bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The relationship between country‐of‐origin image and brand image as drivers of purchase intentions
Authors: Diamantopoulos Adamantios , Schlegelmilch Bodo , Palihawadana Dayananda
Published: August 2011

Purpose

Against the background of mounting criticism of the country‐of‐origin (COO) construct, the purpose of this paper is to empirically contrast two competing perspectives of the potential influence of country‐of origin image (COI) on purchase intentions.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on personal interviews with over 300 UK consumers, the paper investigates the relative impact of COI and brand image as independent drivers (“orthogonality” perspective), and as causally‐linked drivers (“irradiation” perspective) on consumers’ intentions to buy specific US and Chinese brands.

Findings

Controlling for the effects of brand familiarity, the analysis shows that COI impacts purchase intentions indirectly in that its influence is fully mediated by brand image. These findings are consistent with an “irradiation” perspective of COI effects and demonstrate that brand image evaluations already encapsulate consumers’ COI perceptions.

Research limitations/implications

Based on the country/brand combinations investigated, the results show that the recent criticism against the COO construct is largely unfounded and that the construct remains relevant to international marketing theory and practice.

Practical implications

COO remains a relevant and powerful influence on brand perceptions and, through them, on buying intentions and needs to be carefully managed by companies.

Originality/value

The paper provides explicit empirical comparison of alternative models depicting potential COO influence on behavioural outcomes (brand image evaluations and purchase intentions) in distinct country/brand combinations.
Organizational psychology and poverty reduction
Authors: Burt Christopher D.B. , Carr Stuart C.
Published: August 2011

Purpose

The guest editorial seeks to introduce the papers in this special issue, which focus on the contribution which industrial and organizational psychology can make towards poverty reduction. It also aims to suggest future research directions.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper begins by offering a broad conceptualization of how industrial and organizational psychology can frame an approach towards poverty reduction. The second part gives a brief outline of each paper in the special issue.

Findings

This special issue brings together studies which generally focus on aspects of the aid worker experience, addressing adjustment issues for international aid workers, relationships between workers, and the value of self‐organizing and social support.

Practical implications

Factors, which could hinder aid workers from achieving their goals, are a common theme across the papers. Variables, which need to be considered, scales, which could be adopted for measuring key issues, and policy issues, which aid organizations need to consider, are discussed.

Originality/value

The paper highlights how industrial and organizational psychology can contribute to poverty reduction.
A goat for Christmas: exploring third‐party gifts
Authors: Kemp Simon , Richardson Jessica , Burt Christopher D.B.
Published: August 2011

Purpose

Some charitable organisations market third‐party gifts, in which some good, for example a goat, is given to a developing world beneficiary and at the same time is a present to a recipient in the developed world. Little is known about whether such gifts are successful as presents and whether these are a good charitable marketing device. This paper seeks to examine this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

Two studies investigated attitudes towards, and beliefs about, such gifts in possible and actual donors and recipients.

Findings

Third‐party gifts often make acceptable presents, depending on the recipient and occasion. Gifts of specific goods are preferred to gifts of money, particularly when the benefit to the developing world beneficiary is considered. Such gifts also inspire a reasonable degree of trust.

Research limitations/implications

It is not clear how much benefit beneficiaries receive from third‐party gifts or why donors prefer to give specific goods as gifts.

Practical implications

Third‐party gifts appear to be a successful marketing tool and a means by which poverty can be reduced.

Originality/value

This research extends and combines previous research on gifting to the third‐party gift‐giving process and offers charities some insights into how they might use this process to facilitate donations.
Measuring relationships between workers in poverty‐focused organisations
Authors: McWha Ishbel , MacLachlan Malcolm
Published: August 2011

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a measure of relationships and learning within the aid context.

Design/methodology/approach

The Aid Relationships Quality Scale (ARQS) was administered to 1,290 local and expatriate workers across six countries in three regions (Africa: Malawi, Uganda; Asia: India, China; Oceania: PNG, Solomon Islands), as part of a larger study exploring remuneration differences. Data were factor‐analysed and explored using correlations. Individual and organisational level variance was partialed out in the analyses.

Findings

The ARQS showed a stable factor structure and acceptable reliability for each subscale: “relationship with expatriates”, “relationship with locals”, and “learning from expatriates and locals”. Construct validity was examined using a modification of the Multitrait‐Multimethod Matrix. For the sample as a whole, and at the individual level, both relationships subscales were positively correlated with each other, job satisfaction, and “learning from expatriates and locals”. At the organisational level “relationship with expatriates” correlated positively with pay justice, and international mobility, and negatively with de‐motivation, pay comparison and self‐assessed ability. “Relationships with locals” correlated positively with self‐assessed ability, turnover, and job satisfaction, and negatively with pay justice. The convergent and discriminant correlation patterning is largely in line with theory and thus supports the construct validity of the scale.

