bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Integrating piggyBac Transposon Transgenes into Mouse Fibroblasts by Electroporation
Authors: Behringer Richard , Gertsenstein Marina , Nagy Kristina Vintersten , Nagy Andras
Published: October 2017

Mouse embryonic fibroblasts can be reprogrammed to embryonic stem (ES) cell-like pluripotent stem cells by the forced expression of four transcription factors—OCT4, SOX2, KLF4, and c-MYC. The piggyBac transposon system has proven effective as a vehicle for the delivery of transgenes into fibroblasts and for successful reprogramming to induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. This protocol is designed for use with the Neon electroporation system. It can be adapted to other types of electroporation systems.
Collagen-Embedded Tumor Transplantations in Xenopus laevis Tadpoles
Authors: Banach Maureen , Robert Jacques
Published: October 2017

The Xenopus laevis tadpole provides a valuable model for studying tumorigenesis and tumor immunity by intravital real-time microscopy. Using well-characterized thymic lymphoid tumor lines (15/0 and ff-2) that are transplantable into their compatible hosts (LG-15 isogenic clones and the F inbred strain, respectively), a system of semisolid tumor engraftment has been designed. Because these lymphoid tumor cell lines are not adherent and grow in suspension, they are first immobilized in a matrix of type I rat tail collagen before transplantation as a semisolid tumor graft under the transparent dorsal skin in the head region of a tadpole. This semisolid tumor engraftment is amenable to manipulation and permits real-time visualization of tumor growth, neovascularization, collagen rearrangements, immune cell infiltration, and formation of the tumor microenvironment.
β-Galactosidase
Authors: Uchil Pradeep D. , Nagarajan Arvindhan , Kumar Priti
Published: October 2017

β-galactosidase is used as a reporter for the quantitative analysis of gene expression. It is also used as a histochemical marker. This introduction briefly reviews the enzymatic reactions catalyzed by β-galactosidase and methods for assaying β-galactosidase activity.
Role of restaurant employees’ intrinsic motivations on knowledge management
Authors: Lee Seonjeong (Ally) , Kim Soon-Ho
Published: October 2017

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the role of restaurant employees’ intrinsic motivations that influenced their knowledge-sharing behaviors and knowledge application behaviors, based on need theory and prior knowledge management research.

Design/methodology/approach

A cross-sectional, self-administered survey was used to collect data from employees who work in the food and beverage sections of hotels, coffee shops or restaurants.

Findings

Results from this study supported the role of employees’ intrinsic motivations to share knowledge with other employees and apply their knowledge to actions. Moreover, results identified employees’ knowledge application behaviors that influenced their innovative behaviors.

Originality/value

This paper investigated the role of restaurant employees’ intrinsic motivations on their knowledge management and innovative behaviors.
Does paying higher franchise fees command higher RevPAR?
Authors: Hua Nan , O’Neill John W. , Nusair Khaldoon , Singh Dipendra , DeFranco Agnes
Published: October 2017

Purpose

This study aims to validate the value-added hypothesis in hotel franchising using data from 2,120 properties across the United States with a total of 12,720 observations over a six-year period of 2008-2013.

Design/methodology/approach

A series of annual cross-sectional regressions for each of the sample years and aggregated panel regressions for all sample hotel years were conducted. Newey–West errors were computed to address potential issues of autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity, and sensitivity tests were also performed.

Findings

The paper concludes that franchise royalty fee adds value to hotel franchisees as it significantly and positively affects revenue per available room (RevPAR) for all sample years after controlling for the major determining dimensions of RevPAR. A series of sensitivity tests also show robustness of results.

Research limitations/implications

This study offers a rational and empirical explanation for the positive and significant effect of franchise royalty fees on hotel performance and the value-added hypothesis. Hoteliers need to ensure that there is a proper match between hotel specific attributes and the potential franchise when making a franchise selection. Individual entrepreneurs can partner with franchisors to reap the benefits of franchising, while experienced hoteliers can also use the findings of this study to make strategic decisions.

