bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Feedback control of growth, differentiation, and morphogenesis of pancreatic endocrine progenitors in an epithelial plexus niche
Authors: Bankaitis Eric D. , Bechard Matthew E. , Wright Christopher V.E.
Published: October 2015

In the mammalian pancreas, endocrine cells undergo lineage allocation upon emergence from a bipotent duct/endocrine progenitor pool, which resides in the “trunk epithelium.” Major questions remain regarding how niche environments are organized within this epithelium to coordinate endocrine differentiation with programs of epithelial growth, maturation, and morphogenesis. We used EdU pulse-chase and tissue-reconstruction approaches to analyze how endocrine progenitors and their differentiating progeny are assembled within the trunk as it undergoes remodeling from an irregular plexus of tubules to form the eventual mature, branched ductal arbor. The bulk of endocrine progenitors is maintained in an epithelial “plexus state,” which is a transient intermediate during epithelial maturation within which endocrine cell differentiation is continually robust and surprisingly long-lived. Within the plexus, local feedback effects derived from the differentiating and delaminating endocrine cells nonautonomously regulate the flux of endocrine cell birth as well as proliferative growth of the bipotent cell population using Notch-dependent and Notch-independent influences, respectively. These feedback effects in turn maintain the plexus state to ensure prolonged allocation of endocrine cells late into gestation. These findings begin to define a niche-like environment guiding the genesis of the endocrine pancreas and advance current models for how differentiation is coordinated with the growth and morphogenesis of the developing pancreatic epithelium.
Reconciling information gaps in organic farm borrowers’ dealings with farm lenders
Authors: Jones Ghangela , Escalante Cesar , Rusiana Hofner
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– Organic outputs have been increasing at much lower rates than growth in consumer demand. Organic farmers’ debt aversion hinders them from obtaining business funds through borrowing. The purpose of this paper is to clarify that the farmers’ reluctance to use debt as a funding option can be more attributed to gaps in existing borrower-lender relationships, beyond sustainability principles.

Design/methodology/approach

– Empirical evidence collected from organic farmers and farm lenders establish differing expectations and perceptions that reinforce the organic farmers’ debt aversion. The farm lender survey data set was analyzed using the Heckman approach applied to two lenders’ decisions: their interest in lending to organic farm borrowers and loan amounts approved for successful loan applicants. The econometric results were reconciled with the compiled inputs provided by organic farmers interviewed.

Findings

– Results validate the farmers’ lower reliance on loans due to suspicions that lenders lack knowledge and consideration of organic farming conditions and principles. Farm lenders must depart from employing a uniform credit risk appraisal model and adopt borrower-specific versions of the model, but not necessarily delineating organic-conventional farming dichotomy that may not substantially affect credit risk measurement. Organic farms, on the other hand, need to better understand the credit risk appraisal principles and use their inherent business strengths to compete for loans with conventional farms without any special consideration.

Practical implications

– Borrower-lender relationships can improve if information gaps between lenders and borrowers can be minimized with more extensive outreach education efforts. Better relationships would increase organic farms’ credit access to effectively address an impending supply gap in an expanding industry.

Originality/value

– To the knowledge, a specific focus on organic farms in understanding farm borrower-lender relationships has never been explored in literature.
Predictability of sugar futures: evidence from the Indian commodity market
Authors: Misra Prabhati Kumari , Goswami Kishor
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– The forecasting power of commodity futures is a matter of intensive research as evidenced by a number of related publications. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how advanced forecasting techniques improve the predictability of sugar futures in the Indian commodity market.

Design/methodology/approach

– The forward premium is estimated using ordinary least square regression technique. Different linear and nonlinear models are used to forecast the sugar future spot prices from the futures prices. The forecasting accuracy of each pair of models is then compared by estimating the corresponding Diebold-Mariano test statistics.

Findings

– From the estimated forward premiums, it is found that there is more volatility toward the date of maturity for a three-month horizon compared to six-month, and 12-month horizons. It is established that the futures prices of sugar, when used in a model, are able to generate better forecasts for the future spot prices. Moreover, the forecasting accuracy is found to be better for a shorter futures horizon.

Research limitations/implications

– The present study is restricted only to sugar. If sufficient data are available, the same study could be extended to other commodities as well. The findings imply that technical traders would benefit by using advanced forecasting techniques along with futures prices of sugar to determine the expected future spot prices.