Originality/value

Relationships between aid workers are integral to the success of development assistance initiatives. This research has developed a new and brief instrument for measuring one aspect of aid relationships – that between expatriate and local workers.
Stressors and psychological wellbeing in local humanitarian workers in Colombia
Authors: Abad Vergara Jaime , Gardner Dianne
Published: August 2011

Purpose

This study seeks to examine the relationships of stressors, appraisal and coping with psychological wellbeing in 75 local humanitarian personnel from a local non‐governmental organization from Medellin, Colombia.

Design/methodology/approach

Participants answered a pen and paper Spanish version of the Stress Profile.

Findings

Wellbeing was related to adaptive patterns of appraisal, coping, satisfaction with social support, and cognitive hardiness. Stressors were related to dissatisfaction with social support and decreased cognitive hardiness. Stressors were not associated with decreased psychological wellbeing, appraisal or coping.

Research limitations/implications

The effects of social support and cognitive hardiness on psychological wellbeing among aid workers deserves further examination. Further research should also examine the impact of other demographic and psychosocial variables such as experience in humanitarian work, workloads, anxiety and depression. Longitudinal studies are needed to examine changes over time.

Practical implications

It is important not to assume that humanitarian workers' psychological wellbeing is compromised. Humanitarian workers in field and administrative roles do not necessarily experience high stress and low wellbeing but support from family members and work colleagues is important.

Originality/value

Most research into aid work has been carried out on expatriate workers in countries other than their own, but the majority of aid personnel work in their own country. National aid workers are unable to leave demanding or dangerous situations and may require different support and coping strategies from international workers. This study adds to the information on local aid workers' mental health and opens up avenues for further research.
An institutional theoretic perspective on forces driving adoption of lean production globally
Authors: Rossiter Hofer Adriana , Hofer Christian , Eroglu Cuneyt , Waller Matthew A.
Published: August 2011

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess the current state of implementation of lean production practices in China as compared to the USA. Moreover, an institutional‐theoretic framework is developed that explores the interplay among economic, socio‐cultural and regulative forces that may shape the adoption process of lean production practices in China.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws its conclusions from an analysis of survey data from samples of Chinese and US manufacturing executives. Lean production implementation is measured via a survey instrument, and the data are analyzed via regression analysis.

Findings

The results suggest that the degree of implementation of lean production in China is equal to, if not greater than lean production implementation in the USA. While the results are fairly consistent across industries, they vary across different lean production practice bundles. In light of these findings, an institutional theory perspective is adopted to develop further insight into the potential drivers of and barriers to lean production implementation in China. It is argued that, while several economic factors function as enablers for the implementation of these practices, various social processes and cultural traits in China still hinder the full adoption of lean production.

Research limitations/implications

Larger‐scale empirical studies are required for further hypothesis testing and enhanced validity. In particular, the explicit measurement of institutional forces and the statistical analysis of their effects on lean production adoption are recommended for future research.

Originality/value

This is the first study to systematically compare the adoption of lean practices in China and the USA. The analyses and discussions provide a basis for further theory building and hypothesis testing research. In addition, the insights offered in this study may help firms gain a better understanding of the unique opportunities and challenges associated with adoption of lean production in China.
Customer focus, supply‐chain relational capabilities and performance
Authors: Lado Augustine A. , Paulraj Antony , Chen Injazz J.
Published: August 2011

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the extent to which a firm's customer focus drives several interlinked facets of supply chain management and their relationships to customer service and financial performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on diverse streams of research, the authors develop and test an integrated model in which customer focus is proposed to foster supply‐chain relational capabilities, leading to beneficial performance outcomes. This study's empirical validity is enhanced by collecting data from over 200 US manufacturing firms and testing the model using SEM.

Findings

This empirical investigation documents significant positive relationships between (a) customer focus and supply‐chain relational capabilities, (b) customer focus and customer service, (c) supply‐chain relational capabilities and customer service, and (d) customer service and financial performance.

Practical implications

This study holds the important implication for managers that, in order to be effective, supply chain partners must reconfigure their supply chains to be more customer oriented and continually develop and leverage the relational competencies in order to enhance firm competitiveness.