Originality/value

This study is the first using actual performance data from a large hotel property sample over multiple years to validate the value-added theory, where a higher royalty fee does command a higher RevPAR.
Chinese hotel firm internationalisation: Jin Jiang’s joint venture acquisition
Authors: Gross Michael J. , Huang Songshan (Sam) , Ding Yi
Published: October 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of mainland Chinese hotel firm internationalisation relative to traditional Western internationalisation theory through an analysis of the Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels Group’s joint venture with the Thayer Lodging Group to acquire Interstate Hotels & Resorts.

Design/methodology/approach

The case study method was used to examine the three firms involved in the joint venture acquisition. The technique of elite interviews was used to collect primary data. Semi-structured personal interviews were conducted with senior corporate executives who were engaged as principals with the conception, execution and administration of the joint venture. Content analysis was performed with the interview data, seeking themes and patterns consistent with the study purpose.

Findings

The findings demonstrated specific characteristics that distinguish the internationalisation that Jin Jiang has pursued. The five distinctive characteristics were as follows: a “leap” market entry mode, a pattern of “a small fish eats a big fish”, a preference for purchasing hotels in the West, capital sourcing from Chinese banks and strategic rather than operational control of the acquired firm.

Research limitations/implications

The findings indicate both similarities and differences between the China context of hotel firm internationalisation and that of Western firms. Theoretical implications are examined through an analysis of Dunning’s OLI (ownership, location, internalisation) framework. Generalisability of empirical findings may be limited by the China context and the unique combination of three firms.

Practical implications

The findings advance our understanding of the relationship between Chinese and Western practices, particularly in the approaches that firms take in internationalisation.

Originality/value

The story reported in this paper is about the first firm internationalisation endeavour in the mainland Chinese hotel industry. This is a landmark event for the international hospitality industry that will have historical significance, and represents the leading edge of mainland Chinese hotel firm cross-border expansion. This study contributes an early analysis of how the Chinese hotel sector may approach internationalisation.
Factors that influence hand hygiene practice amongst occupational therapy students
Authors: Wall Olivia M. , Smiddy Maura P.
Published: October 2017

Purpose

Hand hygiene is the single most important intervention to reduce the risk of acquiring infection. All healthcare workers and healthcare students have a responsibility to prevent transmission of infection. The purpose of this study is to investigate students’ attitudes to hand hygiene following university-based education and practice placement. Students attended a lecture, completed an e-learning module, participated in a practical session using a ultra-violet light hand inspection cabinet and engaged in clinical placement.

Design/methodology/approach

In all, 64 students participated in a multimodal hand hygiene education programme before clinical placement, with each student completing an in-class questionnaire after placement. Data were analysed using descriptive and comparative statistics. Students rated educational methods that had most influence on them. Their preference was for a practical hand hygiene education session. Students were also influenced by the therapist they were on placement with. They were least influenced by the didactic college presentation.

Findings

This study highlights that students may be influenced by different methods of education at different stages in their course and that placement may be an important influencing factor in the earlier years of occupational therapy education.

Research limitations/implications

This study highlights the importance of the availability of a multimodal educational approach and clinical placement to promote increased compliance with hand hygiene amongst students.

Practical implications

University healthcare course curricula should include multimodal approaches to the education of hand hygiene. While hand hygiene e-learning modules are beneficial, they should be used in conjunction with a multimodal educational strategy that incorporates practical elements. The influence of the therapist on a students’ behaviour should be utilised to improve both student and professionals hand hygiene adherence.

Originality/value

Original piece of work that is not widely discussed in Occupational Therapy literature.
Taming cronyism!: the role of Public Private Dialogues
Authors: Sabry Mohamed Ismail
Published: October 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of Public Private Dialogues (PPD) on cronyism accounting for various cultural and governance institutions.

Design/methodology/approach

It proposes a number of hypotheses on: whether PPD characterized by high official representation and business representation, through mainly building trust, succeed in minimizing cronyism; whether certain cultural and governance institutions help PPD in achieving this; and in cultural settings which are originally inducing cronyism whether PPD help in minimizing cronyism. These are tested empirically using an ordinary least squares multivariate panel regression.