Practical implications

– The findings in this paper suggest that though simple statistical models may be adopted to relate future spot prices to futures prices, more accurate prediction of the price behavior is possible with advanced forecasting methods like the artificial neural network.

Social implications

– The findings will help market participants such as traders to be better informed about the future spot prices and hence get a better deal.

Originality/value

– This is one of the first investigations to assess the predictability of commodity futures by employing advanced forecasting techniques.
Adoption of labor-enhancing technologies by specialty crop producers
Authors: Gallardo R. Karina , Brady Michael P.
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is twofold, first: to define the profile of adopters of labor-enhancing technologies (e.g. platforms) identifying factors – such as operations size, mix of fruits grown, apple operation location, principal operators socio-demographics – and second: to estimate the efficiency threshold for platform adoption during apple harvesting to be financially feasible considering future increases in farm labor wages.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors conducted a mixed-mode survey in January-February 2010. Data were analyzed using a bivariate probit model, considering that the decision to adopt platforms was related with the orchard planting system. The authors conducted simulation scenarios to estimate the efficiencies – harvest – platforms must achieve in order to be economically feasible.

Findings

– In total, 11 percent of the 316 apple operations covered by the survey used platforms. Orchard operations most likely to invest in planar structures are relatively large, produce high-value varieties, use organic systems, and have relatively young and educated operators. Similarly, operations producing high-value fruit such as “Honeycrisp” and controlled or patented varieties and relatively large operations are more likely to invest in platforms. The results of the comparison of the cost of harvesting apples using platforms vs ladders under several production assumptions indicate that platforms must increase labor productivity by at least 13 percent in order to be adopted by the industry.

Research limitations/implications

– This study caveat is the lack of inclusion of production and marketing uncertainties in the estimation of future apple harvest costs. Further research to deeper analyze these issues is needed.

Practical implications

– The authors present information on the profile of mechanization adopters, so extension educators and engineers could concentrate efforts on them to increase adoption levels. In addition the authors provide a threshold of efficiencies for harvest platforms associated with cost savings compared to manual harvest.

Social implications

– Enabling the adoption of mechanization technologies by specialty crop industries would decrease the dependence on labor, decreasing labor uncertainties and facilitating the production of high quality produce to satisfy the needs of consumers. Second, it will end an era of importing poverty, given that the specialty crop industry has long benefited from seasonal migrant workers. It will improve rural American communities to shorten pools of farm workers, giving them access to permanent jobs with higher salaries.

Originality/value

– The contribution of this study is to improve understanding of the degree of mechanization, financial feasibility of current existing technologies, and barriers to greater mechanization by the Washington apple industry. Given the similar labor challenges faced, in general, by the US specialty crop agriculture, results could be applicable to the entire industry.
Decoupling direct payments: potential impacts of the 2014 farm bill on farm debt
Authors: Bekkerman Anton , Belasco Eric , Watson Amy
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– For over 20 years, decoupled agricultural support programs have played a large role in farm policy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of decoupled agricultural support payments on farm-level debt.

Design/methodology/approach

– A two-stage least squares model is used to estimate the impact of decoupled payments, farm production characteristics, demographics, regional risk factors, as well as cross-sectional and temporal fixed effects on farm debt, along with weather-related instrumental variables.

Findings

– Results indicate that a negative and statistically significant relationship exists between decoupled payments and farm debt. This study also provides evidence that research results not accounting for the endogenous relationship between acres operated and farm-level debt should be interpreted with caution.

Research limitations/implications

– The constantly changing sets of policy options provide a challenge in identifying the impact of a single policy, ceteris paribus. Therefore, one notable limitation is in extrapolating the results in this study to make implications on the elimination of the direct payments program, as part of the 2014 Farm Bill.

Practical implications

– This implies that farmers likely use annual decoupled payments to reduce their debt, potentially influencing their exposure to financial risks, capacity to withstand financial instability, and access to credit. The methodology used may establish a foundation for continued research that seeks to empirically identify and measure the complex interrelationships among agricultural public policies and farm-level financial measures.

Social implications

– Decoupled payment programs may indirectly influence debt decisions, which can influence production decisions in the long run.

