title
stringlengths 6
301
| keywords
listlengths 0
23
| messages
listlengths 2
2
|
|---|---|---|
Literacy educators' practices of solidarity within an educational network
|
[
"Appreciative Inquiry",
"Literacy teaching",
"Expansive learning",
"Critical literacy",
"Grassroots literacies",
"Networks of social justice education"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Many educators experience the alienating impacts of neoliberal policies which strip us of professionalism and reduce teaching and learning to quantitative metrics. Yet, the promise and potential of humanizing education continues to be a steady drumbeat (Franquiz and Salazar, 2004). Antonia Darder (2017) writes\nTheoretical framing: Expansive learning theory provides a framework for understanding teacher learning and development as rooted in transformation, movement and activism (Engestrom, 1987; Vossoughi and Gutierrez, 2010; Rogers, 2018; Stetensko, 2017). In this view, educator learning, rooted in action, is prompted by interest-driven reasons to expand expertise, strategies and networks. Stetensko (2012) writes:\nResearch design and methodology: Appreciative inquiry is a design and process that seeks ways to discover the potential of educators while also affirming what exists and using these insights to strengthen collective efforts (Cooperrider and Srivastva, 1987). The larger ethnography of which this interview study is a part, has stretched across three years and includes participant-observations, several ethnographies of the day, storybanks, artifacts and interviews.\nData analysis: Each interview was transcribed using a basic version of Jefferson's (2004) transcription conventions. Analytic procedures included both constant comparative analysis (Merriam and Tisdell, 2016) and narrative analysis (Riessman, 2005). I read each interview and sorted the interviews into \"stakeholder\" piles and re-read them. I actively listened for how each person constructed their experiences within the network. I coded the range of contributions (e.g. updating the website, attending an Inquiry-to-Action group, presenting at the annual conference and fundraising). I grouped them into thematic categories of activities that characterized the variety across participants.\nExpanding learning, transformation and solidarity: Appendix Figure A1 is a model generated from educators' narratives of solidarity. This model provides a visual answer to the first research question: In what ways do literacy educators contribute to a social justice network? At the center is each social justice educator who, inevitably, is at a unique point in their own journey. Examples of common contributions to ESJ's network are represented in a circular fashion around the model. These include identifying a problem of practice; contributing to sharing, designing and experiencing social justice education; cultivating relationships; providing leadership, direction and vision; organizing people, money and time; and making social justice education a visible part of the public agenda.\nDiscussion: Social justice education can be daunting because teachers do not often see the long-term impact of curriculum design. Contributing to the ongoing life of an educational network for social justice provides educators with the short-term successes that are visible and tangible (e.g. conference, fundraising campaign, workshop, grant award). In these grassroots spaces, educators recognize they are working on something bigger than themselves. For each of these teachers, we hear how ESJ's network provided them an opportunity to \"gain a foothold within those institutional contexts in which they will be expected to operate\" (Bartlett, 2012). They could see the uptake of organizing for social justice in ways that had not been possible in their school communities alone. Beverly, for example, created an ItAG for ESJ's network and, in the process, learned how to create space for diverse children's literature. This, in turn, equipped her with the tools to organize a space for Black history month at her school. Indeed, she learned strategies for working within a conservative school district - namely, organizing alongside other teachers - around issues of race, language and power. Jasmine created space at her middle school for students to engage in youth led activism. She then invited her students to present at ESJ's conference which made visible their learning. Their efforts inspired the planning committee to develop a youth-led Town Hall meeting at the following year's conference. For Samantha, the chapter she wrote became the first of many things she has written as a teacher-scholar. Going public with her narrative and finding support within a community of teachers was healing for her. As she pointed out, her story alongside the stories of other courageous educators created an impressive narrative of teacher led educational reform.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to share findings from an interview study with literacy educators who are working together to imagine and build a transformative, humanizing and expansive education.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Appreciative inquiry is a design and process that seeks ways to discover the potential of educators while also affirming what exists and using these insights to strengthen collective efforts (Cooperrider and Srivastva, 1987).\nFindings: The educators' narratives of solidarity provide us a window to see the collaborative transformative practices that create networks for educational justice. A model of expansive learning and solidarity is introduced.\nResearch limitations/implications: While the focus in this paper has been on one social justice network, the author's intention has been to describe and interpret the broader processes of expansive learning, collaborative transformative practices and narratives of solidarity.\nPractical implications: This study offers a unique, contextualized perspective of educators working together to create social justice literacies and the kinds of learning communities that are necessary to do so.\nSocial implications: Identifying the conditions necessary to build and sustain a network of social justice educators can promote the expansion of such networks.\nOriginality/value: Few studies have focused on literacy educators' narratives of solidarity and the thematic contours of solidarity in educational contexts. Further, this paper links the concepts of agency and solidarity.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Policies that make a difference: bridging the gender equity and work-family gap in academia
|
[
"Academia",
"Work-family balance",
"Gender",
"Parents",
"Organizational climate",
"Family-friendly policies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Previous researchers (Caulfield et al., 2004; Kossek et al., 2011; Murphy and Sauter, 2004) have posed concerns for the disconnection between work-family research and the implementation of this research. Such researchers contend that although the field of work-family research has blossomed, data from organizations show a workforce that has not reaped the benefits of this research (Kossek et al., 2011). Even more recently, Chinchilla (2013, p. 13 noted the \"gap between the adoption of work-family policies and how they actually affect employees' ability to integrate their work with their personal lives\". We agree with this sentiment; however, we argue that some progress has been made and proper attention needs to be placed upon it. Further, we contend that evidence-based research is leading to greater efforts to increase work-family balance, which has the potential to reap greater benefits in the future. Evidence of such initiatives can be seen in academia. In 2001, the National Science Foundation of the USA initiated the ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Program to provide grants to academic institutions to help increase the participation and advancement of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM; see National Science Foundation, 2015). Research has demonstrated gendered distribution in both hierarchical levels of academic institutions and across disciplines, with women being underrepresented in STEM fields and often concentrated at lower ranks in the institution (McTavish and Miller, 2009), as is the case in many industries (Broadbridge, 2010). One of the goals of this program is to reduce work-family balance issues and create greater gender equality in academia. Since its inception, 35 academic institutions in the USA have received ADVANCE grants, suggesting that the field of academia is attempting to decrease the discord between work-family research and practice. One such institution that has made recent strides in attempting to bridge this gap between work-family research and practice by adopting research-based initiatives is Rice University in Houston, Texas. Rice was a recipient of a five-year National Science Foundation-funded ADVANCE Institutional Transformation grant initiated in 2006. Through the ADVANCE program, a large number of female and male faculty members have engaged in conversations about changing practices and procedures so they could more positively promote women's equity and foster a more positive climate and work-family balance at Rice. In this article, we use Rice University as a case study that is infused with qualitative and quantitative data (drawn from several ADVANCE-related surveys conducted at Rice) to discuss several successful initiatives that were instrumental in promoting female faculty and bridging the gaps between research and practice for organizational policies and employee perceptions. Many of the initiatives discussed below were developed and implemented through the ADVANCE program.\nMethods: In this paper, we report results from several different sources. First, three climate studies were conducted by two external consultants (Drs Tetrick and King) in 2003, 2007 and 2001, which were administered by external consultants. Results from these surveys were based on responses of Rice faculty (143 men and 61 women in 2003, 219 men and 79 women in 2007, and 182 men and 70 women in 2011). The surveys asked faculty to respond to questions about the general academic climate that they experienced (e.g. was it tolerant, equitable, positive).\nIndividual-level interventions: Balancing work and family is one of the most highly cited issues related to why women leave academic careers (Bystydzienski and Bird, 2006; Goulden et al., 2009; Makela et al., 2011; Mason and Goulden, 2002, 2004). Rice University has implemented a number of initiatives to help promote work-family balance that individuals can opt into and participate in on a case-by-case basis. First, employees at Rice University are reminded of and can take advantage of the university's flexible scheduling policy (e.g. choice of teaching schedule, choice in allocating teaching requirements across semesters). Flexibility with scheduling work hours (i.e. being able to come and leave when one pleases so long as work requirements have been met) has been shown to improve the work-family balance of female (and male) employees by decreasing work-family conflict (Batt and Valcour, 2003; Kossek et al., 2006; McCampbell, 1996; c.f. Shockley and Allen, 2011) and increasing positive work attitudes (Scandura and Lankau, 1997). Flexible scheduling allows employees to confront work-family conflict by utilizing coping techniques to mitigate the negative effects that they would otherwise experience (Baltes and Heydens-Gahir, 2003). Research has shown that family-friendly policies (which address work-family conflict issues), particularly flexible scheduling, contribute to an individual's perception of control over his or her work environment and thereby decrease negative emotional, physiological and behavioral symptoms associated with work-family conflict (Thomas and Ganster, 1995). Furthermore, knowledge about work-family policies increases perceived flexibility of work (Eikhof, 2012).\nOrganization-level interventions: Despite the potential benefits of work-family policies at the individual level, some academicians do not seem to use all available policies (Quinn et al., 2004). As stated previously, Quinn et al. (2004) found that many employees cite inconsistencies in communication, implementation, viewpoint of individual department chairs and tracking of family-friendly policies as reasons for not using such policies. In an attempt to combat some of these issues, Rice has implemented at least three interventions on a broad, institution-wide scale. First, through the ADVANCE program, Rice trained department chairs to focus on diversity issues and effective management strategies (King and Rinehart, 2010). Department chairs are instrumental in helping employees manage work-family issues by communicating their awareness and support of family-friendly policies and by helping employees understand their options in using family-friendly policies (Thompson et al., 1999), both of which are highlighted in the training. Academicians are less likely to take advantage of family-friendly policies if they work in departments in which the chair does not know about the full range of policies or views them as unimportant or intrusive (Quinn et al., 2004). Department chair training (involving topics such as conflict resolution, bias, having difficult conversations, leave policies) can help break down these barriers by communicating the importance of work-family balance to worker productivity and organizational climate. Such training may have been particularly effective in increasing the representation of female faculty members in many STEM departments at Rice from 2005 to 2012. For instance, increases in the percentage of female faculty were particularly substantial in the Bioengineering (27 to 40 per cent), Civil and Environmental Engineering (0 to 25 per cent), Chemical Engineering (0 to 18 per cent), Statistics (13 to 22 per cent) and Mathematics (0 to 14 per cent) departments (these numbers and additional positive impacts shown at Rice are described in the Rice University ADVANCE Program Annual Report: Year 5, 2011).\nOrganization-sponsored outreach programs: Rice University implemented a number of initiatives that focused on outreach beyond the borders of the university. The goals of these initiatives included increasing knowledge and sharing best practices concerning gender and work-family issues to other institutions for the mutual benefit of Rice, the other institutions and the constituents of every institution involved. We believe that these outreach programs are an essential aspect of improving work-family concerns on a broad, inter-institutional scale.\nImplications: This case study has provided several examples of institutional changes that Rice undertook in an effort to create a more congenial environment. At three levels of intervention - individual, organizational and community - Rice presents a model that can inform managerial actions in any organization, not just in academia. At the individual level, for instance, organizations can provide their employees with family-friendly policies that make it possible for men and women to successfully balance their work and non-work lives. That commitment to a family-friendly environment must include resources, such as primary caretaker leave, on-site day-care facilities and flexible work schedules, as well as communication regarding the availability of those policies. Individuals also could be required to attend training sessions (e.g. equitable practices in search training, department head search training) that enhances gender equity and awareness. By creating a culture that values working parents, making employees aware of bias, and helps employees appreciate diversity at all levels, an organization can create an environment that welcomes and maximizes the individual contributions of all of their employees (Bilimoria and Buch, 2010; Bilimoria et al., 2008; Valian, 1999). As Bilimoria et al. (2008) state, it is critical to note that such a transformation can help the workplace become more supportive (not just for women and members of minority groups but) for all of its employees.\nConclusion: Criticisms of work-family research have stated that there is a science-implementation gap that could be addressed by researchers studying effective policy and practice implementation (Kossek et al., 2011). We believe the recent initiatives at Rice University make it a good case study from which to learn how to bridge the gap between work-family research and its practical applications in the workplace. The ADVANCE Institutional Transformation grant, coupled with other best practices, have made campus-wide ripples and expedited a wealth of ongoing and newly formed initiatives that are bridging the work-family gap. Through this case study, we have attempted to illustrate a meaningful and effective example of how an institution can respond to the dynamic changing needs involved in enhancing work-family balance. Rice University is continuing to try to meet these challenges by providing institutional mechanisms for asking the important questions, engaging the community and responding to the feedback.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to highlight interventions that promote female (and male) faculty's ability to balance work-family issues at a specific academic institution, in response to a demand in the literature that examines the intersection between research and implementation of organizational policies within a university setting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a case study framework, the researchers present qualitative experiences and quantitative data to evaluate the successful application of a work-family balance and organizational climate improvement initiative within an academic setting.\nFindings: By highlighting specific examples of work-family and climate initiatives at the individual, organization, and community levels, this case study presents several ways in which academic institutions specifically, and organizations generally, can implement policies that make a difference.\nPractical implications: Successful implementation of work-family balance and family-friendly organizational policies can positively impact employees.\nOriginality/value: Our goal is to highlight and provide data showing a specific example of how female (and male) faculty members' experiences can be (and have been) improved in a prototype institution.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Celebrity endorsement in social media contexts: understanding the role of parasocial interactions and the need to belong
|
[
"Celebrity endorsement",
"Social media",
"Brand",
"Need to belong",
"Celebrity attachment",
"Parasocial interactions"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Arguably, the rise of social media has impacted the relationship between consumers and celebrities, as well as the nature of celebrity endorsements. Through social media, consumers can develop even stronger ties with celebrities, as the ability and frequency with which celebrities can update and interact with their fans has expanded dramatically.\nTheoretical development: Celebrity endorsement models\nRole of social media in forming parasocial interactions and celebrity attachment: Parasocial interactions are one-sided relationships that individuals form with mediated persona, including celebrities (Horton and Wohl, 1956). Despite being one-sided, these relationships can feel as real and intense as face-to-face interpersonal connections that encompass elements of friendship (e.g. mutual relationship based on liking, intimacy and self-disclosure) and understanding (e.g. feelings of knowing the celebrity personally) (Chung and Cho, 2017). The origin of parasocial interactions can be traced back to the rise of mass media, such as television and radio, which first provided audiences with illusions of intimacy with the persona (Horton and Wohl, 1956), and the interactive capabilities of social media have increased the propensity to form these relationships (Labrecque, 2014). In particular, social media enables brands and celebrities to communicate with consumers instantly and from a first-person perspective by offering glimpses into their everyday lives (Labrecque, 2014). Consequently, although not knowing celebrities in person, consumers tend to form deep intimacy and psychological connections with them.\nOutcomes of celebrity attachment - brand credibility, brand attractiveness and purchase intention: The meaning transfer model (McCracken, 1989) proposes that celebrities transfer meanings (such as feelings, credibility, personalities and values) to brands or products through their endorsement (Jain and Roy, 2016). Building on this work, we posit that the increased attachment to a celebrity gained through parasocial interactions also transfers to brands that the celebrity endorses, which in turn impacts brand credibility, brand attractiveness and purchase intention.\nModerating the role of need to belong on social media interaction and parasocial interactions: Baumeister and Leary (1995, p. 497) define the need to belong as the \"pervasive drive to form and maintain at least a minimum quantity of lasting, positive and significant interpersonal relationships\". In other words, the need to belong indicates the desire for acceptance and inclusion. The need to belong theory suggests that people who possess a high need to belong tend to pursue more relationships and are concerned with others' opinions toward them (Leary et al., 2013). The need to belong is typically satiated through the formation and continuance of relationships, which requires repeated social interactions (Hall and Davis, 2017).\nModerating the role of need to belong on brand evaluations: As depicted in earlier sections, a celebrity endorser may provide meanings to the brands he or she endorses (Escalas and Bettman, 2017; Miller and Allen, 2012), serving as a ground for consumers' brand evaluations. In agreement with Miller and Allen's (2012) idea that consumers' need to belong may interfere with the meaning transfer mechanism, we argue that the effect of celebrity attachment on brand evaluations can be more salient for some consumers, particularly those with a high need to belong.\nMethodology: Respondents\nData analysis: Common method bias\nDiscussion: Our research contributes to the literature on parasocial interactions, celebrity endorsements and social media marketing in several ways by exploring the mechanisms by which celebrity interactions on social media can impact the brands they endorse. Our study contributes to the literature by offering both theoretical and managerial implications, which are described in the following sections.\nLimitations and direction for further research: This research has limitations that can be addressed in future research. First, an examination of the impact of different social media platforms on celebrity and fan interaction effectiveness and brand-related outcomes may be fruitful, especially noting the ample choices of social media platforms and our exploratory finding that parasocial interactions are formed differently across distinct social media platforms. The salient effect that the interaction with celebrities on Instagram has on parasocial interactions is exploratory and therefore may require further study. The finding may be confounded by the fact that different content types may dominate particular social media platforms. For instance, a celebrity may post more business-related contents on Facebook but more personal life content on Instagram. Future studies could use a netnographic approach to validate and extend the finding to better understand the nature of parasocial interactions development. It is important to note the unequal reported usage across social media platforms reported by respondents, thus caution must be exercised when interpreting and generalizing the result.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: As celebrity endorsements have extended from traditional media to social media, the role of celebrities has been amplified and celebrities have been able to establish unprecedentedly close relationships through interacting with consumers. This study, grounded in the theory of parasocial interactions and celebrity endorsement, aims to propose a framework of antecedents and outcomes of parasocial interactions with celebrities on social media.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using an experimental survey-based approach, this study collected 270 usable responses, and data were analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling.\nFindings: The study found that parasocial interactions fully mediate the relationship between social media interaction and celebrity attachment, celebrity attachment influences purchase intention directly and indirectly through both cognitive (brand credibility) and affective (brand attractiveness) elements, the need to belong moderates the relationship between social media interaction and parasocial interactions and the need to belong moderates the relationship between celebrity attachment and brand attractiveness. An exploratory analysis uncovers whether different types of social platforms may be more conducive to establishing parasocial interactions.\nOriginality/value: This study explores the mechanisms by which celebrity interactions on social media can impact the brands they endorse and the role that parasocial interactions and the need to belong play in these interactions and outcomes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Participation of Iranian non-governmental organizations in health policy-making; barriers and strategies for development
|
[
"Emerging healthcare delivery structures",
"Communication",
"Qualitative research",
"Health law or regulation",
"Political strategy",
"Anthropology or sociology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Modern governments have developed collaborative and participatory health systems to respond to their population's health requirements. A health system includes all the organizations, institutions and resources that are involved in the provision or production of health services (Mills, 2014). Health systems perform four vital functions: stewardship, resource generation, financing and provision of healthcare in order to guarantee a nation's public health (Murray and Frenk, 2000).According to the definition provided by the World Bank, \"NGOs are private organizations that pursue activities to relieve suffering, promote the interests of the poor, protect the environment, provide basic social services or undertake community development\" (Banks et al., 2015). They respond to the need for social participation and supervision (Ambrosini, 2015; Batsell, 2018). In Iran non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are known as \"SAMAN\" a short version of the Persian phrase \"Sazmanha-ye Mardom Nahad,\" translated as \"community-based organizations\" or \"people's organizations.\" NGOs can be flexible, which, in turn, allows them to be versatile and respond innovatively (MacLean et al., 2015).As the Former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Atta Annan (2015) stated the \"twenty-first century would be the era of NGOs.\" In 2015, it is estimated that 3.7m NGOs were officially established globally (Hasmath and Hsu, 2015). In 2009, there were 2m NGOs in India, amounting to one NGO for every 600 people (Davies, 2014). In the USA, 1.5m NGOs generated 5.3 percent of the gross domestic product via their activities. According to the international classification of NGOs, the main areas of NGO activity included culture, education, research, health, social services, environment, housing, legislation, advocacy, policy-making and humanitarian and voluntary measures (Piotrowicz and Cianciara, 2013). In Iran, estimates suggest that there are 10,000 active NGOs working in the health sector (Hosseinkhani et al., 2016). NGOs have a long established background in the formation of healthcare standards, training and empowerment, supporting different groups of patients, ensuring access to appropriate nutrition and water supplies and promoting general literacy (Mussa et al., 2013). These objectives are often achieved through service provision and advocacy (Yanacopulos, 2008). Participation in the health policy-making process is a domain of NGO activity (Green et al., 2011). One of the most prominent examples of the role of NGOs in policy-making at the international level is their participation in the process of formulating and implementing the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco (Sparks, 2010).NGOs have been shown to have potential in providing primary care in rural areas of Bangladesh (Mercer et al., 2004) and mental healthcare in Slovenia (Zupancic and Pahor, 2016). Moreover, 12 percent of international aid for the development of African countries has been done through NGOs (Grigoras, 2017). In Finland, studies have shown the effectiveness of NGOs in promoting health equity indicators (UNDP, 2002). Studies have also been carried out on the feasibility and implications of NGO participation in the health sector of Iran and other countries. Damari et al. (2014) stated that limited financial resources, inadequate communication between NGOs and the government and the lack of mutual trust were the main obstacles to successful interaction between NGOs and governments. For example, addiction is one of the outcomes of the decline in social capital. Hence, the rate of addiction could be significantly reduced by strengthening social capital and emphasizing the role of NGOs (Rahimi et al., 2012). The study of Zaidi et al. (2012) in Pakistan showed that the origin and content of contacts between the government and NGOs were political matters, influenced by macro politics. In total, 70 percent of food and nutrition supplements in Darfur state, Sudan were provided through international NGOs while the government spent just 1 percent of public budget on health (Yagub and Mtshali, 2015).Participation of NGOs as the community representatives leads to public trust in the government and enhances the effectiveness of related measures through promoting public acceptance. In addition, NGO participation in decision making increases their commitment to implementing policies, in turn, leading to higher chances of success through cooperation. Therefore, in this study, the status of the existing health-related NGOs in Tabriz, their participation in health policy-making, as well as barriers and solutions in this regard were investigated.\nMethods: Study design and setting\nFindings: There were 30 active health-related NGOs working in Tabriz at the time of the study. These were working as charities (seven), with cancer patients (four), in the field of kidney disease (four) and with diabetic patients (three). Others sectors included cochlear implant, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, multiple sclerosis, autism, HIV, counseling services, addiction, physician-patient relationships and biosecurity. In total, 15 NGOs (Table II) were willing to participate in this study, and from these 25 interviews were conducted. Most health-related NGOs were active in providing financial and social support to patients and their families, education and encourage other people to participate in related activities.Areas of NGOs participation were examined through health systems functions. All of the selected NGOs were active in health-related services provision. However, none of the NGOs selected played an active role in policy-making and health planning. Only three NGOs were involved in producing resources and eight were involved in financing health projects. Four funding approaches were used by the NGOs selected: income from special activities, individual donations, private sector funding and government assistance. In total, 14 NGOs (93 percent) depended on charity contributions as their main source of funding. Two and one of NGOs were partly financed through special activities and private sector assistance, respectively. Some NGOs used a combination of financing methods.The results in the case of the NGOs participation in health policy-making can be classified into three areas: influential factors, barriers and strategies for developing their participation. Three main subthemes were identified under the main domain of factors influencing the NGO participation (Figure 1): factors relating to the government, factors related to society and factors internal to NGOs themselves.Factors influencing NGO participation in health policy-making\nDiscussion: NGO participation in healthcare has been recognized as an effective strategy for promoting population health, social development and universal access to health services. Achieving stability in social health is not possible without the participation of NGOs, especially in low- and middle-income countries (Hasmath and Hsu, 2015). These countries face 93 percent of the burden of diseases, while they have just 18 percent of the world's income (Davies, 2014). NGOs receive $19.3bn from international aid for development in low- and middle-income countries, and therefore their work is an integral part of raising living standards for majority of people in the world (NCfC Statistics, 2016). NGOs have been shown to contribute effectively to healthcare (Zupancic and Pahor, 2016; Grigoras, 2017; Yagub and Mtshali, 2015; Rouvinen-Wilenius et al., 2018).Financial and social assistance to patients and their families, educational interventions and encourage other people to participate in charity activities have been the main activities that NGOs participate in. According to the four health system functions (Murray and Frenk, 2000), all NGOs were active in provision of services, and none were involved in policy-making and health planning. Patient support and treatment services are important NGO activities in many countries (Damari et al., 2014; Nanjunda and Dinesha, 2011). The results of this study showed that there is little NGO engagement in the field of policy-making in Tabriz. In accordance with the results of this study, a survey of 97 health-related NGOs in 30 provinces of Iran indicated that they were little involved in policy-making and decision making (Damari et al., 2014). However, in other countries, including Kenya and Ethiopia, and most European countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland, have shown that NGOs can effectively participate in policy-making (Dimitrova and Buzogany, 2014; Wamai, 2008; Rahman, 2011). In European countries, NGOs influence policy-making and the process of drafting laws through access to local political and social networks, and if they failed to influence the macroeconomic process, they would use national and international support and legal opportunities for influencing policy-making, a process known as \"boomerang\" (Rahman, 2011).Negotiation in policy-making and service delivery are recognized as main functions of NGOs (Piotrowicz and Cianciara, 2013). Their advocacy ultimately leads to a political commitment and support, social acceptance and intersectional cooperation (Azenha et al., 2011). One of the main consequences of NGO participation in policy-making is the formation of large interest groups, providing a broad perspective and insight into the outcomes of their decisions and subsequent impacts on different social groups (Mays, 2010).An influential factor for NGO when they are participating in planning and implementation of health and medical programs is the financial capacity and funding of these institutions. Our results show that 90 percent of NGOs depend on charity donations and earn only a small proportion of their income through private sector assistance and special activities. In addition, NGOs in this study were deprived of government funding, a finding confirmed in previous work (Damari et al., 2014). In Kenya, the absences of governmental funding and related legal frameworks have been formidable challenges to NGO participation (Wamai, 2008). However, in most European countries, NGOs have high financial capacity and they benefit from direct government funding (Rahman, 2011).The most important factors that influenced the participation of NGOs in policy-making were the approval of NGO participation by government, creating areas for mutual cooperation and assignment of executive programs and NGO accountability. These findings are in line with the findings of Damari et al. (2014). It seems that the existence of frameworks for the participation of NGOs in health planning can be effective. In the EU member states, national and macro frameworks have been the supporter and guide for participation of these institutions in policy-making, leading to greater institutional effectiveness (Rahman, 2011).Universal participation and providing facilities are the most important factors related to society. NGOs' identity as social institutions depends on public insight, which can provide a basis for their effective and continuous presence. The activities of NGOs and civil society in pro-democracy societies are more developed than in other countries (Schimmelfennig, 2014). The most important factor related to NGOs themselves was having a continuous and active presence in planning meetings. This is also influenced by factors related to government and society. If the government supports the presence of NGOs and there is a positive social attitude in this regard, this will enable active NGO participation.The most important barriers to NGOs' participation in health policy-making were classified into government-related and NGO-related factors. The absence of relevant laws and the lack of cooperation are the most important government-related barriers to NGO participation. In the study of Damari et al. (2014), barriers such as inadequate negotiation with, and a condescending view of the capabilities of NGO by government were mentioned as major obstacles. In addition, in Kenya, Ethiopia and other low- and middle-income countries, a lack of transparent laws and appropriate frameworks for participation have been a major barrier for NGOs (Wamai, 2008; Bernal and Grewal, 2014). The existence of supportive contexts and legal frameworks can facilitate the NGO participation (Grigoras, 2017; Wamai, 2008). Financial weakness and lack of persistent follow-up are additional barriers for NGOs. Limited financial resources and lack of government and social demands can lead to passive participation of NGOs and impede their role in policy-making. Lack of financial resources, high dependence on charities and lack of government support have also been introduced as other problems in various studies (Damari et al., 2014; Wamai, 2008).With regard to the interviewees' comments, the legislation of supportive laws, the provision of transparent implementation framework, making a context for participation and negotiation and governmental financial support of the NGOs are the main suggested strategies. Supportive laws and transparent frameworks can provide the basis for the active participation of civil society and NGOs, which lays the grounds for the societies and governments to be held accountable (Damari et al., 2014; Rahimi et al., 2012; Rouvinen-Wilenius et al., 2018). Furthermore, increasing the financial capacity of NGOs through direct government support has been proposed as an important strategy to increase the power and effectiveness of these institutions (Damari et al., 2014; Wamai, 2008; Hannah, 2014).This study is not without limitations. The main limitation of this study is that participants were recruited from NGOs of one province in Iran. This cannot represent the real situation of entire country. However, a similar legal structure throughout Iran exists. No previous research has been undertaken in Iran that evaluates the role of NGOs in health policy-making.\nConclusion: The results of this study showed that despite the participation of NGOs in the provision of services, there was a deep gap within these institutions when it came to planning and policy-making in healthcare. Factors related to government, to civil society and within NGOs themselves were influential factors for NGO participation in policy-making. Some barriers related to government and the way that NGOs operated were extracted in the area of NGO participation in policy-making. Financial support from the government and legislation of supportive laws were the suggestions to address these barriers and to benefit from the potential of NGOs. Characteristics of NGOs such as flexibility and agility, social acceptance and popularity, high tactical ability, possibility of efficient use of media and recruitment of professionals and also facing with fewer administrative bureaucracies lead to executive power and a high level of social acceptability and trust. Therefore, in future research, strategies for promoting the participation of these institutions in decision making should be addressed completely, and as a decision-making guideline, they can convince authorities to accept the undeniable role of civil institutions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The effectiveness of non-governmental organization (NGO) participation in the healthcare sector has been demonstrated globally. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the status of Iranian NGOs' contribution to health policy-making, the barriers to and strategies for developing their contribution.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this qualitative study, 25 participants were recruited from health-related NGOs in Tabriz, Iran. Semi-structured, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted. Furthermore, a set of relevant documents were collected and their contents evaluated. The text of documents and interviews were analyzed using a thematic (deductive-inductive) approach using NVivo software.\nFindings: Most NGO activity has been in the area of providing services, whereas the least amount of activity has been in the domain of policy-making. Factors that were influential for NGO participation in policy-making were divided into three categories: those related to government, to civil society and within NGOs themselves. The primary barriers to participation in policy-making were related to government and the way that NGOs operated. Recommendations include the production of supportive law, financial aid to NGO and infrastructure that facilitates NGO participation.\nPractical implications: Financial support from the government and legislation of supportive laws could help to realize the potential of NGOs.\nOriginality/value: No such research has been undertaken before to evaluate what activities health-related NGOs undertake, their contribution in health policy-making and obstacles and facilitators of this contribution. NGOs can play a key role in ensuring accountability, transparency and empower citizens to demand basic health services from government.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Implementation of blockchain-based energy trading system
|
[
"Decentralization",
"Blockchain",
"Security",
"Power trading",
"Smart contract",
"Exchange transaction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The Korean government is seeking ways to revitalize the trading market as part of national energy demand management. At the same time, the government is promoting the proliferation of energy prosumers through the expansion of new and renewable energy supply. Recently, the security issues that have arisen with the introduction of smart grids and the issue of energy suppliers' market manipulation have become a big problem for existing power trading systems. Because it has been revealed that energy suppliers form a cartel to manipulate the price of electricity (Ju-Young, 2015), and that it is easy to hack into the smart grid (Gunhee et al., 2010).\n2. Blockchain-based asset exchange scenario: To enable energy trading using a blockchain, we first need to create a blockchain, connect the producer nodes and the consumer nodes to the generated blockchain, grant producer nodes the authority to issue the energy asset and sell the \"ecoin\" asset to the consumer nodes so that it can buy energy assets through the blockchain. Once this is done, the producer node can price and sell as much as he wants for his own energy assets. Also, the consumer node can check the sales information and select an appropriate offer to make a transaction. This section shows the process of handling all of these steps using the Command Line Interface (CLI) provided by the blockchain platform named Multichain.\n3. System implementation: Multichain provides the remote procedure call protocol encoded in JSON (JSON-RPC) application programming interface (API) for applications. Savoir is a module that allows you to use this API based on Python3. Thus, in this study, all functions related to blockchain are implemented using Savoir. It is also necessary to store information in the administrator node to process requests from producer nodes and consumer nodes. To do this, a database is used in the exchange web service managed by the administrator node. As a whole, we need blockchain-related functions, database functions and the user interface. For this purpose, it is appropriate to implement each node as a web service. In this paper, we implemented web service using Django, a Python-based web framework.\n4. Experimental result: In the experiment, only three nodes were connected to the implemented system. In this case, it took an average of 4.3 s for one transaction to be shared and confirmed among all the nodes. In real situations, such as when applying to residential complexes, hundreds of nodes can be connected. Assuming this situation, the transaction processing time will become a big problem. In addition, Multichain does not support partial transactions where only a portion of the proposed volume is concluded. Therefore, in this study, we implemented only the complete transaction for which the entire volume of proposed transaction is concluded.\n5. Conclusion: Today's power trading systems are centralized in their processing, so the price is not determined by the principle of demand and supply, and there is even the risk of price manipulation by collusion. In addition, these systems are vulnerable to security problems such as hacking. Recently, the rapidly developing blockchain technology is inherently decentralized, and is impossible to tamper the recorded information. Applying this to the problem of asset trading simplifies the process and increases the reliability. Therefore, in this study, we implemented an experimental power trading system to demonstrate the possibility that blockchain can be a good solution as suggested in previous studies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The centralized processes of today's power trading systems are complex and pose a risk of price tampering and hacking. The decentralized and unmodifiable nature of the blockchain technology that has recently been highlighted offers the potential to improve this power trading process. The purpose of this study is to implement a system to apply the blockchain technology to the problem of power trading.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors modeled the power trading problem as the interaction between admin, producer and consumer nodes. And a power trading scenario has been created for this model using a blockchain platform called Multichain which is both fast and highly scalable. To verify this scenario, they implemented a trading system using Savoir, a Python-based JsonRPC module.\nFindings: Experimental results show that all processes, such as blockchain creation, node connectivity, asset issuance and exchange transactions have been correctly handled according to the scenario.\nOriginality/value: In this study, the authors have proposed and implemented a power trading method that determines price according to the pure market principle and cannot be manipulated or hacked. It is based on the nature of blockchain technology that is decentralized and cannot be tampered.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Conceptualizing transformation in the post-merger and incorporation environment era: A case of the Durban University of Technology
|
[
"Leadership",
"Change management",
"Institutional theory",
"Higher education institutions"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The knowledge of transformation in higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Africa has been focused mostly on redressing racial and gender imbalances of the past apartheid government. This is supported by Seedat et al. (2014, p. 69) that there is a tendency to limit transformation to racial and gender composition of students and staff in gauging whether the institution has transformed. These researchers argue that it actually comprises broad factors such as sexual orientation of the workforce to ensure equitable representation at all levels. Joubert and Martins (2013, p. 112) argue that institutions of higher education continue to grapple with transformation issues due to additional pressure from stakeholders, including students, the business community and donors. Joubert and Martins (2013, p. 112) argue that the transformation agenda in the University of South Africa covers the entire spectrum of the strategic planning process, including the vision, mission, values and institutional operations. While, Wangenge-Ouma (2010, p. 481) cites funding as an important instrument that has been utilized by the South African government to try to achieve some of the stated goals of transformation, especially expanded access for black students. Against this backdrop, this study attempts to expand the limited knowledge on transformation in HEIs by investigating how transformation is understood, in the era post merged and incorporated institutions. While De Lange and Olivier (2008) mention attitudes, perceptions, practices and structures as ways of building social cohesion. This study is informed by these discourses on transformation, but also expands on them by investigating whether restructuring, changes in society, redressing past injustices, partnership in governance and overcoming inefficiencies and ineffectiveness do actually define transformation.\nConceptual framework: The term \"transformation\" can assume multiple meanings and definitions dependent on the context from which it emerges (Seedat et al., 2014, p. 69). Researchers in South Africa have defined transformation in terms of race (Francis and Hemson, 2010); efficiency (Ntshoe, 2004; Seedat et al., 2014, p. 70); change (Meyer and Botha, 2004; Ngara, 2003) and change of organizational strategy and structure, systems and processes, measurements and controls, culture and expectations, costs and capabilities (Oloyede, 2007). Ncayiyane and Hayward (2007, p. 23) indicate that transformation includes institutional funding, student financing, curricular reform, student access and success, academic research, institutional culture, as well as equity and gender issues. Transformation is one word that captures the social, economic and political imperatives and aspirations that followed the collapse of apartheid and the onset of democracy in South Africa (Wangenge-Ouma, 2010, p. 481). For the purpose of this study, transformation is not seen as a total change, however, it is seen as linked changes brought by the interventions of change including restructuring. While this study acknowledges previous arguments by different researchers, it attempts to enrich the meaning of transformation in this turbulent current HEIs in South Africa.\nTheoretical framework: The objective of this study is to provide a theory-grounded reinterpretation of institutional transformation in a HEI in South Africa by exploring the interplay between recent changes in higher education systems understood as organizational fields; particular organizational leadership features of HEI influencing the understanding of transformation. Scott (2001) defines institutions as multifaceted, durable social structures, made up of symbolic elements, social activities and material resources. According to Kraft and Scott's (2007) public policy, institutional theory is policy-making that emphasizes the formal and legal aspects of government structures. Institutional theory is a widely accepted theoretical posture that emphasizes rational myths, isomorphism and legitimacy. DiMaggio and Powell (1983) brought a new dimension to the discussion of institutions by introducing isomorphism (structural similarity), while Meyer and Scott's (1983) study proposed that both technical and institutional forces shape organizations. The university leader's knowledge of transformation as referring to institutional structures in light of institutional theory is further explored.\nLiterature review: Transformation in HEIs: a South African perspective\nResearch methodology: A mixed-methods approach (Cresswell, 2009) was employed with both a structured questionnaire that reached a large number of employees in leadership positions (junior to middle), enabling some quantification of findings, and qualitative in-depth interviews targeting university leaders in middle and senior management positions. The interviews were piloted on mid-level and senior leaders to gauge their knowledge and understanding of transformation, post-merger and incorporation at DUT. This was conducted before using a structured questionnaire to collect descriptive data. According to Brynard and Hanekom (2006), questionnaires provide respondents with an opportunity to carefully consider their responses to the various questions in the questionnaire. The study employed stratified random sampling of 191 respondents, ideal to test for the finding's reliability and validity, distributed equitably between academic and non-academic leaders. A host of researchers (Welman et al., 2005; De Vos et al., 2005) argue that a sample can only be described as representative if it has the same properties or characteristics as the population relevant to the research in question. This application of the stratified random sampling method is consistent with the assertions of De Vos et al. (2005). The quantitative survey targeted university leadership between Peromnes Grades 8 and 6 (junior and middle management) which were identified as the total population. A structured questionnaire using a five-point Likert scale was developed with a range from (1) strongly disagree, (2) disagree, (3) undecided to (4) agree and (5) strongly agree.\nResearch instrument: The researcher acknowledged a number of instruments available in the literature that can be adopted, however, given the current turmoil regarding the transformation in HEIs in South Africa it was imperative to design an instrument that is responding to the current environment. As all participants were competent, they were capable of completing the questionnaires unassisted. Items in the structured questionnaire were based on ten leading statements testing the perceptions of the respondents on their knowledge of transformation. These statements were informed by a plethora of researchers such as on redressing the racial transformation (Francis and Hemson, 2010); restructuring (Seedat et al., 2014); moving from the comfort zone, changes in society, redressing past injustices and partnership in governance (Zide, 2010). The variable on overcoming inefficiencies was aligned to Joubert and Martins (2013) and Ntshoe (2004). The items were measured using a five-point Likert scale which was developed with a range from (1) strongly disagree, (2) disagree and (3) undecided to (4) agree and (5) strongly agree, testing the perceptions of the university leaders through leading statements. The qualitative question on the research participants' understanding of transformation was informed by a number of researchers including Ncayiyane and Hayward (2007), Seedat et al. (2014) and Wangenge-Ouma (2010).\nData collection: The data were collected over a three month period from May to July 2013. Of the total of 191 questionnaires disseminated, 133 generated a 70 per cent response rate. To maintain confidentiality, the questionnaires were distributed and collected by the researcher. The Cronbach's coefficient a values for individual dimensions were high and a reliability coefficient of 0.947 or higher was recorded. A triangulation method was employed in this study for improving reliability of research or evaluation of the qualitative findings (Golafshami, 2003, p. 7) as it interviewed leaders at different employment categories. Babbie and Mouton (2001) method was applied to achieve credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability. Thus, reliability was achieved by triangulation, debriefing and purposive sampling. Qualitative research findings in this study were triangulated by the structured interviews directed to the research participants that were between junior and middle leadership levels. Furthermore, qualitative findings were also triangulated by different questions posed to different research participants who were at different leadership levels and different stakeholders.\nData analysis: The quantitative data collected from the respondents was analysed using SPSS (version 12), for data capturing, presentation, analysis and interpretation. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis and interpretation. The NVivo software (version 10) was used for organizing, analysing and sharing data.\nResearchers' roles and recording of data: Permission was requested and granted by the DUT Ethics Committee to conduct the study, and consent was formally obtained from the participants. At the same time the confidentiality and anonymity of participants was maintained and guaranteed at all times. This study undertook a pilot approach prior to engaging in the study full scale.\nResearch findings: The research findings of this study indicate a considerable need for the university leaders to have an insight and knowledge of transformation, post-merger and incorporation. A qualitative and frequency analysis were undertaken to determine exact areas where change management interventions are needed (Table I).\nMajor findings of the study: The prevalence of views on transformation were fairly dominantly focused on restructuring the institution, which stood at 70 per cent with an almost equal percentage (71 per cent) of both academic and administrative leaders having the same knowledge. The study findings indicate that this variable was more prevalent than even the most commonly anticipated ones such as race (56 per cent) and redressing past injustices (59 per cent). Other perceived elements of transformation were also high: changes taking place in society at 61 per cent and institutional structures as pillars of bringing change at 62 per cent.\nDiscussion of the results: The primary objective of this study was to investigate university leaders' knowledge and understanding of transformation at DUT post-merger and incorporation. The study findings are aligned with mimitic isomorphism as one of the dimensions of the institutional theory. The mimitic isomorphism as per DiMaggio and Powell (1983) was followed to respond to uncertainties and poorly understood concept of transformation in this university. The university leaders' knowledge of transformation as based on restructuring (with the largest percentage of 70 per cent as compared to the lowest other variables of the study and backed by qualitative findings), has been echoed by a plethora of researchers. This includes Lee (2004) who states that HEIs are under pressure to restructure where this restructuring is driven by a political agenda and improving managerial efficiency (Seedat et al., 2014, p. 70; Varghese, 2004). While Shattock (2013) indicate that in Britain restructuring was imposed down to departments by university leaders. This finding was also supported by an equal percentage of both academic and administrative leaders. The previous researchers' point of view on transformation as referring to the academic restructuring which is limited to the curriculum.\nConclusion: This study concludes to analyse the data generated by using isomorphism as one of the dimensions of the institutional theory (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983). This study observed that technical and institutional forces as proposed by Meyer and Scott (1983) influences transformation in the case of this study. The coercive isomorphism or mechanism related to transformation includes the influence of social partners, including trade unions, government, legislation, industry and councils as proposed by Najeeb (2014, p. 27). This paper observes that transformation in HEIs in South Africa is not solely understood as referring to race and redressing past injustices, as evidently shown by the high percentage of the respondents who referred to transformation as restructuring of the institution (70 per cent). Also, the research findings reveal that transformation refers to restructuring taking place in society and to institutional structures as pillars of bringing change. This study finding is aligned to the institutional theory (Bealing et al., 2011) that an institution creates the illusion of change to outside constituents in order to gain legitimacy. This paper reveals that transformation in HEIs is influenced by the three interconnected factors (operations and core/internal and external factors) that directly and indirectly influence the institutional and national transformation agenda. This paper concludes that internal factors that define transformation include student access and retention and achieving the set university goals. Furthermore, the internal factors which include curriculum reform, research productivity and quality learning and teaching are regarded as the cornerstones of transformation in this university. This paper further concludes that external factors including legislative reforms, societal and ever-changing global needs directly influence transformation in this university.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to gauge the knowledge of the university leaders at the Durban University of Technology on transformation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses both quantitative and qualitative approaches guided by a structured survey questionnaire and in-depth interviews with the university leaders. The questionnaires generated the reliability coefficient a of 0.947, indicating a high degree of acceptance and consistency of the results.\nFindings: The study findings reveal the highest percentage of 70 per cent regarding the belief that transformation refers to restructuring the institution more than commonly anticipated variables such as race (56 per cent) and redressing the past injustices (59 per cent).\nResearch limitations/implications: The limitation of the study was the scarcity of published material on the sub-dimensions of the study of transformation (transformation as referring to attracting qualified employees). Another limitation which was observed included the paucity of data regarding discipline and knowledge of transformation variables.\nPractical implications: This study suggests transformation in higher education institutions is defined through internal (operational and core) and external factors with a direct influence.\nOriginality/value: This paper could potentially enrich the meaning of transformation, derived from the context and experience of South Africa.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The development of electronic journals in the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU)
|
[
"Electronic journals",
"Academic libraries",
"United Arab Emirates",
"Persian Gulf States",
"Collections management",
"Developing countries"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Developing countries differ from developed ones not only because they have less capital but because they have less knowledge. This was the theme of the World Bank's (1999) World Development Report 1998/1999: Knowledge for Development. The report stated that creating knowledge is often costly, and that is why much of it is done in developed countries. However, developing nations, the report stressed, can acquire knowledge overseas as well as create, at home, knowledge that may not be readily available elsewhere. Access to journal literature is an essential ingredient to successfully narrow the knowledge gap between developing and developed countries.There has been little or no discussion on the question of whether, or to what extent, the increasing availability of electronic journals (e-journals) is impacting academic institutions in developing countries. The e-journal is defined here as \"any journal that is available online, including both electronic-only journals, and journals that are available both electronically and in print\" (Smith, 2003). This case study highlights the experience of the UAE University (UAEU) and examines the impact of the growing availability of e-journals on the operations of UAEU Libraries and its user community.The UAEU, with more than 16,000 students, is the oldest and the largest institution in the national higher education system of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is a technologically oriented university with the infrastructure needed to support dynamic library services and resources.In 2002/2003, the Libraries Deanship of UAEU made a commitment to cancel printed journals and migrate to an all-e-journal collection. As a result, the UAEU community currently has access to a huge number of e-journals. Elsevier's ScienceDirect, Springer-Link, Blackwell-Synergy, Wiley-InterScience, Institute of Physics (IOP), Oxford University Press online, JSTOR, and Emerald are the prominent \"bundled\" databases giving UAEU faculty and students desktop electronic access to a wide selection of journal literature.UAEU Libraries Deanship consists of the Zayed Central Library and five branch libraries - two in the women's campus and three in the men's campuses. Furthermore, the UAEU has a health sciences library, known as the National Medical Library (NML), offering services to faculty and students in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Both the Libraries Deanship and the NML Library come under the Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, and they share electronic resources.This paper describes the nature and scope of the journal migration, as well as the impact of this decision on the library and its user community. The next section gives the reader background information on the UAE. The following section discusses the development of e-journals at UAEU. The penultimate section highlights the impact of e-journals on the library and its users. The final section contains the concluding remarks.\nBackground information: The UAE, formerly known as the Trucial States, is an oil producing state with an area of 83,600 square kilometers. Established on December 2, 1971, it is the only federation of states in the Middle East. It came into existence after seven emirates ruled by individual tribal sheikhs merged to create a union within which they could preserve a large degree of local autonomy (Taryam, 1987). The members of the UAE are Abu-Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Qaiwain.The UAE is a member of the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), along with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Like most of the GCC members, the UAE's economy thrives on the production of petroleum (ESCWA, 2001) and on expatriate workers. With similar resources and structures, the GCC countries share a common strategic view. They are all working to shift from heavy reliance on oil and public-sector encroachment to private-sector initiatives and a diversified industrial base (ESCWA, 2001).UAE leaders understood early on that seizing opportunities for development and progress requires openness to outside ideas, the right institutions, and sustained effort dedicated to acquiring, absorbing, adapting and using knowledge effectively. The UAE seems to be taking the right steps to narrow the knowledge gap found in developing countries.First, the UAE's policies for acquiring knowledge involve being open to knowledge available abroad. This entails, among other means, importing technical knowledge embodied in the human capital of hired experts and specialists and having UAE nationals go to the technological centers of the world for university and graduate studies.Second, for the UAE, absorbing that knowledge meant ensuring universal basic education, providing opportunities for lifelong learning, and supporting higher education, especially in science and engineering. In only 30 years, the UAE has made enormous strides in expanding school enrollments at all levels. In this relatively short period of time, the UAE has also established an up-to-date system of higher education.Currently, there are three (federal) higher education institutions, under the auspices of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research:1. UAEU, as the flagship institution, was established in the city of Al-Ain in 1977. The UAEU has an enrollment of more than 16,000 male and female students. It offers a wide range of programs - medicine, engineering, food systems, business and economics, science, humanities and social science, Shariah and law, education, and information technology (UAEU, n.d.).2. Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) was set up in 1988. The HCT system now consists of 11 colleges (six for women and five for men) located all across the UAE. With an enrollment of over 15,000 students, its programs lead to certificate, diploma, and higher diploma graduation. In certain programs, it offers students the opportunity to complete a bachelors' degree after completing the higher diploma (HCT, n.d.).3. Zayed University (ZU) was established in 1998 with campuses in Abu-Dhabi and Dubai. The university is for female students only (ZU, n.d.).UAE is considered as one of the leading countries in educating females. Encouraged by the government to become highly educated, women in the UAE have achieved a high rate of development in the Arab world.There are other universities outside the sphere of the Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research. These universities include the American University of Sharjah (AUS), Sharjah University, American University of Dubai (AUD), Ajman University of Science and Technology, Abu-Dhabi University.This formal higher education system is the major element of the nation's human capital development. It prepares students for positions of leadership in the country's economy and for further study abroad.The third critical step in narrowing the knowledge gap is the United Arab Emirate's efforts to communicate knowledge. This involves taking advantage of new information and communications technology that facilitates people's ability to access useful information. This case study illustrates how effective utilization of Internet technology has reshaped the way in which the UAE academic community communicates, and has benefited from the proliferation of e-journals.\nDevelopment of e-journals at UAEU: The journal migration project had its underpinnings in the ongoing, conscious effort by UAEU Libraries to move toward electronic access to journals. This movement appears to be the result of the continuous technological change and innovation that have now become an integral part of UAE library operations. The Dean of the UAEU Libraries, in a comment in Elsevier's newsletter, explained the rationale for canceling print journals and subscribing to a larger number of e-journals. Dr Alulama characterized the decision to migrate to electronic-only as \"a strategic decision to meet our users' expectations of unrestricted, convenient and remote access, in addition to having them benefit from the powerful searching tools and features that the printed journal could not offer\" (Diesnis, 2003).In 2003, UAEU Libraries undertook a concerted effort to provide faculty and students with more electronic access to scholarly journals. During this time, UAEU added e-journal subscriptions in great numbers, bringing the current total to more than 10,000 journals, and reducing the number of current (foreign) print journal subscriptions to 452 titles. Although subscriptions to aggregator services (e.g. EBSCO) have added a great number of titles, UAEU has, clearly, experienced a huge growth in the number of journals as a result of \"bundle\" subscriptions, as shown in Figure 1.At the end of 2002, The UAEU Libraries Deanship received license agreements from seven publishers - Elsevier Science, Blackwell Publishing, Springer, John Wiley, Emerald, Institute of Physics Publishing (IOPP), and Oxford University Press (OUP) - for the right to access almost all their e-journals. The exception was John Wiley, where UAEU access is limited to the electronic equivalent of current (2002) print subscriptions. Three-year term contracts were signed starting from 2003, and continue through 2005.In these bundle subscriptions (big deals), publishers offered the institution electronic access to many or all of their journals across a wide range of disciplines for a price that, while large, still was less than the cost of subscribing to these journals individually. In the end, users gain access to a more comprehensive collection.Robertson (2003) reported that a publisher's representative stated that e-journals are still less expensive than print journals because publishers offer a ten percent discount when subscribers select e-only access. With regard to economic gains, the representative pointed to cost-savings that would otherwise go to binding and storing print journals, as well as the savings in shelving capacity, according to Robertson (Robertson, 2003).With ScienceDirect (the largest of the packages), for example, UAEU chose the E-Choice model that provides e-only access to Elsevier titles recently held in print. Also, this option brings with it access to four years of back files for journals previously subscribed to in print. The E-Choice pricing was based on a base price constituting print spending level plus a content fee. The institution is charged a reduced percentage of the base price. With the E-Choice, the library spent less than what it would have spent on its 159 Elsevier print titles. The bulk of resources, however, came with the \"Freedom Collection.\" The Freedom Collection, covering post 1995, contains (almost) everything in ScienceDirect with some exceptions. This collection costs less than E-Choice, but it is an annual discounted package. All together, ScienceDirect offers UAEU faculty and students access to over 1800 titles. Figure 2 indicates the number of journals provided to the UAEU community, in bundled packages.On top of the \"bundled\" packages, the aggregators also provide access to a very large number of titles (8,153 titles in 2003) as illustrated in Figure 1, but because the content of aggregated databases depends on the vendor's ability to secure publisher's rights to the information, continued access to the material is not always guaranteed. Moreover, an embargo period is imposed by many publishers who wish to protect the revenues generated by publication of the print version of a title.In comparison, only two full-text databases were accessible via the library's web site in 1999 (Figure 3), and database access was limited to text-based systems. By the year 2000, 13 databases including two with full-text journals were available. In 2001/2002, library users had access to 18 databases, yet still to only two full-text ones - EBSCO's Academic Search Premier and Business Source Premier. These two EBSCO databases replaced Gale Expanded Academic ASAP and ProQuest's ABI/Inform, respectively. At that time, the total number of current print journal subscriptions was 1,033.Improved service\nImpact of e-journals on library operations: This part of the paper describes the impact of the transition to an all-e-journal collection on the library. Like the experiences of other university libraries, the informal feedback at the UAEU Libraries has been extremely positive. Users appreciate the convenience of anytime, anywhere access.Some of the observations made on the impact of e-journals on various library activities include those described in the following sub-sections.Document delivery/inter-library loan\nConcluding remarks: E-journals offer many advantages: they add enormous resources to the collection; save the libraries shelving space; satisfy users' expectations for user-friendly, convenient and remote access; and provide powerful searching tools and features linking to more resources.What then is upsetting librarians and the academic community everywhere?\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This case study seeks to reflect upon the short history and rapid development of electronic journals (e-journals) at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). It describes the scope of the journal migration project and its impact on library operations. UAEU (with over 16,000 students) is the flagship university in the UAE, and much farther along in the transition to electronic-only access to journal literature than most libraries in the Arab world.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The article begins with background information on UAE and its academic institutions, then discusses the development of e-journals at UAEU starting with the rationale and decision to cancel print journals and move to an all-e-journal collection.\nFindings: - The author shows that e-journals have added enormous resources to the collection, improved service, enhanced access to journal literature, increased its usage, and decreased the demand for document delivery of single articles. The author also indicates the challenges of offering e-journals as \"bundled\" packages and UAEU's concern about the library's inability to remove irrelevant titles, control cost, and retain the freedom to make changes on its journal collection.\nOriginality/value: - Since there has been little or no discussion in the library literature on the impact that the increasing use of e-journals has on academic institutions in developing countries, this case study of the UAEU experience should be useful to others in the Gulf region and in other parts of developing countries, as well as the library community in general.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Building trust by signaling trustworthiness in service retail
|
[
"Trust",
"Structural equation modeling",
"Behavioral loyalty",
"Trustworthiness",
"Attitudinal loyalty",
"Service retailer"
] |
[
{
"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.\n1. Introduction: Building long-term relationships with customers is one of the central functions of service organizations, and leads to several advantages, including increasing customer satisfaction (Jyh-Shen and Droge, 2006), loyalty (Buttle and Burton, 2002) and commitment (Morgan and Hunt, 1994). Trust is a central element in the development of marketing relationships, and is defined as one's willingness to engage in risky behavior accompanied by the belief that one's partner can be relied on to fulfill its future obligations (Palmatier et al., 2007; Scheer and Stern, 1992). However, the definition does not specify which factors contribute to one's willingness to engage in risky behaviors, nor is it clear which strategies organizations should carry out to gain their customers' trust.\n2. Trust versus trustworthiness: Trustworthiness differs from trust in that trustworthiness is a characteristic of a potential trustee (an entity who may or may not be trusted), while trust entails beliefs held by someone else regarding that trustee. McKnight et al. (2002) describe trustworthiness as the perceived probability that a particular trustee will maintain one's trust. Hardin (2002) argues that a trustee establish trust with a trustor (an entity who may or may not trust the trustee) in the context of ongoing interpersonal relationships, because only through such relationships can customers accumulate sufficient evidence to form trusting intentions (i.e. to trust or not to trust). For this reason, trust cannot represent the generalized perception of a group of people; rather, trust is held by the individual. However, what is trustworthiness if not the same as trust?\n3. Conceptual development: One of the primary contributions of the proposed model - the inclusion of trustworthiness as a mediator to building trust perceptions - relies on Caldwell and Clapham's (2003) mediating lens framework. This research investigates six distinct trustee attributes positioned as drivers of trustworthiness of a service organization. These drivers include consistency, competence, benevolence, communication, integrity and value alignment between the trustor and trustee. The conceptual model is noteworthy on at least three dimensions:\n4. Research method: 4.1 Sample and data collection procedure\n5. Results: 5.1 Assessment of measures\n6. Discussion: The results of our empirical investigation offer important insights into the process of building customer trust and loyalty. First, the investigation demonstrates the importance of building trustworthiness perceptions for service organizations. Second, the results empirically validate trustworthiness as a distinct construct from trust, and show that both have an impact (direct and indirect) on customer loyalty. Third, this research shows that consistency and competence (cognitive antecedents) are as important as building stronger relationships built on customer affect for retailers.\n7. Conclusion: Drawing from trustworthiness and trust theory, this research develops and tests trustworthiness as a mediating mechanism in the development of customer trust and loyalty for service organizations. Survey responses from 420 hotel customers in the UK are used to test our model. Two alternate models are compared to the hypothesized model; one eliminates trustworthiness and the other positioning trustworthiness as a partial mediator. Empirical tests support the hypothesized model, suggesting that trustworthiness perceptions should be considered a strategic goal by managers and considered by relationship marketing researchers. We also contribute to the literature by empirically testing long-standing conceptual arguments positioning trustworthiness as an antecedent to trust. We encourage future research to extend our findings by investigating other possible links and mitigating circumstances that would affect the translation of trustworthiness into trust, and to investigate our framework in additional contexts.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of retailer trustworthiness in driving customer trust and the subsequent impact on loyalty. The authors position trustworthiness as a mediator in the link between retail strategies and the development of trust. They model customer loyalty to the service retailer as a function of the trust created through trustworthy perceptions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors validate their model using 420 survey responses from customers in a service retail setting. Nine research hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Alternate models are estimated, and the results provide support for the theory-based trustworthiness mediation model.\nFindings: Trustworthy behaviors first build trustworthiness, which then translates into customer trust and ultimately has a positive impact on both behavioral and attitudinal loyalty.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research highlights the importance for retailers to signal their trustworthiness to build customer trust and loyalty. Researchers should measure trustworthiness perceptions when examining customer relationships and managers should plan strategically to develop both trust and trustworthiness with their customers.\nOriginality/value: This study is one of the first to investigate the mediating effect of trustworthiness on customer loyalty in service settings. While past research has investigated dimensions of trustworthy behaviors, none has included a measure of trustworthiness perceptions and consumer trust in the same theoretical model. The results of the research provide important insights for both researchers and managers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Pre-construction evaluation practices of sustainable housing projects in the UK
|
[
"Sustainable development",
"Ecology",
"Housing",
"Prices",
"Forecasting",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) defined sustainable development (SD) as being the achievement of a better quality of life through the efficient use of resources, which realises continued social progress while maintaining stable economic growth and caring for the environment (OGC, 2007). The UK government wishes to see all housing associations (HAs) integrate sustainability into their procurement and development approaches in terms of considering the EcoHomes ranting system, which is an Environmental Assessment Method for Housing, as an accepted way to evaluate the sustainability of housing projects in the UK.The generation of reliable early stage building project price forecasts is central to clients being able to make value for money business decisions. At this initial stage of a project, the construction process is unpredictable and inherently risky. Fortune and Cox (2005) confirmed the continued overwhelming use of the traditional single point deterministic models to form early stage project price forecasts. That survey found that the newer models such as, artificial neural nets, fuzzy logic nets, and environmental or sustainable cost models were not in widespread use. The research of BRE (2001) and Elhag and Boussabaine (2001) explained that the significance of the consideration of sustainability early in a potential project's life cycle was likely to result in less of an increase in capital costs as compared to those projects in which sustainability issues were considered at a later stage. This previous work made the case that there is a clear need to develop a more reliable early stage building project price forecasting model for sustainable housing projects in the UK.The literature reviewed in the first part of the paper examines the principles of sustainable construction practice and the processes involved in the formulation of pre-construction project price forecasting. The paper then identifies the appropriate research design, and the design and administration of the survey. The main questions in the survey and the results of data analysis are explained and the main findings discussed. The paper ends with recommendations for academe and practice so as to ensure emergent theory translates into general practice.\nLiterature review: Sustainability and its evaluation\nData collection: Research design\nQuestionnaire response: A total of 213 questionnaires were returned within three months of being sent out, 87 questionnaires were returned with wrong addresses, making a total response rate of 41.5 percent. In addition to sending the questionnaire over three rounds by mail to increase the response rate, e-mail was also used to re-send the questionnaire to the Housing Associations group. The response of the e-mail survey was very poor as only three experts were willing to reply to this questionnaire via this medium.In terms of reliability, the coefficient for this survey was 0.78 > 0.7 and so the results can be considered as reliable (Hair et al., 1998). The SPSS software package was used to analyse the results of the survey. Table I shows that similar proportions of responses were received from QS (33 per cent), architects (33 per cent) and HAs (36 per cent) for this survey and this confirmed that the sample was representative of the selected population.\nResults and analysis: Use of EcoHomes system\nAnalysis and discussion: The data revealed that there were some differences among the level of responses from the three different types of organisations responding to the survey. A Chi-square test was used (see Table V) to check if there was a relationship between the type of organisation and the level of use of the EcoHomes system as the frequency analysis showed differences among the three types of organisations.In all these cases, all expected cell sizes were greater than > 5 so the assumption related to minimum expected cell frequency was not violated (Pallant, 2005).As each two types of construction organisations were compared in this test, correction for continuity, which compensates for the overestimate of the chi-square value, was achieved through the use of a two by two table. In this question, the significant values which associated the continuity corrections showed only for QS and HAs types of organisation, the Asymp. Sig =0.00< the alpha value was 0.05. This means that the proportion of QS respondents that use the EcoHomes system was significantly lower from the proportion of HAs respondents that used this system. To measure the strength of association between the type of construction organisations and the use of EcoHomes system, Cramer's statistic was determined at 0.342 out of a possible maximum value of 1. This represents quite a strong association between these two types of organisation and the use of EcoHomes point system in housing projects. This value is highly significant (p=0.00<0.05) indicating that the value of the test statistic is large and is unlikely to have happened by chance. Therefore the strength of the relationship between these two types of organisation and the use of the EcoHomes point system was significant. From these two tests, it was clear that there was a significant difference and a strong relationship between the use of the EcoHomes system and both of QS and HAs types of respondent organisations. The tests showed that this difference was not significant for architects. This result has implications for practice, as it is QS who is responsible for the initial evaluation of sustainable housing projects.The ranking of EcoHomes factors according to their perceived level of importance by the QS respondents was the same as the ranking of all the other types of organisation together. However, HAs respondents gave slightly higher priority to factors such as water than pollution while architects ranked health and well being as more important than water. The results of the Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test showed that the three factors of EcoHomes that needed further analysis did not demonstrate statistically significant differences and confirmed the final ranking of EcoHome factors according to their means. In addition, Kruskal-Wallis test was used to explore differences in respondents' assessments of the cost significance of EcoHomes factors. The rankings of water, ecology and land use, and pollution for each construction organisation included in the survey were analysed but no statistical difference in variables across the three types of organisations were found.\nConclusion: This survey has shown the importance that practitioners place on the differing factors of sustainability that are used in the EcoHomes system to deliver sustainable new housing projects in the UK. EcoHomes factors were ranked in this survey according to their importance as follows: \"energy\", \"materials\", \"pollution\", \"water\", \"health and well being\", \"ecology and land use\", and finally \"transport\". This ranking was different from the BRE ranking of EcoHomes factors depending on their maximum estimated credits and that reflected the mismatch between the policy and practice regarding the evaluation of sustainable housing projects. The established rankings did not show any statistically significant difference according to the type of the organisation. This result located environmental factors as being the leading group of factors to be evaluated in practice for sustainable housing projects. These results confirmed that within the construction organisations surveyed there was a gap in their knowledge of how to consider social issues of sustainability. However, no clear economical factors of sustainability emerged among the main seven factors of the EcoHomes system. This is one of the negative points in this system. It is interesting to note that in spite of the weakness of the EcoHomes system on the social and economical aspects of sustainability, experts confirmed the workability of EcoHomes system as they considered it as being a solid foundation on which to develop a more applicable measure.EcoHomes factors were ranked according to their cost impact on the budget of the potential housing projects. This ranking showed that factors which were chosen on the basis of their high cost impacts on the project budget were the same as factors which were ranked first because of their importance among other EcoHomes factors. The slight difference among the three different types of construction organisation regarding the ranking of \"water\" and \"pollution\" was not found to be statistically important. The results indicate, the ranking of these factors according to their cost impacts was: \"energy\", \"materials\", \"water\", \"pollution\", \"ecology and land use\", \"health and well being\", and finally \"transport\"Inviting experts to estimate the costs of each one of the factors in this system revealed that practitioners were not able to give similar estimations on the cost of the EcoHomes factors. This was the main justification of the need for the development of a cost evaluation model of sustainable social housing projects. The development of such a model would link project price forecasting and the evaluation of sustainability together so as to achieve a more meaningful benefit evaluation at the feasibility stage of social housing projects.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Considering sustainability during the cost estimating process is vital for the successful integration of sustainable features within a construction project. The UK Government has adopted the principles of sustainable development, and social housing projects now have to achieve the EcoHomes \"very good\" rating as a prerequisite to Government grant funding. This policy has important implications for all those organisations involved in new social housing building projects and it will place sustainability and its assessments at the heart of housing procurement practice. The purpose of this paper is to examine the pre-construction evaluation practices of sustainable housing projects in the UK.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A survey was undertaken to capture data regarding the importance and the cost significance of sustainable factors from a randomised sample of 600 quantity surveying, housing associations, and architectural organisations based in the UK. An initial and follow-up administration of the postal survey generated an overall response of 41.5 per cent. Relative rankings for EcoHomes factors according to their perceived importance and their cost impact on the price of housing projects are established, and the work identifies the factors that should be considered in order to develop a model that links the project price forecasting and the evaluation of sustainability together at the feasibility stage of social housing projects.\nFindings: - EcoHomes factors were ranked in this survey according to their importance as follows: \"energy\", \"materials\", \"pollution\", \"water\", \"health and well being\", \"ecology and land use\", and finally \"transport\". These results revealed that the environmental aspects of sustainability continue to be the most common aspect of sustainability to be considered, as compared to the economic or social benefits of the potential project irrespective of organisational type responding to the survey. As a result the work identified a need to develop an aid for practitioners to use when involved in the early stage evaluation of sustainable social housing projects.\nOriginality/value: - This paper provides useful information on the pre-construction evaluation practices of sustainable housing projects in the UK.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Linking inside and outside: "identity" in crisis situations
|
[
"Natural hazards",
"Local stakeholders",
"Identity",
"Multi-utility company",
"Self-reflexive learning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Crises are the primary threat to organizational stability may make organizations vulnerable (Seeger et al., 2005). They are perceived by managers and stakeholders as highly salient, unexpected and potentially disruptive - they can threaten an organization's goals and have profound implications for its relationships with stakeholders (Bundy et al., 2016). There is a growing awareness of the need to respond to and recover from the interruptions collectively (Birnholtz and Finholt, 2008). Recent studies have highlighted the need for organizations to be accountable and responsible in relation to the decisions and actions taken in crisis situations (Antonacopoulou and Sheaffer, 2014). An increasing number of studies have analyzed what kind of responsible actions organizations took when engaging their stakeholders. For example, in the aftermath of snowstorms, the managers of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum received help from the local community to rebuild and recover (Christianson et al., 2009). Responsible behavior achieves good results both in response to and recovery from disasters and when the value of the network between an organization and its stakeholders has been addressed. James (2011, p. 1020) stated: \"The network among organizations can strengthen its members' resilience, goals, and efficacy for coping and performing relative to catastrophe.\"\n2. Theoretical framework: An organization's identity is distinctive, central and enduring (Albert and Whetten, 1985). Identities are key to understanding and explaining almost everything that happens within and around organizations (Brown, 2015). It exists at all levels in organizations and in an organization's environment. It starts by individuals understanding of themselves. Within an organization, individuals work continuously to develop a plausible understanding of identities which influence their decision making, actions and individual career outcomes (Alvesson and Willmott, 2002; Brown and Lewis, 2011; Creed et al., 2010; Brown, 2015). Individual identity is socially constructed. It depends not only on personal identity but also the identity that is shaped by relationships (Patriotta and Spedale, 2009). Thus, an individual's identity is formed reciprocally. Individual A defines him/herself through the message: \"This is how I see myself\"; it is followed by \"This is how I see you\" from B to A; A will reply with: \"This is how I see you that you see me\"; and individual B, in turn, \"This is how I see you that you see that I see you,\" and so on (Patriotta and Spedale, 2009). When individuals identify with, or are categorized as, members of a social aggregate, they are more likely to define themselves in terms of their membership of that group (Kane et al., 2005). A shared identity is a key ingredient for sensemaking in emergencies because it provides a vital anchor around which groups construct meaning and understand their experience (Maitlis and Sonenshein, 2010). It helps to remove ambiguity and serves as a \"springboard for action\" for disaster response and recovery (Weick et al., 2005).\n3. Case study and method: In order to respond to our research question, an exploratory qualitative analysis was designed, based on the previous theoretical premises. The focus was on a multi-utility company (AIMAG), founded in 1964 in Mirandola (Italy), providing services in 24 neighboring municipalities, which experienced the 2012 earthquakes. Services provided refer to water supply and maintenance (drinkability, wastewater treatment), energy (distribution and sale of natural gas and electricity), environmental services (waste collection and disposal) and public lighting. Its revenue derives from the local customers (citizens and firms) through utility bills. AIMAG covers a decisive role in the local area. AIMAG, in the theoretical framework outlined above, is therefore a case of trait-union between a local area (impacted by the critical event) and the local actors (Figure 1). From this point of view, AIMAG represents an emblematic case study in the context of a rare circumstance (Yin, 2003) that can provide unusual information which is then transferable to other contexts.\n4. Findings: At 4:04, on May 20, and at about 9:00, on May 29, 2012, two earthquakes registering 6.1 and 5.8 magnitude hit Emilia Romagna. The local community was unprepared for the earthquakes. \"On 20th May, we woke up with a new situation which we had never imagined,\" said the Head of Communications of Mirandola Municipality. Mirandola is a town of around 23,611 inhabitants. The old part of the town was damaged and there was a lot of internal damage to floors, walls and supporting structures. Only the facade of the San Francesco d'Assisi church (thirteenth century) was left. All the residents of the old town were evacuated. As stated, \"we had tens of thousands of residents left outside of their homes. They lived in tents and caravans with a shared kitchen built in the field.\" The second earthquake's epicenter was in Medolla, whose old town and industrial area were severely damaged. Totally, there were six victims of the earthquakes. Regarding AIMAG, its main office buildings in Mirandola and Carpi had been seriously damaged, as well as four water towers in the peripheries and the plant for the fermentation of organic waste (Zhou et al., 2018).\n5. Discussion: The findings show that the organizational identity and the identities of the stakeholders reflected the shared community identity of being responsible, responsive, straightforward, trustworthy and collaborative. In this section, the aim is to understand the self-reflexive organizational learning and intra-organizational RML.\n6. Conclusions: This case study provides with an opportunity to observe why AIMAG was able to act responsibly and how the shared identity among individuals, groups, organizations and external stakeholders functioned to respond to and recover from the interruptions generated by the earthquakes and to explore the rationale of the formation of such shared an identity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to deal with the link between identity and crisis deriving by natural disasters, exploring the function of the shared identity linking individuals, groups, organizations and its external networks. The shared identity is not static. It is a dynamic self-reflexive learning process and is reciprocal. The object of the research is a medium-sized multi-utility company, which experienced the 2012 earthquakes, and how responsibly and rapidly it responded and recovered in collaboration with its stakeholders in the local territory.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews were directed to both managers and to selected representatives of the \"vertical external networks\" of the company (local authorities, a consumer association and a trade association). The primary data were supplemented by archived materials for data triangulation.\nFindings: The research highlights the importance of identity and relationship with local stakeholders and communities when facing the earthquakes. Believing themselves to be socially responsible, ethical and capable, employees were highly motivated and collaborative. Resuming normal services was AIMAG's priority. The behavior of AIMAG, its employees and its local stakeholders were guided by a shared community identity. After the earthquakes, this shared community identity was strengthened, thus improving the community's resilience.\nOriginality/value: The paper highlights the role of identity in linking both inside and outside an organization, in contributing greatly to joint decision making and action, and, finally, in increasing the awareness of the company leaders and staff regarding the importance of their actions for the whole local community. This research advocates the role of identity in disaster risk reduction.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
High-probability and wild-card scenarios for future crimes and terror attacks using the Internet of Things
|
[
"Internet of Things",
"Security",
"Terrorism",
"Morphological analysis",
"Cybersecurity",
"Scenario development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: What is the Internet of Things (IoT)? There are no clear definitions for the concept, but the general agreement seems to be that the IoT is the next evolutionary step of the internet, in which items and objects can share data between each other and with the World Wide Web. Connected objects are not limited to industrial machines or to computers. In fact, the IoT concept deals mainly with everyday objects becoming connected. These include connected vehicles (Bonomi, 2013), smart door locks (August, 2016), smart baby monitors and security cameras (Withings, 2016), smart thermostats (Nest, 2016), smart grills (iDevices, 2016) and household robots (Softbank Robotics, 2016), among many other devices that are starting to form the IoT today. The non-profit trade association CompTIA estimates that the number of objects connected to the IoT will reach 50.1 billion by 2020 - which translates to 6.3 connected items for every person in the world on average (CompTIA, 2016).\n2. Research tools: 2.1 Participants\n3. Research methodology: The research proceeded in three distinct stages, as follows:\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Factors in the methods category\n5. Conclusions: In this research the possible futures of crime and terror related to the IoT were studied. A framework was created to encompass potential motives, methods and targets, which together could form almost 10,000 scenarios of varying levels of likelihood and impact. A typological field was created, that can be easily searched for ideas about the future of crime, and demonstrated how combinations of all three factors could be developed into actual scenarios - both ones that are currently being anticipated by security forces, and surprising wild cards.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework to thinking and creating scenarios about future crimes and terror attacks relying on the Internet of Things (IoT), and to present a crowdsourcing research based on this thinking, which resulted in both high- and low-probability scenarios with dramatic impact.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research relies on general morphological analysis for deconstructing wicked problems into core components, and on crowdsourcing 50 experts on Wikistrat's commercial platform, allowing them to suggest core components, rank them by importance and develop scenarios together. This methodology allowed a wider view than usual, and allowed the experts to examine unorthodox combination of components, leading to the creation of wild-card scenarios.\nFindings: Analysis of both the core components and the resulting scenarios indicates that the IoT is set to have a dramatic role in crime and terror attacks in the near future. High-impact high-probability scenarios include attacks on power plants, cyber wallets and personal assistants. High-impact low-probability scenarios include terrorist attacks by environmentalist groups, accidental attacks conducted by immature pranksters and having a computer worm propagating in a low-security but critical facility like a hospital.\nOriginality/value: This paper brings a standardized method which can be used to examine complex events like crime and terror attacks using a disruptive and emerging technology. The results can be used by practitioners to further study the issue and develop many other scenarios more tailored to their needs. The scenarios presented in this paper can also be of value to security bodies who wish to be better prepared for the future.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Value co-creation in high-involvement services: the animal healthcare sector