Findings

High official representation and high business people’s participation in PPD were found to help in minimizing cronyism in different cultures. This is arguably attributed to building trust in cultures characterized by having low general trust and low trust in governments. Accountability and transparency are significantly assisting PPD in this regard. Yet, PPD do not always succeed in taming cronyism, and in particular in ethnic fractionalized societies and societies having high collective cultures.

Research limitations/implications

The biggest challenge this research faced was estimating a proxy for PPD. Better data on business associations’ participation worldwide are needed to construct a more developed proxy.

Practical implications

PPD with high business participation and government representation should be encouraged. The same is true for reform leading to higher levels of transparency and accountability.

Originality/value

Constructing a proxy for PPD that allowed meta-analysis; and investigating theoretically and empirically the effect of the interaction of PPD with various institutions on cronyism.
The effects of microfinance on women’s empowerment: new evidence from Bangladesh
Authors: Rahman Mohammad Mafizur , Khanam Rasheda , Nghiem Son
Published: October 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of microcredit on women’s empowerment in rural Bangladesh using the latest primary data.

Design/methodology/approach

Primary data have been collected by a household survey in the four districts of Bangladesh. Logistic regression is used to estimate the odd of improving women empowerment after participating in microfinance.

Findings

The results show positive impacts of microfinance on most of the selected indicators for women’s empowerment.

Research limitations/implications

Lack of control groups and baseline data are the main limitation of this research. Future research can address this issue by selecting institutions with baseline data or control groups.

Practical implications

The findings of the study can help policy makers to adopt appropriate policies that integrate empowerment in development projects with women.

Social implications

The results of this research could encourage more women to participate in microfinance activities and development projects.

Originality/value

This research provides the most updated data from a primary survey in Bangladesh. The authors also mitigate the possible selection biases by using a fixed-effects estimator.
Islamic vs conventional Human Development Index: empirical evidence from ten Muslim countries
Authors: Aydin Necati
Published: October 2017

Purpose

Given the fact that the Islamic economic paradigm differs from the secular capitalist paradigm in terms of its emphasis on morality and spirituality, the author thinks that the current Human Development Index (HDI) does not capture human development from an Islamic perspective. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to provide a paradigmatic, theoretical, and conceptual model for the suggested Islamic HDI (iHDI) and second, to present several proxy variables for multi-dimensional iHDI and test the proposed index through empirical data for ten Muslim countries.

Design/methodology/approach

The author developed eight-dimensional composite iHDIs based on the understanding of human nature from the Tawhidi anthropology. These dimensions included physical, reasoning, spiritual, ethical, animal, social, deciding, and oppressive selves. The author measured them using nine different indices, three of which came from the conventional HDI (cHDI). The author then compared the rankings of those Muslim countries in iHDI to those in cHDI.

Findings

The iHDI rankings for all Muslim countries except two differed from those in cHDI. The difference was more substantial for countries with higher economic development. Thus, improved cHDI rankings for Muslim countries based on their economic development do not necessarily mean that they move toward ideal human development. This finding confirms the need for an alternative human development indexing approach from an Islamic perspective.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is likely to initiate movement to develop an alternative HDI from Islamic perspective.

Practical implications

The paper findings have important policy implications for Muslim countries.

Originality/value

It is the first empirical paper showing how to develop an alternative HDI from an Islamic perspective.
Income shocks, informal insurance mechanisms, and household consumption expenditure
Authors: Ajefu Joseph Boniface
Published: October 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of income shocks on household real consumption expenditure, taking into account the various informal coping strategies adopted by the households. Using Nigerian Household Panel Survey data for the year 2010/2011 and 2012/2013 respectively, and probit model estimation approach, the results suggest that idiosyncratic shocks have effect on household consumption expenditure and the informal insurance strategies play only limited roles in providing the needed insurance to households in the face of shocks. Also, the effect of shocks vary according to households characteristics, which depends on whether the household is headed by male or female and urban or rural dweller.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper explores the fixed effects and probit model estimation approach to examine the relationship between the effect of covariate and self-reported idiosyncratic shocks on household welfare. The study examines the effectiveness of the various informal coping measures adopted by households against shocks.