Originality/value

– In order to accurately identify the impact of direct payment programs on farm debt levels, this study is the first of its kind to account for the endogenous relationship between production decisions and debt and use a large unbalanced panel of data available from the Agricultural Resource Management Survey.
Consistent IRR and NPV rankings
Authors: Robison Lindon J. , Barry Peter J. , Myers Robert J.
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– It is well known that internal rate of return (IRR) and net present value (NPV) rankings of mutually exclusive investments are sometimes inconsistent. This inconsistency, when it occurs, requires decision makers to choose between the two ranking methods. The purpose of this paper is to deduce sufficient conditions for consistent IRR and NPV investment rankings of mutually exclusive investments.

Design/methodology/approach

– Deductive reasoning is used to obtain the sufficient conditions required for consistent rankings of mutually exclusive investments.

Findings

– There are different sufficient conditions (methods) that can be used to resolve inconsistent IRR and NPV rankings. However, the different methods do not necessarily produce the same consistent rankings. In particular, different size adjustment methods and reinvestment rate assumptions can produce different IRR and NPV consistent rankings. This paper suggests the appropriate criteria for selecting a particular method for ranking mutually exclusive investments.

Research limitations/implications

– Like all deduced models, the results apply only to the set of assumptions and preconditions adopted in the model. Furthermore, the application is to ranking mutually exclusive investments.

Practical implications

– There is probably no other issue in the capital budgeting literature that has generated more attention and debate than the consistency (or lack thereof) between IRR and NPV rankings. This paper summarizes conditions that can be followed to resolve the conflict which should have near universal interest to those working in the capital budging area. This paper offers alternative methods for obtaining consistent IRR and NPV rankings which can be used to improve investment ranking decisions. The particular method used should depend on the decision environment. Guides for choosing the appropriate ranking method are described in the paper.

Social implications

– Significant decisions, projects, and investments are evaluated using either IRR or NPV methods. This paper shows that existing evaluation methods can lead to sub-optimal investment choices and provides an improved framework that facilitates better investment choices. Lacking an understanding of the sufficient conditions for IRR and NPV consistency – means that resource allocations have been made to investments and projects that are not optimal.

Originality/value

– To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the results are this paper have not been published nor are they available elsewhere. That said, this paper builds on important earlier work which is carefully cited and credited.
Outsourcing maintenance in complex process industries
Authors: Maley Jane F. , Kowalkowski Christian , Brege Staffan , Biggemann Sergio
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to analyze the rationale for choice of suppliers and the influence these decisions have on the firm’s capabilities.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors examine the choice of in-house operations vs buying maintenance in the Swedish mining industry through a qualitative case study approach.

Findings

– The findings reveal a strong tendency to outsource maintenance.

Research limitations/implications

– This in turn has a strong influence on the firm’s capabilities and long-term competitive advantage and sustainability.

Practical implications

– Based on the empirical findings, the authors comment on the strength and weaknesses of the different outsourcing and attempt to find practical solutions that assist the firm in creating competitive advantage.

Originality/value

– The unique contribution of this study is that it extends prior firm capabilities studies by investigating the impact of capability loss specifically in complex, intricate maintenance processes in a dynamic industry.
A clinical decisions unit improves emergency general surgery care delivery
Authors: Johnstone Chris , Harwood Rachel , Gilliam Andrew , Mitchell Andrew
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– Early access to senior decision makers and investigations has improved outcomes for many conditions. A surgical clinical decisions unit (CDU) was created to allow rapid assessment and investigation by on-call senior surgical team members to facilitate decision making and, if appropriate, discharge within a set time frame (less than four hours). The purpose of this paper is to compare outcomes for unscheduled general surgery admissions to the hospital before and after commissioning this unit.

Design/methodology/approach

– Prospectively collected hospital episode statistics data were compared for all general surgical admissions for one year prior to (July 2010-June 2011) and two years after (July 2011-June 2013) the introduction of the CDU. Statistical analysis using the Mann Whitney U-test was performed.

Findings

– More patients were discharged within 24 hours (12 per cent vs 20 per cent, p
<
0.001) and total hospital stay decreased (4.6 days vs 3.2 days, p
<
0.001) following introduction of CDU. Admission via A
&
E (273 vs 212, p
<
0.01) was also decreased. Overall there was a 25.3 per cent reduction in emergency surgical admissions. No difference was noted in 30-day readmission rates (47 vs 49, p=0.29).

Originality/value

– The introduction of a CDU in has increased early discharge rates and facilitated safe early discharge, reducing overall hospital stay for unscheduled general surgical admissions. This has decreased fixed bed costs and improved patient flow by decreasing surgical care episodes routed through the emergency department (ED). In all, 30-day readmission rates have not been influenced by shorter hospital stay. Service redesign involving early senior decision making and patient investigation increases efficiency and patient satisfaction within unscheduled general surgical care. Not original but significant in that the model has not been widely implemented and this is a useful addition to the literature.
Inadvertent returns to theatre within 30 days (IRT30) of surgery
Authors: Sukha Anisha , Li Elizabeth , Sykes Tim , Fox Anthony , Schofield Andrew , Houghton Andrew
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– When a patient unexpectedly has to go back to the operating theatre, there is often a perceived problem with the primary operation. An IRT30 is defined as any patient returning to the operating theatre within 30 days of the index procedure. IRT30 has been suggested to be a useful quality indicator of surgical standards and surgeon performance. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the usefulness of this validated tool, by assessing all IRT30 over a 12-month period. Learning points for individual surgeons, surgical subspecialty units and the clinical governance leads were reviewed.

Design/methodology/approach

– Consecutive series of general and vascular surgical patients undergoing elective and emergency procedures between July 2012 and 2013. Prospective data collection of all IRT30s classified as Types 1-5 by a single-rater and in-depth discussion of Types 3-5 cases at the clinical governance meetings. The individual case learning points were recorded and the collective data monitored monthly.

Findings

– There were 134 IRT30s. In total 84 cases were discussed: Type 3 (n=80), Type 4 (n=4) and Type 5 (n=0). In total 50 cases were not discussed: Type 1 (n=27), Type 2 (n=23).

Originality/value

– It is crucial that surgeons continue to learn throughout their surgical career by reflecting on their own and their colleague’s results, complications and surgical performance. Analysing Types 3 and 4 IRT30s within the governance meetings has identified learning points related to both surgical technique and surgical decision making. By embracing these learning points, surgical technique and individual as well as group surgeon performance can be modified and opportunities for training and focused supervision created.
Social information landscapes
Authors: Ch'ng Eugene
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to present a Big Data solution as a methodological approach to the automated collection, cleaning, collation, and mapping of multimodal, longitudinal data sets from social media. The paper constructs social information landscapes (SIL).

Design/methodology/approach

– The research presented here adopts a Big Data methodological approach for mapping user-generated contents in social media. The methodology and algorithms presented are generic, and can be applied to diverse types of social media or user-generated contents involving user interactions, such as within blogs, comments in product pages, and other forms of media, so long as a formal data structure proposed here can be constructed.

Findings

– The limited presentation of the sequential nature of content listings within social media and Web 2.0 pages, as viewed on web browsers or on mobile devices, do not necessarily reveal nor make obvious an unknown nature of the medium; that every participant, from content producers, to consumers, to followers and subscribers, including the contents they produce or subscribed to, are intrinsically connected in a hidden but massive network. Such networks when mapped, could be quantitatively analysed using social network analysis (e.g. centralities), and the semantics and sentiments could equally reveal valuable information with appropriate analytics. Yet that which is difficult is the traditional approach of collecting, cleaning, collating, and mapping such data sets into a sufficiently large sample of data that could yield important insights into the community structure and the directional, and polarity of interaction on diverse topics. This research solves this particular strand of problem.

Research limitations/implications

– The automated mapping of extremely large networks involving hundreds of thousands to millions of nodes, encapsulating high resolution and contextual information, over a long period of time could possibly assist in the proving or even disproving of theories. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the feasibility of using automated approaches for acquiring massive, connected data sets for academic inquiry in the social sciences.

Practical implications

– The methods presented in this paper, together with the Big Data architecture can assist individuals and institutions with a limited budget, with practical approaches in constructing SIL. The software-hardware integrated architecture uses open source software, furthermore, the SIL mapping algorithms are easy to implement.

Originality/value

– The majority of research in the literature uses traditional approaches for collecting social networks data. Traditional approaches can be slow and tedious; they do not yield adequate sample size to be of significant value for research. Whilst traditional approaches collect only a small percentage of data, the original methods presented here are able to collect and collate entire data sets in social media due to the automated and scalable mapping techniques.
Using Twitter data to predict the performance of Bollywood movies
Authors: Gaikar Dipak Damodar , Marakarkandy Bijith , Dasgupta Chandan
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to address the shortcomings of limited research in forecasting the power of social media in India.

Design/methodology/approach

– This paper uses sentiment analysis and prediction algorithms to analyze the performance of Indian movies based on data obtained from social media sites. The authors used Twitter4j Java API for extracting the tweets through authenticating connection with Twitter web sites and stored the extracted data in MySQL database and used the data for sentiment analysis. To perform sentiment analysis of Twitter data, the Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis classification model is used to find the sentiment score in the form of positive, negative and neutral. The data mining algorithm Fuzzy Inference System is used to implement sentiment analysis and predict movie performance that is classified into three categories: hit, flop and average.

Findings

– In this study the authors found results of movie performance at the box office, which had been based on fuzzy interface system algorithm for prediction. The fuzzy interface system contains two factors, namely, sentiment score and actor rating to get the accurate result. By calculation of opening weekend collection, the authors found that that the predicted values were approximately same as the actual values. For the movieSingham Returnsover method of prediction gave a box office collection as 84 crores and the actual collection turned out to be 88 crores.

Research limitations/implications

– The current study suffers from the limitation of not having enough computing resources to crawl the data. For predicting box office collection, there is no correct availability of ticket price information, total number of seats per screen and total number of shows per day on all screens. In the future work the authors can add several other inputs like budget of movie, Central Board of Film Certification rating, movie genre, target audience that will improve the accuracy and quality of the prediction.

Originality/value

– The authors used different factors for predicting box office movie performance which had not been used in previous literature. This work is valuable for promoting of product and services of the firms.
Safety or no safety in numbers? Governments, big data and public policy formulation
Authors: Amankwah-Amoah Joseph
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– Although big data have emerged at the cornerstone of business and management research, past studies have failed to offer explanations and classifications of different levels of capacity and expertise possessed by different countries in utilising big data. The purpose of this paper is to examine the different capacities of governments in utilising big data.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper is based on a comprehensive synopsis of the literature on big data and the role of governments in utilising and harnessing big data.

Findings

– The study provides an array of explanations to account for why some countries are adept at using big data to solve social problems, while others often faltered.

Research limitations/implications

– The study offers a range of explanations and suggestions, which include skills upgrading, to help countries improve their capabilities in data collection and data analysis.

Originality/value

– In this paper, data collection-data analysis matrix was developed to characterise the role of governments in data collection and analysis.
Modeling and quantifying uncertainty in the product design phase for effects of user preference changes
Authors: Afshari Hamid , Peng Qingjin
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to quantify external and internal uncertainties in product design process. The research addresses the measure of product future changes.

Design/methodology/approach

– Two methods are proposed to model and quantify uncertainty in the product life cycle. Changes of user preferences are considered as the external uncertainty. Changes stemming from dependencies between components are addressed as the internal uncertainty. Both methods use developed mechanisms to capture and treat changes of user preferences. An agent-based model is developed to simulate sociotechnical events in the product life cycle for the external uncertainty. An innovative application of Big Data Analytics (BDA) is proposed to evaluate the external and internal uncertainties in product design. The methods can identify the most affected product components under uncertainty.

Findings

– The results show that the proposed method could identify product changes during its life cycle, particularly using the proposed BDA method.

Practical implications

– It is essential for manufacturers in the competitive market to know their product changes under uncertainty. Proposed methods have potential to optimize design parameters in complex environments.

Originality/value

– This research bridges the gap of literature in the accurate estimation of uncertainty. The research integrates the change prediction and change transferring, applies data management methods innovatively, and utilizes the proposed methods practically.
Perishable food supply chain quality (PFSCQ)
Authors: Siddh Man Mohan , Soni Gunjan , Jain Rakesh
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to provide a literature review of the perishable food supply chain quality (PFSCQ). It includes all the products/process from the farm to folk of perishable food (milk, meat, vegetable, grains and butter).

Design/methodology/approach

– The methodology of a structured literature review involves selection of a representative sample of articles followed by classification of articles on the basis of research methodology and content of PFSCQ in the paper.

Findings

– Research toward PFSCQ has risen in last five years. Fewer articles are addressing issues of developing countries then developed countries. Majority of the articles involved multiple as entity of analysis (combination of supplier, distributor, manufacturer, retailer and consumer), information as element of exchange and chain as the level of analysis. A large number of articles involved “agri-food,” “dairy” and “pork” as perishable products. Majority of articles used “case study” methodology. Statistical analysis as a tool for problem solving was used in majority of articles. Performance measurement aspect is also on growth in PFSCQ literature. Information sharing, logistic management, strategic management, demand forecasting and integration among the various stakeholders of PFSCQ are some of the critical issues.

Originality/value

– Many literature reviews that aim at critical examination of supply chain literature are reported but none of them focussed exclusively on content of PFSCQ. Another unique feature of this paper is that the sample size of articles with respect to number of papers (481 papers) as well as number of journals (141 journals) is quite large. The paper spans a longer time span of 20 years (1994-2013) as well.
Stakeholders’ perceptions and reputational antecedents
Authors: Shams S. M. Riad
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– It is recognised that reputation is a relational construct; however the impact of stakeholders’ various relational dimensions on their perceptions to influence reputation is not widely understood. The purpose of this paper is to add to the current understanding of stakeholders’ relationships, interactions, their subsequent relational dimensions and its impact on stakeholders’ perceptions to further influence relational reputation.

Design/methodology/approach

– This paper takes a case study approach.

Findings

– The findings of this study recognise the impact of relationship marketing (RM) on the influence of stakeholders’ perceptions. It discusses how RM substantiate the pertinent authenticity (symbolises reputation), relevance and differentiation (represent brand positioning) of an organisation’s profile and/or their market offerings, in relation to the interest of the target market through the cause and consequence of stakeholder relationships and interactions to influence their perceptions. The findings acknowledge 11 RM dimensions that have relational implications to nurture stakeholders’ perceptions and subsequent relational reputation, which appear viable across industries and markets.

Originality/value

– Underlying the cause and consequence of stakeholder relationships and interactions; these 11 RM dimensions emerge as antecedents to form/reform relational reputation. Further academic and professional implications of the findings are briefly discussed.
Evolution of computer game developer organizations
Authors: Vanhala Erno , Kasurinen Jussi , Smolander Kari
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to identify the peculiarity of computer game organizations and their human resources. It presents a stage model including four phases covering the growth from demo group to full business. This study extends the research on how computer game organizations are formed and what it takes them to grow to financially self-sufficient. The study also broadens the understanding of the beginning phase of an organization.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper utilizes the grounded theory research method with 34 interview sessions among 11 computer game organizations. The interviewed persons include chief executive officers, designers and developers.

Findings

– This paper presents empirical findings on what a computer game organization go through when they evolve from demo group phase, which is not discussed in existing literature, to full business. The authors observed that the core team is formed over a game designer and one or more developers. The team fortifies as the organization moves onwards to next phases. At the same time its reliance on partners and outsourcing changes to need based.

Research limitations/implications

– As this is a qualitative study the observations are directly applicable only in the context of observed organizations. In the other context they are merely suggestions.

Practical implications

– The study presents concrete growth model that can be utilized when building a computer game organization.

Originality/value

– This paper illustrates the specialty of computer game organizations and their growth process. It also presents discussion of the beginning phase of organizations.
“It’s always been a sexless trade”; “It’s clean work”; “There’s very little velvet curtain”
Authors: L'Etang Jacquie
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to capture historical data relating to the enactment of public relations work based on gender in post-war Britain. The paper contributes new insights on gender formations in public relations practice during that period in that cultural context, providing a point of contrast with present day practice.

Design/methodology/approach

– Historical sociology.

Findings

– The paper presents data drawn from interviews and document analysis that reveals the separation of male and female work in public relations.

Research limitations/implications

– The research provides contextual historical background to the burgeoning contemporary research that is focused on issues relating to gender and LGBTQ in public relations, and highlights historical features which may have shaped the contemporary occupational culture in the UK. The research may provide useful background context for comparable studies in adjacent disciplines.

Practical implications

– This is a culture-specific study and cross-cultural comparisons would be useful in understanding the extent to which female work in public relations has been similarly framed historically.

Social implications

– There is historical residue in the popular representations of women in public relations in film and media in the UK, for example the notion of “PR girl”. Understanding the origin of such stereotypes and their persistence is important for professional bodies and practitioners.

Originality/value

– The paper brings to light previously unpublished opinions and perspectives from the post-war era.
A moderated mediation model of corporate social responsibility
Authors: Park Hyojung , Kim Soo-Yeon
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of corporate ability (CA) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) on perceptions of CSR motives, attitudes, and behavioral intentions toward a company.

Design/methodology/approach

– These effects were tested using a 2 (CA: good vs poor)×2 (CSR: continuous vs one-time) between-subjects experiment. The company with good CA was depicted as a top 20 Fortune 500 company, but in the poor CA condition, it faced disappointing financial outcomes due to the failure of its new product. To manipulate the different levels of CSR, the company’s charitable giving and community involvement was described as a continuous commitment or one-time donation.

Findings

– Continuous CSR commitment significantly increased consumers’ positive attitudes, purchase intention, and willingness to support an organization. These positive effects become particularly more powerful for a company with poor business performance. Participants attributed more sincere and less image-promotion motives of CSR to a company with poor CA than to that with good CA. For the company with poor CA, both types of CSR motives mediated the relationship between CSR and the outcomes, while only sincere motives served as a mediator for the company with good CA.

Practical implications

– The findings suggest the possibility that CSR initiatives pursued by unprofitable companies may be more recognized and appreciated than those by business giants. Thus, a company should maintain its CSR activities as a long-term strategy, especially when the company is not an industry leader.

Originality/value

– This research suggests that the mediating role of perceived CSR motives can be contingent upon CA.
Internal communication education: a historical study
Authors: Welch Mary
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– This historical analysis investigates treatment of the important discipline of internal communication in a number of globally influential public relations education frameworks over time. The purpose of this paper is to develop insight with the potential to inform future education and professional development programmes.

Design/methodology/approach

– The conceptual framework for the study is set via discussion of the historical approach, internal communication, professionalization, and knowledge. The historical critical analysis research methodology is used to study data sources including professional body reports and archival documentation. Deductive and inductive coding is combined with template analysis to ensure rigorous qualitative data analysis.

Findings

– The study finds inconsistent treatment of the internal communication discipline in public relations education frameworks over time. Distinct inclusion was found in early frameworks, clear recognition of the growing importance of internal communication was evident in later guidelines, but the study discovers that the discipline has been excluded from recent frameworks.

Research limitations/implications

– While the study draws on relevant data sources credited with international influence, it is limited to sources published in English.

Practical implications

– Practical educational and methodological implications of the research are discussed along with avenues for further research including surveys or qualitative research to investigate contemporary views held by practitioners and educators on internal communication curricula.

Social implications

– Social and management implications are discussed including a call for the reinstatement of internal communication in globally influential public relations education frameworks.

Originality/value

– The discipline of internal communication is still understudied which is surprising given its impact on organisational effectiveness. Furthermore, little previous attention has been paid to the history of internal communication education. This paper tackles that void, finds inconsistent treatment of the discipline in education frameworks over time, and contributes discussion on why these inconsistencies have occurred.
Positive effects of laissez-faire leadership: conceptual exploration
Authors: Yang Inju
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– The dominant view of laissez-faire leadership has so far been avoidant or regarded as zero leadership. Consequently, it has been suggested that laissez-faire leadership is likely to lead to negative consequences in subordinates’ performance and attitudes. The purpose of this paper is to argue that this conventional view is biased from the start as it is burdened with the concept that laissez-faire leadership is non-strategic and therefore implies negative consequences. This paper further argues that to be able to unveil the real outcomes of laissez-faire leadership, focus should shift to the behavioral aspect of laissez-faire leadership, or non-involvement of a leader/leadership.

Design/methodology/approach

– This conceptual presentation and presented propositions could stimulate the examination of laissez-faire leadership in more balanced ways.

Findings

– Shifted focus to the behavioral aspect of laissez-faire leadership, or non-involvement of a leader/leadership allows this paper to explore possible positive outcomes, especially with consideration with dynamics of time. While extant studies about laissez-faire leadership have been partial to negative consequences, this paper explores different contexts in which laissez-faire leadership could be positive.

Originality/value

– This paper is one of the first attempts to tease out possible outcomes of laissez-faire leadership, which could be not just negative, by adapting the behavioral aspect of non-involvement of a leader.
Would you please stop that!?
Authors: Allen Joseph A. , Yoerger Michael A. , Lehmann-Willenbrock Nale , Jones Johanna
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– Meetings are ubiquitous in organizational life and are a great source of frustration and annoyance to many employees in the workplace, in part due to counterproductive meeting behaviors (CMBs). CMBs include engaging in irrelevant discussion, complaining about other attendees, arriving to the meeting late, and other similar, disruptive behaviors. Consistent with conservation of resources theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the potential resource draining effect of CMBs on two key workplace attitudes/behaviors, employee voice, and coworker trust.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors used Amazon’s MTurk service to recruit a sample of full-time working adults from a variety of industries who regularly attend meetings. Participants completed a survey with items relating to CMBs, trust, voice, and meeting load.

Findings

– The authors found that CMBs were indeed negatively related to both employee voice and coworker trust. Further, both of these relationships were even more negative for those who had fewer meetings (i.e. meeting load as a moderator).

Research limitations/implications

– The results of this study suggest that behavior in meetings may spill over and impact employees in other areas of their work life, perhaps harming other important work-related outcomes (e.g. performance). The cross-sectional nature of the sampling strategy is a limitation that provides opportunities for future research as discussed.

Practical implications

– The practical implications are rather straightforward and poignant. Managers and meetings leaders should seek ways to reduce CMBs and promote good meeting processes generally.

Originality/value

– The current study is the first to overtly investigate CMBs in workplace meetings and connect them to meaningful, non-meeting-related, outcomes. Further, the study shows the usefulness of conservation resources theory for explaining the dynamic processes that occur for meeting attendees.
Service user involvement in health professional education: is it effective in promoting recovery-oriented practice?
Authors: Arblaster Karen , Mackenzie Lynette , Willis Karen
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how mental health service user involvement in health professional education adds value to student learning about recovery-oriented practice and to determine the quality and suitability of instruments used in studies to evaluate this involvement in terms of their: relationship to recovery-oriented practice; and psychometric properties.

Design/methodology/approach

– Studies of service user involvement were reviewed to identify their research objectives. These were mapped against an Australian recovery-oriented practice capability framework together with the constructs measured by instruments used in these studies. Psychometric properties for each instrument were evaluated using the COSMIN checklist.

Findings

– While research objectives are not stated in terms of recovery-oriented practice, they do relate to some elements of a recovery-oriented practice framework. No instrument measures outcomes against all recovery-oriented practice domains. The AQ has the strongest evidence for its psychometric properties. The most commonly used instrument measures only stigma and has poorly validated psychometric properties.

Originality/value

– This paper demonstrates that the “value add” of service user involvement in health professional education has been poorly defined and measured to date. Learning from lived experience is central to a recovery-orientation and is an expectation of health professional education programmes. Defining objectives for service user involvement in terms of recovery-oriented practice and developing an instrument which measures student learning against these objectives are important areas for ongoing research supporting improved approaches to supporting people’s recovery.
Embedding peer support using social work values
Authors: Elias Petra , Upton-Davis Karen
Published: October 2015

Purpose

– The employment of mental health consumers as peer support workers (PSWs) to provide support to other consumers is gaining momentum around the world. The purpose of this paper is to explore the tensions and dilemmas for a social worker in developing a peer support programme at an inpatient psychiatric service in Australia. The author draws on her experience of embedding a peer support programme providing an insight into the difficulties experienced and strategies used which supported the embedding of PSWs. The discipline of social work has complimentary values to the philosophy of peer support as well as the skills to manage the broad range of activities and tasks associated with developing a new programme. Due to the profession’s underlying knowledges and values social work is able to act as a bridge between mental health professionals such as doctors and nurses and PSWs giving social workers the ability to “interpret” the divergent languages, values, beliefs and practices.

Design/methodology/approach

– A retrospective analysis of peer support programme implementation using social work values as a point of reference.

Findings

– The author draws on her experience of embedding a peer support programme providing an insight into the difficulties experienced and strategies used which supported the embedding of PSWs. Due to the profession’s underlying knowledges and values social work is able to act as a bridge between mental health professionals such as doctors and nurses and PSWs giving social workers the ability to “interpret” the divergent languages, values, beliefs and practices.

Social implications

– This paper arose out of a conference presentation and author’s Master’s Dissertation, for which she received honours marks. During the period she was implementing the peer support programme, there was a dearth of local (Australian) literature about peer support programme development; this paper is a response to that need as the author would have greatly appreciated some local wisdom about embedding peer support programmes.

Originality/value

– The authors believe this is a unique approach to a journal paper; certainly the authors have not discovered anything of its ilk previously. There is a lot of material available now about peer support, its benefits and challenges, and many are written by social work, psychology, psychiatric and nursing academics but without overt statement of the professional values which inform their practice.