|
[
"Value co-creation",
"Service delivery",
"Service quality",
"Value",
"Animal health sector"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Domesticated animals form an important part of modern life, fulfilling roles as household companions, working animals and food producing livestock. Thus, the propensity of people to keep animals and the demand for animal-related products and services are the two factors that underpin the scale of demand for animal healthcare. Traditionally the domain of veterinarians specialising in farm, equine or companion animal service, substantial numbers of other specialist animal healthcare providers have begun to enter the market and day to day care is now multi-faceted and complex. The group of non-veterinary trained animal healthcare providers include, for example, veterinary physiotherapists, animal chiropractors, veterinary nurses, veterinary pharmacists, and collectively are known as paraprofessionals. Progressive veterinary organisation's appreciate the benefits of working with paraprofessionals (Moore, 1996; Sharp, 2008; Reader, 2012) and operate with established multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) (Statham and Green, 2015). However, this is not widespread practice across the sector, despite developments in client popularity and usage of paraprofessional services (Kinnison et al., 2014).\nService and value co-creation constructs in animal health: Service quality is accepted as a fundamental driver for sustainability, success (Buttle, 1996; Vargo and Lusch, 2004; Zeithaml et al., 2009) and is the foundation of all economic exchange (Vargo and Lusch, 2008). The contemporary service environment involves informed, educated and sophisticated clients who are consistently seeking better value, higher service quality and are open to greater flexibility when selecting a service provider (Walter et al., 2010). In parallel with other enterprises these customer traits are also now evident within clients of the animal healthcare sector (Williams and Jordan, 2015). Comprehensive scrutiny of service quality has been completed in many areas of service provision (Wisniewski, 2001) including the retail sector (Carman, 1990), financial services (Abdullah et al., 2011) and telecoms (Ahmed et al., 2011) and additionally a diverse range of human healthcare sectors (Newsome and Wright, 1999; McCelland and Vogus, 2014), but not in the animal healthcare sector. Human health sectors have equivalent counterparts to the animal healthcare sector such as nurses, physiotherapists, dentists and nutritionists. Similarities in the provision of human and animal healthcare and the types of professionals involved, make both the sectors and client expectations comparable and the lack of service quality inquiry into animal health provision noticeable.\nResearch gap: As an established service sector, the animal healthcare industries have yet to recognise the importance of service quality to their client and the potential significance of value co-creation to the sector. Service perception has been shown to be important in human healthcare and maintaining the client-provider relationship is known to influence treatment outcomes. There is limited assessment of service quality perceptions within animal healthcare stakeholders and the aim of this paper was to explore the role of value co-creation in the way service provider groups construct their notion of service quality. Specifically, the objectives were:\nMethod: The mixed-method approach underpinning this study led to the method being implemented in two phases. Phase 1 was qualitative in nature and comprised a series of semi-structured depth interviews (n=13) of the three stakeholder groups; clients, paraprofessional and veterinarians. Phase 2 was quantitative and involved surveying of professional veterinarians and a range of paraprofessionals including veterinary nurses, veterinary pharmacists and musculoskeletal practitioners (n=271). The overall method incorporated the views of the key stakeholder providers in the animal healthcare sector and constitutes a representative sample of sector participants. The lack of animal healthcare service literature presented a clear challenge to the study and the decision to adopt a mixed methods strategy was intended to lessen these difficulties (Lisch, 2014).\nResults: Phase 1\nDiscussion: The first objective was to understand how the stakeholder groups view the elements of animal health service delivery. NVivo and content analysis results indicated differences between the three groups, veterinarians, paraprofessionals and clients, on the issues of communication and collaboration. This analysis suggests congruence between paraprofessionals and clients and these two groups expressed opinions that are quite distinct from the perceptions of veterinarians. EFA for the veterinarians and paraprofessionals (Table IV) was suggestive of differences in the perception of service quality held by these stakeholders. A finding which is worthy of further, more detailed investigation.\nConclusion: Business models within the animal healthcare sector are rapidly developing, as are client demands and expectations. To match the requirements of the modern client the animal healthcare industry should advance awareness and application of marketing theory, in-line with other comparable health sectors. This study has proposed value co-creation as a significant tool to bridge the potential gap between client experience of service and professionals' perception of the service provided and as a means to enhance business competitiveness.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the significance of value co-creation to the UK animal healthcare sector from the perspective of the key industry stakeholders: clients, veterinarians and paraprofessionals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Value co-creation constructs in the sector were identified and measured using a mixed methods approach comprised of qualitative NVivo(c) thematic analysis of depth interviews (n=13) and quantitative exploratory factor analysis (EFA) (n=271).\nFindings: Qualitative results revealed nine underlying dimensions regarding service delivery in the sector: trustworthiness, communication, value for money, empathy, bespoke, integrated care, tangibles, accessibility and outcome driven service. EFA of professional survey data loaded onto seven latent factors, with strong value co-creation dimensions identified.\nResearch limitations/implications: The sampling process is sufficiently representative and diverse to present meaningful and valuable results, however, surveying should be extended to include the client group. Due to the originality of the research replication of the study will be beneficial to the broader understanding and application of value co-creation to the high-involvement services of animal healthcare.\nPractical implications: Recognition of the importance of value co-creation to the sector should encourage professional stakeholders to develop and adopt integrated models of service provision and to provide improved levels of service quality.\nOriginality/value: The paper makes an original contribution to knowledge regarding value co-creation in respect of high-involvement service provision. Its findings should be of value to academics interested in value co-creation in service sectors as well as animal healthcare practitioners seeking to offer better value and quality service provision.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Signs and wonders: Exploring the effects and impact of the Investors in People logo and symbols
|
[
"Perceptions",
"Training and development",
"Reputation",
"Symbols",
"IiP",
"Logo"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since 1991, Investors in People (IiP) has been a significant feature of the UK's organizational development landscape. Moreover, the IiP framework is now being delivered in over 70 countries covering 23 languages (IQC2, 2011). The Standard was introduced to enhance training and development practices by establishing a benchmark in relation to which employers could be uniformly assessed. To be awarded \"IiP\" status, employers must successfully demonstrate that they have met the requirements of ten key human resource (HR) performance indicators (IiP - UKCES, 2012a). Subsequent modifications of the Standard have seen the introduction of bronze, silver and gold awards that differentiate degrees of achievement. The undertaking of this journey by an organization represents substantial work for managers and employees alike.\nMethodology and research design: This research explores the phenomenon of IiP within the context of its logo and symbols using data gathered from seven case organizations; the research was conducted within an overall framework of inductivism and interpretivism. (Blumer, 1969; Hussey and Hussey, 1997; Denzin, 1998; Schwandt, 2000; Charmaz, 2000, 2006, 2008; Yin, 2003; Corbin and Strauss, 2008; Denzin and Lincoln, 2008; Stake, 2008). Perceptions and issues of reputation regarding this IiP context are examined using a total data sample of 38 semi-structured interviews with managers and frontline employees from a diversity of sectors: secondary education, higher education, catering, defence, transport, not-for-profit and adult-themed retailing. The work also employed elements of participant observation and document analysis (Waddington, 2004). This was an appropriate style of observation as the interventions were linked to semi-structured interviews while operating around the organizational sites. The researchers were not aiming to carry out the tasks or roles of the respondents as this was not central to the data collection. In terms of document analysis, the interviewers were privy to documents regarding organizational performance and IiP assessments, interviews and outcomes. As part of the access agreement, however, this information was treated as confidential and could only be used to understand the organizational context setting.\nFindings: The post hoc effect of IiP recognition\nDiscussion: Few studies have probed the perceptual value of reputation and effects of IiP on customers and the labour market outside the contexts of conventional management hierarchies (see Grugulis and Bevitt, 2002, for a rare in-depth example). The present argument and study has explored the assumptions linked to these issues of perception and reputation within the literature and an underpinning data set. Notably, there is an assumption within Bell et al.'s (2002a) findings and IiP UK (2008), amongst others, that there is substantial supposed reputational/perceptual value connected with IiP recognition. Contrary to this, however, the findings presented here have highlighted significant issues concerning the reputational value of IiP recognition under two research questions, to reiterate: \"Using perceptions of existing managers and employees, what are the reputational effects of IiP in the organizational labour market?\"; and, \"Using perceptions of existing managers and employees, what are the wider reputational effects of IiP for an organization's customer/client base?\"\nConclusion: The paper has established that there are a range of questionable assumptions and assertions regarding the impacts and benefits of IiP's logo and symbols. Indeed, the research presented highlights distinct limitations in relation to the Standard's perceptual and reputational impact on existing employees, future employees from within the labour market and customers (as individuals and organizations). The interview data from seven case organizations counters and contradicts large areas of the existing pro-IiP literature. If IiP, in reality, does not deliver on the extent of benefits purported, then it could be argued that the Standard may need substantial revision, or risk facing a gradual and increasing obsolescence and replacement as an ongoing part of the HR development landscape.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine and assess the reputational impact of the logo and symbols of the UK Standard Investors in People (IiP). The extant literature highlights differing opinions in terms of the likely benefits that IiP generates following achievement of the Standard. This paper focuses specifically on the perceptions of reputational claims made regarding existing employees, potential employees and customers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The debate is explored through 38 interviews using the perceptions of managers and frontline employees within six IiP-accredited firms and one non-accredited firm.\nFindings: The study indicates that the logo and symbols of the Standard have minimal meaning and significance for the interviewees and their outlook on potential employees and customers. There were some indications, however, that the wider reputational implications of carrying the logo may have some potentially beneficial effects.\nOriginality/value: The paper concludes that the overarching findings present a potentially serious issue for IiP, and that there is a need to understand further the impact and value of the logo and symbols.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Analysing consumers' perceived differences in wild and farmed fish
|
[
"Consumer behaviour",
"Segmentation",
"Fisheries",
"Cluster analysis",
"Aquaculture",
"TwoStep cluster analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Fish have always been considered as an important part of human diet and they have long been recognised as a health-promoting food for human nutrition. Globally, fish provides about 4.3 billion people with almost 15 per cent of their average per capita intake of animal protein, with the global annual per capita consumption of fish to stand at around 18.6 kg, having doubled since the 1960s (FAO, 2012). Particularly, aquaculture is considered as the fastest growing primary production sector, representing an annual growth rate of nearly 7 per cent over the past decades. Furthermore, it is positioned to overtake capture fisheries as a source of food fish (FAO, 2009). Greece's share in EU-27 total fisheries production (wild and farmed) is 3.21 per cent in terms of volume and represents an average fish consumption of 20.9 kg/capita/year (CFP, 2012). Also, Greece is the principal producer of European sea bass and gilthead sea bream in EU-27 along with Cyprus, constituting the dominant supplier, and represents 9.37 per cent of the total volume of EU-27 aquaculture production (CFP, 2012). However, the Greek fisheries sector operates in the context of an increasingly market-based economy, characterised by rapid changes in market and ultimate consumer demands. Particularly, the long-term viability of aquaculture is greatly depended not only on consumer's demand but also on the ability to adapt to the structure and legislative demands of the target markets (Josupeit et al., 2001).\nMaterials and methods: The study area was in Greece, in the island of Crete, and particularly the regional unity of Iraklion, where fishing and aquaculture considered as important activities for the local economy.\nResults and discussion: The results of the cluster analysis revealed two distinct clusters of consumers based on their different perceptions regarding wild and farmed fish. The cluster profiles are described in the following section.\nConclusions: The objective of this study was to detect possible Greek consumers groups based on their perceived differences in wild and farmed fish. This classification is particularly important because the dynamics and the further expansion of aquaculture production depend primarily on the specific socio-economic characteristics of the market segments that these products intend to approach, considering the structure and the legislative framework of the target market.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers' attitudes and behaviours towards wild and farmed fish, in order to identify possible distinct consumer groups, and to examine potential linkages between characteristics of the consumers' demographic and socio-economic status and marketing aspects in wild and farmed fish.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using data from an in-person field survey, a TwoStep cluster analysis was employed in order to detect perceived differences among consumers with different profiles.\nFindings: The analysis identified two distinct consumer groups differentiated primarily by income: the low-potential aquaculture consumers and the high-potential aquaculture consumers, representing 67 and 33 per cent of the total sample, respectively. The study provides evidence that there is a lesser preference towards farmed fish. Therefore, more efficient marketing strategies are probably needed in order to promote awareness in aquaculture consumption, and potentially contribute in guiltlessness of the whole sector.\nOriginality/value: There is a lack of detailed empirical research regarding consumer perceptions and particularly potential differentiation for wild and farmed fish. This paper advocates the use of consumer profiles as a basis for the development of consumer-focused strategies in order to improve consumer performance in the sector.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The Entente in World War I: a case study in strategy formulation in an alliance
|
[
"Strategic alliances",
"Military actions",
"War",
"History"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Tactics on the battlefield are governed by certain simple, common-sense precepts, which are in the main very similar to those which govern everyday life. The ordinary citizen who is planning a business transaction goes through much the same steps as the Commander who is planning an operation. Field Service Regulations 1935 (Lloyd George, 1938, p. 1709).\nIntroduction: Strategy is a concept that we all use, and it can be assumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that it can be applied to most human activities, including sport, war and business. At its simplest, strategy is the method chosen to \"win\", which requires that we first define what we mean by \"winning\". If strategy is a universal concept, it is reasonable to try to learn lessons from its usage in fields other than one's own. This assumption underlies the approach adopted in this paper, which examines some of the strategy processes of World War I using theories from strategic management.The mental processes of the generals at that time have been severely criticised, not the least by Lloyd George (1938), but by many since. The variously attributed comment that the British Army were \"lions led by donkeys\" is typical of the swingeing criticisms levelled at the British generals, but here the consideration is how the strategic, particularly the grand strategy, decisions were reached. What were the reasons for the inability of the numerically superior, resource-rich allies to defeat Germany earlier than 1918?The World War I is of particular interest from a strategy formulation perspective since those involved needed to consider a broader canvas than ever before. Not only did the fighting extend as far east as Mesopotamia (and even Vladivostok in 1918), but the problems of operating with widely separated allies, two of whom, France and Russia, had recently been seen as threats, and of employing new technologies were largely outside the experience and training of those who were faced with making decisions. Unfortunately, not many of the strategists had the open, flexible minds necessary for coping with these new problems.The paper addresses first some general issues of aims and strategies before opening the case with a consideration of the influence of doctrine in military strategy formulation. The argument goes on to consider, in turn, strategy in Germany, Great Britain and the allies, then follows a review of the literature on business alliances to comment on the problems of forming strategies with partners. The paper ends with a summary and conclusion.\nAims and strategies: The necessary precursor to strategy formulation is to make a clear statement of one's aims or intentions, for strategy is merely the way in which those aims are to be realised. Clearly, an imprecise or incorrect aim cannot be the basis for a winning strategy. The selection of an aim defines \"winning\". It follows that as much care should be exercised in defining the aim as in devising the strategy. The conversation between the Cheshire Cat and Alice neatly sums up the need for an aim:Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?\nTheories of strategy formulation in business alliances: Hughes and Weiss (2007) suggested that 60-70 per cent of business alliances fail, which is a poor record that needs explanation, although there is no indication that this lack of success was entirely due to faults in the firms' strategy.Pietras and Storner (2001) gave as the purpose of alliances as:[...] a way for companies with complementary strengths to enter a given market more effectively and efficiently than either partner could manage alone.They went on to observe that too often alliances are formed without an adequate strategic purpose. In the case of the World War I, the strategies were those of the individual nations and the military aim was simplistic: \"defeat the Germans in France and Belgium\". The political aim was more likely to have been, \"destroy Prussian militarism\", which should have led to a rather different war and a wider geographical perspective. Since the aims were not coincident, it is not surprising that the politicians and military could not agree. Furthermore, there did not appear to have been any inter-allied discussions of war aims until the prospect of peace emerged and each nation had to decide on their negotiating position. Grant (2005, p. 428) called attention to the need for a convergence of strategic intent between the partners, and this was not entirely the case between the allies in 1914-1918.Grant also called attention to the need for \"receptivity of the companies\", which requires identification of the expectation of the partners and the setting of performance goals to measure the achievement of these objectives. Hughes and Weiss (2007) argued that alliance progress also needs to be monitored by identifying and measuring leading indicators (an idea reminiscent of the Balanced Scorecard of Kaplan and Norton (1996)). It is simply unreasonable to expect these ideas to have been followed in 1914-1918, but the only measure of progress seems to have been the yardage gained on the Western Front, but not the casualties. General Haig regularly forecast the collapse of the German army through poor morale and lack of replacement troops, and although he was misled by an optimistic intelligence staff (General Charteris was subsequently sacked), he remained over-confident of the possibilities. Barnett (2000, p. 236) summed it up thus:[...] [in 1917] In short, Haig decided to attack the most powerful army in the war with only an army group supported by one ally in disintegration and the other paralysed by moral failure.The intention of this offensive (later called Passchendaele) was aimed at clearing the Belgian coast, a British requirement, and had no expectation of support from the French who were recovering from mutinies and had gone over to the defensive. The expectations had to be low and the gains measured in yards.Lei (1993) discussed the importance of knowledge exchange in business alliances, but there was little strategic interchange of ideas between the military in World War I until the Rapallo Conference decided to form a joint staff to advise the Supreme War Council. Even then this move was regarded as a usurpation of national command and control, and treated with suspicion and even obstruction by the national generals. Lloyd George (1938) accused the British Military of altering the \"facts\" presented to the Cabinet to suit their intentions: the Germans could be overwhelming numerically until the British wanted to attack when they then were suddenly assessed as being less numerous and lacking in morale. Although information was shared by the allies, there was little unity of intent and fragmented control.Lorange et al. (1992, p. 14) stressed the necessity for a sound business plan for an alliance:It is of the utmost importance that both parties identify and agree on how to co-ordinate and adapt their activities that are particularly critical to the alliance [...] Some key questions that can be answered [...] when developing the business plan are:* What are each partners relevant and available resources over the short- and long-term? [...]The allies did not develop formal joint plans and, although there was an element of co-ordination, the generals developed their own plans for their own sector and presented them to the Permanent Military Representatives for information Gooch (1994, p. 302) observed:The British made little effort to cooperate with their continental land allies and preferred to retain strategic independence. The abandonment of the decision reached at the Chantilly conference of December 1915 to launch simultaneous Allied offensives the following year looks, in retrospect, to have been one of the major strategic errors of the war.Some account was taken of operations in Italy, but the action on the Eastern Front was left entirely to the Russians, who were desperately short of artillery and even rifles. Insufficient resources were sent to Russia and the resulting loss of life eventually contributed to the revolution that subsequently was taken over the Bolsheviks. The inability to help the Russians resulted, eventually, in many German divisions being transferred to the Western Front for the last desperate offensive of March 1918. At the time of this final German offensive, however, Foch had been appointed to supreme command on the Western Front and the allied counter attacks leading to the final defeat of the Central Powers were under a single supreme commander at last and, consequently, were effective and efficient.This need for joint planning forms part of the necessity of managing the alliance and, as Johnson et al. (2008, p. 364) stressed, the development of strong interpersonal relationships at the operational level. The allied commanders on the Western Front collaborated, because they had to, but there was little interest among the national Chiefs of Staff of France, Russia, Italy and Great Britain for meetings to form a truly allied strategy. An alliance must be greater than the sum of its individual parts, but the allied effort did not achieve that synergy until the closing months of the war. In business, allies have the option of forming a joint venture, thus creating a separate entity to achieve their purpose. In the military, such a move did not occur until the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in 1949 when a true surrender of individual, national decision became a reality.\nDiscussion and conclusion: The foregoing argument paints a picture of an alliance that missed most of the characteristics that later research has shown to be necessary. On the other hand, it might be claimed that the allies won the war, although with enormous losses, so they must have been acting correctly in some respects. Had the alliance been a business, however, the waste of men's lives and the resources of the nations would have tempered the judgement that the formulation and choice of strategy of the Entente had been a success. Furthermore, German militarism did not disappear at the end of the war and the same allies had to fight all over again in 1939.Apart from simply fighting the Germans, there was no unity of purpose, nor a coherent, over-arching strategy. Policy and strategy became separated, which naturally led to conflict between the politicians and the military. It was not clear even who was in charge. The appointment of an \"alliance manager\" was never made until Foch was given supreme command in 1918 in the closing phase of the war. Discussions between the allied generals and the allied politicians were held, but plans were made separately and only divulged to the other partners when they were fait accompli. The generals stuck to a strategy of attrition because they could think of no alternative. Perhaps, because the politics of the allies' war aims were not clearly debated, there was suspicion of the others' motives, not surprisingly since each nation sought to maximise their own post bellum benefits.The Entente alliance of 1914-1918 contains relevant lessons, then, for businesses trying to avoid being one of the 60-70 per cent alliances that fail. World War I cost 24 million dead and wounded (Table II), a profligacy of resource expenditure that no business could support, and by 1918 German National Debt rose eight times the 1914 figure, Britain's 11, France five, Italy five and USA 19 times. The prizes of winning hardly constituted a \"profit\", but the allies congratulated themselves that they had not lost. Unity of purpose and command, a necessity for successful operations, was achieved only at the eleventh hour, and firms entering an alliance can profit from the sad events of this case in alliance operations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to stimulate thought on the management of business alliances by considering the mismanagement of relationships between the allies, particularly France and Great Britain, in World War I.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is not intended to be a work of history, although such works are used extensively, but, given the limitations of such a paper, an exhaustive analysis of the events in World War I is infeasible. Errors in selection of data are the responsibility of the paper's author.\nFindings: - The war did not develop as expected and the physical stalemate on the Western Front proved intractable to the routine thinking of the generals. The war involved the total economy of the nations involved in a way never before encountered and the steps the politicians had to take to gear up their nations brought them into conflict with the military. Although the nations opposing the Central Powers were allied, there was no single strategy, rather a series of national initiatives that were barely co-ordinated with their partners. Unity of military command was achieved in the final months of the war and led to a greater effectiveness of the Entente armies. Firms that ally themselves need to overcome this tendency to concentrate on their own operations and be prepared to appoint an \"alliance manager\" with the power to make the partners work effectively as a team. The absence of clear thinking in strategy formulation and effective joint command in 1914-1918 resulted in a Pyrrhic victory and terrible casualties and vast expenditure. Firms cannot afford such a \"victory\".\nPractical implications: - The case is a warning to those forming business alliances that their aims must be harmonised with those of their partners, that the strategy is for the benefit of all partners, and some \"sovereignty\" must be sacrificed in the wider interests o the alliance.\nOriginality/value: - This approach aims to cast an unusual perspective on alliances from which the value of existing theory is reinforced.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Social media efficacy and workplace relationships
|
[
"Social media",
"Affective organizational commitment",
"Privacy",
"Organizational citizenship behavior",
"Subordinate trust",
"Supervisor trust"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In 2019, the Pew Research Center estimated that approximately 72% of American adults use social media which represents a dramatic increase from 5% in 2005 (Auxier and Rainie, 2019). Aichner and Jacob (2015) defined social media as \"web-based application and interactive platforms that facilitate the creation, discussion, modification and exchange of user-generated content\" (p. 258). Furthermore, 17% of workers in the USA use social media as a distraction at work or as a source to connect with other workers (Lampe and Ellison, 2016). It appears that, much like other technologies, social media can blur the lines between work and personal life (Abril et al., 2012; Boswell and Olsen-Buchanan, 2007). The proliferation of social media platforms and their use at work implores several questions that the present study will begin to address.This research seeks to learn how perceptions of social media efficacy and concerns about an employer's ability to infringe on workers' social media privacy influence relationships with one's supervisor and subordinate as well as key workplace outcomes. In particular, this study is interested in the outcomes of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and affective organizational commitment (AOC). Moreover, do workers develop personal relationships with their supervisors and/or subordinates in social media? If so, how are those workers different than their counterparts in social media efficacy, social media privacy, trust and OCB. To answer these questions, this study is guided by Petronio's (2013) communication privacy management theory (CPM).\nLiterature review: Communication privacy management in the workplace and social media friendships\nHypotheses and research questions: Based on the discussion above, this study forwards the following hypotheses which are represented in Figure 1. In addition, answers to a series of research questions about the differences between those who engage in social media relationships with supervisors and/or subordinates are presented:H1. Social media efficacy will be positively related to social media privacy.H2. Social media privacy will be positively related to supervisor trust.H3. Social media privacy will be positively related to subordinate trust.H4. Supervisor trust will be positively related to organizational citizenship behavior.H5. Supervisor trust will be positively related to affective organizational commitment.H6. Subordinate trust will be positively related to organizational citizenship behavior.H7. Subordinate trust will be positively related to affective organizational commitment.RQ1. Will those who engage in workplace social media relationships have different levels of social media efficacy compared to those who do not engage in workplace social media relationships?RQ2. Will those who engage in workplace social media relationships have different levels of social media privacy compared to those who do not engage in workplace social media relationships?RQ3. Will those who engage in workplace social media relationships have different levels of supervisor trust compared to those who do not engage in workplace social media relationships?RQ4. Will those who engage in workplace social media relationships have different levels of subordinate trust compared to those who do not engage in workplace social media relationships?RQ5. Will those who engage in workplace social media relationships have different levels of organizational citizenship behavior compared to those who do not engage in workplace social media relationships?RQ6. Will those who engage in workplace social media relationships have different levels of affective organizational commitment compared to those who do not engage in workplace social media relationships?\nMethodology: The procedure and participants\nResults: The hypothesized model\nDiscussion, conclusion and future research: The CPM theory was used as a theoretical lens to examine perceptions of social media efficacy, social media privacy, supervisor trust, subordinate trust, AOC and OCB. The results largely confirm the theoretical perspective that social media privacy is key to trust and organizational outcomes. The results of this study also revealed key differences between workers who have engaged in social media relationships with supervisors and/or subordinates and those workers who have not engaged in those relationships. In whole, the results have important implications that will now be discussed.There are several managerial and organizational implications to this research. The boundaries between supervisor and subordinate which once existed are disappearing at an accelerated pace. Furthermore, workers in organizations may not be aware of social and professional boundaries, overestimate or underestimate their social media efficacy, or be completely unaware that a social media policy even exists within a company.From a management perspective, supervisor-level workers in organizations should consider the level of social media knowledge (here operationalized as efficacy) their subordinates possess. The results indicate that perceptions of social media efficacy influence feelings of social media privacy. Those workers who reported greater efficacy also reported greater feelings of privacy. Put another way, if workers believe they are adept at using social media, they will also be less concerned about the company's ability to infringe upon privacy through unwanted access to social media content.In addition, the results revealed that those workers who did not have a social media relationship with a supervisor or subordinate also reported higher levels of social media efficacy. It could be that workers with greater social media efficacy are aware of the potential for social media relationships to affect their feelings of social media privacy and therefore, choose not to engage in social media relationships with others in the workplace. If social media efficacy drives perceptions of social media privacy and indirectly influences trust and organizational outcomes, then it may be worthwhile for organizations to help enhance workers' feelings of social media efficacy, perhaps through professional development programs.The results however, also suggest that social media relationships with supervisors and/or subordinates can yield positive results for organizations. The data revealed that those workers who reported having a social media relationship with a supervisor and/or subordinate also reported higher levels of supervisor trust, subordinate trust and OCB compared to workers who were not engaged in these relationships. One possible explanation for these social media relationships being related to an environment of greater trust and OCB may be linked to research in areas of in-group identification (e.g. Jans et al., 2015; Shepherd et al., 2013). Other explanations may exist and these results warrant further investigation.Additionally, researchers may need to examine the accuracy of workers' perceptions of social media efficacy. Workers may believe that their aptitude at social media is high when in fact, they might be unaware of the degree of access employers may have to their social media content. In some cases, this may best be described as false confidence. In fact, Moores and Chang (2009) found that self-efficacy led to lower levels of actual performance on an information technology-related (IT-related) task as a result of overconfidence. Vancouver (2005) also argued that self-efficacy can result in complacency. In other words, people who exhibit high levels of self-efficacy may not perform as well as they believe when using technology. Employers do attempt to review social media content of applicants and employees (Kramer, 2018). According to Vogels and Anderson (2019), understanding of online-related technology varies significantly from context to context. In fact, that study distributed a survey of ten questions related to digital topics and found only 20% of people got seven or more questions right and only 2% got all ten correct. The median score was 4 correct answers - far from high efficacy. That study also concluded that younger Americans scored better than older Americans in their digital knowledge. To help us understand if generational or gender factors had an impact on results, a post-hoc correlation analysis was run. The results indicated that there were no significant relationships among age, gender and the key theoretical variables in this study.There are also interesting results regarding the overall organizational impact of social media privacy. The respecified model illustrated that social media privacy is a significant predictor of supervisor trust, subordinate trust and AOC. So, one's perception that their privacy is not being infringed upon - that they are safe - predicts strong trust and AOC.What can organizations do to enhance employees' feelings of social media privacy? Previous research suggests that it may be enough for a company to make clear that a social media policy exists. For example, Snyder and Cistulli's (2010) research on workplace e-mail privacy found that employees felt the greatest level of privacy when they were aware of their organizations' e-mail privacy policy, regardless of the policy's content. Although not the focus of this study, respondents were asked if their company had a social media policy. Respondents reported that (1) their organization had no policy, (2) their organization had a policy about relationships in social media, or (3) they did not know if their organization had a policy. The ANOVA model was significant (F (2, 310) = 2.97, p = 0.05). The post-hoc least significant difference (LSD) test indicated that employees who said their organization had no policy reported significantly lower levels of social media privacy compared to those who reported that their organization had a policy. Therefore, organizations should be clear about their expectations related to social media use as well as the organization's efforts to monitor social media use. Further investigation of social media policies is warranted.Interestingly, supervisor trust and subordinate trust significantly predicted different outcomes. Supervisor trust predicted AOC. One reason why this may be the case is because a supervisor may be seen by subordinates as a proxy for the organization. If workers trust their supervisors, they are more likely to view their organizations, holistically as a good bet for the future. Subordinate trust significantly predicted OCBs. The more the workers trusted their subordinates, the greater their levels of OCB. Workers who trust their subordinates may also feel a greater desire to nurture their subordinates' development and growth through OCBs.With the rapid evolution of social media and its effects on organizations and workers alike, the possibilities for future research can be as broad as the World Wide Web itself or as granular as one new revolutionary social media platform's impact on an organization.It is possible that in 2020, workers are willing to accept social media as a necessary good or evil and that to fight the tide of the digital age is just too much. Individuals just may not care and have forgone privacy for the convenience of technology and the allure of online social connection at work or otherwise. Recent research has shown that, overall, individuals believe that it is not realistic or even possible to live without online social media surveillance and data collection and that they have almost no understanding of laws and regulations related to online data collection (Auxier and Rainie, 2019).Other current trends like group decision support systems (GDSS) should also be considered in terms of their impact in an organization. Slack, Microsoft Teams and others provide professional - and perhaps some personal - interaction within a company, though not as much as more socially based, online platforms. These GDSS have features that are similar to social media platforms, including commenting and liking. This study argued that workplace e-mail and social media are different in important ways. However, these new GDSS platforms are combining features of both e-mail and social media. Certainly, these technologies and their influence on privacy, trust and organizational outcomes is warranted.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: With the increase of social media usage in the workplace as a background, this paper specifically addresses social media efficacy's and social media privacy's impact on supervisor and subordinate trust, affective organizational commitment (AOC) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) through the theoretical lens of communication privacy management (CPM) theory.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An online survey of 337 full- and part-time workers was conducted.\nFindings: Path models showed that social media efficacy positively influenced social media privacy which in turn impacted both supervisor trust and subordinate trust. Supervisor trust was positively related to AOC, while subordinate trust positively influenced OCB. t-tests revealed differences between workers who have social media relationships with supervisors and/or subordinates and those workers without such relationships.\nPractical implications: If workers believe they are adept at using social media, they will also be less concerned about the company's ability to infringe upon privacy through unwanted access to social media content. If social media efficacy drives perceptions of social media privacy and indirectly influences trust and organizational outcomes then it may be worthwhile for organizations to help enhance workers' feelings of social media efficacy through professional development programs.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to extend research on workplace communication privacy into the realm of social media. Social media relationships also influence the work environment. These findings can be used as information in future research as well as policy development and professional development programs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Muslim minority women in Western Thrace: any room for transformative learning?
|
[
"Transformative learning",
"Grounded theory",
"Qualitative research",
"Adult education",
"Muslim minority women"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nThe invisible thread between adult education and social justice: Education has long been at the forefront of the political agenda, so as to combat exclusion and foster equity and equality (Elken, 2015; Webb et al., 2015). The two seminal policy papers under the auspices of UNESCO (Delors, 1996; Faure et al., 1972), which fueled the debate on the paramount role of adult education, were loaded with Platonic and Aristotelian ideals attributed to learning throughout life (Panitsides, 2015). Ever since, there has been an incremental political interest on adult education and learning, perceived as a normative framework for self-fulfillment and social justice amidst the \"challenges posed by a rapidly changing world\" (Delors, 1996, p. 20).\nThe context in Western Thrace: Following the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923 in the context of the Treaty of Lausanne, 86,000 Muslims remained in Western Thrace (Dragonas and Frangoudaki, 2006). It is estimated that nowadays about one-third of the total population in Thrace are Muslims (114,000 out of 355,000) (Ziaka, 2009).\nWomen in unprivileged communities and adult education: Relevant research has revealed that participation of women in adult education programs, especially in rural and marginalized communities, can truly promote their empowerment (Eldred, 2013). Besides female empowerment and emancipation, however, adult education seeks to contribute to sustainable development in the communities women live in and to bring about an overall positive change in their lives (Caffarella and Olson, 1993). It is assumed that women participating in educational programs undergo a circular, two-way process, which increases their self-efficacy, enhances their personal development and improves their family, social and professional lives. Additionally, they become more willing to undertake new challenges, including participation in future programs (Hammond and Feinstein, 2005). Non-working women in particular feel more empowered as they take up new roles and engage in novel activities, thereby realizing that they can successfully respond to roles different from those they are accustomed to or destined for (Lightfoot and Brady, 2005).\nAim of the study: In this respect, this study was set up to gain meaningful insights in the learning background, experiences and potential of Muslim minority women in Western Thrace. In detail, the research aims to: depict the current situation of Muslim minority women in Western Thrace, as regards their educational background; investigate interviewees' experiences in attending adult education courses; record interviewees' perceived views on the role of adult education in personal and community advancement; and research whether there is any room for transformative learning to take place in their unprivileged communities. The results could serve as a source of evidence both for academics and policy makers, in order to identify areas of interest and of potential interventions. Moreover, a summary of the results is intended to be shared with the participants in an effort to express appreciation, value their experiences and potentially open the door to further transformation.\nMethods and tools: In our attempt to get meaningful insights into the situation, qualitative data were obtained through semi-structured interviews (Cohen and Manion 1994, Morgan, 2008). The process of interviewing bears the additional advantage of reaching more sound conclusions, due to the direct contact and interaction of the researcher with the interviewees, and the analysis of their reactions, body language and facial expressions (Eisikovits and Koren, 2010).\nData analysis: The data from the semi-structured interviews underwent a three-level qualitative analysis, following the \"grounded theory\" methodology, proposed by Strauss and Corbin (1990), comprising \"open coding,\" \"axial coding\" and \"selective coding.\" Initially, constant comparative analysis was used to develop descriptive codes (Miles and Huberman, 1994), conceptualizing and categorizing the interview data. By comparing the codes (labels) that had emerged across all interviews, seven categories were identified that were congruent, mutually exclusive and exhaustive: failures of the Greek state, conservative context, poverty, de-humanization, limited adult education interventions, ICTs: a new window of opportunity and let us help our children.\nResults: Profile of participants\nDiscussion: According to relevant research (Bridwell, 2012; Cohen, 2004; Duckworth and Smith, 2017; Hammond and Feinstein, 2005; O'Grady, 2018; Panitsides, 2013), there is a strong positive interconnection between women's attendance of educational programs and transformations in their identities, families and communities. Although our data suggest that learning in adulthood evidently bears some transformative dynamic, the limited adult learning experiences of some interviewees in our study are far from accounting for any substantial transformation from a Mezirowan perspective. According to Mezirow (2000, p.22), in adulthood individuals reassess the assumptions they acquired during childhood, often in response to disorienting dilemmas that challenge their perspective and their frame of reference for interpreting reality. In this regard, he suggests that the transformational process unravels in ten consecutive stages: a disorienting dilemma; self-examination with feelings of fear, anger, guilt or shame; a critical evaluation of assumptions; recognition that one's discontent and the process of transformation are shared; exploration of options for new roles, relationships and actions; formulating a course of action; acquiring knowledge and skills for implementing one's plans; provisional trying of new roles; building competence and self-confidence in new roles and relationships; and reintegration into one's life on the basis of conditions dictated by one's new perspective.\nConcluding remarks: Education in adulthood can truly be a powerful vehicle in advancing social justice (Duckworth and Smith, 2017). Our findings, in line with relevant research (McDougall, 2015; Papastamatis and Panitsides, 2009; Ziaka, 2009), depicted that Muslim minority women in Western Thrace are susceptible to patriarchal gender norms governed by stereotypes that restrict women to reproductive and caring roles and deprive them of the fundamental human right to education. Furthermore, they live detached from the surrounding world under the impoverished social and economic conditions of their communities, which have diachronically been caught up in a \"tug of war\" between Greece and Turkey, depending on the fluctuations in Greek-Turkish relations (see Dragonas and Frangoudaki, 2006).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to gain meaningful insights in the learning background, experiences and potential of Muslim minority women in Western Thrace.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Qualitative data were obtained through 12 semi-structured interviews, which underwent a three-level qualitative analysis, following the \"grounded theory\" methodology.\nFindings: It was depicted that Muslim minority women in Western Thrace are susceptible to patriarchal gender norms governed by stereotypes that restrict women to reproductive and caring roles and deprive them of the fundamental human right to education. Although the data suggest that learning in adulthood evidently bears some transformative dynamic, the limited adult learning experiences of some interviewees in this study are far from accounting for any substantial transformation at the personal or community level.\nResearch limitations/implications: Subjectivity, biased responses and a limited sample are among research limitations, impeding the generalization of the results and calling for further investigation.\nOriginality/value: The originality of the study stems from providing a difficult to reach sample of underprivileged women with the opportunity to express their views and perceptions as regards education and learning, drawing on the identification of specific areas for potential interventions in order to transform their lives and communities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Supporting process improvements with process mapping and system dynamics
|
[
"Simulation",
"Process improvement",
"System dynamics",
"Process mapping"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Business process change can been described as having six phases: envision, initiate, diagnose, redesign, reconstruct and evaluate (Kettinger et al., 1997). This study focuses on the diagnosis and redesign phases because important key factors related to improvement project success are related to these phases. The inability to predict the results of process redesign is often cited as a reason for the failure of process improvement initiatives (Safari, 2016). Siha and Saad (2008) identify the ability of participants to understand the impact of a process on important outcomes as a critical success factor for business process improvement. Reijers and Mansar (2005) emphasize the importance of an understanding of tradeoffs among the \"devil's quadrangle\" of cost, quality, time and flexibility measurements associated with process redesign options.\n2. Comparison of DES and SD: Applications of all types of simulation in manufacturing and business have increased rapidly since the mid-1990s with DES and SD, respectively, being the first and second most commonly used simulation methods (Jahangirian et al., 2010). In their research on the use of simulation in logistics and supply chain management decision making, Tako and Robinson (2012) also found DES modeling to be reported more frequently and with a higher growth rate than SD.\n3. Case studies combining process mapping and simulation: A review of the relevant literature reveals seven business process improvement case studies which combine process mapping and simulation modeling. The case studies are presented in chronological order with their findings summarized in Table I. Five of the case studies attribute an increased understanding of system processes and/or better communication to the use of process mapping, findings which support the transparency benefits reported by Klotz et al. (2008). Two of the five DES simulation studies reported using process maps as conceptual models for simulation model design. None of the studies reported any drawbacks associated with using process mapping. There is a strong consensus that the benefits of using simulation include the ability to evaluate multiple improvement scenarios and their potential results. Two of the five DES studies cited the ability to incorporate process variability as beneficial. Drawbacks of DES described in three of the five DES studies include the need for the requisite simulation modeling knowledge, the ability to collect the data needed to parameterize the models, and possible additional cost and time requirements.\n4. Methodology: The subject organization wished to improve its engineering data change and creation processes in the expectation that this would improve new product realization efforts and related income potential. They also anticipated that benefits would emerge from reducing production costs via improved drawings and data. The first author previously worked as the engineering manager at the subject organization. Due to his familiarity with the organization and extensive experience with business process improvement efforts, the organization contacted him to work on a process improvement project with the firm's managers. The first author's role in the project focused on diagnosis and redesign and did not include involvement in the subsequent reconstruction and evaluation phases. The first author had used process mapping as a tool in previous improvement projects. Since uncertainty about process redesign results can contribute to improvement project failure (Safari, 2016) and simulation models may shed light on redesign impacts, the case study design included the use of simulation following the development of the redesigned process map and improvement recommendations.\n5. Case study: The case study organization, Norfield Industries, designs and manufactures prehung door machinery and provides support with replacement parts and other related tooling and supplies, technical expertise and field services. The project took place as part of Norfield's ongoing business process improvement efforts and focused on its design document control process. Document control is a key process at Norfield with far-reaching implications since it touches so many aspects of Norfield's operations. The quality and availability of design documents directly affect Norfield's revenue-generating activities since drawings and other documentation are used in new product design, product design changes, manufacturing, sales and service.\n6. Concluding remarks: The study supplements insights gained by previous case studies into the effectiveness of combining process mapping and simulation when conducting business process improvement efforts.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the effectiveness of combining process mapping and system dynamics (SD) in an organization's ongoing business process improvement projects.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Norfield Industries, designer and manufacturer of prehung door machinery, used process mapping and SD in a project targeting the improvement of its design document control process. The project team first used process mapping to document its current process and identify potential improvements. The team then developed an SD model to investigate the potential impacts of proposed process changes.\nFindings: The case study supports the communication and transparency benefits of process mapping reported in earlier studies. Consistent with other case studies using simulation, SD provided useful insights into possible results of proposed process changes.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings have limitations with respect to generalizability consistent with the use of a case study methodology.\nPractical implications: Organizational managers desiring to include simulation modeling in process improvement efforts have a choice between discrete event simulation and SD. SD may prove able to consume less organizational resources than discrete-event simulation and provide similar benefits related to reducing the risks associated with process changes.\nOriginality/value: The current case study adds to the existing literature documenting the use of process mapping combined with simulation modeling in process improvement efforts. The case study supports existing literature regarding the value of process mapping in making system processes more transparent. The results also support previous findings regarding the value of SD for simulating the possible results associated with scenarios under consideration for process improvements.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Unemployment hysteresis in EU countries: what do we really know about it?
|
[
"Unemployment",
"Business cycles",
"European Union"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: One of the most important issues that European Union (EU) countries have to overcome is the problem of unemployment. Unemployment has increased from 4 per cent in the 1960s to over 10 per cent in the 1990s. Within this context several theories have been proposed to explain the existence of high unemployment rates. According to Friedman (1968) and Phelps (1967) unemployment and output fluctuations move together. A consequence of this situation is that in the long run unemployment tends to a steady state or to an equilibrium value which is called \"natural rate\" of unemployment. However, Blanchard and Summers (1987) questioned theoretically the validation of this hypothesis. Indeed, they argued that movements in unemployment are characterised by long-term persistence, the result being that unemployment moves away from an equilibrium level. In this case Blanchard and Summers (1987) and Nickel (1998) claim that unemployment is characterised by hysteresis.A convenient procedure for the empirical validity of both theories is to investigate the existence of a unit root in the unemployment rates. In this regard, the presence of a unit root in unemployment will suggest that this series does not revert to its equilibrium level after being hit by a shock. Thus all shocks leave a permanent impact on unemployment rate. Within this framework, the important policy conclusion is that macroeconomic policies would have a permanent effect on unemployment.From the theoretical point of view, this permanent effect of shocks can arise from multiple channels investigated in the literature. The most known is Blanchard and Summers (1987) insider-outsider model in which a negative demand shock increasing unemployment leaves disenfranchised workers out of the labour market, losing bargaining power to the insiders. If insiders give zero weight to outsiders in the wage bargaining process this would lead to a permanent increase in unemployment. Other similar arguments have been put forward that do not rely on the degree of unionisation of the economy. Pissarides (1992), for instance, shows how hysteresis may arise as a consequence of the depreciation of skills and human capital of the unemployed, which reduces expected profitability and hence the number of job vacancies coming into the market. Sessions (1994) explains the existence of hysteresis based on a model in which unemployment carries a \"stigma\" effect. High unemployment for a long period reduces the associated stigma effect of being unemployed, which leads to a permanent increase in the efficiency wage and a decrease in employment. Other potential sources of hysteresis effects are firing costs, capital shortages, co-ordination failures, etc. In all these cases we have a situation in which, due to a particular institutional feature of the labour market, a shock to unemployment becomes permanent and does not revert back to its initial equilibrium level. In statistical terms this would be equivalent to the existence of a nonstationary unemployment rate in which shocks display infinite memory.A number of authors (see for example Blanchard and Summers, 1987; Brunello, 1990; Mitchell, 1993; Song and Wu, 1998 Leon-Ledesma (2002)) have investigated empirically the existence of the hysteresis in unemployment in most EU countries. The usual conclusion is that hysteresis characterises movements in unemployment. That is, unemployment does not tend to revert back to the \"natural rate\"[1]. An exception is the paper of Song and Wu (1998), which provided empirical evidence against the hysteresis hypothesis in a sample of 11 EU countries. However the methodology applied to test the hysteresis hypothesis is restricted to univariate unit root statistics, which is well known that have low power in finite samples. Therefore the issue of hysteresis in unemployment still remains open.To gain more insights into the dynamics of unemployment we apply in this paper second-generation panel unit roots. The main advantage of these tests is that they allow for cross sectional dependence that results in tests with more power[2]. According to O'Connell (1999) and Pesaran (2005) allowing for cross-sectional correlation in the error terms we are able to avoid severe size distortions in panel unit root tests. This allows us to obtain significant improvements over traditional panel unit root tests in the line of Im et al. (1997), Harris and Tzavalis (1999), Maddala and Wu (1999), Levin et al. (2002), Christopoulos and Tsionas (2004) and others. We apply these new tests to 12 EU countries. Traditionally, labour market flexibility is believed to be much lower in the EU countries compared to the USA. This may affect significantly the outcomes of active labour market policies aiming to stabilise unemployment. This highlights the important role that macroeconomic policies could play in reducing unemployment. Therefore, an investigation of the unemployment hysteresis hypothesis in EU countries is of paramount importance for policy making in the EU.The paper is organised as follows: in Section 2 the various panel unit root tests are described while in Section 3 are presented the empirical results. The final Section 4 summarises the paper.\n2. Panel unit root tests: 2.1. The multivariate augmented Dickey-Fuller test of Taylor and Sarno\n3. The empirical results: To perform our tests we employ quarterly data on unemployment rates in log form from 12 EU countries over the period 1985-1999[4]. The data set was the same used in Leon-Ledesma (2002). In order to provide a robust analysis we compare, univariate unit root test, panel unit root as well as multivariate panel unit root tests. In Table I we report results based on the univariate standard ADF test as well as the efficient ADF-GLS test of ERS. The ADF-GLS unit root test has best performance in terms of small-sample size and power compared with the ADF test. According to the ADF test we cannot reject the null hypothesis of a unit root in all countries we examine with the exception of the unemployment rates in Belgium, and with the possible exception (the relevant ADF tests are significant at the 10 per cent statistical level) of Portugal and Spain. With respect the ADF-GLS test the evidence is consistent with non-stationary process with the exception of Spain and the Netherlands. Overall, we can conclude that our findings overwhelmingly support that unemployment rates contain a unit root in their level form. This means that the hypothesis of hysteresis in EU unemployment is ascertained by the data. To ensure robustness of the inference drawn we perform Im et al. (1997) (IPS hereafter) and Maddala and Wu (1999) (MW) panel unit root tests. In both tests the null hypothesis is that of a unit root. The IPS panel unit root test is based on the application of ADF to panel data while MW results from the combination of pi values of the individual ADF statistics. IPS is distributed as a N(0,1) while MW is distributed as kh2 with 2N degrees of freedom. The computed values are 0.646 and 27.34 respectively while the corresponding critical values are -1.96 and 36.41 at 5 per cent statistical level. Given that the computed values are lower than their corresponding critical values we conclude that all series are non-stationary. Therefore we can conclude that both univariate and panel unit root test suggest that European unemployment is characterised by hysteresis. Although, IPS and MW panel unit root test have more power with respect to univariate statistics to the extent that they combine time series information with cross section variation they work under the assumption that error terms are cross-sectionally uncorrelated. The presence of cross-sectionally correlated residuals lead to severe size distortions in panel unit root tests, see O'Connell (1999). The panel unit root tests explained in Section 2 account for this issue and as a consequence are more powerful with respect to traditional panel unit root tests. The results are shown in Table II. All tests reject the hypothesis of non-stationarity indicating that a stationary process can describe EU unemployment. An exception is the DF-GLS-SUR that is statistically significant at the 10 per cent level. However, the fact that in this test the autoregressive coefficient is constrained to be the same across all individuals might explain this result. These findings are in sharp contrast with those reported previously based on univariate and traditional panel unit root tests where the null was not rejected in all cases. Further, this highlights the importance of allowing for contemporaneous correlation in the panel setting demonstrating the gain in power after controlling for cross sectional dependence. Finally, comparing our findings with those reported by other researchers for EU countries (Brunello, 1990; Mitchell, 1993; Leon-Ledesma, 2002) we see that all these studies led support to the contention that the unemployment hysteresis hypothesis is accepted which is in contrast with what the present study claims.\n4. Summary: This paper analyses the empirical validity of the hysteresis hypothesis in unemployment rates in 12 EU countries over the period 1985-1999. To this end, we employ a variety of recently proposed multivariate panel unit root tests alongside traditional panel unit root tests as well as univariate ADF tests. The multivariate panel unit root tests, by controlling for contemporaneous correlation, yield a significant gain in power as compared to conventional panel unit root tests. Contrary to univariate tests and to previous empirical research, the hypothesis of unemployment hysteresis in the EU is rejected by the data.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper aims to re-examine the stationarity properties of unemployment rates in 12 European Union (EU) countries over the period 1988: I-1999: IV.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper applies a battery of second-generation panel unit root tests that allow for cross-sectional correlation.\nFindings: - The study shows that, contrary to previous empirical literature, hysteresis does not characterise EU unemployment.\nOriginality/value: - This paper uses recent advances in the econometrics of panel unit root tests. The new tests have more power than the traditional ones in detecting the null hypothesis of a unit root.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Towards building a skill based society in India
|
[
"Employment",
"Partnerships",
"India"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Around 15 million young people need initial vocational and skill training every year in India. The existing public and private institutional capacity for training is only three million (GOI, 2009). At present only 10 per cent of the workforce in the country has some sort of skill training. This is extremely low when compared with countries like Korea (98 per cent), Germany (78 per cent), Japan (80 per cent), Canada (77 per cent) and the UK (68 per cent) (ILO, 2011). In India, close to 63 per cent of the population is in the working age group of 15-59 years by 2021(GOI, 2011). With a large proportion of young people in the workforce, India has the advantage of demographic dividend. Harnessing this dividend through appropriate skill development efforts is crucial for improving productivity and inclusive development within the country as well as addressing the global skill shortages. However, recent estimate of educational attainment of workforce reveals a large number of illiterates in the workforce (57 per cent in rural areas and 29.7 per cent in urban areas). Only close to one-fifth of the total workforce have an education up to primary. The proportion workforce with secondary level education is only 6 per cent (NSSO, 2011). It is evident that a large number of people enter in work without adequate education and skills. Large-scale skill development is thus an imminent imperative.\n2. Skill building and employability: Skill building and employability is viewed as a lifelong learning process. It starts from an individual's entry into job through becoming a member of self-directed work team. Being employed means having a job. Employable means having the qualities to maintain employment, progress in work place and able to be employed in different work places. Employability is often referred to as the acquisition of skills which help an individual to enter in a job and allow him to remain employable as long as he is willing and able to work (ILO, 2000). It requires a person being functionally flexible by acquiring complementary skills, behavioural and social competencies for performing multiple roles. From the perspective of employers, employability often seems to refer to work-readiness, or the eligibility. It attributes to possession of the skills, knowledge and attributes to perform a job meaningfully. From the point of view of the individual, employability skills are the career capital that helps them to get a job and acquire job-specific skills while on the job (Datta et al., 2007a). Individually, workers' employability is characterized by the possession of a number of skills that enable them access to the labour market. Employability skills are those generic competencies or abilities that can be used across a large number of occupations and thus enabling job-to-job mobility. Datta et al. (2007b) identifies three broad indicators for employability that consists of key academic and technical skills, process skills and personal qualities.\n3. The status of skill building and employability training in India: 3.1 Skill building infrastructure\n4. Bridging the skills gap through PPP: case study of GTETS: GTETS was designed by the Centurion Group of Institutes (CGI) to attempt some solutions in the sphere of employability training for young people in India. GTETS offers technical training, building of cognitive and practical abilities, and promoting desirable change in social and behavioural traits of candidates to make them employment ready in specific industries. The intervention is focused at the bottom of the economic pyramid in the eastern states of India, providing practical solutions to skill gaps among disadvantaged young people, especially school dropouts. GTETS has developed a unique space for this group of individuals in the HRD system as depicted in Figure 2.\n5. Conclusion: Vocational training systems and institutions across the world, both in the public and private sectors, are failing to respond to the needs of growing populations and rapidly changing labour markets. Young people who could have gainful employment if trained are frequently unemployed or underemployed. The crisis of vocational training is a composite of three key issues: vocational training is inherently expensive, there is a mismatch between the training offered and the skills needed, and training is often difficult to access and use, especially for those in greatest need (Grierson, 2000). In this context the experience of GTETS provides an example of a PPP model that assists young people who are constrained by low-income levels, inadequate skills, irregular employment and absence of opportunities for training and development. GTETS helps these youth acquire employable skills in a learning environment that develops their inherent capabilities. The model has some significant features which include its approaches to mobilization of prospective candidates, sharing of programme costs, accredited curriculum, design and delivery of training programmes in consultation with its partners, constant dialogue and interface with its partner organization, mobilization of resources and scaling up through a hub and spoke model. In particular, GTETS industry-sponsored job placement programmes are highly successful and provide learning for further developments of the GTETS model.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine whether public-private partnerships (PPPs) in skill building and employability training have or were able to contribute making quality skill training and employability services accessible at affordable prices to the poor as well as marginalized sections of the population in India.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper adopts a case study approach. The key sections of the paper review the existing vocational and skill building ecosystem in the country and the recent policy initiatives. The other sections of the paper describes the business model of Gram Tarang, highlighting their strategies of mobilization of candidates, training infrastructure, curriculum and key aspects of partnership with industry and employers, strategies for scaling up and sustainability.\nFindings: Review of past experience in skill building and employability training in the country suggests that neither the public nor the private training institutions have been able to deliver quality training that is responsive to industry demands. Gram Tarang provides an example of a PPP model that assists young people who are constrained by low-income levels, inadequate skills, irregular employment and absence of opportunities for training and development.\nPractical implications: The model has some significant features which include its approaches to mobilization of prospective candidates, sharing of programme costs, accredited curriculum, design and delivery of training programmes in consultation with its partners, constant dialogue and interface with its partner organization, mobilization of resources and scaling up through a hub and spoke model.\nOriginality/value: This paper tries to fill the gaps in the literature on inclusive skill building and employability.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Delegation revisited: how delegation can benefit globally-minded managers
|
[
"Cultural diversity",
"Delegation",
"Social cognitive theory of leadership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: You cannot engage in business the same way that it was done in the past. The rules of the game have changed considerably. One need only look at the sundry global banking crises to realize how we need reevaluate how one's business should operate in today's knowledge-rich and globalized economy. Hypercompetitiveness, rapid technological advances, and globalization are just some of the major forces shaping the current work environment. In order to be innovative and stay competitive in this challenging environment, businesses must evolve from an inward orientation focussing primarily on their resources, capabilities and competencies, toward an outward orientation where the firms devote attention to the needs of customers, and the aggressive hypercompetitive market place (Soosay and Hyland, 2004). This outward orientation will require the collective efforts of employees at all levels, but particularly those interacting with customers spaning national borders. In particular, there is a greater need for personnel development, especially among managers, to meet the demands of emerging globalization of distribution and logistics. However, global firms have struggled to replicate practices among their culturally and geographically dispersed subsidiaries. This challenge may be lessened through the development of managers who can think globally, and yet lead a collective group of employees toward local action. The skills that are needed can be developed. Research has suggested that there is a shortage of global managers with global leadership capabilities (Javidan et al., 2006). While organizations have been encouraged to equip their leaders and staff in effective intercultural competence (Irving, 2010), their success in the current environment may depend more on the ability to develop globally competent managers who can integrate these intercultural differences (Benson et al., 2009). A fundamental step in training managers to think globally is to revisit an under-researched but widely accepted component for effective management, the practice of delegation in a global context. The proposed model for effective global leader's delegation in the local context is shown in Figure 1.\nTheoretical foundation: The social cognitive theory of leadership posits that leader individual characteristics (e.g. cognitions) and the environment interact to contribute to the effectiveness of the leadership process (McCormick, 2001). As in a global context, the most salient environmental characteristic is culture. Culture can be defined as the learned beliefs, values, rules, norms, symbols, and traditions that are common to a group of people (Northouse, 2012). House et al. (2004) examined which leadership characteristics are universally desirable and undesirable and found mixed results for empowerment of followers by the leader. This implies that leader propensity to delegate may not be effective in some cultures and for some followers (Pellegrini and Scandura, 2006). In other words, local cultural context is likely to be important for the effectiveness of leader task and role delegation.\nTheoretical development: Delegation is widely acknowledged as an essential part of effective management (Yukl, 2006). Indeed, it has been suggested that the essence of management is the ability to accomplish tasks through others (Bushardt and Duhon, 1991). However, accomplishing tasks through others can present many challenges. On one hand, delegation may help ease challenges associated with work overload, need for greater responsiveness to local conditions, and developing employees (Baliga and Jaeger, 1984). On the other hand, delegation could raise fears among top management that subsidiary managers might work toward their own specific ends rather than working toward general company interests (Baliga and Jaeger, 1984). Additionally, it has been suggested that managerial delegation can be influenced by countries' characteristics (Pellegrini and Scandura, 2006). Understanding why leaders do or do not delegate and the influence of country factors on leaders' delegation behaviors will help industry practitioners better frame their strategy for training and developing global distribution/logistics managers.\nManagerial implications and concluding comments: In a global context, delegation needs to be reemphasized. Businesses can better incentivize managers to delegate important tasks by understanding how managers perceive uncertainty and risk. Managers may struggle with the uncertainty and risk inherent in a global work environment. The perceptions that mangers have will affect whether or not they choose to delegate. Specifically, when their perceptions of risk are lowered, they may be more inclined to delegate. Thus, managers may benefit from company strategies aimed at helping managers feel less potential loss in performing effective management techniques such as delegation. Companies may benefit from promoting a learning environment where managers can practice these techniques and learn from error.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how the effectiveness of delegation as a management practice is impacted by various factors such as manager cognition, perceived subordinate competence, and cultural differences. This research may help global business leaders to better understand how cultural differences may impact managerial functions and how to manage culturally diverse employees.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is based upon a conceptual discussion of delegation as it has been studied in the past and a reflection on the ways in which past research can usefully inform current trends in the use of delegation as a management practice.\nFindings: A model is proposed that suggests that the effectiveness of delegation in a local context is a function of the global leader's cognitions and perceptions of their subordinates. Further, it suggests that this relationship is moderated by the local cultural context in that some cultures may be opposed to being delegated authority.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper presents a conceptual framework and therefore empirical applicability of this model must be proven.\nOriginality/value: Delegation is an under-researched management practice. This paper contributes to the delegation literature by exploring its value to management in a global context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The training methodology of project management office (PMO) personnel
|
[
"Project management",
"Training"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: \"A project\" is defined by the PMBoK (2004) as \"a temporary endeavor undertaken, to create a unique product or service.\" Temporary means that every project has a definite beginning and a definite end. Unique means that the product or service is different in some distinguishing way from all similar products or services. The business world is very dynamic which creates a need for an ongoing process of updating the methods, tools, and techniques of the way projects are managed. Therefore, the field of project management has been developing in recent years.An interesting way of coping with the increasing demand for project management solutions was the development of bodies of knowledge (BoK), that summarized the main and important knowledge in the area of project management, by two professional associations: the Association of Project Management (APM) and the Project Management Institute (PMI) (Meredith and Mantel, 2006). A review (Morris, 2001) was conducted regarding the existing project management bodies of knowledge. The author indicated the need for a BoK and continually updating its content. A research (Shenhar, 2001) surveyed defense projects and challenged the BoK assumption that all projects are similar and \"one size fits all\". He classified the surveyed projects into four categories. Each category had to be managed a little differently in order to be successful. A similar attitude (Evaristo and van Fenema, 1999) had been taken to classify project management types based on the number of projects and sites involved. The existence of distributed projects, their importance, and expected future predominance was described.Furthermore, it should be noted that often projects are very complex. This complexity supports the argument against the BoK concept of \"one size fits all\".The definition of project complexity (Williams, 1999) is needed in order to cope with the evolution of projects. On the other hand researchers (Tatikonda and Rosenthal, 2000) supported the BoK assumption of project similarity. The authors investigated project management methods used during the execution phase of new product development. The findings were that companies can indeed balance firmness and flexibility in product development projects. Another result is that companies can manage a variety of projects using broadly similar project execution methods.Large companies have invested significant sums in developing their project management systems (Eve, 2007) and still do not benefit from their investment, mainly, because lack of maturity in project management practice. The author stated that the ultimate way of upgrading project management practice level is by implementing a routine training program. This paper presents a training methodology that can improve project management performance by exposing the PMO personnel to the best practices in the project management domain.\n2. The PMO operations description: Nowadays many companies comply with the concept of project management office (PMO) which supports the implementation of the project management know how. The project management office is a professional entity that defines and maintains the standards of processes related to project management, within the organization. The PMO strives to standardize and introduce effectiveness in the execution of projects. The PMO is the source of established procedures, documentation, guidance and metrics within the practice of project management.The PMO is responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of projects that are under its oversight. Therefore, The PMO copes with the following issues:* Develops, clarifies and manages the scope of the project, defines contract deliverables and achieves targeted outcomes.* Ensure project requirements are achieved in a timely fashion and within budget guidelines.* Assembles project team, identifies needed resources, assigns responsibilities and develops timeframes to facilitate successful completion of project activities and deliverables.* Ensures compatibility and consistency with the organization's existing standards.* Performs cost/benefit analysis of actions and initiatives.* Performs risk analysis of the entire project.Thus, the PMO personnel should have the following skills:* Demonstrated leadership qualities such as conflict/issue resolution.* Ability to run a project or serve as project manager on a program team and to ensure a successful project lifecycle.* Ability to communicate (verbally and in writing) effectively with stakeholders and senior business leadership of departments and agencies participating in this project.* Ability to organize and work effectively with project teams of staff from department and agencies participating in this effort.* Demonstrated experience and relevant expertise in the design and building of distributed and enterprise solutions.* Ability to use project management software packages/systems.\n3. The importance of implementing PMO training: Successful performance of a project should depend on appropriate planning. The PMBoK defines the use of 21 processes that relate to planning, out of the 39 processes required for proper project management (Globerson and Zwikael, 2002). Executing the project according to the predefined project plan is achievable only if the project planning and execution know how procedures are well known by the PMO personnel. Consequently, training is a significant issue facilitating successful performances during entire project lifecycle. A survey that was conducted in an aerospace organization (Eve, 2007) provides clear evidence that implementing a project management training methodology improves both individuals and organization's performance.The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE Std. 1490-1998, 1999) adopted the PMBoK as a standard for managing projects within the electrical and electronics domain. This recognition means that project management know-how is essential for project success, therefore, to gain this knowledge is tremendously important. As a result, training is a crucial element for project success.The American Department of Defense (2003) stated that one of four goals for government projects is to improve training and education.A training process standardizes the organizational know-how that enables the organization to cope with the worldwide demand for structured project management procedures. Furthermore, a training process combined with managerial commitment increases the personnel motivation.\n4. Training aim and objectives: The complexity of the PMO requires a training process for its personnel that facilitate the PMO to achieve the project goals (i.e. project cost, schedule and scope).4.1 Training aim\n6. Program outline: The program topics should be taught with conjunction to the PMBoK knowledge bases:* The nature of a project describes the challenges that a project manager is facing while striving to achieve project success measures* Structuring the project - project scope and integration management describes the processes involved in asserting that the project includes all the work required to complete the project. This lecture includes also the description of the process and activities that integrate the various elements of project management.* Project time management presents the process concerning the timely completion of the project* Project resources and cost management presents the processes involved in planning, estimating budgeting costs and resources so that the project is completed within the approved budget on time and according to the predefined scope.* Project human resources management describes the processes that organize and manage the project team.* Project quality management presents the processes involved in assuring that the project will satisfy the objectives for which it was undertaken.* Project communications management presents the processes involved in assuring that the project stakeholders will communicate smoothly.* Project risk management describes the processes concerned with conducting risk management on a project.* Project control describes the processes that ensure that the planning and design of the project should be executed due to the predefined plans.The program contains fourteen weekly sessions of four hours, as shown in Figure 1.Figure 1 presents the program outline. It can be seen that some subjects are covered in two sessions (e.g. the nature of project management) while others are scheduled for one week.As it was mentioned previously the participants should implement each program subject into their real life project on a weekly basis. For example one, of the teams presented a garden building project. This project combines landscape construction, building techniques and planting flora. They introduced the use of a planning tool during the two sessions that where dedicated to the \"structuring the project\". The planning tool was the work breakdown structure (WBS). Figure 2 describes the garden project WBS that defines the total scope of the project. It contains all the tasks needed to build a garden and includes the planning and performance processes involved in establishing an infrastructure to be followed by planting the garden. The WBS is divided into three main topics: planting, layout functionality and infrastructure. Each topic includes work packages that define the exact tasks that should be executed during the project lifecycle.Implementing the use of a WBS by the team made the appropriate linkage between the theoretical background and the real life experience. Furthermore, the team was exposed to the complexity of building such a WBS.The practical training should use a software package. A commonly used software package is the MS Project software mainly because this software is very popular package all over the globe.The participants that comply with the program requirements received a diploma that confirms their abilities to work within the project management office.\n7. Discussion: The PMO is an organizational innovation in the sense that it is a recent and important phenomenon (Hobbes et al., 2008). The PMO should facilitate the project aims and objectives by using well-proven methodologies by the PMO personnel. The PMO human resources should be qualified to perform their job. This paper presents the training procedure (i.e. PMO course) that qualifies the PMO personnel. The PMO course was structured to support the training aims and objectives. Table I presents the materialization of the course objectives by the course subject.It can be seen in Table I that all of the objectives are covered by the taught subjects. As it was mentioned previously the practical aspects are implemented by using a real life project within the organizational framework.\n8. Summary and conclusions: Many organizations are facing the need of coping with project demands. A very common answer is by using a project management office that supports the project team. We presented a training process that ensures the update knowledge of the PMO personnel. Using a proven project management methodology by the PMO team can lead to the achievement of the project aims and objectives. The objectives are materialized by using a well-defined course structure based on the PMBoK methodology.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to highlight the need of a methodological training framework for project management office personnel.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Working closely with hi tech corporations whose main line of business is based on projects, the paper presents an integrative training approach supported by managerial commitment to improve training effectiveness.\nFindings: - The paper concentrates on qualifying the project management office personnel to facilitate the project's aims and objectives. The paper concludes with a high level prescription for developing a project management training methodology.\nPractical implications: - The paper highlights the need to establish a well-defined way for upgrading the project management office personnel performances.\nOriginality/value: - The article will deepen the understanding of the need for project management training.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A context-based study of serendipity in information research among Chinese scholars
|
[
"Information retrieval",
"Context",
"Model",
"Information science",
"Serendipity",
"Information encountering"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Research into serendipity has been ongoing since the term \"serendipity\" was first coined by Horace Walpole in 1754, in reference to the Three Princes of Serendip, who were always making discoveries by accident. Studies relating to serendipity can be found in various disciplines, including information studies (Foster and Ford, 2003), human-computer interaction (Sun et al., 2011), social science (Merton and Barber, 2004), career research (Bright et al., 2005), arts and humanities (Delgadillo and Lynch, 1999), psychology (Heinstrom, 2006), organisation (Cunha et al., 2010) and medicine (Allegaert, 2013).\n2. Background: 2.1 Context in serendipity research\n3. Research method: We developed a mobile diary method for our study in the UK to help the participants capture their serendipitous experiences in a comparatively natural setting. Satisfactory feedback was received via the mobile diary application, with 23 serendipitous cases reported by 11 British participants within a one-week period. One major concern raised by some of the participants in that study was that they were unwilling to carry around an additional mobile device, and this undoubtedly affected their serendipitous experiences. To overcome this particular drawback, in this study we used the social media platform \"WeChat\" to replace the diary application. The main reasons for choosing \"WeChat\" were: it covers similar functions to our diary application, and different types of data can be recorded and transferred (i.e. text, video, audio, and image); participants had no concerns about portability problems, and no additional package needed to be installed on participants' own mobile phones, as they were all frequent users of \"WeChat\", and were quite familiar with its functions; \"WeChat\" is a social media platform, so it also has the function of allowing direct communication between participants and the researchers, and if participants had any problems during the experiment period, they were able to send messages to the researchers and receive immediate responses; and it had the advantage of allowing the researchers to send a \"reminder\" to participants each day, to help to make them aware they were in an experiment situation.\n4. Participants' perceptions of serendipity: By analysing the 62 reported serendipitous cases, we found that the Chinese scholars conformed to the framework of experiencing serendipity according to the three main processes of: encountering unexpectedness, connection-making and finally leading to a valuable outcome.\n5. The role of context: Context plays a significant role in nurturing serendipitous experiences, although it has often been neglected in previous studies. As a complement to our previous work (Sun et al., 2011), in this paper we have identified the conception of context more comprehensively, based on the discussion in the background section, including external context, social context and internal context, and different contextual factors were identified from the empirical study.\n6. Discussion: 6.1 A context-based model of serendipity\n7. Conclusion: This paper presents a follow-up to an empirical study which was conducted in the UK in 2011. We employed the social media platform \"WeChat\" as a research tool to investigate the phenomenon and occurrence of serendipity in the context of information research among a group of Chinese scholars.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The current understanding of serendipity is based primarily on studies employing westerners as the participants, and it remains uncertain whether or not this understanding would be pervasive under different cultures, such as in China. In addition, there is not a sufficient systematic investigation of context during the occurrence of serendipity in current studies. The purpose of this paper is to examine the above issues by conducting a follow-up empirical study with a group of Chinese scholars.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The social media application \"WeChat\" was employed as a research tool. A diary-based study was conducted and 16 participants were required to send to the researchers any cases of serendipity they encountered during a period of two weeks, and this was followed by a post-interview.\nFindings: Chinese scholars experienced serendipity in line with the three main processes of: encountering unexpectedness, connection-making and recognising the value. An updated context-based serendipity model was constructed, where the role of context during each episode of experiencing serendipity was identified, including the external context (e.g. time, location and status), the social context and the internal context (e.g. precipitating conditions, sagacity/perceptiveness and emotion).\nOriginality/value: The updated context model provides a further understanding of the role played by context during the different processes of serendipity. The framework for experiencing serendipity has been expanded, and this may be used to classify the categories of serendipity.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Institutional admissions policies in higher education: A widening participation perspective
|
[
"Case studies",
"Higher education",
"Educational administration",