Originality/value

Interdisciplinary in nature, this study is one of the first to conduct empirical supply chain management research using multiple and complementary theoretical perspectives, including strategic management and relationship marketing in order to gain a better understanding of the nuances involved in fostering strategic collaboration among supply chain partners.
The fragility of trust in the world of school principals
Authors: Walker Keith , Kutsyuruba Benjamin , Noonan Brian
Published: August 2011

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the trust‐related aspect of the work of school principals. The authors' exploratory examination of the Canadian school principals' perceptions of their moral agency and trust‐brokering roles described their establishing, maintaining, and recovering of trust in schools. This article is delimited to the selected perceptions of Canadian principals' regarding the fragile nature of trust in their school settings.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used the open‐ended responses from surveys sent to school principals (n=177), who responded to the authors' invitation to complete a survey, as part of a larger study, in the ten provinces and three territories of Canada. The data analyses included theme and cross‐theme analyses.

Findings

This study has pointed to the perception that trust‐related matters are an important, yet a fragile, aspect of the work of principals. Principals often have to deal with trust‐related matters, which have caused trustworthiness to be threatened and trusting relationships to be broken. Trust‐related problems contribute to the fragility of trust and frequently seem to pertain to relationships between principal and other administrators, staff members, parents, and students. Most of the time, principals as leaders felt personal responsibility to make sure relationships among all stakeholders were sustained and, if broken, restored. The prevalent belief among participants in the study was that trusting relationships, though fragile and often broken, are subject to the hope of restoration and renewal.

Originality/value

This study provided valuable findings that enhance the understanding of ethical decision making and trust brokering amongst the Canadian school principals. While the discussions of trust and moral agency are certainly present in the educational literature, not much is known about the self‐perceived role of a principal as both a moral agent and trust broker. Moreover, there is perceived need for qualitative studies in the area of trust in educational leadership.
No we won't! Teachers' resistance to educational reform
Authors: Berkovich Izhak
Published: August 2011

Purpose

Teachers' resistance to educational reform has been explored, with special attention given to the reasons driving opposition and the resistance practices employed inside school walls. These studies have not, however, examined the agenda setting strategy employed by teachers opposing new policy on the national level, nor has any extensive study focused on the messages or rhetoric characterizing their opposition. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the rhetoric and images used in web‐based campaigns by teachers to secure public support for their resistance to the “New Horizon” reform in Israel 2007 teachers' strike.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employs a descriptive case study methodology to illustrate the bottom‐up political strategy employed by teachers seeking public support for their opposition to reform. Content analysis of entries and manifestos posted on prominent teachers' weblogs and partisan school web sites during Israel's 64‐day teachers' strike in 2007 was conducted. Texts discussing the reform and its leaders, as well as educational and policy issues were analyzed inductively, divided according to meaning units, and then grouped together into categories.

Findings

Data indicate that the media, and specifically the internet, are perceived as major arena for garnering legitimacy and support. Teachers' rhetoric of resistance to reform was found to be characterized by: the use of emotional and rational appeals, the attempt to present teachers as “champions of education”, the use of dramatic labeling addressed at reformist leaders, and symbolic images of political parties.

Originality/value

The paper presents a conceptual model of political processes in the education system. The findings show the agenda setting strategy as reflected in teachers' cross‐level bottom‐up attempts to influence politics. Furthermore, teachers' rhetoric in resisting educational reform shows great similarity to the rhetoric of political campaigns. Theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed.
Context matters: principals' sensemaking of teacher hiring and on‐the‐job performance
Authors: Ingle Kyle , Rutledge Stacey , Bishop Jennifer
Published: August 2011

Purpose

School principals make sense of multiple messages, policies, and contexts within their school environments. The purpose of this paper is to examine specifically how school leaders make sense of hiring and subjective evaluation of on‐the‐job teacher performance.

Design/methodology/approach

This qualitative study drew from 42 interviews with 21 principals from a mid‐sized Florida school district. Two rounds of semi‐structured interviews (one to two hours each) were conducted with the informants over two summers (2005‐2006). The multi‐year study allows the authors to assess the consistency across principal participants.

Findings

Principals' personal beliefs, background, and experiences were found to shape their conceptions and preferences for teacher characteristics. School type (e.g. elementary, secondary, levels of poverty) also influenced principals' perceptions of and preferences for specific applicant and teacher characteristics. Principals in the sample, however, showed surprising consistency towards certain characteristics (caring, subject matter knowledge, strong teaching skills) and job fit (person‐job). Sampled principals reported that each vacancy is different and is highly dependent on the position, team, and individuals. Regardless of the position or school setting, federal, state, and district mandates strongly influenced how principals made sense of the hiring process and on‐the‐job performance.