Findings

The results suggest that idiosyncratic shocks have been found to have little effect on real consumption expenditure and the informal insurance strategies play only limited roles in providing the much needed insurance to households in the face of shocks. Also, the effect of shocks vary according to households characteristics, whether the household is headed by male or female and urban or rural dweller is important.

Originality/value

The novelty of this essay is to investigate the relationship between variation in self-reported shocks to income across households and real consumption expenditure in Nigeria – a poor, risk-prone country – considering also, the ease with which households adopt the various risk-coping strategies, which help them in smoothing consumption over time.
The challenges facing poverty alleviation and financial inclusion in North-East Kenya Province (NEKP)
Authors: Ali Abd elrhman Elzahi Saaid
Published: October 2017

Purpose

Poverty alleviation is one of the most compelling challenges facing Kenya today. It is not only widespread but it is also steadily rising. This highlights the need for sustainable solutions to poverty particularly through microfinance. This research investigated the case of North Eastern Kenya Province. The purpose of this paper is to explore the unique micro-level challenges that are faced by poverty alleviation programs adopted by microfinance institutions operating in this region.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used structured questionnaires to collect primary data. The sample covered 600 respondents randomly selected from three counties, namely, Wajir, Mandera and Marsabit. Three focus group discussions comprising 24 participants held to facilitate a deeper understanding of the challenges of poverty among the North Eastern Province’s communities when alleviated through micro-finance.

Findings

The results reveal that the illiteracy due to the weakness of education and the unfavorable basic and financial infrastructures such as roads, telecommunications network represents the most important challenges that may affect the success of micro-finance programs.

Research limitations/implications

These results recommend that both conventional and Islamic micro-finance might contribute positively for poverty alleviation for the poorest Kenyan region if the challenges are mitigated.

Practical implications

The study provides policy recommendations for the Kenya Government and the conventional and Islamic banks in Kenya to provide the expected support for the poorest area in the country.

Social implications

The result of this research might help the government, micro-finance providers and the donors to assist in alleviating the poverty of the Northern Kenyan community.

Originality/value

To overcome the challenges of alleviating poverty in the region of Northern Kenya.
Educational mismatch and its impact on earnings: evidence from Indian labour market
Authors: Sharma Swati , Sharma Prateek
Published: October 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the incidence and determinants of educational mismatch in the Indian labour market. It also attempts to measure the wage effects of educational mismatch, and other individual and work-related characteristics.

Design/methodology/approach

Educational mismatch is modelled using multiple Mincerian equations. Wage effects are measured using the novel identification strategy of Lewbel (2012), which constructs internal instruments to obviate potential endogeneity problems.

Findings

The authors find that the returns to over-education are positive and significant, while the returns to under-education are negative and significant. However, over-educated would earn less than the workers who have the same educational level, but who are engaged in occupations for which they are adequately educated.

Originality/value

This study is one of the earliest attempts to identify the determinants of educational mismatch in the Indian labour market. Additionally, it measures the effect of educational mismatch on labour market earnings, as well as marginal wage effects of each surplus (or deficit) year of education. Methodological improvements ensure that the results are robust to the sample selection bias, as well as the endogeneity bias.
Returns to education and occupations for Canadian Aboriginal people
Authors: Fan Lida , Brownlee Keith , Habibov Nazim N. , Neckoway Raymond
Published: October 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, drawing on a unique data set, the authors estimate the returns to education for Canadian Aboriginal people. Second, the authors explore the relationship between occupation and the economic well-being, measured as income, of Aboriginal people in an effort to provide a better understanding of the causes of income gaps for Aboriginal people.

Design/methodology/approach

The data used in this study is the Public Use Microdata File of Aboriginal People’s Survey, 2012. An ordered logit model is used to estimate the key determinants for income groups. Then the marginal effects of each variable, for the probability of being in each category of the outcomes, are derived.