"Social class"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There continues to be low participation rates in higher education (HE) amongst those from lower social classes (see Robertson and Hillman, 1997; Hayton and Paczuska, 2002; HEFCE, 2003; Trowler, 2003; Blanden and Machin, 2004). For example, Trowler (2003) argues that 80 per cent of young people from professional backgrounds enter higher education compared to only 10 per cent of the least skilled. This has prompted Cooke et al. (2004, p. 408) to point out that even though student numbers have doubled in the last two decades \"the profile of the student body remained the same, with the vast majority of undergraduates coming from advantaged backgrounds\".There have been concerns about low participation rates amongst those from lower social classes dating back to the 1960s (see for example Robbins Report, 1963). Yet it was not until the Dearing Report (1997) that this issue was identified as a key priority. Dearing recommended that universities and colleges of HE become actively involved in improving educational decision making and raising the aspiration levels of those from lower social classes. This recommendation was endorsed by the New Labour Government and led to the allocation of money for projects designed to address low aspiration levels and promote progression into higher education (see DfEE, 1998). It also led to increased funding for those institutions recruiting students from \"underparticipating areas\" (see for example HEFCE, 1999, 2001).The need for HEIs to remain focused on issues of widening participation and social class has recently been re-emphasised by the publication of the 2003 white paper \"The Future of Higher Education\" which argues that:Education must be a force for opportunity and social justice, not for the entrenchment of privilege. We must make certain that the opportunities that higher education brings are available to all those who have the potential to benefit from them, regardless of their background (DfES, 2003a, p. 67).The white paper also argued that those responsible for admissions should receive training to enable them to \"recognise genuine potential as well as achievement, and make fair decisions\" (DfES, 2003a, para. 6.15, p. 72). There was, however, opposition to the idea that anything other than actual results should be used in admissions policy. For example, responses to the DfES indicated:[...] a fairly widespread view that entry to university must be based purely on merit; nothing else should be a factor, and regulation of admissions could lead to positive discrimination, putting the \"middle classes\" at a disadvantage (DfES, 2003b, p. 12).As a result, the government seemed to retreat from the idea that student \"potential\" should form part of the criteria for admissions procedures by arguing that \"they entirely agree that admissions to higher education should be on the basis of merit, regardless of background\" (DfES, 2003b, p. 14). Nevertheless, the government set up a steering group to look at admissions (Schwartz, 2003). The final report states that the admissions system should not compensate for social disadvantage, but it then argues that HEIs have a responsibility to identify potential which \"may not be fully demonstrated by examination results\" (Schwartz, 2004b, para. B5, p. 23). It appears that Schwartz is advocating a holistic approach that takes account of all aspects of an application, rather than the utilisation of a blanket system of compensation based, for example, on social class or the type of school an applicant attended.This article will analyse how HEIs have responded to government policy to increase the participation rates of students from lower social classes by examining institutional admissions policies and the rationale underpinning them. The paper recognises that government policy does not simply transfer into institutional policy but migrates through funding agencies to the universities and colleges. At each stage in this process policy is modified as policy makers - in order to meet their own objectives - interpret, change or provide the detail necessary for the implementation of policy (see Ball, 1994, 1997; Nixon et al., 2002; Trowler, 2003).This paper also recognises that there is both economic and political pressure to respond to government policy. Indeed, the admissions policies of HEIs have been under scrutiny because of the publicity given to well-qualified candidates failing to obtain places in \"top\" universities. This, and the fact that the research for this paper took place during the Schwartz consultation on admissions, meant that interviewees were particularly sensitive about this aspect of their institution's widening participation policy. Before examining institutional admissions policy the methodological approach adopted for this study will be outlined.\nResearch methodology: This research is based on a wider study of institutional widening participation policy. The first phase of this research involved an examination of the widening participation policies of 16 HEIs using publicly available documents such as strategic plans, widening participation strategies and prospectuses. At this point the research aimed to obtain an overall impression of HEI widening participation policy. The HEIs selected were all the universities and colleges of HE from a particular geographical area of England. In order to maintain anonymity details about the region are not provided in this article and the HEIs are given a number (1 to 16). In addition, \"general\" rather than \"specific\" information (see Cohen and Manion, 1994, p. 368) has, whenever possible, been utilised. This approach may of course jeopardise the ability of other researchers to compare their research with this study. However, the need to protect the anonymity of institutions and individuals takes precedence over the requirement to provide detailed information.The next stage of the research involved selecting three contrasting HEIs (a college of HE, a \"new\" university and an \"old\" university) as case studies. Whilst the term \"case study\" research has different definitions (see Atkinson and Delamont, 1985; Hammersley and Gomm, 2000) this seems the most appropriate label to give this research. The case study approach enabled an in-depth analysis to be undertaken using multiple sources of evidence to facilitate an understanding of the rationale, subjective realities, complexities and context behind institutional policy on admissions.Interviews were carried out with key policy informants at both senior and middle management levels. The relevant people interviewed for this research were:* HEI-3 (college of HE). Principal; Member of the Senior Management Group (SMG) with responsibility for widening participation; Manager of Aim Higher (HEI-3 is the lead institution in a partnership that also includes HEI-2 and HEI-15).* HEI-10 (old university). Pro-vice-chancellor (PVC) with responsibility for widening participation; Head of Widening Participation; Director of Aim Higher (HEI-10 is the lead institution in a partnership that also includes HEI-5, HEI-8 and HEI-9).* HEI-11 (new university). Vice-chancellor; Head of Widening Participation; Head of Student ServicesThe interviews usually lasted about an hour. In order to protect the anonymity of those interviewed details such as gender have not been identified.\nInstitutional admissions policies: This section analyses the admissions policies of HEIs and the rationale underpinning them. It examines entry standards, attitudes to vocational qualifications, the extent to which HEIs are willing to vary entry requirements and perspectives on positive discrimination.Entry standards\nConclusion: This research demonstrates that the more prestigious \"selecting\" universities ask for high A-level grades and are sceptical about vocational qualifications, whilst \"recruiting\" institutions adopt a more flexible approach to entry requirements. What is important, however, is that the more prestigious universities are able to find ways of being more flexible when there is a fall in demand for courses. Also, whilst \"recruiting\" HEIs have always accepted students with lower grades, this appears to arise because of the need to fill places, rather than a desire to widen participation. Indeed, when institutions such as these have courses that are oversubscribed they raise their entry requirements. As Rolfe (2003, p. 29) found all institutions maintain a strong desire to recruit what they perceive to the \"most able\" students. Therefore, admissions policies, in all types of HEI, owe more to the nature of demand and the market place than attempts to widen participation. This is reinforced by the fact that there is little attempt to take in to account a student's social background when making admissions decisions and there is a reluctance amongst some institutional policy makers to seriously engage with the issue of social class.The problem with the approach currently adopted by HEIs is that bright, but less well qualified, working-class students continue to be under-represented in elite universities and on high demand courses. As a result, working class students are more likely to go to less prestigious institutions and enrol on lower status courses. This is important because this disadvantages them in the graduate labour market (see for example Brown, 1997; Harvey et al., 1997; Hesketh, 2000) which means the stratified system of higher education that currently exists helps to reproduce class inequalities.If HEIs are going to take widening participation seriously they need to engage in a fundamental review of their admissions policies. This would involve organising courses in a way that does not discriminate against those students who have the potential to succeed, but have not studied traditional subjects or achieved high grades at GCSE level. It would also entail adopting the more holistic approaches to admissions advocated by Schwartz (2004b). However, institutions have to be careful that holistic approaches do not inadvertently disadvantage those from working-class backgrounds by privileging middle class cultural capital (see Bourdieu, 1997).Attempts to introduce such changes are likely to meet resistance as people mobilise arguments around what Williams (1997) refers to as \"icon\" words (i.e. \"standards\" or ability to \"cope\"). These were often used by the policy makers in this study as arguments against being more flexible in their admissions policies. Yet the same policy makers are able to find ways of overcoming such obstacles when there is a fall in demand for their courses. A body such as the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) could, if it had more power, play a role in persuading HEIs to adopt more inclusive admissions policies. However, the creation of a less competitive and hierarchical higher education system would probably be more effective in enabling HEIs to be less market focused and more flexible. As Read et al. (2003, p. 275) suggest \"much more needs to be done to challenge the cultural and economic hierarchy that exists between academic institutions\". Yet this is unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future. Therefore, those who want equality of opportunity in higher education need to continue to put pressure on institutional policy makers to develop more inclusive admissions policies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This article analyses how higher education institutions (HEIs) have responded to government policy to increase the participation rates of students from lower social classes through their admissions policies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The article uses documentary evidence and interviews with institutional policy makers to examine HEI admissions policies and the rationale underpinning them.\nFindings: - This research found that admissions policies owed more to the nature of demand than attempts to widen participation. Old universities tend to ask for high A-level grades and were sceptical about the value of vocational qualifications, but demonstrated a willingness to be more flexible where there was a low demand for courses. Less prestigious institutions tend to recruit more students from working class backgrounds because of the markets they were able to recruit in rather than because of their widening participation policies.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Whilst this study is based on a small number of cases, the evidence suggests that institutional admissions policies perpetuate the problem of working class disadvantage. The ability of HEIs to review and change their admissions policies is, however, constrained by the way government policy encourages a competitive and stratified system of higher education. This is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future, but those wanting equality of opportunity in HE need to continue to put pressure on institutional policy makers to develop more inclusive systems of admission.\nOriginality/value: - By interviewing key institutional policy makers this article has been able to provide insights into the rationale behind HEI policy on admissions and widening participation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Post-occupancy evaluation of postgraduate hostel facilities
|
[
"Buildings",
"Performance measurement",
"Universities",
"Nigeria"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The importance of post-occupancy evaluation (POE) has greatly increased in recent years, although it is a more typical activity in the USA and some European countries than it is in most developing countries. This phenomenon in third world countries can be attributed largely to the reactive maintenance \"syndrome\". POE as defined by Baird (2001) is \"a generic term for various general programs, procedures and specific techniques for the assessment of existing buildings and facilities'. POE assesses how well buildings match users' needs and identifies ways to improve building design, performance and fitness for purpose. It involves the systematic evaluation of opinion about buildings in use, from the viewpoint of the people who use them. Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) is nothing new in itself. It was first introduced over 40 years ago. What is new, however, is the way in which the POE is beginning to be viewed as a business management tool by today's occupiers and as a crucial building appraisal system for property owners, managers and designers (Kauntze, 2008).The major determinants of the type and depth of POE are the uses to which the information is to be put and the resources available (Preiser et al., 1988). POE is recognized within the facilities management sector as a technique employed to aid benchmarking of the quality of services ranging from maintenance and cleaning to the provision of office furnishings (Wauters, 2005). Wauters (2005) confirms the value of \"user satisfaction surveys\" as a herald to service-level benchmarking and successive recommendations for improving facilities services.In Nigeria, facilities management practice is relatively new and was first used in the 1980s by Chevron and Mobil as part of the relocation activities of both multinational companies. Today many organizations have realized that managing assets within traditional organizational structures is unsatisfactory. Thus there is increasing demand for an integrated approach to management (Odiete, 1998; Sani, 1998).The physical environment of universities should be catered for, since academic productivity to large extent depends on the available facilities and supporting services. The state of the physical assets of higher institutions is an indicator of strategic facilities management (Kortze and Nkado, 2003). Successful implementation of facilities management in Nigerian universities will influence strategic planning, development and policy decision-making, and will improve their efficiency (Housley, 1997; Asiabaka, 2008).In Nigeria, there is improper maintenance of the services and infrastructure of hostel accommodation. Students have been reported to fall sick in such buildings due to poor sanitary conditions. Sometimes there are threats to security of life and property owing to failure to screen room allots adequately to prevent criminals entering undergraduate hostels. Some of the hostels are also overcrowded. In some instances students are the one's accommodating \"squatters\" and \"floaters\", thus overstretching the facilities available. Also it has been observed that the revenue generated is not sufficient to manage such hostels and still make a profit, since the hostels are not managed on a commercial basis as they are viewed more as social rather economic goods that should be managed sustainably (Tijani, 2007).This paper reports a post-occupancy evaluation of the main technical and functional criteria of performance of a postgraduate hostel in University of Lagos, one of the public universities in Nigeria. Little research has been done on POE in Nigeria, especially with reference to hostels for postgraduate students. This is so despite the fact that that many public institutions now adopt FM and student hostels are particularly problematic and often a cause for unrest. The study evaluated the performance of a new postgraduate hostel building as a step towards enhancing functionality and environmental friendliness.The paper is structured in the following manner. The present section has introduced the paper and defined the research problem. In the second section, the literature is reviewed with respect to the post-occupancy evaluation of university buildings, highlighting in particular:* postgraduate hostel facilities in Nigeria;* post-occupancy evaluation of university buildings;* performance indicators for hostel facilities in Nigeria;* problems constraining the use of POE in Nigeria; and* types of POE.In the third section the research method used and results of the questionnaire survey are discussed. The results of the survey are presented to identify aspects of the building that require improvement. After this, further recommendations on the operationalization of POEs under similar circumstances are made.\nLiterature review: postgraduate hostel facilities in Nigeria: There is a scarcity of literature on hostel accommodation for students in universities in Nigeria, and it is known that not much attention has been given to the problem of management of these facilities in the past, in spite of its enormity and sensitivity of this issue (Ubong, 2007). This could be as a result of the behavior of people who show indifference and adapt to the general poor performance of social services.Ubong (2007) observed that hostels in universities in Nigeria are in short supply. Demand far outstrips supply resulting in occupant overcrowding, collapsing facilities and the illegal sale of bed spaces by students to fellow students. The government seems not to be capable of increasing the stock of hostels and cannot fund the maintenance of existing ones. Any attempt to increase charges for bed spaces by government or the institutions so as to raise adequate funds to maintain the hostels meets stiff opposition from students. The best way out of the embarrassing situation in the opinion of the Federal Government, as directed by the Federal Ministry of Education in 2004, is to hand over the hostels to private managers who will maintain them and charge appropriate fees to those who accept their offer. Government can thus concentrate on other aspects of education funding that cannot be privatized (such as staff salaries, research by lecturers, and the provision of teaching/learning facilities and materials). However, certain issues were raised for clarification by stakeholders regarding the outsourcing of hostel management to private estate agents in Nigerian universities. Among the issues raised are the following:* What happens to indigent students from communities outside that in which the institution is based, who are unable to live with members of their family?* Do private operators permit \"attachments\" by those that have paid and who wish to assist a less privileged colleague?* Where students decide to seek accommodation in cheaper locations that are far away from the institution, how do they commute to and from school and how does that affect their performance?* Are hostels on campus sold to private operators? If so, how are such transactions handled legally?* Is there a possibility of joint ownership of hostels - including those off campus - by private developers and universities when the government is totally against any direct involvement of the institutions in the management of hostels?* Who manages the social problems that are often found in hostels - cultism, keeping of hostel rules such as duration of stay of visitors of the opposite sex, fighting, and others? In essence, who manages and enforces sanctions associated with the code of conduct of students in halls of residence?* Does the government control charges?* Are the institutions allowed to ensure that a minimum level of services such as sanitation, electricity, water supply, and security are provided to students?* Are the institutions expected to earn fees from the managers, and how is that determined?* Generally, where does the power or authority of the institution and the managers begin and where does it end?* Is there allowance for local conditions to take care of the peculiarities of each institution and each locality?* Is there need for legislation on the matter so that issues and relationships can be streamlined and made fairly uniform?The above-mentioned issues are tackled in the third section of this paper (in the interview with the coordinator of hostels) to ascertain the view of the University of Lagos management on the success of outsourcing of maintenance of hostel facilities.Post-occupancy evaluation of university buildings\nResearch methods: The study was conducted in the stages outlined below.First, a literature review was conducted on performance indicators for hostel facilities. These indicators need to be adaptable within the context of a Nigerian university. Although some common variables were extracted from literature, they were summarized and simplified for adaptability after vetting by a member of the University hostel management committee, a hall mistress, who happens to be one of the authors of this paper. They are highlighted in Table I. Also, these variables are further expatiated using an interview survey.Second, an investigative approach to POE which provides an in-depth study of the building's performance and solutions to problems was used to measure building occupants' experience of their living environment. Also, questionnaires were sent to gather individual-level data through the responses of building users. Analysis of the study data was done with the SPSS statistical package. POE deals with analysis of individual buildings, which can then be benchmarked when reliable and thorough approaches are used to collect data. Case studies ensure that POEs provide a greater depth of qualitative and quantitative data and a contextual background to the environment of building users (see Yin, 1994; Amaratunga and Baldry, 1999; Turpin-Brooks and Viccars, 2006).Finally, additional data was also collected using a scheduled interview to obtain data at the organizational level from the hostel facilities manager (Cross Key Properties Limited) and the coordinator of hostels of the university, a representative of the Director of Works and Services Department of the university, a well informed employee of the Works and Services department who reports directly to the Director of the Works and Services Department (see Figure 2).Case study: Erastus Akingbola Postgraduate Hall, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria\nConclusion and suggestions: An investigative assessment of the Erastus Akingbola Postgraduate Hall, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria was carried out on a representative sample of users of the building. The study has determined the degree of satisfaction obtained for 29 identified performance criteria. The extent of satisfaction was based on a questionnaire in which occupants of the buildings were asked to provide feedback on the physical living environment by marking their degree of satisfaction on 29 performance elements. The findings were further supplemented with an interview with users, the hostel facilities manager and the University's coordinator of hostels. The results shows satisfaction with cleanliness, lighting, temperature in the building, comfort level, natural ventilation, visual privacy, amount of space, conveniences, car parking, fire safety, security and air quality. The result of the interview with the coordinator of hostels shows that hostel rules need to be effectively enforced by the Director of Student Affairs' office, since certain rules such as the presence of illegal occupants or \"squatters\" can eventually lead to an overstretch of facilities.The feedback will be helpful in the design and management of new hostel facilities. The study also showed that subsequent designs should improve the quality of fittings such as ceiling fans, windows and doors, supply telephone intercom facilities, and improve internet provision by extending provision to individual rooms. Also, the noise level from outside the hall should be reduced by moving the car park and stopping the open space outside being used for entertainment and commercial purposes to improve the quality of the learning environment. The Facilities Manager should ensure that fire extinguishers are installed, that the second exit is always kept open, and that service provision such as cleaning is extended to individual rooms. Also, the subsequent design of a new facility should provide for disabled students.The result of the interview with the University's Coordinator of Hostels shows that there is need to make of robust techniques in the conduct of POEs within the University since simpler techniques are currently used. The study showed that although cost has been a major consideration in the design of the new hostel management facility, users prefer quality services and building fitting and for the postgraduate facility, they have shown willingness to pay for enhanced services as compared to undergraduate students. Also the results of the user survey can serve as evidence to access funds for the improvement of student hostel facilities.This study demonstrates how a POE can be conducted within the context of a postgraduate hostel in Nigeria and assesses the management of hostel facilities by hostel administrators and facilities managers. Also there is need for the University to formulate core objectives for hostel accommodation, as this will guide the University's management as regards policy formulation, focus on the institution's core, and supporting objectives - in particular postgraduate hostel facilities.POEs should be taught in built environment and facilities management courses and must be part of the curriculum of universities. Graduates familiar with POE studies are more likely to use them in practice compared to those unfamiliar with POE studies. Some facilities managers in the study campus are unaware of what POE is all about. Also, university authorities should be educated on the benefits of conducting POE studies so as to ensure their participation in the POE process. Periodic evaluation of public buildings can be a requirement by law to ensure that bureaucratic procedures involved in management are reduced or eliminated. However, there is an important connection between regulation and education as people may not respond to regulations if they are not familiar with the benefits.Although the results of the POE presented in this paper are limited to the subject building investigated, the structure of the user satisfaction survey could be used to benchmark a similar building's performance especially a new facility, against other buildings.Areas of future study could include POE studies on commercial office facilities, shopping centers and other facilities within Nigeria.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to adopt an investigative approach to post-occupancy evaluation using major technical and functional criteria of performance on the facilities of a postgraduate hostel at the campus of the University of Lagos, Akoka, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data collection was based on a survey through self-administered questionnaires in which users of the building were asked to report on their perceptions and experience of the facility. The user satisfaction survey was developed based on the students' feedback on their experience with 29 identified performance criteria obtained from a review of the literature and an interview with a member of the university's hall management committee. Data at the organizational level were collected by personal interviews with the facilities manager and co-ordinator of hostels of the university.\nFindings: - The user satisfaction survey identified areas of deficiency, particularly in maintenance, and facilitated the assessment of the overall performance of the building.\nOriginality/value: - This study demonstrates how universities in Nigeria can assess the management of hostel facilities by hostel administrators and facilities managers. Apart from the results of the user satisfaction survey being useful as evidence to access funds for the improvement of student hostel facilities, the feedback will be helpful in the design and management of new hostel facilities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Financial exclusion of the poor: a literature review
|
[
"Borrowing",
"Financial services",
"Consumer credit",
"Personal finance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In as much as the problems of the poor are wide ranging and caused by several different factors, formulating programs to reduce the ravages of poverty require a clear understanding of the causes as well as the problems themselves. In addition to the efforts of several multinational agencies, several academics have devoted significant efforts to studies that are focussed on understanding problems of the poor. However, because these researchers are from disciplines other than business and marketing, their studies have also naturally appeared in journals that are not necessarily business or marketing related.\nConclusion: Financial exclusion is a global problem that has been studied by scholars from different academic fields. We have in this paper attempted to provide a review of the literature on financial exclusion that is broad in scope and covers studies that have been conducted in different disciplines and around the globe. Even though, at least, two journals in marketing are devoted to issues related to banks and financial institutions, we are struck by the dearth of studies on financial exclusion in marketing. This could be symptomatic of bigger problem than it appears give the fact that marketing scholars should be in the forefront in studying people who are excluded from the mainstream financial markets so that they could design innovative approaches for banks to serve the unbanked too. We hope marketing scholars, particularly those who are concerned about social and public policies are too late in accepting the diverse aspects of the problem of financial exclusion as one of their legitimate areas of inquiry.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to conduct a cross-disciplinary review of the literature on financial exclusion in order to provide a place where one could have a bird's eye view of the academic activities that have been happening in the area.\nDesign/methodology/approach: As a literature review, no specific methodology is required.\nFindings: Researchers in economic geography and urbanization seem to have contributed significantly to the growing literature on financial exclusion. The persistence of the problem despite efforts to combat it calls for innovative thinking on the part of marketing scholars and financial institutions on how to serve the unbanked.\nResearch limitations/implications: The review identifies gaps in the state of current research and provides direction for future research.\nPractical implications: The study identifies gaps in the literature and provides directions for future research.\nSocial implications: As a literature review, there is only an indirect social implications in the sense that the studies reviewed could be used to impact people's lives.\nOriginality/value: As a literature review, originality is not an applicable criterion, however, the study provides value to the reader by bringing together disparate studies at one place and by pointing out gaps in the current state of research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Sustainability in Yllas: one focus, various interpretations
|
[
"Tourism",
"Sustainable tourism development",
"Authenticity",
"Sustainable tourism",
"Sustainability in tourism"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Based on MacCannell's argument \"that moderns seek authenticity outside modernity\" (Cohen and Cohen, 2012, p. 2179), Cohen (2002) wonders whether the quest for authenticity, insofar as it would remain a significant motive in contemporary tourism, contributes to or detracts from the sustainability of tourist sites, amenities and attractions. He concludes that it is necessary to clarify the conditions under which sustainability can become a primary consideration in tourism development first. Hunter (1997) argues that the thoughts of sustainability become more important the less desirable it is to develop it due to the ecological importance of that area. Such areas are normally perceived as highly unique and authentic, as, for instance, \"nature of national or international importance\" (Hunter, 1997, p. 862). It is with regard to such areas that the paths of the sustainability and authenticity discourses cross (Cohen, 2002).\nTheory: The discourse of authenticity dominates contemporary tourism (Harrison, 2017). Although, among others, Harrison (2017) discusses the search for authenticity in contemporary tourism, many scholars assume that tourists are in search of authenticity that contrast their daily lives at home during their travels: it is their motivation to travel to pristine environments and primitive cultures (Harrison, 2017): \"In many people's minds the past, authenticity and real experiences can still be found on the peripheries of the modern world, where nature, wilderness, and indigenous or other cultural groups untouched by modernity are situated\" (Saarinen, 2004b, p. 438). The discussion about the meaning of authenticity in the context of tourism, however, continues (see e.g. Cohen and Cohen, 2012; Singh, 2012).\nStudy region: The development of tourism in the province of Lapland as it is known today was a strategic choice of the Finnish Government (Saarinen, 2003). The idea was that tourism would have a positive economic and social impact: tourism would introduce new sources of income for especially people in peripheral regions, e.g. the province of Lapland (Saarinen, 2003; Kauppila et al., 2009). It started with small-scale tourism among host families in the 1930s, but got stimulated by the Finnish Government after the Second World War. With Finland's Tourism Strategy to 2020, the government presented a strategy to increase tourism in Finland in general and more specific, in Lapland. The reason was that employment in the traditional industries in Finland, e.g. forestry and the metal industry, had declined from 158,900 employed persons in agriculture, forestry and hunting in 1995 to 120,000 in 2008 and from 73,300 employed persons in the metal industry in 1995 to 57,900 in 2008. Employment in tourism in Finland at the same time had increased by 37 percent from 1995 to 2008. Tourism had become a nationally significant export sector and provider of employment (Ministry of Employment and the Economy, 2010).\nResearch methods: In light of the research question, this study uses a mix of quantitative and qualitative data collection and an analysis within a case study that stands for the systematic collection of enriched and detailed information about a social setting or group, in order to be able to understand how a group acts and functions. This approach involves researching a contemporary phenomenon in a natural situation (Berg, 2004), such as how the search for authenticity is discursively related to the interpretations of sustainability in the development of tourism in peripheral regions, e.g. Yllas.\nResults: Finnish tourism board and Lapland marketing\nConclusion: Although all tourism actors agree on sustainable tourism development, at least three interpretations of sustainability were present in the development of tourism in Yllas. Some tourism actors, as well as the Kolari municipality, prefer the growth-focused path and with that economic-orientated sustainability, a focus which is described by, among others, Page and Connell (2009). Other tourism actors prefer an alternative path, a \"less-growth path\" which aims for growth that is more in balance with the natural environment. Consequently, this empirical study subscribes the divergent views Kulujarvi (2017) mentioned in the development of tourism in Yllas. However, although she wonders whether a growth-oriented development of tourism can meet \"sustainability,\" this empirical study demonstrates that this growth-oriented development can indeed meet \"sustainability.\" After all, sustainability as a discursive concept can be interpreted in various ways, based on the various interests, agendas and values of the different tourism actors (Jamal et al., 2013). This is also what this empirical study in Yllas demonstrates.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Stakeholders have divergent views concerning sustainability in the development of tourism in Yllas. The danger of these differences is that it can result into a conflict that could jeopardize the fragile ecosystem and livelihood of the locals. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore how the quest for authenticity is discursively related to the interpretations of sustainability in tourism, based on a mix of qualitative and quantitative research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This was an empirical study, based on a mix of quantitative (surveys) and qualitative (interviews) research methods.\nFindings: Despite the different interpretations, almost all stakeholders agree on \"sustainability\" in the development of tourism, since it is the authentic nature that attracts tourists. Accordingly, the search for authenticity could contribute to the sustainability of the tourist destination Yllas in the long term. Caution is asked though for the enclave-like construction of tourist destinations, e.g. Yllas, that currently differentiate from their surrounding peripheries.\nPractical implications: Despite the different interpretations, almost all stakeholders agree on \"sustainability\" in the development of tourism, since it is the authentic nature that attracts tourists. Accordingly, the search for authenticity could contribute to the sustainability of the tourist destination Yllas in the long term. It is suggested to continue research regarding authenticity in practice.\nSocial implications: The conditions under which sustainability could become a consideration for tourism development in Yllas are linked to sustaining tourism business, the most important source of income for Yllas.\nOriginality/value: Can the quest for authenticity, insofar as it remains a significant motive in contemporary tourism, contribute to the sustainability of tourist sites? Destinations that actively and continuously discourage tourism on ecological grounds are the most attractive ones for MacCannell's authenticity-seeking tourist. Considerations regarding sustainability and development in the context of ecological vulnerable and economic valuable regions clash. It is with regard to such areas that the paths of the sustainability and authenticity discourses cross (Cohen, 2002).\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Predictors of internet banking adoption: Profiling Tunisian postponers, opponents and rejectors
|
[
"Dispositional resistance to change",
"Internet banking",
"Multinomial logistic regression",
"Tunisia",
"Internet",
"Banking"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A number of studies, based on Davis et al. (1989), have focussed on the drivers of technology adoption (e.g. Nasri, 2011; Xu et al., 2009; Hernandez and Mazzon, 2007; Yiu et al., 2007). On the other hand, other researchers have paid attention to the reasons leading to resistance to self-service technology (Laukkanen et al., 2008, 2009; Kleijnen et al., 2009). Different models, such as the Theory of Reasoned Action, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), have been adopted or extended in the context of internet banking in order to provide a better understanding of consumers' beliefs and intentions to use internet banking. Each of these models proposes a significant positive relationship between the consumers' intentions and their actual behavior (Davis et al., 1989). However, most research is somewhat disregarding of consumers who do not adopt self-service technology, despite the fact that this group represents a segment of eventual prospects for managers (Patsiosis et al., 2012; Lee et al., 2005).Prior studies dealing with banking technologies (Laukkanen and Kiviniemi, 2010; Laukkanen et al., 2008, 2009) focussed on the seminal framework of Ram and Seth (1989), who distinguished between functional and psychological resistance. Functional resistance includes product usage, value barriers and risk barriers. Psychological resistance includes a negative image and conflicts with traditions. In addition, other recent studies argue that resistance results from inertia (Yadav and Varadarajan, 2005), status quo bias (Kim and Kankanhalli, 2009) or dispositional resistance to change (RTC) (Nov and Ye, 2009; Sanford and Oh, 2010; Laumer et al., 2010 b).On the basis of applied psychology theories, Oreg (2003, 2006) described the concept of RTC as a personality trait that may influence a consumer's intention toward any change in an unknown situation. Therefore, some individuals may be resistant to any change, even if the change is beneficial to them (Oreg, 2003, 2006). However, the concept of dispositional RTC, as an inborn tendency, is still not well considered in technology adoption studies and the contribution of dispositional RTC needs further examination from a marketing perspective.Additionally, \"customer characteristics are important given the high involvement of customers in the online service context\" (Yousafzai and Yani-de-Soriano, 2012, p. 61). Particularly, demographic characteristics have been found to influence consumers' intentions and behavior toward the use of self-service technologies (Yousafzai and Yani-de-Soriano, 2012; Nasri, 2011; Karjaluoto et al., 2002).Previous studies reported that it is very difficult to define the non-adopter category precisely, and that the individuals within this group have heterogeneous characteristics (Lee et al., 2005). Szmigin and Foxall (1998) distinguished three subcategories of individuals on the basis of their intentions to adopt or resist an innovation: postponers, opponents and rejectors. Laukkanen et al. (2008) used these three groups in the context of internet banking, and found that there were significant differences between each group. This paper aims to describe the characteristics of these three non-user categories within the context of internet banking in Tunisia on the basis of the consumer's demographics (age, gender and education), functional barriers (perceived usefulness, and perceived risk) and psychological barriers (dispositional RTC). From an academic perspective, this research contributes to a better consideration of previous theories (i.e. consumer resistance, behavioral intention theories), and highlights a new significant variable (Nov and Ye, 2009): dispositional RTC. Moreover, we seek to predict consumer behavior and make easier the identification of segments likely to adopt internet banking. This study provides banks with tools to motivate their customers to use online banking as a continuum of their \"bricks-and-mortar\" services.This paper is outlined as follows. First, hypotheses are built on the basis of the earlier literature on internet banking adoption and consumer resistance. Then, the research methodology, including the sampling, instruments and data analysis procedure, are described. Next, the results and discussion are presented, and finally, the conclusion and managerial implications are provided.\nBackground and hypotheses development: In order to better predict consumer behavior and to better identify the segments of internet banking use, this paper integrates more than one theory. As applied by Lee et al. (2005), we used a multitude of theoretical backgrounds on internet banking adoption, RTC theory, and perceived risk, in order \"to find the best identification and predictors of three adopter categories\" (Lee et al., 2005, p. 417). Identification of the three categories was based on the work of Szmigin and Foxall (1998), as well as Laukkanen et al. (2008). The current paper proposes to examine the effects of this narrow trait (dispositional RTC) within the context of technology adoption. Consistent with previous research studies (Falk et al., 2007; Venkatesh and Davis, 2000), we integrated the consumer's perceived risk and perceived usefulness as predictors of their behavioral intentions. Table I summarizes the previous studies that analyzed individuals' characteristics in the context of internet banking adoption.Postponers, opponents and rejectors: who are they?\nResearch methodology: Population and sample\nResults: Model fit\nDiscussion: This study examined the impact of individual differences on internet banking adoption. The findings demonstrate the importance of segmenting the non-adopters' category, as recommended by Lee et al. (2005). In this study, significant differences were observed between postponers, opponents and rejectors on the basis of the proposed predictors. The main differences between these groups are psychological and perceptual. Linear regression and MNL regression were employed in order to examine the different relationships between the variables. The results delivered support for some hypotheses: dispositional RTC plays an important role in the consumers' perception and behavioral intentions toward internet banking usage.Postponers vs rejectors\nConclusions: The concept of consumer RTC is still confusing and unclear. On the one hand, some literature suggests that consumer RTC is derived from negative perceptions, negative attitudes or situational factors. On the other hand, other researchers have asserted that resistant people are the result of an inborn, inherent characteristic, or a distorted and biased evaluation toward any new product, service or situation.In this study, age and education were significantly related to the likelihood of internet banking adoption. The results of this study also show that perceptual and psychological variables have an important impact on segmentation of the three groups. This implies that the use of demographic characteristics alone may not provide precise and useful managerial implications (Lee et al., 2005). This research indicates a number of important future directions for Tunisian bank managers, since internet banking is still in the introductory phase in Tunisia. First, banks should profile their clients and identify those consumers who will respond rapidly to the remote service offers. Our findings highlight the fact that postponers, even those who have some concerns related to security, are still likely to try the remote financial service due to the higher perceived advantages. Therefore, banks could first speed up adoption by postponers by introducing communications focussed on security and confidentiality issues. Managers might present the service to potential prospects as a complementary mode of banking which has several practical advantages, including the free service, time saving, lower costs and accessibility at any time. In this respect, staff should investigate various forms of communication, and demonstrate concrete solutions to overcome the consumers' security concerns and risk. Additionally, this research indicates that young persons (18-35 years old) are more willing to try internet banking services. Consequently, managers should aim their communications toward students, who form a prospective \"near future\" target. Foreign banks use social networks like Facebook and Twitter to inform their clients about any changes to their services or offers. Tunisian banks should also employ these social networking approaches in order to make internet banking more familiar and make individuals less resistant to its usage, since young Tunisian people are very active in these networks.Managers may present the service to prospects as a complementary way of banking, which has several practical advantages (free service, saving time, lower costs, accessibility any time, etc.). In this respect, staff should investigate in terms of communication strategies and demonstrate concrete solutions to overcome the consumers' security concerns and perceived risk. In this respect, \"banks can use encryption, firewalls, intrusion detection, and other related security devices to properly safeguard the Internet banking security systems\" (Nasri, 2011, p. 151). Banks should also investigate progressive marketing efforts in order to make people more familiar with their internet banking services and less resistant to its usage.This study has some limitations that need to be acknowledged and addressed in future research. The first limitation comes from the convenient sample which reduces the representativeness of the Tunisian population. This fact does not provide accommodations of results' generalization. Additionally, some used items did not provide results as expected. It is also suggested for future research to measure the dispositional RTC (Oreg et al., 2008) that includes four facets of resistance. In fact, narrow personality traits, such as dispositional RTC, may have a better ability to predict behavior than the Big Five personality characteristics (Devaraj et al., 2008; Rothstein and Goffin, 2006). Third, the results of this study are limited to the constructs taken into consideration. Further research could extend other drivers and inhibitors of internet banking.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This research aims to describe three profile segments (postponers, opponents and rejectors) of non-adopters of internet banking in Tunisia, and attempts to predict consumers' willingness to adopt this new technology using a range of factors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The theoretical background was mainly based on dispositional resistance to change theory, as well as previous literature on internet banking. A total of 595 surveys were collected via face-to-face interviews. In order to predict consumers' intentions, selective factors were proposed (i.e. perceived usefulness, perceived risk, dispositional resistance to change, demographics). Data was assessed through multinomial logistic regression.\nFindings: - Significant differences were observed between the three segments (postponers, opponents and rejectors) on the basis of the proposed predictors. Moreover, dispositional resistance to change as a personality trait plays a significant role in behavioral intentions.\nOriginality/value: - Dispositional resistance to change as a personality trait is still underdeveloped in marketing research studies. This paper provides managerial recommendations for Tunisian bank practitioners to better profile their targets.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A cost trajectory to environmentally adaptive building construction in wet humid settings
|
[
"Building performance",
"Building failure",
"Coastal areas",
"Environmental adaptation",
"Life cycle costs"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Tropical regions are generally characterised by hot-humid climate, with a relatively minimal thermal variability between seasons (Riley et al., 2018; Ishaak et al., 2018). Coastal tropics in tandem experience intense precipitation and flooding events; wind, wave and storm surge flooding impacts from coastal storms; moisture penetration with the associated higher incidence of biological attack and degradation of building materials, all of which lead to accelerated building wear and failure (FEMA, 2010a). This creates a distinctive environment for all forms of construction works in coastal tropics (Beermann, 2011; Riley et al., 2018). Several studies have espoused the need for environmental adaptation in coastal and tropical climates, from the viewpoints of structural and non-structural adaptations (Brand, 1994; Giovani, 1998; Vogel et al., 2007; NJCAA, 2014). However, in the structural adaptation research stream, a considerable focus has been on on thermal adaptation, often overlooking adaptive long-term design strategies that may be warranted by the environmental compatibility of materials and methods of construction with the wet-humid conditions, typical of tropical regions (Bob Manuel, 1990; Lawal et al., 2012; Agajelu et al., 2013; Omoruyi and Idiata, 2015; Samadora, 2017).\nLiterature review: A building modifies the natural environment to approach optimum conditions of liveability, by filtering, absorbing or repelling environmental elements (Giovani, 1998). However, the longevity and quantitative effect of the building envelope in moderating environmental elements, and retaining its functionality, depend on the appropriateness of the materials used in the fabric of the building, which in effect determines its durability (Assaf, 1996; NJCAA, 2014). The British Standards and Code of Practice (2009, p. 7) defined durability as \"The quality of maintaining satisfactory appearance and performance of required functions\". The code measures these parameters in terms of minimum number of years of satisfactory life. BRE (2016, p. 34), on the contrary, defined durability as \"A measure, in an inverse sense of the rate of deterioration of a material or component\". The need for the adequate selection and use of materials for various components of a building structure can be underscored at the front end of its development cycle (NJCAA, 2014) by continuing to satisfactorily achieve its function over its life span with minimal deterioration and to present a good appearance to the public.\nMethod of study: Housing demographics in Bonny show that detached bungalows are the most common form of owner-occupied residential houses, constituting about 60 per cent of privately owned homes (Owei, 2004). A total of 50 private owner-occupied houses (Bungalows) were randomly selected in Bonny for physical survey using direct observation of the manifestation of building failure, complemented by information provided by the occupants. A review of the grey literature was also carried out to identify causal factors that could potentially lead to the defects typically observed during the field work, and preventive measures that should have been incorporated during construction. Further, a comparative initial construction and LCC analysis was computed for two alternative building schemes with identical floor plans for the construction of a four-bedroom bungalow, designed to be sited in Bonny: Scheme A (the ideal scenario) using sound construction and detailing to guard against future maintenance problems and the other Scheme B adopting minimal initial cost, typically evident in the area. The comparative LCC analysis for alternative building designs was carried out using the following design and specification details.\nResults and discussion: Figure 3 shows the results of the survey carried out to identify failure patterns, the corresponding causes and preventive measures identified from the literature. The outcome of the literature survey shows that the use of poorly designed and substandard building materials, poor workmanship and non-compliance with specification/standards, primarily account for this trend (Cheetham and Carter, 1993; Cash, 1997; Cruzan, 2009).\nComparative cost analysis: Initial construction costs\nConclusion: This study has provided a contextual interpretation of LCC analysis specific to coastal areas located in the humid tropics. Although LCC analysis has potential to deal with various externalities associated with investment decisions in building design, the study has scoped it to costs associated with design and specification requirements necessary for forestalling premature building mortality in wet-humid environmental conditions. The analysis spotlighted the magnitude of the disparity in the long-term financial commitment faced by developers in the coastal setting of Bonny island, in tune with initial investment decisions regarding alternative pathways to building construction. This is within the wider context of Nigeria as a developing country, whereby requisite preventive and protective measures necessary to combat the speedy deterioration of the building fabric may be overlooked in the bid to minimise initial capital costs. The LCC analysis has, however, shown that this is at the expense of future running cost, with the plethora of inadequately constructed and poorly maintained buildings that currently define the urban landscape, a testament to this. The outcome of the LCC analysis has revealed that although environmental design considerations associated with wet-humid conditions increase the short-run cost of meeting up specification requirement, it is completely offset in the long run by savings in the LCCs. The study thus demonstrates the cost savings accruable via the adoption of adequate designs and specification detailing in catering for environmental factors in the construction of dwellings. The need to factor in long-term running costs in investment decisions is further underscored, considering the rapid pace of urbanisation and high population growth rate characteristic of developing countries in the tropics, which has led to the increasing demand for marginal lands mostly located on floodplains. These \"difficult sites\" pose problems and need to undergo preliminary engineering assessment and deployment of techniques such as ground improvement methods, as well as require specialized construction materials, along with increased labour requirement. All of which will imply significantly increased costs that the potential building investor needs to be aware of in order to make informed decisions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on the ongoing discourse centred on enhancing building performance to provide an interpretation of life cycle cost (LCC) analysis, directly applicable to building construction in coastal areas located in tropical wet-humid settings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey of 50 buildings based on physical observation is carried out to identify typical failure patterns in wet-humid environment. Further, a comparative initial construction cost and LCC analysis is computed for two alternative building schemes with identical floor plans: Scheme A using sound construction and detailing to guard against future maintenance problems and Scheme B adopting the typical designs evident in the study area.\nFindings: The result of the analysis shows that in the long-run scheme, A is an economically more viable option than B, as the increased initial costs are entirely offset by the reduced running cost.\nResearch limitations/implications: The contextual nature of LCC analysis poses difficulties in applying the evidence provided in this study to provide a generalisable financial justification to buildings clients.\nPractical implications: The outcome of the study provides analytical validation to overcome resistances and enables informed decision making by clients, which is necessary to promote transition from conventional to environmentally responsive design choices suitable to wet-humid conditions.\nOriginality/value: The study provides an interpretation of LCC analysis, directly applicable to building construction in the tropical wet-humid setting of coastal areas against the backdrop of inconsistencies in the practical application of the theory of LCC.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Patching security governance: an empirical view of emergent governance mechanisms for cybersecurity
|
[
"Internet",
"Governance",
"Data security"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Main paper: In recent years, cybersecurity has been framed as one of \"the most important areas\" of the broader \"global war\" around internet governance (De Nardis, 2014, p. 88). Mueller (2017) characterized it as a battle between two conflicting governance models: the nation-state model of national security and the global governance model of multi-stakeholder collaboration, as codified in global and transnational institutions like IGF, IETF, ICANN, etc. Other authors also observe processes of \"securitization\" and \"militarization\" at work (Hurel, 2017). Cybersecurity threats are interpreted in terms of foreign policy and military conflict, which enable state actors to encroach on cooperative forms of global governance. To Mueller (2017), the danger is clear: \"the equation of cybersecurity with state responsibility and national security/military responsibilities means that a large chunk of global Internet policy making is in danger of being pushed out of the open, multistakeholder model\".\n2. Discourse vs control: We start by observing a simple distinction: talking about governance is not the same as actual governance. Governance - even in its earliest roots - is intrinsically tied to control, steering, influence. Governance without actual control is basically discourse about governance.\n3. Changes in security governance: How is cybersecurity governance actually changing? Earlier, we defined governance as policy-driven control over internet resources, systems and services. Where is this control located? Anyone studying how security threats are handled in practice will soon observe that decisions about the protection of a resource are closely tied to the ownership of that resource. Notwithstanding concepts that frame the internet as a \"global digital commons\" or \"public good\", the fact is that nearly every resource, system or service is someone's private property. There are some complicated legal \"edge cases\" around ownership of, for example, IP addresses, but these are minor exceptions. What risks are mitigated, accepted or externalized is driven first and foremost by the incentives of the owner. Institutional mechanisms might constrain or otherwise shape these incentives.\n4. Case studies: emerging governance mechanisms for security externalities: In the previous section, we surveyed high-level shifts in cybersecurity governance. Complementing this analysis, we now turn to several small case studies of governance mechanisms that have emerged around negative externalities. Externalities are the effects of economic transactions on third parties. Typical examples are network effects (a positive externality, where a service becomes more valuable to a user as other users join the service) and environmental pollution (a negative externality, where the cost of pollution is borne by society). Many important security threats are examples of negative externalities: compromised nodes (hacked end-user machines, websites, IoT devices) that are used to support attacks on third parties, rather than the owner of the machine.\n5. Conclusion: In this paper, we defined governance as policy-driven control over resources, systems and services. In that light, much of what is now studied as governance is actually discourse about governance, rather than actual governance. At the level of discourse, the maligned trends of securitization and militarization are indeed observable, but there is little evidence that control is actually shifting toward nation states - the notable exception being offensive operations. States have become an important part of the threat landscape. This is something different, however, from providing governance over the defensive challenge of cybersecurity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The issue of cybersecurity has been cast as the focal point of a fight between two conflicting governance models: the nation-state model of national security and the global governance model of multi-stakeholder collaboration, as seen in forums like IGF, IETF, ICANN, etc. There is a strange disconnect, however, between this supposed fight and the actual control over cybersecurity \"on the ground\". This paper aims to reconnect discourse and control via a property rights approach, where control is located first and foremost in ownership.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper first conceptualizes current governance mechanisms through ownership and property rights. These concepts locate control over internet resources. They also help us understand ongoing shifts in control. Such shifts in governance are actually happening, security governance is being patched left and right, but these arrangements bear little resemblance to either the national security model of states or the global model of multi-stakeholder collaboration. With the conceptualization in hand, the paper then presents case studies of governance that have emerged around specific security externalities.\nFindings: While not all mechanisms are equally effective, in each of the studied areas, the author found evidence of private actors partially internalizing the externalities, mostly on a voluntary basis and through network governance mechanisms. No one thinks that this is enough, but it is a starting point. Future research is needed to identify how these mechanisms can be extended or supplemented to further improve the governance of cybersecurity.\nOriginality/value: This paper bridges together the disconnected research communities on governance and (technical) cybersecurity.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Organizational transformation in health care: an activity theoretical analysis
|
[
"Culture",
"Implementation",
"Screening",
"Activity system analysis",
"Cross-continuum collaborations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Patients aged 65 years and older are at increased risk of being admitted or readmitted to an emergency department (ED) (Samaras et al., 2010). Older frail patients admitted to hospital are particularly at risk of functional decline and readmission (De Buyser et al., 2014). This is a challenge socioeconomically, physically and psychologically for the patients and their relatives (Kamp and Hvid, 2012).\n2. Methods: 2.1 Setting\n3. Design: 3.1 Ethnographic field study\n4. Results: 4.1 Historical perspectives on practice in the municipalities\n5. Discussion: This study shows that testing a new screening tool created different transformations both in the municipalities and in the geriatric team in the ED. These transformations raise the question whether sustained cross-continuum collaboration between the two sectors was developed and to what extent it is possible to implement the new tool. Exploring the particular past and present object of activity revealed the relational nature of activity systems, involving primary nurses, the geriatric team from the ED and the general practitioners, working together in \"knots\" (Engestrom, 2008), meaning that all the participants in the project collectively tried to redesign their practice to reach the collectively shared outcome; to prevent readmission of older medical patients. The collaboration was, especially for the municipalities, not considered rigid, with predetermined rules or a fixed central authority. Instead they could design and organize the intervention for at-risk patients as they believed would make the best sense for the citizen, which is a motivational factor to adapt to local context and to implement the new tool (Craig et al., 2008). This categorization of at-risk patients, mediated by the screening tool, established a new collective activity whereby the nurses provided more comprehensive care than before the implementation of the tool. This categorization actually included the citizens in the discourse, which is in contrast to other studies from Engestrom (2000), where the object, e.g. the patient, was excluded from the discourse. The categorization mediated the transformation from coordination to cooperation, internally in the municipalities, between the nurses and nursing assistants, and between the nurses and the general practitioners.\n6. Conclusion: This study has shown that implementation of screening tools always mediates different contradictions and transformations in different sectors. Screening tools are not objective, neutral or \"acontexual\" artifacts and must always be adapted to the local context. CHAT offers a way to understand the leading collective object when working with organizational transformations and implementation and focus not only on the structural changes but also the cultural aspects of organizational changes if we want to reach a sustained change and implementation of the new screening tool in different sectors.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Older patients are at high risk of hospital readmission, which has led to an increasing number of screening and intervention programs. Knowledge on implementing screening tools for preventing readmissions in emergency department (ED), where the primary focus is often the present-day flow of patients, is scant. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether a new screening tool for predicting readmissions and functional decline in medical patients>65 years of age could be implemented and its influence on cross-continuum collaborations between the primary and secondary sectors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study took place in an ED in Denmark, in collaboration with the surrounding municipalities. An evaluation workshop with nurses and leaders from the ED and the surrounding municipalities took place with the aim of investigating the organizational changes that occurred in daily practice after the implementation of the screening tool. The workshop was designed and analyzed using cultural historical activity theory (CHAT).\nFindings: The results showed that it was possible to develop collaboration between the two sectors during the test period. However, the screening tool created different transformations for the municipality employees and in the ED. The contradictions indicated that the screening tool did not mediate a general and sustained transformation in the cross-continuum collaboration.\nResearch limitations/implications: Screening tools are not objective, neutral or \"acontexual\" artifacts and must always be adapted to the local context and sectors. CHAT offers a perspective to understand the collective object when working with organizational transformations and implementation.\nPractical implications: The study have shown that screening tools are not objective, neutral or \"acontexual\" artifacts and must always be adapted to the local context. This is called adaption process. This adaption requires time and resources that should be taken into consideration from the beginning of introduction of new screens.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes with knowledge about CHAT which offers a way to understand the leading collective object when working with organizational transformations and implementation. CHAT focuses not only on the structural changes but also on the cultural aspects of organizational changes, which is important if we want to reach a sustained change and implement the new screening tool in different sectors.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The importance of policy to effective IM use and improved performance
|
[
"IM policy",
"Adaptation actions",
"Self-learning",
"IM competence",
"Effective use",
"Instant messaging",
"Communication quality",
"Productivity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Because of its quick response time and immediate presence awareness, instant messaging (IM) has been widely used as a tool to share information in the workplace (Galluch et al., 2015). However, there are conflicting results regarding the impact of IM use at work (Ajjan et al., 2014). Some studies find that IM has a negative impact through increasing work interruptions (Addas and Pinsonneault, 2018; Lebbon and Sigurjonsson, 2016; Ou and Davison, 2011) and improving workplace stressors (Stich et al., 2017). Other studies suggest that employees should use the features available in IM systems, such as signaling availability and muting notifications, to manage interruptions and mitigate negative effects (Garrett and Danziger, 2008). Still other studies find that IM improves communication, nurtures social capital, facilitates decisions and subsequently improves employee productivity (Shaw et al., 2007; Sheer and Rice, 2017).\nTheoretical background and hypothesis development: Theory of effective use\nMethod: Data collection\nData analysis: SmartPLS 2.0 (Ringle et al., 2005) was used to analyze the data. The partial least square algorithm was chosen because it has fewer statistical identification problems compared to covariance-based structural equation modeling (Hair et al., 2011).\nDiscussion: The results support our hypotheses that a comprehensive IM policy facilitates actions to improve effective use of IM, which boosts the effective use of IM and thereafter improves performance. These findings deepen our understanding of the antecedents and results of effective use of IM at work.\nConclusion: Although the use of IM at work has been studied in the IS field, its effective use has not been thoroughly addressed. This paper adapts Burton-Jones and Grange's theory of effective use to provide a deeper understanding of the antecedents and consequences of effective use of IM at work. This research introduces \"comprehensive IM policy\" as a facilitator of adaptation and learning actions to improve effective use of IM. The results reveal that having a comprehensive IM policy encourages employees to perform adaptation and learning actions, which improve the effective use of IM and thereafter improve performance associated with IM use. We hope that our study will stimulate the exploration of the importance of IT policy and the effective use of a variety of IT artifacts.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Although the use of instant messaging (IM) at work has been studied in the IS field, its effective use and impact on performance have not been adequately addressed. The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents and consequences of the effective use of IM at work by adapting Burton-Jones and Grange's theory of effective use.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors introduce \"Comprehensive IM policy\" as a facilitator of adaptation and learning actions to improve the effective use of IM, which will improve communication quality and productivity. The impact of IM competence on effective use is also discussed. Based on a survey of 215 managers, this study applies the partial least square technique to test the research model.\nFindings: The results indicate that comprehensive IM policy encourages adaptation and learning actions, which improve the effective use of IM and thereafter improve communication quality and productivity. Meanwhile, IM competence has a substitutive interaction effect with IM reconfiguration and self-learning on effective use.\nOriginality/value: The results refine the general theory of effective use and provide managers with an approach to leverage IM use at work for performance gains.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The nexus between Islamic banking and industrial production: Empirical evidence from Malaysia
|
[
"Islamic banking",
"ARDL",
"Industrial production",
"PLS financing",
"Toda and Yamamoto causality test"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The Islamic finance industry continues its impressive expansion with a total worth of US$2.19tn in 2018 (IFSB, 2019). Malaysia is one of the countries that has experienced an increasing presence of Islamic banks in its banking system. Indeed, the market share of Islamic banking assets has increased to 26.5 per cent in 2018 (IFSB, 2019). In addition, the growth rate of the aggregate assets of Islamic banks and windows has increased by 9.3 per cent between 2Q2016 and 2Q2017, contributing to a 1.1 per cent increase in their domestic market share (IFSB, 2018). The first Islamic bank in Malaysia, Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad, was established in 1983 at a time when the government encouraged local banks to enter the Islamic finance market. In 1999, Bank Muamalat Malaysia Berhad started its operations as the second Islamic bank. After a while, the Malaysian Government also allowed foreign Islamic banks to operate. In 2004, three licenses were issued to foreign Islamic banks. At the end of 2018, there were 11 local and five foreign Islamic banks operating in Malaysia. This increasing market share of Islamic banks in Malaysia begs the question of their role in economic growth. Previous studies on this topic (Hachicha and Amar, 2015; Kassim, 2016) have focused on the role of the global Islamic banks' financing instead of identifying the contribution of each mode of financing. Thus, this study seeks to fill this gap in the literature by decomposing Islamic banks' financing into profit and loss sharing (PLS) financing (mudarabah [profit-sharing contract] and musharakah [PLS contract]) and non-profit and loss sharing (non-PLS) financing (the rest of Islamic banks' financings such as murabahah, ijarah and istisna') and investigate the relationship between Islamic banking and industrial production.\nLiterature review: Studies on the nexus between Islamic banking and economic growth are abundant. They attempt to assess the role of Islamic banks' financing in fostering economic growth in the short run and long run. Yazdan and Sadr (2012) examine the relationship between Islamic banks' financing and economic growth in the cases of Iran and Indonesia using quarterly data (2000:1-2010:4). Their study uses the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) models. The results indicate that Islamic banks' financing is significantly associated with economic growth in short-run and long-run periods. The relationship appears to be bi-directional. In the same way, Abduh and Omar (2012) examine the relationships between Islamic banking development and economic growth in the case of Indonesia. The results show that Islamic financial development is significantly related to economic growth in both short-run and long-run periods. The relationship appears to be again bi-directional.\nMethodology: Data and variables\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nConclusion: The development of the Islamic finance industry and the increasing market share of Islamic banking in Malaysia make it necessary to assess the contribution of Islamic banks' financing to industrial production. Thus, the main goal of this study was to investigate empirically the contribution of each mode of Islamic banks' financing to industrial development. Using the ARDL and bounds testing approaches, this study provides evidence that Islamic banks' financing plays an important role in enhancing industrial development and that this positive effect in the short and the long run comes mainly from non-PLS financing. In contrast, the absence of any significant effect of PLS financing on industrial production may be attributed to the fact that mudarabah and musharakah, considered as long-term financing contracts, need long periods to give their effect. Thus, future research on this topic should use longer periods of study. The Toda and Yamamoto causality test show a bidirectional relationship between industrial development and IF, as well as non-PLS. In contrast, no causality relationship is found between PLS and industrial development.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between Islamic banking and industrial production by decomposing Islamic financing (IF) into profit and loss sharing (PLS) and non-profit and loss sharing (non-PLS) modes of financing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper applies the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach and Toda and Yamamoto causality test on the monthly data set for Malaysia from 2010M1 to 2018M6.\nFindings: The results reveal that IF plays an important role in boosting industrial production in the short run, as well as in the long run. Moreover, this positive effect mainly comes from non-PLS financing. In contrast, no significant relationship was found between PLS financing and industrial development neither in the short run nor in the long run.\nPractical implications: The results have several policy implications. The existence of a time lag between the pooling of funds through PLS contracts and their channeling to industrial activities imply that Malaysian Islamic banks should maintain a long-term relationship with investment account holders. In addition, Islamic banks are called to increase the portion of PLS financing. The positive relationship between the industrial production index and IF (through non-PLS techniques) in the short and the long runs implies that policymakers in Malaysia should multiply their efforts to further expand the Islamic banking industry.\nOriginality/value: The originality of this study lies in decomposing Islamic banks' financing into PLS financing (mudarabah and musharakah) and non-PLS financing to assess the contribution of each mode of financing in industrial development.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Optimal eco-labeling strategy with imperfectly informed consumers
|
[
"Competition",
"Eco-labelling criterion",
"Imperfectly informed consumers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: As consumers' awareness and concerns in the environment grow, an increasing number of consumers would opt for greener products, which often evoke positive feelings during purchase (Mantovani and Vergari, 2013; Hamilton and Zilberman, 2006). A survey conducted in Europe found 80 percent of citizens purchase environmentally-friendly products, 26 percent often and 54 percent sometimes[1]. In addition, technological advances makes it possible and even easier for consumers to observe or even trace the environmental quality in products. For example, information of crops can be recorded during process of agriculture production and then stored to radio-frequency identification tags (Wang et al., 2010).\n2. Literature review: Some of the earlier related works focus on the impacts eco-labeling has on consumers as well as firms (Arora and Gangopadhyay, 1995; Bougherara et al., 2005; Dranove and Jin, 2010; Ortega et al., 2012; Ben Youssef and Lahmandi-Ayed, 2008; Bottega and Freitas, 2009; Bottega et al., 2009; Bonroy and Constantatos, 2015). Nilsson et al. (2004) investigated 58 single message labeling schemes to figure out if they meet the expectations of the consumers. They concluded that the majority of consumers believed the schemes fall short of providing credible quality assurance. Amacher et al. (2004) investigated in a duopoly market and found firms' incentives to invest in green (eco-friendly) technologies depended on their relative cost structure. Mason (2006) studied a market under asymmetric information where technologies are fixed and output are not and analyzed the influence on the social welfare when eco-labeling option is introduced. Myslivecek (2008) discussed the labeling decisions in a perfect competitive market and concluded that profit maximizing certification is never welfare optimal. Caswell and Anders (2011) presented a survey of the evidence to show the performance impacts of mandatary or voluntary labeling schemes. Mason (2011) showed that when certification can distinguish a green firm from a normal firm only with a certain amount of noise, eco-labeling can either raise or lower welfare depending upon the cost and accuracy of the certification process.\n3. The model: Consider two competing firms (Firm 1 and Firm 2) where each firm supplies a product to the consumers. The two products are vertically differentiated in environmental quality. Following the convention of Mussa and Rosen (1978), we suppose that indirect utility of a consumer of type th buying from Firm i a unit of product of environmental quality qi at price pi, is given by:(1)\n4. All consumers are perfectly informed: In this section, we consider the extreme case that all consumers are perfectly informed as a benchmark (referred to as the perfectly informed benchmark hereafter), i.e. a=0. Backward induction is used to solve for a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium. Note that given the certification criteria qL, there are three possible outcomes regarding the two firms' application for the eco-label: neither firm chooses to apply for the eco-label; both firms choose to apply for the eco-label; and only one firm chooses to apply for the eco-label. If neither firm chooses to certify, the environmental qualities of their products remain at qmin=0. In the third stage, both firms determine the prices of their products at the marginal cost and thus obtain zero profit. If both firms choose to apply for the eco-label, they will set the environmental qualities of their products at qL to pass the certification and thus each make a negative profit equal to -K(qL).\n5. Partial consumers are imperfectly informed: 5.1 Demand\n6. Conclusions: Eco-label is widely used as a policy tool to provide consumers with environmental quality information of products. In most of the existing literature, consumers are supposed to be perfectly informed of the environmental quality of products stamped with eco-labels. However, evidence suggests that many consumers tend to misjudge the environmental quality conveyed by eco-labels. In this paper, we considered the more practical scenario where some consumers are imperfectly informed about the eco-label criteria.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to find the optimal environmental quality criteria for a strategic eco-labeling authority with three objectives (i.e. maximizing the aggregate environmental quality, maximizing the industry profit and maximizing the social welfare). Particularly, the authors investigate how the existence of imperfectly informed consumers affects labeling criteria determination and competition among firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A game-theoretic modeling approach was adopted in this paper. A three-stage sequential game was modeled and backward induction was used to solve for a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium. To investigate the impacts of the existence of imperfectly informed consumers, the equilibrium, if all consumers are perfectly informed of the eco-label, was studied as a benchmark.\nFindings: A more strict eco-labeling criterion improves revenues for both the labeled and unlabeled firms. It is interesting to find that the eco-labeling criteria to maximize industry profits are stricter than the criteria to maximize social welfare. Moreover, when the fraction of imperfectly informed consumers increases, the eco-labeling criteria to maximize aggregate environmental quality or industry profits will be more strict, while the criteria to maximize the social welfare will be looser.\nOriginality/value: The authors analyze the equilibrium strategies for firms against the eco-labeling criteria certified by authority with different objectives. The obtained optimal labeling strategies could provide insightful guidelines for the certifying authority to select the best suitable labeling criteria to achieve its goals.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Dimensions of hotel experience of people with disabilities: an exploratory study
|
[
"People with disabilities",
"Hotel experience",
"Crutches",
"Wheelchairs",
"Blind people",
"Israel"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Marketing literature centered on the needs and experiences of people with disabilities has grown rapidly in recent years (Grady and Ohlin, 2009; Ozturk et al., 2008). The size of the disabled market, estimated at between 10 and 19 percent of the general population, is suggested to be one main motive for such studies (Bull et al., 2003; Huh and Singh, 2007; Kaufman-Scarborough, 1998). Also, efforts to better understand people with disabilities may be based on recent legislative endeavors rooted in US law and subsequently enacted in Europe and elsewhere. The American Disabilities Act (Part III passed in 1990) and the Disability Discrimination Act (Part 3 passed in 1995) symbolize a new stage with regard to the civil rights of people with disabilities. These laws were further modified (for example, the ADA Amendments Act of 2008) and serve as models for protecting the civil rights of people with disabilities. Other countries such as, Bermuda (Forbes, 2009), Scotland and Northern Ireland relied on the DDA and the ADA (SAiF, 2009) to establish their own codes of practice. Other countries such as Israel and Canada established country specific codes of practice and regulations based on civil rights and equal opportunity laws relating to access to accommodation (Rosen, 2007). The impact of the ADA and the DDA is also evident in hotel chains and associations (e.g. Hotel Association of India, 2009), many of which established specific practice codes. Such codes relate primarily to hotel rooms and public areas (British Standards, 2008), almost exclusively focusing on the physical aspects of the environment and the mobility considerations of people with disabilities.Research interest in people with disabilities is also evident in tourism and hospitality related studies (Groschl, 2007; Lane, 2007; McKercher et al., 2003). Surprisingly, only few empirical studies have focused exclusively on the actual hotel experience of people with disabilities. Moreover, Grady and Ohlin (2009) highlighted the importance of speaking directly with people with disabilities in order to understand their needs in the context of tourism and hospitality (Chen, 2004; Ozturk et al., 2008). Such studies providing people with disabilities with an opportunity to express their needs are rare. This exploratory research aims to enrich the hospitality literature by identifying the difficulties that people with disabilities confront during their hotel experience.This research is part of a series of studies focusing on the tourism experiences of Israelis with diverse disabilities (Poria et al., 2009, 2010) proposing concrete management implications based on the personal experience of consumers with disabilities.\nLiterature review: Conceptualizing disability and barriers\nResearch objectives: In line with Baker et al.'s (2002) call for giving people with disabilities a voice, this exploratory study has two main aims: First, to explore the hotel experience of people who use wheelchairs and/or crutches as well as that of blind people - highlighting both physical and non-physical difficulties raised by the respondents as preventing a satisfying hotel experience. Second, the study aims to explore how people with disabilities overcome the aforementioned difficulties in the hotel servicescape (Bitner, 1992).In this study, a less common research approach to exploring people with disabilities' hotel experience was adopted. Specifically, Huh and Singh (2007) argue that studies in tourism which focus on people with disabilities approach the subject from the perspectives of social justice and altruism and meeting legal requirements rather than marketing purposes. This research, however, is unique in the sense that it does not only adopt a marketing approach, but integrates such an approach with the aforementioned ecological perspective to disability. This integration may lead to concrete and applied management recommendations, based on the consumer's perspective, namely the personal experiences of people with disabilities.\nMethodology: This study is part of a series of studies focusing on the tourism experiences of people with disabilities (Poria et al., 2009, 2010). This paper reports the results relating to the hotel and its restaurants. A qualitative methodology approach was used for four main reasons:1. The complexity of the topic under investigation.2. The lack of existing data.3. The exploratory nature of this study.4. A qualitative research approach is specifically recommended when studying minority groups and people with disabilities in general, and in tourism in particular.The attributes assigned to qualitative research epistemology are relevant to the study of marginalized groups, such as people with disabilities, as it provides participants with the possibility to speak about their personal experiences. Moreover, this research approach allows researchers to position themselves as learners (rather then experts). As such, the respondents related to their memorable moments and were not directed or guided by the interviewer to refer to specific elements of the hotel experience or its servicescape. This approach may explain why certain servicescapes such as the hotel swimming pool, spa facilities or casinos as well as service encounters such as with room attendants were not mentioned by the participants.The study population was composed of residents of Israel. Based on a constructivist approach, the aim of the sampling procedure was to provide diversity of voices. Respondents represent a broad cross-section of people with mobility and visual impairments. The disability types were chosen based on ease of recognition by hotel staff. An attempt was made to include participants with congenital impairments as well as those who incurred impairments later in their life due to disease or accidents. Participants were recruited through personal contacts of the researchers, the help of organizations for people with disabilities, and community centers serving this population and their families. This nucleus group of interviewees was expanded by \"snowballing\", a sampling strategy that had been found useful and helpful in studies focusing on the tourist experience of people with disabilities. To prevent the snowball technique from producing a homogeneous sample, different individuals from various environments were approached in the first stage of data collection.Data collection was composed of two sections. First, in-depth interviews were conducted with experts (n=8) such as doctors and managers of organizations that cater mainly to the disabled (e.g. service providers in blind people's libraries, sport centers which cater to people with disabilities). Additionally, interviews were conducted with people with disabilities (n=14). These interviews provided initial information about the tourist experience of people with disabilities, as well as suggesting a format for the main interviews. In the main study, a semi-structured interview was utilized, allowing comparison of the participants' responses. The interview questionnaire was made up of several sections, with questions based on the literature review, the aforementioned preliminary interviews with people with disabilities and relevant experts.The literature recommended that researchers approach people with disabilities with sensitivity. Based on Diamond's suggestions (1999), at the beginning interviewees were informed that their participation was voluntary and that if they did not feel comfortable answering certain questions, they could ask to skip to the next question(s) or feel free to leave at any time. In addition, participants were contacted prior to the interview and asked to choose the location for the interview. It was specifically clarified that the interviewer could come to these locations. It was also decided to approach only individuals above the age of 21. No participants indicated any distress, before, during, or after the interviews.The interview began with some brief \"warm-up\" questions and the reviewer's self presentation. In addition, questions about individual visiting patterns were asked (e.g. how many hotels do you visit a year and with whom; did you stay in a room classified as accessible for people with disabilities). Next, participants were asked to relate to difficulties they encountered during their visits to hotels in Israel and abroad, referring to hotels that were classified or advertised as \"accessible\" (e.g. please describe the difficulties you faced when staying in an accessible room). These questions were derived from various published codes of conduct dealing with accessibility issues in hotels (e.g. ADA, DDA) as well as from tourism literature addressing barriers and obstacles for the tourist experience (e.g. Francken and van Raaij, 1981; Iso-Ahola and Mannell, 1985; McKercher et al., 2003). Participants were also asked to describe specific incidents in the hotel, in which they experienced difficulties associated with their disability. This method is similar to the Critical Incident Technique (Baker et al., 2007). The questions were in line with the social model of disability, attempting to capture how people perceive their own disability. Additionally, participants were asked to describe how they overcame the difficulties they encountered, so that these measures could be possibly used to improve accessibility to the facility and movement within it (e.g. Please describe how you overcome some of the difficulties you mentioned; for instance, you stated that the door was so heavy that you could not open it, so how did you get into the room?). This set of questions was based on the ecological approach to disability, aiming to capture the situation when one's disability becomes a handicap. Interviewees were also asked to compare their hotel experiences to visiting other tourist attractions (e.g. Please compare the hotel experience for people with disabilities in comparison to a visit to a museum). The questions which contributed most to the study's implications were those in which the interviewees were asked to provide hotel management with recommendations on how to improve the hotel visit experience for people like themselves.As this study's aim is inspired by the ecological approach and the social model of disability, during the interviews, attempts were made to provide the interviewee with a distinct voice and to enable him/her to reveal his/her feelings. The interviews were in line with the naturalistic approach that seeks to understand phenomena in context-specific settings. To illustrate their views, participants were encouraged to draw on their personal experiences and those of friends. The average interview lasted 75 minutes, and - according to the interviewee's preference - was either recorded or transcribed. The interviews were conducted in Hebrew. Significant parts of the interviews were translated into English, paying careful attention to the nuances of both languages. Later, the transcripts were submitted along the original Hebrew text to a professional translator who is very familiar with both Israeli and American cultures. The notes were then subjected to thematic content analysis to illuminate underlying themes. Through the \"cut and paste approach,\" the texts were re-contextualized into topics. Data were analyzed manually due to the inductive nature of this study. As indicated earlier, few studies focus on people with disabilities' travel experiences and even fewer, focus on the hotel experience. As such and due to the exploratory nature of the study, no underlying hypotheses guided the analysis. The researcher coded the data only after several interviews had been conducted. The analysis was guided by Denzin and Lincoln's (2000) authenticity criteria to achieve credibility. Specifically, the memoing process, inspired by Glaser and Strauss (1967), was adopted. This study used a data-driven approach and the memoing process served as a basis for the analysis.To further ensure credibility, the five-stage audit trail suggested by Akkerman et al. (2008) was utilized. In the start document stage (Akkerman et al., 2008, p. 266), a review of the tourism literature and of studies dealing with people with disabilities was conducted. The main focus of the first stage highlighted the conceptualization of barriers for tourism experiences, as well as barriers for participation of other minority groups in leisure and tourism. Additionally, it was decided to adopt the experientially based approach to tourist experience as well as the social approach to disabilities as suggested by Darcy (2002) and Baker et al. (2007). In light with the ontological and epistemological perspective, participants were encouraged to speak and describe themselves. Also, at this stage the researchers reflected on their positioning as active learners rather then experts.Data collection lasted for almost two years (2005-2007). In total, the main study included 45 Israelis with disabilities. Of these, 20 used wheelchairs (17 manual chairs and three electricity-driven chairs), and ten were dependent on crutches. Participants ranged in age from 23 to 71 (M=43). The remaining 15 participants were visually impaired (totally blind), the youngest of who was 23 and the oldest 70 (M=37). No participant had double impairments. Data were collected from both men and women (19 men and 26 women), in an attempt to reduce the likelihood of gender bias. Participants related to average and high standard hotels as well as to hotels that advertise the availability of accessible rooms regardless of their rank. Data about motel and youth hostel use was not reported. The interviews with participants who do not frequent hotels aimed to identify barriers to the hotel visit (seven participants did not visit hotels). The data collection phase was concluded when it became apparent that additional interviews would yield theoretical saturation.Data analysis was straightforward in the sense that the researchers achieved a high level of agreement on the emergent categories and themes. Clearly, this type of consensus corresponds to the exploratory nature of the study. The next stage involved the interpretation of the data, emphasising participants' views whether or not congruent the current body of literature.It should be noted that to date no official statistics on hotel visits by people with disabilities is available in Israel. In 2008, there were 21 million nights' stays in Israel hotels (occupancy rate 65.9 percent). There are 47,142 rooms available in 336 officially listed hotels (Israel Bureau of Statistics, 2009). The hospitality industry employs 32,000 people (Israel Bureau of Statistics, 2009). No star or other official ranking classification system is applied, however, given the small size of the country; the quality of most hotels is common knowledge. Currently, an industry-wide code of practice relating to people with disabilities is not available.\nFindings: The findings are divided into four sections: the hotel room, hotel public areas, hotel restaurants, and staff. Each section presents the difficulties faced by the participants and how they overcame them. The difficulties reported were in some sections divided according to disability type and in other sections they were unified into a single category. The quotations in the text demonstrate the main themes identified.Based on the informants' reports, a differentiation was made between difficulties and barriers. Difficulties and barriers were coded into diverse categories:* difficulties and barriers linked to types of environment (human or physical); and* difficulties and barriers linked to emotions (pain, shame, frustration or all).Hotel room\nDiscussion: Summary\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This exploratory study aims to focus on the challenges arising from the interactions between wheelchair users, individuals using crutches and blind people with the hotel environment as well as on the efforts to overcome these challenges.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The sample was gathered through a snowballing technique. The study utilizes in-depth semi-structured interviews of 45 participants: 20 used wheelchairs; ten were dependent on crutches; and 15 were blind. The data were subject to thematic content analysis.\nFindings: - Interpreted by the social model of disability, the results suggest that the challenges participants confront derive from the physical design of the environment as well as staff behaviors. Differences were found between the hotel experiences of people with various types of disabilities.\nResearch limitation/implications: - The sample was limited to Israeli participants.\nPractical implications: - The paper offers recommendations for hotel management with regard to specific physical as well as interpersonal means to alleviate apparent difficulties faced by people with disabilities in their hotel experiences.\nOriginality/value: - This study broadcasts the genuine voice of people with disabilities. The findings are of special relevance to hospitality researchers, educators, executives, and hotel staff.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
"Life if elsewhere": A diary study of female self-initiated expatriates' motivations to work abroad
|
[
"Women",
"Expatriates",
"Feminism",
"Careers",
"Self-initiated expatriates",
"Existentialism"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Among the over 200m people working abroad (Lauring and Selmer, 2014), a large and increasing number choose to self-initiate their relocation (e.g. Selmer and Lauring, 2010; Tharenou, 2010; Tharenou and Caulfield, 2010). The academic interest for these individuals, known as self-initiated expatriates (SIEs)--i.e. those who move abroad for work without the sponsorship of a specific organization (Andresen et al., 2015; Doherty et al., 2011), is growing accordingly (Andresen et al., 2015). SIEs are more numerous than corporate expatriates (e.g. Jokinen et al., 2008; Nolan and Morley, 2014) and form a more gender-balanced population (Suutari and Brewster, 2000; Tharenou, 2010; Thorn, 2009). From an academic perspective, this group offers new opportunities to study a large population of working women relatively independent from men and therefore detached from prevailing masculinized discourse in management research (Ahl and Marlow, 2012; Bendl, 2008). In line with prior studies attempting to explore the impact of gender on the SIEs experience (e.g. Shortland, 2015; Tharenou, 2010), and joining prior research studying samples of women (e.g. N.S. Adler, 1986; Crowley-Henry and Weir, 2007; Linehan and Walsh, 1999), we focus here on the motivations to work abroad of single childless female SIEs.\nTheoretical background: SIEs' motivations to relocate\nMethods: Research setting\nFindings: The content of blogs, like diaries, reflects bloggers' whereabouts and thoughts or feelings about what happens during the day. As such, they can deal with anything and everything (integration, work, romance, friends, differences between home and host countries, food, etc.), enabling us to appraise their motives and how these motives reflect their experience of expatriation. As illustrated in Figure 2, our analysis of the blogs revealed that there were four main dimensions comprising the model of motivations, based on the socially constructed experience of these single childless female SIEs: escape as main motivation, confrontation to reality, identity reconstruction and finding one's true self.\nDiscussion: Our goal was to explore the motivations of single childless female SIEs to work in a foreign country, examining how the experience of expatriation is positioned within a career perspective. Our findings suggest that these women work in a new cultural environment in order to escape from their current career path and explore other options. Specifically, we found that through the experience of expatriation, and as reality confronts the motivations to relocate, difficulties associated with emotional and culture shocks move these female SIEs toward the creation of their new identity.\nConclusion: Our study of childless single female SIEs' motivations to relocate emphasizes the importance of studying various populations of SIEs. Our results advance the expatriation literature by showing that motivations to relocate and career perspectives differ depending on gender as well as the marital and parental status of SIEs. Future research may compare motivations and trajectories based on these factors. Altogether, we hope that our research inspires future research on expatriation and gender, age or online diary methods, but also questions the established view on careers among young women within or outside the field of expatriation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the motives of female childless self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) in deciding to work abroad, so far under-researched.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study departs from prior research in using a new methodological approach, i.e. the analysis of online diaries (blogs) to explore the motives of a specific population to relocate.\nFindings: The emergent model of motivations is based upon four main dimensions that emerged from the socially constructed experience of these single childless female SIEs: escape as main motivation, confrontation to reality, identity reconstruction and purpose of expatriation.\nOriginality/value: The findings reveal new elements of motivations to move abroad such as the complete absence of the notion of career from the blog posts, replaced, however, by a feminist and existentialist reflection.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Can HR practices retain flexworkers with their agency?