Practical implications

The findings underscore the complexity of the human resource functions in education and raise important questions of how school leaders reconcile personal preferences and building‐level needs with demands from the district, state, and federal levels.

Originality/value

The authors' findings offer important insight into the complex conceptualizations that principals hold and the balances that must be struck in the face of policy and hiring constraints. How principals make sense of teacher quality, however, has not been examined. This study contributes to the extant research and makes a theoretical contribution to studies using a cognitive frame to understand school leadership.
Reviewing person's value of privacy of online social networking
Authors: Hugl Ulrike
Published: August 2011

Purpose

The paper aims at a multi‐faceted review of scholarly work, analyzing the current state of empirical studies dealing with privacy and online social networking (OSN) as well as the theoretical “puzzle” of privacy approaches related to OSN usage from the background of diverse disciplines. Drawing on a more pragmatic and practical level, aspects of privacy management are presented as well.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on individual privacy concerns and also publicly communicated threats, information privacy has become an important topic of public and scholarly discussion. Beside diverse positive aspects of OSN sites for users, their information is for example also being used for data mining and profiling, pre‐recruiting information as well as economic espionage. This review highlights information privacy mainly from an individual point‐of‐view, focusing on the usage of OSN sites (OSNs).

Findings

This analysis of scholarly work shows the following findings: first, adults seem to be more concerned about potential privacy threats than younger users; second, policy makers should be alarmed by a large part of users who underestimate risks of their information privacy on OSNs; third, in the case of using OSNs and its services, traditional one‐dimensional privacy approaches fall short. Hence, findings of this paper further highlight the necessity to focus on multidimensional and multidisciplinary frameworks of privacy, for example considering a so‐called “privacy calculus paradigm” and rethinking “fair information practices” from a more and more ubiquitous environment of OSNs.

Originality/value

The results of the work presented in this paper give new opportunities for research as well as suggestions for privacy management issues for OSN providers and users.
Effects of virtual‐experience combinations on consumer‐related “sense of virtual community”
Authors: Keng Ching‐Jui , Ting Hui‐Ying , Chen Ya‐Ting
Published: August 2011

Purpose

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of different virtual product experiences (VPEs, interpersonal and machine) on sense of virtual community (SOVC) for consumers. Furthermore, parasocial interaction (PSI) and the sequence of VPEs likely moderate the relationship between different combinations of VPEs and SOVC.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employed a factorial online experimental design: 8 (combinations of VPEs, between subjects) x 2 (sequences of VPEs, between subjects). Participants were randomly assigned to the 16 groups.

Findings

The results show that with a high degree of PSI, the “escapism + social” VPEs group has the greatest beneficial effects on SOVC, whereas with a low degree of PSI, the “aesthetics + information” VPEs group has the greatest beneficial effects on SOVC. Besides, in VPES sequence 1 (interpersonal → machine), the “escapism + social” VPEs group has a greater effect on SOVC, whereas in sequence 2 (machine → interpersonal), there was no statistically significant difference for VPEs combinations relative to SOVC.

Practical implication

This study determines that consumers with different degrees of PSI differ from one another regarding their interactions with web sites and communities. Therefore, the characteristics of PSI provide manufacturers with various marketing strategies for interaction. The combinations and sequences of interpersonal and machine VPEs in this study can provide manufacturers with suggestions for appropriate online shopping web site design.

Originality/value

Although the importance of these virtual experiences is continuously increasing, there is still a lack of studies that empirically analyze from the combinations of machine interaction and interpersonal interaction of VPEs of the effects on consumer behavior.
The effect of channel quality inconsistency on the association between e‐service quality and customer relationships
Authors: Liao Chien‐Hsiang , Rebecca Yen Hsiuju , Li Eldon Y.
Published: August 2011

Purpose

Based on prior studies, the performance of customer relationships depends highly on the characteristics of the e‐service. However, the strength of this association can be impacted when businesses employ multichannel services (e.g. offering online and offline services). With multichannel services, any inconsistency in perceived quality across channels may result in customer distrust toward a service provider. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of inconsistent quality on the association between e‐service quality and customer relationships in a university context.

Design/methodology/approach

This study conducted a web survey and 318 respondents who have both physical and e‐service experiences were collected. The inconsistent quality across channels was divided into three groups by k‐means clustering approach. Next, the hypothesized associations were analyzed using regression analysis based on three groups.