Findings

All the explanatory variables, including demographic, educational and occupational variables, appeared statistically significant with predicted signs. These results confirmed relationships between income level and education and occupations.

Research limitations/implications

The data limitation of income, as a categorical variable prevents the precise estimation of the contributions of the dependent variables in dollar amount.

Social implications

In order to substantially improve the Aboriginal people’s market performance, it is important to emphasise the quality of their education and whether their areas of study could lead them to high-skilled occupations.

Originality/value

Attention is paid to the types of human capital rather than the general term of education.
Banking and credit extension: does religious diversity matter?
Authors: Ghosh Saibal
Published: October 2017

Purpose

While several facets of credit extension by banks have been extensively studied, one aspect which has largely bypassed the attention of researchers is the intrinsic attitude towards risk. To investigate this in detail the purpose of this paper is to employ data on India for an extended time period to understand whether religious diversity affects bank credit and other (flow) outcome variables, such as profitability, costs and returns.

Design/methodology/approach

Given the longitudinal nature of the data, the author’s employ fixed effects regression methodology which enables us to control for unobserved characteristics that might affect the dependent variable.

Findings

The analysis indicates that religious diversity lowers credit off-take by lowering the number of accounts, although the number of deposit accounts improves. The behaviour however, differs across high- and low-income states and during the pre- and post-crisis periods. In addition, the evidence supports the fact that the overall negative credit response arises from the behaviour of national banks.

Practical implications

The analysis explores an important and hitherto unidentified aspect driving banking outcomes in the Indian context. This would suggest that any policy intervention that seeks to influence bank behaviour would need to take on board the intrinsic risk-appetite of key stakeholders.

Originality/value

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is one of the earliest studies for India to carefully examine the interface between religious diversity and bank behaviour.
Employee well-being in Britain: perspectives from the margins of the labour market
Authors: Sutherland John
Published: October 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the employee well-being from the perspectives of: first, individuals who have personal characteristics stereotypically associated with employment at the margins of the labour market and second, of individuals employed in jobs stereotypically associated with jobs at the margins of the labour market.

Design/methodology/approach

A set of OLS regressions is used to analyse a data set which has its origins in the Skills and Employment Surveys Series Data Set.

Findings

The expectation was that, for the individuals identified, their well-being as measured by a series of indicators would be relatively low. This proved to be not always the case. To illustrate: individuals without qualifications (relative to those who possess qualifications) reported positive experiences of well-being; and individuals in jobs which took little time to master (relative to those in jobs which took time to learn) also reported positive experiences of well-being.

Research limitations/implications

The subjective indicators of employee well-being available from the data set offer only a partial psychological perspective of the concept.

Originality/value

Although the subject of employee well-being is well-researched, this paper focusses upon an increasingly prevalent group of workers within the labour market, often described as “disadvantaged” (or, using Standing’s terminology, the “precariat”). Furthermore, it reports some outcomes which do not conform to the conventional wisdom.
Re-examining the financial development and poverty nexus: some international evidence
Authors: Kaidi Nasreddine , Mensi Sami
Published: October 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to test the impact of financial development (FD) indicators, namely banking and stock market (SM) indicators, on the household final consumption expenditure as a poverty index.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors study an international sample of 138 countries over the period 1980-2014. A series of estimation methods are used on different measures of bank-based and stock-based FD. Subgroups of countries, namely low, middle, upper-middle and high-income countries are also investigated.

Findings

In the study, the authors concluded that FD fails to reach the poorest segments of each society in the international sample. For the selected subgroups of countries, the authors concluded that the impact of the bank and the SM indicators, on the poorest population segments, changes depending on, the estimated FD variables, the selected group of countries and the adopted estimation technique.

Practical implications

The present study recommends appropriate economic and financial reforms, with focus on the roles of banks and SM roles to reduce poverty and stimulate channels that allow the poorest population to exploit from financial services.