|
[
"Motives",
"Contract work",
"Temporary work",
"Human resource practices",
"Turnover intention",
"Psychological contract"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Strategic tendencies of organizations to focus on core processes in order to be responsive to changes and demands in their markets, have increased the strategic application of flexible human resources (Kalleberg, 2001). A whole industry of organizations that supply flexible employment has arisen and grown tremendously over the past decades (Mitlacher, 2006). Within the group of flexible employment providers, there is a great variety of organizations. At one end of the extreme, low-cost suppliers operate which aim at functions in organizations that utilize widely available skills. At the other end of the extreme, specialist contract employee agencies supply for the flexible need of specialist knowledge in organizations (Mitlacher, 2006). These agencies match the demand for very specific knowledge or skills, which contracting organizations do not continuously need to have available in-house to reach their strategic goals (Lepak and Snell, 1999). Moreover, by relying on flexible specialists, organizations share in the knowledge creation between organizations and avoid dealing with outdated information (Matusik and Hill, 1998). Since skills for these positions are not widely available in the labor market (Lepak and Snell, 1999), specialist contract agencies build their business on marketing short-term specialist human capital. Positions that typically fit this specialist category of contract work are, for example, technicians, IT-specialists lawyers or financial experts (Matusik and Hill, 1998; McKeown and Hanley, 2009).\nTheory: Specialist contract work agency work and retention\nMethod: Research context\nResults: Table III shows the means, standard deviations and correlations of all variables. As can be seen from Table III, the overall perception of HR practices is negatively correlated with turnover intentions (r=-0.449, p<0.01). This also applies to the five practices that sustain this overall perception of HR (supervisor support, training, career development support, information sharing and employee participation). Besides, there is a positive correlation between the career development motivation and freedom motivation (r=0.279, p<0.01). Career development motivation is negatively correlated to turnover intention (r=-0.245, p<0.01) and positively to the perception of HR practices (r=0.370, p<0.01). There is no significant correlation between freedom motivation and turnover intention. The correlations between freedom motivation and the perception of the separate HR practices (supervisor support, training, career development support, information sharing and employee participation) are absent to small (range from r=-0.007, ns for information sharing to r=0.197, p<0.01 for training opportunities). The correlations between career development motivation and HR practices were somewhat stronger (range from r=0.206, p<0.01 for employee participation to r=0.367, p<0.01 for training opportunities). Tenure was not correlated to turnover intention (r=0.076, ns). However tenure was positively related to freedom motivation (r=0.157, p<0.01), and negatively to career development motivation (r=-213, p<0.01).\nDiscussion: The labor market for contingent high skilled professionals consists of triadic relations between worker, intermediary agency and client organization (Kunda et al., 2002). Where most studies focus on flex workers and the position of flex workers in client organizations, we focussed on the effect of HR practices of an intermediary agency for flex worker retention to the agency.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Workers have different motives to be employed at specialist contract work agencies, such as career development aspirations, or a desire for freedom and independence. The purpose of this paper is to study how these different motives relate to the appreciation of HR practices applied by agencies and consequently to employee retention at the agency.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected in a contract work agency for financial professionals. Management was interviewed about the HR practices used for employee retention. In addition, 291 agency employees filled out a questionnaire about their motives to be employed at the agency, their appreciation of the HR practices of the contract agency and their turnover intentions.\nFindings: Regression analysis showed that career development motivation was related to retention at the agency, but that this relation became weaker when tenure with the agency increased. HR practices (like training, supervisory support, career development support, information sharing and employee participation) proved to be related to lower turnover intentions of flex workers with a career development motivation. For flex workers with a freedom motivation the HR practices had no relationship with retention.\nResearch limitations/implications: Data collection in one agency may limit generalization. Additional research needs to zoom in on alternative HR retention practices that align with freedom motivation.\nOriginality/value: Specialist contract work agencies typically experience difficulties with employee retention. Agencies may retain their workers if they apply HR practices that are aligned with the motivation of people engaging in contract work.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
What are the fundamental features supporting service quality?
|
[
"Customer services quality",
"Total quality management",
"Internal marketing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\nIntroduction: The purpose of this article is to identify fundamental features that support service quality by means of a literature review. Issues concerning service quality appear in a variety of literature, in particular total quality management (TQM), areas of service marketing, including internal marketing and the study of service quality gaps - the conceptualisation of service quality as the gap between customer expectations and perceptions of performance. Those three areas were chosen, firstly, because each area of literature provides a variety of features that can support service quality, and overviews of research typically focus on only one of these areas. Hence, it becomes very difficult, both for academic researchers and for practitioners, to identify those features that are crucial for underpinning service quality. Secondly, because it has been acknowledged that there are certain similarities between TQM and internal marketing (Rafiq and Ahmed, 1993), and because internal marketing has been seen as vital for strategies to close gap 3 - the differences between customer driven service designs/standards and service delivery - as one of the service quality gaps (Zeithaml and Bitner, 1996; Gronroos, 1990a). However, no link between TQM and the study of service quality gaps has been established. In this article, a comparative study of the literature in these three areas is carried out revealing those features that have been focused on by all three areas of literature and hence enables those features that are crucial in supporting service quality to be identified. This article begins with general descriptions of TQM, internal marketing and service quality gaps, and identifies critical issues for the management of service quality in each area of the literature.\nTotal quality management: Total quality management (TQM) first appeared in the manufacturing sector around the mid-1980s (Martinez-Lorente et al., 1998), and it has since developed rapidly as a business philosophy emphasising continuous improvement of quality in order to achieve maximum customer satisfaction via the development of a quality organisation (Kanji, 1990). A number of definitions are found in the literature, and it is clear that customer satisfaction or meeting customer needs, and continuous improvement are widely regarded as the central issues of TQM (Garvin, 1988; Koller, 1990; Searstone, 1991; Wilkinson, 1992; Brown, 1994; Lakhe and Mohanty, 1994; Price and Gaskill, 1991; Braver, 1995; Omachonu and Ross, 1994; Collinson et al., 1998; Gunasekaran, 1999).Principles of TQM\nInternal marketing: The concept of internal marketing was developed in the 1980s when service quality began to receive much attention (Rafiq and Ahmed, 1995). Although internal marketing has been discussed, defined and conceptualised in a number of ways, it has been agreed that successful internal marketing is a key to delivering superior service and thus, to successful external marketing (Berry and Parasuraman, 1992; Greene et al., 1994).The fundamental focus of internal marketing is on \"employees\" whose function is to provide, produce or perform services to internal and/or external customers. Internal marketing enables employees \"to do the best possible work\" (Greene et al., 1994) and to provide \"the best possible customer treatment\" by developing and enhancing a service culture (Gronroos, 1990b) and/or an internal environment (Caruana and Calleya, 1998). Zerbe et al. (1998) assert that the ultimate goal of internal marketing is to create a service culture, and that in turn will help to establish customer consciousness among employees (Gronroos, 1990b; Rafiq and Ahmed, 1993; Varey, 1995b; Hogg et al., 1998).There are, broadly, two different approaches to internal marketing. On the one hand, internal marketing means to treat employees as customers; therefore, the marketing concepts and methods such as the traditional marketing mix of the 4Ps including additional 3Ps are applicable within a firm (Collins and Payne, 1991; Rafiq and Ahmed, 1993; Varey, 1995a, b).Other commentators have maintained that although marketing mix contributes a useful framework to internal marketing, it is unlikely to cover all the internally related issues needed in order to succeed in the external environment (Gilmore and Carson, 1995). Specifications of internal marketing with less adherence to the framework of marketing mix, but more emphasis on the importance of individual elements of the mix have been discussed.Elements of internal marketing\nService quality gaps: The gap model of service quality was first developed by Parasuraman et al. (1985). They state that the service quality gaps model is the conceptualisation of service quality as the gap between customer expectations and perceptions of performance. The model focuses on strategies and processes for companies to use in pursuit of service quality (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2000). There are four major discrepancies contributing to service quality gaps, and each of the four gaps in turn contributes to the existence of gap 5 (the differences between customer expectations and perceptions: the actual service received). However, internal marketing is referred to as the \"strategies to close gap 3\" (Zeithaml and Bitner, 1996), and it is also argued that the issues of internal marketing have been seen as vital for closing gap 3 (Gronroos, 1990b). Hence, only gap 3 will be considered.Gap 3 is the differences between customer-driven service designs/standards and service delivery. There are four categories of cause for the existence of gap 3: employee roles; customer participation; intermediaries; and demand and supply (Zeithaml and Bitner, 1996). Here, only employees' roles are considered since the major concern of internal marketing is internal customers, i.e. employees. First of all, the reasons for gap 3 occurrence are briefly examined in order to identify the critical importance of service providers. Subsequently, strategies for closing gap 3 are discussed in detail.The reasons for gap 3 occurrence\nCorresponding features: Within the TQM literature, the soft aspects of TQM have been seen as vital to the service sector, work on internal marketing has highlighted its role as a means to developing a service culture and to encouraging quality service delivery, and from the service quality literature, the study of strategies to close gap 3 has also contributed to the debate on the improvement of service quality. There are several features in common among the principles of TQM, the elements of internal marketing, and the strategies to close gap 3. Table I brings TQM, internal marketing and the strategies to close Gap 3 together. First of all, the principles of TQM are displayed at the top of the table, the elements of internal marketing are presented on the left hand side, and the strategies to close gap 3 are illustrated on the right hand side. A tick is placed in a category only when TQM, internal marketing, and the strategies to close gap 3 correspond to each other. As can be seen from the table (large font size), the \"corresponding features\" are:* Recruitment and selection.* Training.* Teamwork.* Empowerment.* Performance appraisals/measurement, recognition and reward.* Communication.* Culture.These \"seven corresponding features\" can be seen to match many practices within HRM. This may not be an entirely surprising finding since a number of authors stress the importance of HRM in order to achieve successful TQM implementation (Walker, 1992; Schonberger, 1994; Brown, 1994; Snape et al., 1995; Smyth and Scullion, 1996; Chen, 1997) especially the soft aspects (Wilkinson, 1992, 1994; Collinson et al., 1998). Moreover, it has been highlighted that the essential functions of HRM for internal marketing (Collins and Payne, 1991; Gilmore and Carson, 1995; Varey, 1995a, b; Joseph, 1996; Caruana and Calleya, 1998; Varey and Lewis, 1999). Only the strategies to close gap 3 do not seem to refer to HRM. Yet, a fundamental reason for the occurrence of Gap 3 stems from HR issues. Furthermore, the critical importance of HRM to the pursuit of service quality has been widely acknowledged (Schneider and Bowen, 1985, 1993; Bowen and Lawler, 1992; Lewis, 1994; Baron and Harris, 1995; Lovelock, 1995; Yavas and Shemwell, 1997; Lewis and Gabrielsen, 1998; Redman and Mathews, 1998; Bowen et al., 2000). Due to the characteristics of services, it has been regarded as vital to ensure service quality and to maintain quality standards in service providers' behaviour/performance. Hence, \"the seven corresponding features\" could be seen as the predominant attributes in the promotion of service quality.\nConclusion: There are many features that have been regarded as having a critical role in supporting service quality in the academic and practitioner oriented literature. This article has clarified focal points in the management of service quality by identifying seven features common to three areas of literature. All of these are concerned with the search for service excellence in a wide range of service industries. Although there are other factors that can influence service quality, the identification of \"the seven corresponding features\" provides managers and academics with a valuable framework with which to start in pursuit of service quality across a variety of service businesses.\nManagerial implications: The large and ever-growing research literature has identified a number of factors that may potentially impact on service quality. It is therefore very difficult for practitioners to decide which features most significantly influence service quality. By reviewing research across three broad areas of the literature and finding out what is common across these three fields, this article simplifies the task of determining the features most crucial for the management of quality in service businesses, and hence provides several important lessons for managers in the service industry. Seven features have been identified as crucial for underpinning service quality:1. Recruitment and selection of the best possible staff since a major cause of poor service quality is that the wrong people are recruited (Berry and Parasuraman, 1992).2. Training will be able to minimise the risk of service failure since poor training is one of the reasons for a lack of quality in human service (Joseph, 1996).3. Teamwork: weak service performance is strongly associated with a lack of teamwork; therefore, service failure can be minimised by effective teamworking (Redman and Mathews, 1998).4. Empowerment can play a key role in enhancing the level of service quality (Berry and Parasuraman, 1992). Simultaneity of production and consumption in service delivery frequently require staff to be flexible and have scope to use their discretion in meeting customer demands (Rafiq and Ahmed, 1998).5. Performance appraisals and reward: performance appraisals could give direction to the workforce (Nevling, 1992) via communicating managerial expectations to employees (Elmuti et al., 1992), and top management could guide employees' behaviour (Palmer, 2001) via rewarding outstanding employee behaviour (Parasuraman, 1986).6. Communication: a lack of communication will result in frustration when important information is not transferred and this in turn could cause customer dissatisfaction and poor service quality (Grinstead and Timoney, 1994a, b; Ingram and Desombre, 1999).7. Culture: since management in the service sector do not have direct control over quality (Gronroos, 1990a) nor over employees' behaviour (Schneider and Bowen, 1995), a strong service-oriented culture which truly inspires employee behaviour and give guidelines for right and proper behaviour toward customers (Siehl, 1992; Zerbe et al., 1998) is crucial for the successful management of service quality (Gronroos, 1990b).As the three areas of literature under consideration do not focus on any particular type of service business, the \"seven corresponding features\" are likely to be applicable across a wide range of service industries.\nImplications for further research: Although this article has identified fundamental features, the literature does not state which features are more important to service quality than others. Hence, further research could be aimed at ranking \"the seven corresponding features\" in terms of the contribution they have made to support service quality.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - There are many features that have been regarded as having a critical role in supporting service quality. The purpose of this article is to identify those features that are fundamental in supporting service quality.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A literature review was conducted covering total quality management (TQM), internal marketing, and the service quality literature, especially the study of service quality gaps. All of these are concerned with the search for service excellence.\nFindings: - From a comparative study of these three areas of the literature, it was found that there are seven common features: recruitment and selection, training, teamwork, empowerment, performance appraisals and reward, communication, and culture of the organisation. Each of them is argued to be critical for the management of service quality.\nPractical limitations/implications: - Although there are other factors that can influence service quality, the identification of fundamental features provides managers and academics with a valuable framework with which to start in pursuit of service quality across a variety of service businesses.\nOriginality/value: - Although management of service quality has been regarded as notoriously difficult due to the characteristics of services, by identifying fundamental features supporting service quality, this article provides focal points for the management of service quality.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The influence of selling behaviors on customer relationships in financial services
|
[
"Customer orientation",
"Financial services",
"Taiwan",
"Employees",
"Selling"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: For over a decade, relationship marketing has received increasing attention in both marketing theory and practice. Relationship marketing aims to establish, develop, and maintain successful relational exchanges with customers (Berry, 1983; Morgan and Hunt, 1994). The strategy of relationship marketing is particularly important to the service industries because of the intangible nature of service and their high level of customer interaction. A key feature of the strategy of relationship marketing is that not only does it result in increased customer retention and company profitability (Fornell and Wernerfelt, 1987; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990), but also provides a sustainable competitive advantage to a service firm as the intangible aspects of a relationship are not easily duplicated by competitors.Previous studies have shown that the selling behavior of employees is a critical tactic of firms in developing successful relationships with their customers. For example, Crosby et al. (1990) found the relational selling behaviors such as cooperative intentions, mutual disclosure, and intensive follow-up contact produce a strong buyer-seller bond in the service selling of life insurance. The literature in personal selling and sales management recognizes two distinct approaches to employees' selling behavior, i.e. selling orientation (SO) versus customer orientation (CO) (Saxe and Weitz, 1982). In the context of service selling, most previous studies only focused on the approach of CO. For example, Hennig-Thurau (2004) and Wray et al. (1994) have shown the CO of service personnel has a positive impact on customer relationships. However, the different service employee selling behaviors which result from an orientation towards either selling or the seller-customer relationship has not been compared and investigated empirically in the service literature.The selling orientation/customer orientation (SOCO) of a salesperson has been the subject of considerable research (Michaels and Day, 1985; Golf et al., 1997; Saxe and Weitz, 1982). Most of these studies examined salespersons' SOCO behavior on big-ticket tangible products. For example, Golf et al. (1997) investigated the influence of salesperson behavior (with respect to SOCO) on customer satisfaction of new car purchasers. Research, so far, has not incorporated the complete framework of SOCO in the context of service selling. The intangible nature of service and the high level of customer interaction highlight the promise of this study in contrasting the effects of different selling approaches on customer relationships.A key objective of this paper is to examine and contrast the impacts of a salesperson's selling behavior (SO versus CO) on customer relationship quality in the context of service selling. Specifically, this research hypothesizes that a salesperson's SO is negatively related to relationship quality while a salesperson's CO is positively related to relationship quality (Figure 1). Following a review of the available literature on relationship quality, a 3D structure of relationship quality is proposed. Furthermore, the model considers customer retention as a consequence and different salesperson's selling behaviors as an antecedent of relationship quality. The model is tested against a sample of two important financial services (insurance and banking) in Taiwan by utilizing the structural equation modeling technique. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings and their implications for service researchers and practices.\nLiterature review and hypotheses: Relationship quality\nMethods: Sample\nAnalytical results: To examine H1-H9, this study estimated the structural equation model using LISREL 8.72, using the maximum likelihood estimation method. Table IV shows the final results obtained from structural models. In the total sample, kh2=190.48 with 67 df and the kh2/df ratio of 2.84, CFI of 0.99, a GFI of 0.94 and a RMSEA of 0.07, which indicated that the model provides a good fit to the overall sample. The structural model was further assessed on the separate industry samples of life insurance and banks providing house mortgage services. The life insurance sample: kh2=116.66, df = 67, kh2/df = 1.74, CFI = 0.99, GFI = 0.92, and RMSEA = 0.06. The banks sample: kh2=169.38, df = 67, kh2/df = 2.52, CFI = 0.99, GFI = 0.90, and RMSEA = 0.08. Standardized estimates for the hypothesized paths of the total sample are presented in Table IV. All the paths depicted in the research model (H1-H9) were supported as the t-values associated with the correct signs were statistically significant (p<0.01) for the total samples.The empirical results illustrate SOCO's effects on relationship quality and customer retention. A service employee's CO had positive and significant effects on 3D of relationship quality, i.e. satisfaction, trust, and commitment. H1-H3 were supported. More specifically, a service employees' CO had positive impact on customer satisfaction, with the standardized path coefficients of between 0.72 for the insurance industry and 0.35 for the bank industry as shown in Table IV. As for trust, a service employee's CO was also found to significantly impact the consumer's trust in the service provider. This is the case for the total sample as well as the two sub-samples (insurance and banks), showing that H2 was clearly supported. Furthermore, providing support for H3, COSE also significantly influenced consumer's commitment to the service provider, with the standardized path coefficients of between 0.48 for the bank industry and 0.28 for the insurance industry. However, it should be noted that path coefficient of 0.28 for the insurance industry is only statistically significant at p<0.10. Because of the high-involvement nature of life insurance service, customers might consider not only the selling behavior of service employees but also the service itself when making life insurance purchase.On the other hand, a service employee's SOCO had significant negative effects on three dimensions of relationship quality, which supported H4-H6. More specifically, the negative influence of a service employee's SO on consumer's satisfaction and trust were quite strong for the total sample, with standardized path coefficients of -0.51 and -0.63, respectively. As with commitment, a service employee's SO was also found to significantly negatively impact the consumer's commitment in the service provider with standardized path coefficients of -0.67 for the total sample.As for the effect of relationship quality on customer retention, Table IV indicates that customer satisfaction, trust and commitment had a positive and significant effect on customer retention, which supported H7-H9. The path from customer satisfaction to customer retention was positive even though the coefficient of 0.11 is slight and only statistically significant at p<0.10 in the banking industry. The possible reason is that, for the banking industry, customer satisfaction is not enough for calling the customer back. Other factors, such as customer trust, might be more important. The positive impact of trust on customer retention was strong, with the standardized path coefficients of 0.64 for the banking industry and 0.34 for the insurance industry. The positive impact of commitment on customer retention was similar in the insurance industry, bank industry, and total sample, with standardized path coefficients of 0.24, 0.26, and 0.25, respectively. In summary, service employees adopting a SO approach directly affected relationship quality with the customers in a negative fashion while using a CO approach had a direct, positive effect on relationship quality with the customers. More importantly, the SOCO of service employees indirectly affected customer retention.Comparison with a rival model\nConclusions and implications: Because of the intangible nature of services and their high level of customer interaction, the selling behavior of service employees is often regarded as a main element of a firm's success. The current research hypothesized that a service employee's selling behavior has a direct impact on customer relationship quality and an indirect effect on customer retention. That is, a CO approach directly increases customer relationship quality and indirectly increases future retention, while a SO approach decreases relationship quality and retention. Based on an empirical analysis of the financial industries (insurance and banking) in Taiwan, the results of this study strongly support the relationships hypothesized in the proposed conceptual framework.The current research extended previous COSE studies (Hennig-Thurau, 2004; Saura et al., 2005) by comparing a service employee's CO/SO to customer relationship quality and retention. The SOCO of a salesperson has been the subject of considerable research (Michaels and Day, 1985; Golf et al., 1997; Saxe and Weitz, 1982); most of these studies examined salespersons' SOCO behavior on big-ticket tangible products, such as cars. This research filled a literature gap by incorporating the complete framework of SOCO in the context of service selling.The empirical findings of this study provide some important managerial implications to a service firm. If a service firm is to be successful, it must understand what customers expect from service employees in their market, and make sure that their employees meet those expectations and further maintain a good relationship with their customers. Many service firms (e.g. financial service firms and insurance agencies) are especially dependent on the development of long-term relationships with their customers. This study suggests that expenditure on service development and promotion can be, at least partially, negated by the poor performance of a selling behavior of a service employee and by decreasing quality of relationship with their customers. On the other hand, a service employee adopting a customer orientated approach may help a consumer overlook shortcomings in the areas of service difficulties, providing these problems are satisfactorily resolved and increase the quality of relationship with their customers.The results of this research further suggest that service employee training emphasizing CO can add additional value to a company's service offering and influence customer retention of the service organizations. Therefore, the recruitment of new service employees and the training of new and existing service employees should emphasize the customer orientated approach. In addition, Kelley (1992) indicated that high levels of CO among service employees result from favorable perceptions of the organizational climate for service and higher levels of motivational direction and organizational commitment. Other methods for development of CO among service employees, for example, include realistic job previews, orientation programs, initial job assignments, mentorship, organization manuals, and performance evaluation processes.Similar to any empirical research, this study had some limitations. The research limitations were based on the nature of the data and sample characteristics. Although the sample may be representative of the financial industry in Taiwan in general, it is possible that results may vary for specific service industries and countries. The fact that the data were collected in Taiwan raises the question of its transferability into other cultural regions such as the USA. Also, while the most important two financial industries are covered by the data, a transfer of the findings to other service types would be largely speculative and could vary on the key characteristics of the service types (e.g. level of individualization, interaction intensity of the salesperson, perceived risk). Thus, future research might be conducted in a variety of industries and countries. Future studies might also consider incorporating the antecedents of SOCO into the research framework. Research may benefit from objectively measuring SOCO behaviors in dyadic studies to determine their effect on customer relationship and future retention.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To compare the selling orientation (SO) versus customer orientation (CO) selling behavior of a service employee and examine the impacts of SO versus CO behavior on customer relationship quality and retention in financial services selling. Specifically, this research hypothesizes that a salesperson's SO is negatively related to relationship quality while salesperson's CO is positively related to relationship quality.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A conceptual framework is proposed that considers customer retention as a consequence, and a service employees' SOCO behavior as an antecedent of, relationship quality. Structural equation modeling techniques are applied to data collected from customers in the two important financial services (insurance and banking) in Taiwan to test the framework.\nFindings: - A service employee with CO approach increases relationship quality while a SO approach decreases relationship quality with customers. Furthermore, relationship quality is verified to positively affect customers' future retention.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Although the sample may be representative of the financial industry in general, it is possible that results may vary for specific service industries. Also, the fact that data were collected in Taiwan raises the question of its transferability into other cultural regions.\nPractical implications: - The results should lead managers to consider the importance of emphasizing a CO approach when service employees are selling services. This study suggests that service employee training emphasizing CO can add additional value to a company's service offering and influence future retention of the service firms.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first study to completely compare the CO approach with SO approach in a service selling.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Attaining economic growth through financial development and foreign direct investment
|
[
"Financial development",
"Economic growth",
"Foreign direct investment",
"The G-20 countries"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Financial development is one of the driving factors behind economic growth. The connection between the two has been the major focus of a significant corpus of both theoretical and empirical research since the seminal work of Schumpeter (1911). Several studies have examined the effect of financial development and economic growth using an array of techniques, such as cross-sectional, time series and panel data (see, inter alia, Levine, 2003; Beck and Levine, 2004; Herwartz and Walle, 2014; Jedidia et al., 2014; Ngare et al., 2014).\n2. Theoretical framework: The motives and drivers of both financial development and FDI inflow change over time, but the priority toward growth and development remains the same for both developed and developing countries. This section presents the theoretical framework linking financial development and economic growth, FDI and economic growth, and financial development and FDI.\n3. Literature review: This section discusses three strands of literature on the causal relationship among financial development, FDI, and economic growth.\n4. Econometric methodology: We use the following vector error-correction model (VECM) to consider the possible directions of causality among financial development, FDI and economic growth:(1)\n5. Results and discussion: The VECM framework is used to examine the possible Granger causal relationships among financial development, FDI and economic growth. The econometric analysis begins with a panel unit root test[9] and a panel cointegration test among PEG, FDI and FIN, depending upon the above-mentioned specification (Equation (1)) and the cases (1-5). The panel unit root test is to examine the order of integration of each variable (PEG, FDI, DCP, PCO, DCF, DCB, BSD, SMC, SVT, STR, NLC, SMD, DPR, DPU, IPR, IPU and BMD). For robustness, three types of panel unit root tests were utilized, namely the Levin-Lin-Chu \"t-stat\" (Levin et al., 2002), the augmented Dickey-Fuller-Fisher \"kh2\" and the Phillips Perron-Fisher \"kh2\" panel unit root tests. These panel unit root tests work under the null hypothesis of a panel unit root (non-stationary variables) and the alternative hypothesis of no unit root (stationary variables). The test results are reported in Table III. The results specify that the null hypothesis of a panel unit root at level data is not rejected by any of these three test statistics. This indicates that the variables are not stationary at level data. However, the null hypothesis of the panel unit root is rejected at the first difference because all the variables are significant at the first difference level. This ensures that all variables are integrated of order one [I (1)].\n6. Conclusion: This study examines the causal relationship among financial development, FDI and economic growth in the G-20 countries over the period 1970-2016. The analysis was based on four indicators of banking sector development, four indicators of stock market development and four indicators of bond market development. Since using all of these indicators simultaneously poses a multicollinearity problem, the study uses them individually along with composite indices.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider the heterogeneous relationship among financial development, foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth, examining the possible directions of causality among them in both the short and long runs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A sample of the G-20 countries over the period 1970-2016 is utilized. A vector error-correction model is used to consider the possible directions of causality among financial development, FDI and economic growth.\nFindings: Results suggest a cointegrating relationship among the three series. Although short-run links among the variables are mostly non-uniform, both financial development and FDI matter in the determination of long-run economic growth.\nPractical implications: Attention must be paid to policies that promote financial development. This, in turn, calls for fostering incentives to guarantee continued support to liberalize the economy and promoting capital openness. Additionally, financial infrastructure should be improved to improve financial innovation. The establishment of a well-developed financial market, including well-functioning banks and other financial institutions, can facilitate further investment and an easier means of raising capital to support the activities of FDI. Economic growth can ultimately be elevated through both financial development and FDI.\nOriginality/value: The study considers a sample of the G-20 countries, which have received relatively little attention in the existing literature. In addition, the study concurrently analyses the trivariate causal relationship among financial development, FDI and economic growth, a topic on which there has been a dearth of research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A taxonomy of value co-creation on Weibo - a communication perspective
|
[
"China",
"Taxonomy",
"Communication",
"Value co-creation",
"Social media affordances"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Value co-creation, i.e. interactions among actors leading to mutually valued outcomes through resource integration, is of particular importance in tourism. The literature recognizes that value co-creation helps tourism organizations foster business growth, enhance innovation, gain competitive advantages and increase profitability (Chathoth et al., 2016; Grissemann and Stokburger-Sauer, 2012) because of its ability to enhance conventional tourism experiences (Neuhofer et al., 2013).\nBackground: Value co-creation\nMethodology: Sample\nFindings: The developed and verified communicative value co-creation taxonomy is presented in Figure 1. It shows the various actors involved in these activities, their actions and the types of co-created value. Value is co-created not only for oneself (e.g. by expressing emotions, initiating socialization or reminiscing about past experiences) but also other consumers (through enhancement of information, negotiation of deals or personalization) and the DMO (e.g. by validating or spreading the messages).\nDiscussion and conclusion: The developed taxonomy presents evidence that value co-creation on social media platforms not only exists but also involves multiple actors who take advantage of the affordances of the medium to co-create value with the focal firm in a variety of ways. The notion that there are different types of consumers who participate in these activities is especially important as social media influencers increasingly occupy a grey zone between organizations and general consumers. The current literature has so far not recognized their special role in value co-creation activities. The fact that co-creation not only involves customers but also general consumers is particularly important in the tourism context. Noteworthy is also the complexity of social media-afforded actions from which value co-creation emerges. While existing literature emphasizes verbal actions such as providing opinions (Zwass, 2010), the taxonomy identifies a variety of independent and mixed action types. By liking, actors can co-create attention, a phenomenon also known as the \"like economy\" (Gerlitz and Helmond, 2013). Reposting can create megaphone effects, perpetuating messages to a mass audience (McQuarrie et al., 2013). Tagging other actors, organizations and consumers can foster the forming of consumer tribes (Kozinets, 1999). More specifically, while tagging through commenting helps firms connect with a limited number of consumers, tagging through reposting allows firms to connect with not only those being tagged but also all consumers' followers within their personal network on Weibo, because this response is visible on both the firm's and the consumer's Weibo pages. The ability to create new affordances through combining actions is currently not discussed by the social media affordance literature. Understanding the differential effects of these actions and their combinations is however paramount for recognizing their role in value co-creation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to develop a taxonomy of value co-creation types occurring in firm-customer interactions on social media.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 570 destination marketing organization (DMO)-initiated posts on Weibo and 3,137 responses were collected to develop a taxonomy by conducting qualitative empirical-to-conceptual analysis. To apply the taxonomy through conceptual-to-empirical analysis, 100 DMO-initiated posts and 823 responses were collected.\nFindings: The communication-focused value co-creation taxonomy shows a variety of co-creators, verbal and non-verbal communicative co-creation actions facilitated by social media, and different co-created value types.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study used a single social media platform and selected three DMOs' Weibo accounts. Future research should focus on other types of firms and different social media platforms.\nPractical implications: This study used a single social media platform and selected three DMOs' Weibo accounts. Future research should focus on other types of firms and different social media platforms.\nOriginality/value: This study enriches the tourism literature and the general marketing literature by examining value co-creation from a communication perspective and provides a comprehensive classification of value co-creation opportunities on social media.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
"I just don't feel like myself anymore": putting the patient's voice into integrated care
|
[
"Transformation",
"Introspection",
"Breast cancer",
"Integrated care",
"Patient’s voice"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Whilst the integration of health care, social care and other related services has become a universally accepted and pursued strategy in contemporary healthcare systems, the realisation of such a goal has been problematic (World Health Organisation, 2016). At the heart of this strategic aim is patient-centred care (Osborn et al., 2014; World Health Organisation, 2015); however, focussing on the needs of the patient does not necessarily give voice or attribute agency to the patient. Agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and make choices, constrained by factors such as education, social class, religion, gender, ethnicity ability and/or customs (Barker, 2005, p. 448), and has been identified as conducive to patients' self-management and effective rehabilitation (Hunter et al., 2015). Facilitating patient agency requires a focus on reflexive empowerment which is not necessarily presumed in models of patient-centred care.\nResearch approach and methodology: When the epistemology of the phenomenon under investigation is messy, confused and deeply personal, the research approach and methodology must capture and make sense of such richness. Whilst investigating the patient's lived experience is not common, medical sociology has largely relied on anthropological approaches to address such research topics (Buch, 2015; Mol, 2008), particularly when the issues of patient autonomy, social equality and power relations are considered in specific contexts of care or in entire medical systems (Kaufman, 1988). Introspection is a well-accepted anthropological social science methodology used in health research (Liggins et al., 2013; Uotinen, 2011). As such, it is viewed as radically different from the dominant positivist paradigm of medical research. As a methodology, it can be characterised by the explicit and reflexive positioning of the author within the text, the use of biographical material as social research data and a subjective, first-person tone in writing. Rigour is ensured by systematic examination using a hermeneutic and iterative approach of all introspections throughout the process and critical reflexive peer analysis with another cancer patient introspector (Doane, 2008). Whilst integrating the patient's voice into health research is important (Ellingson, 2006), the potential of this technique to add depth and insight to patient experience has largely lacked traction in some of the more positivist medical journals (Lorde, 1980, as an exception). A key challenge for integrated care is translating deeply personal and subjective introspections into strategic-level application; hence by focussing on key relational dynamics framed by literature-based individual-level transformational process, I seek to make such a contribution.\nReconfiguring liminality for integrated care: I have known from the age of 11 (when my mother was diagnosed) that I was likely to develop breast cancer so I was not surprised at my diagnosis. My initial response to a double mastectomy and reconstruction subsequent to that diagnosis was I would move from one state of health to another. For example, having breast cancer to not having breast cancer; having long-familiar breasts to having reconstructions that sometimes remind me of dumplings in soup (floating very buoyantly on the front of my body); and from being very clear about who I thought I was in terms of my feminine identity to reconciling previous culturally anchored attitudes related to \"fake boobs\". My initial framing of cancer as dichotomous was useful in its simplicity during early stages of illness, and transferring between them would be a liminal state as described by Turner (1967).\nConclusions and implications for integrated healthcare: In conclusion, my contribution relates to my willingness to exercise my agency in different integrated care modalities, theorised by Turner's two-stage transformation process. Whilst I am not the first patient or health researcher to conclude that rehabilitation is more effectively achieved when patients exercise their agency, my contribution is the connection between the two parts of the process based on becoming sensitised to affective elements. It was at this point that I started to grow my transformed personal ontologies of health. Mine involved mountains, sinking and emotional connection with my mother. Others such as Hollenbeck and Patrick (2016) and Parsons et al. (2008) found new health ontologies based on mastery of beating cancer and resuming paid employment. Neither of these was significant for me, reiterating the personal nature of transformation. Therefore, the challenge for systems of integrated care is giving voice and space to patients to exercise their agency by supplying empathetic and empowering provision attuned to affective awakenings in rehabilitating patients, including tools such as introspection and effective questioning techniques. I charge health-care providers to consider how rehabilitative modalities of integrated care can attend to the affective cues that I have detailed in my introspection. The relational dynamics between affective cues and willingness to exercise agency are casually linked. Empowered patient agency is consequent to developing affective sensibilities; however, these may manifest, thus illustrating the complexity and conflicts of what would constitute active patient-centred care.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to elucidate health-related transformations experienced by an individual. Building from personal experience offers an understanding of the relational dynamics at play within health transformations, which makes a contribution to realising and facilitating the agency of the patient in systems of integrated care.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Introspection can be used as a methodology to elucidate messy and personal affective experiences. The author's introspection is an 18-month catalogue and analysis from diagnosis of breast cancer through significant stages of rehabilitation. Reflexive introspection has gained traction in health research due to its cathartic benefits, whilst this approach offers much; a key challenge for integrated care is translating deeply personal and subjective introspections into strategic-level application.\nFindings: Using Turner's (1969) concept of liminality, this research explicates key relational dynamics of health-related transformations experienced by an individual. By recognising changes in affective being as a pivotal point in rehabilitation, this work links embodied transformation as a critical antecedent to a patient's willingness to engage his/her agency in their rehabilitation.\nOriginality/value: Whilst recognising that integrated care is patient-centred and seeks to incorporate the patient's voice, this research gives insight into how the author, as a patient, engaged her agency in her rehabilitation through building her own transformed personal ontologies of health.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of economic crisis on civic attitudes: The moderating role of expected social mobility. Evidence from some European countries
|
[
"Economic crisis",
"Civic attitudes",
"Expected mobility"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The impact of the Great recession on the Western world since September 2008 has affected (and it is still affecting) the lives of millions of people, exacerbating problems of social exclusion and phenomena such as unemployment, poverty and inequality (OECD, 2013), with relevant consequences detected at the individual level.\nEconomic change and civic culture in times of crisis: The importance of the connection between economic growth and social and democratic progress is not a new theme in social research. Many studies point out that economic growth, in terms of GDP, has positive consequences that could go beyond the economic and material well-being; according to this view, its effects would not be limited to improving the living standards of a large part of population, but it would also have a positive effect on democratic and civic attitudes. A rapid and large economic growth, that not only involves a minority of citizens, represents a way to reverse the advancement of the deterioration processes in social and civil fabric of a country (Friedman, 2005).\nThe moderating role of expected mobility: To date, little is known about the civic effects of the recent economic crisis, but the mechanisms through which crises may more specifically influence the civic attitudes remain even more unexplored. This study hypothesizes that the way in which individuals evaluate their future social trajectory, compared to others, may be the crucial mechanism underlying a potential civic \"recession.\"\nMethods: As previously seen, many studies investigated how economic and material conditions may influence beliefs and attitudes. However, this rapidly expanding empirical literature has so far treated the economic status mostly from a static perspective and failed to consider the effects of dynamic changes in one's status, either realized or anticipated. In fact, changes in economic conditions might be more relevant than absolute levels of economic status with regard to understanding of civic attitudes. This dynamic formulation is particularly useful in times of economic crisis, when severe shocks can suddenly affect personal as well as national economic conditions. Following this logic, a marginal pre-crisis social position could remain constant without changing civic attitudes, and it is only if sudden changes in economic conditions occur that attitudes change (Billiet et al., 2014).\nResults: Communitarian approach\nDiscussion and conclusions: Previous research on attitudinal consequences of macroeconomic events, as economic crises, has been concerned predominantly with political attitudes, and little research has investigated the civic attitudes. Additionally, to date, no prior work has investigated variables moderating the impact of the economic crises on civic attitudes. The present study attempted to address this gap of knowledge by focusing on civic attitudes, and by investigating expected relative mobility as a potential moderating variable.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In times of crisis, the deterioration of living standards may also have direct consequences on civic culture of people and become dangerous for the health of democracy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which the recent economic crisis directly influences the civic attitudes in some European democracies focusing on two questions: how much does crisis exposure affect civic attitudes? And what is the role played by expected social mobility on this effect?\nDesign/methodology/approach: Hypotheses are tested using data collected in the Western European countries included in the Life in Transition Survey II (France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and UK). To analyze the civic consequences of crisis exposure and to evaluate the moderating role of expected social mobility, multivariate regressions are conducted. The statistical analysis is performed using the Stata software.\nFindings: The findings show that economic crisis exposure significantly affects civic attitudes. The results confirm that higher crisis exposure is associated with lower civic attitudes. Additionally, the present research rules out the possibility that crisis exposure affects attitudes in a specific way, depending on the expected mobility valence.\nSocial implications: To evaluate the moderating factors of the civic consequences of economic crises is important for both academic research and policymakers. Analyzing these mechanisms may lead to understand under which conditions it is possible to limit deterioration processes in democratic fabric of a society.\nOriginality/value: This paper sheds light on the importance of analyzing the negative civic effect of economic crisis and on the critical role that the fear of social downgrading plays in determining this effect.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
How to integrate technology-enhanced learning with business process management
|
[
"Project management",
"Human resource management",
"Learning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The wealth of companies has progressively shifted from tangible assets (capital, resources, etc.) into intangible assets (knowledge, motivation, etc.), so, in order to raise the competitiveness of companies, it is extremely important to develop advanced workforce training solutions that are more adjusted to the continuous change in the competitive conditions in which companies are immersed. For this reason, technology-enhanced learning (TEL) is a primary need in modern enterprises.Unfortunately the delay between the identification of an enterprise learning need and the actual learning purposed to fill the competency gap is still too large. According to Lindstaedt and Zimmerman (2006): \"right now most learning issues are dealt with by the human resources department, that's not necessarily the best department for this function [...] company-based learning needs to be embedded in business needs, so when a company changes its processes or procedures, the employee-training required to execute the changes develops in parallel\".More generally speaking (Davenport, 2005) there is today a performance gap in TEL due to its limited capacity to be integrated within enterprise business processes. A better integration of TEL with business process management is in fact one of the greatest challenges for today's knowledge management. Also, according to Trondsen (2004) enterprise learning should closely connect and align with work tasks specific to job roles and should relate to business objectives, processes, and workflows. The main advantages of this connection can be summarized in an improved productivity and business outcome, an improved relevance and use of learning content and resources, and a greater focus on learner and work context, improving worker satisfaction.The fact that this lack of integration constitutes a big issue, especially at European level, can be also seen by looking at the IST priority of the 6th Framework Program (recently completed) and 7th Framework Program of the European Commission (EC). A focus of the strategic objective \"Technology-Enhanced Learning\" of the 2005-2006 Work Programme (European Commission, 2005) was in fact \"to explore interactions between the learning of the individual and that of the organisation in order to improve how current or emerging ICT can mutually enhance the learning processes for the individual and for the organisation\". The same objective in the 2007 Work Programme (European Commission, 2007) includes \"responsive environments for TEL [...] which can be embedded in the business processes and human resources management systems of organisations\".To solve such issues, this paper presents EMBLEMA, a concept and an initiative that is currently under study and development at the University of Salerno, in cooperation with the Centre of Research in Pure and Applied Mathematics, proposing an innovative solution for TEL that integrates knowledge and human resources management features, tailored for organizations and based on a synergistic use of modern knowledge models, methodologies and technologies covering different steps of the knowledge lifecycle.The key distinctive feature of the proposed solution is to make explicit mutual dependencies between enterprise and organizational learning with business processes and their integration in order to allow the optimization (tailoring and further personalization) of employees' learning plans with respect to the business processes (including competency development, skill gap shortening, etc.) and the optimization of business processes taking into account competencies, skills, performances and knowledge available inside the organization. This mutual dependency, bridging individual and organizational learning, also enables an improvement loop becoming a key aspect for successful business process improvement (BPI) and business process reengineering (BPR), enabling a closure, at the same time, of the learning and the knowledge loops at the individual, group and organization levels.The paper is structured as follows: after a brief introduction of the state of the art the EMBLEMA initiative is presented, considering its objectives, technological components and starting point. Then advantages of the proposed solution with respect to the state of the art are reported, divided into three branches related to the training loop, the knowledge loop and the business improvement loop. Conclusions and references follow.\nState of the art in the field: Enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) are software solutions that integrate the data and processes of an organization into a unified system. ERPs typically attempt to cover all basic functions of an organization, regardless of the organization's business or charter. Several international ERP vendors are on the scene, but the main market shares are owned by SAP, with the SAP Business Suite, and by Oracle, with the Oracle e-Business Suite.Main commercial ERPs (including those of SAP and Oracle) are able to manage and support several business processes like manufacturing (e.g. engineering, bills of materials, scheduling, workflow management, quality control, cost management, etc.), supply chain management (e.g. inventory, order entry, purchasing, supply chain planning, supplier scheduling, etc.), financial (general ledger, cash management, accounts payable and receivable, fixed assets, etc.), projects (costing, billing, time and expense, activity management, etc.), human resources (payroll, training, time and attendance, benefits, etc.) and customer relationship (sales and marketing, commissions, service, call centre support, etc).Training in ERP is usually included in the human resource management (HRM) or human capital management (HCM) subsystems. Despite this, a limited level of integration of technology-enhanced learning components provided by ERPs within the other components is usually provided. This reflects on a lack of integration between learning and business processes, so hindering the fulfillment of higher performances both in terms of optimization of the learning loop at individual and organization level and in terms of optimization of enterprise knowledge processes, so constituting a huge barrier to business processes improvement.By looking at SAP Human Capital Management and at Oracle Human Resource Management, it can be seen that they provide no tools for the automatic or assisted discovery of learning goals on the basis of business processes needs. This means that human resource managers must discover by themselves individual, group and enterprise business needs by interviewing project and function managers and trying to match each one's expectations, also taking into account the enterprise strategic objectives. This is a huge task that may be drastically simplified by applying automatic optimization techniques based on better integration between learning and ERP tools.Moreover, the majority of the training tools integrated in ERPs are old-fashioned learning management systems providing static courses with little or no emphasis on individualization, collaboration, or the application of specific didactic models and methodologies. This results in stand-alone self-learning courses conforming to AICC CMI (Aviation Industry CBT Committee Computer Managed Instruction; Aviation Industry CBT Committee, 1998) or ADL SCORM (Advanced Distributed Learning Sharable Content Object Reference Model; ADL Technical Team, 2006) specifications with a limited degree of interaction that fails to motivate and engage learners. As an example, neither SAP nor Oracle training tools can deliver interactive multi-user collaborative experiences such as those obtainable with state-of-the-art languages and tools for learning (e.g. IMS Learning Design; IMS Global Learning Consortium, Inc., 2003).The combination of these lacks results in a delay in the identification of learning goals at individual, group and organization levels once business process needs are identified and in a further delay in the bridging of competence gaps once learning goals are defined.Some research projects dealing with these problems exist. As an example, the EC-funded integrated project PROLIX (see www.prolixproject.org) aims at aligning learning with business processes in order to enable organizations to improve their employees' competencies more quickly as business requirements change. To reach this goal, PROLIX is developing an open, integrated reference architecture for process-oriented learning and information exchange, supporting a complete learning process lifecycle that comprises:* the analysis of complex business situations;* the identification of individual and organizational learning goals;* the analysis of competencies and matching them with individual skills;* the definition of appropriate learning strategies and the simulation of competency-oriented processes;* the execution of improved learning processes; and* the monitoring of learners' performance according to the goals defined.So PROLIX is already facing the problem of a faster and smarter closure of the training loop by better integrating it into HRM processes. It should be noted in addition that in the commercial ERPs examined, the impacts and side-effects of learning activities in other business processes are not considered. This lack of further integration produces delays in associated processes. As an example, considering knowledge management (KM) processes, it can be observed that neither knowledge elicitation features nor knowledge-sharing tools able to link the enterprise KM system to learning tools are currently provided. So, a lot of time elapses between the acquisition of a new knowledge, at individual or group level, and its formalization in a knowledge asset inside the enterprise KM system, and a lot of time also elapses between the formalization of a new knowledge asset inside the enterprise KM system and its exploitation in training activities.As we will explain in the following paragraphs, EMBLEMA goes further. EMBLEMA considers the impact of learning on the KM process, as well as on other knowledge-based process, thus ensuring a deeper integration of leaning in businesses and a consequent higher synergy with the whole enterprise ecosystem, while closing not only the training loop but also the enterprise knowledge loop and the business improvement loop.\nThe EMBLEMA initiative: EMBLEMA stands for Embed Learning in Business Process Management. It is a concept and an initiative that is currently under development at the University of Salerno in cooperation with the Centre of Research in Pure and Applied Mathematics. The purpose of EMBLEMA is to define, develop and experiment models, methodologies and technologies aimed at tightly integrating individual learning with organizational business processes. State-of-the-art and innovative learning and knowledge representation models, methodologies and techniques are integrated to obtain individual and group learning experiences applying pedagogy-based approaches to motivate and engage each single learner according to his/her unique profile.Planning and optimization algorithms, both deterministic and stochastic, are used in order to support human resource managers to monitor, assess and predict the evolution of knowledge, to discover individual and enterprise learning needs and to define training plans at the operational and strategic levels. Knowledge elicitation methodologies, based on collaborative learning approaches, are used and deployed in order to transform tacit knowledge owned by individuals and groups in knowledge assets reusable in learning activities and processes.Objectives\nAdvantages with respect to the state of the art: As mentioned previously, EMBLEMA defines and develops models, methodologies and software prototypes aimed at tightly integrating individual learning with organization business processes. As we have seen, some existing ERPs already provide the integration of learning and human resource management (HRM) processes but, in all cases, the degree of automation and optimization obtained is worse with respect to those foreseen in EMBLEMA, and less effective.Some EC projects are already facing the problem of a faster and smarter closure of the training loop by better integrating it within HRM processes. It should be noted that, as in all commercial ERPs, impacts and side effects of learning activities in other business processes are not considered. In the following paragraphs EMBLEMA's main innovations are presented divided into three branches, the first related to the learning loop, the second related to the enterprise knowledge loop, and the third related to the business improvement loop.Closure of the training loop\nConclusions and future work: This paper has presented EMBLEMA, a concept and an initiative of the University of Salerno in cooperation with the Centre of Research in Pure and Applied Mathematics, an innovative solution for technology enhanced learning that integrates knowledge and human resources management features, tailored for organizations and based on a synergistic use of modern knowledge models, methodologies and technologies covering different steps of the knowledge lifecycle.Rather than focusing on every single component, the purpose of this paper was to give the overall picture, since EMBLEMA is a work in progress and its components are in various stages of definition. A preliminary knowledge, competency and skill model is defined as well as a worker model based on it. Their connections with the underlying knowledge and the learner models are also clear. Preliminary knowledge sharing and elicitation methodologies and the related software components are under development.The improvements proposed by EMBLEMA are relevant with respect to the state of the art and respond to a real need felt by enterprises at the international level. EMBLEMA, by closing at the same time not only the training loop but also the knowledge and the business improvement loops, goes further any other commercial solution and research project on the theme. By considering the impact of learning on every enterprise process, it also ensures a deeper integration of learning in business and a higher synergy with the whole enterprise ecosystem.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to propose an innovative approach for providing an answer to the emerging trends on how to integrate e-learning efficiently in the business value chain in medium and large enterprises.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The proposed approach defines methodologies and technologies for integrating technology-enhanced learning with knowledge and human resources management based on a synergistic use of knowledge models, methods, technologies and approaches covering different steps of the knowledge life-cycle.\nFindings: - The proposed approach makes explicit and supports, from the methodological, technological and organizational points of view, mutual dependencies between the enterprise's organizational learning and the business processes, considering also their integration in order to allow the optimization of employees' learning plans with respect to business processes and taking into account competencies, skills, performances and knowledge available inside the organization.\nPractical implications: - This mutual dependency, bridging individual and organizational learning, enables an improvement loop to become a key aspect for successful business process improvement (BPI) and business process reengineering (BPR), enabling closure of, at the same time, the learning and knowledge loops at individual, group and organization levels.\nOriginality/value: - The proposed improvements are relevant with respect to the state of the art and respond to a real need felt by enterprises and further commercial solutions and research projects on the theme.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Crossover specificity of team-level work-family conflict to individual-level work-family conflict
|
[
"Workplace",
"Stress",
"Family life",
"Employee behaviour",
"Conflict",
"The Netherlands"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Increasingly, employees are confronted with high pressures in both their work and home life and many daily hassles stem from job demands that are incompatible with family demands. Work-family conflict (WFC) refers to the extent to which a person experiences pressures within the work domain that are incompatible with the pressures that arise within the family domain and vice versa (Geurts et al., 1999; Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985). WFC encompasses two distinct constructs, work interfering with family and causing conflict (WFC) and family interfering with work and causing conflict (FWC) (Frone et al., 1992; Netemeyer et al., 1996).\nTheoretical perspectives on crossover processes in the workplace: Social psychological theoretical perspectives, such as role theory and emotional contagion theory, propose that stress outcomes are, at least to some extent, induced by social processes (Bakker et al., 2006). This may especially hold for crossover processes within teams since team-level crossover involves not only inter-individual transmission of stress and strain but also applies to transmission of positive and negative feelings and attitudes in general. When people enter a team, they bring their individual experiences with them and thus they may also bring in, for instance, their experiences with incompatible work and home responsibilities. These individual-level experiences may influence other members of the team and may combine to form team-level experiences and this is the foundation of team-level crossover (Kelly and Barsade, 2001).Workplace experiences of one employee may cross over and affect other employees. In this study, we conceptualize WFC experienced within the team as a form of crossover that \"demands\" the reaction of the focal employee. A better understanding of the processes involved will enable the identification of effective strategies for coping with the crossover of strain (Bakker et al., 2006). The crossover process can be explained by different theoretical perspectives, such as role theory and the emotional contagion model. First, the processes involved in team crossover can be explained by role theory (Bolger et al., 1989; Westman, 2002). Work role demands and home/family role demands refer to the responsibilities, requirements, expectations, duties, and commitments associated with a given role (Netemeyer et al., 1996). Employees may well be influenced by the norms and role expectations of their co-workers. For instance, team members may develop role expectations such that employees should prioritize work above family. Norms about the number of hours employees are expected to work and whether or not employees are expected to take work home are important aspects of an organizational culture that may affect employees' WFC (see McDonald et al., 2005). Hence, in such cultures the amount of time spent at work is frequently interpreted as an indication of employees' dedication and commitment to work. When confronted with such norms and role expectations, employees may be reluctant to take time off or to reduce their work hours to attend to family responsibilities. As a consequence, these employees can be expected to experience more WFC (e.g., Thompson and McNamara, 1997).Crossover of WFCs may also take place through an explicit, conscious process of sharing (Kelly and Barsade, 2001). For instance, employees complaining about their workload may transfer their feelings to their co-workers. Such crossover can take the form of tuning in to the emotions and attitudes of others. Tuning in refers to people trying to imagine what the other person may feel, for instance, by comparing the other person's situation with their own experiences (Gorgievski-Duijvesteijin et al., 2000). This would be the case when a person tries to imagine how he or she would feel in the position of another and, as a consequence, experiences the same feelings. In this case it may be assumed that the emotions expressed by one partner elicit an empathic reaction in the other partner (Bakker et al., 2003; Bakker and Demerouti, 2009 (this issue)).In contrast with the process of sharing, the emotional contagion model assumes a non-conscious process of influencing each other: Individuals are not necessarily aware that the process is occurring. Emotional contagion is the tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize expressions, feelings, and attitudes with those of another person and, consequently, to converge emotionally (Hatfield et al., 1994, p. 5). Frequent exposure to another person's emotions and paying close attention to them is one of the conditions facilitating contagion (Gorgievski-Duijvesteijin et al., 2000; Hatfield et al., 1994). It is this frequent exposure to another person's emotions and paying close attention to them that is at the core of the contagion model and how the contagion model explains the crossover of both FWC and WFC.So far, studies already supported the idea that team-level crossover can be a phenomenon within groups or teams. For instance, Westman and Etzion (1999) examined crossover of stress in the workplace of school principals and teachers and found a significant crossover of job-induced tension. Bakker et al. (2005) tested burnout contagion among nurses and found that burnout complaints among colleagues in intensive care units made a statistically significant and unique contribution to explaining variance in individual nurses' experiences of burnout. Bakker et al. (2006) investigated the crossover of burnout and work engagement among 2,229 constabulary officers. The results of multilevel analyses confirmed a crossover phenomenon by showing that team-level burnout and team-level work engagement were related to individual team members' burnout (i.e. exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy) and work engagement (vigor, dedication, and absorption) after controlling for individual members' job demands and resources. Results from a study of Crosetto (2004) revealed that emotional interactions within the team resulted in a variety of individual and team emotional states triggered by emotional contagion processes. Recently, Ilies et al. (2007) showed that the average affective state of the other team members (so-called affective linkages) was related to an individual team member's affective state, for both positive and negative affect.Crossover of team-level job demands\nMethod: Procedure and respondents\nResults: Table I presents the means, standard deviations, and correlations for individual level and team level variables.The results of the multi-level analysis for WFC and FWC are shown in Tables II and III. To assess effect sizes, we computed the proportions of incremental explained variance for the different models and these proportions are also reported in Tables II and III.With an F-test we tested whether the incremental explained variance was significant: Equation 1 where K2 is the number of predictors in the second model and K1 is the number of predictors in the first model. Further, differences in model fit were tested with a Wald chi-squared difference test. Model 1 in Table II shows that the individual-level and background variables explain 31 percent of the variance in WFC. Model 2 and 3 show that the team-level variables explain an additional 9 percent of the variance in WFC. From Table III it can be seen that the individual-level and background variables explain 7 percent of the variance in FWC and that the inclusion of the team-level variables explains an extra 13 percent (see Model 2 en 3) in individual-level FWC.Unexpected, team-level emotional job demands are negatively associated with individual WFC (g=-0.49, p<0.01). For FWC, the gamma coefficients of all three team-level job demands do not reach significance. Taken together, these findings show that team-level job demands do not increase individual team members' levels of FWC and WFC, after controlling for the impact of individual job demands.Hypotheses testing\nDiscussion: In this study, unlike most WFC research, we explored the role of antecedents of WFC from a team-level crossover point of view. We assessed the extent to which demands experienced at the team-level were associated with employee's individual experiences of WFCs and tested for crossover specificity.The crossover specificity hypothesis was supported. The results showed that team-level WFC was positively associated with a focal employee's WFC. Team-level FWC was also positively associated with a focal employee's FWC. Findings indicated the associations of team-level WFC and FWC and focal employee's WFC and FWC respectively, thereby underscoring the specificity of crossover. This study may be one of the first attempts to explore the role of crossover specificity. Theoretically, it is noteworthy that these contagion effects are specific (Bolger et al., 1989), namely from WFC at the team-level to WFC at the individual level and from FWC at the team-level to FWC at the individual level. However, with the present study design, we can only speculate on the reasons for this and future longitudinal studies should shed more light on this phenomenon. Taken together, these results support the existence of emotional contagion at the workplace (Westman, 2006). This is in line with Westman and Etzion's (1999) finding for school principals and teachers. They found a direct specific crossover effect of job-induced tension between school principals and teachers and vice versa. They did not find a direct crossover effect of burnout and this may reflect that burnout represents a more \"holistic\" strain that relates both to the work and the nonwork domains, whereas job-induced tension is a specific strain that relates to specific work aspects. Further, it is possible that there are other (than contagion) explanations for the group effect. For example, is it conceivable that there exists a micro-climate or culture within teams in which there are shared expectations about acceptable levels of WFC/FWC. It is possible that such an environment exerts a powerful influence on individual perceptions of WFC/FWC.The negative association of team-level emotional job demands with WFC was unexpected. Perhaps this has to do with how people cope with emotional demands at work. The feeling that one can cope successfully with emotional job demands might decrease WFC. It is also possible that the shared emotional demands create a sense of collectivity and cohesion within the work situation. In the context of a cross-sectional study, it is possible that reports of job demands are influenced by WFC or FWC (i.e. the causal arrow goes the other way), which is the classic problem in cross-sectional research of this nature. Further, there are indications that over time there may be spiral relationships. This could explain the relationship between individual level job demands and individual level WFC/FWC. The so-called team level job demands might represent a more objective measure of demands in the workplace, all of this leading to the conclusion that there is no influence of job demands on WFC/FWC in the present study. Further, we distinguished two types of WFC, but we did not distinguish between strain- and time-based conflicts between work and family demands (see Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985). Future research may find it useful to make this further distinction because it may well be that especially strain-based conflicts are susceptible to contagion, whereas time-based conflicts may be susceptible to other mechanisms.We included a number of background variables in the analyses. Gender appeared to be related to WFC but not to FWC: Women were more likely to suffer from WFC, but FWC was not different between men and women. It might be that women are so overburdened with work and home chores that work more easily interferes with home for them than for happens to be the case for men. Further, age was not associated with WFC but it was negatively associated with FWC. Younger employees suffer more from FWC than older employees, and this may point to a life stage phenomenon for FWC. However, taking your work home (i.e. WFC) apparently is something not linked to one's life stage or age. Weekly hours of work have been demonstrated to have a significant impact on work-home conflicts (Crompton and Lyonette, 2006). In the present study, we could not find such a relationship. It appeared that it is not the weekly contracted hours that are associated with WFC, but it is the extra number of hours or overtime that is important to explain work-family conflict.Practical implications and suggestions for future research\nConclusions: Although the existing work-family literature has not addressed crossover specificity, our results suggest that this could improve further theory development. The purpose of the present study was to explain how variables at the team-level are associated with individual level outcomes. As already suggested by Bliese and Castro (2000), aggregate ratings of constructs used in stress research allow one to assess the contextual work environment in ways that cannot be done by relying merely on individual-level variables. The team-level variables we used open up important possibilities in occupational stress research. It is important to consider how social and contextual variables can be integrated into research and theory (Bliese and Castro, 2000, p. 72). Viewing stress and strain from a multilevel perspective makes it possible to examine how processes at the organizational, departmental, or team-level affect individual phenomena (Bliese and Jex, 2002).Finally, prior research has shown that various sources of social support can reduce an individual's WFC (Carlson, 1999; Thompson et al., 1999). For instance, colleagues can be supportive on an ongoing basis and understanding and respecting an individual's commitment to other life roles (Greenhaus and Powell, 2003; Powell and Greenhaus, 2006). We looked at these issues from the other way around. Colleagues can be very supportive but they can also be demanding. Contacts with burned-out and cynical co-workers, demanding bosses, or emotionally exhausted subordinates, all can be associated with a focal employee's (decrease in) well-being. When possible, employees tend to avoid interaction with these people but physical proximity and organizational structure may prevent this unsolicited relationships (see Brass et al., 2004; Deelstra et al., 2003). We focused on the negative side of people working together and did not measure how supportive team members can be for each other. However, it is possible that for team members plagued by high emotional job demands, supportive interactions between employees alleviate stress and strain in such a way that these interactions between employees prevent stress and strain to spilling over to the home situation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study aims to investigate the crossover specificity of team-level stressors to individual-level work-family conflict.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper takes the form of a multilevel analyses with data from 428 employees of a Dutch municipality working in 49 teams.\nFindings: - The results indicate the expected crossover specificity of different types of work-family conflicts. After controlling for individual-level demands there is little evidence that team-level work demands influence work-family conflict (WFC) or family-work conflict (FWC), but team-level WFC and FWC do influence individual-level WFC and FWC, respectively.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper distinguishes two types of WFC, but it did not distinguish between strain- and time-based conflicts. Further, it did not pay attention to individual differences (e.g., susceptibility to distress of team members), although such differences may be important moderators of the crossover process.\nOriginality/value: - This study is one of the first that empirically linked team-level stressors and WFC to individual-level WFC and that tested crossover specificity. Findings indicated the associations of team-level WFC and FWC and focal employees' WFC and FWC respectively, thereby underscoring the importance of crossover specificity.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Exceedance probability of extensive damage limit for general buildings in Taiwan
|
[
"Taiwan",
"Buildings",
"Design",
"Earthquakes",
"Seismic loading",
"Risk mitigation",
"Earthquake‐resistant design",
"Extensive damage limit",
"Exceedance probability"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Modern disaster management is based on four major areas - preparation, response, recovery, and mitigation. With the massive global urbanization the problem of earthquake risk is likely to increase rather than decrease. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in seismic risk mitigation and risk assessment. Some research works (Amendola et al., 2000; Baranov et al., 2002; Shah, 2006; Ansal et al., 2004; Rashed and Weeks, 2003; Ellingwood, 1994; Lin and Weng, 2001; Fischer et al., 2002; Pitilakis et al., 2006) have been conducted on above subjects and valuable results have been obtained.During past decades, structural failures in earthquakes have exposed the weakness of current design procedures and shown the need for new concepts and methodologies for building performance evaluation and design. Recent developments in earthquake engineering indicate that seismic risk analysis has been performed increasingly to ensure risk management in accordance with building codes, and to provide an insight into the performances of building structures under earthquakes (Cornell, 1969; Ellingwood, 1994, 2001; Ellingwood and Kinali, 2009; Ghobarah, 2001; Wen, 2001; Goulet et al., 2007). Seismic risk analysis is capable of integrating the knowledge and data for predicting the earthquake performance of building structures (Fischer et al., 2002).Earthquake engineering practice is undergoing drastic changes triggered by a variety of reasons. By now it is widely accepted that seismic design should explicitly consider performance objectives which are managed by the provisions in building codes (Krawinkler, 1999), and the mathematical probability theory is a rational and natural basis for the modeling of structural failure problems (Freudenthal, 1956; Ang and Amin, 1968; Der Kiureghian, 1981; Shinozuka, 1983; Ellingwood, 2001). As a consequence the methods of risk and reliability analysis are increasingly gaining importance as decision support tools in civil engineering applications. The concept and the philosophy of probability-based design have been adopted by recent building codes worldwide for many years. Earthquake-resistant design involves considerations of social costs and risks. It is not economically feasible to give complete protection to buildings in the event of a worst-case earthquake. The framers of building codes must address the questions: \"How many chances of structural failure will occur in the future?\" and \"How safe is safe enough?\". Therefore, the need to investigate the level of seismic risk of buildings during their useful lives is quite apparent in future code calibrations.Taiwan is an island situated in East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located in the circum-Pacific seismic belt, the seismically most active region of the world. As shown in Figure 1, the island is located off the southeast coast of China, slightly northeast of Hong Kong and just north of the Philippines, and straddles the Tropic of Cancer. It has suffered great damage from a number of destructive earthquakes throughout its history. Earthquakes are paramount among the natural hazards impacting civil infrastructure in Taiwan, but the regulatory framework for disaster management has not been yet fully established (Chan et al., 2006). On September 21, 1999, the Chi-Chi earthquake in central Taiwan, unfortunately, brought towns and villages near the epicenter to widespread destruction (MCEER, 2000). This earthquake was the largest on land earthquake to occur in Taiwan in the twentieth century, and caused varying degrees of damage to the buildings in the Taichung City, which is one of the major cities located in central Taiwan (see Figure 1) with a population of just over 2.6 million people. Following the earthquake, there was a surge of activity in Taiwan aimed at improving seismic provisions in building codes. Current Taiwan building code places emphasis on life safety, control damage in minor and moderate earthquakes, and prevent collapse in a major earthquake. However, the actual reliability of design in achieving these objectives is unknown. The objectives of the present study are to investigate and compare the seismic risks for different buildings in Taiwan during their 50-year useful lives, to detect the effects of construction materials and building height on seismic risk, and to examine the effectiveness of building codes in earthquake risk mitigation. Performance check of earthquake-resistant design is emphasized at the levels corresponding to the extensive damage limit. The present study may provide some valuable information for future code calibrations.\nMethodology: 1. Basic framework\nNumerical examples: To examine the effectiveness of building codes in earthquake risk mitigation and the positive developments of earthquake-resistant design, this study investigates and compares the exceeding probabilities of extensive damage limit for different buildings in the Taichung City of Taiwan during their 50-year useful lives. The effects of construction materials and building height on the damage probability are also investigated.1. Building classifications considered in analyses\nConclusions: This study provides an overview of seismic risk assessment procedure and explores some probability information for present earthquake-resistant design in Taiwan. It is found that the exceedance probabilities of extensive damage limit for all of the investigated buildings in their 50-year useful lives are on the order of 10-2. The effect of construction materials and building height on seismic risk of buildings is decreasing with the development of seismic design code. The effect of building height is not apparent for the present code. However, significant discrepancy of seismic risk still exists among some building categories. The present building code may provide a \"non-uniform\" risk design procedure for these building structures.Recently, there is general agreement that future seismic design needs to be based on performance-based design. Seismic risk analysis provides a tool for quantifying the probability of structural failure. However, current seismic design procedures do not relate performance levels to probability. The problem of imperfect simplification and lack of sufficient empirical data has shown the research needs for improvements of seismic risk assessment. The questions of what constitutes acceptable risk for various performance levels and how safe is safe enough remain context specific. In addition, performance-based design requires that performance limits must be well defined to capture the notion of damage. There exist some challenges and research works in developing such a performance-based design procedure to be fulfilled.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of building codes in earthquake risk mitigation in Taiwan.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using probabilistic risk analysis tools with available data, this study assesses the exceedance probability of extensive damage limit for general buildings in their 50-year useful lives. The buildings were classified into 15 categories according to their construction materials and building height. Then, the effects of construction materials, building height and construction years are detected.\nFindings: - The exceedance probabilities of extensive damage limit for all of the investigated buildings in their 50-year useful lives are on the order of 10-2. The effect of construction materials and building height on seismic risk of buildings is decreasing with the development of a seismic design code. Significant discrepancy of seismic risk still exists among some buildings.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Seismic risk analysis requires quite restrictive statistical idealizations for the relevant probabilistic terms in the mathematical formulation. The problem of imperfect simplification and lack of sufficient empirical data has shown the research needs for improvements of seismic risk assessment. The questions of what constitutes acceptable risk for various performance levels and how safe is safe enough remain context-specific.\nOriginality/value: - Although probabilistic risk analysis provides a tool for quantifying the probability of structural failure, current earthquake-resistant design procedures do not relate performance levels to probability. The paper explores some probability information for current earthquake-resistant design for general buildings during their 50-year useful lives and the information may provide some valuable information for future code calibration.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An investigation of development appraisal methods employed by valuers and appraisers in small and medium sized practices in Brazil
|
[
"Brazil",
"Commercial real estate",
"Development appraisal",
"Property development",