Findings

The results show that inconsistent quality has different impacts on the association between e‐service quality and customer relationships across the three groups. Especially in the positive disconfirmation group, the investment in e‐services will be in vain because certain e‐service sub‐constructs lose their impact on customer relationships.

Practical implications

The findings of this study provide implications for improving customer relationships under different cross‐channel quality inconsistency conditions for managers.

Originality/value

This study extends the concept of expectancy disconfirmation theory to the multichannel service context and pioneers the exploration of the moderating effect of cross‐channel quality inconsistency in customer relationships, contributing to the understanding of the literature about the impacts of inconsistent quality on customer relationships.
Understanding customers' satisfaction and repurchase intentions
Authors: Fang Yu‐Hui , Chiu Chao‐Min , Wang Eric T.G.
Published: August 2011

Purpose

The aim of this study is to extend DeLone and McLean's IS success model by introducing justice – fair treatments received from the exchanging party – and trust into a theoretical model for studying customers' repurchase intentions in the context of online shopping.

Design/methodology/approach

The research model was tested with data from 219 of PCHome's online shopping customers using a web survey. PLS (partial least squares) was used to analyze the measurement and structural models.

Findings

Data collected from 219 valid respondents provided support for all but one hypotheses (with a p‐value of less than 0.05). The unsupported hypothesis regards the relationship between service quality and satisfaction (H4). The study shows that trust, net benefits, and satisfaction are significant positive predictors of customers' repurchase intentions toward online shopping. Information quality, system quality, trust, and net benefits, are significant determinants of customer satisfaction. Besides, online trust is built through distributive, procedural, and interactional justice. Overall, the research model accounted for 79 percent of the variance of repurchase intention.

Originality/value

An endeavor to extend the updated IS success model in terms of the peculiar nature of e‐commerce is needed. The study complements the updated IS success model with justice trust perspectives, considering them a more comprehensive measure of online shopping satisfaction and repurchase intention in an e‐commerce context.
Museums and the future of education
Authors: Kratz Scott , Merritt Elizabeth
Published: August 2011

Purpose

The US educational system is on the cusp of transformational change. Signals that the current educational structure has been destabilized include rising dissatisfaction with the formal educational system and the proliferation of non‐traditional forms of primary education. In the coming era, museums will play a key role in the new educational landscape. A broad and shared understanding among policy makers, reformers and practitioners of the unique capabilities of museums will ensure that the new educational infrastructure takes full advantage of these strengths. This paper seeks to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper provides an overview of educational innovation in a broad cross section of US museums, citing selected examples.

Findings

There is an emerging consensus that whatever the new educational era looks like, it will focus on the development of a core set of skills. This paper reviews some ways in which museums are helping learners develop the core skills of critical thinking, synthesizing information, ability to innovate and think creatively, and collaboration. The USA needs to scale up the educational resources and skills provided by its museums via online access, better indexing of online resources, physically incorporating museums into schools and schools into museums, and making museums central points for teacher training. This will ensure museums can provide equitable access to their unique resources and fulfill their potential in the new educational landscape.

Originality/value

By applying the techniques of forecasting to the field of education, this paper provides glimpses of potential futures as seen in the vibrant innovations in education currently taking place outside traditional schools.
A time‐based blended learning model
Authors: Norberg Anders , Dziuban Charles D. , Moskal Patsy D.
Published: August 2011

Purpose

This paper seeks to outline a time‐based strategy for blended learning that illustrates course design and delivery by framing students' learning opportunities in synchronous and asynchronous modalities.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper deconstructs the evolving components of blended learning in order to identify changes induced by digital technologies for enhancing teaching and learning environments.

Findings

This paper hypothesizes that blended learning may be traced back to early medieval times when printed material provided the first asynchronous learning opportunities. However, the digitalization of contemporary learning environments results in a de‐emphasis on teaching and learning spaces. When time becomes the primary organizing construct for education in a technology‐supported environment, blending possibilities emerge around five components: migration, support, location, learner empowerment, and flow.

Research limitations/implications

This study enables the readers to conceptualize blended learning as a combination of modern media, communication modes, times and places in a new kind of learning synthesis in place of traditional classrooms and technology with the teacher serving as a facilitator of a collective learning process.

Practical implications

The major implication of this paper is that modern learning technologies have freed students and educators from the lock in of classroom space as being the primary component of blended learning, thereby emphasizing learning rather than teaching in the planning process.

Originality/value

This paper proposes a new model of blended learning in which physical teaching environments give way to time. Time and synchronicity become the primary elements of the learning environments. In addition, the authors suggest that the time‐based model as an educational “new normal” results in technologies as enablers rather than disruptors of learning continuity.
Inter‐institutional collaboration for new integrative teaching programs
Authors: Dörner Nadin , Morhart Felicitas , Gassmann Oliver , Tomczak Torsten
Published: August 2011

Purpose

This paper presents an inter‐institutional collaboration project. The project's goal was to develop a new teaching program that fosters pre‐university innovation and entrepreneurship education. The purpose of this paper is to derive implications for future inter‐institutional collaborations.

Design/methodology/approach

The development and testing of the new teaching program corresponds to the design science paradigm.

Findings

The findings illustrate that inter‐institutional collaboration can generate completely new approaches that are able to deal with new challenges in education.

Research limitations/implications

This research focuses only on one specific inter‐institutional collaboration project. The findings are limited to this project.

Practical implications

The paper discusses implications for future educational collaboration projects to develop new teaching programs.

Originality/value

The paper presents a collaboration project between university, school and industry. It illustrates that new teaching approaches can be successfully realised in collaboration. The paper also reports the applicability of a new, namely transformational, teaching approach.
Ask, don't tell: can it work for K‐12?
Authors: Becker Stacy
Published: August 2011

Purpose

This purpose of this paper is to review Marc Prensky's book Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for Real Learning.

Design/methodology/approach

Prensky's book takes aim at classroom practices, arguing that there are more effective ways for students to acquire knowledge and skills. Specifically, teachers should move from “tell and explain” pedagogical techniques to those that “ask and challenge”. This paper considers Prensky's approach in light of today's K‐12 educational system, what K‐12 education needs to deliver for the future, and relevant research findings.

Findings

Our education system faces two unprecedented challenges: all children must be educated, without exception; and for a future that is unknowable. Marc Prensky provides a simple answer to both: if education can't provide students the answers for negotiating the future, it must provide them the skills to figure it out for themselves. Prensky's advice for teachers is consistent with recent research about the importance of student engagement to learning. The practicality of his prescriptions is questioned, however, especially given the constructs of our educational system and No Child Left Behind.

Originality/value

While Prensky's book was written primarily for an audience of K‐12 teachers, this paper will be of greatest interest to K‐12 administrators and reformers. The paper suggests that, while Prensky's approach may be valid, it is unrealistic to expect a wholesale change among teaching practices if the structure of school itself does not change to enable and support those new teaching practices.
Has post‐secondary education reached a tipping point?
Authors: Abeles Tom P.
Published: August 2011

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is as follows: this is a short excursion into the changing world of post‐secondary education through a review of two books: Reinventing Higher Education: The Promise of Innovation, by Ben Wildavsky, Andrew P Kelly and Kevin Carey; and DIY U, by Aya Kamenetz.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper presents reviews of two recently published books.

Findings

The economics and functions of post secondary education at the baccalaureate and post‐baccalaureate (research) levels are changing in a world where knowledge flows freely across geo‐political boundaries. The Ivory Tower no longer commands from a fixed location or as the center of knowledge, both the historic and the new.

Originality/value

Individuals as well as public and private sector entities have multiple sources for knowledge and new abilities of sharing and obtaining knowledge. “The Academy” as created in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as an independent home for scholarly endeavors has changed as new demands are placed upon the institutions and the faculty.
On the illusion of organizational commitment among finance professionals
Authors: Furtmueller Elfi , van Dick Rolf , Wilderom Celeste P.M.
Published: August 2011

Purpose

This paper seeks to question and discuss the relevance of organizational, customer and professional commitment for effectively managing financial service firms. In particular, it aims to study differences between employed and self‐employed finance professionals.

Design/methodology approach

The authors conducted in‐depth interviews with professionals in 30 finance firms in Austria. The interviews aimed to reveal professionals' notions of commitment as it pertains to each interviewee's specific work context, whether self‐employed or employed.

Findings

Although the financial services sector requires professionals to routinely display both high customer and professional commitment, it appears that organizational commitment is unrelated to performance. While employed finance professionals experience conflicts between organizational and customer commitment (e.g. selling in‐house products that may not perfectly match customers' needs), self‐employed professionals tend to clash between customers' best interests and their own self‐interest (e.g. selling products and services for which they receive the highest commission). All professionals noted that they work in a competitive environment with a focus on individual sales. Individual performance ratings were found to prevent the development of strong branch or team commitment.

Research limitations/implications

Although qualitative methods are a starting‐point for identifying serious issues, quantitative studies across larger samples are needed to evaluate the scope of the findings.

Practical implications

The findings imply that financial services may not benefit much from HRM efforts that strive to obtain firm‐wide or organizational commitment. In large financial service firms the routine turnover of good professionals can be curbed if management starts to pay attention to creating flexible work arrangements, and enabling professionals to commit to customers and their profession.

Originality/value

While prior research suggests fostering the organizational commitment of employees, this study finds the concept of organization‐wide commitment to be of less importance for managing finance firms. This lack of importance of organizational commitment was found to be independent of finance professionals' contractual status (employed or self‐employed); whereas customer and professional commitment were associated with high performance motivation.
Production control of unreliable manufacturing systems producing defective items
Authors: Mhada F. , Hajji A. , Malhamé R. , Gharbi A. , Pellerin R.
Published: August 2011

Purpose

This paper seeks to address the production control problem of a failure‐prone manufacturing system producing a random fraction of defective items.

Design/methodology/approach

A fluid model with perfectly mixed good and defective parts has been proposed. This approach combines the descriptive capacities of continuous/discrete event simulation models with analytical models, experimental design, and regression analysis. The main objective of the paper is to extend the Bielecki and Kumar theory, appearing under the title “Optimality of zero‐inventory policies for unreliable manufacturing systems”, under which the machine considered produced only good quality items, to the case where the items produced are systematically a mixture of good as well as defective items.

Findings

The paper first shows that for constant demand rates and exponential failure and repair time distributions of the machine, the Bielecki‐Kumar theory, adequately revisited, provides new and coherent results. For the more complex situation where the machine exhibits non‐exponential failure and repair time distributions, a simulation‐based approach is then considered. The usefulness of the proposed models is illustrated through numerical examples and sensitivity analysis.

Originality/value

Although the decisions taken in response to demands for productivity have a direct impact on product quality, management quality and production management have been traditionally treated as independent research fields. In response to this need, this paper is considered as a preliminary work in the intersection between quality control and production control issues.
Simulation‐based approach to joint production and preventive maintenance scheduling on a failure‐prone machine
Authors: Benmansour Rachid , Allaoui Hamid , Artiba Abdelhakim , Iassinovski Serguei , Pellerin Robert
Published: August 2011

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to propose and model an integrated production‐maintenance strategy for a failure‐prone machine in a just‐in‐time context.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed integrated policy is defined and a simulation model is developed to investigate it.

Findings

The paper focuses on finding simultaneously two decision variables: the period (T) at which preventive maintenance actions have to be performed; and the sequence of jobs (S). These values minimize the maintenance costs (MC) and the expected total earliness and tardiness costs (ETC) away from a common due‐date D.

Practical implications

The paper attempts to integrate in a single model the two main aspects of any manufacturing and production systems: production and maintenance. It focuses on a stochastic scheduling problem in which n immediately available jobs are to be scheduled jointly with the preventive maintenance. The effect of the period (T) and the sequence of job (S) on the expected total cost are shown through a numerical example.

Originality/value

The paper proposes an integrated model that links production, preventive maintenance and corrective maintenance. It is simultaneously focusing on the period (T) at which preventive maintenance actions have to be performed and the sequence of jobs (S) to reduce production and maintenance‐related costs.
On coordinating maintenance, production and subcontracting: insights from simulation models
Authors: Cormier Gilles , Rezg Nidhal
Published: August 2011

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to gain some insights into the number of shortages resulting from two alternative demand allocation schemes between a contractor (machine M1) and subcontractor (machine M2), on the one hand, and from inventory accumulation, on the other hand. The shortages stem from random machine breakdowns, and each machine undergoes preventive maintenance. The motivation behind inventory accumulation is to allow demand to be fulfilled even when both machines are down.

Design/methodology/approach

The number of shortages stemming from all scenarios under consideration was established via computer simulation with the Arena© language.

Findings

For demand allocation that remains unchanged for the duration of the planning horizon and constant reliability of M1, it was found that, the less reliable M2 is, the more biased in favour of M1 will be the optimal demand allocation and the greater will be the number of shortages. Moreover, both dynamic demand reallocation over the planning horizon and inventory accumulation result in a substantial reduction in shortages.

Research limitations/implications

The results are representative of the specific data, which were assumed in the simulation models. Nevertheless, this methodology is recommended for this type of analysis, as it is highly flexible and can take into account many practical considerations, which an analytical approach cannot.