Originality/value

This paper is the first of its kind to empirically examine, separately, the impact of banks development and SM development, on an international panel and subgroups of countries, using modern econometric techniques.
Does agricultural extension promote technology adoption in Sri Lanka
Authors: Walisinghe Buddhini Ranjika , Ratnasiri Shyama , Rohde Nicholas , Guest Ross
Published: October 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of agricultural extension services provided by public sector on the individual technology adoption behaviour of rice farmers in Sri Lanka.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used data from a cross sectional survey conducted in seven rice procuring regions in Sri Lanka. Eight rice technologies were selected to explore the effect of extension service on adoption behaviour of rice farmers using probit models. The extension service variable was identified as potentially endogeneous and instrumented using average extension for each region.

Findings

The results revealed that the extension service variable was positive and indicative of a high level of significance in all the rice technologies promoting the adoption. Hence the public agricultural extension service programmes were considered as significant explanators of technology adoption. The farmers who received agricultural extension service were more likely to adopt a technology.

Social implications

At present, the position of agricultural extension service is questioned and the future is unknown. Therefore, this study advises policy makers to prioritise agricultural policies to strengthen public spending on agricultural extension for effective adoption of technological innovations.

Originality/value

The paper adds solid empirical evidence to the literature on technology adoption behaviour from a peasant agricultural context in a developing country scenario that uses farm level data. Moreover, the study contributes to the literature by reiterating the significance of public provision of extension and training programmes as a direct motive in the technology adoption behaviour of farmers.
Set of tuples expansion by example with reliability
Authors: Er Ngurah Agus Sanjaya , Ba Mouhamadou Lamine , Abdessalem Talel , Bressan Stéphane
Published: October 2017

Purpose

This paper aims to focus on the design of algorithms and techniques for an effective set expansion. A tool that finds and extracts candidate sets of tuples from the World Wide Web was designed and implemented. For instance, when a given user provides , ,  as seeds, our system returns tuples composed of countries with their corresponding capital cities and currency names constructed from content extracted from Web pages retrieved.

Design/methodology/approach

The seeds are used to query a search engine and to retrieve relevant Web pages. The seeds are also used to infer wrappers from the retrieved pages. The wrappers, in turn, are used to extract candidates. The Web pages, wrappers, seeds and candidates, as well as their relationships, are vertices and edges of a heterogeneous graph. Several options for ranking candidates from PageRank to truth finding algorithms were evaluated and compared. Remarkably, all vertices are ranked, thus providing an integrated approach to not only answer direct set expansion questions but also find the most relevant pages to expand a given set of seeds.

Findings

The experimental results show that leveraging the truth finding algorithm can indeed improve the level of confidence in the extracted candidates and the sources.

Originality/value

Current approaches on set expansion mostly support sets of atomic data expansion. This idea can be extended to the sets of tuples and extract relation instances from the Web given a handful set of tuple seeds. A truth finding algorithm is also incorporated into the approach and it is shown that it can improve the confidence level in the ranking of both candidates and sources in set of tuples expansion.
Theorizing the configuration of modifiable off-the-shelf software
Authors: Mousavidin Elham , Silva Leiser
Published: October 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to theorize the social dynamics of modifiable off-the-shelf software (MOTS) configuration process. The authors do so by formulating theoretical propositions about the configuration process.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors have conducted a comprehensive review of the literature on MOTS configuration and the associated challenges to draw on the properties of MOTS. The authors then examined these properties through the lens of social construction of technology to formulate the authors’ theoretical propositions.

Findings

The authors formulate theoretical propositions about the configuration process. The authors also develop four scenarios based on the authors’ theoretical propositions for managing the configuration process of MOTS. These scenarios categorize the difficulty level of the configuration by two theoretical groups: malleability and interpretive flexibility.

Practical implications

The findings especially the scenarios can guide practitioners when managing configuration processes.

Originality/value

The authors synthesize the literature on MOTS. The theoretical contributions emphasize the social dynamics in configuring this type of software which is an angle that has not been developed in previous literature.
The offline spill-over of signing online petitions against companies
Authors: Antonetti Paolo , Manika Danae
Published: October 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions caused by online petition campaigns against cases of perceived corporate malpractice, while also contributing to the ongoing debate over the spill-over effects of online activism to offline contexts. A dual pathway model is advanced based on the individual’s motivation to help the people affected by irresponsible corporate behavior and punish the deviant corporation.

Design/methodology/approach

Two studies (USA and UK) are used to gather cross-sectional and longitudinal data, which are analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Findings

Online petition campaigns relying on the display of victims affected by irresponsible behavior trigger feelings of compassion and anger. While the former leads to campaign support motivated by a desire to help, the latter causes intentions to punish. Intentions to support the petition resulting from this dual pathway influence the actual signing of the petition online and self-reported offline negative word of mouth against the company.

Social implications

Both identified pathways should be activated by online petition campaigns to increase online support and spreading offline negative word of mouth. To do so, such campaigns need to increase perceptions of unfairness and victim’s similarity, and likeability.

Originality/value

Scant research has examined the psychological processes that explain the effectiveness of online petition campaigns against businesses and the motivations to sign an online petition and engage in subsequent offline behavior. Implications for businesses are also discussed.
Exploring nurses’ reactions to electronic nursing documentation at the point of care
Authors: Nguyen Lemai , Wickramasinghe Nilmini , Redley Bernice , Haddad Peter , Muhammad Imran , Botti Mari
Published: October 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate nurses’ attitudes, perceptions, and reactions to a new point-of-care information system for documenting nursing care.

Design/methodology/approach

A design science research methodology (DSRM) was used to examine the feasibility and usability of a novel nursing informatics solution in the context of acute hospital care. Data were collected using focus groups and non-participant observations. Analyses were guided by the theoretical lens of actor-network theory (ANT).

Findings

The findings unpack an understanding of the potential value of a new technology, rather than a binary understanding of positive or negative value. Using the ANT lens, the study reveals the dynamics of the nurse-technology relationships and consequent disruptions throughout the translation process. The findings highlight the central role of negotiation in the socio-technical construction of the hybrid actor-network during the implementation of new technology in acute hospital contexts.

Research limitations/implications

Further studies are needed to investigate the dynamics and complexity of the translation process that occurs during technology adoption, reactions of the involved actors to the emerging network and impacts on their role and work process.

Practical implications

Engaging nurses early during development and testing; aligning the new system’s functionality and interface with nurses’ interests and work practices; and supporting changes to clinical work process to enable an effective heterogeneous actor-network to emerge and become stable.

Originality/value

This study presents a novel use of ANT in a DSRM to understand an enterprise-wide system involving nurses and real clinical settings. The emerged actor-network provides insights into the translation process when nurses adapt to using new technology in their work.
Collaborative open strategic planning: a method and case study
Authors: Amrollahi Alireza , Rowlands Bruce
Published: October 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to show how collaborative information technology (IT) tools and a crowdsourcing model can be leveraged for the purpose of strategic planning. To achieve this objective, a formal method of open strategic planning (OSP) is proposed.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a review of the literature a set of activities, stakeholders, and governing rules are identified in the form of an OSP method. The proposed planning method is implemented in a case study of strategic planning in an Australian university. Observations by the research team, and archival records were used to ascertain the relevance of the used method.

Findings

A method for OSP is presented and assessed. The method contains four phases: pre-planning, idea submission, idea refinement, and plan development. These phases cover the activities required from conceptualization to preparing and publishing the strategic plan. The findings clarify how the principles of OSP helped the organization to include more stakeholders and provided the opportunity to make the planning process transparent through use of a collaborative IT tool.

Practical implications

The study provides managers and planning consultants with detailed guidelines to implement the concept of open strategy.

Originality/value

This study is among the few to propose a method for OSP based on empirical research. The study also shows how collaborative IT tools can be used for high-level organizational tasks such as strategic planning.
Exploring the use of internet by university students for seeking health related information
Authors: Ahmad Asad , Khan Mohammed Naved , Rahman Obaidur
Published: October 2017

Purpose

Internet is both a medium and a platform for information exchange. This characteristic of internet is gradually metamorphosing it into an e-learning enabler. A significant percentage of internet users access health-related information through the medium of internet, but little is known about the factors that determine such behaviour. This study aims to explore the factors that determine the behaviour of those seeking health-related information in the virtual world.

Design/methodology/approach

The present study analyses the role of perceived ease of usefulness (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), self-efficacy (SE) and information quality (IQ) on the intention (IU) of the internet users to seek health-related information. Researcher-controlled sampling was used for data collection from 210 university students. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), t-test and correlation have been used for data analysis.

Findings

The results of the study demonstrate that except SE, all other factors have a positive relationship with the intention of the users to seek health-related information. The findings suggest that PU and IQ overshadow PEOU in encouraging the users seeking such health-related information over the internet.

Originality/value

The present study extends the understanding of e-learning adoption associated with seeking health-related information. The researchers propose an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) model to study the factors influencing the use of internet in seeking health-related information by the students enrolled in medical and non-medical courses.
Strategizing in a focused context: managerial discretion in the Arab world
Authors: Haj Youssef Moustafa Salman , Christodoulou Ioannis
Published: October 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to broaden the national-level construct of managerial discretion and to investigate the effect of cultural practices on executive discretion.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a sample of six Arabian countries and using a panel of prominent cross-cultural scholars who provided 262 discretion scores for the sample countries, the authors replicate and extend the national framework of Crossland and Hambrick (2011) in a new cultural context. The cultural dimensions were measured using survey responses of middle managers based on Houseet al.’s (2004) cultural practices scale.

Findings

The authors extend the national-level framework of managerial discretion and find that an encompassing array of cultural practices plays a crucial role in shaping the degree of discretion provided to CEOs. The authors empirically demonstrate that power distance, future and performance orientation, along with gender egalitarianism and assertiveness have positive relationships with managerial discretion. However, institutional collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and humane orientation negatively affect the degree of discretion provided to CEOs.

Originality/value

The study fills a gap in the literature regarding the national-level framework of managerial discretion. The results indicate that executives can take idiosyncratic and bold actions to the extent to which the cultural environment allows them to do so. Also, the authors discover new national-level antecedents of managerial discretion that have not been considered in earlier studies and confirm the context dependency of this concept.
Tacit knowledge transfer in coopetition
Authors: Kumar Amit , Dutta Swarup Kumar
Published: October 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand how firms affiliated to business groups (BGs) are able to improve their innovation capability (IC) when engaged in coopetition (collaboration between competing firms). This study aims to explore the relationship between coopetitive relationship strength (CRS), the extent of tacit knowledge transfer (TKT) and IC as well as examine the moderating effect of both BG affiliation and coopetitive experience.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper examines inter-firm relationships within the empirical context of Indian manufacturing and service firms, by adopting (ordinary least square) regression analysis to test the various hypotheses. The central thesis is that the TKT in coopetition constitutes an important driver to the IC.

Findings

The paper provides some evidence that inter-firm CRS influences the extent of TKT, and the extent of TKT affects firm IC. The results support that firms in coopetition gain more if their coopetitive partner has a BG affiliation. In absence of a BG affiliation of any of the coopetitive partners, the buildup of TKT reduces as CRS is increased.

Research limitations/implications

Additional large-sample of data may attempt to validate relationships. The study, however, did not consider all enablers that are critical for TKT. Despite these limitations, analysis provides important and novel perspectives.

Practical implications

The paper contributes to develop executives’ practices in understanding potential benefits of coopetitive relationship. The implications of this research are important for managers seeking understanding of the management of coopetition.

Originality/value

The paper makes a modest attempt to investigate the various scenarios of the presence or absence of the moderation of BGs and its impact on CRS in the buildup of TKT. This is the first attempt to link coopetition to the TKT in the BG literature. This study also contributes to our understanding of coopetition in a non-western context.
Impact of frontline service employees’ acculturation behaviors on customer satisfaction and commitment in intercultural service encounters
Authors: Gaur Sanjaya Singh , