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Study abroad programs are reported to be a vital component of the strategic vision of many colleges and universities (Ayoubi and Massoud, 2007). The growth of these programs in the USA is remarkable where the number of students studying abroad has risen from 84,000 to 220,000 in the last decade (NAFSA, 2008; MCB, 2007).Initially, study abroad programs were attracting small numbers of students seeking adventure but also prepared to engage and invest themselves in the experience (Schroth and McCormack, 2000). However, the picture is changing, as it is now becoming an important mainstream component of the higher education environment. The numbers of students participating in these programs is growing as study abroad is therefore becoming available to a wider student population. In 2005 the Lincoln Commission (Bipartisan Commission, 2005; Marcus, 2007) appointed by Congress, recommended that the number of the US students studying abroad should reach one million with the next ten years.The Lincoln Commission's (Bipartisan Commission, 2005) recommendations stress that the USA's national interests are at stake. The chair of the Commission, Peter McPherson, declares that American students need to experience living and studying overseas to be prepared to work and live in a global socio-economic and political context. The democratization of these programs and their broad appeal calls for a better understanding of the underpinning rationale for offering these programs and the means used to achieve these ambitious objectives.The USA is not alone in recognizing the importance of student mobility. In the UK, Ayoubi and Massoud (2007) report that 74 percent of the UK universities have an international dimension in their mission and three quarters of these institutions are pursuing proactively their goals. The British council is a government appointed agency specifically funded to support institutions in this area, the emphasis in this case being to foster incoming student and scholar traffic to import cultural diversity and tuition revenue. Similarly, Bellstrom (2007) notices the interest of overseas universities incoming to the USA to recruit students to \"import\" tuition revenue and diversity in the classroom.The European Union took a different more open view when it developed the Erasmus-Socrates programs. These programs promote student mobility within the European Union to foster cultural immersions and exchanges that are aimed at creating a better understanding and increased interaction between member states. From a modest 3,244 outgoing students in the academic year 1987-1988 the numbers have grown to 154,421 outgoing students in the academic year 2005-2006 (Europa, 2007).Study abroad programs have therefore definite cultural, economic, and academic benefits; they are now also recognized as giving students better chances in the employment market. Interesting findings about the impact of the Erasmus-Socrates European student mobility program were published in 2006 (Europa, 2006) that support this benefit. This research carried out by the European Commission revealed that 60 percent of students participating in the program increased their employability. Some 50 percent of these respondents attributed this positive outcome to increased language skills alone. In the same study, 50 percent of the European labor market representatives confirmed that students participating in these programs are more readily employed in international positions.Friedman (2007) argues that economic, technological and social changes are creating a worldwide level playing field that require a totally new set of skills from future employees. To survive in this new order, Friedman advocates the need to change some goals in education and make students more \"globally\" aware. In support for his views, a survey conducted for the Association of American Colleges found that 60 percent of the employers surveyed said that recently graduated students did not have the skills to succeed in a global economy (Fischer, 2007). Study abroad may help this situation according to Stuart (2007) who reports that these programs increase the students' chance on the job market. This is particularly relevant because students are increasingly choosing programs with labor market motives in mind (Maringe, 2006). The Lincoln Commission (Bipartisan Commission, 2005) mentioned earlier also recognizes the relation between employability and attending a study abroad program because of the growing need for understanding the world economically, politically, culturally, and socially.Understandably, one of the key recommendations of the Commission (Bipartisan Commission, 2005) is therefore to democratize study abroad by increasing the diversity of students, widening the list of host countries and, developing programs in community colleges as well as those aimed at low income families. Berotte (2007) and Teague (2007) have found that Community Colleges are increasingly promoting study abroad programs although they face obvious funding challenges.The rising cost of study abroad is a critical issue many students and institutions are facing. In the 2006 State of the Field Survey carried out by the Forum on Education Abroad (2006), 68 percent of respondents reported rising costs as a major issue. Brustein (2007) mentions' \"financing\" as one of major challenges facing colleges and universities as the demand for study abroad is rising. Similar concerns have been identified in Europe (Europa, 2006) where some 50 percent of participating students found it difficult from a personal financial perspective. This has a direct impact on attracting students from lower income households albeit that the European Union seems to be taking effective steps (Europa, 2006) and that the Lincoln Commission mentioned earlier recognizes this problem and identified the need to help community colleges and low-income families that cannot afford such programs.This short review helps establish three important interwoven trends; the first is the broad positive impact of study abroad programs on student's employability ultimately being very important. The second is the need to open access to these programs to a wider student population and the third is the threat posed by their rising cost. Given the importance of these questions I wanted to explore in more detail how the field of \"study abroad\" was organizing itself, how many institutions offer study abroad programs using which means. Gaining some idea of the way in which institutions are operating would in turn lead to further exploration into the relevance and purpose of current study abroad offerings in the light of the trends mentioned above.\n2. Pilot survey: To gain some understanding of how the field is organized I conducted a pilot survey of Higher Education Institutions in the six New England states of the USA. The survey was carried out in April 2008 examining the offerings of 195 institutions using the membership roster of the Commission Institution of Higher Education of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. This membership represents all accredited institutions of higher education in the six New England states. For the purpose of this survey I excluded 39 institutions that had no reason or potential to offer study abroad programs such as military academies, seminaries, and professional institutions offering post-graduate programs to working adults. Information was gathered through publications, web sites and phone interviews. This method has the heuristic value of analyzing the information, as it would be available to students looking for study abroad opportunities within these institutions. It also has some limitations that will be discussed later but it does offer data on practically all study abroad programs offered in the region which a questionnaire based approach might not have done.The survey's purpose is to gain some understanding of the general trends and principal means institutions are using to offer study abroad programs to their students.The raw data[1] I collected needed to be sorted and categorized. Jenkins (2007) observes that study abroad programs can be divided into three categories. The first two are programs developed as \"one to one\" relations between institutions and programs developed through partnerships with a host institution. The third category is made up of institutions that offer programs run by study abroad providers. The data I obtained revealed one more relevant category for the aims of this pilot study, namely overseas programs managed by the home institution itself. Similarly, Tamar (2008) observes the increasing number of institutions opening \"outposts\" abroad.The notion of provider remains debatable. In this category I have grouped educational institutions which have specialized in offering semester abroad programs to students from other institutions such as Butler College University consortiums, government sponsored programs such as Australian and totally private \"for profit\" enterprises. The rationale for grouping them resides in the fact that they all offer programs to several institutions at the same time by running generic programs that are not designed to meet an individual institutional or departmental mission or goal. In other words, students from several colleges and universities may attend the same provider's program at the same time which is fundamentally different from specifically designed programs offered within the confines of a bilateral agreement or those offered within a home institution campus abroad.Using these categories (and) with the aim of gaining a better understanding of the kind of programs offered, I have sorted the data into three categories. The first category groups programs offered through partnerships with individual universities abroad, the second groups programs offered abroad that are operated abroad by the home institution and the third are programs offered to students using study abroad providers.The first observation one has to make is that from the total 42 community colleges present in the region only five appear to offer study abroad opportunities to their students. However, the information I could gather from visiting Community College web sites and talking with people on the phone was scarce. Therefore, one would need to conduct further in-depth interviews with each institution to validate these results. For example, in two cases I found out about study abroad programs offered in Community Colleges through personal relations, indicating that there might be more active initiatives within the colleges than what appears in official publications or publicly released information. Nevertheless, in comparison with the rest of the field, this category of institutions clearly did not offer students many visible opportunities to engage in study abroad programs.Excluding the Community Colleges mentioned above, the field I surveyed consisted of 153 institutions of higher education. A total of 25 of these did not offer study abroad programs and 15 had no information available on study abroad. I found that 113 institutions offered study abroad programs in the region representing 73 percent of the total surveyed. Given the general development of study abroad programs mentioned earlier in this paper these results tend to support the idea that study abroad is present in a large majority institutions within this region.Moving onto analyzing the channels used by these institutions, Table I shows the distribution of institutions offering study abroad programs using the categories mentioned earlier.These findings support the conclusion that providers are being used by a majority of institutions. However, as it was mentioned earlier, this category groups providers that have different business models. Therefore, I also looked at the distribution of providers within the group of institutions offering study abroad programs. Table II shows the numbers of programs offered by the principal providers bearing in mind that many institutions offer programs from several providers.Web page links for the providers can be found in the Appendix.The top five providers represent all the different categories of providers mentioned earlier indicating what appears to be no specific bias towards one or the other type of provider.Interestingly, of the 73 institutions using providers, 43 rely on one provider, six use two and 24 use three or more providers. Therefore, the field is relatively equally divided between institutions using a single provider and those using multiple providers. These two strategies call for more detailed investigation. Using the data I had collected this was not possible. For example, one might imagine that the total student population might warrant different approaches. I chose not pursue this question because I found that institutions had widely varying regulations allowing students access to study abroad. Therefore, the total enrollment of a particular institution would not necessarily be relevant because it does not necessarily follow that equivalent proportions of students have access to study abroad programs between different institutions.\n3. Discussion: The purpose of this pilot survey is to inform future avenues of study and the results pose some interesting questions regarding institutional strategies and policies.This exploratory survey would suggest that universities and colleges in the New England region rely heavily on providers and 41 percent use several of them. Market forces alone would suggest that their presence in so many institutions offering is a testimony of their success. However, this survey did not determine the volume of students by category of study abroad and/or provider.The apparent success these organizations are enjoying warrants some further investigations if only because of the potential influence they might have on study abroad market offerings in general. The latter is indirectly supported by the tendency of students to adopt a consumerist approach when choosing educational pathways (Maringe, 2006). In 2006, 53 percent of students surveyed by the Forum on Education Abroad (2007) perceived study abroad as a commodity rather than an experience requiring active personal engagement.In 2008, NAFSA, the US National Association of International Educators published a report that contained specific recommendations for study abroad programs (NAFSA, 2008). Notions such as integration, oversight and the embedded nature of study abroad programs within an institution are central in these recommendations. In this light further investigation is also needed to examine how generic programs offered by providers such as those found in this survey participate and are integrated into the wider educational objectives of the home institution.Lastly, this survey's limited geographic scope may need to expand. The Lincoln Commission mentioned earlier identified the important demographic imbalance in students attending study abroad programs. Institutes of Higher education in the New England region cannot pretend to offer a comprehensive picture of the US student population. Therefore, further studies are needed to collect a wider sample of institution.This survey also highlights the need to examine how the programs of different providers, partners and home institution support and capitalize on the increased \"employability\" of students who attend study abroad programs.\n4 Conclusion: This pilot survey has shown that in the New England region the majority of institutions of higher education offer study abroad programs and that providers are popular and well represented in these institution's offerings. There appears to be a need to further investigate Community College study abroad programs, however, initial data supports the idea that few offer such programs despite the demonstrated usefulness in terms of employability. Cost factors have been identified as a major barrier.The pilot survey also raised important questions that would need further investigation. The first is to further investigate the degree of integration and oversight generic programs enjoy in relation to the home institutions' academic life. The second is to widen the geographic area surveyed and the third is to examine what, if any, attention is given to developing the potential \"employability\" benefits students derive when coming back from study abroad experiences.Lastly, the classification I used in this article fails to reveal the big differences between very pro-active institutions offering a lot of choice and support with those who provide limited support to study abroad programs. Surveying the New England colleges and U-universities I observed that in many cases \"international departments\" are coping with both incoming and outgoing students. The \"incoming\" international students obviously require a completely different set of services and support to the \"outgoing\" US students. The different approaches institutions appear to be taking in supporting and planning study abroad will undoubtedly have a profound impact on the programs' outcomes and attractiveness.This pilot survey reveals some trends but more importantly very important questions that call for further investigation. Answers to these questions are vital for the success and value of study abroad programs as institutions plan their offerings and study abroad programs become more accessible and part of the ordinary educational landscape.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to develop relevant questions for research by gaining an initial understanding of how the field of study abroad education is organizing itself within institutions of higher education. The context is the growing numbers of students, demands, and expectations made on study abroad programs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The survey was carried out by analyzing publicly available data and information, as it would be available to students, of all the accredited institutions of higher education within the six states of New England.\nFindings: - The findings confirm that albeit for Community Colleges, the vast majority of institutions offer study abroad programs. However, this survey also reveals the important role providers are playing in offering generic programs to students from multiple institutions.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The findings call for further investigation into institutional strategies concerning the choice of programs, particularly those involving providers who potentially imply losing tuition and control over educational outcomes. Limitations are discussed suggesting the need to widen the geographical area studied as well as analyzing in more detail the Community College offerings that are not easily accessible with the methodology that has been used in this paper. The findings also raise some questions and future avenues of research particularly in the area of examining the integration of generic study abroad programs within particular institutional and programmatic objectives. It is also suggested that further research is needed to better evaluate if/how study abroad programs are designed to capitalize on the employability advantage they offer to participating students when they enter the job market.\nOriginality/value: - The number of US students participating in study abroad programs is expected to continue to grow and it seems these programs will become part of mainstream offerings in most institutions. Similar trends are observed in Europe between member states. Besides giving a broad overview of the current offerings, this pilot study principally reveals several important avenues for future research that should help institutions in their choices of programs and the orientation they give to study abroad.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Mirror, mirror: preferred leadership characteristics of South African managers
|
[
"Leadership",
"Leaders",
"South Africa",
"Developing countries",
"Levels of management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Leadership continues to be an area of considerable importance to organizational theory. This is especially true for developing economies such as South Africa (SA), where issues such as severe skills shortages and historical divides between societal groups lend particular weight to effective leadership (April and April, 2007; Denton and Vloeberghs, 2003; Finestone and Snyman, 2005; Horwitz et al., 1996).This article focuses on characteristics or traits SA managers consider important for leadership. Early leadership theory focused extensively on traits of leaders. However, deterministic categorizations and poor methodologies led to weak and inconsistent findings, with the result that other areas of research, such as leader styles (especially transformational leadership), contingencies, and leader-member exchanges, have dominated recent research (Yukl, 1998).However, researchers have never abandoned trait research (Zaccaro, 2007). Subsequent literature improved in method, and found that traits such as emotional intelligence, integrity, self-efficacy, resilience to stress, positive attitudes towards authority, a protestant work ethic, and need for socialized power or achievement but low need for affiliation (Bass, 1990; Judge et al., 2002; Lord et al., 1986; McClelland and Boyatzis, 1982; Yukl, 1998) can facilitate leader effectiveness or the emergence of leaders. Personality traits such as extroversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, low neuroticism and openness can facilitate emergence as an accepted leader, albeit differing by culture and demographic (e.g. Csoka, 1993; House et al., 2004; Judge et al., 2002).Kouzes and Posner's (2002) studies on characteristics of admired leaders, which form the basis for the empirical methodology in this article, consistently find that the most admired traits worldwide involve honest, forward-looking, inspiring and competent, leaders. There are inter-country differences in magnitude, although substantial similarities in ordering (Kouzes and Posner, 2002, p. 28). They labeled the triad of honesty, competence and inspiration as \"credibility\".Theoretical justification for the continuing importance of trait research in leadership comes especially from attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) theory (Schneider, 1987). ASA theory suggests that, over time, organizational members tend to become homogeneous over time in terms of values and other personal traits. This leads to increasing selection of similar people and attrition of dissimilar individuals. Research confirms that leaders' own traits provide substantial direction in the common values adopted (Giberson et al., 2005; Schneider et al., 1998).Recent interest in implicit leadership theory (ILT) is another approach, emphasizing a match between the mental schema of employees regarding leadership and the enacted traits of leaders (e.g. Lord et al., 1984).A trait approach is also practically useful for various organizational functions, notably leader identification, recruitment and selection (where potential future leaders have not yet been able to display fully the required behaviors or exchanges) as well as identification and facilitation of leader development (e.g. Allio, 2005; Hartog et al., 2007).This article accordingly explores leadership traits seen to be most salient by managers, specifically in a SA context. In the absence of an underlying theory, there are no particular hypotheses. Instead, this article will undertake exploratory research to pinpoint the perceptions and expectations of SA leaders. It also undertakes an implicit test of leadership success, in a manner similar to that of Bray et al. (1974), Casimir and Waldman (2007), Howard and Bray (1988) and McCall and Lombardo (1983), comparing managers who have attained greater measures of vertical advancement against managers at lower levels, allowing for some cautious inferences about trait influence.Such exploratory research is necessary and appropriate precisely because of contextual, local factors that are unique and potentially determinative, and which may fundamentally influence perceptions of leadership characteristics. Accordingly, the next section discusses the SA context.\n2. The South African leadership context and prior studies: SA corporate leadership operates under specific contextual issues that may affect leadership perceptions.Firstly, since the fall of apartheid, SA has experienced substantial pressures in the integration of numerous diverse cultural and ethnic groups (April and April, 2007; Finestone and Snyman, 2005; Horwitz et al., 1996; Jackson, 2004). This requires leaders to draw heavily on traits that facilitate interpersonal skills, such as caring, inspiration, and possibly imagination (inasmuch as this aids in empathy and open-mindedness).Second, race and gender may have specific effects because of an historical hegemony of males and whites within leadership positions (Booysen, 1999, 2001; Denton and Vloeberghs, 2003; Littrell and Nkomo, 2005). The struggle over the past decades of women and blacks to breach upper management levels in substantive numbers may color the view of such groups on leadership requirements. Specifically, the difficulties faced by blacks and women in achieving their current managerial posts may lead them to weight characteristics such as competence and determination more highly. These traits facilitate individual visibility and personal distinction. Researchers have also long highlighted caring and collectivism as a particular trait of both female and African leadership (Littrell and Nkomo, 2005), and inequalities of the past may increase such preferences (e.g. Booysen (2001) finds black managers to be more collectivistic and humane-oriented, although Booysen (1999) finds males to be more collectivistic and no less human-oriented than females).As noted by an anonymous reviewer, broader work on leadership in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) might also inform specific contextual factors in SA, especially for the views of black leaders. For instance, Blunt and Jones (1997) suggest that, in SSA, paternalistic leadership with high levels of power distance is expected (possibly especially between age groups rather than between them, e.g. Dia, 1994, p. 177). In such structures, however, despite high power-distance, followers expect leaders to use such power with caring, follower-and group-orientation, and significant consensus-seeking (e.g. Dia, 1994, p. 167; Wahab, 1996), such that traits such as caring and loyalty might be preferred, but personal ambition and even determination or competence less than for more western-influenced managers (Blunt and Jones, 1997; Dia, 1994, p. 176). This is possibly in opposition to findings of Booysen (2001), who find that black and white leaders had relatively similar and not particularly high regard for power distance as a leader trait, however her study had relatively few black managers and was only conducted in one setting (retail).Third, there are widely reported skill-shortages in both technical and managerial arenas in SA, within a context of exceptionally rapid globalization (Denton and Vloeberghs, 2003; Nienaber, 2007). This has led to various labor market distortions, notably reducing overall competition for leadership roles and management jobs. This may reduce the overall emphasis on competitive aspects of leadership, such as ambition and determination. However, affirmative action favoring the placement of blacks and females may lead to higher levels of traits such as ambition and determination among whites and/or males.Finally, worldwide challenges with regard to corporate governance are no less prevalent in SA, and perhaps even more problematic in an economy dominated by large conglomerations, plagued by cartels, and with active political involvement in corporate control (Vaughn and Ryan, 2006). Moves to tighten corporate governance and increase personal managerial liability render leadership more risky, and may heighten the importance of traits such as honesty - already consistently the most admired trait worldwide (Kouzes and Posner, 2002) - and self-control.Little prior research exists on leader characteristics in SA. Most of the focus has fallen on leader behavior (e.g. Littrell and Nkomo, 2005). However, notably, the GLOBE study investigated extant leader characteristics in a worldwide study, including SA white and black populations (House et al., 2004). GLOBE sought both to assess whether traits perceived to facilitate or inhibit leader success were globally common, as well as their links to macro-economic and societal success. It found significant evidence that, although there are global commonalities, SA respondents had different leadership perceptions to other nationalities and between black and white managers. The discussion section will explicate comparisons to GLOBE.The present study builds on this type of research in two ways. It investigates a set of traits (from Kouzes and Posner, 2002), previously validated in worldwide studies, that only peripherally overlaps the GLOBE categorizations. Constructs with possible overlap include GLOBE's assertiveness, future-orientation, and humane-orientation and the current study's ambitious, determined, forward-looking, and caring. There would seem to be little face overlap between GLOBE's orientations regarding uncertainty, gender differentiation, power-distance, and performance, and the Kouzes and Posner (2002) characteristics of competent, honest, inspiring, self-controlled, loyal, and imaginative.The current study also investigates multiple levels of management, including top management, whereas other studies have tended to investigate the views of subordinates, or, middle managers - as in GLOBE. Perhaps most importantly, this study makes a more direct and statistical link to managerial success than prior studies, investigating links to actual advancement instead of perceived links to success.\n3. Method: The research utilizes secondary data from the Kelly Human Capital Survey, a self-report survey review of a wide number of workplace issues in the SA economy administered by the Kelly Group, SA's largest supplier of placement solutions. Two studies were completed, one composed of employees and the second of managers.Instrument\n4. Results: Table II shows a basic descriptive summation of the ranks for the whole sample. The first column shows the percentage of times that respondents rank a trait as most important. Because of the relativity to other rankings, this does not necessarily represent the strength of an option (it does not reflect the distribution of other ranks). The next three columns therefore show average, modal and median ranks for each option, which are better indications of relative ranking, and the penultimate column shows Thurston Case V scores that as discussed earlier allow for relative comparisons of magnitude. The final column shows the percentage by which a trait Thurston Case V score is greater than the previous option.Because the analysis inherently orders options, with Thurston Case V scoring allowing for relative analysis of magnitudes, diagrammatic analysis is most useful. Figure 1 therefore shows Thurston Case V scores on the right hand side.Table II and Figure 1 show that managers rank competence above any other characteristic, followed closely by honesty and inspiring leadership. Thereafter, a quite tightly bunched group of characteristics forms a \"second tier\", including forward-looking leadership, self-control, caring, loyalty, and determination. Managers rated ambition lowest of all traits, with imaginative leadership second last.Large differences in median and mode suggest that a certain leadership characteristic has at least one strong constituency that strongly prefers or dislikes it, but that outside of that group there is ambivalence or a strong opposing group. Notably, Table II shows that:* inspirational leadership has a mode of rank 1, suggesting a large highly supportive constituency, but a median of only 4, suggesting a large group who are less interested;* forward-looking similarly, although less powerfully, has mode of 3 and median of 5; and* caring has a mode of 9, suggesting a large group who are opposed to this trait, but a median of 6, suggesting a spread of people who are relatively more supportive of it.Figure 1 also shows the comparison, on the left hand side, with the far larger employee group (n=1,063), which completed the same ranking. Figure 1 shows that employees rank honesty first, and more consistently than managers rate honesty. In addition, employees rated loyalty, caring, determination and especially ambition higher than managers. Managers, on the other hand, rated inspiring and forward-looking leadership far higher than did employees.Friedman Rank-Sum ANOVAs and multiple comparisons\n5. Discussion: The results of this study are capable of providing substantial knowledge and value, notably for managerial development, internal and external selection and allocation, and possibly performance management. Identification of some most important leader characteristics, understanding targeted preferences of various groups and discrepancies between leaders and followers, may allow for much gain in the crucial and contested arena of SA corporate leadership (Kouzes and Posner, 2002).Overall ratings of leadership traits by managers\n6. Limitations and research directions: Several limitations are evident in the current research. The sample studied was limited to mostly certain industries, especially services, while some sectors, such as mining, are somewhat underrepresented. In addition, the sample is from predominantly large corporations, mostly excluding smaller companies where leadership may in fact be more potent in the absence of sophisticated bureaucracy.The reduction of the original 20 items in the characteristics of admired leadership scale was to some extent arbitrary. Although the methodology retained the most important items, the choice of which other items to compare was random.The ever-present issue of confusing managerialism with leadership (Bedeian and Hunt, 2005) remains a possible issue in this study, notably in the implicit success test. However, many commentators such as Kotter (1990, p. 103) suggest that the two are complementary systems of action, with management being about dealing with complexity and leadership with change. Therefore both are linked, and greater success can be expected from good manager-leaders.Research, preferably of a qualitative nature, should investigate the sources of many of the differences and rankings revealed here, the antecedents and consequences of discrepancies, as well as possible strategies for bridging these gaps. The differences between demographic groups also require deeper investigation.Further research regarding managerial success should investigate not only the association of traits with success, but also directional causality if possible (perhaps through experimental designs at first) and thereafter processes by which characteristics might lead to greater success or leader emergence.\n7. Conclusion: Leadership characteristics remain important. Although they are only part of the picture, traits have particular uses and are capable of being widely understood and applied. This study reveals potentially crucial differences in opinion between various SA demographic groups, which fulfils the necessity for context-specific studies and serves to supplement prior research. It also once again links variegated views on leadership traits to differential managerial success. The potential remains for leadership in South Africa to improve in leadership complexity, enabling targeted human resource and organizational development action with the potential for significant advances in organizational success.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to investigate desired leadership characteristics of South African managers, and link differences in desired traits to contextually crucial demographic group differences and managerial advancement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - South African managers (n=205) ranked ten items of the characteristics of admired leadership scale. Aggregate rank analysis and nonparametric ANOVAs reveal significant preference differences in the sample and demographic sub-groups. The research compares traits across managerial advancement and age, providing an implicit success test.\nFindings: - Managers most highly ranked the three \"credibility\" characteristics (competence, honesty and inspiration) prevalent in comparative worldwide studies. Key differences exist between managers and employees, many contextually crucial demographic sub-groups, and higher and lower-level managers of younger and older ages.\nPractical implications: - This research provides potentially important information for leadership identification, selection and development, in that it may identify characteristics that current leaders associate with contextual success. The research also identifies discrepancies between employees and managers and demographic groups, which may be sources of dissatisfaction or misunderstanding, and which organizations should address to better align expectations of subordinates and actions of leaders. Individuals might also use the information in self-development, comparing their own views to successful leaders.\nOriginality/value: - Significant informational and statistical advantages exist over prior studies. This research provides individual-level analyses, and an explicit test of association with objective success that previous studies have not provided. It includes top management, whereas prior studies have limited samples to subordinates or middle managers. Greater demographic differentiation is provided, allowing for more contextually relevant understanding.\n",
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How to assess professional competencies in Education for Sustainability? An approach from a perspective of complexity
|
[
"Complexity",
"Assessment",
"Education for sustainability",
"Rubric",
"Professional competencies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Several authors have argued that we are immersed in a systemic context. Socio-environmental crisis is one of the biggest challenges of modern times (Worldwatch Institute, 2015), as it is linked to changes and global asymmetries in the planet's dynamics due to alterations in regeneration rates and the carrying capacity of resources (Terradas, 2006). The uncertainty associated with these changes and the threat facing the viability of societies reveal a social model exposed to risk (Beck, 1992) and a situation of extreme urgency that requires options to deal with other uncertainties (Mayor Zaragoza, 2009). The world is difficult to understand from some perspectives based on classical determinism, simplicity, objectivity of phenomena, humans' ability to control ecosystems, anthropocentrism or the idea of infinite growth (Terradas, 2006). We are living in a reality in which our daily decisions directly affect environmental, social and economic factors, not only locally but also on a global scale in a globalised world (Pigem, 2009).\n2. Professional competencies in education for sustainability from the perspective of complexity: The competency frameworks in ES, considered as the most relevant for our study and taken to elaborate an answer to the first question, include:\n3. A rubric to assess professional competencies in education for sustainability from the perspective of complexity: The rubric to assess professional competencies in ES is one of the most important contributions of this research given that, as outlined in the introduction, there seem to be no major studies that assess professional competencies in ES. Therefore, constructing tools to assess these competencies is both a challenge and an opportunity to move towards the competency-based approach to ES.\n4. Conclusions: Based on the results, it can be stated that this research is a contribution to the ES competency approach and it rectifies the lack of assessment tools in this area. The competency framework in Education for Sustainability from the perspective of Complexity (CESC) is a theoretical contribution that facilitates educators' development of these competencies. The design of the rubric, with a high level of applicability and transferability, is a methodological contribution which facilitates the assessment of these competencies by educators, as individuals, and educational teams. The CESC framework contributes to a competency-based approach to ES and to reduce the bottleneck in improving the quality of ES teaching-learning processes caused by a lack of professional competencies that clearly and easily incorporate the principles of complexity as an opportunity to advance in ES. Within this framework, connections, dialogue, creativity, innovation, critical thinking and uncertainty are the essential elements that contribute to professional, innovative performance which responds to multiple problems and current and future challenges.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to contribute to the professional competency approach in Education for Sustainability (ES) from the perspective of complexity and to the assessment of these competencies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative research process was used, which consisted of two main phases: a documentary analysis of the internationally accepted frameworks about professional competencies in ES and complexity and a case study. The context was the Learning Camp of Cistercian Monasteries (Catalonia, Spain), and two educators participated in this camp.\nFindings: The main outcomes are: a framework of professional competencies in ES from a complexity perspective, called CESC, and a rubric, as an assessment tool for professional competences in ES.\nOriginality/value: Based on the results, the author's can state that this research is a contribution to the ES competency approach and it rectifies the lack of assessment tools in this area. The CESC is a theoretical contribution that facilitates educators' development of ES competencies based on complexity. The design of the rubric with a high level of applicability and transferability is a methodological contribution which facilitates the assessment of these competencies by educators, as individuals, and educational teams. Related to the case study, several guidelines are proposed regarding the need for educator training to advance in the mobilisation of competencies in ES.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Input hedging: generalizations
|
[
"Hedging",
"Risk analysis",
"Uncertainty management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The vast majority of the studies in hedging examined output hedging. Examples include Alghalith (2006a, 2005), Viaene and Zilcha (1998), Li and Vukina (1998), and Lapan and Moschini (1994). In contrast, input hedging is largely neglected. Exceptions include Alghalith (2006b, 2002) and Paroush and Wolf (1992).Paroush and Wolf (1992) examined the decisions of a competitive firm that hedges one input of its two-input production function (a risky input and a non-risky input). A major purpose of their study was to determine the impact of the technological relationships between the inputs (supplemental or competing inputs) on the optimal inputs. They presented a ranking of the optimal level of each input under three settings: presence of basis risk, absence of basis risk, complete certainty. They found that the technological relationships and the market structure of the futures price (upward or downward bias) affect this ranking. They used a second-order Taylor approximation of the utility function. It is worth noting that using such approximations is equivalent to assuming normality and constant absolute risk aversion or a quadratic utility. In their case, it is equivalent to assuming normality and constant absolute risk aversion since they explicitly assumed constant absolute risk aversion (see Alghalith, 2006b).Alghalith (2006b, 2002)introduced a general utility function to some of Paroush and Wolf's results; however, they are limited by the use of a single risky (hedged) input.Using a general utility function and general probability distributions, this note extends the Paroush-Wolf and Alghalith models by investigating two risky (hedged) inputs (and a non-risky input). In so doing, it provides both theoretical and technical contributions. The inclusion of two risky inputs affects Paroush and Wolf's original results and thus the role of the technical relationships will be better depicted if the model includes two risky inputs as well as a non-risky input.Practically, input hedging is as common as output hedging. For example, hedging foreign currencies is a widely used practice by commercial banks. In the USA there are futures markets for foreign currencies.\n2. The model: The profit function is specified by: Equation 1 where p is the output price, F is a neoclassical production function (the technical relationship between two inputs is determined by the sign of the cross partial derivative of the production function, Fij (j[?]i, j=1, 2, 3); the inputs are supplemental (competing) in production if Fij > (<) 0), the amount of the hedged input is denoted by hi=2,3 and bdenotes current futures price, x1 is the non-risky input, xi=2,3 are the risky inputs, p1 and p~i are their respective prices, p~i is random and given by: Equation 2 where p-i and gi are the mean and the standard deviation, respectively.There exists futures market for xi; the random future futures price is: Equation 3 where the random variables are statistically independent. In the absence of basis risk di=0. The risk averse firm maximizes the expected utility of the profit Equation 4 The first-order conditions are: Equation 5 Equation 6 Equation 7 Adding (2) and (3) yields Fi=b/p-diCov(u',ei)/pEu'.We use deg, and * to denote the optimal level under complete certainty, uncertainty without basis risks (cost uncertainty) and uncertainty with basis risks, respectively; thus (x1[?],x2[?],x3[?]), (x1 ^,x2 ^,x3 ^), (x1*,x2*,x3*) are the optimal solutions under the above cases.Theorem\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to generalize input-hedging models.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using a general utility function and general probability distributions, the paper extends the Paroush-Wolf and Alghalith theoretical models by including two risky (hedged) inputs.\nFindings: - The paper finds that the inclusion of two risky inputs affects the previous theoretical results.\nOriginality/value: - The paper introduces new theoretical and technical contributions. Also, it is intended to be a foundation for future empirical and theoretical studies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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How knowledge workers become effective learners: managing learning in the finance industry
|
[
"Knowledge workers",
"Learning environment",
"Self-regulated learning",
"Finance industry"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: More and more of today's jobs involve knowledge work in a complex and ever-changing environment. Workers now have to take more responsibility for planning and organizing what they do and how they do it to fulfil their role. In these circumstances, it is not enough to have a training department delivering standardized courses. Each person's learning needs are continually changing, and individuals combine informal learning with their everyday work tasks. So more and more people are managing their own learning within the context and constraints created by their role and the organization.\nAchieving learning objectives: The financial services industry is a typical knowledge-intensive sector where work and learning are so closely connected that it can be difficult to distinguish them. It is important to create the right environment to encourage and support learning, but the amount of actual learning that takes place will depend on the individual.\nThe links between learning opportunities and actual learning: Formal training has traditionally been an effective way to pass on skills and knowledge to prepare workers for job roles that evolve slowly over time. But in a dynamic situation, individuals must balance on-the-job learning and structured learning opportunities. The challenge for the organization now is to create an expansive learning environment that encourages and supports individual and collaborative learning and the development of professional relationships.\nHow knowledge workers learn: An online survey of associates and members of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment, working in a broad range of financial services organizations, generated a sample of 170 experienced knowledge workers - senior managers, supervisors and front-line staff.\nEncouraging and supporting learning: Analyzing these relationships can lead to a better understanding of the ways that individuals manage their day-to-day learning. Knowing which aspects of SRL predict learning activity offers a guide to the behaviors that could be targeted by workplace interventions. This would make it easier to provide effective learning and development support to knowledge workers. Awareness of an individual's capacity to self-regulate their learning can help organizations to assess each person's needs and provide them with tailored support structures.\nComment: This article reviews \"Self-regulated learning behavior in the finance industry\", by Milligan et al. (2015). An analysis of the learning behavior of experienced knowledge workers - senior managers, supervisors and front-line staff - reveals how the learning environment and individuals' personal characteristics affect learning at work. This study uses a quantitative approach based on self-report measures and suggests opportunities for further qualitative research.\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: More and more of today's jobs involve knowledge work in a complex and ever-changing environment. Workers now have to take more responsibility for planning and organizing what they do and how they do it to fulfil their role. In these circumstances, it is not enough to have a training department delivering standardized courses. Each person's learning needs are continually changing and individuals combine informal learning with their everyday work tasks. So more and more people are managing their own learning within the context and constraints created by their role and the organization.\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"
}
] |
Does team orientation matter? Linking work engagement and relational psychological contract with performance
|
[
"Job satisfaction",
"Contextual performance",
"Work engagement",
"Relational psychological contract",
"Team orientation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The determination to transfigure organizations to emphasize on intellectual capital issues has become global phenomena (Rehman et al., 2011). Currently, to align employee's capabilities with global perspective, organizations are readdressing their learning mechanisms, intellectuals' knowledge strength, behavioral aspects of employees at workplace, intra-organizational conflicts and prevailing culture (Imran et al., 2016; Aslam, Rehman, and Imran, 2016). On the other hand, particularly in private sector organizations, the ratio of employees' turnover is drastically increasing day by day (Allen et al., 2003). There are various financial and other reasons behind the switching behavior of employees (Muqadas et al., 2017). Contemporary literature suggests that dissatisfied employees are more attentive in switching and are also finding ways to leave organization in their first leisure (Muqadas et al., 2017). Therefore, organizations are keenly interested to enhance the satisfaction level of employees by all means and secure their contextual performance triggers at workplace. In this way, the relational theory highlights the importance of psychological contract between employees and organizations to gain commitment level of employees toward organizations (Christian et al., 2011). Specifically, psychological contracts are comprised of the obligations that employees believe their organization owes to them and the obligations that employees believe they owe to their organization in return. The research on psychological contracts till date reveals two cores: transactional that is based on work-reward basis and other is relational that is other than monetary benefits or emotional contract. The social exchange theory also supports the relational psychological contract to form a long-run commitment level of employees.\nLiterature review: A study indicates disengaged workforce loss of USD300 billion to US businesses in a year (Ram and Prabhakar, 2011). Another study highlights that 83 percent employees are salaried employees and have other benefits, although their service levels and energy were not targeted toward their employer (Pech and Slade, 2006). In today's turbulent environment, many organizations are focused on hiring and retaining proactive employees who are ready to contribute, self-motivated, and have forward thinking - in other words engaged employees. Perrin (2011) conducted a survey of 85,000 employees in 16 countries and found that Asian countries have the lowest level of work engagement (7 percent) compared to western countries. Therefore, it is essential to investigate measures to raise the level of work engagement in developing countries and in different organizational cultures. Organizations spend billions of rupees in recruiting, training, managing, and up-gradating employees (Smith et al., 2006), and must therefore strategize ways to engage employees, improve worker and organizational performance, and retain dedicated and competent employees.\nMethodology: Organizational setting, population and sample\nResults and analysis: Validity analysis\nResults and discussion: The results of H1a and H1b suggested that employees' work engagement and relational psychological contract have a positive impact on contextual performance of employees. The results are in line with the existing studies in the context on work engagement and relational psychological contract (Christian et al., 2011; Podsakoff et al., 2009). In recent studies, Albrecht et al. (2015) argued that employees' engagement at workplace is the best resource but difficult to manage. On the other hand, relational psychological contract is necessary to accomplish the task with collaborative environment (Lind and Tyler, 1992). Model 1 summarizes the results of regression analysis. The adjusted R2 value indicates that 11.3 percent variation can be explained in a dependent variable by the independent variables. The standardized b values are 0.075 and 0.030 and F=24.5. Results are significant at p-value 0.05.\nConclusion and implications: Now a days, organizations are interested to build the internal capabilities to reshape the organizational dynamics in positive directions. Within internal capabilities, human capital is the most important asset that has to be flourished to attain sustainable performance. This study highlights the importance of two important employee-related triggers: work engagement and relational psychological contract. Employees' work engagement ensures the commitment level of employees with their organizations and leads to reap better contextual performance. When employees are engaged in their work and participate in decision making then they own their organizations and produce at their best level. Further, beside transactional psychological contract, if organizations give due importance to maintain relational psychological contract, it can enhance the satisfaction level of employees at workplace. On the other hand, the existence of team work culture can multiply the effects of work engagement and relational psychological contract on performance. Teamwork orientation in organizations completes in true sense when employees' contextual performance is at an optimal level and employees have a sense of ownership toward their organization. The findings of current empirical investigation demonstrate the strengthening effects of team orientation among work engagement, employees' psychological contract, contextual performance and job satisfaction. Further, results also clarify the positive association among work engagement, employees' psychological contract, contextual performance and job satisfaction.\nLimitation/future research: The major limitation is limited scope of this study as its focus was only on the banking and insurance sectors. In future, it is suggested to include other sectors so that the findings can be generalized to other sectors as well. Second limitation is related to data collection process because data were collected only from employees and middle management; however, top management officials were ignored. Furthermore, data have been collected through a self-directed questionnaire at one point in time, which may cause common method bias. For future research, it is suggested to get response from all employees at different points in time and a classification can be made to get response through multiple methods, i.e. questionnaire can be used for employees and structured interview can be conducted to get response from middle- and top-level management in organizations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The cultural transformation introduces team orientation as a powerful tool to reconfigure the human capital to become more productive. The purpose of this paper is to try to uncover two folds: first is to check the direct effects of employees' work engagement and rational psychological contract on contextual performance and job satisfaction and second is to investigate the moderating effect of team orientation in-between above-stated relationships.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The self-administrated questionnaires and simple random sampling are used to collect data from 380 employees of banking and insurance sector.\nFindings: The findings reveal that work engagement and relational psychological contract have positive relationships with employees' contextual performance and job satisfaction. Furthermore, the presence of team orientation has strengthened effect on direct existing relationships.\nPractical implications: This study adds the body of knowledge by providing insights into team orientation in different avenues. For practice side, it is important to discourse the work engagement of employee and their relational psychological contract to enhance the contextual performance. Moreover, high work engagement leads to high commitment level and ultimately increases the level of job satisfaction.\nOriginality/value: The contemporary research is lacking with respect to the empirical investigation of team orientation, more particularly, in relationship to human psychology factors. This unique model is addressing the real time issue by providing insights to relational psychological contract, employees work engagement, contextual performance and job satisfaction.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Does structural economic vulnerability matter for public indebtedness in developing countries?
|
[
"Low-income countries",
"Middle-income countries",
"Development policy",
"Fixed effects",
"Public debt",
"Structural vulnerability"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper strives to explore the impact of structural vulnerability on the total public debt, especially in developing countries. The latter, through their history have been prone to several types of shocks[1] such as shocks to international commodity prices, natural disasters, conflict-related shocks, global financial market shocks, shocks to international interest or exchange rates, shortfalls in external aid flows, shocks of sudden human diseases (e.g. severe acute respiratory syndrome) which can hit tourist revenues, changes in host country policies for migrant labour, which can cut remittances (see Matthew and Bargawi, 2004).\n2. The concept of \"structural economic vulnerability\": The concept of \"vulnerability\" refers to that of \"risk\". There are several definitions associated with the concept of \"risk\" depending on the disciplines where it is studied. Generally, vulnerability can be seen as the risk that a \"system\" undergoes from negative change due to a \"perturbation\" (see, e.g. Naude et al., 2009).\n3. The presentation of the simple mathematical model of the public finances sustainability: Since the purpose of our study is to examine the effect of economic vulnerability on the total public debt, we start with the standard public finances sustainability model and then derive the appropriate model that will help us perform our regressions. The empirical literature distinguishes between two main approaches of debt sustainability (Cuddington, 1996): the so-called \"accounting\" or Domar's approach and the solvency criterion of government finances or the present value constraint approach, also called the lender-based approach (see Vera, 2009 for details on these approaches). However, Vera (2009) highlights that irrespective of the conceptual approach adopted, the fundamental block of the fiscal sustainability corresponds to a simplification of the government budget constraint (Vera, 2009). In this paper, we rely on the mathematical model of fiscal sustainability underlying that fundamental block, to estimate the effect of structural economic vulnerability on public debt in developing countries.\n4. The model specification, the discussion of the expected effects of covariates and the econometric technique: 4.1 The model specification\n5. The empirical results: In this section, we discuss the results obtained from the regressions by either employing fixed effects with cluster-robust standard errors (Tables II and V) or fixed effects where the standard errors are corrected with Driscoll-Kraay's (1998) technique (Tables III and IV).\n6. Conclusion and policy implications: In this study we explore how the structural vulnerability in developing countries influences their indebtedness. To do so, we use the (structural) EVI jointly computed by Guillaumont and Cariolle (2011) and the UN-DESA and focus on a panel of 97 developing countries over the period 1980-2008. In addition to the full sample of the 97 developing countries, we also consider three sub-samples (according the World Bank's classification): LICs; LMICs and UMICs. To perform our regression, we employ the fixed effects with Driscoll-Kraay's (1998) technique to correct standard errors for spatial and temporal dependence.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of structural economic vulnerability of developing countries on their public indebtedness.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors perform the analysis by the use of fixed effects technique where the standard errors are corrected by the Driscoll-Kraay (1998) method. The panel covers 96 developing countries over the period 1980-2008.\nFindings: The results suggest evidence of a \"U-shaped\" relationship between the structural vulnerability and the total public debt in developing countries. More particularly in low-income countries (LICs), the structural vulnerability appears to be a strong determinant of the build-up of the total public debt.\nResearch limitations/implications: It would be interesting to extend the research to small Island developing states. Indeed, the authors do not include this group of countries because of lack of data, especially on the variable \"quality of governance\" for almost all countries of this group. Accordingly, the research should be extended to such countries as well as these data are available.\nPractical implications: The implications of the study is that international institutions, including those of the Bretton Woods should take into account the structural vulnerability of developing countries when designing development policies, especially the ones related to debt sustainability in developing countries and particularly LICs.\nSocial implications: The fact of the international institutions to take into account the structural vulnerability in the design of international development policy, especially those related to debt issues will have major implications on the macroeconomic policy design by these developing countries as well as on poverty reduction.\nOriginality/value: The added value of this paper is to use recent data on structural vulnerability to analyse the effect of the latter on public indebtdeness of developing countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Toward an integrated model of adoption of mobile phones for purchasing ancillary services in air travel
|
[
"Trust",
"Privacy",
"Security",
"Technology adoption",
"Air travel",
"Ancillary services"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the wake of the recent global economic crisis, fluctuant fuel prices, disruptive global events, and declining revenues from core services, the airline industry began recognizing the importance of ancillary services (Boehmer, 2012a). Ancillary services include bag processing, preferred seating, booking path and check-in priority, fare locking, pre-paid internet access, pre-paid meals - virtually any service added to the core transportation service. Initially bundled with core services, most ancillary services are currently unbundled and sold separately (AMR Corp, 2012) to provide additional revenues to airlines and personalized experiences to travelers (Boehmer, 2012b). The contribution of ancillary services to the total revenue streams of airlines has been increasing substantially over the past few years (Southwest Airlines Co., 2012; United Continental Holdings, Inc., 2012), reaching $6.7 billion in the US and $22.6 billion worldwide in 2010 (Jainchill, 2012a). This trend is expected to continue, as airlines intensify their search for new sources of revenues from unbundled services and packaging options (Travel Tech Consulting, 2011), such as Delta's Trip Extras, American Airlines' Boarding and Flexibility Package, or US Airways' Choice Seats (Boehmer, 2012b).\nReview of literature: Developing a conceptual model using the TAM\nMethodology: Instrument development\nResults: Descriptive analysis\nConclusions: Overall the model explained approximately 84 percent of the variability in intentions to use mobile phones to purchase ancillary services in air travel, indicating that this comprehensive model serves as an appropriate base for studying adoption of mobile technology in air travel. Approximately 65 percent of the variability in attitudes was explained by its predictors, with perceived usefulness being the strongest predictor. Although the hypothesis reflecting a relationship between perceived privacy and trust was not supported, perceived security explained approximately 26 percent in the variability of trust. Approximately 46 percent of variability of perceived usefulness was explained by its predictors, with perceived personalization being the strongest predictor. The variability in the other dependent variables, such as perceived personalization and ease of use was explained to a lower extent, which may point to the existence of other contributors that may influence these dependent variables.\nImplications: This study was motivated by the increasing prevalence of ancillary services in the dynamic landscape of air travel and by a gap in the current research in travel/hospitality technology adoption. It extended the theoretical perspective of technology adoption by grounding new concepts into a popular theory (the TAM), and applying them to a new context (mobile phones used for purchasing ancillary air travel services). This study's framework was well supported, as it captured core system beliefs (e.g. usefulness, ease of use) as well as personal traits of consumers (e.g. innovativeness), thus extending the classic paradigmatic approach to technology adoption. Representing a pioneering effort that examines the context of ancillary services commercialization using m-commerce platforms, this study is uniquely positioned to offer a number of important theoretical and managerial implications.\nLimitations in directions for further research: Like all studies on information technology adoption, this study has a number of limitations. Thus, its results should be interpreted with caution. A first limitation is related to the task environment, which is specific to all studies based on the TAM. Second, all TAM methodology uses intentions instead of actual behavior, grounded in the assumption that intentions are strong predictors of actual behavior (Davis, 1989). However, in most technology adoption literature (Eastlick et al., 2006; Venkatesh and Bala, 2008), intentions are used as surrogates for actual behavior, which is the case in this research as well. Although it would have been interesting to use actual measures of behavior, the cost of the study would have exceeded the feasible levels. Further research should revalidate the results obtained in this study using actual behavior measures.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Recently, ancillary services' (e.g. bag processing, preferred seating) contribution to the overall air travel revenues has become substantial. Yet, no study to date has addressed how these services are purchased. This study aims to investigate air travelers' adoption of mobile phones to purchase ancillary air travel services.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A comprehensive structural model was developed based on the Technology Acceptance Model and augmented with constructs like trust, privacy, security, innovativeness, and personalization. The model was validated using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equations modeling.\nFindings: The model explained 84 percent of the variability in intentions to use mobile phones to purchase air travel ancillary services. The strongest predictor of attitudes was perceived usefulness, followed by perceived ease of use and trust.\nResearch limitations/implications: First, this study's extended theoretical framework was well supported, as it captures relevant system perceptions (e.g. usefulness, ease of use) and personal traits of consumers (e.g. innovativeness), thus extending the classic paradigmatic approach to technology adoption beyond system beliefs. Second, the study explains the relationships among trust, security, and privacy in m-commerce. Third, this study explicates the roles of innovativeness and personalization, which have not been examined in the context of m-commerce in travel.\nPractical implications: This study offers managers an understanding of factors leading to adoption of mobile phones for purchasing air travel ancillary services.\nOriginality/value: This study provides a first theoretical perspective on the purchasing behavior of services that have not been studied so far, but have an increasingly substantial financial significance for the airline industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Factors causing the relationship gap between top management and IS personnel
|
[
"Top management",
"Business-IS relationship",
"IS managers",
"IS personnel"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The permanent development of new technologies, growing customers' expectations and constant struggle for market survival are forcing companies to obtain competitive advantages. Innovative IS can help companies to obtain a competitive advantage and fulfil the growing expectations of different clients (De Haes and Van Grembergen, 2009; Kim et al., 2008); however, being innovative is not enough particularly where top management does not perceive the business value of IS (Agarwal and Lucas, 2005). Therefore, an efficient relationship between IS and top management is a precondition for gaining an advantage from IS, while the consequences of implementing them in the context of an inefficient relationship between top management and IS personnel are often neglected.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 The relationship between top management and IS personnel\n3. Research methodology: 3.1 Research instrument\n4. Data analysis and results: To define the factors that are important in the business-IS relationship an exploratory factor analysis using SPSS 19.0 was conducted and a principal axis factoring extraction method with a varimax rotation was used.\n5. Discussion: 5.1 Findings and implications\n6. Conclusion: Too many IS projects are still failing in companies due to an inefficient business-IS relationship, despite several studies in the field. Bridging the gap between top management and IS personnel is thus highly important. A precondition for bridging the gap is to identify factors that are important in the business-IS relationship. This paper contributed to understanding the key factors in the relationship between top management and IS managers and identifies factors where significant differences exist.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The gap between top management and IS personnel is preventing organisations develop a competitive advantage based on IS. The purpose of this paper is thus to improve the understanding of the relationship between top management and IS personnel and to identify the key factors that are important in this relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two separate questionnaires were used for IS department managers and top management to identify key factors in the relationship. In total, 221 CIOs and 93 CEOs agreed to participate in the research. To identify factors in the business-IS relationship an exploratory factor analysis was used. Further, factor scores were calculated and the independent samples t-test was used to compare these factor scores to reveal any significant differences in perceptions between CIOs and CEOs.\nFindings: The empirical investigation reveals the existence of nine factors that are important in the business-IS relationship. Seven factors are perceived differently by top management and IS management and thus causing the gap in the relationship, while two factors are similarly perceived.\nPractical implications: The paper presents the key areas business and IS personnel should pay attention to. Therefore, it enables reducing the business-IS gap by considering the identified factors and dedicating significant effort to the factors with significant differences.\nOriginality/value: The paper contributes to understanding the key factors in the relationship between top and IS managers as it identifies factors that are causing the business-IS gap. Thus, it develops the existing literature since it is simultaneously focusing on managerial and IS side. The study is also valuable for researchers enabling future research in exploring these factors in detail.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Towards a well-functioning stock market in context: Critically appreciating issues in interpreting efficient markets research and its regulatory implications
|
[
"Pricing",
"Policy",
"Regulation",
"Information",
"Market",
"Stock"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In this paper, the concern is to critically reflect upon academic literature and research in the area of efficient markets and related regulatory policy. We consider what the literature and research imply for policy. We reflect upon whether the meaning of the research may be problematically read and inform problematic policy. We then aim to point to avenues for future research building upon our reflections.\nAppreciating efficient markets research in relation to policy: We might imagine, on a walk down Wall Street in New York City, a chance encounter with a somewhat wild-eyed man carrying a two-sided placard. As you walk towards him you see that the placard informs you in large letters: \"Prices on the Stock Exchange are correct\"! As you walk past you turn to read, on the placard's other side: \"No need to regulate them\"!\nConcluding comments: A review of key aspects of the literature on information, pricing, social well-being and regulation suggests a pragmatic policy. More meaningful notions of efficient markets (with respect to information) are extremely difficult to validate in practice (they are difficult to refute with evidence too, given all the things that can be blamed when ostensible refutation manifests - and basically given the difficulty of testing). Rhetoric, with a scientific reference, is fashioned in relation to prevailing hegemony. It is important to interpret empirical work cautiously and with a great suspicion of the language in which it is framed. Not being able as a midstream investor to consistently make abnormal profit from various strategies using information available (public and/or private) does not necessarily mean prices are very close to fundamental value (no strong argument against improving regulation is entailed by the former finding). If prices were near \"correct\" in the fundamental value terms articulated then if we could isolate the stock market from everything else that would suggest that the particular regulatory mix (State-market-other) was working ok (it would not suggest that we can do without any regulation). But we cannot isolate the stock market in this way. Although analytical reasoning is suggestive of the positive potentialities of markets, well-functioning stock markets do not imply that other markets function well and do not imply that other aspects of the context function well. The impacts on social well-being of the stock market are dependent on the character of other markets and more generally on the social and environmental context. A regulator concerned about well-being is concerned about improvement in all these dimensions, which can be so difficult to achieve in practice (and things may well vary between contexts - countries and cultures for instance - while there are also similarities and contexts may learn from each other). If seeking to improve things is not costless, from the evidence and contextual analysis, it would be somewhat wild to conclude against trying to improve stock market regulation, including with respect to information, as well as trying to improve other contextual dimensions. We have suggested the case for pragmatic regulation. This includes being concerned to intervene to improve the quality of information. It also includes being concerned to intervene to improve the wider economic, social and environmental context. Detailed suggestions in the financial regulatory sphere can be found in the literature (see, for instance, Crotty, 2009; Crotty and Epstein, 2009; Baker, 2010; see Frankfurter, 2006, 2007; Thaler and Cunstein, 2009; Shiller, 2012). Here we have given emphasis to taking (more) seriously the need to improve information and as a regulatory device in relation to pricing[12]. It cannot be currently argued that enough is done currently in relation to the quality of information. For instance, to give just one idea, in the sphere of stock market pricing the case for the monitoring of prices through a kind of audit function, while not straightforward, could be a corrective to \"irrational exuberance\" (notwithstanding that this may clearly not be a perfect process)[13]. A pragmatic concern to progress well-being should be suspicious of approaches suggesting that there is nothing else to do except leave things to markets, particular or general, even while valuing the positive actualities and possibilities thereof. In our current context, many see at least the positive potential of quality pricing in terms of an allocative function (see Coffee, 1984). And the phenomenon of stock market crashes (which can be exacerbated in the combination of modern trading with fraud and market manipulation, see Easley et al., 2011), which most see as at least ex post evidence of manifestations of poor quality pricing, is for many linked to very negative outcomes. Even given some doubt about pricing in this context, a regulator concerned about social well-being should seek to do something to intervene. The issue then would be to do so at some reasonable level of cost. In our view, our reflections are suggestive of avenues for future research. For instance, building upon the work done on problematic rhetoric including very detailed analysis of key texts is here suggested. And exploring the understandings and interpretations of efficient markets research by key constituencies throughout the world, including in developed as well as emerging markets, would be useful research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to summarise and reflect upon key issues at the interface of prices, information and regulation with a focus upon the stock market in context. Reflecting upon academic research in the area of efficient markets, and regulatory policy, the concern is to discern issues in terms of policy and support for policy. What does the research imply for policy? Is it possible that the research, perhaps given its rhetoric, can be misinterpreted in relation to policy? The study is also concerned to develop avenues for future research based on these considerations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is an analytical and critical review and writing.\nFindings: The reading of the research suggests a pragmatic regulatory policy that should be concerned to improve stock market functioning, including with respect to information, as well as the context of which this is part. At the same time, the literature may be read as promoting anti-regulatory policy.\nPractical implications: On the one hand, these are consistent with the pragmatic policy referred to above. On the other hand, further research is suggested to explore substantively the rhetoric of the research and its interpretation and to explore understandings of the research and its implications amongst key constituencies in practice.\nOriginality/value: The concern is to bring key insights from the academic literature together with a view to promoting a pragmatic policy orientation, while cautioning in a critical perspective about how this academic literature and research might be interpreted from a policy perspective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The Teflon effect: when the glass slipper meets merit
|
[
"Gender",
"Careers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In this paper, we draw on Ashcraft's (2013) metaphor of the \"glass slipper\", which encapsulates the alignment between occupational identity and embodied social identities of workers. We argue that women experience a \"Teflon effect\" when misalignment occurs in that merit, on which promotion and progression decisions are often based, goes unrecognised and fails to \"stick\" onto those who possess it. The glass slipper is part of a popular fairy tale of unjust oppression - a story of Cinderella, a mistreated and impoverished girl who meets a handsome prince. The prince later identifies her through a dropped slipper into which her foot neatly fits - marrying her in a true fairy-tale ending. Although not devoid of sexist overtones (Cinderella's ugly sisters attempt to seek the prince's favours by claiming the slipper as their own, but of course their feet are too big), the glass slipper metaphor is an apt one in that it captures the need in certain contexts for alignment and fit. Specifically, Ashcraft (2013) argues for recognition of the identity that attaches to occupations and how this may or may not align with the embodied dispositions of those doing the job.\nGlass works: The notion of glass has become a well-utilised and apt metaphor for the invisible yet durable barriers and obstacles that women and other groups face at the workplace. Dominant among these different conceptualisations is the so-called Glass Ceiling, first coined in 1986 by the Wall Street Journal, which has captured the artificial barriers to the advancement of women and minorities and has sought to throw light on the reasons for the persistent paucity of women in senior management roles. These reasons have included norms supporting men and women's differential hierarchical positioning (Morrison and Von Glinow, 1990), gendered notions of successful management based on masculine characteristics (Schein, 1973; Powell, 1993), the effects of homosocial reproduction whereby (male) decision-makers choose others for key positions similar to themselves (Kanter, 1977), stereotypes and negative perceptions of women (Powell, 2005), a male model of working based on uninterrupted work and long hours (Maniero and Sullivan, 2005), the demands of motherhood (Hewlett, 2007), lack of mentoring (Ragins, 1999) and different development experiences (job variety and challenging tasks) which are often given to men rather than women and give men a competitive edge (Ohlott et al., 1994). A useful summary of the factors contained within the glass ceiling can be found in Weyer (2007) in this journal.\nThe glass slipper: This idea of \"suitability\" finds purchase in Cohen's suggestion for a more fluid notion of career as a \"product of a particular time and place and social circumstance, informed by experience and history\" (Cohen, 2014, p. 167). Here, she develops the concept of \"career imagination\" - a construct that defines the limits of what a person sees as possible in career terms and in so doing also what is impossible. As she argues, career imaginations are circumscribed by the occupations and sectors that are seen as available and appropriate and by the progression routes prescribed.\nWhen the glass slipper does not fit: Although alignment of occupational identity and embodied social identities may have positive effects in terms of remuneration, progression and other aspects of work-based experiences, misalignment has potential to lead to systematic forms of disadvantage. Although not fully explored in her account, if some people are seen to \"naturally\" fit certain occupations and roles, it follows that others do not align with the social definition of the work they do. Looking at nursing care, some work (Simpson et al., 2012; Pullen and Simpson, 2009) has highlighted how meanings attached to men's bodies (e.g. of rationality, detachment, cleanliness and authority) are seen as incongruent with the demands of bodily nursing care and emotional support. Instead, these demands are commonly inscribed onto the bodies of women (Evans, 2002) with their association with \"lower order\" behaviours. Men are seen as out of place and unsuitable for the demands of such roles. Similarly, as discussed earlier, Anderson (2000) refers to how norms of acceptability deem some \"dirty work\" such as domestic cleaning to be appropriate for women - their bodies marked by misogyny and carrying dirt's stigma - but not, from Glenn (1992), suitable for the \"cleaner\" bodies of men.\nMerit and the glass ceiling: Drawing on earlier discussions, the glass ceiling is based on notions of a concrete reality that is largely divorced from considerations of the identity of the work and from the embodied dispositions of the workers. Education, skills and past achievements - that comprise key criteria for merit and the distribution of rewards - are seen to adhere to a neutral body with the suggestion that women (or other groups) must work hard, in Sheryl Sanberg's terms, \"lean in\", to overcome barriers faced.\nWhen the glass slipper meets merit: the Teflon effect: Haynes's (2012) study highlights how professional identity and gendered embodiment are closely interlinked. This has clear parallels with the glass slipper concept which demonstrates the importance of an alignment between occupations and embodied social identities. As discussed earlier, bodies are seen as appropriate for different forms of work - an alignment that can be both demographic (based e.g. on gender, race and class) and symbolic in that some groups may be \"discursively or emblematically\" associated with the job (Ashcraft, 2013, p. 9). Professional services such as law and accountancy are accordingly linked to the embodied dispositions and embodied performances of men.\nConclusion: In this paper, we have introduced the Teflon effect, integrating it with Ashcraft's (2013) notion of the \"glass slipper\" - the latest in the glass metaphors to describe the problems women face in undertaking or aspiring to management roles. We accordingly draw attention towards processes underpinning misalignment or misfit, largely overlooked in her account. We argue that women experience a \"Teflon effect\" when misalignment occurs between occupational identity and the embodied social identity of workers in that merit (requisite skills, qualifications and expertise) fails to \"stick\". As the ugly sisters found as they sought to squeeze into the glass slipper and claim the prize of marriage to the prince, bodies are marked with meaning. Their bodies did not fit the idealised notion of a princess, only because of their unattractiveness and their oversized feet. They may have the qualities of a princess (whatever that may be) but merit did not stick.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to draw on Ashcraft's (2013) metaphor of the \"glass slipper\" (which highlights the need for alignment between occupational identity and embodied social identities of workers) to show how merit may not adhere to individuals when social identity in the form of gender, race or class fails to fit the definition and perceived characteristics of the job.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper.\nFindings: This study develops the notion of the Teflon effect to describe the way merit may go unrecognised and may therefore not \"stick\" to the bodies of women in management and leadership roles.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study provides an explanation for the persistence of the glass ceiling and the barriers women face as they undertake or aspire to management and/or leadership positions in organisations.\nPractical implications: This study introduces a more embodied notion of merit which relies on both performance and recognition to \"take effect\". Professionals must see beyond \"objective\" measures of merit in performance reviews and/or in recruitment and promotion decisions to include reflection on the significance of merit's subjective, \"performed\" dimensions.\nSocial implications: This study adds to understandings of women's positioning in organisations.\nOriginality/value: This study develops the notion of the Teflon effect. This highlights the significance of the recognition, performance and embodiment of merit and how merit may fail to adhere to the bodies of women in management and leadership roles.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Individualism and internet addiction: the mediating role of psychological needs
|
[
"Internet",
"Individualism",
"Espoused culture",
"Internet addiction",
"Psychological needs"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The number of individuals using the internet continues to influx and recent statistics show that internet penetration rates in developed and developing countries have reached to 81 and 40.1 percent, respectively (International Telecommunication Union, 2016). The increase in internet use is coupled with the emergence of a novel clinical disorder (Young, 1998), which is interchangeably described by different terms such as internet addiction (e.g. Qiaolei, 2014; Huang, 2010), pathological internet use (e.g. Davis, 2001), problematic internet use (e.g. Caplan, 2002), internet dependency (e.g. Mafe and Blas, 2006), or compulsive internet use (e.g. Meerkerk et al., 2009). The present study prefers the term \"internet addiction\" to connote \"an impulsive-compulsive spectrum disorder\" that involves online and/or offline computer usage (Hollander and Stein, 2007, p. 205). The cognitive-behavioral model of internet addiction proposes that psychological well-being is associated with certain cognitions and behaviors on the internet (Davis, 2001). Thus, internet addiction is related to \"excessive amounts of time spent online, compulsive use of the Internet, difficulty in managing time spent on the Internet, feeling that the world outside of the Internet is boring, becoming irritated if disturbed while being online, and decrease in social communication\" (e.g. Kraut et al., 1998). It is also associated with complications such as withdrawal, tolerance, social isolation, arguments, dependency, poor achievement, fatigue, and interpersonal relationship problems (e.g. Beard and Wolf, 2001; Ko et al., 2008; Jiang, 2014; Dhir et al., 2015; Yang et al., 2016; Mafe and Blas, 2006; Lin and Tsai, 2002).\n2. Research model and hypotheses: 2.1 Individualism\n3. Method: 3.1 Population and sample\n4. Results: 4.1 Quantitative findings\n5. Discussion and conclusion: We modeled the implications of Hofstede's (1983) culture theory on Murray's (1938) need theory. Based on the cognitive-behavioral model of internet addiction and previous research findings, we hypothesized that espoused culture (i.e. individualism) would positively affect the need for achievement, autonomy, and dominance; whereas, it would negatively affect the need for affiliation; that psychological needs, in turn, would affect internet addiction; and that psychological needs would mediate the relationship between individualism and internet addiction. These hypotheses were confirmed and findings show that students who behave more in the direction of their personal interest (i.e. individualists) tend to have higher needs for achievement, autonomy, and dominance but lower needs for affiliation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of psychological needs in the association between individualism and internet addiction.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A mixed-method design was used by comprising of 602 college students' (70.3 percent women) responses obtained through the Individualism-Collectivism Survey, New Needs Assessment Questionnaire, and Internet Addiction Scale. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to investigate the theoretical relationships among the constructs. Constant comparative method was employed to analyze qualitative data that resulted from the transcription of semi-structured interviews with 12 field experts.\nFindings: Quantitative results showed that individualism has a significant effect on internet addiction through affiliation, dominance, achievement, and autonomy (i.e. psychological needs). As students' needs for dominance, achievement, and autonomy increased their internet addiction levels decreased. However, increase in the need of affiliation led to increase in the likelihood of internet addiction. Qualitative findings suggested alternative ways to satisfy psychological needs in socially more proper ways.\nOriginality/value: Psychological needs and internet addiction have long been investigated both independently and in relation to each other. However, the investigation of espoused culture (i.e. individualism) in relation to psychological needs and internet addiction is relatively recent. A review of the recent literature showed that an investigation of the mediating role of psychological needs in the effect of individualism on internet addiction is highly original. Moreover, initial quantitative results and follow-up qualitative findings help the authors understand psychological needs underlying internet addiction and suggest socially more appropriate means to satisfy these needs. Findings have theoretical values for researchers as well as practical values for those who work with students.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The paradox of roots and wings: labor mobility between local firms and MNEs in North Africa
|
[
"MNEs",
"Knowledge management",
"Human resource management",
"Paradox",
"Labour mobility",
"Local firms"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Organizations, and individuals alike, constantly face paradoxes in their decision-making activities (Putnam et al., 2016; Zhang et al., 2015). Areas related to strategy making of organizations, such as stability vs change, commitment vs flexibility or individual contributions vs teamwork, represent decision-making paradoxes (Lewis et al., 2014; Cunha et al., 2016). Research on human resource management (HRM), which deals with human dynamics, is not immune to such paradoxes. Increasing evidence points out that paradoxes in decision-making exist in areas relating to human resource, such as centralization vs decentralization, local vs global policies and home vs host country (Murnighan and Conlon, 1991; Gomes et al., 2015; Cunha et al., 2018), as well as individual-level paradoxes such as creativity and leadership (Schad et al., 2016). Labor mobility is of particular concern here because it may provoke some tensions across HRM and knowledge management. As labor mobility is considered a knowledge transfer mechanism across competing firms, it can involve individual-level learning-related paradoxical choices as experienced by the local talent.\nLiterature review: The link between human resource management and knowledge management\nResearch methods: The relevance of the context\nData analysis: Similar to most qualitative research, data analysis in IPA is multidimensional and iterative (Smith et al., 2009). IPA provides a rich exploration of the context and detailed analysis of lived experiences. In adopting the IPA approach to analyze our qualitative data, we engaged in understanding the content and complexity of respondents' experiences about the phenomenon. This involves engaging in an interpretive relationship between personal process and institutional context. For instance, IPA offered a rich insight into describing and explaining why talented individuals move from local firms to MNEs and then intend to return to local firms, underlying the influence of the context of Algeria.\nFindings: In this section, we uncover the nature of paradoxes that labor mobility between local firms and MNE subsidiaries engenders. Two main tensions have emerged from the data analysis. The first tension is leaving roots vs growing wings. This metaphor provokes the tension of leaving local firms and moving to MNEs. The second tension is flying wings vs remaining true to roots (the grass is not always greener), which refers to employees moving back or intending to move back to local firms. The findings of the two emerging tensions are reported below.\nDiscussion and conclusion: This study explores employee's mobility between local firms and MNEs in Algeria. In so doing, the study sheds light on the black box of labor mobility by discussing two central paradoxes of labor mobility in emerging markets:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore employees' knowledge- and learning-related experiences in moving between local firms and multinational enterprises (MNEs) and to examine the nature of paradoxes of labor mobility that local talents face in their career in the North African country of Algeria. In doing so, this paper explored the multifaceted experiences of employees who left local firms and joined MNEs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use a qualitative study, in-depth interviews with 12 employees from various industries, and apply an interpretive phenomenological approach to explain labor mobility between local firms and MNEs in the North African country of Algeria. The authors specifically focus on personal experiences of employees who worked in both local firms and MNEs.\nFindings: The findings report a paradoxical situation and suggest that despite talented individuals grow their capabilities in MNEs through reward and personal growth incentives, the grass is not always greener, and they face the paradox of nurturing their capabilities (wings) or empowering their roots by returning local firms to seek stability, security and flexibility.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the research at the intersection of human resource management, knowledge management and the paradox of management in emerging markets. Its value stems from empirically explicating the paradox of roots and wings as a complementary, learning type of paradox that individuals at local firms and MNEs in Algeria experience.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Distributed leadership, knowledge and information management and team performance in Chinese and Western groups
|
[
"Leadership",
"Information management",
"Information exchange",
"Knowledge management",
"Team performance",
"China"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There has been increasing dissatisfaction with the domination of the concept of the \"focused\" or \"solo\" leader in much leadership research: leadership is often seen as about what leaders do, in a top-down way where solo leaders are the main originators and directors of leadership (Gronn, 1999, 2002). Concerns with leader centrism and the dependent status of followers, leading to \"learned helplessness\" (Gemmil and Oakley, 1997) and the concentration of influence central to most conceptions of \"transformational\" or \"charismatic\" leadership has led some to claim that \"leadership\" has outlived its usefulness (Kerr and Jermier, 1978). However, little rigorous research has been conducted on alternatives. Most concerns with the traditional leader-centred paradigm centre on the dichotomy of \"leader-follower\", which Gronn (2002, p. 425) argues \"precludes accurate understanding of leadership practice, in particular the actual divisions of leadership labour which prevail in different contexts\". Such orthodox formulations are seen as prescribing, not describing, a division of labour, at a time when such a division is rapidly changing with new technologies and team-based work structures.More studies are beginning to support the role of distributed, as opposed to solo, leadership in team performance, but distributed leadership (DL) is not always linked with higher performance. DL may need to be co-ordinated, rather than misaligned or fragmented and may be most effective in teams performing interdependent tasks. Our paper suggests that it is important to recognize and model different structural patterns of DL within teams rather than merely assessing the extent to which DL is present. Also, DL has not often been linked to team information processing; viewing leadership as involving information management, the authors proposed that DL may be linked to higher levels of information exchange and information integration, of both shared and unshared information. Such information may be managed differently by Chinese and Western teams, and DL may be found more often in Chinese rather than Western teams.\nTheory and propositions: Distributed leadership\nConclusion and implications: The behaviour of the appointed or elected leader of some team or organization has been typically the focus of most studies on leadership (Bass, 1990). However, although normative leadership research sees the leader as a centred subject with a particular orientation, leaders are not \"the autonomous, self-determining individual with a secure unitary identity (at) the centre of the social universe\" (Alvesson and Deetz, 2000, p. 98).More studies are beginning to support the role of distributed, as opposed to solo, leadership in team performance, but DL is not always linked to higher performance. As Harris (2008, p. 184) points out, \"we must not fall into the trap of believing that any form of distributed leadership is inherently good. It depends\". This conclusion is supported by Iles and Macaulay (2007) in their research on ethical leadership in English local government; though some participants claimed that leadership of the ethical agenda was \"distributed\" across various actors (e.g. government departments, the Standards Board for England, local standards committees, monitoring officers, chief executives, council leaders) it appeared that such leadership was \"fragmented\" rather than \"distributed\". Mehra et al. (2006) in a study of US sales teams using sociometric analysis also failed to find support for the idea that the more leadership is distributed across the members of a team, the better the team's performance; decentralization of the leadership network was here not significantly related to superior team performance.However, certain kinds of decentralized leadership structures were associated with better team performance, indicating the importance of \"structure\" with respect to the impact of DL on team performance. DL may need to be co-ordinated, rather than misaligned or fragmented, and may be most effective in teams performing interdependent tasks. Distributed-coordinated structures were more associated with higher team performance than both traditional leader-centred leadership networks and distributed-fragmented leadership networks: \"team performance is not simply a matter of having more leaders. It also matters whether or not the leaders see each other as leaders\" (Mehra et al., 2006, p. 241).In addition, DL has not often been linked to team information processing. Viewing leadership as involving information management, it is proposed in the present paper that DL may be linked to higher levels of information exchange and information integration. This is very important for understanding collective information processing in teams and, as understanding team behaviours becomes increasingly essential, it is hoped that the theory can lay the groundwork for understanding collective information processing and invoke further interests on the issue by integrating the efforts of researchers studying DL and team performance.As collectivism has been found to be associated with higher levels of DL in teams, it may be that Chinese decision-making teams are more likely to display higher levels than Western teams. If this can be aligned or co-ordinated, rather than anarchic or fragmented, such teams are likely to show higher levels of performance. Such propositions need further empirical testing with decision-making teams drawn from homogenous Chinese and Western members and heterogeneous teams composed of mixed Chinese and Western team members.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - More studies are beginning to support the role of distributed, as opposed to solo, leadership in team performance, but distributed leadership (DL) has not always been linked to higher performance. It may need to be co-ordinated, rather than misaligned or fragmented, and may be most effective in teams performing interdependent tasks. DL has not often been linked to team information processing, however; viewing leadership as involving information management, it is proposed that DL may be linked to higher levels of information exchange and information integration, of both shared and unshared information. A series of research propositions are then developed with the purpose of exploring further the role of DL in team decision making, especially in terms of information exchange and information integration processes in Chinese and Western groups.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper derives a number of research propositions from the literature on DL and information processing and applies them to decision making by Chinese and Western teams.\nFindings: - The paper presents a series of propositions on the factors affecting the effectiveness of DL and possible differences between Chinese and Western teams.\nOriginality/value: - The paper presents a series of propositions about DL and relates the literature on DL to the literature on information processing in an original way.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The emotional mechanics of maintaining occupational boundaries between change professionals: Managing turf wars between HR managers and external OD consultants
|
[
"Human resource managers",
"Organizational development",
"Occupational boundary work",
"External organizational development practitioners",
"Occupational threat"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The ongoing evolution of the human resources (HR) role into that of an organization's integrated strategic partner has widened the remit of HR managers (HRMs) to include culture, employment law, talent management, recruitment, onboarding, change management, learning and development, and performance management. Yet, companies continue to bring in external organizational development practitioners (EODPs) to deliver a behavioral science-led, effectiveness-boosting approach to organizational change that has also evolved to widen the practitioner's occupational scope.\nThree boundary work behavior patterns: Occupational boundary work can be understood as the collected efforts that separate and give identity to certain knowledge and skills to form a recognized professional brand. HRMs say they have assimilated OD work into their remit and so see external OD consultants as threats to their role being taken seriously by the top management. These self-image issues equally concern EODPs who can feel frustrated with HRMs intervening unhelpfully in their work. Yet at the same time, HRMs acknowledge that they can learn from OD consultants if this vulnerability mindset is moved aside.\nSome practical steps forward: The study's findings demonstrate how the HRM-EODP working relationship is often a tensely complex, rivalrous, insecure, and emotionally depleting one, where an appetite for the reassurance of autonomous decision-making power is ravenous on both sides. Occupational boundaries are immediately created and rather desperately maintained to keep HRM and EODP activities segregated within change processes, yet this can effect the backdoor benefit of collaborative learning, fueled on a yearning for individual survival. Yet, the results show that trust-based HRM-EODP collaboration is a potential source for both parties to elevate their status concurrently, by focusing on delivering a high-quality change process in non-antagonistic unison. The emotional threat of perceived role boundary encroachment sensed by either party, however, is a tenacious barrier rooted on the road to such a result manifesting. Therefore, both parties could benefit by increasing their self-awareness of the impacts of the occupational boundaries they cling to. Doing so would nudge them to recondition their professional mindsets toward delivering greater value to the organization within an ever-pressurizing business climate.\nCommentary: The review is based on \"Divided we stand? Occupational boundary work among human resource managers and external organization development practitioners\" by Kuna and Nadiv (2018), published in Employee Relations. This research paper concentrates on patterns of behavior exhibited by HRMs and EODPs to retain their occupational boundaries. A sense of competitive occupational threat is pervasive and often erodes the value added by both professionals when organizations proceed through change processes, despite the potential for mutually valuable and organizationally beneficial learning opportunities being there for the taking.\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 his/her own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: This research paper concentrates on patterns of behavior exhibited by human resource managers and external organizational development practitioners to retain their occupational boundaries. A sense of competitive occupational threat is pervasive and often erodes the value added by both professionals when organizations proceed through change processes, despite the potential for mutually valuable and organizationally beneficial learning opportunities being there for the taking.\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"
}
] |
Intellectual capital and value creation in Spanish firms
|
[
"Human capital",
"Value added",
"Spain"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The need to review traditional indicator systems, which focus more on financial measures, has been reiterated by numerous authors. They have investigated the defining characteristics of such systems that make them inappropriate for the contexts in which they continue to be used (Atkinson, 1987; Atkinson et al., 1997; Kaplan, 1983, 1990; Johnson and Kaplan, 1988; Dent, 1990; Eccles, 1991; Hall et al., 1991; Lynch and Cross, 1991; McKinnon and Bruns, 1992; Burns et al., 1997; Clinton and Hsu, 1997). In these works, we repeatedly find evidence to suggest that the exclusive use of financial data neither addresses the interests of all the stakeholders nor properly assesses an organization's efficiency.The existence of a set of indicators is nothing new in business organizations. What is considered a novel development is their use as information systems that are able to evaluate trends in knowledge acquisition to stimulate improvements in value creation. Thus, it is essential to introduce non-financial indicators, as elements that support the achievement of the aforementioned objective, thereby allowing other aspects to be introduced that go beyond those contained in conventional financial statements.Indicators of a non-financial nature, among which we may distinguish those of both a quantitative and a qualitative nature, encompass a wide variety of aspects relating to the development of business activity that cast light on the extent to which different stakeholder needs are being satisfied. The existence of adequate structures to identify, measure, manage and disseminate aspects of intellectual capital can be very valuable.The study presented in this paper is structured into two separate sections, both of an empirical nature.First, an exploratory study was performed, which began with a sample of Spanish firms situated within one geographic area: the autonomous region of Castilla y Leon. This choice is explained by an attempt to improve the response rate, taking into account that its representativeness - in terms of sectors and firm size - is similar to that which might be obtained at a national level. The region occupies 18.7 per cent of the total surface area of Spain and generates 5.4 per cent of its GDP.Second, we undertook an explanatory analysis to test the possible relation between indicators of human and structural capital identified in the exploratory analysis, and the economic-financial results of the financial statements. Moreover, the added value that corresponds to the sum of the efficiency of human and structural capital is also included in this explanatory analysis, through the VAIC and its link to the measurement of value creation. This more or less implicit relation is defended in the theoretical literature that is cited further on, but it is not so evident when examining the reality in terms of figures, which implies a further reason to examine this binomial more closely. The paper closes with a presentation of the main conclusions drawn from our observations.\nExploratory analysis: Methodology\nResults of the survey: Profile of the participant firms\nExplanatory analysis: Methodology\nConclusions: The theoretical literature upholds the usefulness that human capital and structural capital indicator systems -as constituents of intellectual capital- have for the firms that decide to implement them. Even when they are difficult to assess in monetary units, they allow elements to be controlled and visualized that are key for the generation of new knowledge, the principal source of value creation.This work examines whether these theoretical proposals are being supported by empirical evidence grounded in business reality. To achieve this aim, a two-fold exploratory and explanatory analysis was performed.The exploratory analysis studied the effective implementation of human capital and structural capital indicators in Spanish firms from the large autonomous region of Castile and Leon. As has been demonstrated, the indicators that are measured more than any other in the field of human capital are staff training and occupational accident rates. Nevertheless, there are significant differences between sectors, which highlight the commitment of automotive component and software development firms. In the area relating to structural capital, the most widely measured indicator is the quality of process functioning, which is ahead of key areas such as investment in information technology and investment in R&D. As previously noted for human capital, the automotive component and software development firms are once again those that demonstrate the greatest concern for measurement systems.The explanatory analysis allows us to fulfil the objective of this study, by contributing new independent variables that influence value creation, and to conclude, at a first stage, that those firms in the sample that use human capital and structural capital indicators present a positive relation with sales growth. Although the previous literature has in fact used certain variables to test their effect on the increase in sales figures, the use of those included in this study provides new evidence. Additionally, at a second stage, greater levels of added value referring to the ICE are also positively related to an increase in sales figures. The sectorial variables for the entire sample did not present significant results, which agrees with the work of Firer and Williams (2003), whose results indicate that the type of sector contributes very little to the explanatory power.These findings constitute a step forward in the search for relations between different variables that are representative of intellectual capital and value creation. These variables, specifically human capital and structural capital, were not only obtained from databases available on the market but also from within the firms themselves. This implies that the evidence to date has been broadened. In the context of this paper, it should also be added that the sample of firms is from a country where evidence in this field is still very scarce.Despite having identified a relation between intellectual capital and value creation, the study finds no evidence of a significant relationship between the use of human capital and structural capital indicators and dependent variables other than sales growth, such as return on assets (ROA) or productivity. The authors would have preferred to have obtained information from a larger number of firms, which would perhaps have contributed to finding new significant relations. This limitation suggests that further research is needed, such as carrying out large-scale longitudinal studies using panel data analysis.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore and to explain the influence of representative variables of human capital and structural capital on the creation of business value.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An exploratory analysis was initially performed on the degree to which firms actually used human and structural capital indicators, through a survey sent out to Spanish firms with a staff of 25 employees or more. Subsequently, by means of an explanatory analysis, the relationship was studied between the use made of the aforementioned indicators and a set of variables selected as representative of value creation. The information on value creation was taken from the Sistema de Analisis de Balances Ibericos (SABI-AMADEUS) database. Moreover, in an attempt to corroborate the results of this explanatory analysis, a further independent variable was simultaneously introduced taken from the financial statements held on the same database and applied to the same sample of firms; known as the value added intellectual coefficient (VAIC), it analyses value creation efficiency.\nFindings: - The explanatory analysis of multiple lineal correlations and regressions allows us to confirm the positive relation that exists between the use of human and structural capital indicators, and value creation measured by sales growth. Simultaneously, higher levels of the VAIC, in particular for the component that refers to the sum of the coefficient of human capital and structural capital, are also related to improvements in competitiveness reflected through an increase in sales figures.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Despite having identified a relation between intellectual capital and value creation, the study finds no evidence of a significant relationship between the use of human capital and structural capital indicators and dependent variables other than sales growth, such as return on assets (ROA) or productivity. The authors would have preferred to have obtained information from a larger number of firms, which would perhaps have contributed to finding new significant relations. This limitation suggests that further research is needed, such as carrying out large-scale longitudinal studies using panel data analysis.\nOriginality/value: - This analysis has a dual perspective based on observations taken from a survey and economic-financial analysis. It is a novel study in the Spanish context given that the analysis of aspects related to intellectual capital have on numerous occasions centred on large and/or quoted firms in that country, solely using information taken from secondary sources (databases).\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The communication of intellectual capital: the "whys" and "whats"
|
[
"Motivation",
"Communication",
"Banks",
"Intellectual capital reporting",
"Content and format"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The communication of IC (CIC) as a distinct field of study has gained attention only in the recent decade (Serenko et al., 2010). It is defined as the information disclosure of an organization's IC assets through annual reports and supplementary corporate disclosure (ARS), be it mandatory or voluntary. Past studies have shown that the ARS is focussed as it is a good source to analyze the CIC as part of corporate reporting (Dumay and Garanina, 2013; Guthrie et al., 2004). The CIC is fueled in part by changes in regulatory reporting frameworks (Coldwell et al., 2012; PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2014), stakeholders' demand (Bismuth and Yoshiaki, 2008; Ousama et al., 2011) and the need to manage organizational image (Herzig and Schaltegger, 2006).\n2. Literature review: The importance of the CIC in building organizational resilience is widely recognized (Kamath, 2007; Lengnick-Hall et al., 2011). Scholars have also previously emphasized the need to analyze, measure and disclose IC in supporting organizational performance (Andriessen, 2004; Giuliani, 2009; Mouritsen et al., 2003). However, comprehending the underlying motivations that drive the CIC is still limited in the field of IC. Existing IC literature, albeit scanty, suggests that organizations are pressured by government to report IC in the ARS (Holder-Webb et al., 2009). This is part of corporate governance to improve documentation and connections with stakeholders (Gan et al., 2013). While corporate governance was identified as a possible motivating force, organizations also faced the dilemma of balancing two other forces, to manage stakeholders' impression of the organization's image and to meet stakeholders' demand for relevant non-financial information on decision making and operations (Bismuth and Yoshiaki, 2008; Ousama et al., 2011). As the CIC is linked to information disclosure by organizations, the forces of motivation could be examined from the perspectives of management and business-related disciplines.\n3. Methodology: 3.1. Dataset\n4. Findings: 4.1. Background\n5. Discussion: 5.1. Not one but a combination of factors compel the CIC\n6. Conclusion: This paper seeks to identify the motivations that drive the CIC. In addition, it aims to investigate the content and format used in the CIC from three perspectives, namely, human capital information, relational capital information and structural capital information. From the data collected, the study found four motivations behind the CIC, namely, MRS, CB, CR and compliance (COM), where MRS and CB could explain 46.2 percent of CR, and MRS and CR explained 53.6 percent of COM. Moreover, the study identified that a combination of factors considered together, with supporting management mindset and policies was necessary to drive the CIC, even though compliance was found to be a major motivation factor.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to identify motivations that drive communication of IC (CIC); and second, to investigate content and format used in CIC from three perspectives, namely, human capital information, relational capital information and structural capital information.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A global survey was conducted with 200 banks' senior executives responsible for annual report (AR), followed by content analysis of each bank's AR.\nFindings: The study found four motivations of CIC, namely, management responsibility to stakeholders, collective behavior, corporate responsibility and compliance. Content analysis of banks' AR found structural capital information most prevalent, followed by human capital and relational capital. Five types of formats were analyzed to show the different presentation used in the CIC.\nResearch limitations/implications: Current data source was limited to banking and focussed on English language publications.\nPractical implications: The study provides regulators insights to forces that either compel or hinder CIC, and updates literature on management's thinking and priorities in CIC.\nOriginality/value: This study is possibly the first paper that investigates the motivation of CIC for reporting, where IC is an important asset to organizations. The findings on the content and format used in CIC extend existing studies to a wider, global scale.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Building digital collections in a public university library in Ghana: priority-setting and user needs assessment
|
[
"University",
"Ghana",
"Needs assessment",
"Digital collection",
"User-centred",
"User"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: All over the world, the digital revolution has affected the way scholars create, communicate and preserve new knowledge. The development of institutional repositories (IR) has emerged as a relatively new strategy that allows universities to build digital collections to accelerate changes taking place in scholarship and scholarly communication (Davis and Connolly, 2007; Rieh et al., 2007; Shreeves and Cragin, 2008). In sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana, studies on building digital collections and progress on digital information literacy within the framework of an IR are scant (Enakrire and Onyenania, 2007; Witten et al., 2002). In the context of this paper, digital collections broadly refer to any collection or defined set of digital objects/data that are made available via the University of Cape Coast Libraries' collection management systems and/or website on a non-temporary basis for the purpose of preservation and/or enhanced access. This term applies to those items available digitally but acquired from outside sources as well. Unless otherwise stated, this broad meaning holds throughout this paper. In few instances, however, it specifically means those items created by the University of Cape Coast library from locally produced documents (as in the study context below) and other acquired collections. Digital collections consist of digital objects that are selected and organized to facilitate their discovery, access, and use. Objects, metadata, and the user interface together create the user experience of a collection. As digital collections in libraries are not built overnight, the successful building of such collections will be composed of several different elements such as needs assessment, collection development and its associated policies, technical processing, software and hardware issues, access, human expertise, funding, integration of collections as well as their management of these among others (Schwartz, 2000).\nMethodology: Study context\nFindings and discussion: The current condition of the UCC digital library development\nConclusion: The performance of a digital library, measured in terms of how well it is meeting the needs of its users (and non-users), is one of the most meaningful ways of judging the quality and effectiveness of a digital library's services. In this study, three DL user communities were identified. The first community comprises experts in both digital library systems and content. These are heavy users of the existing systems, are knowledgeable about articulated (formalized) user needs, and able to devote short (usually less than two hours) amounts of time to individual's needs. The second user community was characterized as having high levels of domain expertise and knowledge of library systems. They are also able to devote large but specific amounts of time (days or weeks) to their individual information needs. The third user community was characterized as having varied levels of domain expertise and low levels of library systems knowledge. They are able to devote only short periods of time to their information needs or explorations. This case study, though somewhat limited in time and scope, has provided valuable information about DL users communities and their needs from the perspective of an institution of higher learning in Africa. A number of conclusions can be drawn. Users approach their information requirements from a range of different perspectives, expectations, knowledge structures and experiences and, the success of any future DL system will depend on it being made understandable across the range of user types and user experiences. One way to manage this variety of users and expectations is to by setting up a range of pre-defined interfaces offering different iterations of the DL system specific to the needs of different groups. This will potentially help to simplify the perceived complexity of DL environments by offering simple default environment for the more naive user or the full power of the functionality to the more expert user.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Although user needs assessment is an intrinsic element of service quality delivery in digital libraries (DLs), not much has been written on this topic in the context of African universities. This is understandable as academic digital libraries in Africa are rather nascent. Even so, the most frequently-used needs assessment methods do not directly involve the users. This study aims to assess priority setting by academic library administrators and the needs of patrons of digital collections of a public university library in Ghana.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Analysis of official university documents and interviews with digital library patrons at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in Ghana were carried out between September, 2011 and January, 2012. Five research questions were asked: what are the current conditions of the UCC digital library project, the user communities and their needs, what are the priorities set by the university administrators and library leaders at the UCC and the state of technological readiness in place and what are needed by the UCCDL. Also, what is the extent of collaboration by interested parties in the UCCDL?\nFindings: Three general digital library user communities were identified, that is, UCCDL staff- this community was composed of experts in both digital library systems and content, characterized as heavy users of the existing systems, as knowledgeable about articulated (formalized) user needs, and able to devote short (usually less than two hours) amounts of time to individual's needs. Next, are scholars and other visitors to the UCCDL - this community was characterized as having high levels of domain expertise and knowledge of library systems. They are also able to devote large but specific amounts of time (days or weeks) to their individual information needs. Visitors/Prospective users- this community was characterized as having varied levels of domain expertise and low levels of library systems knowledge. They are able to devote only short periods of time to their information needs or explorations. These user communities are influenced by diverse preferences, experiences, and knowledge structures.\nPractical implications: Academic libraries are increasingly advocating local user studies as a way to provide the digital library services that are relevant to the culture and user population of the academic institution. Replicating digital library user studies at the local level can provide information for improving existing services or developing new ones.\nOriginality/value: In African public universities, there is little earlier research on digital library user needs assessments or DL priority-setting by academic library administrators.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Personal traits and customer responses to CSR perceptions in the banking sector
|
[
"Customers",
"Loyalty",
"Psychology",
"Demography",
"CSR perceptions"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The study of how customers relate to corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a relatively new line of research, and scholars consider that more information is still desirable (Perez and Rodriguez del Bosque, 2013). From a marketing perspective, researchers have devoted special attention to identifying customer features to use in the segmentation of CSR markets and to learn how these characteristics might define the customer CSR link. For example, scholars have already demonstrated that demographic and psychological traits are key variables to classify customers and create commercial strategies that become more successful, because they are adapted to different market segments (McCarty and Shrum, 1993). On the one hand, demographic traits are the foundation of market segmentation, and scholars have demonstrated that their study is essential to gain a better understanding of customer attitudes and CSR perceptions (Perez and Rodriguez del Bosque, 2013). On the other hand, scholars have also shown the need to complement the analysis with customer psychological traits, especially regarding attitudes and personal values (Bigne et al., 2009; Perez and Rodriguez del Bosque, 2013), because demographic traits are insufficient to characterize the socially oriented customer (Laroche et al., 2001; McCarty and Shrum, 1993).\n2. Conceptual background: 2.1 Conceptual model: a hierarchy-of-effects approach\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Research design and sample\n4. Findings: 4.1 Test of the conceptual model\n5. Discussion: The findings presented in this paper confirm that customer responses to their CSR perceptions in the banking sector are moderated by three customer demographic traits (gender, age and educational level) and two psychological features (CSR support and novelty seeking). Nevertheless, while previous literature has consistently confirmed the usefulness of these customer traits to segment the markets of socially responsible products (Fraj and Martinez, 2006; Grunert and Juhl, 1995; Laroche et al., 2001; Roberts, 1996; Schloderer et al., 2014), their role in segmenting the market of banking services is less clear.\n6. Managerial implications, limitations and future lines of research: Although the study of customer personal traits has a long history in marketing research analysing customer behaviour, the authors found limited previous evidence on the effect of these traits on customer responses to CSR perceptions in the banking sector. Along this line, the paper contributes to the literature by identifying the role that six customer personal traits play in determining customer responses to CSR perceptions in the context of this critical sector.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the moderating role of six personal traits in a causal model to study how customers' perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) influence their affective and behavioural responses to companies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A structural equation model is tested in a sample of 1,124 banking service customers in Spain. Based on this model, a multisampling analysis is implemented to determine how gender, age, educational level, CSR support, collectivism and novelty seeking moderate customer responses to CSR perceptions.\nFindings: The findings show that customer responses to CSR perceptions are consistently moderated by gender, age and CSR support. Men, people aged over 45 and highly supportive customers respond to CSR perceptions more positively than women, younger people and customers exhibiting a low level of CSR support. The findings concerning educational level and novelty seeking are less conclusive. Collectivism does not influence customer responses to CSR perceptions to any significant extent. Thus, the findings suggest that gender, age and CSR support are the most useful variables to segment the market to adapt CSR and communication strategies.\nOriginality/value: Previous literature has mostly focussed on identifying the personal traits that differentiate socially oriented customers from others. Thus, this paper contributes to previous literature by exploring the role customers' personal traits play in the identification of differences in customers' responses to their perceptions of the CSR implemented by companies that sell traditional services, such as banking services.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
"Diversity," immigration, and the new American multi-racial hierarchy
|
[
"Discrimination",
"Stereotypes",
"Immigration",
"Diversity",
"Ethnic groups"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: ... many people mistakenly interpret W.E.B. DuBois' famous prediction that the \"color line\" would be the \"problem of the twentieth century\" as describing race relations between Whites and Blacks. The full quote, however, reads: \"the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line, -the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea\" (Banks, 1998, p. 40).\nTheorizing about the current racial hierarchy: Magee and Galinsky (2008) define a social hierarchy as the \"implicit or explicit rank order of individuals or groups with respect to a valued social dimension\" (p. 354). They note that hierarchies are defining, pervasive features of organizations. Social dominance theory (SDT) is useful in understanding how arbitrary-set categories, such as race, are used to help maintain inequality and legitimize discrimination (Sidanius and Pratto, 1999; Pratto et al., 1994). In SDT, social discourse, such as stereotypes, ideologies, and individual and institutional behaviors facilitate establishment and maintenance of social hierarchies. We return to the role of stereotyping in the new multi-racial hierarchy later.\nA different hierarchy: We use Bonilla-Silva's excellent work as the foundation for our proposed new American racial hierarchy. Our typology diverges from Bonilla-Silva's in composition of the categories, the inflexibility of the Black and White categories, and the existence of a \"non-White, non-Black\" rather than an \"Honorary White\" category. Instead, all non-Caucasians whose otherness is known are included as Collective Blacks or non-Blacks. Further, there is no movement into the White or Collective Black categories because of Whites' purposeful efforts to maintain the privilege afforded by membership in the former category and individuals' efforts to keep themselves out of the latter category.\nResearch suggestive of the persistent color line: In their research on selection discrimination, Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004) found that applicants with names common to Blacks who applied for jobs in major US cities were 50 percent less likely to be called for interviews than applicants with names common to Whites, despite similar qualifications. Having a white name increased the likelihood of being called for an interview as much as adding eight more years' experience to those with Black names. Bendick and his colleagues (Bendick et al., 1991, 1994) found that both Blacks and Latinos fared worse than equally matched white applicants when job seeking.\nDiscussion: The increasing diversity of the US, coupled with globalization, call for more careful attention to diversity and for considering new forms of racism and discrimination. We used historical records and existing research to place groups within different categories of a new multi-racial hierarchy. We call for research on the existence and composition of the new multi-racial hierarchy and for measures to dismantle it.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to analyze the new multi-racial hierarchy in the USA. The authors propose that despite increasing diversity, a multi-racial hierarchy of privilege and disadvantage continues to exist. Due to the history of anti-Black discrimination and stereotyping in the USA, employers prefer native and immigrant non-Blacks to native and immigrant Blacks, and use non-Blacks to claim organizational diversity success.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors propose that a multi-racial hierarchy, ordered as Whites, Non-White Non-Blacks, and Collective Blacks now exists, and use history, relevant theory, existing research, and government data to support their ideas.\nFindings: Evidence suggests that despite increased diversity, Whites remain most privileged, Blacks least privileged, and Asians and Hispanics tend to comprise the middle of the hierarchy. Even in organizations that are \"diverse,\" a multi-racial hierarchy results in different compensation, promotion, and layoff rates and differential treatment across groups.\nResearch limitations/implications: Diversity within and across different racial and ethnic groups should be investigated. Employers' apparent diversity success may obscure the continued dominance of Whites, disadvantage of Blacks, and a color-based multi-racial hierarchy.\nPractical implications: Analyses of human resources data could help organizations identify and avoid discrimination and inequality even in \"diverse\" organizations.\nOriginality/value: This paper focuses on the meaning of a new multi-racial hierarchy in ways that have not been previously considered.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
SMEs' adoption of enterprise applications: A technology-organisation-environment model
|
[
"Enterprise applications",
"Enterprise systems",
"Small to medium-sized enterprises",
"Technology-organization-environment framework",
"Communication technologies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: It is beyond question that a key influence upon the competitiveness of firms of all types is the ability to utilise Information and Communication Technologies (or ICT) (Storey, 1994; Williams, 2007). Most small firms still under-utilise the potential value of ICT by only restricting them to administrative tasks (Brock, 2000). E-commerce adoption by Small and medium-sized enterprises (or SMEs), which is not just about buying and selling goods online, but also about conducting business transactions either within the firm or with external stakeholders, has been thoroughly investigated (e.g. Alonso-Mendo et al., 2009; Stockdale and Standing, 2006; Zappala and Gray, 2006; Daniel and Wilson, 2002). However, SMEs' adoption of Enterprise Applications (EA), which provide SMEs with opportunities that are largely unexploited, did not have the same attention. Because SMEs adopting EA may improve their competitive performance, it is important to first understand the factors that influence SMEs' adoption of EA. This paper aims to achieve this through exploring the TOE (Technology-Organisation-Environment) factors influencing SMEs' adoption of EA.\nTheoretical background: Several theories have been used to examine the adoption/diffusion of ICT in SMEs: technology acceptance model (TAM) (e.g. Grandon and Pearson, 2004); theory of planned behaviour (TPB) (e.g. Harrison et al., 1997); Combined TAM and TPB (e.g. Riemenschneider et al., 2003); TAM2 (e.g. Venkatesh, 2000); diffusion of innovations (DOI) (e.g. Premkumar, 2003); resource-based view (e.g. Mehrtens et al., 2001); stage theory (e.g. Poon and Swatman, 1999); ICT and relationship transformation model (Ritchie and Brindley, 2005); and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) (e.g. Anderson and Schwager, 2003). While the contributions to this area of research are appreciated, it has been recognised that a large bulk of the literature produced fragmented findings. Researchers seem to investigate the impact of only a limited number of variables, or to pick and choose from a list of factors (Jeyaraj et al., 2006) that have been empirically tested and validated to have influenced the adoption/ diffusion of ICT.\nTOE model: This section describes the variables that have emerged from the major constructs in the TOE model.\nResearch method: FAME (Financial Analysis Made Easy) database was used to retrieve details of SMEs operating in manufacturing, retail and wholesale and service in the northwest of England. It contains information on 3.4 million companies, 2.4 million of which are in a detailed format. A simple random sample of 300 SMEs was chosen and one in four SMEs with complete details were selected.\nResults and discussion: To better predict, explain, and increase the adoption of EA among SMEs, we need to better understand why some SME choose to adopt EA, while seemingly similar others facing similar market conditions do not.\nConclusion: The major contribution of this study is to empirically explore the TOE factors influencing SMEs' adoption of EA. The results from the PLS analysis showed that the TOE model is indeed a robust tool for predicting EA adoption in SMEs. This model provides us with the factors that influence the adoption of EA by SMEs. In addition to the factors that were tested in previous TOE studies, this study found trialability, observability, industry and market scope to be significant factors of ICT adoption by SMEs. These factors can be used by EA vendors to determine which SMEs they should target with their products. If these factors exist, then SMEs will be more willing to adopt EA. As there is no \"one-size fits all\" ICT policy across industries and different sectors use ICT differently (Kotelnikov, 2007; Tan et al., 2010), the findings of this study can be used to develop strategies to increase the rate of EA adoption among SMEs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to empirically explore the TOE (technology-organisation-environment) factors influencing small to medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs') adoption of enterprise applications (EA).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Direct interviews were used to collect data from a random sample of SMEs located in the northwest of England. Using partial least squares (PLS) technique, 102 responses were analysed.\nFindings: Results indicate that technology, organisation and environment contexts impact SMEs' adoption of EA. This suggests that the TOE model is indeed a robust tool to predict the adoption of EA by SMEs.\nResearch limitations/implications: Although this study focused on examining factors that influence SMEs' adoption of a set of systems such as CRM and e-procurement, it fails to differentiate between factors influencing each of these applications. The model used in this study can be used by software vendors not only in developing marketing strategies that can target potential SMEs, but also to develop strategies to increase the adoption of EA among SMEs.\nPractical implications: This model could be used by software vendors to determine which SMEs they should target with their products. It can also be used by policy makers to develop strategies to increase the rate of EA adoption among SMEs.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides a model that can predict SMEs' adoption of EA. SMEs, adoption, enterprise applications, enterprise systems, ICT, PLS, technology-organisation-environment framework, TOE\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The regulations of shipping conferences in Taiwan referring to the EU to repeal the block exemption for liner conferences
|
[
"European union",
"EU",
"Taiwan",
"Regulation 4056/86",
"Liner conferences",
"Block exemption"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Coalition operation strategies have been common in the liner shipping industry. The cooperative mechanism has been evolved over the past centuries. Many types of mechanisms have been used by ocean transport industry to do business cooperatively or to limit competition. The traditional organization is liner conference. The others are consortium and strategic alliances that encompass many different arrangements (Chiu, 1996; Yap and Zahraei, 2018). Sturmey (1962) defined a conference as:\n2. The opinions to support and oppose liner conferences: The existence of shipping conferences, which are among the earliest cartels in international trade (Marx, 1953), has always been a controversial issue. However, there has been no consensus in theory and practice, despite a pile of literature discussing on this topic. Table II presents those opinions that are for and against the conference system. Indeed, liner conference was scrutinized by political entities in Europe and North America in 1900s. The most often quoted official investigations are: the 1906 Royal Commission on Shipping Rings (RCSR) of the UK, the 1912 Alexander Committee of the USA and the 1967 Committee of Inquiry into Shipping (which is often called \"the Rochdale Committee\") of the UK. All the official investigations did not immediately decide to eliminate the conference system from the liner shipping market, although there were some different opinions between them (Chiu, 1996).\n3. Shipping conferences under European Union competition law: Under normal circumstances, a liner conference is a kind of business cartel and should be regulated by antitrust laws (in the USA) or competition rules (in the EU). However, liner conferences have enjoyed the so-called block exemption from competition regulation in considering the special characteristics of liner shipping services. Because of the amendment of the EU competition law, the previous Articles of 85 and 86 of the Treaty of Rome were replaced by Articles 81 and 82 treaty establishing the European community (TEC); again, with effect from December 1, 2009, Articles 81 and 82 TEC have become, respectively, Articles 101 and 102 treaty on the functioning of the EU (TFEU) (European Commission, 2012). For the convenience of writing, this paper will cite these articles interchangeably as they then were used.\n4. The influence on shipping industries: From the regulatory viewpoint, the possible conflict of laws mentioned in Section 3.4 should await the cases occur. For this paper, we study how the shipping markets and carriers will be influenced because the EU banned the conference system. The impact was presented by analyzing the opinions collected from shippers and carriers. The shippers' opinions on the abolition of shipping conference's operation by the EU were quoted from the partial results of shippers' survey conducted by Containerization International (CI) in 2008 (before the conference system was banned) and 2009 (after the conferences were formally lifted). The carriers' opinions were collected by this study through a questionnaire survey conducted in 2011.\n5. The influence on the governing rules on conferences in Taiwan: In Taiwan, the general competition rule relating to the conducts of enterprises is governed by \"Fair Trade Act\" (referred as FTA) and the competent administration agency is Fair Trade Commission (FTC). Considering the competent administration agency of shipping industry is the Ministry of Transportation and Communication (MOTC) instead of FTC, there is a special design for the MOTC to regulate the competition affairs relating to shipping operators. Article 46 of FTA regulates that:\n6. Conclusion and discussion: 6.1 Conclusion\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The first well-known liner shipping conference was created for the UK/Calcutta trade in 1875. However, the European Union (EU) decided to abolish repeal the liner conferences system with effect from October 18 2008. This paper aims to study the governing regulations on shipping conferences in Taiwan along with investigating the impact on the EU to repeal conferences. The regulation on liner conferences in the USA is also briefly referred.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Literature review and questionnaire survey are used to conduct the study. This paper reviews important literature relating to the EU to repeal the conferences system and its impact on liner market competition to/from European trade routes, with discussions on the US and Taiwan regulations on shipping conferences. Questionnaire survey data, collected from published report and this research present shippers' and carriers' responses on the changes of regulations on liner conferences.\nFindings: Shippers are strongly supporting the repeal of the conferences system. Academic research results basically reveal that the liner market will be more competitive in the trades to/from the USA and the EU after the repeal of the conferences. For Taiwan, its regulations are rather simple and loosely control over the liner conferences; therefore, if the shipping administration intends to enhance the inspection of the agreements of conferences and strategic alliances, more detailed regulations should be prepared, and the provisions of the EU or USA would be a good reference.\nPractical implications: Through the discussions on the legal treatments of shipping conferences from the USA, the EU and Taiwan perspectives, this paper provides shipping researchers with not only a clear evolution of the liner conferences but also a deep understanding of the impact to repeal the conferences on liner market competition.\nOriginality/value: This paper reviews important literature and related legislations on liner conferences including the USA, the EU and Taiwan. The different responses on the EU to repeal the conferences system from shippers and carriers are discussed. The impact on liner market competition is presented.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Section 136 assessments in Trafford Borough of Manchester
|
[
"Mental health services",
"Police",
"Laws",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Historically, the Vagrancy Acts of 1714 and 1744 were used to remove \"lunatic paupers\" that were found in public places who were suspected of mental illness, to a place of safety, by a constable. Prior to this, under the Poor Law Act 1601, the parish took the responsibility of the incapable and arranged for them to be placed in workhouses (Spence and McPhilips, 1995; Hodder Arnold, 2005).The Madhouse Act 1828 (\"1828 Act\") repealed the 1774 Act. The 1828 Act made it mandatory for the medical practitioner to attend the private madhouses weekly. The purpose of this was to release the individuals who were inappropriately detained (Hodder Arnold, 2005).The Lunacy (Consolidation) Act 1890 provided the provision for four routes of admission. In particular, one route, known as the \"summary reception order\", permits a police officer to detain a wandering lunatic in a workhouse for a period of up to three days. This particular route formed the basis of future mental health legislations, regarding removal of a person with suspected mental illness, to a place of safety (Hodder Arnold, 2005).In 1953, the Report of the Royal Commission of the Law Relating to Mental Illness and Mental Deficiency formed the basis of the Mental Health Act 1959. In the 1959 act, section 136 was established. The 1959 act has been revised in 1983 and 2007; however, no significant changes were made to the provisions of section 136 (Hodder Arnold, 2005).Section 136 of the Mental Health Act also known as the police order allows the police officer for the removal of a person who appears to a to be suffering from mental disorder from a public place to a place of safety, so that he/she can be assessed by a medical professional (preferably a section 12 approved doctor) and an approved mental health practitioner (AMHP) (Roger and Faulkner, 1987).There were national concerns about the non-suitability of police stations as the place of safety (Hodder Arnold, 2005). New investments were made to improve the provision of place of safety. In Trafford the persons detained on a section 136 assessment were taken to local police stations that were the designated places of safety. In line with the national initiative a new section 136 suite called GMW suite was commissioned in Trafford in October 2008. The GMW suite is located near the A&E department of Trafford General Hospital (TGH). The GMW suite was made the new place of safety in addition to the local police stations.When the police bring a person to the GMW site, they were screened for any underlying physical problems by the A&E staff. Where indicated the persons will be breathalysed for alcohol intoxication. If the patient is aggressive then it was agreed that the Police will shift that person to the police station which is another place of safety. A middle tier rota consisting of middle grade doctors and the duty AMHP are responsible for carrying out the mental health act assessments. It was agreed that the assessments will be completed within four hours.This study looks at trends over a period of eight months since the opening of the section 136 services in Trafford.\nMethods: A questionnaire was devised incorporating the standards from the code of practice for section 136 assessment (Department of Health, 2008; Jones, 2004), prior to the inauguration of the section 136 service. The demographic details such as age, gender, and ethnicity were recorded. The other variables recorded include: reason for using section 136, the place of assessment, time of referral, total time of assessment, the assessors undertaking the assessment, outcome of referral, whether the patient was under the influence of alcohol and suffered any concomitant physical problems and whether the police were present during the assessment. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics.\nResults: A total of 41 patients were assessed in 45 assessments under section 136 of mental health act. There were more men (n=24, 53.3 percent) than women (n=21, 46.7 percent). The age of the detained persons were in the range between 17-62 years, the mean age of the group was 39.9 years. More white Caucasians were detained on section 136 of the mental health act than the ethnic minorities (see Table I).The majority of assessments, 42 (93.3 percent) took place in the GMW suite, and the other three persons were taken to the police station, because of safety concerns. Of the 45 assessments, 43 (95.5 percent) were jointly done by a section 12 approved doctor and approved mental health practitioner. One person was assessed by the section 12 doctor only and the other assessment was carried out by the forensic medical examiner as the detained person was taken to the police station.More than one-third of the assessments took place out of hours, between 5 p.m. and 9 a.m. The majority (n=30, 66.7 percent) of the persons detained were previously known to the mental health services.The most common reason for detention under section 136 were threats of self harm (n=16, 35.5 percent) followed by aggressive behaviour (n=10, 22.2 percent. Almost one-third of the detained persons were intoxicated (n=12, 31.1 percent). Mood disorder (n=10, 22.2 percent) and personality disorders (n=9, 20 percent) were the two most common psychiatric diagnoses in those persons who were known to the local mental health services (Table II).Of the 45 assessments, police were present during 40 (88.9 percent) of the assessments. On four (12.1 percent) occasions the police officers left before the assessment was completed.There were 17 (37.7 percent) admissions following assessment and majority (n=12, 70.5 percent) were formal admissions under mental health act 1983. On average, the total time of assessment was 4 hours and 2 minutes. The shortest time to complete an assessment was 45 minutes whereas the longest assessment took 12 hours 30 minutes to complete.\nDiscussion: The mean age of the persons detained were similar to that reported in previous studies (Jones, 2004; Sims and Symmonds, 1975). Slightly more men were detained which is concordant to previous reports where it was the majority of males being detained under section 136 (Spence and McPhilips, 1995; Sims and Symmonds, 1975).The most common reason for detention under section 136 were threats of self-harm, followed by aggressive behaviour. Previous studies have reported violent behaviour (44 percent), as the reason for most detentions (Dunn and Fahy, 1990). In a previous study done by Spence and McPhilips (1995), bizarre behaviour (67.6 percent) was the commonest reason for detention under section 136. Another study showed that causing disturbance (35 percent) was the frequent reason for detention under section 136 (Dunn and Fahy, 1990).Before the section 136 suite was set up there were problems in coming onto a joint agreement on certain issues, such as the assessment of persons detained under section 136 of mental health act whilst under the influence of alcohol. From the mental health perspective, it is not possible to carry out a proper mental health assessment when someone is under the influence of alcohol. The accident and emergency staff was of the view that they do not have the resources to keep the patient in the A&E till they sober up, additionally there are risks involved in keeping the person amongst physically vulnerable patients. From the police perspective, they are reluctant safety of keeping the patients in the police cells as they feel that the police station is not equipped in dealing with any concomitant medical emergencies. This is also indicated by the report published by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, the recommendations of the report included the minimal use of police custody as a place of safety and also ensuring adequate training for the police officers to recognize mental health issues (Turner et al., 1992). The finding that one-third of the section 136 detained patients had alcohol problems highlights the above concerns.In the eight-month period, only two (4.4 percent) of the detained persons were found to be suffering from psychotic illness. This finding is in variance with the reports of a higher percentage, 27-32 percent, of persons with schizophrenia being detained under section 136. This is an important finding and may suggest that the persons with psychotic illness are better managed in the community.The total conversion rate to admission was slightly more than one-third (n=17, 37.7 percent) of the total number of the section 136 assessments and is low as compared to the previous studies, which reported a much higher percentage of 80 percent admissions as an outcome of section 136 assessments (Turner et al., 1992; Simmons and Hoar, 2001).Ethnic minorities have constituted less in the breakdown of section 136 assessment and based on demographic of the area under question, the representation of British Asian and African ethnicities are adequate. According to Pipe et al. (1991), and Dunn and Fahy (1990), Afro Caribbean represented 21.2 and 15 percent of the referrals respectively. These findings are several folds above the ethnic representation in their respective areas.It was noticed that the rate of section 136 assessments decreased considerably on a monthly basis after the initial surge that followed the opening of the section 136 suite at TGH. It will be interesting to conduct future studies to find out the reasons for the surge in the use of section 136 detentions when a new service is set up. It also need to be noted that the conversion rate was low which raises the appropriateness of section 136 detentions, together with the finding that one-third of the detained patients had a discharge diagnosis of alcohol and drug problems raises the possibility of whether section 136 is overused among this group.Overall, the monitoring of section 136 is nationally very poor. Despite section 136 being mental health legislation, there is no common way of monitoring the assessment as compared to the other legislations of the Mental Health Act, hence the inconsistencies. The results of all previous studies are paradoxical, the studies themselves are not carried out on a large scale, which calls for a larger study probably covering a city area. There also is a dire need of a common pathway for monitoring section 136. Although a CR 149 report has devised a section 136 form to be used nationally, it needs to be actively pursued rather than leaving it to ones own means.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this study is to ascertain a trend of the section 136 assessments over a period of time and compare it with the standards laid down by the code of practice.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study looks at trends over a period of eight months since the opening of the section 136 services. The demographic details such as age, gender, and ethnicity were recorded. The other variables recorded include reason for using section 136, the place of assessment, time of referral, total time of assessment, the assessors undertaking the assessment, outcome of referral, whether the patient was under the influence of alcohol and suffered any concomitant physical problems and whether the police were present during the assessment\nFindings: - A total of 45 assessments were undertaken under section 136 of the Mental Health Act. The majority (93.3 percent) of the assessments were done in section 136 suite. Threats to self harm (35.5 percent) was the most common reason of detention. Mood disorders were the commonest diagnosis (22.2 percent each). A total of 17 (37.8 percent) of the patients detained were admitted to the inpatient units.\nResearch limitations/implications: - It was noticed that rate of section 136 assessments decreased over months after an initial surge. It was also noted that the conversion rate of admissions was low which raises questions about the rightful use of section 136 detentions.\nPractical implications: - It will be interesting to conduct future studies to find out the reasons for the surge in the use of section 136 detentions when a new service is set up for the same. It also need to be noted that the conversion rate was low which raises the appropriateness of section 136 detentions, together with the finding that one-third of the detained patients had a discharge diagnosis of alcohol and drug problems raises the possibility whether section 136 is overused among this group.\nOriginality/value: - Previously studies have been conducted regarding the section 136 assessments but this study monitors all the variables identified, to be monitored, by the code of practice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Trust in a viable real estate economy with disruption and blockchain
|
[
"Values",
"Strategic management",
"Real estate",
"Artificial intelligence",
"Property portfolio management",
"Value management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Does real estate still have the value that it had, or is the valuation of real estate going to change due to surprising products and services, innovative business models, other market strategies, innovative ways of organizing and managing in (real estate) markets? Innovation revolves around good facilities in an attractive and stimulating environment. Take disruptive real estate. The driving forces behind these developments are new technology, manoeuvrability, organizing differently and management. These forces greatly influence the valuation of real estate. Established names such as Nokia, Kodak, Blockbuster, Oad, Free Record Shop, Hyves and V&D are collapsing and, for example, Hema, Shell, hotel chains and health-care institutions are the least affected. Disruptive organizations like Amazon, Zalando, Uber and Facebook, who are going to develop a complete residential area in California, Tesla and its competitor Faraday Future, who wants to surpass Tesla in everything, respond to viability in the environment. This viability determines the competitiveness and thus affects current and future valuation of real estate. Blockchain, a distributed database that maintains a growing list of data items and that is hardened against manipulation and counterfeiting, plays an important role in that. Notaries and brokers have already encountered this during the recent period, and it will have further impact on property owners, financiers, users, builders, brokers, notaries and the land registry. The real estate world is therefore at a turning point of transition: a profound and irreversible tilting of (real estate) systems in society, and \"technological opportunities that we can hardly anticipate\" (Dijkstra, 2017). The International Monetary Fund also acknowledges the major possible consequences of changes in our financial and thus real estate system and held a meeting at the highest level in April 2017 about Blockchain, chaired by Christine Lagarde.\nWhat is disruptive real estate?: Disruption is a predictable pattern in all sectors where start-ups use new technology (Vermeend and Smit, 2017) to make it possible for \"something new and small\" to penetrate \"something existing and big\" in a short space of time. At the moment, many start-ups are disturbing different sectors by competing with the established representatives. But how does disruption work? Ex-Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky gives an answer through a framework he designed in which he distinguishes four phases of disruption: disruption, evolution, convergence and re-imagination. The four phases disruption, evolution, convergence and re-imagination of disruption are specified in the table below. On the right, we see the established order (incumbent); on the left, we see the challenger (disruptor) who grows from a niche solution to an advantage for everyone (Table I).\nThe relationship between Blockchain and Bitcoin: Blockchain could have a huge impact on the value chain in real estate. This includes thinking about efficiency, transparency, ownership, value (transfer), automation and service. If we want to understand the world of Blockchain, we need to understand the innovation of the currency of Bitcoin, which is based on the underlying technology (Seibolt and Samman, 2016) called Blockchain. Bitcoin is a combination of four individual elements: cryptography, a peer-to-peer network, an open-source protocol and a shared ledger. This makes it a phenomenon that people are enthusiastic about. The applied cryptography (first element) is complex but comparable with banks, which use it to secure their transaction traffic. The peer-to-peer network (second element) we already know from the exchange of music exchange. The essence of this is that a network of parties, called miners, validates the transaction register worldwide. This means that there is no exclusive right to that network, and it is not possible to turn a particular location on or off. The network is connected with the third element, with which the underlying software is fully public: an open-source protocol. This allows everyone to see how the software is programmed. All of this is unique in that Bitcoin is already an alternative money on the internet, and it is growing very fast. To illustrate: on January 1, 2017, the Bitcoin rate went through the $1,000-dollar limit (EUR953). The most striking thing about Bitcoin is that value is transferred without involving a trusted third party such as a bank, notary, broker or cadastre. That is unprecedented relative to the current financial and real estate world with a third party as a safe agency between the buying and selling party. But is Bitcoin the future? No, according to Blockchain expert Dennis de Vries, it is not, but the underlying Blockchain technology is.\nBlockchain and the real estate sector: The financial sector has become excited about how Bitcoin has programmed the value transfer and how the transactions are processed without having a third party, such as the government or bank, part of a transaction. All banks worldwide have their own IT systems that are complicated, communicate inefficiently and let transactions take place. There is a realization that this can be much simpler with a customized open-source protocol. And why would that not apply for real estate? An important discussion about this theme also concerns the cadastre, with the registering of property ownership. Blockchain can be a more efficient way of registration to transfer ownership. However, the critical footnote should be placed here that real estate also exists in the real world in trading with Blockchain. There will have to be a clear connection between the administration in Blockchain and the physical property. At this time, this connection is not (yet) scientifically proven. What we see is that heavy investments are being made in, for example, a new global registration system on the basis of Blockchain and that established parties see opportunities to make processes simpler and to develop more user-friendly systems.\nDevelopments of blockchain: TopTeam ICT has taken the initiative to establish the Blockchain Competence Centre (BC3), in which scientists, governments, social and industrial partners are working on building Blockchain expertise in The Netherlands. BC3 thus meets the concerns expressed by the FD about the lack of Blockchain expertise in The Netherlands. Rene Penning de Vries has been appointed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs as the standard bearer for TopTeam ICT.\nBlockchain and the impact on the value chain of real estate: The value chain consists of the ownership of real estate and the cash flows around it for trading. In this value chain, the Cadastre, the notary, the owner and the banks play a role. Blockchain technology can play a role in efficiency in the chain. Whether, for example, the notary or the cadastre will maintain their role in the value chain is the question. As disappointing as it was for Kodak, the company was unable to take the step from analogue to digital photography, even the company itself had developed the technology. The real revolution in photography was outside Kodak because we started taking more pictures and sharing them with each other faster. This resulted in a different value chain than that of photo rolls, chemicals and photo paper.\nHow do we want to house ourselves, live and work in the future?: Young generations organize their lives and work in a new way. This has consequences for the demand for space and how it is used. New generations are looking for \"smart solutions\" for all the issues in our society. Think of The Edge in Amsterdam, the icon of automation, or Patch 22 in Amsterdam, a smart wooden design for flexible use. The quality of the digital infrastructure and high-quality products offer more flexibility and quality for the user. Chains are more efficient and integrated and this means less time, less space, so less cost. The real estate sector therefore does not benefit from additional meters but in strengthening existing locations through new construction or redevelopment, especially at the strong locations. It is not so much about the building (supply) but respond to the demand with total housing solutions. Consider the real estate as a flexible total service with, for example, flexible contracts.\nConclusion: In conclusion, the scenarios indicate a slight (2 per cent) to stronger (13 per cent) increase in demand for rental housing in 2025 compared to 2016. There will be a sustained demand for housing because housing occupancy continues to decline, starters look later for a home to purchase and a larger part of the population is looking for flexibility and temporary housing solutions. Think of (temporary) second homes like expat houses or pied-a-terres. Only in Scenario 2 is there a (slight) increase in demand for shops (2 per cent) and offices (7 per cent) in 2025 compared to 2016. This demand for space would arise as a result of productivity growth. All the other scenarios assume a decline in demand for shops and offices in 2025 compared to 2016, ranging from a decrease of 28 to 13 per cent. The demand for commercial space decreases slightly in Scenarios 1, 2 and 3 by 1 to 6 per cent. The only increase in demand can be expected in Scenario 4 with 2 per cent.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The real estate world finds itself at a tipping point of a transition: a dramatic and irreversible shift in (real estate) systems in society. This paper is a State of the art of Disruption, Blockchain and Real Estate in the Netherlands and international.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The following questions were asked to all those involved: What do you think is the essence of Blockchain for real estate? What is the most current situation with respect to Blockchain and real estate from your perspective? Which publications are important from your perspective? What do you expect with respect to the impact of Blockchain on real estate for (social) real estate? What are questions for the future for real estate and Blockchain? In addition, interviews, exploratory conversations and correspondence took place, and the content was peer reviewed.\nFindings: Changes in value concepts affect the valuation of real estate and the thinking about it. The orientation of changing users and owners of real estate affects innovativeness, values and flexibility in managing that property. Orientation on disruption must be seen as proof that the real estate world is able to actually innovate the accumulated assets and consolidate this. The financial and real estate markets are markets that exaggerate through irrational behaviour. Fear of \"eat or be eaten\" determines people's behaviour. Financial and thus real estate markets are always unstable and must always be regulated by people and organizations.\nResearch limitations/implications: The question that remains is whether it is important to look at disruptive innovations in existing markets or newcomers in the real estate market and Blockchain. The question is whether Blockchain is only a technological disruption, or a real game changer, and whether the entire value chain of the real estate market will embrace it. No two disruptions are the same. Trust in Blockchain is a prerequisite for guiding the predictable form of that disruption where start-up companies use new technology to offer cheaper and inferior alternatives to real estate in the market. You could also talk about anti-fragile value: \"Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors and love adventure, risk, and uncertainty. Yet, in spite of the ubiquity of the phenomenon, there is no word for the exact opposite of fragile. Let us call it antifragile\" (Taleb, 2012), in other words: attention to disruption and Blockchain creates a viable real estate economy.\nPractical implications: The true meaning of the Blockchain technology for real estate still needs to be investigated. The author is still curious to understand and clarify the value of Blockchain for real estate processes. Doubt continues to exist and is therefore a feeding ground for further research, because we do not know what we have not seen.\nSocial implications: Looking at the impact of Blockchain on real estate, a number of conclusions can be drawn. First of all, the relationship between Blockchain and real estate has not yet been proven in practice. It is expected to develop further in the form of registering transaction processes and the DNA passport of a real estate object. Secondly, completeness and transparency are the basic ingredients for trust in the system. Third, real estate wants to remain viable. For this reason, taking the offense is necessary for real estate and management to connect with social demand. Behaviour also leads to new earnings models of the social and economic spin-off of disruptive real estate. If the Dutch real estate sector embraces Blockchain and is able to realize innovations, there are opportunities for real estate entrepreneurs to exploit the disruptive character to provide those new services.\nOriginality/value: The way in which disruption, Blockchain and real estate will develop in the coming years are not the only obvious characteristics of a particular era but also its social impact and user behaviour. This also applies to how this real estate transition can best be tracked, guided and utilized in society at the international, national and regional level. Disruptive organizations clearly respond to the viability of the (built) environment and therefore determine competitive strength. This affects the current and future valuation of real estate.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Dining alone? Solo consumers' self-esteem and incidental similarity
|
[
"Self-esteem",
"Incidental similarity",
"Solo dining",
"Solo service consumption"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Social trends are driving consumers toward solo service consumption. Single households are on a continuous increase and social ties are weakening as evidenced by a decrease in confidants or \"trusted people with whom one can discuss important matters\" (McPherson et al., 2006; Schrager, 2014). As a result, 46 per cent of all adult eating and drinking occasions today are alone (The Hartman Group, 2016). Moreover, single consumers allocate a greater share of their food budget on meals away from home than any other consumer segment (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010).\nLiterature review: Self-esteem and social exclusion\nMethod: Design and participants\nResults: Participants perceived that the scenario was realistic (M = 5.72). Participants in the cue present condition agreed that their initials appeared somewhere along the restaurant review more than did participants in the cue absent condition [Mpresent = 5.85 vs Mabsent = 2.64, F(1, 151 = 109.220), p < 0.001]. Thus, our manipulation of an incidental similarity cue was successful.\nDiscussion: The findings from the current research demonstrate that the effect of self-esteem on anticipated satisfaction is contingent on the presence of an incidental similarity cue. When such a cue (i.e. initials) is absent, self-esteem has a positive effect on solo consumers' perceived fit with the service context. However, when an incidental similarity cue is present, self-esteem no longer has an impact on perceived fit. The results from a moderated mediation test indicate that perceived fit mediates the joint effect of self-esteem and an incidental similarity cue on anticipated satisfaction when such a cue is absent. Our results further reveal that an incidental similarity cue backfires for consumers with high self-esteem. Specifically, consumers with high self-esteem anticipate lower satisfaction with a solo service consumption experience in the presence (vs absence) of the cue.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Though social trends are driving consumers toward solo consumption of various services, many are reluctant to do so. There is little guidance for service providers as to how to effectively induce solo consumption. This study aims to examine the joint effect of self-esteem and an incidental similarity cue (e.g. a person's initials) on anticipated satisfaction with with a solo consumption experience to fill this gap.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study used a two-factor (incidental similarity cue and self-esteem) quasi-experimental design to test the hypotheses. The respondents read a scenario depicting a solo service consumption experience and completed scales that measured perceived fit with the service context and anticipated satisfaction with the experience.\nFindings: Results indicate that, in the absence of an incidental similarity cue, self-esteem has a positive effect on solo consumers' perceived fit. In the presence of such a cue, however, self-esteem has a minimal impact on perceived fit. Furthermore, perceived fit mediates the effect of self-esteem on anticipated satisfaction when the cue is absent.\nOriginality/value: The authors' findings suggest that promoting incidental similarities with consumers may not be an efficient strategy to attract solo consumers. Conversely, service providers wishing to induce solo consumption may benefit from situationally increasing self-esteem among potential solo consumers. The current research advances the authors' understanding of the effect of an incidental similarity cue and self-esteem in the context of a growing social trend of solo consumption.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Adoption of travel e-shopping in the UK
|
[
"Travel",
"Marketing",
"Electronic point of sale",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Technology led strategy",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The internet is rapidly becoming the fastest growing shopping channel with a 62 per cent of internet users had bought products from the internet at least once over the first six months of 2004 (Aqute Research, 2004). It is expected that, the figures will increase significantly over time, moving from its infancy to a market with significant potential, with millions of people shopping online as more and more people are internet savvy (Strauss and Frost, 1999; Shim et al., 2001).Despite the significant increase, there is very limited information on how and why certain groups of consumers shop online while others accept e-shopping reluctantly. This can be evidenced by Ernst and Young's (2000) report on worldwide internet survey, which indicates that internet penetration growth in most countries did not justify the adoption of e-shopping strategies. Fewer people than anticipated actually purchase through the internet (Pastore, 2000). In reality, people increasingly use the internet to obtain information but not for purchasing products. Besides, many research have shown that traditional consumer buying behaviour have been affected by the new way of shopping (Bitner et al., 2000; Citrin et al., 2000; Blake et al., 2003). As a result, consumer behaviour in the online market is no longer predictable by marketers. Therefore, this research sets out to fill the gaps in the current understanding of the potential of the online market and to illuminate how consumer behaviour is influenced in such a market.\nTravel e-shopping potential: The development of IT has had a major impact on most industries, especially the travel industry, one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the world. Among online businesses, travel appears as one of the largest and fastest growing industries with flights and accommodations as the most popular online purchases of all, 31 per cent (National Statistics, 2001; European Travel Commission, 2005).The internet presents a great opportunity for travel retailers to use this medium to sell their products and services. For instance, many travel companies such as EasyJet, Ryanair, Travelodge and Lastminute.com have established a secure online booking and payment facilities via their web site, while actively promoting web offers.In exploiting the market potential of travel e-shopping, retailers need a clear understanding of who actually purchase online and their behavioural influence. Such information is crucial to retailers, as consumer purchase decision for a travel service involves a complex multi-stage process layered along a hierarchical set of activities (Fesenmaier and Jeng, 2000). Moreover, the purchase decision is vary considerably as a result of inherent personal characteristics such as innovativeness. Many studies have suggested e-shoppers' profile in terms of demographics and purchase patterns (Citrin et al., 2000; Blake et al., 2003; Bhatnagar and Ghose, 2004). However, most of them have been limited either to the context of non-UK markets or to tangible products such as books, groceries or food products. This study extends these borders to the UK market and focuses on travel e-shopping.\nConsumer adoption model: In understanding the issue of consumers' influence and behaviour toward e-shopping some previous studies (Westland and Clark, 1999; Shim et al., 2001) have utilised Fishbein's model (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). In the Fishbein model, attitude has been viewed as a predictor of intention and finally actual behaviour. However, the idea that intentional behaviour will predict actual behaviour is rather questionable in online setting, due to a large numbers of dropouts and those who only browsing and not shopping (Lee and Johnson, 2002). This indicates that empirical evidence of the impact of the internet on consumer shopping behaviour remains inconclusive (Jarvenpaa and Todd, 1997). This paradox has resulted in mixed opinions regarding the future of internet marketing amongst researchers and practitioners. Some studies view that e-marketing is an over-hyped, transient fad (Forrester Research, 2000; Holloway and Beatty, 2003), while others maintain that the impact of the e-marketing is still promising because it performs a supporting role for existing marketing activity (Rowley, 1996; Reinders and Baker, 1998; Hoffman and Novak, 1996; Jobber, 2004).As most previous work on e-shopping has focused on the intentional behaviour rather than the actual behaviour of e-shoppers, this study fills this gap by understanding the \"actual\" e-shoppers' behaviour. This includes identifying the profile of travel e-shoppers and the antecedents of their e-shopping adoption which converge personal influence as well as cognitive influence.\nConceptual framework: Based on established pertinent theoretical foundations and literatures, a research framework had been developed to investigate the factors that influence the adoption of travel e-shopping within the context of UK consumers. The Davis' (1989) Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was chosen as the basis for developing a conceptual model explaining consumers' e-shopping adoption due to its consistent capability to explain a substantial proportion of variances between behavioural intention and actual behaviours derived mainly from research into the purchase of technology related products (Davis et al., 1989; Mathieson, 1991; Adams et al., 1992). In particular, the proposed model seeks to take advantage of the validity and reliability of perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease-of-use (PEU) in the TAM by adding other constructs in order to improve explanatory and predictive power (Taylor and Todd, 1995; Igbaria et al., 1996; Jiang et al., 2000; Gefen and Straub, 2000).As shown in Figure 1, the proposed model suggests that consumer adoption of travel e-shopping will be determined by:* PU and PEU;* personal characteristics (consumer involvement, consumer innovativeness and opinion leadership); and* perceived risk and trust.As a result, 15 hypotheses were generated and tested from the model.\nMethodology: The primary data collection commenced with qualitative data through focus group discussions, which were conducted in a non-structured manner. The most prominent themes and issues were extracted from the focus group findings for questionnaire design purposes. They were also used to support the development of conceptual framework as well as the measurement items of the questionnaire. This was followed by the quantitative data collection which was a questionnaire survey.Owing to the nature of the research, accessibility to the target audience and facilities available, this study employed online survey which involved web-based questionnaire for the main data collection process. An e-mail database acquired from a research agency represents the total population of e-shoppers in the UK. Sample of e-mails were picked at random by a generated sampling system, similar to random digital dialling. This approach deemed to permit generalizations.E-mail invitations with a web-link to the survey page were used as a vehicle for inviting and reminding respondents to participate for the survey. To encourage participation, this study offered the respondents the opportunity to enter into a lucky draw to win a flight voucher sponsored by BMIBaby.com. The online survey was activated for two weeks with 300 e-shoppers participated.Various statistical tools and techniques had been employed for the data analysis of this study including multivariate analysis using SPSS and AMOS software for the structural equation modelling (SEM).First, the measurement items were refined and validated using reliability test and exploratory factor analysis. Then, the constructs were again validated using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in the SEM. SEM is utilised to evaluate how well the proposed conceptual model of e-shopping adoption that contains observed indicators and hypothetical constructs (Figure 1) explains or fits the collected data (Bollen, 1989a, b; Hoyle, 1995). Through SEM procedures, simultaneous examination and explanation of the inter-related dependence relationships among constructs is possible (Reisinger and Turner, 1999). It also provides the ability to measure or specify the structural relationships among sets of unobserved (latent) variables, while describing the amount of unexplained variance (Hoyle, 1995; Byrne, 1998; Turner and Reisinger, 2001).When measurement and structural models are evaluated, three types of overall model fit measures are usually utilized: absolute fit measures, incremental fit measures, and parsimonious fit measures (PFM) (Hu and Bentler, 1995; Byrne, 1998; Hair et al., 1998; Maruyama, 1998). An absolute fit index is used to directly evaluate how well an a priori theoretical model fits the sample data, while an incremental fit index is used to assess the proportionate fit by comparing a target model with a more restricted, nested baseline model. A PFM is used to diagnose whether model fit has been achieved by over-fitting the data with too many coefficients.\nFindings and discussions: The profile and purchase pattern of travel e-shoppers\nResearch contributions: This study contributes to and extends the understanding of the internet as a medium for commercial use in the business-to-consumer arena. An understanding of reasons for online purchasing is particularly relevant in the context of predictions made regarding e-shopping in the future (Swaminathan et al., 1999).Firstly, from a managerial viewpoint, by recognizing the profile of travel e-shoppers, online retailers would be able to define their target markets, to plan suitable offers or to launch new products for specific market segments. The demographic and geodemographic profile of travel e-shoppers could also be used for fine-tuning market segmentation and positioning strategies while emphasizing the benefits offered by the marketers' web sites to the e-shoppers. Therefore, marketers could design a more personalised marketing that are based on specific consumer needs, tastes and lifestyles. Consumers are more likely to make impulsive purchase decisions if the new product is of particular interest to them (Raymond and Tanner, 1994). Further, by understanding the profile of e-shoppers, travel marketers would be able to influence consumer behaviour from conducting internet information searching to internet shopping.Secondly, the findings provide support for investment decisions, and for decisions relating to the development of internet services that address and take the concerns and wants of consumers into consideration. This study confirms that the convenience of e-shopping attracts to consumers, as it enables them to shop at any time, from anywhere, as well as providing product information sources, lower prices and perceived control over purchase decisions. However, privacy and the security of personal and financial information during transactions are concerns amongst e-shoppers.Third, this study contributes to an understanding of how internet facilities can be embraced by travel retailers, and also how these facilities contribute to the development of online tourism in the UK. To this end, the proposed model for analysing e-shoppers' behaviour in order to gain an understanding of the antecedents of e-shopping adoption could be used as a practical tool to predict how consumers behave online. It is more meaningful as the model examines the \"actual\" e-shoppers' behaviour rather than their \"intentional\" behaviour. This is an important issue, as researchers have questioned the strength of the relationship between intentions and self-reported subjective use (Straub et al., 1995).Fourth, theoretically, the comprehensive, yet parsimonious model developed in the study makes an important contribution to the emerging literature on online consumer behaviour by grounding new variables, which is the influence of personal characteristics into a well-accepted general model (TAM) and then applying them to a new context of e-shopping. The final e-shopping adoption model possesses substantial explanatory power with reasonably high goodness-of-fit (GFI = 0.912, RMR = 0.034, RMSEA = 0.047); thus, the results provide convincing support for the theoretical framework of the study.Fifth, this study contributes to the application of online survey, where an online software package was utilised to design and administer the survey. It is rare to the point of surprise that this new method of data collection contributes similar functions as offline data collection (Kehoe and Pitkow, 1998; McCoy and Marks, 2001). Thus, this contribution is to attest to the great opportunity to accelerate the research process via online survey tools.\nPractical implications: The results suggest several practical implications for travel retailers.Perceived usefulness and perceived ease-of-use\nFuture research: Advanced research should be embarked upon to replicate and validate the model in order to determine the robustness of the current findings. Since, the generalisability of the model is inherently limited to the travel services setting, the model and hypotheses should therefore be extended beyond the present context (e.g. to the e-banking industry and the insurance industry). It is also suggested that if any replication study were to be carried out beyond the internet shopping context, some refinement to the measurement instrument for the constructs must be carefully considered. By doing so, these replication studies could extend the generalisability of the findings derived from the current study.The findings of the direct relationships of external variables over and above the TAM variables may be applicable in the internet marketing settings; the TAM needs to be extended to include other mediating beliefs. Future research is suggested to further extend the TAM to encompass other theoretical constructs (Davis et al., 1989; Gefen and Straub, 2000; Gefen et al., 2003). It would be interesting, for example, to explore the role of consumer satisfaction, shopping orientation, personal traits and social influences on the acceptance of e-shopping.\nConclusion: The results of this study yield preliminary evidence that previous technology acceptance and diffusion research, and specifically the significant body of work based on the TAM, may serve as a foundation for much needed research into consumers' adoption of internet-related activities. Relationships among primary TAM constructs found in this research are largely consistent with those typical in previous TAM research. The research framework is one of the very first studies to incorporate cognitive variables from the literature on consumer adoption of innovation and the TAM, and helps to initiate the integration of cross-disciplinary studies in e-marketing. The framework has ultimately; provide an integration of existing research and a springboard for future systematic research in the area of online consumer behaviour.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study aims to explore consumers' adoption of internet shopping in the context of UK travel services. The key objective is to identify the profile of internet shoppers and the antecedents of internet shopping adoption for travel services.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper includes evidence and findings from an online survey questionnaire distributed to existing travel e-shoppers in the UK via their e-mail address. Drawing upon Davis' technology acceptance model (TAM), the study proposes a model for the prediction of internet shopping adoption, with inclusions of personal and cognitive influence. The model identifies the structural relationships among eight constructs, which were examined through structural equation modelling.\nFindings: - The results of this study yield evidence that previous technology acceptance and diffusion research, and specifically the significant body of work based on the TAM, may serve as a foundation for much needed research into consumers' adoption of internet-related activities. Relationships among primary TAM constructs found in this research are largely consistent with those typical in previous TAM research. The descriptive results present a profile of travel e-shoppers in terms of demographic, geodemographic and buying patterns. The results explicitly clarified several key contributions to and implications for marketing theory and practice.\nPractical implications: - The findings will facilitate an understanding of the factors associated with the adoption of travel e-shopping, thereby enabling retailers and policy makers to better develop appropriate strategies to enhance and promote e-shopping to future users while retaining existing customers.\nOriginality/value: - Essentially, the research framework explains three basic issues of online marketing: Who actually shops via the internet? What makes consumers adopt internet shopping? Which attributes are relatively important to adoption?\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Service work in 2050: toward a work ecosystems perspective
|
[
"Employment relationships",
"Service work",
"Future of work",
"Work ecosystems"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The world of service work is undergoing an accelerating pace of change due to the \"perfect storm\" of disruptions created by innovations in technology, global connectivity and evolving employment norms (Johns and Gratton, 2013). While large corporations and public-sector organizations continue to employ a significant portion of the global workforce, traditional employee-organization relationships (EORs) are heading toward significant transformation. For instance, an estimated 40 percent of the total US workforce is engaged in some form of alternative work arrangement (US Government Accountability Office, 2015), with self-employed workers independently managing portfolios of projects or \"gigs\" and constituting approximately 16 percent of the workforce (European Political Strategy Center, 2016). In addition, expectations of employment longevity have demonstrated a significant downturn, with less than 40 percent of US workers estimated to stay with one employer for more than four years (Hipple and Sok, 2013). It is predicted that a 15-year-old individual today will potentially have 17 different jobs in their lifetime, building a \"portfolio\" career (Foundation for Young Australians, 2016). Freelance work is likely to be even shorter in its duration. If ride-sharing services can be used as an example for this type of employment, it is interesting to note that only an estimated 4 percent of Uber drivers continue to work with this employer beyond one year (McGee, 2017).\nService workers' participation in work ecosystems: Whether and how employees participate in EOR and how they develop and nurture relationships with organizations and the broader institutional environment has been the focus of extensive management and organizational research for over a century. For example, research on staffing, socialization, job engagement, organizational culture and career development - just to name a few - may seemingly address very different research questions. Yet, they all aim to answer a common question: why and how do employees and organizations build and maintain links with each other (Shore et al., 2012)? Viewed from the perspective of work ecosystems, the worker's decision to participate in specific work ecosystems at a given time is likely to be affected by the interaction between the individual's personal values/competencies, ecosystem characteristics and broader institutional characteristics.\nService worker motivation to produce within work ecosystems: After deciding to participate in various work and organizational arrangements, workers make a series of decisions regarding the quantity and quality of effort that they need to expend in order to meet personal and organizational goals. The motivation to produce within the ecosystem is likely to be determined by the individual's competencies (i.e. level of expertise) and motivation, the demands and resources within the ecosystem (including work demands, the presence/absence of other partners and infrastructure), as well as larger contextual factors such as economic conditions and political forces. In traditional work arrangements, employees and organizations share a certain level of commitment to the relationship, and the effect of the organization on employee motivation, performance and well-being is engendered by long-term processes and outcomes. In WERs, however, relationships can be considered to be constantly fluctuating, with centrifugal forces pushing workers away from organizations as they seek opportunities to meet various economic, social and growth needs and centripetal forces pulling them toward arrangements that provide these opportunities.\nHow value creation differs within work ecosystems: The above sections highlight the ways in which workers in 2050 will become productive participants in work ecosystems. This current section investigates the implications of the transition from an EOR- to a WER-based view of service work for value creation. Equilibrium theory (March and Simon, 1958) suggests that value creation emerges from positive and predictable social exchanges between organizations and workers. Specifically:[...] organizations estimate (a) the desired level of contribution from their employees, (b) the economic value of these contributions, and (c) the monetary costs of providing the inducements required to motivate the estimated level of contribution. If these estimates are accurate, they are able to utilize the contributions obtained from employees (i.e. in the form of productivity) to reinvest in the provision of future inducements(Subramony et al., 2008, p. 778)\nConclusions and managerial implications: This paper has attempted to assess the future characteristics of the relationships and dynamics of the relationships between organizations and workers, adopting an assumption that while some traditional worker-organizational relationships will endure for the next 30 years, there will be a steady rise in another group: those with weakened contracts between organizations and workers who will engage through work ecosystems. The idea that the bond between employer and employee will evolve into a contract-like economic exchange is not new (Tsui and Wu, 2005); however, the contribution of this conceptual paper is to project and examine the likely impacts of an increased trajectory of change on fundamental assumptions in management practice and research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the changing nature of the relationship between service workers and their work arrangements. Building upon classical and contemporary management theories and examining current trends and disruptions in employment relationships, it proposes a dynamic and relational model applicable to the management of service work in future decades (notionally in the year 2050).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper introduces and develops the concept of worker-ecosystem relationship as a core construct to describe the participation and productivity of workers in the significantly transformed work environment of 2050.\nFindings: This paper argues that in work ecosystems - defined as relatively self-contained and self-adjusting systems - work arrangements will evolve toward less-clearly defined employment relationships characterized by long-term social contracts, tightly defined work roles and physical proximity of workers and organizations.\nOriginality/value: A novel yet theoretically rooted construct of work ecosystems is introduced, using this new lens to predict changes in the nature of service work in 2050.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Does outcome quality matter? An investigation in the context of banking services in an emerging market
|
[
"SERVQUAL",
"Service quality",
"Functional quality",
"Outcome quality",
"Service quality in Indian banks"
] |
[
{
"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.\nConcept of service quality and its domain: an overview: Service quality has emerged as a strategic tool to attract, retain and grow customers in the present day hyper-competitive services markets (Shemwell et al., 1998; Gan et al., 2006; Mittal and Gera, 2012). Several past studies posit service quality as a significant factor contributing to not only higher customer satisfaction (Bearden and Teel, 1983; Spreng and Mackoy, 1996; Beerli et al., 2004; Jain, 2008; Oyeniyi and Abiodun, 2008; Naeem and Saif, 2009; Awan et al., 2011), but also reduced operating costs, improved sales and profits (Boulding et al., 1993; Taylor and Baker, 1994; Zeithaml, 1996), greater customer loyalty (Beerli et al., 2004; Islam and Ali, 2011) and favorable word-of-mouth (WOM) communication (Zeithaml, 1996).\nResearch methodology: The necessary data for the study came from a survey of customers carried out by the authors in the retail banking context in India.\nData analysis and results: Scale reliability and validity testing\nDiscussion, managerial implications and research directions: A major problem with service quality studies in the past has been their misplaced focus on functional aspect of service quality. Although unknowingly, this bias seems to have occurred primarily due to use of the SERVQUAL scale, which in its both original and modified forms, has been overly concerned with operationalization of functional quality. Despite growing recognition of outcome quality in service quality literature, it is ironical that only a lip service has been rendered to its operationalization. And it is, perhaps, because of this reason that outcome quality has not yet gained much currency in the empirical studies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to measure outcome quality in banks in India and to make a comparative assessment of its influence on customer service quality perceptions. Though both functional quality (i.e. how service is delivered) and outcome quality (i.e. what is delivered) are important aspects of service quality, it is the functional quality which has primarily been the focus of past studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data used in the study are based on a survey of bank customers located in Delhi and National Capital Region. Using the exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, validity and dimensionality of the multi-item functional and outcome quality scales used in the study were assessed. A structural model of relationships of functional and outcome quality with overall service quality was tested through use of the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach.\nFindings: The study finds outcome quality as being a significant and major determinant of customer service quality perceptions in banks. Inclusion of outcome quality in the analysis is, moreover, found to be helpful in capturing more exhaustively the variations present in customer overall service quality perceptions.\nResearch limitations/implications: Both the functional and outcome quality in the study have been measured through scales adapted from past studies. But the same have not been found able to fully capture variations in customer service quality perceptions. More psychometrically sound scales to measure functional and outcome quality are needed. Studies in both the developing and developed countries and additional service sectors are called for to increase the generalizability of the study findings. Furthermore, nomological validity of the outcome quality scale needs to be investigated by relating it with other anent constructs, such as customer satisfaction and their behavioral intentions.\nPractical implications: Instead of simply remaining preoccupied with functional quality, i.e. process or how part of service delivery, bank management also needs to gauze customer outcome quality perceptions (i.e. what the customers think they are eventually getting out of their transactions with the service provider) and exercise due care to see that customers in fact are getting the core banking tasks performed for which they approach the banks in the first instance.\nOriginality/value: Present study is first of its kind in investigating role of outcome quality in banking services sector in the context of an emerging market like India. Use of SEM for analyzing both the measurement and structural models constitutes another noteworthy feature of the study.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Long-term container throughput forecast and equipment planning: the case of Bangkok Port
|
[
"Forecasting",
"VECM",
"Cause-and-effect forecasting",
"Container throughput",
"Terminal layout"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Maritime transportation is an extremely important component of international trade. This transportation method is composed of maritime shipping and ports, which are key elements for creating economic growth (UNCTAD, 2016). Container transportation directly affects the international economy, especially in a country such as Thailand, for which seaborne trade dominates the transportation sector of imports and exports.\nLiterature review: The review is devoted to the literature on forecasting techniques, maritime forecasting and terminal management.\nResearch methodology: Forecasting methodology\nResults of forecasting using the vector error correction model: We used a VECM as described above to forecast the numbers of inbound and outbound containers. The results of the forecasting are presented in Figure 1 and Table I. The characteristics of both imported and exported containers are as follows: importing 57.3 per cent, including FCL (full container load) boxes, 79.4 per cent (laden 96.9 per cent, refer 3.1 per cent); LCL (less than container load) boxes, 17.2 per cent; and empty boxes, 3.4 per cent; and exporting 42.7 per cent, including FCL, 77.9 per cent (laden 96.9 per cent, refer 3.1 per cent); LCL, 13.2 per cent; and empty boxes, 2.9 per cent. The forecasting accuracies as given by MAE, RMSE and MAPE (Table II) show that the VECM estimates are satisfactory.\nThe application of forecasting to port planning: the case of Bangkok Port: Many container terminals worldwide have become excessively utilized. The expansion of the terminal area will improve the overall productivity of Bangkok Port. The building of capacity on the existing operating area might be the most suitable location for this terminal expansion. Terminal expansion is an option for adding capacity and improving the productivity of a terminal, and a better design of yard capacity and yard cranes is the best way to achieve such terminal expansion. This section explores the current capacity of Bangkok Port and various alternatives for the future expansion of the port's terminal.\nConclusions: One of the most important factors for developing port facilities and the infrastructure of a container terminal is predicting the volume of container throughput. Therefore, robust forecasting methods that can provide accurate values for future throughput volumes are extremely important when making decisions regarding planning and managing a port such as Bangkok Port. Furthermore, with such information, the container terminal operators should be able to minimize the risk of making an under- or over-investment on the expansion project.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to forecast inbound and outbound container throughput for Bangkok Port to 2041 and uses the results to inform the future planning and management of the port's container terminal.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data used cover a period of 16 years (192 months of observations). Data sources include the Bank of Thailand and the Energy Policy and Planning Office. Cause-and-effect forecasting is adopted for predicting future container throughput by using a vector error correction model (VECM).\nFindings: Forecasting future container throughput in Bangkok Port will benefit port planning. Various economic factors affect the volume of both inbound and outbound containers through the port. Three cases (scenarios) of container terminal expansion are analyzed and assessed, on the basis of which an optimal scenario is identified.\nResearch limitations/implications: The economic characteristics of Thailand differ from those of other countries/jurisdictions, such as the USA, the EU, Japan, China, Malaysia and Indonesia, and optimal terminal expansion scenarios may therefore differ from that identified in this study. In addition, six particular countries/jurisdictions are the dominant trading partners of Thailand, but these main trading partners may change in the future.\nOriginality/value: There are only two major projects that have forecast container throughput volumes for Bangkok Port. The first project, by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, applied both the trend of cargo volumes and the relationship of volumes with economic indices such as population and gross domestic product. The second project, by the Port Authority of Thailand, applied a moving average method to forecast the number of containers. Other authors have used time-series forecasting. Here, the authors apply a VECM to forecast the future container throughput of Bangkok Port.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Effects of leadership and leader-member exchange on commitment
|
[
"Leadership",
"Behaviour",
"Employee attitudes",
"Research and development",
"Singapore"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There has been an increasing acceptance of the proposition that leadership is a significant factor in the success of research and development (R&D) work (Keller, 1992; Scott and Bruce, 1998; Tierney et al., 1999). At the same time, escalating trends of globalisation and fast developing technologies have fuelled ever more sophisticated customer preferences, and augmented the need to shorten product lifecycles. These changes in the marketplace are hence placing mounting pressure on the R&D work function (Kessler and Chakrabarti, 1996). The increased risk associated with rapidly changing technology has also made R&D tasks uncertain and equivocal (Bodensteiner et al., 1991).With past studies examined the role of leadership in R&D settings based on western cultures, the present study examines the role of leadership in the growing R&D sector in Singapore. As Singapore gears up to transform itself into a knowledge-based economy, scientific research will be a key contributor to economic growth. The Singapore Government is moving forward to increase the quantum of R&D work as it not only helps the economy to move up the value-chain, but also boosts Singapore's gross domestic product (GDP).In Singapore, gross expenditure on R&D (GERD) as a percentage of GDP registers a compound annual growth rate of 12 per cent for the period 1996-1999. This figure far exceeds the 6 per cent increase for the period 1991-1995. By 2000, GERD as a percentage of GDP in Singapore reaches 1.89 per cent, which is at the lower band of national R&D investments in developed countries. The number of research scientists and engineers per 10,000 in the labour force has also seen a steady growth at 10 per cent annually, from 48 in 1995 to 84 in 2000. Since implications from past literature suggest that leadership nurtures R&D talent and increases their commitment to the organisation, the relevance of leadership and LMX to organizational commitment is hence to be examined.The literature on the impact of leadership in R&D on organisational outcomes is limited to the innovation process, project performance, effectiveness and success (Keller, 1992; Scott and Bruce, 1998; Tierney et al., 1999; Waldman and Atwater, 1992; Waldman and Bass, 1991). Moreover, conspicuously missing from these R&D studies is the effect of leadership on employees' organisational commitment despite commitment of employees being an important factor to ensure ROI on R&D. This research is thus an attempt to link the two leadership perspectives - behavioural and relational, and examine them in the light of followers' organisational commitment. Furthermore, given both of the leadership have plausible relationship with organisational commitment and interrelationship between each other, this research also attempts to find the role of relational perspective of leadership as a mediating function between behavioural perspective of leadership and organisational commitment.\nLiterature review: Leadership and leader-member exchange\nMethod: Sample\nFindings: It is found that the Cronbach's a of all the scales are ranged between 0.72 and 0.93, above the criterion given by Nunnally (1978), hence giving confidence that the individual constructs are all consistent in their measurements. The reliability of the constructs used in this study is satisfactory.The means and standard deviations for each leadership style and the various study variables are shown in Table I. As reflected by the descriptive statistics, the higher mean of transformational leadership implies that R&D superiors exhibit transformational leadership styles more frequently than transactional or passive-avoidant leadership styles. The means of transformational leadership (M=2.15, SD=0.71) and transactional leadership (M=1.97, SD=0.60) indicate that the frequency at which R&D superiors practise either of these two forms of leadership is \"sometimes\". Passive-avoidant leadership (M=1.10, SD=0.69) is observed \"once in a while\".The results also show higher means on the LMX dimensions of professional respect and contribution than on dimensions of affect and loyalty. Normative commitment reports lower scores than affective commitment.Referring to Table I which shows zero-correlations among the study variables, it is found that both transformational and transactional leadership have positive and significant associations with all dimensions of LMX and organisational commitment, with the exception that the positive relationship between transactional leadership and loyalty is insignificantly. Passive-avoidant leadership is found to have negative and significant correlations with LMX dimensions of affect, contribution and professional respect as well as the affective and normative dimensions of organisational commitment.Results show that transactional leadership correlates positively with transformational leadership but inversely with passive-avoidant leadership. Passive-avoidant leadership reports a negative association with transformational leadership.Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses. From Table II, leadership explains 50.6 per cent of the variance in professional respect, 46.5 per cent of the variance in affect, 30.1 per cent of the variance in loyalty and 28.3 per cent of the variance in contribution after controlling for demographic factors. Transformational leadership has positive and significant associations with all four dimensions of LMX. These findings hence give support to H1.1-H1.4.Despite earlier findings that transactional leadership correlates positively with LMX dimensions of affect, contribution and professional respect, regression analysis reflects insignificant negative associations with these dimensions. On top of that, it also reports that loyalty has a negative b of -0.270 (p-value < 0.000). From the negative and insignificant b of transactional leadership in its association with affect, we hence reject H2.1 which proposes a negative association between transactional leadership and affect. H2.2 which posits transactional leadership to be negatively associated with loyalty is supported (b=-0.270, p<0.000).As hypothesised that passive-avoidant leadership has negative associations with contribution and professional respect, we find negative and significant betas associated with contribution (b=-0.171, p-value < 0.01) and professional respect (b=-0.253, p-value < 0.000) for the independent variable, passive-avoidant leadership. These results give sufficient evidence to support H3.1 and H3.2.Consistent with previous findings, only transformational leadership has significant and positive associations with affective and normative commitment with reported bs of 0.601 and 0.546 for affective and normative commitment, respectively. Transformational leadership has greater impact on affective than normative commitment. H4 is hence supported. From Table II, leadership variables explain 37 per cent of the variance in affective commitment and 25 per cent of the variance in normative commitment after controlling for demographic factors.The regression analysis reports a positive association of affect with affective organisational commitment (b=0.208, p-value < 0.05), supporting H5.1. However, it fails to provide significant support for H5.2 which proposes that loyalty has a positive association with normative organisational commitment. The results as seen in Table II reflect that the four dimensions of LMX explain 42 per cent of the variance in affective commitment and 31.4 per cent of the variance in normative commitment.The three conditions proposed by Baron and Kenny (1986) in testing the mediating effects of LMX quality are fulfilled. First, leadership variables are significantly related to LMX quality (column (c) of Table III), where leadership explains 54.2 per cent of the variance in LMX quality (p-value < 0.000). Second, leadership variables are also significantly related to affective commitment (column (a)) and explain 37 per cent of the variance in affective commitment (p-value < 0.000). Third, referring to column (d), LMX quality still has a significant association with affective commitment with leadership variables in the equation. As leadership explains an additional 5.8 per cent of the variance in affective commitment, with a significant b weight for transformational leadership, partial mediation of LMX quality is said to exist in the relationship between leadership and affective commitment.Similarly, the three conditions of LMX quality as a partial mediator between leadership and normative commitment are fulfilled. Referring to Table III, column (c), leadership explains 54.2 per cent of the variance in LMX quality (p<0.000). From column (a), leadership variables also explain 25 per cent of the variance in normative commitment (p<0.000). LMX quality reports a significant association with normative commitment and it explains 54.2 per cent of the variance in normative commitment. Furthermore, since leadership explains an additional 2.9 per cent of the variance in normative commitment after controlling for LMX quality (column (d)), partial mediation is said to exist. The three hierarchical regressions to test the mediating effects of LMX quality reveal that LMX quality acts as a partial mediator between leadership and affective and normative commitment.\nDiscussion of findings: Transformational leadership behaviour is reported to have significant effects on all dimensions of LMX and organisational commitment. Owing to the transactional nature of exchange between transactional leaders and followers, transactional leadership does not have significant associations with most dimensions of LMX, except for a negative association with loyalty. Compared to transformational leadership, transactional leadership does not associate significantly with organisational commitment. Passive-avoidant leadership, given its non-intervening nature, has negative consequences on LMX.LMX, as conceptualised by four dimensions of affect, loyalty, contribution and professional respect, also explains organisational commitment. While leadership is found to have direct impacts on organisational commitment, it also works indirectly through the mediator, LMX, in predicting organisational commitment.Transformational leadership relates positively to all dimensions of LMX, with greatest impact on affect\nConclusion and implications: The findings from hierarchical regression analysis reveal that transformational leadership has positive association with the dimensions of LMX and organizational commitment. LMX quality is also found to mediate the relationship between leadership and organizational commitment. Transformational leadership but not transactional leadership is more important in relation to leader-member exchanges, followers' organisational commitment. Such positive influences that transformational leaders have on followers clearly exemplify the important role that leaders play in affecting the quality of exchanges in R&D work groups as well as the commitment of their followers. Hence, R&D organisations should endeavour to select and nurture transformational leadership qualities among leaders for the potential increased performance and effectiveness of followers. These can be achieved with more stringent interviews and adequate training in leadership. The result also shows that R&D superiors and managers in Singapore are not demonstrating enough transformational leadership despite the unpredictable and uncertain nature of R&D work environments which calls for more effective leadership. This issue can be addressed by raising the awareness of the importance of effective leadership and implementing training and development programmes incorporating leadership for these R&D professionals. On a concluding note, as leadership appears to complement LMX in the determination of organisational commitment, the importance of building high-quality relationships should not be neglected.Owing to the cross-sectional design of this study, the data collected does not allow for an assessment of the direction of causality. Findings for this study should therefore be considered exploratory. The current study opens new doors for further research. For purposes of causality, it would be interesting to replicate this study in a longitudinal design to determine if the findings of the relationships tested are likely to be sustained. As there are many situational factors in the context of R&D work which affect leadership, future studies can benefit by including transformational leadership and other variables like self-efficacy beliefs or self-leadership in determining organisational commitment. Other outcomes like satisfaction and extra effort can also be examined. Comparisons can also be made between public and private R&D organisations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The present study attempts to integrate both behavioural and relational perspectives of leadership and test their applicability in determining employees' organizational commitment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Leadership behaviours were measured using Bass and Avolio's multifactor' leadership questionnaire (MLQ) Form 5X. Liden and Maslyn's multi-dimensional model of leader-member exchange (LMX-MDM) scale was used to measure the quality of relationship between respondents and their superiors. Meyer and Allen's instrument for the multidimensional organisational commitment was adopted for this study. A total of 201 research and development (R&D) professionals including engineers and scientists working in R&D department of manufacturing firms, R&D organisations, and research institutes in Singapore participated in the study.\nFindings: - The findings from hierarchical regression analysis reveal that transformational leadership has positive association with the dimensions of LMX and organizational commitment. LMX quality is also found to mediate the relationship between leadership and organizational commitment. R&D superiors demonstrate predominantly transformational leadership but at lower frequency than observed in past studies.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Owing to the cross-sectional design of this study, the data collected does not allow for an assessment of the direction of causality.\nPractical implications: - R&D superiors and managers in Singapore are not demonstrating enough transformational leadership despite the unpredictable and uncertain nature of R&D work environments which calls for more effective leadership. This issue can be addressed by raising the awareness of the importance of effective leadership and implementing training and development programmes incorporating leadership for these R&D professionals.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is a first attempt to understand leadership and commitment among R&D professionals in Singapore.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Trouble with tacit: developing a new perspective and approach
|
[
"Tacit knowledge",
"Tacit-explicit distinction",
"Implicit learning",
"Discursive psychology",
"Discourse analysis",
"Tacit knowing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: While tacit knowledge (TK) has been generally understood as the often in-articulable condition of thought, it remains both the thorn in the side and lightening rod of controversy because it was first introduced to the knowledge management (KM) discourse. While many concur on the importance of TK, for instance, in firm performance and economic profit (Bontis, 1999), its nature, role and consequently what can or should be done with it remain elusive, prey to competing perspective and theory (Puusa and Eerikainen, 2010; Greenwood and Levin, 2005; Virtanen, 2011; Gourlay, 2006; Oguz and Sengun, 2011). Moreover, the attempt to leverage it is indicted as a primary \"failure factor\" in KM practice (Grant and Qureshi, 2006; Virtanen, 2011; Oguz and Sengun, 2011).\nConclusions: Paradoxically, while the tacit-explicit distinction is epidemic throughout KM literature and practice, it can also be seen as constituting a key underlying factor in the field's dis-unification, with risks to its further development. This distinction finds its genesis in an alleged misunderstanding of Polanyi's (1962) thesis, and a misappraisal of his philosophical grounds. If the components of a formula are changed, it is unlikely the formula will continue to work. Epistemology and ontology matter, as they determine the foundations of any theory of the world.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this viewpoint paper is to question the widely adopted tacit-explicit distinction of knowledge, arguing that this is based on a misappraisal of the original source of the \"tacit\" phenomenon.\nDesign/methodology/approach: It is argued that Michael Polanyi's theory of personal knowledge and philosophical grounds have been misinterpreted. The tacit problem is approached from three different directions: knowledge management, cognitive psychology and discursive psychology. The first offers an imperative to regard the tacit as vital to organizational success and an underplayed \"implicit\" perspective on the tacit. The second offers empirical evidence for the formulation of the tacit as acquired automatically and unconsciously through implicit learning and as influencing action. The last offers a theory and methodology for studying what is argued as being the primary site of knowledge work - discourse.\nFindings: A novel aspect of the tacit - \"tacit knowing\" - is shown to be action-orientated and influential, and while it is a hidden aspect of a person's knowledge, it can be revealed through the study and analysis of discourse.\nOriginality/value: This is the first known paper in the extant literature to examine the tacit knowledge challenge from these combined directions. Implications for practice and study are discussed, and new directions for research proposed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Determinant factors of leverage: An empirical analysis of Spanish corporations
|
[
"Financial management",
"Debts",
"Gearing",
"Decision making",
"Spain"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The study of the combination of internal and external financial resources in company liability has generated controversy over the years. Especially significant is Miller and Modigliani's (MM) important contribution to capital structure theory of 1958, which showed that, given a company's investment policy, and not taking taxes and transaction costs into account, the choice of financial policy does not affect the current market value of the company. However, because real markets are far from the so-called \"perfect capital markets\" on which MM based their work, numerous studies have shown the interdependence among investment decisions, financing decisions, and firm value. Continued interest in this topic justifies further study of a company's financial decisions that determine its level of debt.There are certain factors, such as taxes, that favor a company's use of debt, but others, such as the cost of bankruptcy, that limit that tax advantage. Along these lines, it may be said that agency and signal theories offer considerable help in understanding a company's use of debt. Specifically, the use of debt may reduce managerial discretion and mitigate conflicts of interest between management and the contributors of funds to the company. Moreover, as a consequence of separating ownership and management, shareholders have less information about the company than do managers. In this way, leverage becomes a signal to the former of the private information in the hands of the latter, since the directors' desire to avoid the problems of bankruptcy convert debt into a believable signal. In this context, Azofra Palenzuela and Fernandez Alvarez (1999) comment that \"the value of debt as an information signal and a mechanism to control agency conflicts is the reason why companies sometimes increase their debt, even when there are no fiscal reasons for doing so.\"The objective of the current article is to carry out empirical testing, using panel data methodology, to determine the factors that explain the level of debt in non-financial companies listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange for the period from 1990 to 1999.\nPrevious studies: Ross (1977) states that the financial structure of a corporation provides the market with information about the firm, with the market value of the firm increasing with the level of debt. This can be taken to mean that, if managers raise the level of debt, then it is because their expectations for the future of the company permit it to meet its obligations, making it clear that the risk of insolvency is not relevant. Some authors, such as Leland and Pyle (1977), Heinkel (1982), and Harris and Raviv (1990), state that the value of a company and the size of its debt are positively correlated. Variations in the company's level of debt will affect its market value, since the firm's change in capital structure transmits information about the future expectations of the company. For example, an announcement of the reduction of the number of common stocks in exchange for a debt offering has a positive effect on the market, which becomes a negative effect when the reverse happens (Masulis, 1983; Cornett and Travlos, 1989; Copeland and Lee, 1991).With respect to empirical evidence regarding the factors explaining company leverage, many studies have been carried out in the USA, along with others involving different countries, such as Spain and the UK. The conclusions of these studies provide important results for exploring the capital structure of firms in depth, although the results cannot be considered conclusive. The factors established in the various studies can be divided into two groups - those that show a positive relationship with debt, and those that show a negative relationship.Firm size has been one of the variables most commonly used in explaining a company's level of debt. Many studies have made it clear that the size of a firm is positively related to its use of debt as a source of financing (Berges Lobera and Maravall Herrero, 1985; Crutchley and Hansen, 1989; Gaver and Gaver, 1993; Menendez Requejo, 1999). The larger a firm is, the more information is expected to be available about it, which reduces the level of information asymmetries in the market, making it possible to obtain financial resources from lenders.The tangible assets of a firm can be considered representative of the real guarantees that it can offer its creditors. Therefore, the importance of those assets among total assets influences its level of debt, which rises with the increase of warranties offered by the firm to satisfy its obligations arising from contracted debt (Mato, 1990; Chung, 1993; Rajan and Zingales, 1995; Menendez Requejo, 1999).The reputation of a firm may affect its leverage capability, since it reduces the conflicts between the company and its lenders. Diamond (1989) concludes that, by fulfilling its payment obligations, a company enjoys a good reputation, which may be sufficient to eliminate conflicts with its creditors. Reputation can be measured by the age of the company (Datta et al., 1999; Andres Alonso et al., 1999) or the firm's rating (Crabbe and Post, 1994), among other means, and it can be expected to have a positive relationship with debt. This is because companies with better reputations are more mature and better known in the market, since, as Myers (1977) points out, the companies that are most concerned about having a reputation for being honest are those that expect to remain in the market for a long time. For them, honesty is the best policy.On the other hand, companies with greater opportunities for growth have a lower leverage ratio than those with lower growth opportunities, since financing through shares is a mechanism that reduces the problem of under-investment associated by financing through debt. Myers (1977) states that, faced with high debt levels and good growth opportunities, and acting to protect shareholders, directors would prefer not to carry out some positive investment projects if the profits find their way into the hands of bondholders. Similar results are obtained by Smith and Watts (1992), Chung (1993), Gaver and Gaver (1993), Rajan and Zingales (1995), Lang et al. (1996), Menendez Alonso (1999), Menendez Requejo (1999), and Andres Alonso et al. (2000).The \"pecking order theory\" (Myers, 1984; Myers and Majluf, 1984) is used to argue that, because of management's preference for internal financing, companies with a higher volume of internal financing resort to leverage less frequently than those with a lower level of internally generated resources. In this sense, the relationship between the level of debt and resources must be inverse (Menendez Requejo, 1996).The cost of debt is another factor to be considered when analyzing a company's level of debt. In addressing this factor, not only must the actual interest rate on debt be taken into account, but also the overall amount of financial expense that the company sustains for the total volume of assumed debt, which is a fixed cost for the firm. Therefore, it is to be expected that this factor presents a negative aspect of debt (Berges Lobera and Maravall Herrero, 1985; Azofra Palenzuela, 1986; Mato, 1990).Apart from the above studies, the paper of Rajan and Zingales (1995) stands out. Those authors analyzed the level of debt in companies in the G7 Group, reaching the conclusion that, in general, the debt level of companies in the United States is similar to that of companies in the other countries. The variables that help explain the corporate debt level in the USA are the tangibility of assets, investment opportunities, company size, and profitability. These factors are also relevant in explaining company capital structure in the other countries.Taking into account the review of the literature, the hypotheses that we propose about the possible determinants of the debt level of Spanish firms are as follows:H1. The larger the size of a company, the more possibilities there are of obtaining external resources.\nSample and variable definitions: Our sample comprises the non-financial firms listed in the Spanish Stock Exchange over the period from 1990 to 1999. Eliminated from the sample are all firms that stopped being quoted on the stock market prior to 1999, as well as those that entered the stock market later than 1990. Moreover, those companies for which all necessary information could not be obtained have also been excluded. Finally, the selected sample constitutes a balanced panel of 65 companies, with a total of 4,550 observations.For the analysis, the basic data were taken from the balance sheets of every firm and the firms' share closing price at December 31 of each year. This information was extracted from the Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV) and the Madrid Stock Exchange, respectively.The different variables that allow us to test the stated hypotheses are: size, generated resources, level of warrants, cost of debt, growth opportunities, and firm reputation. The dependent variable in the regression model is the ratio of leverage, defined as:Equation 1The evolution of the leverage ratio for all the firms and its decomposition into short and long terms are shown in Table I.We note that the mean leverage does not follow a single trend. It increases in the first years, reaching 51.45 percent in 1992, and then decreases during the following five years, later to increase once again (although not reaching the average levels obtained in the first years of study). The importance of equity in the capital structure and the greater weight of short-term financing in all analyzed periods for the non-financial firms are also observed.Table II presents the exogenous variables for the level of debt, as well as their expected signs.\nMethodology and empirical evidence: Because the sample comprises a heterogeneous set of non-financial corporations belonging to different sectors of activity that are listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange, it is reasonable to think that individual firms may have their own characteristics that differentiate them from the others. Moreover, their variations across time justify a panel data model. We can state the panel data model as follows:Equation 2where yit is the endogenous variable, ai is the individual effect that is thought to be constant throughout time for each company, xit is the exogenous variables matrix, and eit is the term of random disturbance.There are two frameworks for the panel data model: fixed effects and random effects, according to the behavior of the individual effect ai:First, in the fixed effects approach, ai is treated as a specific term group constant, which has to be estimated in the regression. This model also can be expressed in terms of mean group deviations:Equation 3where:Equation 4The estimation of this model can be achieved by least squares with dummy variables (LSDV), obtaining the within-groups estimator.Second, the random effects approach considers ai as a specific disturbance similar to eit. It is a random variable independent of the exogenous variables:Equation 5In this case, the appropriate estimation method is generalized least squares (GLS).We use Hausman's test to decide which of the two approaches is suitable for the behavior of our sample. This test contrasts the null hypothesis of the equality of fixed and random effects through the comparison of the within-groups regression coefficients with those from the GLS regression.The described methodology is applied in our study with the purpose of estimating, by means of a balanced panel, the determinant factors of the leverage ratio, using as exogenous variables: firm size, generated resources, level of warrants, debt cost, growth opportunities, and reputation:Equation 6The descriptive statistics of the variables of the model are summarized in Table III.We first perform the within-groups estimation by means of the least squares dummy variables using the fixed effects approach. This assumes that the possible specific and unobservable characteristics of the companies remain constant throughout time. Second, estimation is performed by generalized least squares using the random effects approach. This assumes that the individual effects of the companies have a random behavior captured by the disturbance of the model. The regression coefficients from both procedures are shown in Table IV.Using Hausman's test to discriminate between fixed and random effects, we obtain the test value of 102.16, with an associated probability of 0 percent. This result supports the non-existence of random effects in the model. The likelihood ratio test suggests that the model captures the group and time effects.Table V summarizes the principal results obtained in the estimation of the model with fixed effects.The results regarding our various hypotheses about leverage are as follows.H1 addresses the influence of firm size of the level of debt, where size is defined as the natural logarithm of total assets. The coefficient of this variable is significant and positively related to leverage. This is a logical result because larger corporations have more facilities to enter markets to obtain external financing.H2 addresses the relationship between generated resources and the dependent variable. We measure generated resources as the profit on ordinary activities plus the depreciation charge divided by total liabilities. This variable is significant and negatively related to the endogenous variable, which is possible to interpret as a preference of managers for self-financing, in accordance with the \"pecking order theory.\"H3 considers the effect of firm warrants on its leverage level. We define warrants as the ratio of net tangible fixed assets to total assets. The significance and positive sign of the warrant variable show that a greater level of tangible fixed assets to support company debt increases considerably the possibility of the company's getting into debt.H4 considers the influence of the cost of debt, which has been defined as the ratio of financial expenses to total debt. The debt cost is significant and presents the expected sign, which allows us to conclude that firms decrease their utilization of external financial resources as financial charges increase.Finally, H5 addresses the effect of growth opportunities on the level of debt, where growth opportunities are measured as the ratio of the market value of common stocks to total liabilities. This variable is significant and negatively related to the dependent variable, verifying the position of Myers (1977) that companies with larger growth opportunities present smaller levels of debt.H6 relates to the reputation of the company, which is measured as the natural logarithm of the number of years since incorporation. This hypothesis is not verified because of the non-significance of the coefficient.\nConclusions: The methodology of panel data models has been used to test whether firm size, generated resources, level of warrants, cost of debt, growth opportunities, and firm reputation can be considered determinant factors of the debt level of the non-financial firms listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange for the 1990-1999 period.The results obtained using within-groups estimation and generalized least squares, suggest that the behavior of the sample throughout the study period is consistent with the fixed effects approach, in which the specific characteristics of each firm remain constant throughout time. Moreover, with respect to the six considered hypotheses, the analysis shows the influence of all stated variables except reputation on the leverage. Therefore, it is possible to confirm that a larger size and larger real warrant of the corporations allow a greater level of debt. In contrast, inverse relationships exist between the level of debt and growth opportunities, generated resources, and debt cost.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To contrast the different factors that can determine the level of debt of firms by means of panel data methodology.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The variables used in the study are: size, generated resources, level of warrants, debt cost, growth opportunities, and reputation. Six hypotheses are considered.\nFindings: - The results obtained suggest that the stated variables, other than reputation, can be considered to be explanatory variables of firm debt level. Using within-groups estimation and generalized least squares, the results suggest that the behavior of the sample throughout the study period is consistent with the fixed effects approach, in which the specific characteristics of each firm remain constant throughout time. Moreover, with respect to the six considered hypotheses, the analysis shows the influence of all stated variables except reputation on the leverage.\nOriginality/value: - Adds to the body of research that has focused on the analysis of the financial decisions of the firm, with the level of debt appearing as a relevant factor in explaining the relationship between investment and financing decisions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Is revamping your web site worthwhile?
|
[
"Worldwide web",
"Quality",
"Control systems",
"Research work"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Managing a web site is a dynamic, on-going process. Once a web site is in operation, there are in general two approaches to increase its traffic: technical and non-technical; both approaches need to be guided by the knowledge of visitors' interests and the value of each web section. The first step in nurturing the growth of a web site is to acquire traffic effectively. However, being able to acquire traffic does not automatically lead to successful retention and development of the site's traffic. According to Hanson (2000), traffic-building activities can be divided into four main classes: domain name choice, portal presence, publicity and word of mouth, and paid advertising. Except for domain name choice, which is usually completed before a site is in operation, the remaining three classes are the implementations that fall under the non-technical category.The power of word-of-mouth depends on methods like e-mails among acquaintances, online discussions, and online and traditional media coverage. However, the prerequisite for these methods to have positive effects is a quality web site. The same is true for portal presence and paid advertising. Thus, four traffic-building activity classes summarized by Hanson are subject to little argument or discussion since quality is the basis of traffic building.After a decade of internet commercialization and the subsequent popularity of the world wide web, web organizers are becoming more sophisticated in web presentation. However, when the must-do's are all taken care of and the site is in operation, web organizers must consider ways to increase web traffic. One effective starting point is to know the popular sections of the site, as they reflect the web site's most notable worth. Common practices include imposing a membership requirement for accessing the section in order to acquire more members, or revamping the popular section in hopes of acquiring more traffic, and thus more members, with the enhanced quality. This paper studies the effects of the latter approach, which is considerably more laborious in its implementation compared to an access policy change, and its engagement mandate a careful contemplation.\nLiterature review: In a model proposed by Huberman et al. (1998), web surfers are constantly using their judgment of the quality of the current page as an assessment of the value of continuing the visit or making future visits. Other studies also agree that web design can effectively enhance the use of the web site (Donthu, 2001; Eighmey and McCord, 1998; Liu et al., 2003; Peng et al., 2004; Newman et al., 2004). The findings by Huberman et al. (1998) point to the effectiveness of a technical traffic-building strategy, i.e. enhancing the quality of web pages to cultivate the worth that visitors are constantly evaluating.Quality of web site\nResearch design: According to the literature review, the quality of web site directly influences the web site's traffic performance. This study focus on four traffic measures that are universally important; the analysis result should thus offer a wide range of potential applications. Figure 1 is the research model that is subject to investigation.Choice of research method\nData analysis: The data for this experiment were extracted from Day 194 to Day 249, and the new design was launched on Day 221. Figure 3 plots the data for page views, visitor count, average duration, and daily registrations from Day 181 to Day 260. Note that two days worth of data immediately subsequent to the treatments were excluded from the analysis in order to avoid transient effect. The omitting of two days data was enough to eliminate time correlation with the data prior to the treatment, because time series is rarely characterized by more than two time lags (Box et al., 1994). The data taken from Day 194 to Day 249 are divided into two groups, the pre-treatment group and the post-treatment group. In Figure 3, the data for non-members, opt-in members, and opt-out members are shown by the corresponding curves, with the period for analysis shaded in and the launching date of the new design, i.e. the treatment, indicated by the arrow above.The overall effect without distinguishing visitor groups\nConclusion: In this study, the effectiveness of improving web quality as a means to enhance traffic performance is put to test. Its effectiveness is confirmed for two basic measures, page views and visitor count, and one stickiness measure, average duration, yet unconfirmed for the participation measure, daily registrations. This means, to increase membership, alternative schemes must be employed, perhaps along the lines of a non-technical approach.Another important finding is that the increase of visitor count, a basic measure, can be attained across all visitor groups by improving quality. Nevertheless, page views, a more detailed basic measure, and average duration, a measure of stickiness, for non-members group do not appear to be encouraged by web site revamping. In contrast, members, be they opt-in or opt-out, respond enthusiastically, with average duration showing about 30 percent of increase. It is interesting to find that web site revamping is very effective in elevating members' stickiness. On the other hand, it is disappointing to learn that even a laborious web revamping cannot convert non-members to more valuable visitors by encourage them to stay longer or view more pages. Therefore, to acquire more members, the strategy should not be trying to convert the current visitors who are non-members. It should be more rewarding to try to get exposure among the people who have not come to know the web site, but possess the same demographic profile as the existing members.The third point is that, average duration, a measure of stickiness, can differentiate not only members from non-members, but also opt-in members from opt-out members. It is not very surprising to learn of its effectiveness of discriminating members from non-members, but rather interesting to discover that opt-in members are stickier than opt-out members. We must ask if this fact is a trait of opt-in and opt-out members or a consequence of opt-in members receiving e-mails periodically while opt-out members chose not to receive e-mails. It is subject to further investigation.Recapping the scope\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to study how web site quality affects traffic performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An experimental design is employed to study how web quality affects traffic performance. A revamping of the experimental web site was used as the treatment, targeting visitors' perceived quality of the web site. Four traffic performance measures, page: views, visitor count, daily registrations, and average duration are tracked, and t-tests are performed on pre-treatment and post-treatment data.\nFindings: - The analysis shows very positive responses among members; visitor count, page views and average duration increased for opt-in and opt-out members. For visitor count, even non-members showed increases. However, daily registration, which measures how many non-members become members each day, did not change. Non-members visited more, but neither viewed more pages, nor stayed longer. Average duration is identified as the key factor for discerning visitor groups.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The experimental web site belongs to one web site category. The generalization is subject to reasoning by practitioners.\nPractical implications: - It was found that: to increase membership, alternative schemes must be employed, perhaps along the lines of a non-technical approach; to acquire more members, do not focus on converting known non-members. Those with the same demographic profile as existing members should be targeted; and the question must be asked whether the fact that opt-in members are stickier than opt-out members is a trait or a consequence of opt-in members receiving e-mails periodically, while opt-out members chose not to receive e-mails.\nOriginality/value: - With few existing traffic experiments in the literature, this study is unique, as are its implications.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Effects of economic conditions and other factors on hotel sale prices
|
[
"Hotel industry",
"Economic conditions",
"Moderating effect",
"Automated valuation model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Hotels are a large and growing sector of commercial real estate investment (Petrovski, 2015; Rushmore et al., 2012). Many hotel investors and other stakeholders need to be able to estimate and understand the market value of their lodging properties for various reasons. For example, owners may want to know the value of a hotel because they are considering selling the property or they may plan to appeal to the local tax authority to reduce the property taxes; potential buyers certainly have to understand a hotel's value to make educated purchase decisions; lenders need to have a good estimate of a hotel's value, because the hotel property would be considered as collateral for a loan (Chatfield and Dalbor, 2005; Rushmore et al., 2012). Thus, numerous stakeholders frequently need to be able to estimate a hotel's value.\nLiterature review: The subject study seeks to build an ex-post model of hotel valuation based on the assumption verified from previous research that people's decisions are made based on an understanding of what has recently occurred in the market, which differs from ex-ante models as outlined in Table I. Rosen (1974) brought a degree of objectivity to ex-post models with the development of the hedonic valuation models (HVMs). HVMs used \"implicit prices\", or prices that were derived from characteristics of the assets being sold based on their total value in comparison to other sales transactions in the market. \"Econometrically, implicit prices are estimated by the first-step regression analysis (prodicut price regressed on characteristics) in the construct of hedonic price indexes\" (Rosen, 1974, p. 43). Corgel and deRoos (1993) developed a model for hotel sale prices based on the HVM logic of Rosen, which incorporated hotel characteristics such as location, time of sale and economic conditions. Quan et al. (2002) were able to use HVMs to compare performance across different property sectors and found that lodging profitability was relatively stable and was positively correlated with inflation. HVMs, in turn, have been shown to be useful for valuing single hotel properties (Roubi and Litteljohn, 2004).\nHypothesis development: According to O'Neill and Mattila (2006), OCC is a stronger predictor of a hotel's profitability than ADR during recessionary periods; thus, they posited that hotel operators may be wise to sacrifice some of their ADR to gain a relatively higher OCC during recessions. Discounting practices by hotel operators during economic downturns are widespread and well accepted in the hospitality industry (Croes and Semrad, 2012), which will lead to formation of hoteliers' perceptions. A lower ADR during economic downturns is generally accepted; thus, market participants would not be expected to react negatively to a relatively lower ADR during economic downturns. In the same vein, market participants may be more impressed with a hotel's relatively good OCC during economic downturns; thus, OCC plays a more significant role in determining hotel sale prices during economic downturns.\nMethodology: Data\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussions: Conclusions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine previously identified hotel automated valuation models (AVMs) using a more extensive and updated sample of hotel sale transaction data, introduce economic conditions as a new determinant for hotel market value and test the moderating role of economic conditions on the relationship between the previously identified indicators and market value, operationalized as sale transaction price.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study performs simple and multiple regression analyses to examine the proposed relationships. The sample period is from 2000 to 2012, because the economy prior to 2000 is likely to have been a less-relevant economic environment for the contemporary business world.\nFindings: As hypothesized, there is an insignificant main effect of economic conditions on hotel sale prices. A moderating role of economic conditions on the relationship between average daily rate (and net operating income) and market value was found, while no moderating effect was found for occupancy rate and hotel size. Results also find certain support for AVMs previously presented in the literature, as described herein.\nOriginality/value: This study attempts to make contributions to the existing lodging and real estate literature by investigating a main effect of economic conditions on hotel sale prices and a moderating role of economic conditions on the relationship between various hotel performance indicators and hotel sale prices. In addition, this study operationalizes a relatively extensive (large base sample size of 2,441 hotel sale transactions) and recent (since 2000) database compared to previous studies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Do green supply chains lead to competitiveness and economic performance?
|
[
"Supply chain management",
"Linear structure equation modelling",
"Economic performance",
"South East Asia"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Organizations worldwide are continuously trying to develop new and innovative ways to enhance their competitiveness. Bacallan (2000) suggests that some of these organizations are enhancing their competitiveness through improvements in their environmental performance to comply with mounting environmental regulations, to address the environmental concerns of their customers, and to mitigate the environmental impact of their production and service activities. Green supply chain management as a form of environmental improvement is an operational initiative that many organizations are adopting to address such environmental issues, including corporations in the South East Asian region.In this paper, the concept of green supply chain management encompasses environmental initiatives in:1. inbound logistics;2. production or the internal supply chain;3. outbound logistics; and in some cases4. reverse logistics, including and involving materials suppliers, service contractors, vendors, distributors and end users working together to reduce or eliminate adverse environmental impacts of their activities.Green supply chain management is a concept that is gaining popularity in the South East Asian region. For many organizations in this region it is a way to demonstrate their sincere commitment to sustainability (Bacallan, 2000). Furthermore, many realize that customers and other stakeholders do not always distinguish between a company and its suppliers. If an organization has environmental liabilities, stakeholders may often hold the lead company in a particular supply chain responsible for the adverse environmental impacts of all organizations within a specific supply chain for a particular product.Many authors are exploring environmental initiatives within each of the major phases of the supply chain. However, much of this research, as observed by Sarkis (1999), is focused predominantly on only one functional area. Yet, Handfield and Nichols (1999) define supply chain management as all the activities associated with the flow and transformation of materials from raw extraction phase through to the consumption of goods and services by an end user, along with associated information flows, both up and down the supply chain. Thus, there is arguably a need to focus green supply chain management research on the totality of the supply chain in both an upstream and downstream direction.It is generally perceived that green supply chain management promotes efficiency and synergy among business partners and their lead corporations, and helps to enhance environmental performance, minimize waste and achieve cost savings. This synergy is expected to enhance the corporate image, competitive advantage and marketing exposure. However, if green supply chain management practices are to be fully adopted by all organizations in South East Asia, a demonstrable link between such measures and improving economic performance and competitiveness is necessary. Bowen et al. (2001) state that organizations will adopt green supply chain management practices if they identify that this will result in specific financial and operational benefits. Thus, there is a clear research need to establish the potential link between green supply chain initiatives and increased competitiveness and enhanced economic performance, to provide an impetus for organizations to green their supply chains.In the South East Asian region there are many organizations that have undertaken significant efforts towards establishing green supply chain management initiatives. Whilst the motivation and driving forces for these initiatives have been examined for organizations in this region (Bacallan, 2000; Rao, 2004), no previous research has tested an empirical link between such efforts and subsequent improvements in competitiveness and economic performance. Therefore, this paper presents the results of a survey of organizations in the South East Asian region to investigate the proposition that there is a significant correlation between greening certain phases of the supply chain and the competitiveness and economic performance of the organizations involved.This paper begins by exploring previous \"functional\" specific research on aspects of green supply chain management, to develop a conceptual model of green supply chain management, competitiveness and economic performance. This paper then outlines the specific methodology employed in this study to test this conceptual model. The conceptual model is then tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques based on the findings from a study of South East Asian organizations to establish any causal links between the constructs within this model. The paper concludes with an examination of the significant relationships identified in this model to examine the link between green supply chain management, economic performance and competitiveness.\nDeveloping the conceptual model: The conceptual model examined in this paper and tested through SEM techniques, has been developed through an examination of literature on all aspects of the totality of the supply chain. This \"totality\" is encapsulated using five latent constructs, measured using indicator variables developed from the responses obtained from the survey of organizations in the South East Asia region. These constructs are: greening the inbound function of the supply chain; greening production; greening the outbound function; competitiveness; and economic performance.Inbound function\nMethodology: To validate the framework presented in the preceding section, a linear SEM approach is used (Joreskog and Sorbom, 1993) to validate the causal relationships between the different latent constructs of: greening the inbound function; greening production; greening the outbound function; competitiveness and; economic performance. The significance of the overall models is determined by the chi-square value, the corresponding degrees of freedom and the associated p-value>0.05. The individual linkages between any two variables are tested using the critical ratio, which is an observation on a random variable that has an approximate standard normal distribution. Thus, using a significance level of 0.05, any critical ratio that exceeds 1.96 in magnitude would be significant. The conventional t-test is exact under the assumptions of normality and independence of observations, no matter what the sample size. The test based on critical ratio, depends on the same assumptions, but with a finite sample size, the test is only approximate. All the same, the critical ratio is interpreted as: if there were a significant link between, say, greening the inbound function and economic performance, it would imply that the former latent construct directly influences the latter. In our analysis, the study has considered different structural models, which are essentially causal in nature. For instance, in addition to the final model encompassing five latent constructs as explained above, we also consider another model encompassing the three latent constructs such as greening inbound, greening production and greening outbound, and examined the relationship in terms of significant linkages between them. We did not present a detailed analysis of such models because their significance levels were not as good as the final model, which we present below. The latent variables in each of the model are measured by the manifest or indicator variables used in the research instrument. One limitation of the model was that multivariate normality was assumed. However, we did conduct tests for testing the univariate normality by plotting normal probability plots and several variables conformed to having a normal distribution.For the confirmatory analysis, the conceptual model involving the five constructs was run using AMOS Graphics for Windows Version 3.6, estimating the regression weight of each link (arrow) and the associated significance. The estimation procedure used was under the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) procedure, which was known to provide valid results with sample sizes as small as 50. In addition to p-value, we use chi-square/degrees of freedom<2. Goodness of fit index (GFI), adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI), and root mean square residual (RMSR) were additional indicators used to evaluate the validity of the model. Several sets of analyses were conducted with the input being the descriptive statistics of the indicator variables and their correlation matrix. Also, iterations of sets of structural equation models were run to test variations of the model with alternate paths deleted to assess the importance of aspects of the conceptual model.SEM estimates a series of separate but interdependent multiple regression equations simultaneously. We have drawn upon the theory and the research objectives to determine which independent variable will predict which dependent variable. The proposed relationships are then translated into a series of structural equations for each dependent variable. The structural model expresses these relationships among independent and dependent variables.The definition of latent constructs described earlier comprises of more items from the questionnaire than used in the final analysis (as summarized in Table I). However, reliability analysis of the internal consistency of the different manifest variables within each latent construct identified certain items that should be excluded from the final analysis.An empirical, survey-based research approach was adopted, comprising of 64 items as described in the Appendix. This questionnaire was distributed to the environmental management representative (EMR) or the chief executive of ISO 14001 certified organizations in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore. Responses for each item in the SEM analysis were collected on a four-point Likert scale (ranging from strongly disagree=1 to strongly agree=4). The justification for using a four-point Likert scale was that if we had used the more popular five-point scale or any other odd number of points in the scale, there might have been a tendency of having most negative responses loading heavily on the median level, the center point of the scale. The four-point scale served to force the respondents to check either on the negative side or on the positive side.The research instrument was distributed to all ISO 14001 certified corporations in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore, mailed using the modified Dillman method, in which after a few months of sending out the first wave (late 2000), the questionnaire was mailed out again to the remaining organizations that had not responded (early 2001). It would have been better from the research point of view to mail the second round of questionnaires after a few weeks instead of months. However, from the practical point of view we did wait for a few months for the complete questionnaires to come back before mailing the second round.Fifty-two valid responses were received (a 10 percent response rate), comprising of 14 Filipino corporations, 6 Indonesian, 17 Malaysian, 5 Thai, and 10 Singaporean companies. This sample size meets the absolute minimum requirement of 50 respondents, for the MLE to provide valid results, as prescribed by Hair et al. (1992, p. 444), although they recommend a size of 100 and above.\nResults and data analysis: The overall convergence of the SEM model was significant, as indicated by the statistics detailed in Table II.The chi-square values and associated p-value are highly acceptable indicating a good fit for the model. However, GFI and AGFI, both of which are measures that represent overall degree of fit (squared residuals from prediction compared to the actual data) are on the low side. For both of these, higher values would indicate better fit but no absolute threshold levels have been established for GFI (Hair et al., 1992). This might be expected given the sample size, which makes estimation of maximum likelihood parameters not significant. Conversely, the measure of chi-square/degrees of freedom=1.03, which falls within the recommended levels of 1.0-2.0, and indicates a significant model. One should also consider the value of CFI equal to 0.967, which is acceptable. Thus, given the limitation of a small sample size, we accept the validity of the model. Of course the structural model does require a multivariate normality assumption of the variables included in the model. We tried to test the univariate normality by plotting the normal probability plots and the corresponding univariate distributions and more than 60 percent of the variables conformed to univariate normal distributions. However, the multivariate normality had to be assumed and this did become a limitation of the model.Figure 1 gives the finalized model with the associated statistics as presented above.From the statistics presented above, the evidence suggests that greening the different phases of the supply chain does lead to an integrated green supply chain where the green inbound function of the supply chain, as well as a green production stage leads to a green outbound phase.Whilst it might be expected that the greening of the inbound function leads to green production, the critical ratio for this link (1.78), is lower than the required 1.96. For this reason, we acknowledge that there is still not enough evidence to establish the significance of this link. However, the green supply chain comprising all three phases clearly leads to significant values for competitiveness and economic performance. This establishes the linkage between the green supply chain and competitiveness for which many anecdotal examples exist, but empirically tested evidence is lacking (Sarkis, 1999; Klassen and McLaughlin, 1996).Hence, this research provides a number of contributions to the theoretical debate in this field. The first contribution is that it considers the green supply chain not in sections but in its entirety, and we consider the distinct environmental initiatives in each phase as different indicator variables. The second contribution is that it establishes with a sound theoretical foundation and prior empirical analysis that the green supply chain does lead to increased competitiveness and better economic performance. The third contribution is that, as opposed to much of the available anecdotal literature on green supply chain management, this research has a theoretical basis and an empirical analysis where the model converged statistically with acceptable chi-square and p-values.The aforementioned results demonstrate that greening the inbound function, as well as greening production, significantly lead to greening outbound, as well as to competitiveness and economic performance of the firm. Greening the inbound function involves the integration of suppliers into a green supply chain. Getting the suppliers to have their own EMS and greening their operations helps tremendously to cut down production of waste at source. Hence, the company gains in terms of less or minimal environmentally hazardous waste, even non-hazardous solid/liquid waste and air emissions leading to reduced costs for waste disposal, compliance with regulation, reduced pollution, improved resource utilization and enhancement in economic performance.Similarly, greening of production results in the minimization of pollution, a form of inefficiency (after Porter and van der Linde, 1995), re-use of materials and recycling initiatives. This leads to savings in raw materials, water and energy usage and thus leads to competitiveness and economic performance. From previous research by Klassen and McLaughlin (1996) environmental management is identified as a potential factor in the enhancement of financial performance and competitiveness of the firm. This research concludes that greening the supply chain also has the same potential to lead to competitiveness and economic performance.From an industry perspective, in particular for this region, firms are continuously striving to achieve competitiveness in their business activities in both the domestic and the global arena. These research findings suggest that if they green their supply chains not only would firms achieve substantial cost savings, but they would also enhance sales, market share, and exploit new market opportunities to lead to greater profit margins, all of which contribute to the economic performance of the firm.The main limitation of this research is the focus on a small sample of organizations in South East Asia, but the lack of empirical research in this region is also one of the main strengths of this paper. The focus on \"leading edge\" ISO14001 accredited organizations also excludes those without formal environmental management accreditation, but may have well developed non-accredited environmental programs. Therefore, the findings cannot be generalized to all organizations in this region or around the world.Future research should empirically test the relationships suggested in this paper in different countries, to enable comparative studies. A large sample would also allow detailed cross-sectoral comparisons, which are not possible in the context of this study.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Green supply chain management is a concept that is gaining popularity in the South East Asian region. For many organizations in this region it is a way to demonstrate their sincere commitment to sustainability. However, if green supply chain management practices are to be fully adopted by all organizations in South East Asia, a demonstrable link between such measures and improving economic performance and competitiveness is necessary. This paper endeavors to identify potential linkages between green supply chain management, as an initiative for environmental enhancement, economic performance and competitiveness amongst a sample of companies in South East Asia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - For this purpose a conceptual model was developed from literature sources and data collected using a structured questionnaire mailed to a sample of leading edge ISO14001 certified companies in South East Asia followed by structural equation modelling.\nFindings: - The analysis identified that greening the different phases of the supply chain leads to an integrated green supply chain, which ultimately leads to competitiveness and economic performance. Future research should empirically test the relationships suggested in this paper in different countries, to enable comparative studies. A larger sample would also allow detailed cross-sectoral comparisons which are not possible in the context of this study.\nOriginality/value: - This paper presents the first empirical evaluation of the link between green supply chain management practices and increased competitiveness and improved economic performance amongst a sample of organizations in South East Asia.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Labor force heterogeneity and wage polarization: Italy and Spain
|
[
"Polarization",
"Inequality",
"ANOVA models",
"Coefficient of determination",
"Social fractures",
"C01",
"C13",
"D63",
"J01",
"J30"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The Italian and Spanish labor markets belong to the Southern European model owing to their characteristics and the institutional arrangements affecting labor supply and demand (Verashchagina and Capparucci, 2014). Moreover, their wage distribution is very heterogeneous in terms of educational level, occupational status, type of contract and collective agreements regulating the different activity branches. This heterogeneity has been lately amplified by the rise in female participation and the increase in the average educational level of workers (Permanyer and Trevino, 2013; ISTAT, 2013; Bettio et al., 2013; Motellon et al., 2010; Palacio and Simon, 2004).\n2. Statistical approach: The approach to polarization developed by Palacios-Gonzanlez and Garcia-Fernandez (2012, PG henceforth) considers that polarization is generated by two tendencies that contribute to the generation of social tension: the homogeneity or cohesion within group and the heterogeneity between groups. In the specialized literature on polarization, cohesion and heterogeneity are usually named as identification and alienation, respectively. Specifically, it is assumed that two individuals identify with each other when their incomes are closer and they feel alienated when their incomes are distant. So, given a number of groups exogenously determined, it is assumed that the income difference within the group decreases when the incomes of the individuals are closer to the average income (in our case, the average real gross hourly wage) of the group to which they belong. The smaller the distance, the higher the homogeneity within the group and the greater the contribution of this tendency to polarization. In addition, it is presumed that heterogeneity is linked to the distance between the mean incomes of the groups (in our case, average real gross hourly wages). The larger the distance, the higher the heterogeneity between groups and the greater the contribution of this tendency to polarization. That is, the key aspect of the polarization in a population is a high degree of alienation or heterogeneity between income groups and a high degree of identification or homogeneity within group. Both concepts depend on the distance between the incomes or wages of the individuals and they will be computed using the variance decomposition.\n3. Data: To carry out an applied analysis on wages polarization degree, it is necessary to have data on employment and job status together with individual characteristics of the workers and their wages. For this purpose, we have used the European SILC that collects detailed information on the variables object of analysis for the two countries of interest in this study.\n4. Results: Table I reports average hourly wages in Italy and Spain in 2007, 2010 and 2012. It can be noticed that, despite the recession, from 2007 to 2010 the Italian average hourly wage stayed almost constant and the Spanish one even rose by 5.7 percent. This reveals the rigidity of the observed labor markets in wage determination and could be the result of the multi-annual character of large part of the collective agreements in place at that time. Further, focusing on males and females separately, it should be noted that female average hourly wages slightly increased in Italy (by 1 percent) from 2007 to 2010 while the male ones remained stable. In Spain the growth of female wages was higher than that of males over the same period (6.0 vs 5.6 percent).\n5. Conclusions: The Spanish and Italian labor markets are characterized by a high degree of heterogeneity and marked gender gaps in terms of labor force participation, type of contract, job status and unemployment levels. In this context, an increasing gender gap in average hourly wages to the disadvantage of women is found over the time period of our analysis for both Italy and Spain.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the change in the Italian and Spanish wage polarization degree in a time of economic crisis, taking into account the factors affecting labor force heterogeneity. Gender differences in the evolution of social fractures are considered by carrying out the analysis separately for males and females.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The approach by Palacios-Gonzanlez and Garcia-Fernandez (2012) on polarization is applied to the microdata provided by the EU Living Conditions Surveys (2007, 2010 and 2012). According to Palacios-Gonzanlez and Garcia-Fernandez's approach, polarization is generated by two tendencies that contribute to the generation of social tension: the homogeneity or cohesion within group and the heterogeneity between groups. The following labor force characteristics are considered: gender, level of education, type of contract, occupational status and job status.\nFindings: The results for Italy reveal a higher increase of polarization for women than for men from the perspective of the type of contract. In Spain, the wage polarization of women also increases more intensively compared to men from the perspectives of level of education, job status and occupational status, while in Italy the reduction of the wage polarization index by level of education can be related, above all, to an increase in overqualification of women.\nOriginality/value: While the empirical literature on polarization has made considerable investigation into employment and job polarization, this paper explores the rather less explored matter of wage polarization. Furthermore, particular attention is paid to the impact on polarization of the Great Recession.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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