"Residual method",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Patterns of economic development and investments in developing countries are increasingly influenced by exogenous forces of international finance and investment, a component of which is the evaluation and appraisal of commercial real estate development opportunities in an increasingly global market. This paper investigates how development appraisal is conducted for commercial real estate in Brazil, an emerging global economy and BRICS country, focusing primarily on the methods employed to appraise the viability of commercial real estate development by small and medium sized real estate companies and their appraisers. Whilst the practices of large national and international real estate companies which employ appraisal methods, that are similar to those employed in the UK, are relatively well understood (see Coleman et al., 2013), little is known about how development appraisals are conducted by indigenous appraisers and valuers in Brazil. The research uses the long established and relatively transparent UK Residual Method of development appraisal as a template against which to compare Brazilian appraisal methods, guidance and practice. In order to understand how indigenous development appraisers operate the Brazilian development appraisal methods, it was vital that the research was conducted in Portuguese by a bi-lingual real estate expert who was familiar with both UK and Brazilian practice[1].\nThe Residual Method of development appraisal: UK origin and practice\nResearch methodology: A two phase Delphi Method was employed to gather empirical data from experts in the field of commercial development appraisal in Brazil. The reason for choosing this method was its potential to elicit expansive, open and honest reflection and refine expert judgements, minimize bias such as the opinions of rhetorical and charismatic individuals and replace traditional debate and counterproductive dynamics of groups that might affect the objective of the research (see Kauko and Palmroos, 2014; Dalkey, 1969). All participants remain anonymous so that whilst they share a summary of the group's response, no-one knows who the other participants are or to whom the responses belong. This arrangement creates opportunity for anonymous feedback and interaction to achieve a group consensus by the final phase. The literature review framed the interview questions used in the first phase, the responses to which were used for inform the second phase survey questions.\nKey findings from Delphi Survey: Methods\nConclusions: The review of literature highlighted an absence of comparative studies regarding UK and Brazilian methods of commercial development appraisal. A two phase Delphi Method survey, was employed to engage with ten practising indigenous development appraisers working for small and medium sized practices in the City of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The research questions posed at the outset of the paper have been answered as follows:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Whilst the real estate development appraisal practices of large national and international real estate companies are well understood, relatively little is known about how development appraisals are conducted by indigenous appraisers and valuers in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how development appraisal is conducted in Brazil, compared to the UK, focusing primarily on the methods employed by small- and medium-sized real estate practices and their appraisers to appraise the viability of commercial real estate developments in the State of Sao Paulo.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study employs a two phase Delphi Method to capture and analyse empirical data from small- and medium-sized real estate appraisers in Brazil. Using the long established and relatively transparent UK Residual Method of development appraisal as a template against which to compare Brazilian appraisal methods, guidance and practice. To understand how indigenous development appraisers operate the Brazilian development appraisal methods, the research was conducted in Portuguese by a bi-lingual real estate expert who was familiar with both UK and Brazilian practice.\nFindings: The research establishes that appraisers working for small- and medium -sized real estate practices in Brazil rarely use the Residual Method. Instead, they employ a range of methods, the choice of which is heavily influenced by the availability of comparable market data, with Direct Comparison of market data and the Capitalisation of Income being the methods of choice. Appraisers rarely employ the Residual Method as the principal development appraisal technique, using instead the Comparative Method and Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis. Land prices are usually agreed or already known and developer's profit is usually determined using DCF analysis and is highly sensitive to fluctuations in construction costs.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research engaged with a small number of appraisers and valuers in small- and medium-sized practices in the State of Sao Paulo using a two-phase Delphi Method. The long established UK Residual Method of development appraisal was used as a template against which to compare practice in Sao Paulo State. There is potential therefore to replicate the research in other Brazilian States and transfer the methodology to other developing countries.\nPractical implications: In Brazil, when development land in urban areas is acquired on the basis of plot exchange, land is often sold at less than market value and the original landowner retains an equity stake in the development and shares in the development overage. The practice of \"permuta fisica\", giving landowners the freehold of part of the development, or \"permuta financeira\", whereby the landowner receives an enhanced land price, indexed against development value, is of potential relevance to the UK and other developed countries that need help in urban unlocking land markets.\nOriginality/value: The research is a unique comparative study of development appraisal methods employed by small- and medium-sized practices in Brazil. It contributes to the limited literature that has so far been published in English on Brazilian development appraisal methods and reveals the similarities and differences with the Residual Method of development appraisal that is widely used in the UK and other developed countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Context-based sales and operations planning (S&OP) research: A literature review and future agenda
|
[
"Context",
"Systematic literature review",
"Supply chain planning",
"Contingency-based research",
"Demand and supply integration (DSI)",
"Integrated business planning (IBP)",
"Sales and operations planning (S&OP)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Scholars and practitioners report that sales and operations planning (S&OP) practices lead to improved vertical and horizontal alignment across hierarchies and functions in an organisation. Moreover, S&OP practices improve an organisation's alignment with its suppliers and customers (Oliva and Watson, 2011). S&OP practices are linked to positive effects on operational performance such as improved forecast accuracy (Wagner et al., 2014), service level (Muzumdar and Fontanella, 2006), inventory level (Bower, 2006) and capacity utilisation (Wagner et al., 2014). These operational improvements produce better financial and competitive performance by increasing the profit margin and revenue (Wagner et al., 2014) as well as the gross margin and customer retention (Muzumdar and Fontanella, 2006). Although S&OP practices are associated with positive effects, it is not clear how they are used to achieve such benefits.\nResearch framework: The contingency research framework\nMethods: We used a systematic literature review, which goal is defined as \"integrating a number of different works on the same topic, summarising the common elements, contrasting the differences, and extending the work in some fashion\" (Meredith, 1993, p. 8), here, the purpose is to extend our knowledge of contexts' effect on S&OP design. The review adopted the five-step approach developed by Denyer and Tranfield (2009): formulating questions, locating studies, selecting and evaluating studies, analysing and synthesising, and reporting and using the results. This approach was used throughout the review, with some adjustments for locating studies (step 2). The last step will not be reported in the method section because it is the result of the analysis and discussion.\nLiterature review findings: This section answers RQ1 by presenting the literature review's findings concerning the effects of context on S&OP design. Table II presents the results of this context-based paper coding, followed by a summary of the main findings by general context area.\nDiscussion: The effects of context on S&OP design\nConcluding remarks: This paper outlines the literature findings and areas for future research on how context affects the design of S&OP response and performance variables. The paper shows that S&OP response variables are, in addition to being dependent on S&OP maturity, a product of S&OP contextual variables. Despite this, all of the literature on S&OP suggests that S&OP-like processes are applicable across contexts, though this claim has not been empirically explored or tested. Consequently, future S&OP research must account for the effects of context on S&OP response and performance variables in order to generate a deeper understanding of effect and support the development of an S&OP contingency framework.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and categorise how current literature contributes to sales and operations planning (S&OP) research on how contextual variables affect S&OP design and to frame future areas for context-based S&OP research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The method used was a systematic literature review. Studies for review were obtained through a keyword search of five relevant databases, manual searches of relevant journals and snowballing of citations in relevant papers. In total, 571 papers published between 2000 and 2017 were assessed, and 68 papers were included in the review.\nFindings: The review found that S&OP design depends on industry, dynamic complexity, detail complexity and organisational characteristics. The findings of the literature review suggest that future research should study the roles of industry, complexity, system and process and organisational characteristics in S&OP design.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings revealed several gaps in the literature on context-dependent S&OP design. To address these gaps, an agenda for future S&OP contingency research is developed.\nPractical implications: The findings revealed which contextual areas and specific S&OP design issues must be considered when designing and implementing S&OP.\nOriginality/value: This study focussed on identifying relevant research on S&OP design by analysing the contribution of literature to a research framework inspired by contingency-based research of operations and supply chain management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Ward rounds, participants, roles and perceptions: literature review
|
[
"Patient centredness",
"Multidisciplinary ward rounds",
"Patient-centred rounds",
"Ward rounds"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Medical, nursing and allied health clinicians work in a medical ward environment that requires communication and coordinated teamwork to deliver safe, quality and cost effective patient care (Soliman et al., 2013; O'Leary et al., 2010). Patients involved in decision-making processes facilitate a more effective and transparent clinician-patient relationship (Swenne and Skytt, 2014). The active inclusion of patients in care processes results in changes to the traditional clinician-patient relationship, from one of authority and passiveness to a more balanced partnership (Smith et al., 2009).\nMethod: Due to historical commentary and the types of literature available on the topic, a narrative literature review was undertaken. This form of review, also referred to as an unsystematic narrative review, enables presentation of a range of literature encompassing a variety of sources including research studies, editorials, government reports and commentaries (Green et al., 2006).\nFindings: Classification and purpose\nDiscussion: Ward rounds are an important means by which health professionals communicate with each other to coordinate and deliver care. This literature review provides a comprehensive analysis of different rounds undertaken in acute adult medical units, and to the best of our knowledge is the first of its kind. Articles were analysed using criteria that focused on a combination of keywords and descriptors to categorise the findings. This review has classified and described the purpose of ward rounds, and identified at each round attendees and their roles, and the perception they have of other participants.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to classify and describe the purpose of ward rounds, who attends each round and their role, and participants' perception of each other's role during the respective ward rounds.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A literature review of face-to-face ward rounds in medical wards was conducted. Peer reviewed journals and government publications published between 2000 and 2014 were searched. Articles were classified according to the type of round described in the study. Purposes were identified using keywords in the description of why the round was carried out. Descriptions of tasks and interactions with team members defined participant roles.\nFindings: Eight round classifications were identified. The most common were the generalised ward; multidisciplinary; and consultant rounds. Multidisciplinary rounds were the most collaborative round. Medical officers were the most likely discipline to attend any round. There was limited reference to allied health clinicians and patient involvement on rounds. Perceptions attendees held of each other reiterated the need to continue to investigate teamwork.\nPractical implications: A collaborative approach to care planning can occur by ensuring clinicians and patients are aware of different ward round processes and their role in them.\nOriginality/value: Analysis fulfils a gap in the literature by identifying and analysing the different ward rounds being undertaken in acute medical wards. It identifies the complexities in the long established routine hospital processes of the ward round.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Customer knowledge management in international project: a case study
|
[
"Customer relations",
"Knowledge management",
"International marketing",
"United Kingdom",
"China"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: UK-China related customer knowledge management (CKM) research is relatively new. Current CKM researches are dominated by Western cases and theories. This paper aims to examine how CKM be implemented in international projects between the UK and China in practice, with a focus on the marketing process application, i.e. how analytical CKM systems are used to support customer knowledge (CK) acquisition and how such a system can be developed at both sides.This paper consists five parts. After this introduction, a literature review that related to CKM, marketing process and international joint projects are discussed followed by research methodology discussion. The case study practice of CKM application is based upon examining qualitative results reported from a two-year study of CKM applications in an UK education service provider. The fourth part of this paper presents findings and results from the case study from both ends, i.e. the UK and its China counterparts. An evaluation of CKM analytical functions provided by the international marketing team from the UK and its China counterparts in international joint education projects is discussed. A conceptual model of an analytical CKM system for CKM in this UK-China environment is developed from the findings and literature review. Finally, conclusion part of this paper gives directions for further research and limitations of the current research. Elite interview questions that used are included in Appendix.\n2 Literature review: 2.1 CKM defined\n3 Methodology: CKM is inherently a process forestalls great strides in its progress (Gooze and Mroz, 2007). CKM and marketing processes are taken into consideration to design the research structure.3.1 Case study in cross culture CKM\n4 Results and findings: Culture and other aspects of the organizational environment are conductive to more effective knowledge creation, transfer and use (Blackler, 1995; Mullin, 1996). In the CKM process, different aspects are examined based upon the developed literature review above.As a result, four factors are discussed, respectively:1. environmental influences;2. value specification;3. solution development; and4. customer development.4.1 Elite interview results: UK\n5 Conclusion and limitations: 5.1 Conclusions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to examine how customer knowledge management (CKM) be implemented in international projects between the UK and China in practice, with a focus on the marketing process application, i.e. how analytical CKM systems are used to support customer knowledge (CK) acquisition.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The case study practice of CKM application is based upon examining qualitative results reported from a two-year study of CKM applications in an UK education service provider. An evaluation of CKM analytical functions provided by the international marketing team from the UK and its China counterparts in international joint education projects. A conceptual model of an analytical CKM system for CKM in this UK-China environment is developed from the findings and literature review.\nFindings: - UK-China related CKM research is relatively new. Current CKM researches are dominated by Western cases and theories. China related international joint projects in this case study suggest that cultural factors play important roles in successful marketing. Meanwhile, CKM provides key factors in the implementation system.\nPractical implications: - The findings shed light on the potential areas in which organisations can practically use CKM in international joint projects. The application of analytical CKM was investigated to build up a CKM model in practice. The paper also provides guidance for the service industry as how an analytical CKM system needs to be developed to support marketing process.\nOriginality/value: - The latest findings on CKM application in this UK-China case study are reported. An innovative analytical CKM model is proposed for marketing process, i.e. environmental influences, value specification, solution development and customer development. Key factors, such as knowledge about, for and from customer in CKM are examined.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Analysing public sector continuous improvement: a systems approach
|
[
"Continuous improvement",
"Systems",
"Public sector management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Continuous improvement (CI) is widely applied in private sector organisations while its applications in public sector organisations are slowly gaining momentum (Bessant, 2005). CI programmes were initially developed in organisations with product-focussed processes or repetitive processes. During the years, CI methodologies have evolved from traditional manufacturing focussed systems that concentrated more on the production line into hybrid methodologies that focus on all aspects of an organisation involved in manufacturing, services and other sectors.\nLiterature review: CI is a philosophy that Deming described as \"improvement initiatives that increase successes and reduce failures\" (Juergensen, 2000, p. 3). CI occurs through evolutionary improvement, which means improvements are incremental (Bhuiyan and Baghel, 2005). In CI, improvements are based on many small changes rather than the radical changes that might arise from Research and Development. As the ideas come from the workers themselves, they are less likely to be radically different, and therefore easier to implement.\nMethodology: This research used a systems methodology based on system dynamics (SD) (Forrester, 1961). SD as a field of management science was developed in the second half of the 1950s by Jay W. Forrester at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. His seminal book Industrial Dynamics (Forrester, 1961) is still a significant statement of philosophy and methodology in the field.\nBOT graph: The BOT graph developed in this study is presented in Figure 1. BOT graphs show the pattern of a variable over an extended period, typically several months to several years. This pattern can indicate the variations and trends in the variable of interest - for example, growth, decline, oscillations or a combination thereof (Maani and Cavana, 2000).\nGroup model building: The group model building exercise used in this study involved four steps:\nAnalysis of the causal loop model: The causal loop model was analysed by identifying the feedback loops operating in the system. This analysis was conducted by the two authors and it is presented below.\nConclusions: The analysis of the causal loop diagram, as discussed in the previous section, identified seven interacting feedback loops. The structure of the system, as captured by the casual loop diagram (Figure 2) and the feedback loops in it, dictates the complex, counter-intuitive behaviour of client satisfaction as shown in the BOT (Figure 1). To induce long-term changes in this behaviour, short-term quick fixes in the structure might not be helpful (Senge, 1990). Instead, long-term structural changes need to be devised to change the behaviour of the system.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the complexities involved in implementing continuous improvement (CI) initiatives in public sector organisations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is based on a case study of a private sector organisation based in New Zealand and its efforts in implementing CI activities in its public sector clients. In total, 12 semi-structured interviews were followed by group model building exercises based on system dynamics that led to the development of a systems model.\nFindings: CI initiatives using public-private partnerships were successful in steadily improving the operational excellence and end-user satisfaction in this case. But client satisfaction was only increasing at a much slower rate. The underlying structure responsible for this behaviour was captured using a causal loop model and explained using seven interacting feedback loops.\nResearch limitations/implications: The major limitation of this research is that it is confined to one private sector organisation and its public sector clients. Thus, the generalisability cannot be utilised for future reference.\nPractical implications: This paper illustrates the development of strategic initiatives based on a participative model building approach. It provides a practical method for initiating long-term structural changes while managing CI activities in public sector organisations.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes a New Zealand case of public-private partnerships for implementing CI initiatives. It illustrates a systems approach to analyse the complexities involved in implementing CI initiatives in public sector organisations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Simulation-based learning in management education: A longitudinal quasi-experimental evaluation of instructional effectiveness
|
[
"Management education",
"Simulation-based learning",
"Multiple time-series design",
"Student evaluation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In recent years, graduate education in management has come under fire from a wide range of influential scholars (e.g. Bennis and O'Toole, 2005; Mintzberg, 2002; Pfeffer and Fong, 2004). Critics have identified three persisting problems related to the design and delivery of higher education programs in management:\nTheoretical background and research focus: In this part of the paper we present conceptual background on SBL. We begin by defining SBL and discussing how this instructional method has been used in management education. In the second section, we discuss the specific focus of the study and present our research hypotheses.\nMethod: This report examines a \"naturally occurring experiment\" in which an institution, the GSB, incorporated computer simulations into several courses that were taught term-by-term over a period of seven-years. The study employs a multiple time-series research design in order to investigate this phenomenon (Campbell and Stanley, 1966). In this research design, when studying change in the experimental group, \"the researchers also seek out a similar institution [i.e. comparison group] not undergoing the X [i.e. exposure to the experimental effect], from which to collect a similar 'control' time series [...]\" (Campbell and Stanley, 1966, p. 55).\nResults: Measurement validation\nDiscussion: This study employed a quasi-experimental, multiple time-series design to evaluate the instructional effectiveness of SBL in a Master of Management program in Thailand. Drawing upon student course evaluation data gathered over a seven-year period, the research compared results from three courses that used computer simulations with the results of other courses over a period of 20 trimesters. The study's hypotheses were supported by the empirical findings:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Proponents have argued that simulation-based learning (SBL) offers capabilities that respond to persisting critiques of management education. This research intended to provide additional empirical evidence for the instructional effectiveness of SBL. This paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research adopted a quasi-experimental, multiple time series design to examine the instructional effectiveness of courses that incorporated computer simulations in a Master of Management program at a business school in Thailand. It compared student perceptions of three SBL courses with courses that used a variety of other instructional approaches over a period of seven years.\nFindings: Results revealed that students rated the SBL courses significantly higher on overall perceived instructional effectiveness, as manifested by action-directed learning, student engagement, quality of assessment and feedback, and instructor effectiveness.\nResearch limitations/implications: The consistency of significant results for a large number of course sections over a substantial period of time suggests that the SBL courses created a more active, productive environment in which to learn management theory and practice.\nPractical implications: The results support assertions that simulations offer potential for enhancing the quality of university-based management education.\nOriginality/value: First, the research provides empirical insights into the implementation of SBL in management education; second, many instructors remain skeptical as to whether active learning methods imported from western contexts are suitable for Asian learners. The study addresses this issue in the light of data that describe one institution's sustained attempt to employ computer simulations in its graduate management education program.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A collaborative agent based green IS practice assessment tool for environmental sustainability attainment in enterprise data centers
|
[
"Environmental sustainability",
"Collaborative agents",
"Enterprise data centers",
"Enterprise information management",
"Enterprise knowledge base",
"Green IS practice assessment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The effort by enterprises to enhance environmental sustainability across their data centers is garnering aggregating attention (Karanasios et al., 2010). This is due to pressure from governmental and non-governmental associations on enterprise to decrease CO2 emissions and increase awareness for efficient resource utilization toward achieving sustainability goals (Gholami et al., 2013; Anthony et al., 2017b). Hence, enterprises are beginning to assess environmental sustainable performance of their organizational operations by attempting to meet the self-imposed or regulatory environmental guidelines set by governmental and non-governmental association (Dwyer and Hasan, 2012; Loeser et al., 2017). However, there is need to design systems to facilitate environmental sustainability by dynamically exploring how knowledge can change enterprise behavior toward ecological protection (Chen et al., 2011). According to Watson et al. (2011), information technology (IT) practitioners need to develop approaches for realizing the prospective role of information systems (IS) in enhancing environmental sustainable practices.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Overview of current green IS practice assessment in data centers\n3. Research Methodology: This section describes methodology adopted in this study, as shown in Figure 2.\n4. System development: The agent-based green IS assessment tool is implemented in PHP MySQL similar to prior studies (Yang, 2012; Zouhair et al., 2014) that utilized PHP to implement an agent-based web-based tool in their research. Furthermore, this study is similar to Kwon et al. (2007), Gawali and Meshram (2009) and Shen et al. (2015) where the author implemented agent-based web systems. Hence, this section shows a few interfaces of the agent-based green IS assessment tool.\n5. System validation: To analyze the collect questionnaire data, we utilized SPSS as used in prior studies Kwon et al. (2007). Where the authors deployed SPSS to evaluate their multi-agent CBR prototype system and Chang et al. (2016) where the researchers utilized SPSS to evaluate their agent and CBR online bookstore, likewise Molla and Cooper (2014) where the authors employed SPSS to analyze their survey data. Hence, this study also utilized SPSS to carryout descriptive analysis and EFA to determine the applicability of the implemented agent-based green IS assessment tool.\n6. Implications of study: 6.1 Research implications\n7. Conclusion, limitation and future direction: This study developed a collaborative agent-based assessment architecture and implemented green IS assessment tool to autonomously evaluates, benchmarks and rates IT practitioners' current green IS practices implemented in data centers. The agent-based green IS assessment tool was validated based on a focus group questionnaire data collected session from 105 IT practitioners in seven different enterprises based in Malaysia that possesses an in-house data center. Findings from descriptive analysis and EFA confirm the applicability of the tool in evaluating, benchmarking and rating the current green IS practice being implemented in enterprise data centers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a collaborative agent-based web architecture and an agent-based green IS assessment tool to aid information technology (IT) practitioners in data centers assess their current green information systems (IS) practice toward attaining sustainability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The methodology comprises that the collaborative agent-based web architecture, agents' algorithm and the green IS assessment tool, which is validated by employing focus group questionnaire targeting IT practitioners in seven Malaysian-based enterprises that have an in-house data centers. With 105 valid samples at hand, descriptive analysis and exploratory factor analysis was utilized to determine the applicability of the implemented agent-based green IS assessment tool.\nFindings: Findings reveal that the agent-based green IS assessment tool possesses the capability to evaluate benchmark and rate enterprise data centers current green IS practice. Additional findings indicate that the agent-based green IS assessment tool provide suggestions on how green IS practice can be improved in enterprise data centers.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study only collected data from 105 IT practitioners in enterprise data centers based in Malaysia; as such results from this research cannot be generalized to other countries. Moreover, the developed collaborative agents for green IS practice assessment can only be fully deployed after domain experts has added green IS practice assessment questions and alternative answers.\nPractical implications: This study presents an autonomous agent-based green IS assessment tool that supports the assessment of enterprise toward inclusion of sustainability considerations to enhance enterprise environmental performance.\nSocial implications: This study provides empirical evidence for data centers efficacy leading toward a greener society for environmental conservation for future generations to come.\nOriginality/value: This study creates awareness by presenting the green IS practice to be implemented by IT practitioners in data centers. In addition, the agent-based green IS assessment tool provides a web-based platform for promoting environmental sustainability by supporting data centers toward evaluating, benchmarking and rating their current green IS practices.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Market reactions to changes in the Dow Jones industrial average index
|
[
"Stock prices",
"Abnormal return",
"Liquidity",
"Event study",
"Index changes",
"Dow Jones industrial average index"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This study examines whether the stock market reacts to changes in the membership of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) index. Although the DJIA is the oldest and most recognizable stock market index in the world, academic research on this question is limited, dated and, most important, contradictory. For example, whereas Varela and Chandy (1989) do not find any significant stock price reaction for additions to and deletions from the DJIA, Polonchek and Krehbiel (1994) report a significant increase in price and trading volume for additions to the DJIA. Further, Beneish and Gardner (1995) do not observe significant changes in price and trading volume for the DJIA additions but document a significant decline in price and trading volume for deletions.\n2. Hypotheses on stock price effects of index changes: Among all stock indexes, the largest body of literatures examines stock market reactions to changes in the S&P 500 (e.g. Chen et al., 2004; Platikanova, 2008; Zhou, 2011). Researchers routinely find a positive stock price reaction to the announcement of additions to the index. However, researchers still disagree on the explanations for observed results and argue for different hypotheses.\n3. DJIA index studies: To the best of our knowledge, only three studies examine market reactions to changes to the DJIA index, and they present conflicting evidence. Varela and Chandy (1989) are the first to analyze stock price changes for companies added to or removed from the DJIA index. Examining changes to both the DJIA and Dow Jones Transportation Average (DJTA) indexes in the period 1970-1986, they find no significant returns around the announcement date for additions to or deletions from the DJIA and DJTA. However, for both indexes, additions gain in value and deletions decline in value three days prior to the announcement date.\n4. Sample: The DJIA index is a price-weighted index that consists of 30 large and well-known US companies to measure the performance of US industrial sector. The index covers all industries except transportation and utilities, which are tracked by the DJTA and Dow Jones Utility Average, respectively. Introduced by Charles Dow, a cofounder of Dow Jones and Company, on May 26, 1896, the DJIA index originally contained only 12 stocks. The index membership expanded to 20 stocks in 1916 and to 30 stocks in 1928. Since inception in 1896, the DJIA index has changed its composition 49 times. General Electric is the only original company that is still in the index although it was removed and subsequently added twice over its tenure in the index.\n5. Abnormal returns: To determine whether additions to and deletions from the DJIA index experience significant stock price changes, we conduct an abnormal return analysis. We collect all security and market data required for the abnormal return analysis from the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) database. The return on the CRSP value-weighted index serves as a proxy for the return on the market portfolio. We use Fama and French's (1993) three-factor model[3] and a 180-trading day post-event estimation period that runs from ED+61 to ED+240[4] to estimate abnormal returns. To assess the significance of abnormal returns, we use a parametric and two non-parametric t-test statistics, a sign test described by Corrado and Zivney (1992) and Cowan (1992), and a rank test suggested by Corrado (1989).\n6. Trading volume: To analyze trading volume behavior around the DJIA index changes, we use methods similar to those in Campbell and Wasley (1996) and Palmon et al. (2009). The average abnormal trading volume is estimated using an equally-weighted market index with all NYSE/AMEX stocks as a proxy for market trading volume and a 180-day pre-event estimation window (AD-210, AD-31)[6].\n7. Hypotheses testing for the 1990-2015 subperiod: 7.1 Price pressure hypothesis\n8. Conclusion: Prior studies provide mixed results on the market reaction to changes to the DJIA index. We examine changes in stock returns, liquidity, institutional ownership, analyst following and investor awareness for companies added to and deleted from the DJIA index and find that this lack of consensus in the literature can be attributed to varying sample periods. Specifically, observed abnormal returns for additions and deletions differ in the 1929-1933, 1934-1989 and 1990-2015 subperiods. These differences can be explained by the Great Depression in the 1929-1933 period and by the growth in index funds and a change in the announcement policy in the 1990-2015 period.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine changes in stock returns, liquidity, institutional ownership, analyst following and investor awareness for companies added to and deleted from the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) index. Previous studies report conflicting evidence regarding the market reactions to changes in the DJIA index membership.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses the event-study methodology to calculate abnormal returns and trading volume around the announcement and effective days of DJIA index changes from 1929 to 2015. It also tests for significant changes in liquidity, institutional ownership, analyst following and investor awareness in the 1990-2015 period. Multivariate regressions are used to perform a simultaneous analysis of competing hypotheses.\nFindings: This study resolves the mixed results of previous DJIA index papers by documenting different stock price and trading volume reactions over the 1929-2015 period. Focusing on the most recent period, 1990-2015, the study finds that stocks added to (deleted from) the index experience a significant permanent stock price gain (loss). The observed stock price reaction seems to be associated with changes in liquidity proxies thus lending support for the liquidity hypothesis.\nResearch limitations/implications: Limited data availability for the periods prior to 1990 prevents this study from identifying the exact reasons for different stock price and trading volume reactions across subperiods of the 1929-2015 period.\nOriginality/value: This study provides the most comprehensive examination of market reactions to changes in the DJIA index and resolves the mixed results of previous studies. A better understanding of market reactions around the DJIA index changes can help both individual and institutional investors with developing effective trading strategies and index managing companies with designing optimal announcement policies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Towards micro-foundations of institutional change: Lessons from Douglass C. North's sociocognitive turn
|
[
"Institutional change",
"New institutionalism",
"Douglass North",
"Embedded agency",
"Sociocognition"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Mirroring a similar situation at the end of the nineteenth century, there was a rekindled interest towards the end of the twentieth century amongst scholars from across the spectrum of the social sciences in the pivotal role of institutions and history in their ability to account for cultural, social and economic phenomena. The awarding of Coase (1991) and North (with Robert Fogel) (1993) with Nobel Prizes firmly established the \"new institutional economics\" (NIE hereafter), whilst in sociology, political science and management and organizational studies, we witnessed a similar quasi-paradigmatic materialization of epistemic communities labelling themselves \"new institutionalists\". Given that North's work was largely, if not entirely historical, it is rather curious that management historians - at least those publishing in this journal since its foundation in 1995 - do not appear to be terribly interested in his work.\nInstitutions matter: Institutions - famously defined by North as the \"rules of the game\" - matter. Understanding why and how they are formed and changed is a core agenda for the social sciences (Nee, 2005). What we might call \"collective action projects\" are far more efficient (in the higher-order sense of stable social order) and far less uncertain with institutions than without them. Indeed, this is their very raison d'etre. So, whether in \"societal games\" such as in the international or domestic political economy, at the meso-level handling of corporate missions, or in everyday individual decision-making, \"double contingency\" mandates some fundamental formal and informal rules to render collective action possible (Aoki, 2011; Parsons, 1951; Luhmann, 1995; North, 1990; Beckert, 1996). Across the social sciences, most scholars concur. And yet, despite the promise of shared understanding and intellectual exchange, what is most conspicuous about these cross-disciplinary, epistemic communities of institutional theorists is the relative scarcity of dialogue. Nowhere is this divide more apparent than between NIOS - where the few management historians interested in institutions have pitched their tent - and North's NIE.\nThe paradox of embedded agency: the evolutionary journey of NIOS: Given our contention that those few papers in this journal that invoke institutional theory are aligned with NIOS rather than with North's NIE, it is necessary for us to briefly overview NIOS. In NIOS, contra NIE, institutions are not necessarily the outcome of conscious human design; they may be independent of such and embedded in culture, and so, may not be susceptible to change. Actors are sometimes unlikely to recognize, let alone act on their interests; even if this is possible, they may be unable to do so effectively (DiMaggio, 1988). In this way, NIOS rejects the rational actor/choice model where interests are inferred from consequences or where each action is treated as having been chosen in awareness of other inferior options (Mayhew, 1989). Institutions are not necessarily the products of conscious human design but may be the reflection of collective outcomes irreducible to individual interests. As DiMaggio and Powell (1991, p. 9) note:\nThe \"cultural-cognitive\" turn in NIOS: Building on Berger and Luckmann (1966), as well as NIOS foundations provided by Meyer, Powell, DiMaggio, Zucker and others, Scott (2014) emphasizes that institutions do not just comprise \"regulative\" and \"normative\" elements providing the structure necessary for collective action, as emphasized by NIE and the \"old\"- or \"neo-institutionalists\" in sociology and management and organization studies, but also \"cultural-cognitive\" elements that bestow meaning and engender shared understanding. In terms of our discussion above, human action (or inaction) is reducible not solely to rules and regulations, or norms and values, but also to how actors make sense of or interpret these \"objective\" conditions. How we process information and decide what to do in certain situations is shaped by cultural-cognitive frames, shared understanding and/or taken-for-grantedness. \"A cultural-cognitive conception of institutions stresses the central role played by the socially mediated construction of a common framework of meaning\" (Scott, 2014, p. 59). Institutions are comprised of regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive elements, forming a continuum moving from conscious, legally sanctioned behaviour to unconscious/routine, taken-for-granted behaviour that bestows stability and meaning upon social life.\nNIOS' taxonomic approach to theory formation: From its early attempts to address the paradox of embedded agency to its more recent sociocognitive turn, the sum total of these steps has thus far failed to produce a unified explanation for institutional change. What we have is partial explanations but no comprehensive theory. Given NIOS' concerted and sustained efforts, it is reasonable to ask why has this not yet been achieved and is it likely to happen? We argue that the answer to the first is a matter of approach and to the second, by consequence, unlikely to produce a micro-foundational base for institutional change.\nThe sociocognitive NIE stance of \"late\" North (2005): NIOS has consistently overlooked all but North's early (i.e. pre-2005) NIE work[2]. To be sure, a major work devoted to explicating NIOS - the 2008 SAGE Handbook on Organizational Sociology - does not include a single citation to any of North's work, past or present (Greenwood et al., 2008). Roberts' (2008, p. 560; parentheses added) chapter in the latter, though \"rooted in the premise that there is some potential for a more seamless integration of (NIOS and institutional economics)\", does not discuss North at all. Similarly, the most recent (fourth) edition of Scott's (2014) text, Institutions and Organizations contains a one-sentence reference to North (2005). In fact, the only positive contemplation of the merits of North's work is done by Hirsch and Lounsbury (1996)[3]. The latter are sensitive to the evolution in North's thought, particularly on institutional change, and counsel that:\nConclusion: In this paper, we have sought to highlight the utility of North's NIE to the growth of knowledge in management (and other) history. Most, if not all, work in management history invoking institutional theory has erred almost exclusively on the side of NIOS rather than in North's NIE. And, apart from the relatively recent outpouring of discourse dealing with institutional entrepreneurship, logics and work, NIOS has essentially privileged structure over agency, conformity and continuity over autonomy and change, and said comparatively little about the agential origins and significance of institutional change. In North's NIE, the latter has always been and remains the centrepiece of analysis, and so, this paper has suggested that there is much to be learned by management history from the sociocognitive foundations of human choice. We argue that these foundations are congruent with, and extend, Scott's (2014) cultural-cognitive pillar and that North provides a viable resolution of the paradox of embedded agency.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Given managerial choices and the sociocultural context in which they are made are at the heart of management history, then an understanding of both is critical. This paper argues that the \"late\" North (2005) provides such an understanding.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is a research review synthesizing much disparate but cognate literature across the new institutionalism in organizational sociology/studies and in economics.\nFindings: \"Late\" North (2005) provides an important ontological frame for dealing with the so-called \"paradox of embedded agency\", an approach that may afford management historians a more thorough account of how institutions are formed and change over time. North has always maintained that institutional change is the outcome of deliberate or intentional choices made by actors. However, and unlike his earlier work which ignores how humans come to make the said choices, North (2005) explicates the sociocognitive process by which intentionality emerges with expanded consciousness, as humans construct ideas and beliefs about reality, beliefs that shape decisions to alter the said reality via the process of institutional change.\nOriginality/value: It is rather curious that despite North's status as a \"historian\", management historians - or at least those publishing in this journal from its founding in 1995 - do not seem to be terribly interested in North's work. Although North rates a mention in rival journals, other than Dagnino and Quattrone's (2006) study, papers in this journal invoking institutional theory align with the new institutionalism in organizational sociology/studies (NIOS) rather than North's new institutional economics (NIE). Even in the related sub-discipline of business history, those professing an interest in institutions are more interested in the NIE of non-historians Coase and Oliver Williamson than they are in North's NIE. And, in recent work analysing the place and significance of institutional theory in historical research, the foundations are unmistakeably NIOS rather than North's NIE.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Citation analysis of Collection Building during 2005-2012
|
[
"Journals, Collection building",
"Authors",
"Bibliometric study",
"Citation analysis",
"Half‐life period",
"Cumulative citations",
"Authors collaboration",
"Serials",
"Research work"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Citation analysis is one of the important and quite old branches of bibliometric study (Mahapatra, 2000) developed by Eugene Garfield. Citation analysis is the examination of the frequency, patterns, and graphs of citations in articles and books. It is a tool used to identify the core references in a subject by counting the citations appended at the end of each scientific article (Deshmukh, 2011). It makes use of bibliographic references which are the essential part of primary scientific communication. It is the method of studying reference sources cited in a research paper including books, journals articles, online sources, etc. In simple terms, it tells us about various sources of citations such as journals, books, and online sources. It also tells us about the geographical affiliations of contributors. Further, this method helps us to find out half-life of journal and books, ranking of journals, etc.Collection Building is a well-known journal in the field of LIS published by Emerald. It dedicated to all aspects of library collection development and maintenance from the practical to the theoretical. Collection Building aims to provide well-researched and authoritative information on collection development for librarians in academic, public, school and special libraries. It offers expert analyses of resource development, technology and resource sharing.\nReview of literature: There have been many studies conducted on citation analysis of single and multiple journals. Some of the relevant studies in the aforesaid direction are worthy of examinations. Sei-Ching (2005) in her study \"Are library and information science journals becoming more internationalized? - A longitudinal study of authors' geographical affiliations in 20 LIS journals from 1981 to 2003\" analyzed the geographical affiliations of authors in 20 international LIS journals to track the longitudinal changes in LIS authorship pattern. Sei-Ching explored an increase in the internationalization of LIS authorships over the years. The findings of this study suggest that, at the moment of the writing, there is still room for the LIS field to be more internationalized. Riahinia (2009) in her study of \"A 2003-2007 citation analysis of Library Herald\" stated that the journal had published 120 original research papers in last five years (2003-2007). The journal had only 16 international contributors during the study. Jan (2009), in her work \"Citation analysis of Library Trends from 1994-2007\" evaluates 593 articles. Each article published during that period was examined and the highest number (52) of articles was published in 2004. The journal contained 15,662 references 13,783 were p-citations and 1,879 were e-citations. Rosy stated that 44.51 percent print books were consulted by the authors and no e-books were accessed. Findings of the study indicated that authors consulted 44.04 percent p-journals and 11.82 percent e-journals. The author found that female contributions (52.34 percent) were slightly more than male contribution (47.66 percent). Tsay and Shu (2011) in their study \"Journal bibliometric analysis: a case study of the Journal of Documentation\" found that journal articles were the most cited documents followed by books and book chapters, electronic resources and conference proceedings respectively. They also studied the 354 papers with a total of 14,174 references in 11 selected years. Out of 14,174 references, 1253 self-citations (Journal of Documentation) were cited. Around 1289 references were cited per year and the total number increased yearly. Hussain et al. (2011) in their study \"Bibliometric analysis of the Electronic Library Journal (2000-2010)\" analyzed a bibliometric study of 578 articles that were published during the period January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2010 in the Electronic Library Journal. Majority of articles (269) were contributed by single authors and most of the authors (72.15 percent) belonged to universities. Singh et al. (2011) in their study \"Citation analysis of Journal of Documentation\" analyzed the articles published in the Journal of Documentation from 1996-2010. A total of 487 articles were published in the journal during the study and highest number (44) of articles was published in the year 2005. The journal contained 15,587 citations during the study and the maximum cited were reported in year 2009. In the authorship pattern, single authors 201 (49 percent) citations were more dominant than others and included both academics and non-academics. This study also reveals that Journal of Documentation is the most preferred journal used by authors in their citations. Swain and Panda (2012) in their study of Journal of Intellectual Property Rights from 2002 to 2010 studied the various aspects of JIPR. They found that JIPR can surely increase its impact factor and influence in the future. Deshmukh (2011) in his study of Annals of Library and Information Studies during 1997-2010 analyzed 4141 citations appended to articles in volumes 44 to 57 of Annals of Library and Information Studies. The study shows that ALIS journal is the most cited source. He found half-life of LIS literature is found to be nine years for journals and 14 years for books respectively. Sei-Ching (2011) in his study \"Longitudinal trends in internationalisation, collaboration types and citation impact: a bibliometric analysis of seven LIS journals (1980-2008)\" analyzed the longitudinal changes in geographical patterns of authorship, collaboration types, and factors affecting the citation impact of seven top LIS journals over a period of 29 years. In addition to data from all nations, this paper includes specific findings relating to Asian countries. The author analysis of 8,140 papers shows that the internationalization level in the sample set has increased in terms of number of nations represented. Singh (2013) in his study of \"A bibliometric analysis of the Chinese Librarianship: an International Electronic Journal (2009-2012)\" analyzed 903 citations from 55 articles. The author found that the majority of the articles (41.82 percent) were contributed by single authors and most of the authors belonged to various non-teaching categories.\nObjectives of the study: The main objectives of this study are to identify the characteristics of Collection Building articles and determine if there were changes over time. The following areas were examined.* find out the quantitative growth of articles and distributions of citations and self-citations by number and year under study;* to find out the range of citations per article;* to find out the authorship pattern of articles;* to examine the geographical affiliations of authors;* to prepare a rank list of the core journals in the field of library and information science; and* to find out half-life period of the journal.\nMethodology: This study explores the distribution of articles and subjects of references and analyses of the various aspects of Collection Building from 2005-2012. There are 179 articles in Collection Building in eight selected years, and their document types are shown in Table I. A total of 32 issues in eight volumes of Collection Building were consulted and relevant details of the citations at the end of each article were noted in an Excel sheet. A citation analysis study was performed and a quantitative approach was used. For exploration of the goals and data gathering, a checklist was produced by author to collect the required data. The recorded data were analyzed, interpreted and tabulated using the Excel sheet.\nFinding and analysis: 1. Quantitative growth of articles by number and year\nConclusions: Collection Building has successfully completed 31 years of publications. The study of Collection Building shows that the citation analysis is a quantitative method which produced valuable information to find out a highly ranked and prestigious journal. In the conclusion we can affirm that most of articles were contributed by single authors (65.92 percent) and the majority of contributors were from the USA (69.96 percent). Papers from other developed and developing countries represents their contributions in Collection Building. It seems that the journal's Editorial Board is accepting the original research papers across the world. The author suggests to other researchers that they perform similar studies comparing other Emerald journals in the field of Library and Information Science. Such studies may find out the status of the most prolific Library and Information Science journals used by scholars.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore the journal bibliometric characteristics of Collection Building and the subject relationship with other disciplines by citation analysis.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This study explores the distribution of articles and subjects of references and analyses the various aspects of Collection Building from 2005-2012. There are 179 articles in Collection Building in eight selected years. In total, 32 issues pertaining to eight volumes of Collection Building were consulted and relevant details of the citations at the end of each article were noted on an excel sheet. The recorded data were analysed, interpreted and tabulated.\nFindings: - The results of this study revealed that 179 articles were consulted from eight volumes (2005-2012) which carried 2,388 citations including 85 self-citations. The majority of articles (30.17 per cent) recorded between 10-19 range of citations per article followed by (28.50 per cent) 1-9 range. The majority of articles were contributed by single authors (65.92 per cent) and majority of contributors were from the USA (69.96 per cent) followed by Canada (3.95 per cent) and India (3.95 per cent) respectively. Journal articles (42.71 per cent) were the most cited source materials, followed by online and electronic sources (25.80 per cent), books including edited books (20.44 per cent), newspapers (5.23 per cent) and so on. Out of 179 articles, tje majority of articles (33.52 per cent) were Research papers followed by Case study (30.73 per cent), Literature review (12.85 per cent) and so on. The majority of articles (66.48 per cent) were recorded between 6-10 pages, followed by 25.70 per cent articles between 1-5 pages. Out of 1,020 journal articles, Collection Building (9.02 per cent) was the top ranked journal, followed by The Journal of Academic Librarianship (5.0 per cent) and College & Research Libraries (4.22 per cent).\nResearch limitations/implications: - Research was limited to the journal entitled Collection Building during eight years (2005-2012). In total, 32 issues and 179 articles were covered by the study.\nOriginality/value: - The outcome of the study is an original research work with citation analysis of Collection Building. It highlights the study of 179 articles of Collection Building in various ways.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Health-improving lifestyles of organic and functional food consumers
|
[
"Well-being",
"Health",
"Organic food",
"Functional food",
"Lifestyle research",
"Wellness",
"AIO"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Today, consumers pay more attention to the health benefits of food in order to achieve a healthy diet than in the past (Bachl, 2007; Chrysochou, 2010; Pech-Lopatta, 2007): concerns in the 1960 s about availability and affordability of food have shifted towards health concerns and to compensation for a deficient lifestyle (Datamonitor (ed), 2009). Across Europe, consumers say that diet is an important factor for better health (Datamonitor (ed), 2009; Niva and Makela, 2007). Food that is perceived as healthy is of increasing interest for consumers and accompanies a growth in the food industry worldwide (Bech-Larsen and Grunert, 2003; Boutin, 2008; Sahota, 2009).\n2. Conceptual framework: 2.1 Lifestyle research\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Sample\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Factor analysis of wellness lifestyle statements\n5. Discussion: The developed wellness lifestyle dimensions were examined concerning their impact on organic and functional food purchase. From the findings of the present study we conclude that beauty and appearance as well as health care and disease prevention are the top two crucial health improving strategies for functional food, whereas ritualised relaxation activities and disease prevention influence organic food the most. However, for both food groups the disease prevention factor and relaxation activities are significantly relevant. The first factor also shows higher b-values in the functional (0.335) than in the organic food (0.288) model. The health care and disease prevention factor contains functional food related items (intake of food supplements, food with additional health benefits), so it is obvious that this lifestyle has a large impact on food choice. In addition, ritualised relaxation has the highest influence on organic food purchase (b=0.295), but also significantly influences functional food with a lower b-value of 0.168. With a beta value of 0.235, sport and fitness are important for organic food choice in contrast to functional food (b=-0.011), which underlines the rather active lifestyles of organic food buyers. Stress management, i.e. not to take enough time for eating and to feel stressed in everyday life, has a low impact on functional and no impact on organic food choice. Therefore, people who are stressed in their daily life buy functional rather than organic food. Finally, organic food purchase is more driven by physical and spiritual activities, whereas functional food is more frequently bought for beauty reasons and passive disease prevention. It can be assumed that people who buy functional food, like probiotic or light products, try to achieve wellness and well-being in a convenient way, rather than by changing eating and living habits. Instead, health food consumers (organic food, whole grain, fresh fruit and vegetables) achieve well-being more actively through a spiritual and sporty life. Our first hypothesis of a different understanding of health is confirmed partially, as well as hypothesis two that functional and organic food consumers have different health and well-being improving lifestyles.\n6. Conclusion: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether functional and organic food consumers have the same understanding of health, and which health improving lifestyles are characteristic for them. Using data from a 500 consumer sample, we were able to prove our hypotheses through factor and regression analyses.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The desire for health and well-being is a strong driver in the food market. Scientific publications show that health is an important motive for both functional and organic food consumption. The aim of this study is to investigate whether functional and organic food consumers have the same understanding of health, and which health and well-being improving lifestyles are characteristic for them. Based on this, the authors identify dimensions for a wellness-orientated lifestyle model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In order to measure the different well-being and health lifestyles, AIO dimensions were adapted to theoretical wellness concepts. The results of the conducted factor and multiple OLS regression analyses are based on the data of an online survey of 500 German consumers.\nFindings: Consumers of functional food have a similar concept of health and well-being to organic consumers, but differ in certain aspects in their way of achieving this. The purchase of organic and functional food is driven by different lifestyles. Overall, the results confirm the link between organic food and an active lifestyle, as well as functional food and a passive lifestyle.\nPractical implications: The paper contributes to the discussion of health in marketing and especially in the food industry. The results reveal which kinds of lifestyle food marketing should be considered in a target group specific product communication and positioning.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the understanding of consumer behaviour, especially in the organic and functional food segment. It highlights the importance of health for both food types and also important differences in the understanding of wellness. Moreover, the results reveal first dimensions for a wellness-orientated lifestyle approach - especially for the food market.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Appraisal of safety practices in agro-allied industries in south-western Nigeria
|
[
"Agricultural safety",
"Accident prevention",
"Occupational health and safety",
"Nigeria"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Safety may be defined as actions, or steps timely taken to avoid occurrence of detrimental effect to human or equipment. Such effect may be physical, mental or financial or atimes in loss of hours (Adebiyi, 2002). The consequences of earthquakes, foods, typhoons and volcanic potential to kill and injure large number of people and to cause substantial damage to property and environment, have been recorded in earliest times (ILO, 1992). With increased civilization, the potential for major disasters whose origins lie rather in human activities and ingenuity increases.The increasing complex technologies used in major industries such as chemical processing, nuclear power generation, waste removal, mining, petroleum and agro-allied industries mean that, while day-to-day operations are without incident, there are also potentials for serious disaster when usual safeguards are defeated by combinations of events. Moreover, with rapid industrialization and technological development, most manufacturing systems rapidly grow in scale and functionality and it becomes more and more difficult to guarantee safety practices thereby resulting to infrequent accidents. Therefore, there is need to institute an intelligently planned safety programme to prevent accident or reduce it to a reasonable minimum.There are established standards and legislation (Roberts-Phelps, 1999); manufacturers around the world are spending large sums of money to develop sophisticated devices (Ozbay et al, 2001). Governments are contributing funds for research development of safety devices. Numerous studies have also been carried out. Safety is the stated goals. Expectations for improved safety are high; hence, safety is being used to assess industrial operational efficiency (Ingbenebor and Olalekan, 2002).Despite, absolute safety for humans and property is still an illusion. For example, Encarta (1999) reported that every year, hundreds of fatalities occur and men and women as a result of accidents suffer many thousands of injuries. NISP (2000) reported that over 11,000 people die from on-the-job accident each year and a worker is injured every 18 seconds in chemical industries. Apart from the tragic aspects resulting from loss of lives and disability injuries the economic loss cannot be overemphasized. Most establishments spend a large portion of their profit on servicing and compensation of accident victims. Also, the number of working days lost through industrial accidents is more than three times average annual loss through strike (London, 1982). As a result, safety has become a primary consideration in any manufacturing set up and safety consequences have and will remain a matter of continuing interest (Hoes, 2003; Jones, 2003).Therefore, this paper investigates the safety practices in some selected agro-allied industries in south-western Nigeria with a view of analysing the degree of safety awareness; adequacy of safety equipment; extent of enforcing safety rules; effectiveness of safety related activities and economics of safety programme.\nMaterials and methods: A case study approach (Sohal, 1996) was used to investigate the safety practices in 36 agro-allied industries, with organised safety programme, in south-western Nigeria. The agro-allied industries considered are grouped into categories representing: agro-processing equipment manufacturing (APEM), agro-processing and feed mills (APFM), agro-chemical dispensing shops (ACDS) and centralized-agro-materials storage stores (CAMS). Field guidelines developed by Gosse (1993) were employed to collect information from the industries to include accidents occurrence records and resulting consequences between 1992 to 2001; causes of accidents; and accident prevention activities. For majority of the industries considered, there is no quantitative records of causes of accidents; damages resulting from accidents and accident prevention activities. Hence, binary variable was used: 1 means exists; 0 means not existing.The data collected were statistically analysed using measure of central tendency (mean) and percentages. According to Charles-Owaba and Adebiyi (2001), the economic value of an accident may be given as: Equation 1 whereViy =economic value of accident class i in period y\nResults and discussion: Occurrence of accidents\nConclusions: This paper has described the safety practices in 15 agro-allied industries with organised safety programme in south western Nigeria. The aim of the investigation was to evaluate the extent of enforcing safety rules; safety awareness and economic implication of accidents from this sector to national economy. Three classes of accidents are identified as fatal, minor and serious. Minor accident has the highest frequency of occurrence of 304 while fatal accident has least frequency of occurrence of 17. However serious accidents had highest financial implication cost of $49.7 millions. The common causes of accidents are identified as: disobeying safety rules, inexperience of personnel, faulty equipment, fire outbreak, risky operation, cutting corners, malfunctioning equipment, human error and skid.Also, accident prevention activities being practiced are good manufacturing practice, standard operating procedure, good house keeping, fire/smoke detector, on-the-job training on safety, fighting team, guarding and provision of safety handbook and policy.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to investigate the safety practices in some selected agro-allied industries in south-western Nigeria with a view to analysing the degree of safety awareness; adequacy of safety equipment; extent of enforcing safety rules; effectiveness of safety-related activities and economics of safety programme.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A case study method of investigation, field study guidelines and binary variable were used and information gathered from 36 industries was documented. The data collected were analysed using mean, percentage and standard mathematical models. The analyses carried out on the data gathered are presented on the following: occurrence of accidents, causes of accidents, damages resulting from accidents, accident prevention activities and economic implications.\nFindings: - Three classes of accidents are identified as fatal, serious, and minor. The results showed that minor accident has the highest frequency of occurrence of 304, while fatal accident has the least frequency of occurrence of 17. However, serious accident has the greatest economic implication, accounting for annual average loss of $4.97 millions. Also, nine causes of accidents are identified, out of which faulty equipment is common to all industries. And eight accident prevention activities are identified, amongst which standard operating procedure, good housekeeping and on-the-job training are commonly being practised, while provision of safety handbook and policy is least practised.\nOriginality/value: - This paper has described the safety practices in 15 agro-allied industries with an organised safety programme in South Western Nigeria. The study has investigated the extent of enforcement of safety rules; safety awareness; and economic implication of accidents from this sector for the national economy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Incentives, organisational identification, and relationship quality among members of fine arts museums
|
[
"Spain",
"Museums",
"Customer relations",
"Benefits"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Contemporary museums are essentially \"non-profit businesses\" because they generate a substantial proportion of their own revenue while continuing to rely heavily on public donations. An important source of funds for most contemporary museums is the contribution made by associations of members (or so-called \"friends\") of the museum. Most museums organise a variety of programs for such groups, through which \"friends\" become both clients and donors as a consequence of the periodic financial contributions that they make to the museum's association of members. Moreover, personal bonds are often forged between the museum and members as a result of private visits and customised services, thus encouraging long-term relationships that assist the museum in its efforts to raise private funds and finance itself. However, as Bhattacharya (1998) has noted, maintaining the membership of such associations of friends is by no means a straightforward task - because many individuals have chosen to become part of the club for their own personal motivations, and many would be equally able to enjoy the museum without the need to join the association and make a financial contribution.Scholarly analysis of the relationships between non-profit organisations (such as museums) and members/donors has been framed within two distinct theoretical perspectives. The first has adopted the approach of social identity theory (Bhattacharya et al., 1995) in applying such concepts as \"organisational identification\" and a predisposition towards philanthropy to analyse members' intentions. The second perspective has adopted the tenets of relationship marketing in analysing relationships in the non-profit sector in terms of such concepts as trust, satisfaction, and value (Sargeant et al., 2004).Despite the many studies that have explored various aspects of sponsorship in the charitable/cultural non-profit sector (Ropo and Sauer, 2003; Samu and Wymer, 2002; Collin-Lachaud and Duyck, 2002; Voss et al., 2000; Rentschler et al., 2002; Passebois and Aurier, 2004; Sargeant and Lee, 2002a, b, 2004; Sargeant et al., 2006), knowledge of member fidelity programs in such organisations remains limited. This study, therefore, seeks to provide a deeper analysis of the response of museum members (or \"friends\") to the incentives that they receive from museums. In doing so, the main contribution of this study is to integrate the two perspectives noted above (the relationship marketing perspective and the theory of social identity) in assessing the links that exist between a museum and its clients/members. No previous study of these relationships has adopted such an integrated approach. In this regard, the concept of \"organisational identification\" is utilised as a central construct to link the benefits (material and non-material) that members receive from the museum with certain relational constructs (satisfaction, trust, and future commitment to a relationship with the organisation). Although previous studies have analysed various aspects of these issues - such as which types of benefits are most effective in encouraging charitable support (White and Peloza, 2009) and the antecedents of identification (Bhattacharya et al., 1995; Bergami and Bagozzi, 2000) - no previous study has attempted to integrate benefits, organisational identification, and consumer behaviour by positing identification as a link between relational policies (benefits or incentives to members) and individual commitment. The only study to have adopted this sort of approach was that by Ahearne et al. (2005), whose research in a commercial (profit-making) context suggested that customer-company identification has a mediating role in the relationship between customers' perceptions of a company and their subsequent consumer behavior.This study has practical implications for the management of cultural organisations. Most museums want to know exactly which benefits or incentives should be offered to their members to enhance their identification with the institution, thus leading to greater satisfaction, trust, and commitment (in the form of increased donations and positive word of mouth). The present exploration of these links should thus be of interest to contemporary museums as they increasingly adopt a business-like approach to the management of their finances.The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. The next section presents a review of the literature and develops a conceptual model of the hypothesised relationships among the main constructs of the study (\"material benefits\", \"non-material benefits\", \"organisational identification\", \"satisfaction\", \"trust\", and \"commitment\"). The paper then describes the methodology of an empirical study to test the hypotheses using a sample of 231 members of Spanish museums of fine arts. The results of the study are then described. The paper concludes with a summary of the main findings and implications of the study.\n2 Conceptual framework and hypotheses: 2.1 Relationships between cultural organisations and members\n3 Methodology: 3.1 Sample and data collection\n4 Results: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5 Discussion: The empirical study has shown that the material and non-material benefits obtained by the friends of museums were dependent to only a limited extent on the degree to which privileges were actually used. This suggests that the friends of museums in this study perceived benefits from their membership even if their actual involvement was limited. In other words, for many of the respondents, merely being a member (even passively) was sufficient for them to value the possibility of receiving material benefits (discounts, information, special activities) or non-material benefits (being involved with culture, maintaining links with people with similar likes, and so on).Further, the study has found that identification with the organisation was a key variable in the process of relationship intensification. Individuals apparently came to view the organisation as something that they \"own\", and this feeling was clearly influenced by the material and non-material benefits that they received.The study has also found that organisational identification mediated the impact of material and non-material benefits on both satisfaction and trust in the organisation, although it only partially mediated the effect of material and non-material benefits on future commitment. The study thus provides evidence that the relationship with members was stronger if they perceived benefits, which reinforced their identification with the organisation. Furthermore, the members were committed to a long-term relationship with the organisation - not only because of the benefits they received but also because of the feeling of identity that such benefits engendered.Contrary to what was hypothesised, the relationship between material benefits and satisfaction was not direct. This finding is in accordance with those of Hume and Mort (2008), who found, in the performing arts, that quality of peripheral services (parking, transport, discounts, and so on) and quality of experience with the event (entertainment, professional attitude of the actors, etc.) had a direct impact on value, but not on consumer satisfaction. However, organisational identification did prove to be a determinant of the satisfaction felt by respondents in this study with regard to the range of services offered by the museum. Trust in the museum's ability and honesty was also determined by organisational identification.In contrast to some previous studies in the non-profit sector (Garbarino and Johnson, 1999; Johnson and Garbarino, 2001; Passebois and Aurier, 2004; Sargeant et al., 2006; Shabbir et al., 2007), this study did not find evidence to support the classical \"satisfaction - trust - commitment\" relationship. Although satisfaction did reinforce trust and commitment in this study, the effect of satisfaction on commitment was small, and the effect of trust on commitment was not significant. The explanation for this result is likely to be the very strong effect of organisation identification on the respondents' future intentions.An important contribution of this study is that organisational identification has been shown to be an immediate antecedent of the quality of the relationship. This is in accordance with Madrigal and Chen's (2010) study of members of sports clubs. Although the satisfaction, trust, and commitment of members all depend on their feeling of identification, it would seem that their commitment is essentially related to organisational identification, whereas the effect of satisfaction and trust on commitment is relatively minor. In short, museums that seek to ensure the future commitment of members (understood as an intention to pursue the relationship with the museum, enhance it, and recommend it to others), should be aware that it is not essential to engender satisfaction and trust in individuals if they already identify with the organisation.\n6 Conclusions and implications: 6.1 Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between museums and their donor clients (\"friends\") by analysing the relative importance of the benefits (material and non-material) that such friends of the organisation receive, their organisational identification with the museum: and their perceptions of satisfaction, trust, and future commitment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Drawing on the tenets of both relationship marketing and social identity theory, the study develops and proposes a model of the relationships among the relevant constructs. This is empirically tested using survey data collected from 231 friends of Spanish museums of fine arts.\nFindings: - The study finds that positive and significant links exist between: the benefits (material and non-material) that members receive and their degree of organisational identification with the museum, and organisational identification and certain relational constructs (satisfaction with products and services, trust in the organisation and the intention to maintain a long-lasting relationship).\nResearch limitations/implications: - The sample is restricted to members of Spanish fine arts museums, thus limiting the generalisability of the findings.\nPractical implications: - Museums must manage their relationships with members and donors effectively by providing incentives that provide true value. Such benefits generate organisational identification, thus reinforcing the relationship between the museum and its important donors.\nOriginality/value: - From a theoretical perspective, the paper is the first to posit \"organisational identification\" as the nexus between customer perceptions of non-profit organisations and the quality of the ongoing relationship between the organisation and its members. From a practical perspective, the study demonstrates the importance of relational policies that promote organisational identification as a means of consolidating relationships with important donors and other members.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Experiential learning for sustainability leadership in higher education
|
[
"Leadership",
"Experiential learning",
"Personal development",
"Sustainability competencies",
"Undergraduate",
"Developmental evaluation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As the world faces urgent and rapidly unfolding sustainability challenges (Brown et al., 2010; Tesoriero, 2010), higher education is called to take a lead role in training sustainability change leaders (Scott et al., 2012). To bring about the level of social transformation required to meet today's sustainability challenges, change leaders need a new understanding of complex issues and new approaches to sustainability leadership (Doh and Stumpf, 2005; Lynham and Cunningham, 2006). Wals and Corcoran (2006) argue that universities have a particular responsibility to facilitate this alternative thinking. Sustainability in higher education (SHE) aims to enable people not only to acquire and generate knowledge, but also to develop graduates with capabilities and competencies to improvise, adapt, innovate and be creative (Barth et al., 2007). Graduates require skills, such as interdisciplinarity, problem-solving, team working and holistic thinking (Thomas, 2009).\nProgram overview: Launched in 2012, the RBC Sustainability Leadership Certificate (SLC) is an experiential learning program aimed at mobilizing change by developing participants' self-awareness and leadership skills. Participants examine personal and servant leadership (Greenleaf, 1967), explore tools that can be used to take effective sustainability actions and work to develop skills and capacities to lead change (e.g. building capacity in others and personal agency). Participants in the SLC program are primarily undergraduate students who are enrolled in programs from across the campus and who have completed a prerequisite introductory course with Dalhousie's College of Sustainability (CoS).\nLiterature review: Sustainability education seeks three primary outcomes: knowledge of sustainability issues, the skills to act sustainably and the personal and emotional attributes that facilitate sustainable behavior (Chalkley, 2006; Carter, 1985; Bloom et al., 1971). Sterling (2001) and Burns (2011) urge that if educators are to effectively prepare learners with the knowledge, skills and values they will need for creating more sustainable places and communities, a transition must be made from transmissive teaching models to transformative learning processes. Mezirow (2000) describes transformational learning as a process by which:\nMethods: As a component of the SLC developmental program evaluation, a multi-part self-assessment survey (Appendix 1) was designed to gauge participants' perceptions of their confidence and competence in the five key sustainability competency areas (Wiek et al., 2011). Wiek et al.'s (2011) was chosen based on its synthesis of literature on sustainability competencies, which provided an inclusive theoretical framework to compare the SLC learning outcomes and analyze how the key competencies played out in the context of the SLC program.\nFindings: Participants' open-ended responses reflected positively on the program curriculum, with participants providing many examples of how they felt the program had enhanced their development as sustainability leaders. Self-assessments revealed an increase in participants' perceived confidence and competence in all five of Wiek et al.'s (2011) sustainability competency areas. A statistical analysis of the Likert data can be found in Appendix 2. The program's experiential, application-oriented instructional methods resonated strongly with all participants, who frequently mentioned the positive contrast to the traditional lecture-style learning that typified their university experience. The supportive, intimate environment provided by the program's small scale was also widely favored by participants.\nDiscussion: The analysis of the participants' open-ended responses suggests that the learning outcomes can be clustered into three major themes: community, future and personal development. The three clusters that emerged were strongly related to the program design, implying that participants were absorbing the ideas that the program intended. These responses describe participants' reflection on the entire program; therefore, they do not capture which specific program components or activities fostered the learning in these three clusters. The responses do, however, provide insight to which of the conceptual sustainability competencies the participants acquired based on self-assessments. The future cluster and community cluster echoed Wiek et al.'s (2011) five key sustainability competencies (Table I): the community cluster encapsulated the strategic, interpersonal and systems thinking competencies and the future cluster related well with the anticipatory and normative competencies. Personal development was not directly captured by any of Wiek et al.'s (2011) competencies but did reflect the SLC program's growing focus on self-awareness and well-being.\nConclusion: Sustainability education is intended to provide learning, training and practical experience, in both formal and non-formal settings, to foster personal development, community involvement and action for change in our human and natural worlds. The focus on personal understanding and self-awareness was foundational to the SLC program design. During the development of the SLC, students called for collaborative learning experiences and the tools to create collective action. After participating in the SLC, participants identified that the time and space for personal reflection and exploration was a significant part of their learning. Sustainability students often get overwhelmed and immobilized by the magnitude of challenges present in their daily lives. Including personal development in sustainability programming provides the opportunity for students to take an appreciative inquiry into their personal assets and values. With a heightened personal understanding, students are better equipped to engage in collaborative learning, collective action and the development of key sustainability competencies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare the program design of a sustainability leadership certificate to participants' perceptions of their in-program learnings and competencies development. The authors present the results from the analysis of one program evaluation component, a survey, which was delivered before the program start and at the program end.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors describe key design elements of a sustainability leadership certificate, which was framed around five key sustainability competencies. Using a pre/post self-assessment, participants (n = 32) selected their level of confidence and competence in each of the key sustainability competencies and completed open-ended questionnaires. Quantitative data were analyzed using a Mann-Whitney U test, and qualitative data were transcribed and coded using a grounded theory approach in NVivo 10.\nFindings: Based on the survey feedback, the program participants were generally excited by the program's experiential format and supportive community. They felt that they had improved their confidence and competence in the key sustainability competencies. Three themed clusters, community, future and personal development, emerged from the participants' open-ended responses. This supports the program design and can inform further program development.\nPractical implications: The third theme, personal development, is notable, as it is not a typical focus of sustainability in higher education, but held high importance to participants. This strong resonance with participants suggests that sustainability programs should consider the role of the self to foster the development of key sustainability competencies.\nOriginality/value: The program's focus on \"personal\" was intentional in the program design. Based on participants' feedback, the inclusion of personal development exercises was a critical element for successful sustainability leadership development.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Theoretical examination of destination loyalty formation
|
[
"Motivation",
"Service quality",
"Destination image",
"Satisfaction",
"Destination branding",
"Destination loyalty"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In today's dynamic and competitive global environment, planning and developing tourism attractions is only half the battle faced by destination managers, considering the fact that so many destinations globally offer similar attractions, services and experiences. Destination managers also have to plan and strategize the marketing aspect of destination management. A well-planned and -developed tourism product and/or destination will be useless unless it attracts and retains its target market. Therefore, it is vital for managers to understand what makes customers loyal to a destination and what their expectations are so that destinations can modify their offerings, service delivery and communication strategies to meet and exceed customers' expectations.\nLoyalty: There is no question that loyalty is one of the most important concepts that plays a critical role on survival and success of businesses (Stepchenkova and Mills, 2010). Studies suggest that acquiring a new customer cost a lot more than retaining an existing one (Gursoy et al., 2003, 2007). Studies further suggest that a small decrease in customer retention cost is likely to cause a significant increase in profits (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). Therefore, it is vital for companies to successfully manage their relationships with their customers. A good relationship that benefits both the business and its customers is a must in developing customer loyalty. Converting a regular customer to a loyal one requires companies, at least, to exceed their expectations, provide unique experiences, commit to customers, treat them as unique individuals, value their opinions and feedbacks, and make their life easy by minimizing the effort required to deal with issues related to products before, during and after the purchase (McGarry, 1995). Furthermore, Peppers and Rogers (1998) argue that gaining customer loyalty requires businesses to focus on each one of their customers, which suggests direct marketing of products and services that are specifically designed for those customers utilizing the data gathered to identify preferences, likes and dislikes of each customer. Thus, developing and implementing an effective and efficient marketing strategy that centers on loyalty requires a clear understanding of the critical importance of the relationship between individuals buying preferences and their product loyalty (Chen and Gursoy, 2001).\nAntecedents of tourist loyalty: Satisfaction\nDiscussion and conclusions: This conceptual paper provides a comprehensive review of consumer loyalty literature in hospitality and tourism fields. Based on this review, this paper identifies the most critical antecedents of consumers' loyalty formation and develops a series of propositions for the relationships among the antecedents of loyalty and their direct and indirect impacts on loyalty formation. Furthermore, based on those propositions in relation to antecedents of tourist loyalty, this conceptual paper posits a framework of tourist DLF titled Destination Loyalty Formation (Figure 1). In this conceptual model, the sequential relationships among antecedents of tourist destination loyalty postulate that previous visit is the most influential driver that could manipulate tourist destination loyalty. Place attachment and involvement constitute the second most influential factor of DLF. In addition to the above two variables, the destination image affects perceived service quality and satisfaction directly and indirectly. Perceived service quality and satisfaction are proposed to entail the largest magnitude of direct impacts on destination loyalty.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the most critical antecedents of destination loyalty formation (DLF) and to develop a series of propositions for the relationships among the antecedents of loyalty formation and their direct and indirect impacts on loyalty formation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This conceptual paper provides a comprehensive review of the previous studies that examined destination loyalty and posits a framework of tourist DLF titled Destination Loyalty Formation.\nFindings: In the proposed conceptual model, the sequential relationships among the antecedents of tourist destination loyalty postulate that previous experiences are the most influential driver that could manipulate tourist destination loyalty. Place attachment and involvement constitute the second most influential factors of DLF. In addition to the above two variables, destination image is proposed to have direct and indirect effects on perception of service quality and satisfaction. Meanwhile, service quality and tourist satisfaction are proposed to have the largest magnitude of direct impacts on destination loyalty.\nOriginality/value: Previous studies examined most of the antecedents of destination loyalty separately. There is yet an effort to simultaneously consider antecedents of destination loyalty to examine how each antecedent relates to DLF. This conceptual paper attempts to address this issue by proposing a conceptual model that simultaneously considers antecedents of destination loyalty and examines how each antecedent relates to DLF.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Horizontal cooperation in disaster relief logistics: benefits and impediments
|
[
"Aid agencies",
"Distribution management",
"Supply chain management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: There is a growing need for efficient international disaster response, as can be seen from related figures that exhibit an alarming but clear picture: the total number of recorded natural disasters has multiplied more than sixfold over the last 30 years (CRED, 2007, 2008). Developments like climate change, environmental degradation and rapid urbanization are expected to increase the number of natural disasters by a further multiple of five over the next 50 years (Thomas and Kopczak, 2007). Despite an observed growth, it is doubtful whether the available funds for disaster relief operations will increase in the same proportion as the number of disasters and people affected by them.Hence, it is apparent that the humanitarian community may need to handle future disaster response operations with less money for each beneficiary. In order to improve or even maintain the level of assistance to those affected, efficiency and effectiveness of the response must be improved in terms of cost, time and quality. The logistics function can constitute a main improvement lever in this regard because it accounts for up to 80 percent of the total funds spent in disaster response (Trunick, 2005; van Wassenhove, 2006). Yet, logistics has frequently been regarded as a back-office function over the last few decades and has only recently started to move into the focus of the organizations' attention (Thomas and Kopczak, 2005) and thus leaves ample room for improvement.The characteristics of and challenges in humanitarian supply chains have been analysed, for instance, by Tufinkgi (2006), Thomas and Kopczak (2007), Kovacs and Spens (2007, 2009), Schulz (2009) and Blecken (2010). Kovacs and Spens (2007) denote humanitarian logistics as a \"mixed array of operations\" including disaster relief as well as long-term support for developing regions, i.e. as a response to various catastrophes. Thomas and Kopczak (2005) define humanitarian logistics as:[...] the process of planning, implementing and controlling the efficient, cost-effective flow and storage of goods and materials, as well as related information, from the point of origin to the point of consumption for the purpose of alleviating the suffering of vulnerable people. The function encompasses a range of activities, including preparedness, planning, procurement, transport, warehousing, tracking and tracing, and customs clearance.A lack of inter-organizational cooperation and coordination is pointed out in various articles and practitioner reports (Thomas and Kopczak, 2007; van Wassenhove, 2006; Oloruntoba, 2005; Volz, 2005). van Wassenhove (2006), for instance, points out that to cope with the rising number and increasing complexity of disasters, the response will call for more coordination and specialization of tasks not only vis-a-vis the armed forces, governments and private business, but also between humanitarian organizations among each other. Donors, too, are showing a growing interest in and demand for cooperation among humanitarian organizations operating in the same disaster regions, with a view to reducing duplications of effort. The following particular aspects become apparent: first, coordination between humanitarian organizations helps to increase the impact or efficiency of the overall operation. Second, the lack of, or sub-optimal coordination wastes resources and/or valuable response time. Yet, coordination between humanitarian organizations is difficult due to a variety of barriers. Amongst other factors, cooperation and coordination between humanitarian organizations is affected by humanitarian organizations' mandates, their organizational structure and employed IT systems, perceived or actual competition between the humanitarian actors, and timely exchange of accurate information before and during humanitarian operations.The objective of this paper is to identify potential benefits of and impediments to horizontal logistics cooperation between humanitarian organizations. In order to support this exploration, this paper is structured in four distinct sections. In Section 2, relevant sources on horizontal cooperation both in commercial and humanitarian contexts are reviewed. In Section 3, the research method is outlined, including case study research to investigate the research questions. The case studies are also briefly introduced. In Section 4, potential synergies and perceived benefits, and challenges of horizontal cooperation are identified through a cross-case analysis. Also, facilitating factors are determined which can help overcome the identified impediments. Section 5 provides a conclusion and suggests a way forward in facilitating horizontal cooperation of humanitarian organizations.\n2 Cooperation within disaster relief logistics: Based on the definitions of Woratschek and Roth (2005) and Hofer (1997), \"cooperation\" in this paper embraces all possible forms of inter-organizational interaction that are rooted in common intentions and lead, via negotiations, to agreements whereby the partners are and remain legally, and with certain restrictions, economically independent. While vertical cooperation involves different actors along the value chain of one industry, such as suppliers, manufacturers, distribution centers and customers, horizontal cooperation takes place between entities operating at the same level in the market.Logistics research within the private sector shows that horizontal cooperation between individual business entities is able to produce overall and individual benefits, for example, through the realization of economies of scale (Arnold and Essig, 1997; Essig, 1999; Bahrami, 2003; Cruijssen et al., 2007). In particular, with the aid of a large-scale survey and in-depth follow-up interviews, Cruijssen et al. (2007) investigated the potential benefits of and impediments to horizontal cooperation between logistics service providers (LSPs). The authors formulated a number of opportunities offered by horizontal cooperation:* Horizontal cooperation increases the company's productivity for core activities, e.g. decrease in empty hauling, better usage of storage facilities, etc.* Horizontal cooperation reduces the costs of non-core activities, e.g. organizing safety trainings, joint fuel facilities, etc.* Horizontal cooperation reduces purchasing costs, e.g. vehicles, on-board computers, fuel, etc.* LSPs can specialize while at the same time broadening their services.* LSPs can offer better quality of service at lower costs, e.g. in terms of speed, frequency of deliveries, geographical coverage, reliability of delivery times, etc.* Horizontal cooperation enables individual LSPs to tender with large shippers on larger contracts.* Horizontal cooperation helps to protect the company's market share.Likewise, Cruijssen et al. (2007) also indicated impediments to horizontal cooperation, with the specific context of horizontal cooperation between LSPs as follows:* It is hard to find commensurable LSPs with whom it is possible to cooperate for (non-) core activities.* It is hard to find a reliable party that can coordinate the cooperation in such a way that all participants are satisfied.* It is hard for the partners to determine the benefits or operational savings due to horizontal cooperation beforehand.* Partners find it hard to ensure a fair allocation of the shared workload in advance.* A fair allocation of benefits to all the partners is essential for a successful cooperation.* When a LSP cooperates with commensurable companies, it becomes harder to distinguish itself.* Over time, smaller companies in the partnership may lose clients or get pushed out of the market completely.* When benefits cannot be shared in a perceived fair way, the larger players will always benefit most.* Cooperation is greatly hampered by the required indispensable information and communication technology (ICT) investments.Literature on vertical cooperation in logistics is quite extensive. Gibson et al. (2002) indicate as main areas of research the identification of potential benefits, e.g. Bowersox (1990) and Gentry (1993); the investigation of critical success factors, e.g. Bowersox et al. (1989), La Londe and Cooper (1989), Tate (1996) and Gibson et al. (2002); as well as partner selection and evaluation criteria, e.g. Byrne and Markham (1991). Contributions on the influence of information sharing within vertical logistics cooperation were provided by Lee et al. (1997) and Chen et al. (2000).On the other hand, the academic research on horizontal cooperation in logistics is limited. Exceptions of industries in which horizontal cooperation has been investigated are maritime shipping (Sheppard and Seidman, 2001), and the airline industry (Fan et al., 2001; Oum et al., 2004), where horizontal cooperation is quite common and well researched. Cruijssen et al. (2007) indicate that only few further publications on horizontal logistics cooperation exist. These concentrate on either quantifying the cost-saving potential through cooperation, or reporting good practices in successful cases. Cruijssen et al. (2007) provide empirical evidence on the opportunities for horizontal cooperation in logistics, as well as major impediments to setting up and maintaining logistics partnerships in practice. Mason et al. (2007) find that strategies for improving transport and supply chain performance often involve collaboration of various forms. Different facets of cooperative sourcing within different industries are investigated by Arnold and Essig (1997), Arnold (1998), Essig (1999), Essig (2000), Hendrick (1998), Scheuing (1998) and Beimborn (2006).Collaboration between humanitarian organizations can take place at different stages along the relief chain (Oloruntoba, 2005), e.g. during contingency planning, need assessment, appeals, transportation management, or last-mile distribution. While collaboration during an actual disaster (Thomas and Kopczak, 2007), especially at field level, seems to be more common, and has been enhanced through the setup of the UN Joint Logistics Center(Samii and van Wassenhove 2003a; 2003b; 2003c), there is a specific need for better, continuing collaboration after an operation, in preparation for the next one (Thomas and Kopczak, 2007). Particularly, only limited cooperation is reported or documented during the preparation phase of the disaster relief lifecycle.In this paper, the potential benefits of and impediments to horizontal logistics cooperation between humanitarian organizations in connection with the permanent supply chain infrastructure are explored. This includes the supply chains up to the point of entry, i.e. the first airport or seaport in the disaster-affected area. The infrastructure encompasses all long-term or permanent facilities and equipment (e.g. procurement offices and warehouses with pre-positioned stock), employed or available staff, and standard processes and systems, all of which prepare and secure the organization's responsiveness to any disaster relief operation or on-going project. The supply chain infrastructure has to be set up during the preparation phase, that is, before the occurrence of a disaster event. Focus is put on the permanent supply chain infrastructure since this the readiness for coordination and use of synergies between humanitarian organizations should be comparatively high in this phase due to the scarcity of funds for disaster preparedness. Moreover, supply chain infrastructure has a significant influence on the performance of the supply chain.Owing to the latest developments within the humanitarian sector, where individual humanitarian organizations are taking the lead and acting as LSPs for others, a horizontal cooperation model that follows a service provider approach is selected and forms the core of the research investigations. The focus is further put on cooperation regarding the main tasks: procurement, warehousing and transportation.\n3 Case studies: 3.1 Research method\n4 Results: 4.1 Benefits\n5 Summary and outlook: This paper investigates the types of benefits that horizontal cooperation between humanitarian organizations could produce in the field of disaster relief logistics, and the impediments that hinder the realization these benefits. Through a cross-case analysis of three logistics cooperation initiatives recently set up by major disaster relief and donor organizations, it can be concluded that the same potential synergies exist in the humanitarian domain as found in the private sector, but that not all of the possible benefits have yet been realized. Humanitarian organizations focus less on cost aspects than on lead-time and quality improvements. Smaller organizations, in particular, can benefit from the services becoming accessible through a cooperative approach. Four main impediments are identified that hamper cooperation willingness between organizations: These are: the perception of logistics as one of the organization's own core competences, cultural differences and mutual mistrust, a lack of transparency concerning the potential and existing benefits and inadequate relief capacities.In addition, due to the perceived substantial net benefit, it is advisable that all humanitarian actors, and especially humanitarian organizations, donors, commercial service providers and the media place greater interest in the possibilities and potential results of horizontal logistics cooperation between humanitarian organizations. An initial fact-based discussion is required in order to evaluate alternative cooperation formats and identify potential benefits and costs, and also to facilitate long-term cost efficiency and existing impediments and solutions.The cross-case analysis revealed strengths and weaknesses of the selected cooperation model. In particular, the lack of incentives for cost efficiency, and the hypothesis that commercial service providers are able to operate in a more cost-efficient way than public or humanitarian service provider. This leads to a discussion of whether the service provider role in the cooperation can and should be taken on by a commercial company. While no viable reasons seem to preclude such a move, cost efficiency might be improved. Thus, the use of commercial instead of humanitarian service providers should be investigated and evaluated from the perspective of long-term efficiency.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to further the understanding of opportunities involved in horizontal cooperation in disaster relief logistics. The potential and realized benefits of horizontal cooperation in disaster relief logistics, as well as related impediments are investigated.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Case study research into three cooperative humanitarian organization initiatives.\nFindings: - To a large extent, the same potential synergies exist in the humanitarian as in the private sector, but not all of the potential benefits have yet been realized. Humanitarian organizations focus less on cost aspects than on lead-time and quality improvements. It is apparent that smaller organizations can benefit most from a cooperative approach. Four main impediments to a cooperative approach are identified. These concern: the perception of logistics as one of the organization's own core competences, cultural differences and mutual mistrust, a lack of transparency regarding the potential and existing benefits and inadequate relief capacities.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Research on horizontal cooperation in logistics is strengthened. A service provider model is selected as the mode of horizontal cooperation and the findings are valid only for this model.\nPractical implications: - The presented benefits may be of assistance to humanitarian organizations assessing participation in a cooperation initiative. The indicated impediments may also serve as a guide for humanitarian organizations in horizontal cooperation considerations.\nOriginality/value: - Research on horizontal cooperation in logistics is scarce in both the private sector and the humanitarian domain. It appears that no other rigorous and systematic empirical study comparing existing logistics cooperation initiatives exists as yet.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Strategic management of store brands: an analysis from the manufacturer's perspective
|
[
"Generics",
"Brands",
"Strategic management",
"Merchandising",
"Spain"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The store brand currently constitutes an important marketing tool. Since its appearance, distributors have gone from conceiving it as a tool for increasing market share and profitability, to seeing that there are important benefits derived from the correct management of these brands. Store brands are no longer presented to consumers as the lowest-price products in the shelf space, but rather they endeavour to be an alternative option of value or quality to manufacturer brands. Store brands are moving away from their first concept as generic products, and they are ceasing to be considered by distributors as counter-brands, with extrinsic characteristics similar to those of the leading brands and at a substantially lower price. Distributors pursue the creation of an identity for their store brands that allows them to make their establishment profitable, to differentiate it and to make customers loyal.In order to achieve this, distributors intensify the marketing effort aimed at their store brands and increase the quality controls of the same, without thereby causing these factors to generate a considerable increase in the retail sale price for these brands, which would dissuade customers from considering them as choice alternatives. Factors such as the reduction of the quality differential perceived by customers between store brands and manufacturer brands, their favourable price and the reduction of the number of brands present in the shelf space have positively contributed to the market share of store brands.These brands have been implemented in clear competition to manufacturer brands. Distributors are no longer the customer of the manufacturer as regards the brands that the manufacturer supplies to the former, but rather they are emerging as considerable competitive agents. In this regard, the manufacture of store brands can represent serious disadvantages for the rest of the manufacturer brands, which include a decrease of market share - as from the moment when the store brand becomes a part of the purchase alternatives of consumers - and a detriment to the image achieved by manufacturer brands - to the extent that consumers may be aware of the same origin of both brands.The extensive number of manufacturer brands existing on the market, the restricted number of brands that are successfully marketed on the shelves, the growing power of distribution, and the cost of ceasing to manufacture store brands contribute to the fact that producers co-operate with retailers when investing in the quality of the brands of the latter agents.Various studies examine the subject of the strategic management of store brands from a general (manufacturer-retailer) and basically theoretical perspective, thereby pointing out the advantages and the risks of producing these brands, the distributor's objectives or the manufacturer's strategies to compete with store brands (McMaster, 1987; Quelch and Harding, 1996; Hoch, 1996; Recio and Roman, 1999; Dunne and Narasimhan, 1999). Others carry out empirical research from the retailer's perspective in order to draw conclusions of a descriptive nature about the phenomenon of store brands (Simmons and Meredith, 1983; Puelles, 1995; Fernandez and Gomez, 1999).Nevertheless, no research studies that empirically analyse the store brand from the manufacturer's perspective have been found in the specialised literature. The main aim of this research is to provide empirical analyses about the store brand management by manufacturers and retailers from the manufacturer's perspective, in the current context, which is one of intense competition between manufacturer and store brands. Particularly, this research pursues to analyse the profile of store brand manufacturers, their perceptions about the retail management of these brands and their own product management of the same.The strategic management of store brands includes an analysis of the strategic aspects of their marketing and the strategic aspects of their manufacturing. The former aspects include:* the retailer's objectives with the store brand; and* their marketing management, which encompasses both product management and merchandising management.The latter aspects include:* the manufacturer's motivations with the store brand; and* the comparative management of the manufacturing and marketing process of store brands and manufacturer brands.This paper hereby provides an appropriate review of the literature on each one of these aspects, and it sets forth empirical research from the manufacturer's point of view. This research endeavours to determine the strategic aspects of the manufacturing and marketing of store brands in the Spanish consumer goods market.\n2 Strategic management of store brand marketing: 2.1 Retailer's objectives\n3 Strategic management of store brand manufacturing: 3.1 Manufacturer's objectives\n4 Methodology: Ad hoc research is performed for studying the strategic management of store brands. It is based on a postal survey directed at manufacturing business units of mass consumer products in Spain. The technical form is presented in Table I. It summarizes the main characteristics of the survey carried out.A business database was used to find the necessary information - Spanish National Industry Classification (CNAE) and sales volume - in order to select the sample of companies. In order to obtain the necessary information, a questionnaire was developed in close collaboration with various representatives of companies in the sector, who co-operated in the design and pre-test phases. Moreover, the Spanish Association of Brand Manufacturers (PROMARCA) co-operated in encouraging the response of member manufacturers of their association (manufacturers with a high turnover in the mass consumer products).The questionnaire was sent by postal mail to 801 companies in the sector (with a turnover exceeding 4.81 million euros), and in the event the company had various business units, each company was requested to complete a questionnaire for each unit. The field work was performed from December of 2000 to April of 2001.The total number of questionnaires received was 174, and 161 were valid[2]. For the statistical analysis of the data, the SPSS v.13.0 statistical package was used. The analysis techniques applied were, on the one hand, contingency tables and variance analysis to examine possible differences between groups of manufacturers (store brand manufacturers - non store brand manufacturers; leading manufacturers - non leading manufacturers) in relation to their descriptive characteristics, to their opinion about store brand management by retailers, or about their own management of these brands. On the other hand, principal component analysis was used to determine the main aspects of the store brand management by retailers, according to the manufacturers. The sample size was sufficient in order to apply all the information analysis techniques that serve to describe the strategic management of store brands from a manufacturer's perspective.The majority of business units that conform the sample manufacture and market general food and beverage products (60.0 per cent), they compete in relatively concentrated markets (57.3 per cent), they sell their products mainly in the Spanish market (82.4 per cent), their turnover is less or equal than 120 million euros (80.6 per cent), and they do not manufacture price leader brands (80.1 per cent).In a more rigorous analysis of the competitive profile of the researched business units, significant statistical differences are verified between manufacturers and non-manufacturers of store brands regarding the competitive position - when the sample is divided into leaders and non leaders[3] - the type of commercialised product, and the manufacture of price leader brands (Table II). However, statistically significant differences were not observed in the concentration of the sector, the size of the business unit, innovation or the advertising expense.Nowadays, based on data from Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) for the year 2003, the store brand market share in Spain is very high in food products (27.7 per cent in value). However, it remains low for products related to personal hygiene and baby care, with market shares of 16.6 and 13.2 per cent in value, respectively.\n5 Results: 5.1 Strategic management of store brand marketing\n6 Conclusions, limitations and future lines of research: Interesting conclusions about business decision-making can be drawn from the research as regards:* the differences existing between producers and non-producers of store brands according to the characteristics of the product category with which they work and the variables of competitive strategy;* the manufacturer's perception about the retail management of store brands and* the producer's management of these brands.The analysis sample is distributed uniformly between manufacturers (52.8 per cent) and non-manufacturers (47.2 per cent) of store brands. An analysis of the profile of both groups does not report significant differences regarding size, sector concentration, innovation or advertising expense. Nevertheless, it is observed a significant higher percentage of store brand manufacturers in food products and in non-leading companies.The perception about the marketing management developed by retailers with their store brands differs between manufacturers and non-manufacturers of these brands only regarding the product management. Even though there is a high degree of agreement regarding favourable merchandising by retailers with their store brands, the business units that produce these brands consider that they represent value alternatives for consumers, and in turn they differ from the non-manufacturers of store brands about the lower quality of these brands with respect to the quality of the leading brands. The results of this research suggest that non store brand manufacturers try to positively differentiate their manufacturer brands from the store brands. Nevertheless, they must be conscious of the increasingly threat that store brands represent for them, as long as store brand manufacturers assure that these brands are now alternative options of value or quality to manufacturer brands. The value and quality that retailers achieve for their own brands can be explained, to a large extent, by their greater negotiating power in the distribution channel.Moreover, the study of the manufacturer's management of store brands clearly shows the motivations for their production and the differences of their management in relation to the manufacturer brands that make up their product portfolio.As regards manufacturer motivations for producing store brands, the results reveal the greater number of economic and market motivations versus the relational motivations. Only five of the fifteen stated reasons obtain a relatively high appraisal (equal to or greater than 50 per cent). From highest to lowest, they highlight the following: obtaining economies of scale, the growth of a firm's market share, preventing the competition from manufacturing the brands, assuring co-operation with large distributors and taking advantage of idle production capacity. Nevertheless, certain differences that were found according to the manufacturer's competitive position should be highlighted. Thus, it is found that leading manufacturers mainly point out the reasons of improving the negotiating position and controlling the store brand; and non-leading manufacturers underscore the reasons that it is the only possibility of remaining in the channel and the growth of the company's market share. These results clearly shows that while the production of store brands by leading manufacturers is centred on reasons of strategy, the decision of producing store brands by non-leading manufacturers is mainly centred on reasons of need. The reduced number of brands marketed in the shelf space makes it difficult for medium or small manufacturers to enter, remain or grow in a channel if they do not agree to produce store brands.Moreover, it is observed that retailers are concerned about the quality and image of their brands, which is manifested through the various impositions of retailers on manufacturers as regards product management, thereby depending on their competitive position. The fact that leading manufacturers may decide to produce a store brand in order to improve their negotiating position, and that distributors may demand the presence of a greater variety of assortment from these manufacturers, unlike the rest, should warn leading manufacturers that, even though the production of store brands can contribute to increasing their negotiating power in a channel in the short term, in the long term, these producers could be forced to pay greater attention to store brands, to reveal structure costs or to share innovations in products and processes.In addition, the analysis of the manufacturer's management of store brands shows evidence of slight differences in the manufacturing and marketing process of these brands in relation to the manufacturer brands that make up its product portfolio. The production costs of store brands, as well as the costs and quality of the raw materials and packaging are practically the same for both brands. Innovation and marketing expenses are the only aspects that show clearly lower values for store brands. Moreover, they are significantly lower for leading manufacturers. These results suggests that the differences in the quality of manufacturer brands and store brands are almost unappreciable, probably as a result of the scarce technological complexity existing in the markets that make up the scope of the study (Hoch and Banerji, 1993). The manufacturer brands differentiate from the store brands through increased product costs, meaning innovation, advertising, promotions, etc.The lower magnitude of the marketing expenses also confirms that distributors are those who mainly support these expenses for their store brands (Hoch, 1996).Finally, as regards the limitations of the research performed, one restriction to consider comes from the reduced percentage of manufacturers in the sample who state producing distributor brands in the perfume and drugstore sectors. More than 90 per cent of the store brand producers declare that they produce these brands in food categories, which means that the results obtained in this research mainly refer to this market, wherefore any generalisation to the consumer goods sector (food, perfume and drugstore) must be made with excessive prudence. In future research, it would be advisable to obtain greater representation of store brand manufacturers in the perfume and drugstore market, which may allow a better understanding of the store brand phenomenon of the totality of frequent consumer products. Moreover, it would allow individualised treatment in order to analyse possible differences between sectors. Another limitation is the fact that only the manufacturers' perceptions have been considered when analysing the strategic management of store brand marketing. It would be beneficial in future research to consider the opinion of retailers about their own management of these brands.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The main aim of this research is to provide empirical analyses about the store brand management by manufacturers and retailers from the manufacturer's perspective, in the current context, which is one of intense competition between manufacturer and store brands. Particularly, this research pursues to analyse the profile of store brand manufacturers, their perceptions about the retail management of these brands and their own product management of the same.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A postal survey was carried out directed at manufacturing business units of mass consumer products in Spain. Multivariate techniques are used in the information analysis such as contingency tables, variance and principal component analysis.\nFindings: - The results highlight the differences between manufacturers and non-manufacturers of store brands in their competitive position and in the type of manufactured product; the consensus of both groups regarding the perception of favourable merchandising for store brands; the greater number of production and market motivations versus the relational motivations in the manufacture of store brands; the no convenience of producing store brands for leading manufacturers, and the slight differences in the manufacturing process between manufacturer and store brands.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The main limitation of this research is the fact that only the manufacturers' perceptions have been considered. It would be beneficial in future research to consider the opinion of retailers about their own management of these brands.\nOriginality/value: - The main value of the paper is the empirical analyse of the store brand management from the manufacturer's perspective. This subject has been analysed from a general and basically theoretical perspective until now.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
This thing of social media! Going business or socialisation? Solving the great dilemma
|
[
"Business",
"Continuance intention",
"Social media",
"Habit",
"TToSM"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Background study: Today, people are no longer turning to the yellow pages to locate the services or products they need or want, but rather doing a quick search on the social media to locate these things. This is making all kinds of venders optimistically present on \"this thing of social media\" (TToSM), particularly in the top social networking sites (SNSs). Having described a \"thing\" by the online Oxford English Dictionary (OED) (in the third paragraph) as a matter with which one is concerned (in action, speech, an affair, a thought or a business), usually as affairs, or circumstances (www.oed.com), this study lends support to Kuss and Griffiths' (2011) definition of social media. The study describes social media or SNS as a Web 2.0 public thing whereby the public meets for shared interests. This interest could range from meeting old friends to creating new ones for the purposes of socialisation, but also for social business affairs. When the purpose is for socialisation, as espoused by Kuss and Griffiths, 2011; Fox and Rooney, 2015; Lento et al., 2016; Shi et al., 2018), the objective is to solve a social problem without \"profit making\" being the motive. But, when the purpose is business, the motive is purely \"money making\". To this end, I looked at social business strictly in terms of (Yunus, 2007; Yunus and Weber, 2010; Wilson and Post, 2011), which is the most well-known representative of what social business is (Beckmann et al., 2014). They describe social business as business with a social mission at their core that are financially self-sustaining (Yunus, 2007; Yunus and Weber, 2010). These authors alluded that, \"as social businesses operate in the realm of the private sector (social media owned by private people), they need to be financed through self-generated income and must not accept donations or grants.\" Selling on social media with the intention of generating income could be described as ideal type of a social business that marries a socialisation with pure business motive (financially self-sustainable through market income) (Beckmann et al., 2014). The aforementioned definitions' emphasis rings well with the current literature on social media and what social business is.\n2. A practical and demonstrative example: The ample evidence of Social media usage for both socialisation and business purposes is overwhelming, to the extent that this study believes the case for acceptance is no issue but rather the continuous intention. Continuance intention that precisely inform us of the intended usage between socialisation and business. This intention could serve as a proxy for actual usage (Bhattacherjee, 2001), if we still doubt social media usage. This study therefore deems it appropriate to use Bhattacharjee and Barfar`s (2011) ECT to gauge the direction for TToSM.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Questionnaire\n4. Structural model: In evaluating the structural model, this study assessed the beta coefficients and their level of significance, R2 and/or adjusted R2, effect size (f2) for each relationship and the overall fit of the estimated model (Henseler et al., 2016). The beta coefficients when greater than 0.200 at the 95 per cent significance level; this can be considered theoretically and statistically significant. The current study`s beta coefficients for the hypothesised associations ranged between 0.311*** and 0.615***, to provide support for the proposed model. The explained variance of the dependent variables is represented with (R2) while adjusted R2 values are necessary when the need to consider model complexity and sample size in comparison of different models arise. These values are shown in Table V.\n5. Discussion and implications: The selected factors in this study, based on the extant literature review, are among those normally used to confirm the relevance and impact of behavioural intentions. The current study focussed on the continuance intentions of social media, and all the factors invested in the study proved to have a positive impact on TToSM participants to predict the future direction of this platform. A double factor of continuance intention for socialisation and business was mined to discover the degree of intentions of participants towards social media. The results, after performing a regression analysis with habit as a control variable, showed business explaining 53.9 per cent against socialisation 51.9 per cent. Because, the Smart PLS3 is a predictive analytical programme, this stand to mean that, in future social media will be used for business more than socialisation.\n6. Limitations and directions for future research: The questions asked in this study focussed on buyers and not platform managers. Since the continuance intention depends on the latter as well, it would have been better if their opinions were sought to determine what will make them to also continue providing social media. The resulting outcome then obtained could have left no stone unturned. The study also limited itself to only those who have accepted social media, but the non-user group could have given insightful information as to why they are not participating. Future studies should do well to take care of these limitations. The conceptual model of this paper seems to be the first of its kind, used to decipher between SNS socialisation and SNS purchasing behaviour. The author found no similar studies to compare with the current model. This therefore denies this paper the opportunity to do any critical evaluation, as this would have strengthened the outcomes of the research. There are potential drawbacks for doing business on social media which this paper did not touch on. Therefore, these need to be considered before using the results of this paper as the holy truth.\n7. Conclusion: This study through empirical prove has shown that, the social media hype is nowhere near it conclusive evidence of the future usage. It has therefore argued for more detailed and specific investigations to solve the dilemma that studies of social media normally create. This includes the combination of theories that will enhance deeper understanding of issues which have not traditionally received attention through the inclusion of these theories in our thinking. To this effect, this study`s acceptable hypotheses have sounded a call for a new sense of direction regarding continuance intention on TToSM, and has contributed an incremental enhancement for the \"sudden end\" of SNS continuance intention models. A total of four factors was deployed to explain social media's continuance intention for either Socialisation or business, and the possible direction for this platform in the near future. The analysis showed that the proposed conceptual model provided a deeper understanding and specific directions of user continuance intentions towards social networking websites. Hence, this paper helps both practitioners and stakeholders to know the factors that need attention if the possible direction of TToSM has to be determined. Insight of the underlying forces of the continuance intention of social media participants was provided, to help practitioners design their products and services more effectively to target their followers. It is hoped that, through this study, practitioners would be able to understand the relative importance of the factors affecting behavioural intentions of social media for socialisation or business, and the future directional usage for TToSM.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Social media has become a \"thing\" not just for its historical purpose of socialisation, but a multi-faceted platform of unpredictable possibilities. With the current high levels of actual usage, business on the platform has assumed different styles and has become one of the competing activities on this platform, creating a dilemma for the future. However, as social beings, we can manage such capricious adventure by means of research, to predict the possible destination before we are taken by surprise. One of such medium of studies is through the philosophies of the continuance intention theories. To this end, the purpose of this paper was to investigated some antecedents of social media that are capable of predicting the direction of this platform to test this theory of continuance intention, and the results from the predictive Smart PLS3 shows that the continuance intention for business on this platform will overtake socialisation to offer the biggest market among the elitist class in the near future, and not China, Nigeria or the NYSE.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper uses Predictive Smart PLS3 to analyse the continuance intention of social media platforms.\nFindings: Predictive Smart PLS3 shows that the continuance intention for business on social media platform will overtake socialisation to offer the biggest market.\nResearch limitations/implications: The questions asked in this study focussed on buyers and not platform managers. As the continuance intention depends on the latter as well, it would have been better if their opinions were also sought to determine what will make them continue to provide social media.\nOriginality/value: This paper is among the first to do such a study.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Organic food consumer profile in the Republic of Serbia
|
[
"Organic food",
"Conjoint analysis",
"Serbia",
"Cluster analysis",
"Consumer profile",
"Preference-based market segmentation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A dynamic growth in the organic food market is identifiable on the global level (Dimitri and Oberholtzer, 2005, 2009; Anon, 2010), the continuity of which substantially relies on the research into the consumers of this food (Bonti-Ankomah and Yiridoe, 2006; Hughner et al., 2007). A prominent place within the research into organic food consumers is taken up by the research into the profile of these consumers, that is, the issue of market segmentation, belonging to strategic marketing (Kotler, 2007).\nLiterature review: After elaborating a number of studies regarding organic food consumer profile, Hughner et al. (2007) describe them as dominantly female, having children in household and being older. However, even regarding these characteristics of organic consumers, that are indeed found to be consistent in most studies, there are certain contradictions, especially when pre-purchasing phases are also being considered, that is also mentioned by Hughner et al. (2007). The following review will illustrate part of discrepancies regarding characteristics these authors mention.\nMaterials and methods: Questionnaire\nResults: Conjoint analysis results at the total sample level\nDiscussion and implications: Generally speaking, the consumers \"preferring organic yoghurt\" are predominantly female, somewhat more mature, with the highest proportion of employed and near the top by the percentage of respondents who are married and have children (the latter two characteristics relatively to other segments, because in absolute terms this proportion is fairly smaller). The results above are in compliance with a part of studies worldwide, presented in the literature review section. This conclusion can refer first to the larger share of women (Van Loo et al., 2011; Lockie et al., 2002; O'Donovan and McCarthy, 2002; McEachern and McClean, 2002; Koivisto Hursti and Magnusson, 2003; Padel and Foster, 2005; Arbindra et al., 2005; Radman, 2005). Moreover, the results also suggest a higher share of the employed among the \"preferring organic yoghurt\", which could, in view of the age structure of the sample, lead to assumptions about higher income and education levels. This would match the results of some presented studies when it comes to connection of organic food acceptance and higher income (Loureiro and Hine, 2002; Sandalidou et al., 2002; Arbindra et al., 2005; Gracia and de Magistris, 2007; Dettmann and Dimitri, 2009; Stolz et al., 2011; Van Loo et al., 2011) as well as higher education (Loureiro and Hine, 2002; Cicia et al., 2002; Sandalidou et al., 2002; O'Donovan and McCarthy, 2002; Lockie et al., 2002; Storstad and Bjorkhaug, 2003; Radman, 2005; Zepeda and Li, 2007; Dettmann and Dimitri, 2009). Such findings are also partially consistent with some earlier research in the domestic environment (Maslac, 2009; Renko et al., 2011), and partly (with different age structure of the sample) with research conducted in Serbia in 2013 (Dokic et al., 2014).\nConclusion: In this paper literature review regarding organic food consumer profile was given with special emphasis on describing differences among the researches results and causes of their occurrence. In addition, preference-based market segmentation by means of conjoint and cluster analysis - which had been, according to the authors' knowledge, previously unused in such researches, and for which certain advantages are suggested - was conducted in Serbia, on the selected organic food -yoghurt.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Having the discrepancies between different descriptions of an organic food consumer profile in various researches worldwide as well as the causes of their emergence as a starting point, the purpose of this paper is to apply the method of preference-based market segmentation (by means of conjoint and cluster analysis) to Serbian organic food market, searching for advantages of using that methodological approach and deepening knowledge about specific organic food market.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research was conducted from May to July 2014 with 400 respondents participating (aged 18-30). Primary data were gathered by means of focus groups and a survey - structured personal interviews by using a questionnaire.\nFindings: When applying conjoint and cluster analysis to data about Serbian consumers' preferences towards researched product, it is possible to identify a segment that prefers organic food the most. Compared to other segments, these consumers are predominantly female, somewhat more mature, with the highest proportion of employed and near the top by the percentage of respondents who are married and have children. They strongly value the importance of diet for health, a number of them have experience with a disease of a close person, which is believed that could be prevented by proper diet, but they do the least sports.\nPractical implications: The authors give managerial recommendations to actors operating at domestic organic food market.\nOriginality/value: According to the authors' knowledge, the first application of preference-based market segmentation by conjoint and cluster analysis to organic food market, performed in Serbia, generally characterised by scarce food consumer research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Determinants of effective SoLoMo advertising from the perspective of social capital
|
[
"Capital",
"Advertising",
"Social",
"Mobile",
"Self-disclosure",
"SoLoMo"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Researchers have developed various persuasion models to examine the effects of media advertising (e.g. Petty et al., 1983). Yet, heterogeneous responses of targeted customers in a fragmented and diversified market still pose unique challenges to marketers to engage in effective persuasion. Social-local-mobile (SoLoMo) marketing becomes a tactic that advertisers use to communicate with targeted and potential customers in a semi-open rhetorical style to allow the customers to generate advertiser-intended messages (eMarketer, 2013). SoLoMo advertising, which refers to advertising information tailored for a user based on the location of that mobile user on social media. For example, when Alice is on Facebook with a smartphone or other mobile computing device, SoLoMo ad messages and/or deals of local companies based on Alice's location are displayed on her social media.\nConceptual framework: Mobile advertising\nMethod: Instrument development\nData analysis: Validity and credibility\nDiscussion and conclusion: Conclusions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors affecting attitudes toward social-local-mobile (SoLoMo) advertising from the perspective of social capital.\nDesign/methodology/approach: There were 422 respondents filling out the survey instrument. The research model in this study is tested using SPSS 20 software.\nFindings: The results show that structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions of social capital have impacts on consumer attitudes toward SoLoMo advertising.\nOriginality/value: It contributes to the literature by advancing our knowledge about determinants of effective SoLoMo advertising from the perspective of social capital. It also provides constructs that constitute the three dimensions in advertising. The author expands the understanding of the social relations under the context of business to consumer by adding substantial nuances to the understanding of the role of social capital in advertising. Finally, this study provides practical suggestions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
InterContinental Hotels says "Bravo" to 33,000 employees worldwide: Global recognition system puts people at the heart of the business
|
[
"Hotels",
"International business",
"Rewards and recognition"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: With more than 350,000 employees across its owned, managed and franchised hotels, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is present in almost 100 countries and territories across the world. Yet its employee-recognition was limited to only two countries - the US and Canada.\nDriver of engagement: IHG was looking for new ways to inspire and engage its employees, measure and manage its winning-ways culture around the world and attract and retain talent. \"We wanted to make sure that we valued our employees and that they felt recognised. We know that is a big driver of engagement and helps to deliver a great guest experience in our hotels,\" said Lori Gaytan.\nDirect relevance to business results: \"At IHG we value feedback outside and within our organisation from guests and from our employees,\" said Ly Bui. \"That is how we created our winning ways and our values. Crowd-sourcing is all about collecting insights from everyone and then acting on that information. We like seeing that reflected in our culture.\"\nDriving the company's values and culture: She concluded: \"We believe that if we treat our employees well they will be motivated and engaged in their roles and our guests will benefit.\"\nNote: David Pollitt, Human Reassure Management International Digest editor, wrote this article.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Explains how a global employee-recognition program was introduced at InterContinental Hotels Group and the benefits this has brought.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Gives the reasons for the program and explains how it was delivered through a partnership with Globoforce, a provider of social-recognition systems.\nFindings: Reveals that the Bravo employee-recognition program is helping to inspire and engage employees, measure and manage the company's winning-ways culture around the world and attract and retain talent.\nPractical implications: Explains how the program improves the service the hotel offers to its guests and so helps to increase profits.\nOriginality/value: Reveals how InterContinental Hotels Group has harnessed the power of cloud computing to establish a truly global employee-recognition system.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Financial services and consumer protection after the crisis
|
[
"Consumer protection",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Financial services"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The global financial crisis of 2007-2009 is, arguably, the most significant financial crisis to occur since the Great Crash of 1929, which led to the Great Depression. The crisis of 2007-2009 was caused by a number of factors for example flawed monetary policy, excessive and uncontrolled use of financial innovation, the proliferation of shadow banking activities and inadequate corporate governance structures within banks and other financial services firms (Avgouleas, 2009). To a large extent, it was also a manifestation of regulators' failure to maintain the overall stability of the financial system. Apart from this failure to maintain systemic stability, there were also some failures to protect consumers, for example regulators' approaches to the supervision of financial firms were not assertive enough thus resulting in a situation where a large number of borrowers are struggling to pay back mortgages as a result of irresponsible lending.Apart from this there have been other examples of financial practitioners acting in a way that was detrimental to consumers, for example the scandals arising from the mis-selling of retail financial products such as personal pensions and endowment mortgages (Gray, 2004). Such incidents illustrate how firms and practitioners in the financial services industry are able to exploit an unfair advantage they have over their consumers (investors) in terms of superior information and expertise. Such opportunistic behaviour, arguably, indicates the need for tighter regulation of financial services.This article looks at some of the principal theories on why we intervene, in markets, to protect consumers. It also looks at how the financial crisis has led to a re-thinking of how this might be done. In so doing, it examines the regulatory philosophies that underpinned consumer protection regulation in UK financial services before the crisis, as well as the new ideas that might replace them in the new post-crisis era.\nApproaches to consumer protection regulation: The government or regulator tasked with consumer protection will often have to balance the interests of consumers on the one hand with those of the sellers or suppliers on the other hand. To this extent, its approaches to consumer protection regulation will be interventionist, non-interventionist or a mixture of both. The non-interventionist and interventionist approaches to consumer protection will now be discussed in turn.Non-interventionist approaches\nConsumer protection in the financial industry before the crisis: The regulatory objectives\nConsumer protection in the financial industry after the crisis: The effects of the financial crisis have been felt in many parts of the world and have been very severe indeed. They have led to some substantial changes in the way the UK financial services industry is regulated, with potentially significant consequences for its consumers. The first change is a change in the FSA's philosophy and its approach to supervision. The second, and more significant change, is the new UK coalition government's plan to put in place a new financial regulation regime, that will see the FSA phased out in 2012, and its functions carried out by the Bank of England and a number of new regulators. These two changes will now be discussed in some detail.The change in the FSA's philosophy and approach to supervision\nConclusion: This paper has examined the approaches to consumer protection in UK financial services. It has used the literature on behavioural economics and psychology as the basis for a critique of the UK's approach to consumer protection in the area of financial services. This literature shows that, contrary to the belief, in neo-classical economics, that people make rational choices, individuals in fact do not always make rational choices. The use of heuristics results in cognitive weaknesses in individuals' decision-making, leading them to make inferior decisions with regard to their welfare. This suggests that interventionist approaches to consumer protection are preferable to non-interventionist ones, because they take into account the fact that individuals' decisions are not always rational or in their best interests. Other factors that support the argument that interventionist approaches are better than non-interventionist ones include the problem of information inadequacy, the existence of information asymmetry between sellers (suppliers) and buyers (consumers), the problem of lack of competition (among sellers or suppliers of financial services products) and the potential for fraud or deception.The FSA has taken steps to improve its overall approach to supervision, and its approach to consumer protection has become more interventionist. The fact that the FSA will be replaced in the near future does, however, throw up questions regarding what the approach to consumer protection in UK financial services will be in the future. The failure of non-interventionist approaches in the recent past does, however, show that future efforts at consumer protection in financial services ought to be more interventionist in nature rather than non-interventionist.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the approaches to consumer protection in UK financial services before and after the global financial crisis.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper reviews the literature on behavioural economics and psychology, and uses it as the basis for a critique of the UK's approach to the supervision of financial services firms and the protection of their consumers.\nFindings: - Non-interventionist approaches to consumer protection, which are based on the traditional theories of the law and economics movement, have failed. As a result, there is now a shift in thinking towards more interventionist approaches.\nResearch limitations/implications: - By understanding the likely impact of the regulatory reforms the academic research community can assist the regulator to understand the best way to ensure desirable outcomes for users (consumers) of financial services.\nOriginality/value: - The moves to reform UK financial regulation after the crisis have only recently got under way and a lot of the reforms have not been widely debated or written on.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Emotional and social competence in the aestheticization of labor in the restaurant industry
|
[
"Aesthetic labor",
"ESC",
"Restaurant businesses"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Among a manager's basic tasks is ensuring that employees display effective business performance to achieve organizational goals. Taking into account the demanding customer profile, it is now expected that employees in the hospitality and restaurant industries have emotional, social and aesthetic competences beyond their technical skills. In the service sector, inclusive of the restaurant industry, where the human factor is vital for success, managers and employees have taken on a more central role in both catering to and shaping the feelings and behaviors of customers (Tsaur et al., 2015). Therefore, understanding human emotional and social structures is necessary for effective management of human resources. In addition to emotional and social competence (ESC), an issue of recent importance in the restaurant and like industries is aesthetic labor. A restaurant's aesthetic success depends on the effort and labor of its employees.\nLiterature review: Emotional and social competence\nHypothesis development: Emotional competence and aesthetic labor (service)\nMethodology: Sample and data collection\nAnalysis and results: Validity and reliability of scales\nDiscussion and conclusions: Conclusions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide guidance regarding the satisfaction of customer needs in the competitive restaurant industry. Restaurants have seen a transformation in employees' labor, changing from primarily physical and mental to emotional and aesthetic dimensions. In this study, the effect of managers' emotional and social competence (ESC) on the aesthetic labor of service and kitchen employees has been investigated.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Empirical data was collected from employees and managers of a restaurant chain. Structural equation modeling was the main analytical tool used to assess the results.\nFindings: The findings indicated that managers' ESC affected the aesthetic labor of their service (aesthetic traits (AT), aesthetic requirements and service encounters) and kitchen (AT, aesthetic creativity and aesthetic harmony ) employees. Achievement orientation and adaptability were among the dimensions of emotional competence that contributed the most to aesthetic labor. The most significant elements of social competence were inspiring leadership and conflict management.\nPractical implications: The study suggests that managers can improve the aesthetic performance of their employees by using their ESC.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study of this kind to include kitchen employees while considering the effects of restaurant managers' ESC on aesthetic labor. The findings indicate the importance of the ESC of managers in improving the aesthetic labor of employees.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A structural equation model for evaluating the relationship between total quality management and employees' productivity
|
[
"Total quality management",
"SEM methods",
"Work productivity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Due to competition in the business world, companies need to produce quality products. The improvement in products and service quality must also be in line with the enhancement in labor performance. The improvement in these two important aspects would result in companies that are able to survive in the global business environment.\n2. Literature review on the relationship between TQM and performance: Liu and Liu (2014) conducted a study which aimed to investigate the empirical relationships between QM practices and employees' well-being. They argued that QM practices affect not only employee job satisfaction and productivity, but also other aspects of employees' well-being. They stated that QM practices change workplace characteristics, affect employees, and improve work-related attitudes and work life outcomes.\n3. Research methodology: 3.1 Research framework and questions\n4. Findings and discussion: The Figures 2 and 3 display the result of PLSs equation modeling techniques by using Smart PLS. The reliability and validity of latent variables of this model are shown in Table II. Moreover, for the assessment of PLS-SEM model, some basic elements should be covered in this study as following.\n5. Discussion: MKT-independent latent variables have a positive influence on PPK-dependent latent variable, as demonstrated by t-statistics of 9.55 (t-statistics>t-table 2.58). Therefore, H1 is accepted. It can be concluded that TQM has a positive and significant influence on employees' productivity. This result is consistent with the result obtained by Montes et al. (2003), who revealed that there are several behavioral and attitudinal processes that are necessary to achieve a successful implementation of TQM, i.e. work motivation, work satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Cetindere et al. (2015) also believed that businesses desiring to increase their performance should place more emphasis on the TQM criteria. If businesses adopt and properly practice the TQM concept, they shall realize that the results are desirable and headed towards perfection.\n6. Conclusion: Elements of TQM practices in PT XYZ, such as human resources, standard, organization, internal audit, and training and education, have positive influences on the success of the TQM program. Tools are the most predominant element influencing the success of TQM implementation in PT XYZ. The better development and management of tools in rubber industry will lead to an effective TQM implementation in PT XYZ. It will also have a positive influences on employees' productivity. On the other hand, improvement in employees' productivity in PT XYZ is measured by the following indicators: employees' willingness to work, work environment, and work relationships. Based on the SEM analysis, it can be summarized that employees' work environment is the most predominant indicator affecting their productivity, which indicates that better work environment will improve employees' productivity. Therefore, PT XYZ will need to work on improving the development and management of the tool which has been available to support an effective TQM implementation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influences of TQM implementation on employees' productivity in crumb rubber industry (case study conducted in the XYZ firm), and analyze the predominant factors affecting employees' productivity in order to establish the success of TQM implementation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data used in the research was primary data obtained from interview and questionnaire, and secondary data obtained from the study of literatures, internet, and company's documents. The number of respondents in this research was 191. The analysis was done through structural equation modeling (SEM) using the smart partial least square software.\nFindings: The findings of this study showed that TQM implementation had positive influences on employees' productivity in XYZ. Tool is the most predominant factor in order to achieve a successful TQM implementation in XYZ. Therefore, the XYZ company will need to work on improving the development and management of the tool which has been available to sustain the effectiveness of TQM practices.\nResearch limitations/implications: Using a large sample size in the SEM method could improve the results. The implications of this study can be demonstrated through how top managers in this rubber company can improve their employees' productivity through total quality management practices.\nPractical implications: This research is useful for manufacturing companies in Indonesia, especially in the crumb rubber industry.\nOriginality/value: This research used the variable based on the empirical research. TQM was measured using six indicators: human resources, standard, tools, organization, internal audit, and training and education. On the other hand, the work productivity of employees is measured by four indicators: work willingness, work ability, work environment, and work relations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Global leaders' perceptions of elements required for effective leadership development in the twenty-first century
|
[
"Social capital",
"Leadership development",
"Delphi technique",
"Context",
"Structural capital"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nDiscussing current leadership development perspectives: Business organizations globally are facing a future of slow growth coupled with a significant demographic shift as many boomers reach retirement age (Berard, 2013). It is for this reason that many organizations now face an increasing shortage of leadership talent (Bartol and Zhang, 2007; Vardiman et al., 2006). These two factors of slowed growth and the retirement of experienced leaders mean that the requirement for companies to identify and develop their high-potential leaders has never been greater (Berard, 2013). It is thus easy to understand why leadership development has moved to the foreground as an institutional and organizational priority (Cummings et al., 2013; Feldmann et al., 2013; Forde et al., 2013; Grandy and Holton, 2013; Jarvis et al., 2012; Olson, 2013).\nReviewing current leadership development methods: The question of best methods for leadership development on a global scale is an important and complex area of research and discussion. An added level of complexity is the distinction between leader development which focuses on human capital, and leadership development which focuses on social capital within an organization (Grandy and Holton, 2013; Vardiman, et al., 2006). Leader development seeks to enhance the leadership capacity of an individual by enhancing the self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-motivation of an individual. Leadership development, on the other hand, seeks to promote an organizational culture in which leadership processes and emergence are fostered and supported and in which leadership can emerge from surprising places in unusual circumstances. It is a model of leadership development that we wanted to investigate and not leader development (Carroll and Simpson, 2014). In other words, given the vast array of leadership development approaches discussed in the leadership development literature, the focus of this paper and research is to determine which method(s) leadership development experts view as the most effective and why.\nValidating our first round Lockean Delphi survey: Our research into seeking best methods for leadership development is a qualitative study (Klenke, 2016) of leadership development. The challenge we faced with this rendition of the Delphi survey was the low response rate of experts from around the world, namely 13 percent, or 13 participants. The question that might arise is \"is a sampling of one hundred experts enough to gain a credible and valid (Klenke, 2016, p. 39) data saturation level?\"\nFindings from our first round survey: The coding framework in Figure 1 illustrates the four themes of the research, which will now be presented.\nDiscussion: We began this paper by highlighting Berard's call (2013, p. 2) that the process of leadership development is an area of inquiry that is in need of \"better research, documentation, and understanding, illustrated with real-life, tangible examples of what to do and just as importantly what not to do.\" Findings from the first round of the Delphi study suggest four key motifs or strategic foci for leadership development. Within each of these key foci, various emergent strands of leadership development exist. The following discussion seeks to provide a framework through which these possible leadership development opportunities might be discovered and implemented. The notion of a strategic plan for leadership development, and the strategic importance of leadership development, was again highlighted when the lead author participated in a semi-structured interview at the request of a major consulting firm to share insights around a strategic plan for leadership development within organizations.\nLimitations of this particular Delphi study: As the first round of a Delphi study, we are limited to presenting only the key elementary empirical judgments. A subsequent study with an expanded sample size and a refined set of questions rooted in the current data will contribute further to the development of factual propositions related to leadership development for the twenty-first century. While we acknowledge that there is a difficulty in assessing the Delphi techniques accuracy (Landeta, 2006), we propose to run the Delphi survey Round 1 a second time with a larger pool of potential respondents (n=2,000) to test the validity of our findings. We believe that the same four categories listed below as essential for a quality leadership development program should emerge from the larger sampling. If they do not, we will have to wrestle with why this might be the case.\nConclusion: At the outset, we cited Berard (2013, p. 2) who suggests that leadership development is \"an area of study that cries out for better research, documentation, and understanding, illustrated with real-life, tangible examples of what to do and just as importantly what not to do.\" The first round of our Delphi survey was intentionally simple in that it presented one question to our panel of experts, namely: \"Given the complexity of business in a globalized arena, what critical elements do you envisage as part of a high-quality leadership development program within a business context in the twenty-first century?\"\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a clear answer to the question \"how is leadership developed?\" This research utilized the knowledge of leadership development experts and their collective expertise to identify the critical elements required for a high-quality leadership development program.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The Lockean Inquiring System approach to the Delphi technique was used to solicit the views of experts in leadership and leadership development from around the world. Experts for Round 1 of the Delphi were drawn from a random sampling of 100 people, comprising leadership researchers, coaches, and organizational leaders, not personally known to the lead researcher of this project, but in his LinkedIn network. A response rate of 13 percent (n=13) yielded a rich range of qualitative data. Responses from the first round of the Delphi were analyzed using open coding and categorized into four themes, representing four sets of competencies required of leaders.\nFindings: The four themes were labeled as contextual, human capital, social capital, and structural capital, all of which were seen by participants as being central to the development of collective leadership. Based on these themes, this paper identifies a useful list of key leadership development tactics from which those wishing to develop a leadership program can work.\nResearch limitations/implications: As the first round of a Delphi study, the authors are limited to presenting only the key elementary empirical judgments. Subsequent study with an expanded sample size and a refined set of questions rooted in the current data will contribute further to the development of factual propositions related to leadership development for the twenty-first century. The Delphi survey is a \"snapshot\" approach and presents a holographic-type image of the complex whole. The authors plan to triangulate the data by significantly expanding the pool of Delphi experts and conducting the Round 1 survey a second time with a larger international group of respondents that fit the criteria of expert.\nPractical implications: This paper presents four dimensions of an effective leadership development strategy.\nOriginality/value: Core elements of the best methods for leadership development have been identified by leadership development experts, which serve as a basis for developing leadership as a collective, and for further research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Third-space scholars: bridging the marketing academy and emerging markets
|
[
"Students",
"Emerging markets",
"Research"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: For more than two decades, culture has maintained a prominent position in marketing study and theory. Consequently, there is heightened interest in global studies, cross-cultural and comparative inquiries, and case studies of multinational firms. Readers of this special issue are more than likely among the growing number of business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing scholars examining culture and business in previously ignored countries such as South Africa, India, China, Brazil, and a host of other non-Western nations. Such research initiatives are important because they not only provide new theoretical insights into marketing phenomena but also, in many emerging markets, play a vital role in the development of a country's social and economic programs and policies. Marketing academicians who choose these areas of study often do so in an effort to make their own research relevant and to effect change in places that matter. They desire to partake in what Mick (2006, p. 1) described as:...investigations that are framed by a fundamental problem or opportunity, and that strive to respect, uphold, and improve life in relation to the myriad conditions, demands, potentialities, and effects of consumption.Existing marketing literature has given limited attention to examination of these scholars and has focused instead on the theoretical developments and implications of their work. However, the researchers and the researched are inextricably linked; therefore, the voices represented cannot be divorced from the mouths that speak them. Who are these researchers, and what obligation do they have to the people and businesses in the emerging markets they study and from whom they learn?Appadurai (2000, p. 3) observed that:... in the study of these forms lies an obligation for academic research, that if honored, might make its deliberations more consequential for the poorer 80 percent of the population of the world (now totaling 6 billion) who are socially and fiscally at risk.Marketing scholars conducting research within and/or on topics involving emerging markets often face this very issue. What begins as a marketing problem to be solved and a theoretical gap to be filled evolves into a moral and/or social dilemma to be wrestled with at the individual and institutional levels. Many academicians maintain a strong commitment to the academy and its production of knowledge, yet they also invite the challenge of making a difference beyond the academy (Halfacree, 2004). Bourdieu (1988) and Fuller and Kitchin (2004, p. 7) touched on this issue, noting how:... the distinction between the \"ivory tower\" and the world beyond has been an important strategy in maintaining the pedagogical authority of education, an authority that is seen to be compromised when academics attempt to bridge these two worlds.However, bridging the two cultural worlds is possible if the bridge is conceptualized as a liminal space (van Gennep, 1909/1960; Turner, 1960) that is fluid enough to allow researchers to easily move between the two worlds. This space where the researcher can reside is \"third space\" (Bhabha, 1994). Here, individuals conceive a space that momentarily suspends them between places of here and there. Scholars may interpret this space as one between the pursuit of theoretical knowledge and the pursuit of pragmatic problems of the researched.Within the context of scholarly activism, Routledge (1996) identifies the third space as a space that exists between the academy and activism, a place where one can make sense of his or her contribution to social change. He uses the example of an academician who conducts research on and participates in a local protest. But what happens when scholars who are firmly rooted in the academy complete studies and still remain committed to the research efforts they initiated? This article seeks to begin a meaningful dialogue on third space within the marketing discipline, with the academician the central figure of the discussion. Three broad areas are introduced and discussed:1. researcher identity;2. researcher context; and3. research methods.The intent is less to answer questions than to facilitate discussion of defining third space in the context of marketing and exploring its implications for scholars and the academy as a whole.\nThird space: In marketing, third place has been used to refer to a \"home away from home\" (Oldenburg, 1989), to a consumption setting that exists between one's public and private lives (Thompson and Arsel, 2004), and to places where boundaries are blurred and normal rules do not apply, such as New Orleans' Mardi Gras and the Las Vegas Strip (Belk, 2005). These conceptions have at their beginning the idea of a liminal space. Arnold van Gennep (1909/1960) introduced the liminal phase as the second of three phases in the rites of passage. In moving from one social status to another, an individual first separated from a previous role next entered a transitional phase and subsequently entered a new role. It is in the intermediate phase that the individual experienced a liminal state or condition. Victor Turner (1967) elaborated on this state, bestowing the term liminality. He described it as a \"realm that has few or none of the attributes of the past or coming state\" (Turner, 1969, p. 94) and noted that liminal space is \"betwixt and between the categories of ordinary social life\" (Turner, 1969, p. 51).Similarly, Bhabha (1994) used the term \"third space\" to denote a space in which an individual exists between his or her day-to-day world and other worlds. Extending this idea to the academy, Routledge (1996) identified third space as existing between the academy and activism. Each of these theories of the liminal or third is characterized by its in-betweenness and transitory nature. The former seems befitting for research on emerging markets, where \"trans-\" issues (e.g. transcultural, transnational) are common. Being in between also reflects how the implications of scholarly research in these markets \"open the borders between theory and practice\" (Czarniawska and Mazzo, 2003).However, the word transitory does not wholly capture the intent and experience of marketing scholars with enduring obligations both to the social action of their work in emerging markets and to the theoretical contributions of their work in the academy. Instead, there is the possibility that academicians may occupy ongoing in-between positions that enable them to maintain sustained relationships with places of research, such as when they establish not-for-profits, begin social ventures, or maintain involvement with volunteer work. These types of more permanent initiatives represent longer-term commitments, which raise issues of the sustainability of third space. For academicians, is the third space solely a momentary or short-lived period that dissipates when a study is completed? Perhaps scholars can enact a third space in ways that make it less transitory.Figure 1 represents third space as located between the academy and places of research as well as third space as enacted in the academy. In the former, marketing scholars occupy a space where they are temporarily suspended between two worlds; they experience a blurring of boundaries and are neither here nor there. In the latter, marketing scholars are situated in the academy, where they are engaged in theory development and enact a third space to manage the disjuncture that arises when confronted with different, often-conflicting images, ideas, ideologies, discourses, and so on, that constitute marketing academy and places of research. The next section begins to explore this concept.\nThird space within the academy: In recent years, the marketing academy has increasingly emphasized the need to incorporate perspectives of businesses and consumers in emerging and subsistence markets. This has given rise to greater social consciousness and responsibility on the part of the marketing scholar. The discipline is now in the midst of confronting and moving away from using \"the more marginal regions of the world as producers of data for the theory mills of the North\" (Appadurai, 2000, p. 5) to giving the voice of the marginalized an equal place of importance in the development of good theory and to making available these theoretical advancements in ways that lend themselves to sharing. These disciplinary shifts have witnessed an emergence of third-space scholars; that is, academicians who are deeply rooted within the academy and whose work and livelihood find them intimately linked with some permanence to the worlds they study.Occupying a third space while situated at home in academia is to live in a space that engages dialogue between two distinct but interrelated worlds: that of the academy and that of individual researcher. The former is the broader, collective efforts of the discipline in which one operates and the bodies of knowledge it constitutes, and the latter is the individual efforts researchers make to understand the consumers and businesses they study and the experiences acquired in this process. It is a site where marketing scholars with research agendas characterized as transformative (Mick, 2006), action oriented, participatory, and/or involving subsistence consumers and markets (Hill, 2002; Viswanathan and Gau, 2005) may attempt to mediate the profound sense of obligation they have to those they research and to the academy to which they belong. To this extent, these scholars are \"multiply positioned within and across various axes of privilege and marginality, across a variety of scales (body, home, work community) and across a variety of roles\" (Routledge, 1996, p. 404). These juxtapositions create tensions and necessitate that scholars create spaces and/or enact strategies of involvement and integration that allow them to carve out a safe haven of coexistence - a third space. The following begins an examination of marketing scholars and third space within the academy, focusing on researcher identity, research context, and research methods.Researcher identity: rediscovering the researcher\nConcluding remarks: Researcher identity, researcher context, and research methods and the corresponding themes of rediscovering the researcher, living in the global, and (re)searching epistemologies, ontologies, and methodologies reflect the dynamism and inherent multiplicity of thirdness. They are also suggestive of scholars' attempts at \"framing, manipulating and intermixing of questions and work of substantive, theoretical and practical significance\" (Fuller, 1999). For those engaged in qualitative fieldwork and consumer behavior studies, the themes presented in this article are more obvious, but it would be a mistake to limit their applicability. Conceptualizing a third-space marketing scholar carries important consequences for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business research. First, it reinforces the need to understand the role of scholars in giving voice to the people and businesses they research, for if we are indeed committed to developing good theory we cannot ignore the tool of engagement. Second, it necessarily highlights that the very things we study indeed affect current ways of theorizing; the act of studying culture is an experience itself, one that cannot easily be \"bracketed off,\" to use a familiar methodological term. Third, it raises questions about theoretical praxis, specifically, where does theoretical praxis begin and end? Each of these consequences is perhaps a good point of entry for further discussions and research.Third space is a \"politicized, creative, in-between, fluid space\" (Khan, 2000, p. 126) where interrogation, negotiation, reflexivity, resistance, hybridity and identity reconstruction are enacted. Its fluid relational character suggests that there is no one way it may be enacted and that being a third-space academician and engaging in third-space practices cannot be taught. Still, opportunities exist to learn by understanding others' strategies of creating third space (English, 2005). Therefore, inclusion of the perspectives of individuals from different backgrounds and with different sets of experiences will contribute to more comprehensive theorizing about third space.Finally, the issues raised in this article respond to the call for a broader study of culture and business in transformative ways. A growing number of journals, including Journal of Industrial Business and Marketing, are supporting the need for these research streams through their increased publication of articles involving research of this nature. Marketing scholars are encouraged to continue their commitment to researching and doing; that is, to enhancing the quality of their research and using their research agenda to effect change.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to begin a meaningful dialogue on the concept of third space, or \"in-between space\", within the marketing discipline. In the context of scholarly research, third space exists between the academy and places of research, and applies to research agendas involving businesses and consumers in emerging and/or subsistence markets, where study findings often carry significant implications for both theory development and social action. The paper therefore aims to facilitate discussion of defining third space in the context of marketing and to explore its implications for scholars and the academy as a whole.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - By reviewing literature from diverse disciplines, the paper explores how occupying a third space may not always be momentary or short-lived, as it is most often characterized. Instead, marketing scholars with enduring obligations both to the social action of their work in emerging markets and to the theoretical contributions of their work may enact a third space in ways that make it less transitory.\nFindings: - The paper introduces three areas (i.e. researcher identity, researcher context, research methods) and the corresponding themes of rediscovering the researcher, living in the global world, and (re)searching epistemologies, ontologies, and methodologies to begin an examination of third-space marketing scholars.\nOriginality/value: - The issues raised in the paper both respond and contribute to calls for a broader study of culture and business in transformative ways. Moreover, they provide a good starting-point for further discussion and research on third space by highlighting that the very things one studies indeed affect current ways of theorizing and by reinforcing the need to understand the role of scholars in giving voice to the people and businesses they research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
On the relationship between implied volatility index and equity index returns
|
[
"Information content",
"Asymmetry",
"Seasonality",
"India VIX",
"IVIX",
"Nifty index"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The importance of implied volatility indices increases day-by-day among the market participants, analysts, financial institutions and policy makers, the reason behind is that investors can predict the trend of market in the near future. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India limited regularly quotes the price of implied volatility for the underlying CNX Nifty equity index options and this is regularly published by the financial press.\n2. Review of earlier studies: Literature well documents the volatility of stock markets during the positive and negative shocks of stock returns. It has been confirmed that stock market volatility remains higher subject to negative return shocks on the counterpart of positive return shocks. The recent studies (Dowling and Muthuswamy, 2005; Ederington and Guan, 2010; Frijns et al., 2010a; Giot, 2005) has shown that asymmetric impact holds on the implied volatility. Indeed, the asymmetric nature between implied volatility and stock returns for Indian stock market has been not explored.\n3. Data sources and methodology: The study investigates the contemporaneous asymmetric relationship between the implied volatility index and stock index. The daily closing prices of India VIX and the underlying S\n4. Empirical results and discussion: This section deals with the empirical results obtained on the relationship of India VIX and Nifty stock index. The estimation output is presented for the asymmetric relation and seasonal pattern in India VIX. The contemporaneous relation between one-day relative returns of implied volatility and stock index (daily and weekly data) is presented in Table III. The seasonal components are estimated in Tables IV-VI. The regression estimation has been presented for full sample, individual years and for normal period (low volatility). For the test of significance of estimates t-statistic has been reported in the parenthesis in the respective rows. The standard errors are consistent of hetroscedasticity and autocorrelation of Newey and West. In addition, Wald F-statistic has been calculated to determine the joint effects of d- and d+ slopes on India VIX.\n5. Conclusion: The NSE of India has started India's first stock market volatility index from November 2007, this is a new measure of ex post market volatility of 30 calendar day horizon. This expected market volatility has attracted the academics and analyst to analyze the future stock market volatility. In this study an asymmetric and seasonality of India VIX has been presented for the period November 1, 2007 to April 30, 2013. In particular, the analysis has been presented for various sub-periods like full sample, individual years and low-volatility trading periods.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the asymmetric contemporaneous relationship between implied volatility index (India VIX) and Equity Index (S\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study employs simple OLS estimation to analyze the contemporaneous relationship among the volatility index and stock index. In order to obtain robust results, the analysis has been presented for the calendar years and sub-periods. Moreover, the international evidenced presented for other Asian markets (Japan and China).\nFindings: The empirical evidences reveal a strong persistence of asymmetry among the India VIX and Nifty stock index, at the same time the magnitude of asymmetry is not identical. The results show that the changes in India VIX occur bigger for the negative return shocks than the positive returns shocks. The similar kinds of results are recorded for the Japan and China volatility index. Particularly, the analysis also supports that India VIX holds seasonality, on the market opening VIX observed to be at its high level, and on the subsequent days it remains low. The results on the options expiration unfold the facts that India VIX remains more normal on the day of expiration.\nPractical implications: The asymmetric relation and seasonal patterns are quite useful to the volatility traders to price the financial assets when market trades in the high- and low-volatility periods.\nOriginality/value: There is a lack of studies of this kind in the context of emerging markets like India; hence, this is an attempt in this direction. The study provides an insight to the NSE to launch some derivative products (i.e. F\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Development of a surgical site infection surveillance programme in a Scottish neurosurgical unit
|
[
"Clinical governance",
"Organizational learning",
"Continuous quality improvement",
"Surgery",
"Surveillance or screening",
"Healthcare-associated infections"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Surgical site infection (SSI) is a common and universal complication in surgical practice. SSIs are thought to represent almost a fifth of healthcare-associated infections in Scotland (Health Protection Scotland, 2011), and have significant deleterious consequences on mortality, morbidity, length of stay, and cost to the health service (Broex et al., 2009). SSI surveillance has been in place on a national level throughout the UK for several years. This incorporates both mandatory and voluntary surveillance, although even in mandatory programmes, the methods used are heterogeneous (Tissingh et al., 2017). Scottish SSI surveillance began in 2002 and increasingly specific definitions and protocols have been developed. Mandatory surveillance is in place for Caesarean section, hip arthroplasty, elective large bowel, and elective vascular surgery (NHS National Services Scotland, 2017). Neurosurgical SSI surveillance became optional in 2006. In England and Scotland, both the cranial and spinal components of neurosurgery currently fall under the voluntary category of SSI surveillance.\nIdentifying the problem: In 2014, there was a perceived increase in the frequency of SSIs in our department, in both cranial and spinal surgery. Similar observations had been made in the past and it was clear we had no in situ procedures to investigate this, beyond short-lived junior doctor-led single-cycle audits. The senior author proposed to institute prospective recording of SSIs to identify whether a problem existed, quantify its scale, and to facilitate analysis. At this stage, while there was broad agreement from the rest of the neurosurgical department, there was not yet widespread tangible support. Thus at its inception, the nascent SSI programme was led by a single consultant and a handful of junior medical volunteers.\nEliminating the paper trail: Our initial results showed a relatively low percentage of confirmed SSIs, but a high rate of suspected SSIs, particularly in the setting of external ventricular drains (EVDs). It was common for empirical antibiotic treatment to be started in the presence of fever and a high cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) white cell count in patients with EVDs. This would trigger an SSI form and be included in the \"suspected SSI\" data. It also became clear that while our data collection was a substantial improvement on anecdotal observation, there was under-reporting of actual and suspected SSIs. Some of this was attributable to the not insignificant workload of SSI form-filling and follow-up investigation, performed by already busy junior and middle-grade medical staff.\nOrganisational buy-in: Throughout 2015, the senior author had discussed the SSI programme and its future informally with members of the Microbiology service, as well as the administrative management team. The limitations and obstacles to our \"do-it-yourself\" approach were emphasised, and enquiries were made as to the availability of logistic support and funding for a formalised programme, particularly with regards to data collection. This received only verbal support initially, partly due to financial constraints. A further barrier was that investment in such a programme was low priority for the regional management team. The literature in health service reconfiguration suggests that the priorities of clinical and management staff in navigating change may be different. While both are internal stakeholders, and seek to improve quality, efficiency, and safety, the clinicians may act simply on safety grounds, while management drivers for change may place greater emphasis on efficiency or higher throughput (Droog et al., 2017; Fulop et al., 2012).\nCurrent model - surveillance: As of late 2017, Glasgow has an SSI surveillance programme dedicated to neurosurgical and maxillofacial procedures, as both specialties use shared facilities. This programme is parallel to, but independent of, medical staff. It has a dedicated, full-time nurse. Surveillance is carried out on cranial and spinal procedures. Standard post-operative surveillance is 30 days, extended to 90 days for implant procedures. Surveillance is carried out using the electronic microbiology system (ICNet), and is limited to patients within our own health board, i.e. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Thus a limitation of neurosurgical surveillance is that some patients will be transferred back to their local hospitals outside our health board, where they will be lost to our surveillance programme.\nCurrent model - oversight: The neurosurgical/OMFS surveillance programme is overseen by a committee that meets monthly. This committee comprises senior management, senior and middle-grade surgical and microbiological staff, senior nursing staff, and administrative support. It has a wide remit and has looked at areas including but not limited to antibiotic use, patient and theatre temperature, glucose control, surgical skin preparation, CSF sampling frequency and technique, clustering of SSIs in relation to operating surgeon, theatre dress codes, wound dressings, and buildings/estates factors.\nConclusions: SSI surveillance is not new. However, the establishment of a robust, dedicated, funded programme, with senior management oversight, has taken years of work. While such surveillance seems a vital and obvious part of ongoing clinical governance, without national or supra-regional mandates to provide such surveillance, it became clear that development of this programme had significant obstacles. Clinical leadership is essential to establishing a beachhead, but our experience is that without significant management engagement, support, and (crucially) funding, a reliable and resilient programme is impossible. In our case, a significant event was the spur that led to widespread engagement with the creation of a surveillance programme. For departments without such a governance structure, particularly where management or financial support is lacking, we suggest using our experience as motivation to establish an SSI programme prior to such an unforeseeable event. The absence of a prospective programme when our theatre complex became contaminated impaired our ability to generate accurate SSI data, at a time when such information was acutely relevant.\nData: Data on monthly SSI surveillance is released to the Regional Services SSI committee, and can be requested via the corresponding author.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Surgical site infection (SSI) is a common complication in surgical practice. SSIs represent almost a fifth of healthcare-associated infections in Scotland, and have deleterious effects on mortality, morbidity, length of stay, and cost to the health service. SSIs in neurosurgery may be more consequential than in other specialities given the potentially devastating effects of central nervous system infection. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In 2014, the authors became concerned about an anecdotal increase in infection rates in the authors' unit. While national guidance on SSI surveillance existed in England and Scotland, the authors had no relevant procedures or policies in Glasgow, and began the process of establishing a surveillance programme. This was driven by clinicians but faced challenges due to a lack of involvement of the wider organisation in the early stages.\nFindings: SSIs were initially reported via a form-filling system. This developed into an editable hospital intranet database, but still suffered from the problems of voluntary entries and under-reporting. Following the formal engagement of management structures and the funding of a surveillance nurse, the authors' programme developed robustness, and resilience. With the advent of an SSI committee, the authors now have a well-established programme that ingrains SSI prevention in the collective learning and organisational memory of the authors' unit.\nOriginality/value: Clinicians must lead on the development of these programmes, but long-term durability requires engagement and support from the wider organisation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A new single-sample failure model and its application to a special CNC system
|
[
"Numerical control",
"Failure (mechanical)",
"Reliability management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The reliability of computer numerical control (CNC) systems is of vital importance to the proper running of machine tools (Zhang et al., 2004b). Great progress has been achieved in studying the reliability of failure models with multiple CNC systems and multiple failure samples (Liu et al., 2003). However, very little is known about failure models with a single CNC system and a single-failure sample. A single-failure sample refers to the case of only one failure or the case of no failure during a testing period. This often happens with some CNC systems, like the one we have studied during the past two years.The main purpose of this paper is to address the problem of failure analysis and reliability evaluation of this special CNC system, which is used for controlling the automatic manufacturing line of a certain type of car engines.Two years ago, the authors have, using Visual FoxPro, set up a reliability database to collect all the failure data of the special CNC system. However, difficulties arose while studying these failure data, because back then there was little information available about the research of failure data for single-sample special CNC systems. The main difficulty with a special CNC system statistics evaluation was its study of failure data (such as, many failures, a few failures, only one failure, or no failure). The problem became even more complicated when \"data with only one failure\" or \"data without failure\" occurred. In these cases, there was no appropriate model to describe them, nor an appropriate method to solve the problems. To overcome these difficulties, a new failure model has been proposed by the authors, and a method for estimating the reliability of the failure model has been established. Although the failure model was created for the special CNC system, we believe that it can also be used to evaluate the reliability of other single-sample CNC systems.In order to improve the reliability of the CNC system, failure modes have been determined. By analyzing the failure modes, it is possible to identify the weakest link in the CNC system. This information is very useful for improving the reliability in manufacturing.\n2 Failure modes of the CNC system: A failure mode can be characterized by its code, location, cause, occurrence, ratio, and source.2.1 Failure locations\n3 Failure models: In most practical applications, however, there is a need to determine failure modes in order to provide the basis for the reliability design, as well as estimate the reliability parameters based on failure models.In this section, an attempt will be made to classify various failure models. For the CNC system test, the reliability of the given CNC system was studied according to failure data during the testing period. The failure model is described as follows:Let t0<=t<=tk where t0 is the starting time in hours; tk the total time of the test in hours; and k is the total number of testing intervals.If the failures occur ri times between t0 and ti (i<=k), the failure model can be designated as (ni, ri, ti), where ni is the total number of tested systems, and ri is the total number of failures of all the tested systems in the period between t0 and ti (i=0,1,2, ... ,k). The failure model involves the determination of mathematical expressions that describe the reliability of the CNC system, expressed in terms of the failure data. For only one CNC system, the failure model is designated as (1, ri, ti).Following are some special failure models:1. The failure model is (1, 1, ti) if ri=1, that is, only one failure has occurred.2. The failure model is (1, 0, ti) if ri=0, that is, no failure has occurred.3. Also it is assumed that the probability of failure is pi, when there are ri failures in a period ti. It is quite clear that 0<=r1<=r2<=***<=rn (n<=k) and if so, p0<=p1<=p2<=...<=pn. The failure model is (1, ri, ti).The solution to this model provides the engineers with a method to analyze the reliability for single-sample products.\n4 Reliability estimation based on failure models: There are normally two steps in establishing reliability estimation:1. determination of the \"best-fitting\" distribution; and2. estimation of the parameters (shape, location, and scale parameters) for that distribution.The following subsections will explore these steps for various failure models.4.1 Failure model (ni, ri, ti) with ni>=2 and ri>=2\n5 Conclusions: 1. A reliability database has been set up for the special CNC system. Failure modes have been identified based on failure locations, causes, and sources. This helps to find out the weakest link in the system, and therefore, appropriate measures can be taken to improve the reliability of the CNC system.2. A method for classifying failure models has been proposed based on available failure experimental data, including number of CNC systems and number of failure samples.3. Using the Bayesian method, the failure probability distribution for the single-sample failure models has been shown to follow the two-parameter Weibull distribution. These parameters can be obtained by the method of weighted least squares estimation. The approach has been demonstrated using a numerical example. The analytical results are in accordance with those given in Samuel and Wu (2000) and Wang (1999).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper is to present a new failure model that can be applied to single-sample failure data of a single system under testing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The Bayesian method is used for the reliability evaluation. The weighted least squares method is used for determining the parameters of the reliability function.\nFindings: - The authors have observed the operation of a special computer numerical control (CNC) system for a period of over two years, and maintained a reliability database will all the collected failure data, from which the main source of failures can be identified.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Preliminary research results are very encouraging. However, more work will be necessary to validate the new failure model.\nPractical implications: - The determination of the parameters of the reliability function of a system under testing helps to identify its failure characteristics and potential quality problems.\nOriginality/value: - It is hoped that the paper can help understand some of the challenges in modeling the failure behavior of special CNC systems.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Speaking up about oracy: the contribution of drama pedagogy to enhanced oral communication
|
[
"Pedagogy",
"English language arts",
"English teaching",
"Dialogic classroom",
"Oracy",
"Speaking and listening",
"Process drama",
"Oral language pedagogy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Developing the oral language and vocabulary skills of children, particularly those who are learning English as a second language or those who spent their pre-school years in language restricted environments is one of the greatest challenges facing educators (Pikulski and Chard, 2005, p. 514).\nAn emphasis on oracy: More than 20 years ago, John O'Toole published a paper decrying the loss of a focus on oral language in discussions about literacy in schooling. In \"Oracy: The forgotten basic\" (O'Toole, 1991) argued for a more central positioning of oracy within the classroom, both in terms of literacy development, and in its own right:\nThe project in action: The drama hinged on a pretext, a hook, found in a newspaper article in The Australian (11 July, 2011), which told of the discovery of a huge treasure trove in the Padmanabaswamy temple in Kerala. The treasure, in Chamber A, was estimated to be worth around $18 billion, and there was another, unopened chamber beyond. The newspaper article went on to talk of curses, secret passages and mysteries. What a great drama starter!\nParent feedback: A small group of four parents participated in a 1 1/2 -hour focus group interview midway through the project, where they were asked to talk about their child's response to the classes. There was unanimous agreement that their children thoroughly enjoyed the drama/oracy workshops, and that the classes were having an impact on other aspects of family life.\nConclusion: The explicit teaching of oral communication must be given more prominence in schooling and not left to chance. Our educational community, parents and the children themselves, \"need to know that effective speakers and listeners can become powerful learners, teachers and citizens\" (Townsend et al., 2015, p. 576). The capacity to communicate fluently and expressively in oral exchanges across a range of complex and varied social and cultural contexts is a currency that has been long undervalued.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider the growing interest in oracy and to propose the pedagogy of process drama as an ideal model for the dialogic classroom.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper takes the form of an explanatory case study where the author draws on a successful drama/oracy project in a primary school in Brisbane, Australia, to illustrate the connections between Alexander's five indicators of a dialogic classroom and the process drama in which the students participated.\nFindings: The application of this process drama as pedagogy for the teaching and learning of oracy has contributed positively to students' oral communication skills and intercultural awareness. In addition, parents provide positive feedback about student engagement in school and developing self-confidence because \"they have something to say\".\nResearch limitations/implications: There was no formal pre-post test for the oral communication skills on this study, instead the researchers developed a draft \"oracy\" checklist which deserves further interrogation and development.\nPractical implications: There are implications for the use of process drama as a means of creating and sustaining the dialogic classroom. Teacher professional development would be required to assist the planning and delivery of dramas that allow for the deep and complex learning evidenced in this study.\nSocial implications: This is an ideal vehicle for assisting in the development of empathy, collaboration, emotional intelligence and intercultural understanding.\nOriginality/value: This is an example of an extremely high-quality curriculum plan and implementation. The importance of engaging in implicit and explicit instruction of oral communication for the twenty-first century should not be underestimated. The process drama allows oral language to be foregrounded, with additional learning opportunities from a range of other learning areas, brought together in a coherent and complex model of practice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Complexity and the beginning principal in the United States: perspectives on socialization
|
[
"Principals",
"Socialization",
"Sociology of work"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The role of school leader in the USA has, in the last several years, taken on added significance in the educational reform and accountability movements. Although the relationship between the principal's actions and student achievement is indirect, the importance of this role for developing and maintaining school culture, promoting a vision of academic success for all students, and creating professional learning communities has clearly been supported by research and theory (Hallinger and Heck, 1996; Leithwood and Jantzi, 2000).Along with this evidence of the importance of the principalship has come the recognition that the principal's role has changed within an increasingly high stakes policy environment. In the USA, the advent of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, enacted by Congress in 2001, has clearly raised the stakes not only for schools but also for principals. The higher expectations for US principals in the area of instructional leadership, created among other things by the NCLB Act, increased public scrutiny of public schools, and the promotion of privatization as a public policy agenda, have significantly changed the role of school principal in the USA.In addition to these policy environment changes, US principals work in a societal context that is more dynamic and complex than in the past. Changing student demographics, the knowledge explosion, the larger web of roles with which the principal interacts, and the pervasive influence of technology are a few features of this complex environment. Many of these features affect school leaders in other national contexts, but this paper focuses primarily on how these contextual features affect US principals.In response to these changes, a growing discontent in the USA with how principals are socialized, i.e., learn their jobs, is evident in the literature and policy debates. Reports and opinions have claimed that the preparation of principals, particularly in universities, is inadequate for the new policy and societal contexts (Levine, 2005; Hess and Kelly, 2005; Haller et al., 1997). A set of counter arguments has also been made that, although university preparation should be more rigorous, it is still the best model for principal preparation (Young and Petersen, 2002; Young et al., 2005).The attention in the US on improving principals' socialization, with some exceptions, has tended to result in a piecemeal collection of strategies without a conceptual understanding of socialization. Furthermore, most of the attention has focused on the university level in terms of reforming this stage of learning without sufficient attention to a broader understanding of socialization that includes the induction period for new principals and a more relevant understanding of the complex environment in which socialization for these new principals occurs.This paper seeks to contribute to a more relevant conceptual understanding of US beginning principal socialization occurring in a complex work environment and to apply this understanding to various features of the practice of beginning principal socialization in this environment. The discussion will begin with a brief description of traditional principal socialization in the USA. Following this description, the paper will examine the nature of educational work in a complex society, identifying features of complexity in the larger work arena and applying these to educational work, in particular the work of school principals. Next the paper will identify a variety of conceptual and practical features of the socialization of beginning principals in complex, post-industrial society, specifically in the US. The paper concludes with a set of implications for research to inform beginning principal socialization.\nTraditional socialization of beginning principals: The socialization of beginning principals is usually characterized by two broad types:1. professional; and2. organizational (Greenfield, 1985a).Professional socialization, which in the USA occurs primarily in university preparation programs, relates to the initial preparation to take on an occupational role such as school principal and includes the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to enact the role regardless of the setting. Organizational socialization, in contrast, is context-bound and includes the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to conduct the role in a particular setting. These two forms of socialization frequently conflict as professional socialization is focused on inculcating a conception of the role for newcomers and organizational socialization is focused on making these newcomers effective organizational members.In the case of US principals, professional socialization typically includes courses on topics primarily derived from management science and industrial psychology (Callahan, 1962; Crow and Grogan, 2005), e.g. finance, law, leadership, and organizational theory. In addition, university preparation programs include a field component, typically in the form of an internship (Milstein et al., 1991; Browne-Ferrigno and Muth, 2004). The internship places the student in one or more educational settings that should enable the aspiring principal to gain experience in practical roles. Supervision from both the school site administrator and a college instructor is usually part of the design.In the US approximately 500 university preparation programs currently exist. As far back as 1987, policymakers were calling for a reduction in the number of university programs to ensure more rigorous standards of preparation (Griffiths et al., 1988). However, there has been little change in the number of programs. Evidence regarding the quality of university preparation programs is scant, and most arguments resort to anecdotal evidence or have questionable methodologies. Considerable opinion, however, exists that this stage of principal preparation needs to improve and rigorous empirical evaluations of leadership preparation need to be conducted (Orr, 2004).The organizational socialization of beginning principals is typically described as consisting of individual, informal, random, and variable learning (Greenfield, 1985a). Beginning principals essentially make sense of their roles by themselves or by using informal feedback from teachers, students, parents, and other administrators. Although principal evaluations occur, these are typically few and lack useful advice (Lashway, 2003). Some principals, especially at the secondary level, become assistant principals before becoming principals. However, the nature of the assistant principalship in the US has changed over time from being an apprenticeship to being narrowly focused on some area, e.g. student discipline. This narrow conception rarely provides the kind of socialization experiences to enable an individual to experience the full range of principal responsibilities (Greenfield, 1985b).Instead of a mediated entry, beginning US principals are immediately responsible for the full gamut of principal duties. Recently school districts and intermediary organizations (e.g. professional associations) are providing induction resources for new principals, including workshops, mentors, and coaches. These induction resources are frequently provided in a piecemeal way without an underlying conceptual understanding of principal socialization based on features of work in a complex society.\nComplexity and the world of educational work: The societal changes that impact the nature of work in general and the practice of beginning principals in particular can be seen in the distinction between industrial and post-industrial societies. In describing these differences, it is important to acknowledge that these changes are still evolving and that in some occupations, notably education, not all the changes may be as apparent as in other occupations. Nevertheless, identifying the move from industrial to post-industrial society suggests a way to highlight the increasing complexity that exists both in work generally and in educational work particularly.Complex work in post-industrial society\nSocialization of beginning US principals in a complex society: The complex environment in which beginning US principals take on their positions and the changing nature of the principal's role require new features of principal socialization. This section will identify four conceptual elements of socialization, based on the classic outline presented by Van Maanen and Schein (1979). The features of socialization described here include conceptual elements as well as some normative elements. The normative elements are based on the previous discussion of principals' work in a complex society and the changes that have occurred in the role. The purpose of this description is not to develop an extensive conceptual model but to suggest conceptual features and some implications of these features for principal socialization in a complex society. Again, some of these features are relevant to other national contexts, but the discussion of socialization in the following section is focused on US principals.Content of socialization\nImplications for research: The conceptual and practical features identified in this paper for the socialization of beginning principals suggest several possible areas for research that could enrich the understanding of beginning principals' socialization in the USA and perhaps in other national contexts.The post-industrial trend toward creating customized responses to problems versus the industrial model of standardization is a dilemma confronting contemporary beginning principals. Principals in the USA experience a tension between building enriched learning communities that support innovation and creativity and responding to the standardization approach in most accountability initiatives. Examining how this tension influences the processes and outcomes of beginning principal socialization would be useful in informing such areas as administrator stress and leader effectiveness during the induction period.The anticipatory socialization of US principals has rarely been researched. A variety of factors of teaching experience (e.g. type of school, content area, and variety of experience with different student demographic groups) have possible implications for not only the way principals enact the role but the way they learn. Van Maanen (1984) argues that previous socialization experiences have an impact on subsequent socialization processes. Understanding the teaching experience of new principals may provide an understanding of and support for beginning principals' socialization.Earlier in the paper, we identified variety versus similarity as an overlooked dimension of socialization methods. This dimension is currently being considered in some of the business literature on leadership in turbulent situations (Cooper and Burke, 2002). However, research on this dimension of socialization for beginning US principals is lacking. An understanding of how variety of work and life experiences support the learning of new principals who encounter the demographic diversity of contemporary schools would be useful for enriching beginning principal socialization in a complex, post-industrial society.In a similar vein, an examination of the types of socialization methods used to effectively prepare beginning principals to address the social justice and learning equity outcomes of schools would be beneficial. A growing body of literature exists on strategies for university professors to use in preparing leaders for social justice (Marshall, 2004; Marshall and Oliva, 2006), but very little on the larger socialization processes (e.g. induction) that facilitate this type of leadership.Learning how to do a job does not occur in the vacuum of a profession or an organization. The larger societal context in which roles are enacted impacts the socialization process. The dramatic changes of post-industrial society create an opportunity and a challenge for beginning US principals in learning their jobs. These principals themselves, as well as district leaders, professors and policymakers need to acknowledge how the complexities of these societal changes impact the socialization of this important group of school leaders.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to contribute to the literature and practice on beginning principal socialization by identifying the features of post-industrial work that create a more complex work environment for the practice and learning of the principalship in the USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Based on recent literature on the changing nature of work, the paper applies those features of complexity to components of beginning principal socialization.\nFindings: - The nature of work in post-industrial society and the changes in education, including a knowledge society, technology, demographic changes, and public accountability increase the complexity for US school principals. These features provide an important conceptual and normative basis for understanding and changing the content, sources, methods, and outcomes of beginning principal socialization.\nOriginality/value: - The paper contributes a set of conceptual and normative features that strengthens the understanding of how beginning principals learn the role.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A closer look into the materialism construct: the antecedents and consequences of materialism and its three facets
|
[
"Materialism",
"Materialism facets",
"Subjective well-being"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this issue.\nIntroduction: Increasing materialism in not a new phenomenon in Western societies and has been particularly associated with the American consumption culture. However, recently, materialism has received renewed attention in the media and in the public discourse in the wake of the global economic crisis. The materialistic values that have dominated Western societies, promoting the strong desire for wealth and goods, have led to risky financial behaviors that contributed to the recent crisis (Kasser, 2008; Richins, 2011). Concurrently with the global economic crisis, a mounting body of literature examining an array of individual factors related to materialism has emerged in an attempt to improve our understanding of this widespread phenomenon (Giddens et al., 2009; Karabati and Cemalcilar, 2010; Kilbourne and LaForge, 2010; Richins, 2011; Sirgy et al., 2013). Evidence has accumulated about the association between overconsumption and materialism and social and personal problems such as peak oil, environmental degradation, global poverty, reduced personal well-being and happiness (Alexander and Ussher, 2012).\nMaterialism: conceptualization, antecedents and consequences: Materialism is related to the degree of importance consumers attach to possessions (Belk, 1995) and the centrality of these possessions in their lives (Richins and Dawson, 1992). Materialists often become overly focused on purchases, and direct their energy and resources to acquiring possessions, hoping that they will lead to happiness, satisfaction with life and a generalized well-being (Fitzmaurice and Comegys, 2006; Richins and Dawson, 1992).\nThe current study and development of hypotheses: In this study, we speculate that the relationships between materialism as an overall construct and its antecedents and consequences will mirror the findings of previous studies. However, when investigating these relationships with each materialism facet separately (i.e. happiness, centrality and success), a different picture might emerge. Thus, some facets will be more manifested than others because they represent a distinct underlying need that the materialist seeks to satisfy. Figure 1 illustrates this study's model and hypotheses.\nMethod: Sample\nResults: The research model was tested with path analysis structural equation modeling (SEM) models, using LISREL 8.80 (Joreskog and Sorbom, 1993). Overall, fit indices showed a good fit between the data and the model for materialism as a second-order construct (kh2 = 126.21, df = 23, Normed kh2 = 5.49; GFI = 0.97; CFI = 0.93; NFI = 0.92; IFI = 0.93; RMR = 0.05). The fit statistics for the model at the dimension level of materialism also showed an acceptable fit with the data. Goodness of fit statistics for this model were kh2 = 95.38, df = 25, Normed kh2 = 3.82; GFI = 0.98; CFI = 0.97; NFI = 0.96; IFI = 0.97; RMR = 0.04. The explained variance for materialism was 39 per cent, for success 14 per cent, for centrality 23 per cent and for happiness 28 per cent. Table II presents the results of the SEM analyses. We compared the outcomes of the two models, which differed only in the level of analysis of the materialism construct. The difference in kh2 (30.83 with two degrees of freedom) was significant, and, coupled with the fit statistics reported above, provides a measure of support to the claim that the dimensional model of materialism fits the data better than the second-order materialism one.\nDiscussion: This study integrates a set of antecedents and consequences for materialism adopted from previous studies into a model that unbundles the materialism construct into its three facets - success, centrality and happiness. From a theoretical perspective, this study implies that looking into materialism as a single construct may obscure important information about the factors that underlie a specific behavior or are driven by a particular psychological state. Thus, our understanding of materialism can be enhanced by also investigating the associations between the facets of materialism and the antecedents and consequences that are distinctly related to them. As the chi-square comparisons of the two models and the fit indices demonstrate, the dimensional model of materialism fitted the data better than the second-order materialism model. Specifically, the findings indicate that there should be a fit between a particular facet of materialism and its associated antecedents and consequences that determine which facet of materialism will be more dominant in a specific context.\nImplications: Managers can use the findings to develop more effective marketing strategies in terms of segmentation, strategic brand communication and the promotion of positive consumer behavior that benefits society at large. First, marketers can segment consumers more accurately based on the facet of materialism that is dominant in a specific consumer behavior context. Knowledge of the relevant aspect of consumer materialism and how it relates to a specific behavior is the key to the segmentation practice. Second, more precise segmentation will lead to the development of brand communication that better addresses these consumer concerns. For example, if the centrality facet of materialism drives consumer innovativeness, then promotional messages that encourage consumers to purchase new and innovative products as a means of self-expression and telegraphing their lifestyle can be effective. Similarly, if the centrality facet of materialism underlies consumers' satisfaction with life, then brand messages can link this outcome with a consumption-oriented lifestyle and consumers' daily experiences. In the same vein, our results imply that brand communication and advertising should refrain from linking the happiness facet of materialism with satisfaction with life, as these two elements are negatively related. Third, this study shows that materialism can also act in the best interests of society, with consumer innovativeness and environmentalism being two outcomes that have positive implications for society's economic prosperity, advancement and well-being. Understanding how materialism works in driving these positive outcomes is important to further promote and encourage consumers to act in these directions. For example, materialists are less concerned with the environment and are driven more by the value of acquiring material possessions. This propensity opens up an opportunity for marketers to promote green products and encourage green consumption. In this way, marketers can address the need of materialists to consume, while, at the same time, promoting consumption that is less harmful to the environment. Finally, this study has implications for the development of policies for consumer education that encourage more responsible behavior. Our results indicate that materialism is driven by emotional weaknesses and a lack of happiness. Given that promotional campaigns often link happiness with shopping and possessions, more attention should be placed on educating vulnerable consumers about the perils associated with over-consumption. Consumer education programs should stress that acquiring material possessions is an inadequate remedy for deficiencies in one's sense of well-being.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to unbundle the materialism construct into its three facets - centrality, success and happiness - to provide a fine-grained model that delineates the relationship between some of its antecedents (i.e. depression, anxiety, self esteem and affect) and consequences (life satisfaction, innovativeness, time spent shopping and environmentalism).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a convenience sample of 568 adult consumers, this study tests a model in which a set of psychological variables serve as antecedents of materialism and its three facets, which in turn affect a set of cognitive, psychological and behavioral consequences.\nFindings: Results indicate that specific facets have more weight than others, depending on the nature of the needs individuals seek to fulfill through possessions, or their resulting behaviors and cognitions. Results validate the view of materialism as a coping mechanism, but also show that the consequences of materialism can be both positive and negative depending on their underlying facet.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study used a convenience sample, which might affect the generalizability of its findings. The materialism centrality subscale showed a lower than desirable level of reliability. Future research might consider using the longer, 6-item version of this sub-scale.\nPractical implications: This study helps marketers identify the circumstances under which materialism can lead to negative or positive consequences. Marketers should be careful when designing messages that make unrealistically strong associations between consumption and happiness, positive emotions, self-worth and satisfaction with life.\nSocial implications: The negative social and personal consequences of materialism call for the formulation of policies designed to reduce them, and marketers' responsibility to consumers' well-being, especially among potentially vulnerable segments of the population.\nOriginality/value: This study provides an in-depth analysis of the materialism construct, its antecedents and outcomes. It advances our understanding of how materialism works by examining each facet separately and how it is related to the various psychological antecedents and consumer behavior outcomes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Entrepreneurial coaching: how to be modeled and measured?
|
[
"Measurement scale",
"Coach’s enforcement of standards",
"Coach’s empathy",
"Coach’s expectation for entrepreneurial performance",
"Entrepreneurial coaching",
"Structural equation method"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Negative feelings and a broken relationship require the presence of coaching. Indeed, coaching is defined as an intangible support practice which is absent in the previous research, but heavily present in the recent ones (Devine et al., 2013; Wilson et al., 2013). However, the majority of researchers do not give us either a standard or a universal definition of the concept (Devine et al., 2013; Rocchi et al., 2013; Wilson et al., 2013). Nevertheless, previous research has considered coaching and coach definition (Peterson and Hicks, 2006), the possible link between coaching and other disciplines (Audet and Cauteret, 2013), the coaching's time (Bruneel et al., 2012) and the coaching's objectives (Chuang et al., 2016; John and Leuer, 2013). Despite the presence of several research projects that focus on the entrepreneurial coaching, we have noticed the absence of research that treats the concept totally. Until now, only some initiatives try to do so and declare, theoretically, the presence of three dimensions of coaching, i.e. the coach's enforcement of standards, the coach' empathy and the coach's expectation for entrepreneurial performance (Audet and Cauteret, 2013). We seek to provide some cures by answering the following question:\nLiterature review: Coaching is a complete entrepreneurial support practice that contains advice, training and learning (Wu, 2016; Devine et al., 2013). Previous researchers do not brand a universal definition of coaching. However, it is defined as \"a managerial, cognitive and informational process combining knowledge, methods and ways offered to an individual or a group in order to detect opportunities and to assure their continuity and their efficiency\" (Peterson and Hicks; 2006, p. 14). Indeed, Audet and Cauteret (2013, p. 2) define coaching as \"an individual support that targets entrepreneur of new start-up or a growth company aiming to meet a particular need of acquisition, development and skill's improvement\". These definitions confirm that coaching is a multidimensional concept, which highlights the presence of many types of coaching such as psychological, professional, sportive and emotional coach and the presence of many actors likewise coach, employees and manager (Wilson et al., 2013).\nMethod: The objective of this research is to develop and validate a measurement scale of entrepreneurial coaching. Using Churchill's (1979) paradigm, this study starts from the construct specification until the assurance of discriminant validity. The item generation is based only on the literature review. The purification process ensures the reliability, the validity and the presentation of items in the supported axis; whereas, the scale validation reports different tests such as the internal reliability, the convergent and the discriminant validity.\nSample: Tunisian successors are our participants. They appear in the form of transmission, succession or recovery after business failure. The aforementioned situation took place in the past and in some cases, still taking place. To do so, a questionnaire of 12 items was developed and concerns the major theme of the entrepreneurial coaching practice. Besides, the sector's choice is due to the increase of transmission and failing companies after revolution. The data collection is referring to INS website, young page and the publication issues in the Tunisian official gazette and other daily newspapers.\nMeasurement: We note that the literature does not give us a measurement scale of entrepreneurial coaching or some general items. Few researchers have examined some dimensions of entrepreneurial coaching and try to combine them (Audet and Cauteret, 2013; Ladegard and Gjerde, 2014). As a result, some situations appear and focus on the relationship between coach and coachee and on the coach's enforcement. We apply the used model to derive our items and to clarify these links and the importance of some dimensions on supporting successors. This model mentions the presence of a lot of items that are associated to each dimension. The items number assures a calibration between them that is equal to four items. They are under a Likert scale of five points that makes a distinction between them without affecting the response quality or the interviewer groups. According to the face-to-face questionnaire, our successor's answers are satisfied since our study does not manifest any missing information. Table V manifests all supported items.\nAnalysis: This research displays three types of successors: the successor after business failure, the successor after transmission and the successor after family succession. The successor's identity may offer us the opportunity to deduct their needs in terms of coaching. As far as the successor after business failure is concerned, he needs psychological coaching to reduce the chock associated to business failure and social coaching to assure his integration. The family successor needs social coaching to assure his entrepreneurial insertion, whereas the detached successors, following the transmission case, need a professional coaching which enables them to assure their cognitive transfer and integration. The identification of coaching dimensions is performed using the following analysis method:\nResults: The confirmatory analysis lacks the fourth item from the coach's enforcement of standards dimension and the first item from the coach's empathy dimensions that are removed in the component analysis due to a weak level of presentation or a low level of Cronbach's ratio. Despite of the absence of the both items, this analysis confirms the presence of three factors while the majority of items are normally distributed. For instance, skewness and kurtosis indices are maintained since the lower index is equal to -0.427, whereas the highest value is equal to 2.246. So, we can confirm the normality test. In addition, we use the bootstrap method to assure the model's stability and we conclude that the adjustment indicators did not undergo any change. So our model remains stable (Table VI).\nDiscussion: The objective of this paper is to model, develop and validate a measurement scale for entrepreneurial coaching. A literature review has enabled us to define the concept of coaching, and dissect and identify the dimensions of coaching practice. The coaching definitions and dimensions differ referring to its types, its context and the entrepreneur (successor) and the firm's needs.\nConclusion: Our research has modeled, created and validated a measurement scale for the entrepreneurial coaching referring to the Tunisian context. The developed scale supports the previous developed model since Tunisian successors are satisfied with the coach's enforcement to standards, the coach's empathy and the coach's expectation for entrepreneurial performance with a high attention to the coach's enforcement of standards as well as the coach's empathy. However, our research suffers from several limitations. The measure is validating from the Tunisian context, but it can be usually generalized in another context. It is important to conduct the same study in different countries, our supported items are derived from little research; it will be interesting to add more items from the qualitative research. The participants are only successors; the same study should be conducted with entrepreneurs to make a future comparison between them.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to model the coaching practice on the one hand, and, on the other, develop and validate an integrative measurement scale that is associated to the following dimensions, namely, the coach's enforcement of standards, the coach's empathy and the coach's expectation for entrepreneurial performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An empirical study of 111 Tunisian successors, which is based on the structural equation method, has enabled mentioning that the required dimensions are the coach's enforcement of standards, the coach's empathy and the coach's expectation for entrepreneurial performance.\nFindings: First, the coach's enforcement of standards and the coach's empathy are the main parts of the coaching practice in regard to the Tunisian successors. Second, this study shows that it is necessary to include entrepreneurial behavior on the research that treats successor's coaching.\nOriginality/value: Coaching programs concern essentially employees and orient their careers through assistance, advice and orientation. However, although successors face some hardships throughout their careers, they are outside the focus of attention. Thus, this study contributes to the coaching literature by modeling the coaching practice and by developing and validating an entrepreneurial coaching scale.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Differentiating the impact of CSR strengths and concerns on firm performance: An investigation of MNEs and US domestic firms
|
[
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Path analysis",
"CSR concerns",
"CSR strengths",
"Multinational enterprises",
"Structured equation model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: For years, managers and scholars alike have debated about whether or not investments that increase the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of firms can beneficially impact their performance. CSR \"concerns with actions that appear to further some social good, beyond the interests of the firm and the requirements of law\" (McWilliams and Siegel, 2000). Proponents for CSR perceive such investments as a strategy for firms to increase their competitiveness (Posnikoff, 1997; Waddock and Graves, 1997; Weber, 2008), whereas opponents of CSR argue that such investments conflict with the firms' objective to maximize profits (Wright and Ferris, 1997). This conflict has led to increased motivation for studying this relationship in an attempt to reconcile the differing sides on the subject.\nLiterature review: CSR and firm performance\nMethodology: Sample\nResults: In order to test our proposed model, we use the statistical software WarpPLS 5.0. The results of the path analysis are shown in Figure 2. The relationship between CSR strengths and firm financial performance has a path coefficient of 0.16, and this coefficient is statistically significant (p<0.01), showing support for H1. The relationship between CSR concerns and firm financial performance has a path coefficient of -0.20, and this coefficient is statistically significant (p<0.01), showing support for H2.\nDiscussion and conclusions: We hypothesized that CSR strengths as well as fewer CSR concerns would be positively related to financial firm performance. Our analysis shows support for these two hypotheses, which is consistent with the assertion that CSR investments can be strategically used to inflate financial performance. We also provided additional insights by testing the moderating effect of MNEs on the relationship between CSR and financial performance. Our results show that addressing CSR issues provides a higher effect on firm performance for MNEs than for US domestic firms. Such results suggest that it would be more beneficial for MNEs to invest in CSR because they are serving a wider range of stakeholders that might have a higher degree of sensitivity toward issues related to CSR. Furthermore, we found that fewer CSR concerns are associated with higher firm financial performance than CSR strengths are. This can be explained by suggestions of the prospect theory, inferring that individuals value losses more than gains. In our study, perhaps stakeholders punish firms more as the number of CSR concerns such as legal issues and fines increases, while they do not praise them as much when these firms invest in CSR activities such as helping the community or using environment-friendly products. The inverse relationship between CSR concerns and firm performance is strengthened when firms are operating on a multinational level.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini & Co. (KLD) dimensions by distinguishing between corporate social responsibility (CSR) strengths and concerns and examine their individual effects on firm financial performance. Additionally, the study distinguishes between US domestic firms and multinational enterprises (MNEs) to provide additional insights and explore if any differences exist.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data from the KLD and Compustat databases are analyzed for a sample of 562 US firms, of which 359 are multinational corporations, and 203 operate solely in the USA. A path analysis was used to examine the effect of CSR strengths and concerns on firm financial performance.\nFindings: The findings show that increases in CSR strengths as well reductions in CSR concerns are positively linked to firm financial performance. The results also suggest that addressing concerns would be more beneficial to MNEs as opposed to US domestic firms.\nResearch limitations/implications: First, it should be noted that this study is cross-sectional, thus limiting confirmation of causality. Future studies can confirm causality by conducting longitudinal analysis. Also, some country-specific regulations require firms to make certain CSR-related information publicly available. Future studies can focus on countries that have such regulations and make comparisons with countries that allow firms to decide for themselves whether or not to make CSR-related activities publicly available.\nOriginality/value: When measuring CSR, previous studies have combined the CSR strengths and concerns latent variables of the KLD database. This can potentially be a problem because CSR strengths and concerns are not meant to measure the same issues. By separating them into two distinct latent variables, the authors can better understand their individual effects on firm performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Development and validation of Islamic Governance Examination tool in healthcare settings
|
[
"Organization",
"Clinical governance",
"Organizational development for effective clinical governance",
"Governance structures",
"Emerging healthcare delivery structures",
"Clinical leadership and culture"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: Islamic governance (IG), in essence, utilises Islamic ideals, values and principles as a form of system of governance to protect and promote collective social benefits (maslahah) and prevent social detriments (mafsadah) (Iqbal and Lewis, 2009; Abdul Aziz, 2015). Before the arrival of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) to Medina (formerly Yathrib), the city was under constant fighting mainly between the Arabs and the Jews for almost a century (Holt et al., 1977). In the period of the Prophet Muhammad in Medina, from 622 AD until his death in 632 AD, his leadership has united the tribes under one nation (Ummah Wahidah) of multi-religion as constituted in the Charter of Medina and transformed the city into prosperity with qualities of a high civilisation (Iqbal and Lewis, 2009; Abdul Aziz, 2015). The Prophetic city of Medina subsequently provided the impetus for modern science, mathematics, architecture, medicine and other disciplines that led to the golden age of Islamic civilisation; and certainly as the epitome for IG (Abdul Aziz, 2015).\nMethods: Aim\nResults: Table I illustrates the characteristics of the participants responded to the IGET questionnaire. The demographic of the participants was representing or reflecting the actual partitions of the healthcare workforce where they consist mainly of nurses (64.4 per cent) followed by allied health professionals (21.3 per cent) and doctors (14.2 per cent). The respondents were mainly women (74.7 per cent) and of the Muslim faith (98.7 per cent).\nDiscussion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to provide statistical data to this novel IG conceptual model. The conceptual model is said to \"transcends time and place\"; thus theoretically the application could be relevant in any time period and any work setting to provide an operational-based objectives that is achievable with testable outcomes and relevant towards human actions (Abdul Aziz, 2015). This is parallel to recent discourse emphasising more on measuring quality of governance for detailed organisational mechanisms. In this cross-sectional study, we tested the model in a healthcare setting. By applying the data to the model, we were able to explore further the relationship among the IG domains and the relationship between the domains towards the Maqasid.\nConclusion: To conclude, we have demonstrated that the IG model domain could reflect the reality of the Islamic aspects of an organisation, which the developed IGET instrument could preliminarily measure. The creation of this model should not be construed as a competition to conventional system, rather as accommodating and cooperating paradigm towards a holistic system of governance to improve health service quality compatible to Muslim culture and society.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate the Islamic Governance Examination tool (IGET) in applicability to the healthcare setting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional study using IGET, developed by a panel of expert and extensive literature, which measures Islamic governance (IG) domains - Tauhid, Juristic, Values and Culture. Health and allied health professionals from the largest hospital in Brunei were recruited to establish validity and reliability of the instrument. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was applied to explore the relationship of the IG domains.\nFindings: Content validity and construct validity were established with good internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's a ranged 0.835-0.953). SEM supports the conceptual model and demonstrated potential to improve quality of health services. By articulating internal and organisational processes put in place for compatibility of Muslim patients and accommodating incumbent form of healthcare governance.\nOriginality/value: To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study developing, validating and exploring IG components in healthcare setting. Usage of IGET should be cross-validated in different disciplines and settings before application. Nonetheless, IG as a whole need to be developed further to create healthcare environment compatible for Muslim patients and complement current health services to improve health service quality for everyone.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The global diffusion of relationship marketing
|
[
"Relationship marketing",
"Globalization",
"Knowledge sharing",
"Systems theory",
"Russia"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nContemporary marketing in Russia: low engagement and conventional measures: In this first part, the paper introduces the research design, main findings, and economic reasons of contemporary marketing practices in Russia. The empirical study on the implementation process of relationship marketing in Russia was conducted by Ralf Wagner in spring 2003. As a method, Wagner used a standardised quantitative survey instrument of the CMP-Project (Contemporary Marketing Practices, University of Auckland, NZ). Thus, the research on marketing is based upon a conceptualisation of Nicole Coviello et al. (1997), dividing relational marketing, as a complement of transactional marketing, into three different constructs: Database, Interaction, and Network Marketing. To conclude Wagner's findings, the paradigm of relationship marketing postulated by Western marketing science since the 1980s, reveals limitations as for the Russian transitional market. Compared to CMP research on marketing practices in Canada (Brodie et al., 2001) and Argentina (Pels and Brodie, 2003), the domestic Russian firm shows a smaller spectrum of marketing techniques and lower marketing engagement. Unlike the domestic Russian firm, Russian firms with experience on foreign developed markets and international firms involved on the Russian market practise marketing manifold and more intensively.Wagner attributes the weakness of the domestic Russian firm's marketing to three main reasons:1. no economic necessity for marketing measures;2. no recognition of the necessity of marketing measures; and3. failure in the realisation of marketing measures.The first point refers to the development status of the Russian market, demand greater than supply and low spending power. The latter two points relate to external restrictions, such as political laws and infrastructure, and internal restrictions of the Russian firm. More precisely, organisational problems comprise four dimensions:1. cognition and mental attitude (primary emphasis of the Russian firm's management of financial data and facts as sales growth, quick sale orientation, hardly any customer orientation);2. structure of positions and duties (no or low specialisation and autonomy of the function unit marketing in the Russian firm);3. employees (insufficient training or no qualified marketing staff in the Russian firm, marketing is often done together with a lot of other things by the CEO); and4. financing (limited budget for marketing activities in the Russian firm).\nA macro-sociological approach: the global diffusion of relationship marketing: The papers second and main part draws upon sociology of knowledge and macro-sociology. Sociology of knowledge enables to conceptualise relational marketing solely as new knowledge within the knowledge culture of the economy. Macro-sociology specifies societal structures that provide innovation and transfer of knowledge. The subsequent paragraphs outline most fundamentally in how far Russian marketing will progress due to implementation of the dual societal macro-structure, which consists of functional differentiation and global interrelation.In systems theory, socialism is not regarded as functional differentiation implemented at the national or, to put it differently, macro-level. Functional differentiation means that society as the largest all-embracing social system, subdivides into multiple function systems, for instance, economy, science, education, art, and sports. Further, functional differentiation requires that each function system works at a single societal problem exclusively and autonomously allowing for a distinct system specific binary code. For example, in the economic system that works at the basic societal problem of scarcity, all communication is oriented at the binary code of profitable/not profitable (in science true/not true, in the legal system legal/not legal a.s.o.). Differing from democracy that approves functional division and autonomy, in a socialist regime the political function system dominates all other function systems. By rules and ideologies politics represses politically non-congruent internal inventions and external global interrelations. As a consequence of low motivation, means, and options to self-organise and centre to raise profitability, marketing is unlikely to advance in an economically planned system.On the condition of functional differentiation, functional communication, such as purchase in the economy, publication in science, or victory within the system of sports, just as functional semantics, for instance, the paradigm of building relationships in marketing, will interrelate with other elements of the same specialisation all over the world. Functionally aligned communication cannot coherently interpret spatial difference (distance) as a difference in functional terms, cannot accept national and other territorial boundaries and will create worldwide interrelations to include all similar functional elements whether operative, structural, and semantic, into one global function system. Although the parallel and mutual sustained formation process of functional differentiation and global interrelation depended on maturation on the mental level as well as structural and technological achievements, communication concerned with a basic societal problem, such as to medicate in the health system, to inform in the system of mass media, and to educate in the educational system, is driven by nature to steadily further specialise and interrelate in order to raise productivity for society (and itself, at the micro- and meso-level).Hence, global interrelation as a second societal macro-structure is initiated and mastered by functional differentiation. Apart from functional differentiation on the macro-structural level, global interrelation requires varied midsize social structures which actively arrange things at the meso- and micro-level: formal organisation, epistemic community, social network, and social event (for these carriers of communication in world society, see almost all of Rudolf Stichweh's papers on world society, in particular Stichweh, 2003). On the basis of a coherence between levels of social structure and between social structure and semantics, the semantics of relational marketing is carried into the region of Russia within the four following function systems which predominantly control semantics in society:1. science as a general producer of semantics;2. education as a rather exclusive mediator of semantics;3. mass media as a more inclusive mediator of semantics; and4. in this paper economy as a specified producer of its own semantics.Global interrelation of Russian science, education, mass media, and economy advances the knowledge capacities of the Russian firm by more profound scientific marketing expertise received from academics and consultants of international associations or subsidiaries, higher qualified marketing staff and management possibly recruited from foreign schools and universities, and more extensive and significant technical data and news about the field of marketing obtained from globally interconnected information channels. Performance enhancement by global interrelation in the economy is twofold: The Russian firm observes and then imitates or modifies the more modern marketing practices of transnational competitors on the domestic and global market. Moreover, the Russian firm is engaged on foreign developed markets and locally adapts to the more modern marketing approaches practised in its new environment.Besides formal organisation, such as a research organisation in science, a school in education, a publishing house in the mass media, and a firm in the economy, global knowledge diffusion within function systems relies on two other types of meso-structures: epistemic community and network. Different from organisation which consists of continuous, stable, vertical-hierarchical, formalised, fully co-ordinated, and rather rigid structures, the latter two distinct social systems are marked by comparatively temporary, instable, horizontal-egalitarian, informal, ad hoc, and flexible structures. To differentiate between network and epistemic community, network is a more general phenomenon to classify as multidimensional interpersonal, intra-, and inter-organisational collaboration and pooling of resources. The sub-form of epistemic community identifies higher specialised and mostly intangible interpersonal exchange relations among experts.Because network and epistemic community establish relations of observation and communication across and beyond the official and authorised assignments and employment relations of formal organisation, three different, collateral and transversal layers of social structures realise knowledge diffusion in contemporary world society. Lastly, how to view and handle things might be transferred at the global level by events which bring together professionals and interested practitioners on the basis of interaction and co-presence. To sum up so far, based on technology and social structure the new knowledge concept of relationship marketing is carried to Russia by formal organisation, epistemic community, network, and event of the four relevant function systems: science, education, mass media, and economy.\nDiversification of relational practices: markets as local and social constructs: Whereas the first part of this paper presented Wagner's findings on contemporary marketing practices in Russia and the second part described several social structures of global knowledge diffusion improving the Russian firm's marketing, the third and last part is concerned with the restrictions to a global transmission and foreign local implementation of new ideas and instruments in marketing. Following neo-institutionalism and the argumentation of this paper until now, one could assume that the global spread and inter-regional circulation of knowledge would cause homogeneity in world society, such as in marketing any future firm applies the same communication techniques to consumers. Consequently, it should be noted that globalisation is not a development towards simple homogeneity in terms of one best practice implemented at the global level (defined as best practice by whom?).Considering initial and up to now basal systems theoretical assumptions, to fit into any local socio-cultural context, to be able to connect anywhere, to be valid and accepted, communication must be at least specialised (e.g. purchase in the economy, publication in science), generalised, and symbolised (e.g. money in the economy, grades in education). Above uniformity for compatibility and integration, still applying systems theory, social systems need and create variety. Similarly, globalisation relies on and raises both: homogeneity and heterogeneity. The global process and effect of homogeneity is usually referred to as pluralisation, heterogeneity as hybridisation. Pluralisation means a quantitative increase of knowledge concepts available at the local level, hybridisation a qualitative increase at the local and global level. In pluralisation, the globalised knowledge concept remains virtually unchanged. In hybridisation, the globalised knowledge concept acquires g-locally modified hybrid features.To apply to global marketing, regional, national, and local economic, political-legal, cultural, and infrastructural differences necessitate a verification and often modification, or rather hybridisation, of marketing strategy and measures for an adjustment to each market environment. Therefore, relational marketing, for instance, direct mail (direct and personalised postal offerings, samples, and consumer information), IT marketing (24-hour public information on the firm's web site), and mobile marketing (location and customer specific information services and entertainment by mobile phone) adopt a different shape and social meaning on markets of world society. As marketing peculiarities arise from market particularities, Wagner points to the following market circumstances that might explain a minor significance of marketing in general and dominance of traditional transactional marketing in Russia: unsuccessful economic-political history, poverty, high crime rate, reserved mentality, and fundamental mistrust.To neglect relational practices under the Russian market circumstances seems reasonable on psycho- and socio-economic grounds:* hierarchy of needs;* norms and values; and* expectations.Accounting for a priority of physical over social and mental needs (Abraham H. Maslow), relational marketing, as to individualised benefit, value added services, and club-membership, depends upon the Russian market to attain prosperity, maturity, and saturation. Since relational exchanges constitute a one-sided investment relying upon long-term equal profitability, relational marketing, as to customer retention and network, relies as well on norms and values of partnership, mutual activity, and generalised reciprocity that are not taken for granted in contemporary Russia. Overall, the implementation of customer relationship management is contingent on expectations of economic effectiveness, social appropriateness, and generalised expectancy having to be established in Russia: markets as social constructs (Harrison White).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to introduce a more basic macro-sociological approach to a discussion on the archaic marketing practices of the Russian firm as examined in the empirical research of Wagner.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - To show fundamental conditions for relationship marketing being implemented in Russia, the paper applies assumptions of sociology of knowledge, systems theory, world society theory, organisation theory, network theory, and economic sociology.\nFindings: - The paper argues that the global diffusion of relationship marketing first observed on mature Western markets, to a transitional economy such as Russia will depend on global interrelation by technology, formal organisation, epistemic community, network, and event within the four relevant function systems: science, education, mass media, and economy which primarily determine the knowledge capacities of the Russian firm.\nOriginality/value: - In this paper, relationship marketing is reduced to knowledge. Further, the paper pinpoints social structures that lead to global knowledge diffusion. Since the Contemporary Marketing Practices, University of Auckland, NZ approach is concrete rather than abstract, the paper contributes to analytical considerations of a paradigm shift from transactional to relational marketing in present transition economies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Consumer personality, attitudes and preferences in out-of-home contexts: The case of rose wine in Italy
|
[
"Marketing",
"Italy",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Latent class analysis",
"Alcoholic drinks",
"Personality",
"Choice experiment",
"Out-of-home contexts",
"Rosé wine"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the past decade, rose wine has attracted growing interest both among wine producers and consumers. Rose wine production makes up 8-10 per cent of wine production around the world, reaching 22.5 million hectolitres (hL) in 2016 (OIV, 2015; FranceAgriMer, 2017, 2018).\nLiterature review: Consumers' preferences and perceptions about rose wine\nMethods: Data\nResults: In our LCM estimation, we selected the optimal number of classes in accordance with the log likelihood function and Akaike information criteria statistics - the overall aim being segment parsimony. Based on these criteria, the results from the LCM suggest three classes (Table IV). Following Bazzani et al. (2017) and Grebitus et al. (2013), we incorporated the personality dimensions as mean-centred values by subtracting the overall mean from the personality scores of each individual so that the average personalities had a mean of zero. Conversely, in regard to attitudinal and socio-demographic information, we created dummy variables on the basis of the median value of the population (0 for the lower level and 1 for the higher level), except for the age variable, which was counted as a continuous variable. In terms of attitudinal variables, we included the frequency of visiting a wine bar or restaurant as a manipulation check for the latent preferences estimated in the model[2]. As Table IV shows, Class 3 was considered the reference class for the determination of the effect of individuals' characteristics.\nDiscussion and conclusions: Results from our study confirm our hypothesis that context plays a relevant role in consumers' rose wine choices. Indeed, the context variable was revealed as the one characterising the three groups of rose wine consumers. Moreover, our results provide evidence that personality traits significantly affect consumers' membership of the different segments. Those who prefer to drink a glass of rose at a wine bar are younger, more open to new experiences and, therefore, more inclined towards more sophisticated choices. In contrast, consumers at restaurants tend to be more extravert and may be more willing to share the experience of drinking rose with dining companions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to focus on consumers' preferences towards rose wine and explore whether and how the consumption context may influence consumers' choices.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using social networks platform, the authors conducted a choice experiment, to evaluate Italian consumers' preferences for a glass of rose in two consumption contexts, restaurant and wine bar. Characteristics of the rose wine also included price, origin and type of wine. The authors applied a latent class analysis to define rose wine consumers' segments and incorporated personality traits in the model.\nFindings: The results define three rose wine drinkers' profiles: \"Wine bar visitors\", \"The unenthusiastic\" and \"Restaurant visitors\". Socio-demographic characteristics and personality traits significantly affect consumers' membership to the different segments. Who prefers to drink a rose glass at the wine bar is younger, more opened to new experiences and, therefore, more inclined towards more sophisticated choices. Consumers at the restaurants tend to be more extrovert and sensitive to price.\nPractical implications: This study offers insight for practitioners of both wine and hospitality industries in the development of strategies for new products market placement and, at the same time, for academics who are interested in the understanding of behavioural reasoning of consumers' wine purchase choices.\nOriginality/value: This research investigates the effect of consumption context on individuals' preference formation for a less familiar wine, such as rose in Italy. To the authors' knowledge, no previous studies explored how personality traits may affect consumers' wine consumption context choices.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Futures research at the frontiers of mind
|
[
"Intuition",
"Intelligence",
"Epistemology",
"Forecasting"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Don't get so far ahead of the parade that nobody can see where you are (John Naisbitt, 2007, Mind Set).Only intuition, resting on sympathetic understanding can lead to these laws. The daily effort comes from no deliberate intention or program, but straight from the heart (Albert Einstein, quoted in Hart, 2000, p. 20).\nIntroduction: One day several decades ago, a young man walked into a public library. He wanted to find answers to some deep questions he had been asking himself about the nature of mind, cosmos and their relationship to modern physics. In those days there were no computers, and he did not have much of a liking for the card catalogue, so he did what he often did when he wanted to home in on some hard information. He began walking along the many shelves of books. He did not bother to look at the call numbers librarians had spent thousands of hours inscribing on the binding of the books. Instead, he just kept walking. Suddenly, he got the strong feeling he had been waiting for, stopped, reached out and grabbed a book from the shelf. The book was exactly what he needed, addressing the effect of human observation on experiments in quantum physics. It was that moment which launched Michael Talbot on a lifelong interest in the confluence between mysticism and what he called \"the new physics\" (Talbot, 1992, p. 137).What interests me about Talbot's tale, is not so much his beliefs about links between mysticism and physics, but the \"way of knowing\" he used to locate his data. Why did he not just use the card catalogue like everybody else? Was he just being lazy? The answer, according to Talbot, is that he often relied on his intuition, and a sense of feeling to find books in libraries. He felt that this was often a more reliable process than using conventional methods. He believed that he would be led to find the answer to the question he was posing.What would you do? Chances are you would head for the card catalogue, or the modern equivalent, the computer database. And that tells us something about the way our minds have been trained to think, and the ways of knowing that we have come to call \"normal\" in the modern world.Some will dismiss Talbot as a \"New Ager\", \"hippie\", or as simply deluded. Yet these terms relegate Talbot to the realm of the other, and effectively prevent us from asking \"why\" - and more importantly \"how\" - he used intuition to locate information in public libraries. In this way we as researchers remain confined within our comfort zones, and the boundaries to our knowledge are unconsciously maintained.In this paper I am going to push the boundaries, and bring us to the frontiers of mind - at least as defined in the modern western world. Below, I will outline five intuitive research tools which can be used by futurists (and others who may wish to use them). In Part 1 I will provide a theoretical background for my argument, and in Part 2 I will outline the tools, their potential applications, and relate them to cognitive modalities within the theory of integrated intelligence (Anthony, 2008a). Part 3 briefly addresses three issues you may face as you apply these kinds of tools to your research.The approach I recommend may be an affront to seasoned researchers. However, in the spirit of Postconventional Futures Studies, I will challenge the parameters of dominant discourse, and offer this paper as an act of \"dissent\" (Slaughter, 2006) - a deep challenge to prevailing methods and paradigms.\nPart 1: The theoretical perspective: Elsewhere I have argued for the legitimisation of intuitive ways of knowing in modern education (Anthony, 2005, 2008a, b). I have developed a theory of intelligence called integrated intelligence[1]. Integrated intelligence is the ability to successfully solve problems using a full repertoire of cognitive abilities, including intuition in its classical sense. Such intuition incorporates transpersonal cognitive potentials, and includes the capacity to work with the extended mind (Sheldrake, 2003), or consciousness that extends beyond the brain. So far, my work has been primarily theoretical and conceptual. What I did not outline so clearly is that there is a very practical side to integrated intelligence, and you do not need to be an Indian mystic or Uri Geller to use it.I have employed the tools extensively in my own research, including during the writing of my doctoral thesis. In this paper I am going to relate some of my experience in writing my doctoral thesis using these methods. This will include some excerpts from my study diary, which I kept at the time.The \"mystical\" components of integrated intelligence may lie beyond the comfort zones of some researchers. I simply suggest a suspension of disbelief as you try the methods yourself. I can report that the benefits are many, including making research more exciting, fluid, efficient, and of course, intuitive.Dean Radin (2008) states that only about 0.3 percent of university staff will publically admit to an interest in psi research. This is due to what he calls the \"psi taboo\". Integrated intelligence has obvious links with psi research, as the concept of extended mind is related to such psi phenomena as extra-sensory perception, clairvoyance, precognition, and so on. While there are transpersonal researchers who do employ related tools formally in their research (Hart et al., 2000), in the process I am suggesting here, the five tools are not formally incorporated into research methodology, but are background tools which enhance the research process.You do not have to have any specific belief in a classical interpretation of intuition to use these tools. It would help, however, to temporarily suspend doubt. After all, the suspension of doubt is the stance of the true skeptic, not a dogmatic insistence on a particular perspective, as Rupert Sheldrake (2003) has so often stated.I see integrated intelligence as a means of facilitating and enhancing other ways of knowing. It is not a means to do away with critical rationality or traditional research methods. May I suggest you begin with whichever of the tools you feel most comfortable. You can modify them according to your particular needs and preferences. I developed these tools through experimentation, and through adapting and modifying other people's ideas[2]. I continue to work and experiment with them. I invite you do the same.Here I will categorise the tools according the core operations of the theory of integrated intelligence, as outlined previously (Anthony, 2006, 2008a, b): integrated perception, location, diagnosis, evaluation, fore-sense, and creativity and innovation.The evolution of futures studies and intuitive ways of knowing\nPart 2: The five tools: While there are numerous ways of utilising intuitive thinking and integrated intelligence in the research process, in this introductory paper I am going to focus on just the five tools. They are the Intuitive Diary, Free-form Writing, Meditative States, The Feeling Sense. Below, I will briefly outline how you can use them in general. Then, under the specific core operations headings, you will find some other specific applications.Using an intuitive diary\nPart 3: final considerations: There are important issues you will face as you begin to develop more proficiency with using intuitive intelligence in your research.Should you tell others?\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The main purpose of this paper is to introduce futures researchers to simple and practical ways they can employ intuitive intelligence to enhance their research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The author outlines five specific intuitive tools which have been developed and are used regularly. The incorporation of these tools into the research process potentially makes research more efficient, meaningful and exciting. This paper contains a strong anecdotal component, to exemplify the processes. There is also a theoretical aspect. The author expands the mundane definition of intuition, and use it in the classical sense, where it incorporates the idea of the extended mind. This is referred to as \"integrated intelligence\". While this definition places it beyond generally accepted definitions of intuition found in modern psychology, it has a long tradition in the history of art, literature and science right through to the modern era. It is also consistent with recent experimental scientific evidence. Further, it fits well into recent developments in critical and post-conventional futures studies, where \"other ways of knowing\" are being increasingly legitimatised.\nFindings: - Intuitive intelligence can be used by futurists to make research more fluid, efficient and exciting\nResearch limitations/ implications: - The theory of integrated intelligence is a new theory and has not been tested. It lies beyond conventional approaches to research in the West\nOriginality/value: - This is a highly original and innovative approach which enhances research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Supply chain technology adoption in Malaysian automotive suppliers
|
[
"Supply chain management",
"Technology",
"Malaysia",
"Automotive industry",
"Advanced manufacturing technologies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The automotive sector is a key industry in the Malaysian economy. The economic contribution of this sector is immense, with significance linkages to the manufacturing and services sectors. Given the significant challenges facing the automotive industry, in particular globalization, liberalization and increasing competition, has resulted a considerable amount of pressure on Malaysian manufacturers to shorten time to market, increase customer service levels, provide higher level of conformance and quality, and offer more variety in product lines. Manufacturers must enhance their resilience to remain competitive domestically and identify new potential for exploiting the ASEAN market, as well as the global market at large. In order to achieve these aims, coping with supply chain technology (SCT) appears to be necessity. This is inline with Levary (2000), Byrd and Davidson (2003) and Power (2006) who described the potential benefits of implementing SCT in the supply chain management (SCM). SCT is found as a tool which is not only to improve the effectiveness and efficiencies of the operations but also act as a competitive weapon to the organization strategy. Furthermore, analysts and industry observers also viewed that SCT is critical to reduce costs and enhance the competitiveness of automotive players, especially those competing with countries in the region with a lower production cost (Ravendran, 2002). Currently, factors that facilitate the adoption of SCT by Malaysian automotive suppliers are still not clear. In order to encourage the growth and widespread adoption of SCT amongst suppliers of automotive manufacturers in Malaysia, the identification and analysis of factors that affect the adoption of SCT should be identified.This study reviewed the literature to determine factors affecting SCT adoption at the implementation stage by Malaysian automotive suppliers and to construct some hypotheses. This paper will cover and discuss three important factors which include organizational structure, supply chain member pressure and organizational size. Owing to an argument among these three factors from previous study, so there is a need to scrutinize into these factors. The paper also examines the factors that positively affect SCT adoption and investigate the relationships between all these three variables. Data were collected from the Malaysian automotive suppliers using a set of questionnaire. The results obtained from this study, provide some directions and guidelines to Malaysian automotive suppliers companies upon adopting or implementing SCT.1.1 The importance of SCT in SCM context\n2 Conceptual development: This study will covers three important factors which include organizational and external factors such as organizational structure, supply chain member pressure and organizational size. It is chosen because there is an argument among these three factors, so there is a need to scrutinize this factor. According to King and Gribbins (2002), the issue of technology adoption has primarily focused on the understanding of individual behaviours rather than the adoption behaviour of an entire organization. As a new technology may require new infrastructure and nascent skills that are beyond individual control, it becomes necessary for researchers to investigate the factors that affect technology adoption for an entire organization. In addition, Russell and Hoag (2004) cited that organizational complexity is an area of increasing importance in SCM. However, to date, it has received minimal coverage amongst researchers. This study will therefore look at the organizational adoption of a considerable number of SCT and will focus on the organization complexity particularly the size and decentralize organizational structure. This study has resolved the gap by testing all these three factors on the adoption of SCT by Malaysian automotive suppliers. Figure 1 shows a theoretical framework of factors that affect the adoption of SCT.2.1 Organizational structure\n3 Methodology: 3.1 Design of instrument\n4 Results and analysis: Table IV presents the types of SCT adopted by the 73 organizations. Out of 15 SCT listed, CAD is the most prevalent SCT adopted by over 100 percent of the organizations. This is followed by bar-coding technology adopted by 94.5 percent of the organizations. 90.4 percent of the respondents reported the adoption of DFM in their operations. This is followed by PDM and WMS (87.7 percent), AQC (86.3 percent), TMS and e-commerce (84.9 percent), CRM (83.6 percent), ERP (82.2 percent), SCP (79.5 percent), MES and SCE (78.1 percent) and GCTS (37 percent). However, the least technology used is RF (27.4 percent). There are no missing cases in this distribution.From the results obtained, CAD technology is most frequently adopted by the respondents and is the only technology in the complete data set with 100 percent responses by organizations reported to have adopted it. CAD systems are generally stand-alone design tools that are used to design everything from parts to tools and fixtures. Therefore, CAD systems would be expected to be more applicable to suppliers because they manufacture auto-parts or tools to supply to automotive manufacturers. In addition, CAD is one of the matured technologies and it is cheaper than the other technologies (Patterson et al., 2003). Typically, RF is found to be the least technology to be adopted by the suppliers in Malaysia. The result suggests that this is a newer technology compared to other technology in Malaysia and it has not yet been widely adopted by most organizations. RF is more complex and requires significant investment compared to the others SCT in the study. These findings of lower adoption rates support Ream's (1998) contention that RF is less prominent than other technology. This could be due to its high-initial cost.4.1 Hypotheses testing\n5 Discussions: This study has examined three important factors affecting SCT adoption by Malaysian automotive suppliers namely decentralize organizational structure, organizational size and supply chain members' pressure. Based on the conducted analysis, three factors were found to be significant with SCT adoption.5.1 Organizational structure\n6 Practical implications and conclusions: This research was empirically examined all the three variables which are organizational structure, organizational size and supply chain member pressure. These factors were chosen because there was an ambiguous result on the previous study. Consequently, this research expands the emerging theory in technology adoption among organization particularly in developing countries such as Malaysia, which focuses on the SCM technologies.The findings showed that these two independent variables are highly significant with the SCT adoption. Additionally, on examination of the individual criterion (t-value), it indicated that decentralize organizational structure and supply chain member significantly affected the SCT adoption. Hence, it was found that decentralized organizational structures were found to have the greatest impact on the SCT adoption.Another important finding in this study was the status of the SCT adopted by Malaysian automotive suppliers. Based on the high percentage of organizations that have already adopted SCT, it appears that Malaysian automotive suppliers are moving forward to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their operations. According to Patterson et al. (2004), innovative technologies facilitate the transfer of more accurate and up-to date information, with results of better visibility of demand and inventory throughout the supply chain. As such, SCT is the nerve of modern SCM. Out of 15 SCT listed in this study, CAD appears as the most frequently adopted technology with 100 percent responses. Typically, radio frequency identification systems (RFID) was found to be the least technology adopted by the suppliers which corresponds to only 27.4 percent responses.It is believed that SCT adoption is crucial and important for organizational success. Therefore, future research investigating the impact of SCT adoption on organizational performance will substantiate these claims and may also be able to provide additional knowledge about how to maximize the potential benefits of the technologies. For example, the stages in the adoption of SCT involved in this study concentrated only on the implementation stage. Future research should investigate the other five stages in the adoption process which include awareness, persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation (Premkumar and Roberts, 1999) which could differently influence the adoption in the other stages. In addition, behavioural variables such as user acceptance, organizational culture, and norms may contribute to SCT adoptions are not addressed in this study. Further research at the individuals' level of analysis could provide important insights about user influences.It is also recommended that comparative studies between different industries should be conducted in future, in order to determine if there are significant differences amongst the industries. A similar study could be conducted involving more industries types which are involved directly with SCM to determine if these and other factors influence the adoption of SCT.In conclusion, the findings obtained in this study can be a guide for managerial practice and supply chain practitioners to adopt SCT for future undertakings. Moreover, it is hoped that this study could provide a platform for researchers and academicians to conduct research in the area of supply chain, SCM and technology adoption in Malaysia.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to identify the relevance of technology adoption factors and to explore how it can influence suppliers of automotive manufacturers to adopt the supply chain technology (SCT) within their organisations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An empirical survey of Malaysian's automotive supplier was conducted to study those factors and also their relationship to the types of technologies being adopted. Data were collected using mail questionnaires which were sent to suppliers of two leading national automotive manufacturers. Out of 122, a total of 73 respondents were used for the purpose of the study. The study tested three hypotheses in data analysis.\nFindings: - The results of the analysis confirm that three identified factors namely; organisational structure, organisational size and supply chain member pressure have a positive relationship with the SCT adoption. The analysis shows these three hypotheses have been supported and satisfied the identified gaps.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Further research shall be carried out to explore and comprehend the impact of SCT adoption on organisational performance. In addition, future research should also investigate the impact of SCT adoption in other stages of the adoption process.\nPractical implications: - The proposed framework provides important insights into the key factors, which enable managers or supply chain practitioners to gain better understanding of these factors impacting SCT adoptions.\nOriginality/value: - Up to now, there are neither detailed studies focusing on the identification of SCT adoption factors in Malaysia environment nor studies that try to look at the organisational adoption of a considerable number of SCT.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Interpreting the world across a boundary : The evolution of information from life's first decisions to the information society
|
[
"Behaviour",
"Communication",
"Evolution",
"Information",
"Information society",
"Biology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent years there has been growing interest in the idea of applying evolutionary ideas to information science. Much of this interest has concentrated on the evolution of humanity and cognition (e.g. Spink, 2010), but some has had a wider focus (Bates, 2005) and has explored the origins of information in \"deep time\" (Bawden, 2007). This paper also takes a wider perspective than the merely human. It revisits ideas that I proposed ten years ago concerning the association between information and life (Madden, 2004) and attempts to develop them further.\nSummary of arguments: The arguments presented in this paper can be summarised as follows:\nBoundaries as a prerequisite to life: Erwin Schrodinger (1992), in a series of lectures given in Dublin in 1944, addressed the question \"What is Life\". Rather than trying to define life, however, he tackled the question by considering what it is that living things do that that makes them discernibly alive. Organisms, he argued distinguish themselves from non-living entities by their ability to maintain levels of entropy within themselves that are significantly lower than those of their surroundings. In other words, something that is alive stores energy in forms that make that energy available for use. To preserve its energy stores, every organism needs to separate its internal from its external environment. It therefore requires some form of boundary.\nEvolved information: In a review of concepts of information, Robinson and Bawden (2014), consider a binary divide between \"those domains in which information is treated as something objective, quantitative, and mainly associated with data, and those in which it is treated as subjective, qualitative, and mainly associated with knowledge, meaning, and understanding\".\nThe cost of living: If life is to continue, it must solve the problem of surviving for long enough to produce viable offspring. Numerous solutions to this problem have evolved, but they all need energy.\nBoundary 1: the cell membrane: The first decisions\nBoundary 2: an outer skin: Delegation\nBoundary 3: social boundaries: Communication and negotiation\nBoundary 4: cultural boundaries: As has been argued above, all organisms change their environment and these changes are potentially informative. Not all such changes though, are attempts to communicate.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between information and boundaries. Life depends on boundaries; but in order to survive an organism needs to make decisions based on an interpretation of the environment beyond its boundaries: it therefore needs information.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper explores the evolution of physical, social and cultural boundaries and considers how they have shaped ways in which information is gathered and used.\nFindings: Several evolutionary developments are reviewed. The paper argues that each one has generated an additional boundary and that each new boundary has affected the information needs within it. The paper argues that all living things use information to help address three fundamental concerns: \"Where can the energy needed to stay alive be found?\", \"How can it be stored?\", and \"How can use of energy be reduced?\" Because these questions are fundamental at a biological level they are also fundamental at a societal level. One way to increase energy efficiency was for organisms to grow larger. This brought risks which were alleviated by the evolution of better information gathering and processing tools. Amongst these tools were the means to communicate, which afforded the evolution of social boundaries.\nOriginality/value: This is a new perspective on a topic of growing interest in information science and demonstrates further the significance of information as a factor in the shaping of life.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Job characteristics, employee well-being, and job performance of public sector employees in Malaysia
|
[
"Job performance",
"Malaysia",
"Public sector organizations",
"Employee well-being",
"Job characteristics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since the early 1980s, the Malaysian Government has embarked on several administrative reforms aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of public service delivery (Boyne et al., 2006; Siddiquee, 2006, 2014). The first wave of reform, the New Public Management (NPM), was introduced in 1981-2005 to make public organizations much more business-like or market-oriented (Diefenbach, 2009; Siddiquee, 2006, 2014). To ensure more accountability, the second wave of reform, called the Government Transformation Program (GTP), took place in 2009 in which seven National Key Results Areas (NKRA) were identified as areas of priorities for change. Each NKRA was assigned clear targets and measurable outcomes to facilitate performance assessment at various levels (Siddiquee, 2014). However, despite the changes, the performance of public sector organizations as a whole in Malaysia was still lagging. The competitiveness ranking (Global Competitiveness Report, 2010-2014; IMD World Competitiveness Report, 2015) saw Malaysia's ranking declined from 12th place in 2013 to 14th place in 2014.\nLiterature review: Job characteristics and job performance\nMethod: Sample and data collection procedure\nResults: Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was used to test the theoretically supported relationship purported to exist between employee well-being and job performance. Chin and Newsted (1999) proposed that PLS-SEM is a useful technique to analyze a complex research model, such as one in this study that has five independent variables, one mediator and one dependent variable. Before this technique of analysis was used, data were screened for the accuracy of the data input and outlier detection using the procedure suggested by Tabachnick and Fidell (2007).\nDiscussion: We tested the structural relationships between job characteristics, employee well-being, and job performance. Of five job characteristics, we found empirical support for the indirect effect of feedback on job performance through employee well-being. Our finding indicates that jobs that provide adequate feedback would enable PSEs to function well, resulting in better job performance. The result appears to be consistent with Hackman and Oldham's (1975, 1980) supposition that the more knowledge the employees have of how well they have performed in their job, the better their overall work experience and functioning at work, leading to enhanced job performance. Employee well-being reflects the positive attitudinal state that is manifested in favorable behavioral outcomes related to performance (Wright et al., 2007; Wright and Hobfoll, 2004).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the structural relationships between the job itself (i.e. job characteristics), employee well-being and job performance in light of the new administrative reform called the Government Transformation Program in Malaysia that stresses on measurable performance outputs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 208 public sector employees from various public agencies and departments in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia were surveyed. Some of the agencies that took part in the study include state departments, the fishery department, agriculture-related agencies and the rural development agency.\nFindings: The authors observed that feedback positively influenced employee well-being, which served as a significant mediator in the relationship between feedback and job performance. The results indicated that 26.4 percent of the variance that explained employee well-being was accounted for by the different characteristics of a job. The authors also demonstrated that employee well-being accounted for 41.8 percent of job performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors recommended that public sector managers consider the element of feedback and enhance employee well-being to improve job performance.\nOriginality/value: This study offers an insight into the effect of perceived changes in the job itself on employee well-being and subsequent job performance in light of government reforms.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Content trends in sustainable business education: an analysis of introductory courses in the USA
|
[
"Management education",
"Sustainability management",
"Sustainable business",
"Curriculum",
"Strong sustainability",
"Weak sustainability"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In a recent \"Sustainability across the Curriculum\" workshop sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), the participants represented a cross-disciplinary collection of faculty from across any campus. The critical question on each participant's mind was what to teach. Participants yearned for guidance on specific content.\nSustainability defined: Sustainability is a normative view of how we interact with nature, others and future generations in our efforts to endure. Sustainability is defined as the integration of economic, environmental and social concerns (Elkington, 1994, 1997). Mihelcic et al. (2003) suggest that sustainability is a meta-discipline that combines and integrates knowledge from multiple disciplines to achieve a common goal of economic, environmental and social objectives. Brinkman (2014) goes on to suggest that sustainability is the first postmodern discipline of our time:\nSustainability in business: There are many related concepts used interchangeably in the business literature (i.e. corporate social responsibility, corporate sustainability, corporate sustainability and responsibility), which leads to multiple interpretations of sustainability as it applies to business. Sustainability generally addresses justice and equity related to the economy, environment and society. A defining characteristic of business sustainability is that all definitions share three common core concepts: generation of both company and societal value, balance of competing interests and accountability for corporate activities (Schwartz and Carroll, 2008). Schwartz and Carroll (2008) suggest that, taken together, the three core concepts of value, balance and accountability reflect the normative role of business in society. Thus, sustainable business is the pursuit of economic, environmental and social justice and equity while providing value, balance and accountability.\nSustainability in management education: In higher education, the Chronicle for Higher Education listed \"sustainability\" as one of the top five emerging majors in 2009 (Fischer and Glenn, 2009), and it continues to rank among the hottest majors that lead to jobs (Gandel, 2013). The interest in sustainability education has continued to grow. The AASHE database currently contains 1,452 sustainability-focused academic programs at 476 campuses in six countries:\nMethodology: As education for sustainable business is still in its infancy, first, this study sought to identify if there is any consensus among faculty and schools on what reading material should be assigned in an introductory sustainable business course. Second, this study sought to understand if assigned readings were more closely aligned with strong or weak sustainability along the sustainability spectrum. To answer these research questions, it was determined that a review and compilation of reading lists of introductory sustainable business courses would answer the first question regarding reading content, and a keyword analysis of the assigned readings would answer the second question regarding sustainability orientation.\nResults: In total, 51 US universities are represented in the data set (representing 6 certificate programs; 16 undergraduate programs; 1 executive education program; 32 master's programs; 1 PhD program). Within the 51 US universities, 81 introductory sustainable business courses were identified. Note that some universities have multiple programs that met the selection criteria. Therefore, the total number of sustainable business courses exceeds the 51 USA universities in the data set. The number of readings included from the US universities is 88.\nDiscussion and implications: This study focused on the reading lists of introductory sustainable business courses to determine content, specifically seeking to identify early consensus on readings in the field. The results found limited agreement on what readings should be assigned. Further analysis allowed placement of the readings into stages of corporate sustainability (Landrum, 2015a, 2015b), which corresponds with the sustainability spectrum. The sustainability spectrum allows us to see the variety of orientations toward sustainability that range from weak to strong. The reading list of the sample was also reflective of a variety of orientations toward sustainability, and it was found that the readings cover the full sustainability spectrum in their orientation.\nLimitations and future directions: Because this study was intended to be descriptive in nature, there are several limitations. First, the reading lists represented by this sample are by no means a complete list of all introductory sustainable business courses being offered. There are several reasons for this. In some cases, subject content is taught under the realm of another program, such as leadership, ethics or others. In other cases, courses may have only focused on one of the three realms of sustainability (such as social issues in business or environmental management), which, by definition, meant that these courses were not sustainability courses. Last, several schools that were contacted would not share their reading lists because they viewed the information as proprietary.\nConclusion: There is growing pressure from both inside and outside academia to incorporate sustainability into business school curriculum. Many schools have begun to offer sustainable business courses for certificates, minors, majors, tracks, concentrations, degrees and executive education. Given the rapid growth of sustainable business education in recent years, this study sought to determine if a consensus is emerging on publications that all students of sustainable business should read and also sought to determine the orientation toward sustainability (weak versus strong) that is being advance in reading assignments.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to identify the content in introductory business sustainability courses in the USA to determine the most frequently assigned reading material and its sustainability orientation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 81 introductory sustainable business course syllabi reading lists were analyzed from 51 US colleges and universities. The study utilized frequency counts for authors and readings and R analysis of key words to classify readings along the sustainability spectrum.\nFindings: The study reveals the most frequently assigned authors and readings in US sustainable business courses (by program type) and places them along the sustainability spectrum from weak to strong. In total, 55 per cent of the top readings assigned in the sample advocate a weak sustainability paradigm, and 29 per cent of the top readings advocate a strong sustainability paradigm.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study focused on reading lists of introductory courses in the USA; cases, videos and supplemental materials were excluded, and the study does not analyze non-US courses.\nPractical implications: The findings of this study can inform instructors of the most commonly assigned authors and readings and identify readings that align with weak sustainability and strong sustainability. Instructors are now able to select sustainable business readings consistent with peers and which advance a weak or strong sustainability orientation.\nOriginality/value: This is the first research to identify the most commonly assigned authors and readings to aid in course planning. This is also the first research to guide instructors in identifying which readings represent weak versus strong sustainability.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Using attribution to foster public support for alternative policies to combat obesity
|
[
"Gender",
"Public policy",
"Obesity",
"Attribution"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The incidence of obesity has more than doubled worldwide over the past 30 years and is now a major public health concern across Western nations (WHO, 2014). Consequently, public policymakers at all levels of government have considered a wide range of interventions aimed at reversing this trend. These have met with mixed success. Part of the problem lies in the fact that the causes of obesity are complex and multifaceted with interplay between factors such as epigenetics, biological appetite regulation, social norms, food and lifestyle marketing, economic policies and commercial business systems (Goldberg and Gunasti, 2007). Given the complex aetiology, a range of alternative policy interventions that place relative emphasis on different contributing factors have been proposed (Grier and Davis, 2013; Seiders and Petty, 2004). This combination of mixed success and complex set of causes creates uncertainty in how best to tackle the challenge amongst policymakers.\nAttributions and policy support: The majority of the American public ascribes individual factors as the prevailing cause of obesity (Lusk and Ellison, 2013). These factors include lack of physical activity (Okonkwo and While, 2010), overeating (Hilbert et al., 2007) and lack of willpower (Oliver and Lee, 2005). However, other factors have also been implicated. Genetics are increasingly identified as a significant cause of obesity (Oliver and Lee, 2005). There are also moderate levels of agreement that the food environment and self-interested behaviour by the food industry are an important cause of obesity (Barry et al., 2009; Beeken and Wardle, 2013).\nMethod: Responses were collected from 233 US men and women through MTurk. Each respondent was randomly assigned to read one of four \"articles\" framing the causes of obesity as either internal or external and as controllable or uncontrollable: Individual choices (Internal/Controllable), Genes (Internal/Uncontrollable), Business (External/Controllable) and Modern Society (External/Uncontrollable). Each article was similar in length, structure, formatting, ordering of arguments and the level of persuasiveness (see Appendix available online for the stimuli articles)[1].\nResults: Sample validation\nDiscussion: We find a striking gender difference in the ability to use attribution framing to influence the support for various types of policy intervention. Alternative framing of the causes of obesity has no effect on policy support amongst women, but has significant influence on support amongst men. This difference may be due to women holding their views on obesity more firmly than men. The attitude change literature consistently finds that more strongly held attitudes are more resistant to influence (Clarkson et al., 2013). Our evidence of a lack of manipulation effect for women is consistent with women being less open to influence because their views on the causes of obesity are more strongly held. Women's more firmly held attitudes are likely a function of their higher preoccupation with weight. The pursuit of thinness as a cultural ideal is more strongly socialised into women (Silberstein et al., 1988). Society judges women more frequently and more harshly for their deviation from the thin ideal (Brumberg, 1998). There is extensive evidence that women are penalised more for being overweight than men across a range of contexts including employment, educational attainment, romantic relationships, physical and mental health care and media portrayals (Fikkan and Rothblum, 2012). The higher cost of obesity for women makes understanding its causes more personally relevant, which leads to more strongly held beliefs through more extensive elaboration and chronic activation (Kokkinaki and Lunt, 1999). This high self-relevance strengthens women's attitudes and makes them more resistant to influence from the alternative frames (Bassili, 1996). While our results are consistent with women's support being less easily influenced due to more strongly held attitudes about the causes of obesity, they do not allow a direct test of this explanation. In the next section, we describe a follow-up study to test whether women are more confident in their views of the causes of obesity than men to test the validity of our reasoning.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: An increasing array of policies have been suggested to combat rising obesity. Regardless of the policy intervention that is selected each comes with a cost in the form of imposition on the public purse, or regulative restrictions on business or individuals. Consequently, potential opposition makes it critical to garner sufficient public support for whichever policy is selected. The purpose of this paper is to explore the ability of attributional framing for the causes of obesity (framed around locus of control and controllability) to increase support for a range of policy interventions designed to reduce obesity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using an online panel, the authors manipulate the perceived cause of obesity along the internal/external locus and controllability/uncontrollability dimensions to assess whether attribution of causes of obesity can influence support for policy interventions that either encourage positive behaviour or discourage negative behaviour.\nFindings: The authors find that framing the causes of obesity to emphasise internal/external locus and controllability/uncontrollability has significant and predictable effects on policy support for men but not for women. In this American study, they show that men are more open to persuasion because their views on the causes of obesity are less firmly held than women.\nPractical implications: Highlighting the external and controllable causes of obesity was the most effective, suggesting that emphasising the role of the food industry in obesity can garner public support amongst males for a broad range of policy types. The limited effectiveness with women suggests that media focus be directed at male-oriented channels and outlets.\nOriginality/value: The authors show that, at least amongst men, attribution framing can be used as a tool to increase support for policy interventions to prevent obesity.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Applying loss aversion to investigate service quality in logistics: A moderating effect of service convenience
|
[
"Loss",
"Customer services quality",
"Distribution management",
"Delivery services",
"Customer loyalty"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: In general, enterprises agree that a competitive advantage can be derived from an excellent logistics service which accurately meets customers' requirements and responds to them in a consistent manner (Esper et al., 2007). Home delivery is becoming increasingly popular for several reasons:* sellers can provide additional advantages to customers; for example, in the case of stock being sold out, home delivery service (HDS) avoids customers making visits to other stores;* the size or weight of goods may make it difficult for customers to carry by themselves; and* the speed and convenience of internet and TV shopping.Owing to the convenience of such services, the need for HDSs is increasing, and HDS can be a value-added service additionally provided by sellers.Mentzer and Williams (2001) found that logistics excellence has a significant impact on revenue and profitability from case studies such as Dell. The survey results in Green et al. (2008) indicated that neither the supply chain management strategy nor logistics performance directly impact financial performance, but both of them positively impact marketing performance, which in turn positively impacts financial performance. In summary, HDSs could be expanded to become one of the principal customized sorts of logistics services.Up to now, the issues of service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty have received much attention in the research on service management (Parasuraman et al., 1985; Cronin et al., 2000; Chandrashekaran et al., 2007). These researchers assumed that the relationships investigated in their studies are linear, by using smooth or differentiable curves. Specifically, the \"sudden change\" in the slopes of functions representing the relationships between the above dimensions and the asymmetric response were not considered. Additionally, the core of these studies has been relevant to the relationships among and between the above dimensions. Even if these authors' efforts have empowered us to better understand the interrelationships and have led to implications of great value to the industry, the interest in probing into customers' minds thoroughly has continued to grow over time, due to the competitive circumstances and changing needs of customers.Suzuki and Tyworth (1998) showed that a linear relationship may not be valid, and it can be improved by using non-smooth functions to represent the relationship. According to the contrast theory, when a gap between product received and product expected exists, customers magnify the difference (Cardozo, 1965). Provided that the gap is positive (i.e. product received is more valuable than product expected), customers are satisfied and obtain a gain. On the contrary, customers sense a loss in the case of a negative gap. In addition, humans are generally loss averse.Loss aversion may be conceived of as an explanatory construct when examining behavioral decisions. Regarding the analysis of decision-making under risk, loss aversion is viewed as an ingredient of prospect theory (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979; Tversky and Kahneman, 1992). Further, loss aversion has been used to interpret how and why riskless choices may rely on consumers' original psychological status. Loss aversion may play an essential role in behavioral intentions. Until now, relatively few studies (Lin et al., 2008; Suzuki et al., 2001) have applied loss aversion to assess the asymmetric response effect of behavioral intention on service quality.Owing to the greater value now placed on time, customers are pursuing products and services which can save time and provide increased comfort (Brown, 1990). The demand for HDS is also motivated by the desire for a more comfortable lifestyle, reflected in the growth of foodservices, groceries and convenience stores. Convenience of services is acknowledged to be quite critical to customers. Berry et al. (2002) indicated that perception of service convenience will impact the customers' overall evaluation of services, including satisfaction, perceived service quality, and fairness. Similarly, Colwell et al. (2008) proved that service convenience positively and significantly influences overall satisfaction. Keaveney (1995) also demonstrated that convenience has positive implications for perceived value to customers, and customer loyalty. Consequently, the greater the time saving associated with a service that marketers can provide, the greater the satisfaction and loyalty that customers will have. As described above, the evidence that service convenience is an antecedent of satisfaction and loyalty has been verified. However, service convenience can also have a moderating effect on the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty.In short, this paper attempts to uncover and analyse the service quality of home delivery by introducing the concept of loss aversion, and to examine the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty if it is moderated by service convenience. Furthermore, this paper also provides insights into the moderating effect of service convenience, whether in the service quality loss (SQLOSS)-customer loyalty link, or the service quality gain (SQGAIN)-customer loyalty link, or both.The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. Section 2 reviews and discusses the literature and theoretical background. The research model (research framework) and hypotheses of this paper are proposed as an outcome of the literature review and as an extension of it. The research methodology is presented in Section 3. Section 4 analyses and presents the survey results. The main findings and managerial implications are, respectively, presented in Sections 5 and 6. Finally, Section 7 draws conclusions and points out the limitations of this study, with proposed future research directions.\n2 Theoretical background and hypotheses: 2.1 The effect of asymmetric service quality response on customer loyalty\n3 Research methodology: 3.1 Data collection\n4 Empirical analysis and results: This study uses LISREL 8.54 as the SEM tool to test the research model, and SPSS 14.0 to analyze the data including descriptive statistics and reliability.4.1 Test for non-response bias\n5 Findings: 5.1 Findings for asymmetric response effect of service quality\n6 Managerial implications: If HDS providers want to improve customer loyalty, then they have to further ameliorate service quality. We also realize that loss aversion is a common psychological trait, which has implications for various facets of our daily life. This phenomenon is well established, and has been studied extensively in different domains (Kahneman and Tversky, 2000). Besides, when customers' knowledge of and involvement in the provided services are high, loss aversion will be more likely to occur, because they will be more conscious of the benefit which is derived from the provided services (Fogel et al., 2004). In addition, we also emphasize that the level of loss aversion can vary across contexts and levels of customers' experience. Hence, for HDS providers, it is critical to frequently manage and supervise the process of service delivery in order to avoid service failure as much as possible.Although the occurrence of service failure is difficult to avoid in the service industry, implementation of service recovery is quite important to HDS providers, as it turns dissatisfied customers into loyal ones. We realize that service failure happens in service encounters, which results in customer dissatisfaction (Colgate and Norris, 2001). Service failure may occur at any part of the service process, since the consumption and production of services take place at the same time. Types of perceived service failure include slow service, unavailable services, and errors in delivery (Bitner et al., 1990). The goal of \"zero defects\" is not attainable in the service industry because mistakes in services are unavoidable (Hart et al., 1990). By failing to implement its promises, the relationship of trust of service providers and customers will be undermined (Gronroos, 1990). Therefore, it would be better to train employees to have the skills, motivation, and authority for service recovery. A good failure recovery can convert angry, dissatisfied, and disappointed customers to loyal ones. Additionally, service failure recovery is an activity of quality improvement to regain unhappy customers. The service recovery may increase costs; however, it can be viewed as an opportunity to improve service quality and make more customers satisfied (Firnstahl, 1989). Thus, this paper also suggests that HDS providers should make serious efforts in service failure recovery.What is more, this paper has proved that service convenience has a positive and significant moderating effect on the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty. Consequently, customers' perception of time and effort spent can have a noteworthy impact on what they consider convenient (Berry et al., 2002). The more time and effort customers spend in securing the provision of services or dealing with errors in service delivery, the more their intention to switch to other service providers. This leads to the lowering of customer loyalty. To avoid wasting customers' time spent waiting, HDS providers should clearly specify closing time and delivery time, and identify for customers the most convenient service stations. Additionally, in order to help customers quickly and easily complete order forms (delivery documents), in addition to frontline employees offering clear instructions, the documents can explicitly show required fields in advance. For internet shopping, HDS services providers can improve transaction convenience by offering prompt pickup and delivery, and various payment options such as online payment and credit card payment. E-commerce poses special challenges for businesses, as it makes it more difficult for enterprises to maintain proprietary services, and switching costs in e-commerce are likely to lower those of traditional business (Yang et al., 2006). Therefore, service quality is an even more critical success factor in e-commerce.In Taiwan's HD industry, because there are many service stations, including self-owned stations and joint convenience stores, the brand identification and the customers' perception of convenience are extremely high. Consequently, customers rarely transfer from the most frequently picked service provider from year to year, and also recommend their favorites to others on their own initiative. Berry et al. (2002) mentioned that not only does convenience influence service quality, but service quality also influences convenience. This means customers have confidence in companies' service quality because they have experienced easy decisions in the past. That is, when customers experience convenient service, they are more likely to perceive the service as being more excellent than competitors', such that their loyalty will increase. However, because many services necessitate participation by customers, access convenience is critical to service providers. Service providers can improve access convenience by providing self-service technologies or allowing customers to pay online. Next, because customers have to assign additional time and effort resources to restart contact with companies after a service encounter, post-benefit convenience is also crucial (Berry et al., 2002). For example, in the case of service failure, this is not expected for HDS providers. Post-benefit inconvenience may result in more time and cost spent by customers to make contact with HDS providers. In addition, customers have an aversion to delivery uncertainty. Therefore, a convenient and accurate delivery tracking system is of importance to them. Service convenience increases customer satisfaction and loyalty as well as the profits of the HDS providers through the effect of word-of-mouth.In summary, service convenience can be regarded as a successful policy for maintaining present customers and appealing to potential customers. Also, in order to enhance customer loyalty, the foremost thing that HD managers should do is to train their employees to fully satisfy the customers' needs and wants, and thereby to earn customers' trust. Additionally, according to Table I, HDS providers can improve their services based on the five dimensions of the SERVQUAL scale, respectively.\n7 Limitations and future research: We have made our best efforts to minimize limitations in the study, but some still need to be addressed. To begin with, providers have different service attributes in service industries. Additionally, customers may have different preferences in the decision-making process. Hence, the asymmetric response of behavioral intention to service quality may be different among various service industries, and this could limit the generality of our findings. Consequently, future empirical studies on other service industries would be useful to further validate the loss aversion effect of customers in the area of service quality.Next, because of the difficulties in establishing contact between the package deliverers and recipients in the study sample, the execution of the questionnaire does not follow a before-and-after approach. That is, this study has measured the expectations and overall perceptions of the respondents at the same time. Carman (1990) indicated that expectation and perception measures could not both be administered at the same time; however, it is difficult to do that. The measurement in this paper is designed to obtain the overall perceived service quality of customers based on the usage experience within a one-year period, but not on one usage. Thus, future studies can try to utilize a two-phase approach to collect the data from the service users, in which the expectation section is performed in advance of their using HDSs, and then with the perception phase following their receipt of services.The results of this paper may not fully represent the expectations, perceptions and behaviors of the whole population in Taiwan or other countries. Future research can look at whether the findings of this paper hold for middle-aged and elderly people or in different countries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Using the concept of loss aversion, this paper aims to investigate the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty in the home delivery industry. The second purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating effect of service convenience in the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty. Furthermore, this paper attempts to demonstrate the existence of a moderating effect either on the service quality loss (SQLOSS)-customer loyalty link, or on the service quality gain (SQGAIN)-customer loyalty link, or on both.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In this paper, the research model and hypotheses are constructed through a literature review. Data are collected by a questionnaire survey, and the adapted SERVQUAL scale is taken as the measurement instrument. Structural equation modeling is adopted to confirm the above relationships.\nFindings: - From the results come the finding that a loss in service quality has a greater effect on customer loyalty than that of a SQGAIN in the home delivery industry. This paper also proves that the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty is moderated by service convenience.\nOriginality/value: - This paper demonstrates the effect of asymmetric response of service quality on customer loyalty.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Transformational leadership and contextual performance: Role of integrity among Indian IT professionals
|
[
"Transformational leadership",
"Integrity",
"India",
"Contextual performance",
"IT professionals"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In every organization, managers expect their employees to be more involved in their work, to be positively engaged in the pursuit of a common goal and to exert extra effort than what is specified in their job description. In a nutshell, managers desire their employees to go the proverbial extra mile and not restrict themselves to the formal job roles and responsibilities (Borman and Motowidlo, 1993; Motowidlo and Van Scotter, 1994; Van Scotter and Motowidlo, 1996). These extra role behaviors which are not formally asked of but supplement the task behaviors of the employee are called contextual behaviors. This set of interpersonal and volitional behavior encompasses behaviors such as voluntarily helping peers who are lagging behind, acting amiably so as to maintain good working relationships, exerting extra effort for the timely completion of a task and introducing a new employee to the work culture, etc. Unlike, the task behaviors, contextual behaviors are same or similar across the rank and file of the organization. Another important distinction between the two performances is that unlike task performance, contextual performance (CP) does not depend on one's competency or talent rather on one's attitude and compassion toward others (Borman and Motowidlo, 1993).\nLiterature review and hypotheses development: TL and CP\nMethod: Sample characteristics\nResults: We carried out confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on all the three constructs. Initially, all the constructs failed to achieve the requisite level of fitness. Hence, all the constructs were revised by examining their standardized residuals, modification indices and the standardized factor loading to achieve acceptable level of fitness. Modification indices having values greater than 4 were taken into account. Items having standardized factor loading less than 0.35 was removed (Hatcher, 1994). Standardized residual covariance above 4.0 was eliminated from the model whereas values between 2.5 and 4.0 were scrutinized closely (Hair et al., 1998).\nDiscussion: The first objective of the study was to empirically test the relationship between TL and CP. The result indicates a positive relationship between TL and CP. Previous studies (Judge and Piccolo, 2004; Podsakoff et al., 1996) have reported similar finding about TL's positive influence on CP. Burns (1978) defined TL as the process of pursuing collective goals by linking the motives of all the concerned parties. Transformational leaders exhort their followers to exert more effort, to cooperate and to look beyond their own vested interests so as to take the collective performance beyond expectation. Several research findings in the area of TL have shown that leaders who articulate a powerful vision have positive effects on the employee attitudes, their role clarity and their extra role behaviors (Bass, 1985; Burns, 1978; Conger and Kanungo, 1987; House, 1977; Podsakoff et al., 1996). Similar thoughts have also been shared by Fuller et al. (1996), who claimed that TL influences the subordinate's emotions and attitude more than their objective performance. This attitudinal transformation urges employees to demonstrate more of CP. Many scholars have also highlighted a key attribute of TL that is the ability to display self-sacrificial behaviors for the organization or a worthy cause (Choi and Mai-Dalton, 1999; De Cremer and van Knippenberg, 2002). Studies suggest that transformational leaders' self-sacrificial behaviors influence followers so much that they imbibe and demonstrate similar self-sacrificial behaviors (Choi and Mai-Dalton, 1999), hence, their efforts is not just limited to goals pertained to self but also encompasses goals linked to others.\nImplications of the study: The findings of this study have significant theoretical implications for academicians and leadership scholars. First, the study contributes to the extant literature by lending support to the belief that transformational style of leadership urges the subordinates to engage in extra role behavior that will contribute toward CP. A second theoretical implication is that the study is one of the few to investigate the role of integrity on TL-CP relationship. However, this finding of the study goes contrary to our assertion that subordinates those who rate themselves high on integrity will have significantly higher CP than those who rate themselves low on integrity. Further studies will test these relationships in different industries (other than IT) and in different organizational context so that a better and clearer picture will emerge.\nLimitations of the study: Although the study has a few significant contributions to offer, it is not free of limitations. The first limitation of the study is that, the data used in the study suffer from the same-source and same-method bias although we have followed Podsakoff et al.'s (2012) suggestion and collected data in a particular sequence so as to minimize any common method variance bias which might adversely affects the findings of the study. Second, since the data were collected from a single industry, i.e., Indian IT industry, the study's findings cannot be generalized. Thus, we recommend further research examining our proposed relationships across various industries and organizational settings to test their generalizability and to explain any differences that might evolve. Third, as participation in the study was voluntary hence, there might be possibility of some self-selection bias.\nConclusion and direction for future research: Our research has investigated the influence of TL on employee's CP in Indian IT industry. This study is among the few to test the moderating role of integrity on the TL-CP relationship. The findings of the study support a positive relationship between transformational style of leadership and employee's CP, whereas the interactive effect of integrity is found to be insignificant.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Transformational leaders engage their employees' self-concept in such a meaningful way that it results in an extra effort exerted by employees in addition to what is expected of them. This extra effort or pro-social behavior leads to contextual performance (CP) which supplements the individual's task performance and lead to superior organizational performance. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the influence of transformational leadership (TL) on employees' CP. The paper also tests the moderating role of integrity on the relationship between TL and CP.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were gathered through self-administered questionnaires from 480 Indian information technology (IT) employees across India. Harman's single-factor test was used through analysis of moment structures (AMOS 20.0) to test the bias associated due to common method variance. Regression analysis was carried out through a series of hierarchical models in SPSS 20.0 to test the direct and interactive effect of integrity between TL and CP.\nFindings: The result supports the assertion that TL has a positive influence on employees' CP. However, the moderational effect of integrity on the relationship between TL and CP was found to be insignificant.\nPractical implications: The findings of the study have confirmed that employees deriving higher degree of integrity at work will engage in discretionary behaviors and they are more likely open to organizational changes and improvement. The IT organizations may take clues from the findings of the study for creating conducive working environment where affective organizational commitment can influence the CP and job satisfaction.\nOriginality/value: This study is critical in a sense that as the Indian IT industry has one of the highest turnover rates in the service industry, it would take a strong and compelling reason for the IT professionals to stay committed to the organization, derive satisfaction at work and help peers and others by engaging in extra role of CP.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of perceptions of politician brand warmth and competence on voting intentions
|
[
"Political branding",
"Stereotype content model",
"Brands as Intentional Agents Framework",
"Politician brands",
"Voting intentions",
"Warmth and competence"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In the wake of the contentious US presidential election of November 2016, as well as recent democratic elections around the world (e.g. France's presidential election of May 2017 and the UK general election of June 2017), questions surrounding drivers of voter behavior have become more pressing than ever. Pundits and pollsters, alike, have asked themselves what is most likely to motivate a voter's decision: the candidate's policies, platform, party, or character. In the aftermath of a number of surprising results, they have also considered the role of individual voter differences, such as age, race, gender, occupation, geographical region, and/or level of political engagement. While the factors that affect voting intentions are numerous, news headlines from the USA election season captured the extent to which policy and voter demographics might not be the key determinants of election results. Rather, characterizations of candidates as \"competent,\" \"incompetent,\" \"bully,\" \"honest and trustworthy,\" \"cold,\" and \"warm under pressure\" brought to light how evaluations of a politician's persona--or more specifically, brand--were of crucial interest to the general public (Editorial Board, NY Post, 2017; LeTourneau, 2016; Eichenweld, 2016; Langer et al., 2016; Humans of New York, 2016; Chozick, 2016). The present research highlights the critical role in driving voting intentions played by the essence of the concepts featured in the headlines, perceptions of two basic characteristics of a politician's brand: warmth and competence. The results have broad implications for the future of political marketing and strategy, as well as the understanding of both recent and historical election outcomes.\nLiterature review: Stereotype content model\nDiscussion: Taken as a whole, the findings of these three studies suggest that, all other things being equal, voters evaluate and allocate their support to politicians using much the same cognitive process that guides their behavior toward brands and social groups. This is evidenced by the fact that in Study 1, respondents' voting intentions for actual politicians in the 2016 election were strongly predicted by their warmth and competence perceptions of them. Similarly in Studies 2 and 3, voting intentions for a series of hypothetical local politicians were also strongly predicted by SCM and BIAF warmth and competence attributes.\nImplications: The value of the contribution of this work lies in its unique application of the SCM and BIAF perceptual models in the context of politicians and voting intentions, advancing an understanding of the ways in which voters perceive politicians and determine their behaviors at the polls. The research also provides valuable insight regarding the degree to which politicians should position themselves as persons or brands. For instance, politicians with naturally extroverted and affable personalities may be well served by emphasizing their credentials and accomplishments, as competence has more influence on voting intentions when measured with the person-oriented SCM measures. In contrast, it may be better for candidates with a strong record of political service and accomplishments to focus on demonstrating honesty, transparency and trustworthiness, as these have greater impact on voting intentions when measured with the brand-oriented BIAF measures. In either case, politicians and campaign managers can benefit from a deeper understanding of these constructs and how they influence voting behavior.\nLimitations and future research: These research efforts are not without limitations. Though efforts were made to collect a representative sample, this goal was not achieved on all demographics for Studies 2 and 3, constraining the generalizability of the results. In addition, Study 1 was conducted during a particularly controversial election cycle and evaluated actual politicians, some of whom were highly polarizing. As a result, the findings of Study 1 may not be representative of other elections or politicians, where fewer external influences are potentially influencing voter behavior.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The cultivation and maintenance of a brand is becoming increasingly important as politicians seek to connect with constituents. Through the lens of social cognition and group dynamics, this paper aims to understand the impact of evaluations of politician brands on voter intentions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three studies utilize the social cognition constructs of warmth and competence from the stereotype content model (SCM) and Brands as Intentional Agents Framework (BIAF) to evaluate the impact of brand perceptions on voting intentions, comparing fit between the models. The first study establishes the impact of these perceptions on existing politicians. The second study replicates these effects while controlling for party affiliation and extraneous factors and explicitly studies politicians as brands. The third study examines the formation of perceptions and assumptions when full information is unavailable.\nFindings: Social cognition and group dynamics drive responses to politician brands. The data herein support perceptions of warmth and competence as significant predictors of voting intentions. Dependent upon whether the politician is being evaluated as a brand or a person, BIAF or SCM predicts the dimension that will be most impactful. These patterns persist in the absence of full information. As expected, voting intentions increased significantly when the voter was of the same (vs opposing) party as that of the candidate.\nResearch limitations/implications: Conducted during an election year, evaluations of politicians are susceptible to the current political climate and the predominantly two party political system in which the studies were conducted. The design of Studies 2 and 3 addresses some of these limitations. Results point toward the interrelated nature of warmth and competence perceptions and the usefulness of applying both BIAF and SCM to understand how voters view politicians and the drivers of voting intentions.\nPractical implications: This study evidences the depth to which perceptions of candidates impact voting intent, establishing politicians' unique position as both brands and people. These findings prove useful in interpreting the outcome of elections this year, and beyond.\nOriginality/value: Expanding a limited body of existing research, this work contributes to our understanding of the application of SCM within the context of politician brands. As the first concurrent investigation of SCM and BIAF, these findings are of value to political strategists and academics alike. The contribution is augmented by the consideration of the impact of party affiliation and missing information.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Adaptive information sharing approach for crowd networks based on two stage optimization
|
[
"Supply chain",
"Information sharing",
"Crowd network"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The phenomenon of crowd intelligence can be widely found in nature and human society. In the nature, the crowd intelligence leads to the ant colony effect, the formation of birds flying, etc. In the human society, the phenomenon of crowd intelligence can be leveraged to enterprises' operation and management process, industrial chain, etc. (Jiang and Jiang, 2004; Li and Qiao, 2015). Unlike the networks (such as computer networks, IoT networks) that are designed for accomplishing specific tasks, as a network that consists of human subjects, asset subjects and digital agent subjects, crowd network is required to accomplish different tasks (Prpic and Shukla, 2017). To accomplish these tasks, intelligent subjects within the crowd networks need to cooperate with each other through making interactions carried by information and behaviors. The completion of different tasks requires the possession of different information (Fehrenbacher and Djamasbi, 2017). In a crowd network with high network complexity, redundant information and limited resources, information should be exchanged selectively to achieve \"low cost and high efficiency\" under limited resources. When cooperating to complete tasks, intelligent subjects in the crowd network can choose to share specific information among their neighbors or spread to network to help each other better accomplish their tasks (He et al., 2006; Rose et al., 2003). Therefore, it is particularly important to determine the object and scope of information sharing. Because of the complexity of the topological structure of the crowd network, it is more difficult to consider the information-sharing scope of an intelligent subject in the whole network (under global conditions) than that in the neighborhood (under local conditions). Therefore, this paper proposes an Adaptive Information Sharing Approach for Crowd Networks (AISCN approach) to explore the optimized information-sharing pattern for crowd networks The approach adopts the idea of first local optimization and then overall optimization, and quantifies the effectiveness value of shared information IV(t) for a task t in the crowd network. As different intelligent subjects have different needs for information when doing different tasks, the demands of different information are also different. Moreover, a crowd network has limited resources instead of redundant resources. Therefore, we defined a set of factors that can be used to describe the effectiveness of information-sharing patterns, which include the network topology, the resources owned by intelligent subjects and the degree of information demand. The AISCN approach used heuristic algorithm to solve a composite objective function which takes all these factors into consideration, so that the optimized information-sharing pattern can be obtained. We implement our approach on two crowd networks including bee colony and supply chain, to prove the effectiveness of our approach.\n2. Background and related work: 2.1 Background\n3. Shared information content: Every individual in the crowd network has its own ontology information. The more information it has, the more predictability the behavior of the intelligent subject is (He et al., 2006; Hu and Yang, 2009). This is because the intelligent subject who obtains more information and has higher intelligence level are more likely to trigger the optimized behavior scenario for a certain task. Therefore, to improve the performance of the crowd network, the information obtained by intelligent subjects within the crowd network should be maximized.\n4. The analysis of factors of information sharing: In the crowd network, each individual can obtain local information from neighbors and obtain global information from intelligent subjects other than neighbors. Through learning from neighbors (also known as local information sharing), intelligent subjects can collect all the information owned by their neighbors (Bala and Goyal, 2010). On the other hand, the learning from intelligent subject other than neighbors (also known as global information sharing) can make intelligent subject escape from the local optimum to explore more information for completing the tasks. Hence, both local information sharing and global information sharing can promote the improvement of intelligence level of an intelligent subject. In this way, the whole crowd network will be evolved to gain higher finishing qualities of tasks and the high efficiency of task accomplishments. Figure 2 illustrates a typical ISM in the crowd network. We use Ind to represent the individual, and individuals that can directly interact with the ith individual are represented by 1-nei. Individuals that need to interact through 1-nei are represented by 2-nei, and so on. Individuals can directly obtain 1-nei information, but it needs to be obtained indirectly by a-nei (1 <= a < b) to obtain b-nei information (1 < b).\n5. Adaptive information sharing approach for crowd networks based on task: 5.1 Adaptive information sharing approach for crowd networks\n6. Case analysis: 6.1 Information sharing in bee colony\n7. Conclusion: To optimize and evaluate the performance of the crowd networks through analyzing their information-sharing patterns, this paper introduced the factors that affect effectiveness of information-sharing pattern: the network topology, the resources owned by intelligent subjects and the degree of information demand. To analyze the correlation between these factors and the performance of crowd networks, an Adaptive Information Sharing Approach for Crowd Networks (AISCN approach) is proposed. By referring to information needed for accomplishing the historical tasks that are assigned to a crowd network, the AISCN approach can explore the optimized information-sharing pattern based on the predefined composite objective function. As the approach is a data-driven approach that explores the information-sharing pattern based on the network's performance on historical tasks and network's characteristics, the approach is adaptive to the dynamic change (change of incoming tasks, change of network characteristics) of the target crowd network. To ensure the commonality of the information-sharing approach, the proposed approach is not designed for a specific optimization algorithm. In this way, during the implementation of our approach, heuristic algorithms can be chosen according to the complexity of the target crowd network. We implement our approach on two crowd networks, including bee colony and supply chain, to prove the effectiveness of our approach. Based on network topologies and incoming tasks of different bee colony and supply chain networks, the AISCN approach is implemented to adjust adaptively to obtain the optimal information-sharing pattern for each task. In the future, we will further study different complex network structures and propose appropriate optimization algorithms to make the AISCN approach less complex and more efficient, and make a deeper analysis of the impact of shared information on the crowd network.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to optimize and evaluating the performance of the crowd networks through analyzing their information sharing patterns. That is, in a crowd network, the qualities of accomplishing tasks are highly dependent on the effective information sharing among intelligent subjects within the networks. Hence, proposing an adaptive information-sharing approach can help improve the performance of crowd networks on accomplishing tasks that are assigned to them.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper first introduces the factors that affect effectiveness of information-sharing pattern: the network topology, the resources owned by intelligent subjects and the degree of information demand. By analyzing the correlation between these factors and the performance of crowd networks, an Adaptive Information Sharing Approach for Crowd Networks (AISCN approach) is proposed. By referring to information needed for accomplishing the historical tasks that are assigned to a crowd network, the AISCN approach can explore the optimized information-sharing pattern based on the predefined composite objective function. The authors implement their approach on two crowd networks including bee colony and supply chain, to prove the effectiveness of the approach.\nFindings: The shared information among intelligent subjects affects the efficiency of task completion in the crowd network. The factors that can be used to describe the effectiveness of information-sharing patterns include the network topology, the resources owned by intelligent subjects and the degree of information demand. The AISCN approach used heuristic algorithm to solve a composite objective function which takes all these factors into consideration, so that the optimized information-sharing pattern can be obtained.\nOriginality/value: This paper introduces a set of factors that can be used to describe the correlation between information-sharing pattern and performance of crowd network. By quantifying such correlation based on these factors, this paper proposes an adaptive information-sharing approach which can explore the optimized information-sharing pattern for a variety of crowd networks. As the approach is a data-driven approach that explores the information-sharing pattern based on the network's performance on historical tasks and network's characteristics, it is adaptive to the dynamic change (change of incoming tasks, change of network characteristics) of the target crowd network. To ensure the commonality of the information-sharing approach, the proposed approach is not designed for a specific optimization algorithm. In this way, during the implementation of the proposed approach, heuristic algorithms can be chosen according to the complexity of the target crowd network.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Multi-storey residential buildings and occupant's behaviour during fire evacuation in the UK: Factors relevant to the development of evacuation strategies
|
[
"Evacuation",
"Human behaviour",
"Decisions",
"Egress",
"Lifts",
"Multi-storey"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Fire safety has consistently been a vital consideration when designing multi-storey buildings and, given the specific environment of such buildings, human behaviour during an evacuation process has long been considered a key factor in a successful evacuation (Proulx, 2001). Sekizawa et al. (1999) suggested that some key factors are the method through which occupants react to fire cues, the motives they are given to commence evacuating and the choice of evacuation route (typically choosing their usual route of moving around the building or a route identified as being \"safe\" rather than one that was close). While there is a considerable body of literature relevant to the evacuation of multi-storey buildings, some of this is inevitably dated, particularly in the context of materials development, enhancements to existing technologies, emerging new technologies and a deeper understanding of the psychology of human behaviour, particularly in the context of group dynamics. Ronchi and Nilsson (2013), for example, considered not only the individual use of egress components but also the combined use of such egress components as stairwells and elevators along with other means of escape that would not be typically regarded as \"traditional\" (sky-bridges, helicopters, etc.). However, Nilsson and Kinateder (2015) postulate that data on the behaviour of occupants in a fire situation are generally collected using case studies that are consistent with the majority of the literature reviewed. Nillson and Kintender further suggest that controlled experiments can also be used to establish relationships in this context. In addition, the use of interview techniques, as used by Shields et al. (2009), appears to be a relatively common method used in fire evacuation occupant behaviour studies.\nFire safety in multi-storey buildings: High-rise buildings are complex and therefore require extensive fire safety measures to be incorporated when designing the building. Heffelmire et al. (2016) state that a key challenge for providing fire safety in a multi-storey building is ensuring that all fire safety systems such as alarms, smoke control and egress systems can sufficiently work together in an integrated system manner. Bengtsson et al. (2008) agree that the consequences of any failure of a building's fire-related technical systems and the time of the fire service's response both become more critical in multi-storey buildings. As such buildings have tended to become ever-taller, the challenges presented to both the fire service (such as insufficient reach of fire ladders - in 2017 the longest reach \"ladder\" in the UK (the Ariel Ladder Platform) had a reach of 42 m; 25 m shorter than the height of Grenfell Tower) and their occupants also increase.\nHuman behaviour during a fire evacuation: Although adequate fire safety systems are used in most buildings today, fire can still occur; during the period 2009-2013, there were an average of 14,500 fires, 40 deaths and 520 injuries per year in US multi-storey buildings (Ahrens, 2016). Proulx (2001) suggests that such deaths and injuries largely result from incorrect assumptions with regards to the fire-related behaviour of the occupants of such buildings. In the context of an overall fire situation (typically consider to comprise three phases: Phase 1 - period between a fire starting and being detected; Phase 2 - period between occupants being aware of a fire and their making the decision to leave the building; and Phase 3 - period between the evacuation commencing and the full evacuation of a building. This should not be confused with the concept of a phased evacuation as considered by Adler).\nMethodology: To achieve the research aim, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used, and both interviews and questionnaires were utilised to collect data for the research, with both adopting an essentially semi-structured approach. This allowed for a more comparative approach to the analysis of the data/information gathered than would be the case with an interview or questionnaire only methodology. In addition, an expert evaluation exercise with respect to the initial questionnaire design (informed by relevant literature) was carried out as a means of establishing if any questions needed to be edited/removed or added. Both the interview and questionnaire designs are discussed in more detail in the following sections.\nQuestionnaire design: Following research into questionnaire techniques and design the researchers decided on a questionnaire design comprising both open and closed questions in the manner of Fridolf and Nilsson (2012), who combined closed and open approaches within a single instrument when studying fire safety in underground rail transportation systems. The questionnaire also included a section that the participants could use to comment on anything regarding the research. A total of 72 people completed the questionnaire, the participants were occupants of multi-storey buildings, and were constituted as samples of individuals that had or had not been involved in a real fire evacuation situation, thereby representing two data sets to facilitate a comparison. By comparing the two situations, an insight can be gained into fire situation behaviours of individuals who have experienced an evacuation, and therefore \"know\" how they will react, as opposed to the individuals who have not had that experience and therefore believe how they will react.\nInterview design: The interview method was intended to complement the questionnaire in that it focussed on gathering the expertise of fire engineering experts, while the questionnaire focussed on non-experts (the occupants). As stated previously, the questionnaire was intended to be as available as possible to non-experts, so as to collect a large data set. The interview, however, took the opposite approach in that it was completed by three experts. In this context, there is a need to acknowledge the debate concerning the relative \"value\" of expert and non-expert knowledge. Rae and Alexander (n.d.), for example, note that, when safety-related risk is the focus, \"[...] the opinions of experts are given greater weight than the opinions of non-experts\". By obtaining the responses of both experts and non-experts with regard to a number of specific issues this research aimed to determine the extent of any difference in terms of knowledge (where knowledge (applied information) is considered to be the combination of data (measurements) and information (data given meaning) (Paunovic, 2008)) about those issues.\nData analysis: The questionnaire findings are presented as a series of graphs showing the occupants responses. Where appropriate, the responses were analysed using the relative importance index formula (Equation (1)), as created using Microsoft Excel:\nResults, analysis and discussion: The purpose of this study was to explore human behaviour during a multi-storey residential fire evacuation situation, the decisions occupants make during such a situation, and their choice of egress methods. The data and information gathered from the questionnaire responses and interviews were then analysed in accordance with the methodology discussed previously. The process of distributing (online) the questionnaire and then collecting data and information from the responses took approximately two weeks. As part of this process, it was determined that the questionnaire typically took approximately ten minutes to complete, and that a total of 78 questionnaires were completed.\nQuestionnaire results: Q1 established the age bracket of each participant, and the building floor on which they resided. Figure 1 shows the results of the age brackets of participants; the majority of respondents were between the ages of 25 and 34.\nInterview results: Three interviews were completed with experts within the field of fire engineering, one from the UK, one from New Zealand and one from Sweden. Each participant was invited to take part in a 20-30-minute interview which consisted of five questions. One interview was conducted face-to-face, and the other two were conducted via an online call.\nConclusions: The aim of the research was to explore human behaviour during a fire evacuation and place such behavioural responses in the context of a multi-storey residential building in the UK so as to suggest the factors relevant to the safe evacuation of residents. The research evidenced that there are various factors that discourage occupants from using certain egress routes. For example, the results of the questionnaire evidenced that fire and smoke entering the stairway are the main factors that affect the use of stairs during an evacuation. In addition, the questionnaire results evidenced that the factors deterring occupants from using a lift are concerns of being stuck in the lift and smoke or fire entering the lift. The interviews also concluded that lifts are still perceived as being dangerous to use during a fire evacuation situation, which is no longer completely accurate as some lifts in multi-storey buildings are designed to allow safe evacuation during a fire. However, occupants need to be thoroughly educated and clearly informed with regard to such factors.\nRecommendations for future research: The researchers acknowledge a constraint when carrying out this research was their limited access to fire engineering experts within the UK. Additional interviews with experts within the UK would undoubtedly add further insights into human behaviour of occupants specifically in the UK.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate human behaviour during fire evacuations in multi-storey residential buildings through a focus on the challenges and obstacles that occupants face. In addition, the paper aims to study all the various behaviours that are relevant to the evacuation strategies/plans in the UK of multi-storey buildings in large cities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A literature review was conducted to identify the factors occupants face and also the decision making of occupants regarding the methods of egress. A mixed methods research was adopted using interviews and a questionnaire survey. The findings from the interviews and survey are benchmarked against the information gathered from the literature review.\nFindings: The paper identifies various challenges that occupants face when evacuating a multi-storey residential building. In terms of the decision-making process, the research results evidence that occupants could be given more information on the evacuation procedures within their specific building. The paper also finds that occupants remain reluctant to use a lift during evacuation in fire event, irrespective of any signage clearly stating that is appropriate to do so in the context of modern lift technology.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to the body of knowledge available on the evacuation of multi-storey buildings located in large cities within the UK, outlining the potential areas for future research, focussed on providing an insight of the behavioural decisions made by the occupants make when evacuating a building in the event of a fire.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The board of directors and firm performance: empirical evidence from listed companies
|
[
"Italy",
"Corporate governance",
"Board of directors",
"Agency theory",
"Company performance",
"Listed companies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The active role in company affairs that boards of directors play (Judge and Reinhardt, 1997; Coles et al., 2001) can provide a platform (Aluchna, 2010) and an essential mechanism for mitigating the agency problem that arises between shareholders and management (Jensen and Meckling, 1976; Monks and Minow, 2004). Given that boards are responsible for the direction and leadership of their enterprises, it seems reasonable to conclude that directors actively influence firm performance (Dalton et al., 1999; Stiles and Taylor, 2001), and that they are therefore responsible (on behalf of shareholders) for deciding on the types of board structure that may enable them to maximise shareholders' wealth (O'Connell and Cramer, 2010; Knauer et al., 2018).\nTheory and hypothesis development: The impact of board size on firm performance\nThe Italian context, data, variables, models and methods: The objective of this research is to measure the relationship between firm performance and a number of characteristics of boards, including board size, independent directors, the CEO/CM duality and ownership composition for Italian companies listed on the STAR segment of the Italian stock exchange over the period 2003-2015.\nResults: Summary statistics\nConclusions and implications: This research studies the effects of the main corporate governance characteristics (board size, the independence of the board and CEO/CM duality) on firm performance among Italian listed companies by adopting an agency theory approach. We use a sample of Italian listed companies that adopt the best corporate governance practices - those firms listed in the STAR segment over the period from 2003 to 2015. This research uncovers a number of interesting results that have implications for both scholars and practitioners with an interest in corporate governance issues.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to reconcile some of the conflicting results in prior studies of the board structure-firm performance relationship and to evaluate the effectiveness and applicability of agency theory in the specific context of Italian corporate governance practice.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research applies a dynamic generalised method of moments on a sample of Italian listed companies over the period 2003-2015. Proxies for corporate governance mechanisms are the board size, the level of board independence, ownership structure, shareholder agreements and CEO-chairman leadership.\nFindings: While directors elected by minority shareholders are not able to impact performance, independent directors do have a non-linear effect on performance. Board size has a positive effect on firm performance for lower levels of board size. Ownership structure per se and shareholder agreements do not affect firm performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper contributes to the literature on agency theory by reconciling some of the conflicting results inherent in the board structure-performance relationship. Firm performance is not necessarily improved by having a high number of independent directors on the board. Ownership structure and composition do not affect firm performance; therefore, greater monitoring provided by concentrated ownership does not necessarily lead to stronger firm performance.\nPractical implications: This paper suggests that Italian corporate governance law should improve the rules and effectiveness of minority directors by analysing whether they are able to impede the main shareholders to expropriate private benefits on the expenses of the minority. The legislator should not impose any restrictive regulations with regard to CEO duality, as the influence of CEO duality on performance may vary with respect to the unique characteristics of each company.\nOriginality/value: The results enrich the understanding of the applicability of agency theory in listed companies, especially in Italy. Additionally, this paper provides a comprehensive synthesis of research evidence of agency theory studies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Managing the downside effect of a productivity orientation
|
[
"Organizational change",
"Service quality",
"Trust",
"Productivity orientation",
"Productivity performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Competitive pressures, rapidly shifting technologies and financial constraints have forced many service firms to adopt a productivity orientation and implement changes to contain costs, increase throughput and stay competitive (Rust and Huang, 2012; Oliva and Sterman, 2001). This focus on productivity has affected a range of industries. For example, the big network carriers in the US airline industry have implemented many changes to improve productivity. These changes have resulted in fewer flight choices, over-crowded aircraft, fees for previously free services and fewer flight attendants (Herbst, 2010). The passenger count per flight attendant on American Airlines increased from 4,011 in 2000 to 5,785 in 2013 and from 3,523 to 4,234 for United Airlines (United States Department of Transportation, 2013; Airline Data Project, 2014). Likewise, in the health-care industry, physicians are asked to spend less time with each patient than before to increase throughput (Block et al., 2013; Chen, 2013). Nurses also face similar demands and can no longer afford to spend extensive amounts of time talking with patients to form personal bonds and offer emotional support (Weinberg, 2003). In the USA, the number of patient visits per employee increased from 182 in 2006 to 200 in 2010, then further to 216 in 2015 (IBIS World, 2015).\nThe downside effect of a productivity orientation: A productivity orientation promotes frontline employees' perception of change\nManaging the negative effects of change: The moderating role of trust in management\nMethod: Research setting\nResults: Table III summarizes the results obtained from the multi-group path model analysis. The hypothesized model yielded the following fit statistics: kh2 = 1,348.54, df = 240, p < 0.01, NFI = 0.90, NNFI = 0.89, CFI = 0.92, SRMR = 0.045 and RMSEA = 0.068 (90 per cent CI = 0.055-0.083). Using criteria for acceptable absolute, incremental and parsimonious model fit, the fit statistics suggested that the hypothesized model provided acceptable account for the covariation of the data. Thus, the preceding model fit statistics were sufficient to allow for further testing of the hypotheses and interpretation of the results.\nDiscussion: The purpose of this study was to substantiate the trade-off faced by management when adopting a productivity orientation and to investigate trust in management as a means for attenuating the potentially downside effects of adopting such an orientation. Specifically, we proposed that although a productivity orientation may produce immediate productivity benefits by enhancing frontline employees' productivity performance, it also generates negative effects on frontline employees' quality performance and job satisfaction through increased change perception and role stress. These downside effects of implementing a productivity orientation, if not managed carefully, may erode the short-term productivity gains and impair a service firm's long-term success. We further proposed that employee trust in management might be efficacious in stemming the downside effects of a productivity orientation on employee quality performance and job satisfaction. Overall, this study provides new insights for understanding the challenge of adopting and implementing a productivity orientation in service organizations. We next discuss the theoretical and empirical contributions of these findings and their relevance to managers seeking to improve the productivity of their organizations. We conclude by discussing the limitations of the current study and offering suggestions for future research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Although many service organizations have adopted a productivity orientation to respond to increasing market challenges, the unanticipated downside effect of such an orientation is not well understood. For managers, it is interesting to know if this strategic initiative is working and how to implement it more successfully.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The theoretical model used in this paper is tested with a survey of 879 frontline employees from five different health-care organizations.\nFindings: The authors find evidence of a trade-off when a productivity orientation is adopted. A productivity orientation improves frontline service employee productivity performance but indirectly harms quality performance and job satisfaction. The authors find further evidence that trust in management helps to mitigate these negative effects.\nResearch Limitations/implications: This paper suggests that a productivity orientation must be managed carefully. Efficiency improvements may be overshadowed by reduced quality and job satisfaction. Limitations arise from the self-reported survey data.\nPractical Implications: The results suggest that employees who trust their managers are better able to cope with the stressors arising from increased productivity demands.\nOriginality/value: To the authors' best knowledge, no research has systematically examined the process and potential hazards of implementing a productivity orientation from a frontline employee perspective. The current paper reveals the mechanisms by which a productivity orientation influences frontline employees' change perceptions and performance and shows that employee trust in management may buffer the downside effects of a productivity orientation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Corporate entrepreneurship as a strategic approach for internal innovation performance
|
[
"Innovation performance",
"Corporate entrepreneurship",
"Entrepreneurial environment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: History has proven time and again that businesses should be able to quickly innovate, change and transform to meet the expectations of a fast-changing marketplace. To swiftly adapt, corporations need to enhance their innovation prowess and companies need to tap into the creative power of their employees (Lee and Pati, 2017). The need for corporate entrepreneurship is obvious, especially given the pressing circumstances that corporations face today. These circumstances threaten a corporation's productivity and growth potential, and they include a rapid increase in the number of new and sophisticated competitors, a sense of distrust in the conventional methods of corporate management, the downsizing of major corporations and an exodus of key inventors (Kuratko et al., 2015; Miles and Covin, 2002).\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Corporate entrepreneurship\n3. Study design: 3.1 Study methodology\n4. Results: 4.1 Relationships between the strategies and corporate entrepreneurship\n5. Implications: Innovation is a key factor to success for many businesses. As businesses seek to improve their productivity and ensure sustained growth, they will need to improve their capacity to innovate. Therefore, it would be worthwhile to note additional corporate entrepreneurship strategies, as such strategies may not only benefit a firm's internal innovation performance but also advance the firm's productivity, marketability and competitive advantage (Tseng and Tseng, 2016).\n6. Conclusion: 6.1 Contributions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore corporate entrepreneurship and the relationship between intrapreneurship and the proposed strategic models through a literature review. This paper reviews the strategic approach for increasing internal innovation performance at corporations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Key words were identified to use in the literature search: corporate entrepreneurship, innovation performance and entrepreneurial environment. Then, all of the several electronic databases available in the university's electronic library, including Harvard Business Review and The University of Chicago Press, as well as journals, books, Google Scholar and other institutional resources.\nFindings: The six innovative outcomes are motivating individuals to engage in innovative behavior, concentrating entrepreneurial ventures through a newly minted organization within a corporation, helping innovative-minded people to reach their full potential, rewarding a corporate entrepreneur, encouraging people to look at the organization from a broad perspective and educating employees about corporate entrepreneurship.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study was exploratory, based on a literature review. Further studies are needed using empirical research to examine why corporate entrepreneurship was attributed to be the strategic approach for internal innovation performance.\nPractical implications: By implementing the strategic approaches, corporate management professionals can realize their entrepreneurial intentions for the firm and maintain their responsibility to shareholders in terms of other business and development goals.\nOriginality/value: The research constructs an input-process-output framework that minimizes external mergers and acquisitions and maximizes internal innovation performance. Value was created when corporate entrepreneurship was identified as a strategic approach for internal innovation performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Grounded theory of knowledge process on public ecosystem managers in Seoul
|
[
"Grounded theory",
"Public management",
"Knowledge management",
"Seoul",
"Ecosystem management",
"Public manager"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: To date, four theoretical perspectives have dominated in the scholarly discussion of ecosystem management. First, the legal perspective that accentuates the viewpoint that a variety of laws involved with managing ecosystems should be orchestrated to make effective ecosystem management possible (Keiter, 1998; Wonkka et al., 2015). Accordingly, an important question of the legal perspective is how ecosystem managers can effectively apply diverse laws, which are sometimes conflicting with one another, to their managerial activities. Second, the science-based perspective that focuses on the importance of using scientific evidences in managing ecosystems (Holling and Meffe, 1996; Kessler et al., 1992). In this perspective, an essential question is how conflicting scientific advices, based on diverse scientific evidences generated by various fields of natural sciences, are interpreted or synthesized as a practical viewpoint that provides consistent action guidelines to public managers. Third, the intergovernmental relations perspective that concentrates on the importance of cooperation among various governmental units in managing ecosystems (May et al., 1996; Wise and O'Leary, 1997). In general, the administrative jurisdiction of government does not correspond with the boundaries of ecosystems. Thus, a key question of the intergovernmental relations perspective is how functional integration, which can ensure consistent action among numerous public managers in managing ecosystems, can be secured in complex vertical or horizontal intergovernmental relations (Agranoff and McGuire, 2003). Fourth, the local governance perspective that focuses on the importance of collaboration between local governments and local communities in managing ecosystems (Koontz et al., 2004; Wondolleck and Yaffee, 2000). A notable characteristic of the twenty-first century is that local governments are increasingly pressured to reflect the diverse needs of local communities in their decision making. Thus, ecosystem management by public managers cannot be successful unless public managers consider or facilitate the participation of local partners (those who have stakes in managing ecosystems).\n2. KM reviewed: Why should KM be highlighted especially in the twenty-first century? A proper answer to this question is that the twenty-first century can be characterized as knowledge-oriented societies. This means that knowledge is needed in all kinds of organizations as a key resource (Moustaghfir and Schiuma, 2013) and every organization needs \"knowledge workers\" who have the capability to contribute to promoting organizational learning and innovation by converting their individual knowledge into organizational knowledge (Drucker, 2001; Edersheim, 2007). The growing demands of KM in the government can be seen, among other places, in the increasing efforts of government to develop and implement e-government programs. However, KM should be recognized as a broader concept than strictly the phenomenon of e-government (Massaro et al., 2015).\n3. Grounded theory: 3.1 Research procedure of grounded theory\n4. Generated model: The findings demonstrate that public ecosystem managers in Seoul acquire, utilize and share their knowledge in a way that can be best characterized as \"learning-by-doing\"[13]. As in the case of the doctors and teachers learning-by-doing their works, the model of learning-by-doing can be best illustrated in the pragmatic point of view: although doctors and teachers can exercise their own professional judgment in doing their works, it is essential for them to recognize that they must learn to search pragmatically for workable solutions to the problems that patients and students present. In short, they are required to learn problem-solving methods based on their doing experiences (Dewey, 1938; Foray, 2004).\n5. Discussion: This study tries to understand the ecosystem management of public managers by adopting the lenses of KM. The question of how public managers in Seoul acquire, utilize and share knowledge in managing the ESPRs of Seoul has been responded to by offering a specific conceptual model. In other words, the knowledge process of public managers in managing the ESPRs has been explained by describing the model of \"learning-by-doing.\" Although the focus is on the knowledge process, there is no escaping the fact that managerial activities are not performed in a vacuum. Rather, they take place in a complex policy and government context that is not easily captured as the important variables that influence the knowledge process. Thus, it would be worthwhile to extend this study with group and intra-/extra-organizational-level analyses.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the utility of employing knowledge management (KM) as a framework for understanding how public managers perform ecosystem management. The question of how public managers in Seoul acquire, utilize and share knowledge in managing their ecosystems has been responded to by offering a particular conceptual model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study applies the grounded theory method to build a conceptual model. The model is generated by applying the concept of knowledge process to an investigation of how the urban ecosystem is publicly managed by civil servants in various offices within the municipality of Seoul, Korea. The case study encompasses the management of the 12 regions of Seoul designated as Eco-scenery Preservation Regions (ESPRs) by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.\nFindings: The knowledge process of public managers in managing the ESPRs can be explained by understanding the conceptual model of \"learning-by-doing,\" which means public managers cannot count much on their knowledge gained previously through their past experience or education and training. Instead, they learn individually in the process of discharging their duties on a daily basis.\nResearch limitations/implications: Although the focus is on the knowledge process of public managers, there is no escaping the fact that managerial activities are not performed in a vacuum. Rather, they take place in a complex policy and government context that is not easily captured as the important variables that influence the knowledge process. Thus, it would be worthwhile to extend this study with group, intra-, and extra-organizational-level analyses.\nPractical implications: Usually different contexts lead to different interpretations on the concept of learning-by-doing. This study supplies such an interpretation that diverse ecosystems in Seoul have been managed by the learning-by-doing of public managers, which is characterized specifically as their reactive response, tinkering and limited personal network.\nSocial implications: There has not been a definite consensus on the question of what ecosystem management is. Scientists, policymakers and citizens all have different viewpoints on that question. Nonetheless, this study provides a useful perspective on the issue of how various ecosystems have been managed by public managers, who must be a central entity of ecosystem management particularly under the context of municipality.\nOriginality/value: Even though KM has been a popular subject of study in business management rather than public management, KM as a framework of study is promising as a means of understanding and potentially supporting the further development of effective ecosystem management by public managers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Testing for detection of crack in rotor using vibration analysis: an experimental approach
|
[
"Vibration analysis",
"1× and 2× harmonic component",
"Critical speed",
"Cracked shaft",
"Wavelet packet energy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Vibration analysis is the best tool to diagnose the fault in the rotating machinery. Any kind of fault in the machine generates the vibration of specific frequencies while it is in operation. By collecting and analyzing vibration data, one can separate out the fault frequencies. During the operation, if the intensity of vibration increases, the machine may stop and then the shaft must removed from the machine for the inspection, in this way the failure of complete machine can be avoided. If crack is undetected, it may cause a failure of machine and several other problems. Early detection of crack development can prevent machine failure, costly downtimes and, in adverse condition, loss of human lives as well. Vibration analysis is the most reliable technique of condition monitoring for the identification of the crack. The condition-based maintenance is upper hand maintenance, and it is accepted in industry because it facilitates detection and warning about the damage of the machine at very inception stage. An intelligent maintenance scheduler is presented by Jun-Geol Baek (2007). Deterministic dynamic programming is applied to select the best safe state that reduces the total maintenance cost.\n2. Signal analysis techniques: 2.1 Fast Fourier transforms (FFT)\n3. Experiment work: The equipment used for test is comprised of a shaft with central disc, a motor with a speed controller, signal processing and data acquisition unit. Test rig assembly is mounted on a rigid foundation in a way that it is isolated from other instruments. Material chosen for the shaft is medium carbon steel (EN8). Figure 3 shows the dimension of the shaft and mounting location of bearing and disc. Initially, the oversized shaft of 25 mm diameter is turned on the lathe using follower rest. The shaft is turned with slower feed, speed and depth of cut to get perfectly straight shaft as per industrial standard. Extra care is taken to minimize the effect of bending in the shaft.\n4. Transient response analysis: VIBXPERT records the current rpm and automatically begins with measurements soon as the selected start rpm is exceeded. Measurement is stopped when the stop rpm is reached. It is mainly used to determine the critical speed of the machine. Transient test is carried out in the range of 0-3,000 rpm.\n5. Steady-state response analysis using frequency plot and wavelet packet transform: In the beginning, no unbalance mass is added in the rotor, and in the second condition, 3.47 gm of unbalance mass is added on the centrally mounted disc on the first threaded hole at zero unbalance orientation angle. Added unbalance on the disc causes rise in the 1x energy component. Temporal signal is collected, and Fourier transform is applied to time waveform to get FFT. 1x and 2x harmonic components are extracted for all conditions of the shaft. The rotor is tested at three different steady-state rotational speed, 20 Hz, 35 Hz and 50 Hz. Figure 6 illustrates the frequency plot at 20 Hz rotating speed.\n6. Conclusions: The study represents the wavelet packet energy analysis technique to detect the change in the energy component generated due to simulated crack. The crack generates high energy in the zone of rotational frequency and the double rotational frequency (2x). Crack causes detectable changes in vibration amplitude and phase in co-efficient of wavelet packet W (9, 3) and wavelet packet W (9, 6) that falls under 1x and 2x harmonic components for all condition of shaft. 1x amplitude of shaft is dependent upon the orientation angle of unbalance weight with respect to crack. There is a comparatively faster increase in the 2x harmonic component due to crack. Transverse crack reduces the bending stiffness, which further reduces the critical speed of the cracked shaft. The proposed method of wavelet packet energy analysis is further helpful in detecting various faults in rotating machinery by forming the wavelet packets of different frequency bands and change in energy of wavelet packets may be used as an indicator of fault at very incipient stage.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Many incidents of rotor failures are reported due to the development and propagation of the crack. Condition monitoring is adopted for the identification of symptoms of the crack at very early stage in the rotating machinery. Identification requires a reliable and accurate vibration analysis technique for achieving the objective of the study. The purpose of this paper is to detect the crack in the rotating machinery by measuring vibration parameters at different measurement locations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two different types of cracks were simulated in these experiments. Experiments were conducted using healthy shaft, crack simulated shaft and glued shaft with and without added unbalance to observe the changes in vibration pattern, magnitude and phase. Deviation in vibration response allows the identification of crack and its location. Initial data were acquired in the form of time waveform. Run-up and coast-down measurements were taken to find the critical speed. The wavelet packet energy analysis technique was used to get better localization in time and frequency zone.\nFindings: The presence of crack changes the dynamic behavior of the rotor. 1x and 2x harmonic components for steady-state test and critical speed for transient test are important parameters in condition monitoring to detect the crack. To separate the 1x and 2x harmonic component in the different wavelet packets, original signal is decomposed in nine levels. Wavelet packet energy analysis is carried out to find the intensity of the signal due to simulated crack.\nOriginality/value: Original signals obtained from the experiment test set up may contain noise component and dominant frequency components other than the crack. Wavelet packets contain the crack-related information that are identified and separated in this study. This technique develops the condition monitoring procedure more specific about the type of the fault and accurate due to the separation of specific fault features in different wavelet packets. From the experiment end results, it is found that there is significant rise in a 2x energy component due to crack in the shaft. The intensity of a 1x energy component depends upon the shaft crack and unbalance orientation angle.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
ICT service providers strategies and customer migration
|
[
"Simulation",
"Customer migration",
"Internet service providers",
"Mobile communication market",
"Social movement"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Now that the mobile communication market has mostly reached its maturity stage, competition among service providers has become extremely fierce as customers look for better and cheaper services (Oliveira and Martins, 2010; Genakos and Valletti, 2011; Miranda and Lima, 2013). Over time as people constantly switch providers, they form certain patterns of customer migration. Analyzing these patterns can help service provider companies to more accurately forecast such customer migration patterns, and understand the market demand and customers' needs, which can then help them develop effective strategies in this lucrative and extremely dynamic market (Thirumalai and Sinha, 2009; Lee et al., 2011a, b; Malhotra and Malhotra, 2013).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Collective action\n3. Research methodology: 3.1 The Epstein model of civil violence\n4. Simulation result: 4.1 Data collection\n5. Conclusion: Although there are numerous studies that have focussed on ICT diffusion, most of them were limited in scope: they examined the overall trend of the ICT market from a macro market perspective or statistically analyzed the underlying factors of diffusion by using survey methods. Such limitations of previous studies reveal the following major problems: first, studies identified the overall trend and phenomenon of ICT diffusion, but had limited analysis of the specific reasons or motivations behind the diffusion; second, there was no consideration/inclusion in these studies of the interactive influence between the actual and potential adopters; and third, the research methods employed simple models and performed statistical analysis that were based on surveys, which are not appropriate for the dynamic ICT market.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how ICT service providers' strategies affect customer migration.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a simulation approach and the agent-based model, this research explores how an incremental technology affects customer migration and changes the market structure.\nFindings: The authors found that a strategy of disruptive technology innovation not only helps a follower company increase its market share, but it also completely disrupts the market.\nOriginality/value: This study investigates customer migration patterns in the saturated mobile telecommunication market based on service providers' strategies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.