Practical implications

Within the context of unreliable production machines, the most important practical implication of this study is that the dynamic reallocation of demand between a contractor and subcontractor, along with inventory accumulation, both have the potential to yield important reductions in the number of shortages.

Originality/value

The subject‐matter of this paper was not previously reported in the literature. Furthermore, the insights gained as a result of this study can yield substantial benefits to companies in terms of improving their service levels as measured by reduced shortages.
Maintenance/production planning with interactive feedback of product quality
Authors: Njike Achille N. , Pellerin Robert , Pierre Kenne Jean
Published: August 2011

Purpose

This paper seeks to develop an optimal stochastic control model where interactive feedback consists of the quantity of flawless and defective products. The main objective of this study is to minimize the expected discounted overall cost due to maintenance activities, inventory holding and backlogs.

Design/methodology/approach

The model differs from similar research projects in that, instead of age‐dependent machine failure, it considers only defective products as feedback into the optimal model for maintenance and production planning. In this paper a near optimal control policy of the system through numerical techniques is obtained.

Findings

In this paper, a new model in which the system's retroaction is the quantity of defective products is presented, considering that defective products are a consequence of global manufacturing system deterioration. Instead of taking into account machine failure and human error separately, it considers a defect in product as being the consequence of a combined failure; this consideration allows one to be more realistic by merging all failure parameters into a single one. A new stochastic control model, which focuses on defective products, inventory, and backlog, has been developed.

Research limitations/implications

This approach extended the concept of hedging point policy to the quantity of defective products combined with preventive and corrective maintenance strategies. The control policy obtained has a bang bang structure and is completely known for given parameters.

Originality/value

The integration of maintenance and production strategies has been mainly focused on the machine. Many research projects have been focusing on the age when dealing with machine failure. It is considered as the main target of the cost reduction in maintenance engineering departments. The originality of this paper is the taking into account of all operational failures into the same optimization model. It brings a value added to high level of maintenance and for operation managers who need to consider all failure parameters before taking decisions related to cost.
Day in the life of a Service User
Authors: Dewan Veronica
Published: August 2011

I was asked to join the editorial board of A Life in the Day to provide a service user perspective. It is the intention to have an article reflecting this perspective in every issue.The idea for a ‘day in the life’ article is far from unique; what is still unusual is for such an article to be written by a service user and published. It is painful to write about your experiences as Veronica Dewan has done so movingly. It takes great courage to speak up and speak out about your life as a mental health service user. Veronica has done this and more are following in her footsteps every day. They deserve all the support and encouragement we can give them. We must take note of what they say and do something positive in our own ‘day in the life’.
Learning from Fokida
Authors: Phillips Helen , Bryson Tim , Anderson Sue , Winstone Neil
Published: August 2011

Inspired by Athena Frangouli's description of the mobile teams and co‐operatives in rural Greece, four colleagues from the voluntary sector and the health service in rural Cambridgeshire scraped together the wherewithal to go and see for themselves the lessons that can be learned from the Greek experience. This is what they found…
Challenge and Change through Drama
Authors: LeFevre Sharon
Published: August 2011

Some people use their skills and talents to achieve employment, others put them to the service of the community. Sharon LeFevre adds a dimension by putting her skills as an actress and playwright to the task of challenging the way mental distress is framed in psychiatric discourse, and through performance and discussion relating the experience of self‐harm and hearing voices to the discourse of every day life. Some of her work is the result of a collaboration with Phil Thomas, a consultant psychiatrist and senior lecturer in psychological medicine at Bradford, who also acts with her in live performances.
Fingers in the Till
Authors: Bates Peter
Published: August 2011

Keys to Power is a regular column which looks at practical ways of handing power back to the true owners — people who use services. It is worth noting that while users have often asked for the keys that unlock opportunities in their own lives, service providers have focused on offering the keys to services. People ask for a decent place to live, but professionals offer them a chance to redecorate the day centre. People ask for a decent income, but professionals invite them to join interview panels where they decide on someone else's income. Because of these sobering realities it is vital to keep a sense of due humility about the process of user involvement in day services — it is not a substitute for love, a pleasant home or money in your pocket. But it is something, and it is about justice, so we must continue the search for ways of sharing the keyholding. This issue looks at cash handling.
A Day in the Life of Michael
Authors: Nettle Mary
Published: August 2011

Michael Rothwell was born in the 1960s and raised for the first ten years of his life in Africa. He was WASP — White Anglo‐Saxon Protestant. He had problems much later, and he writes now about his experiences in the 1980s and more recent times…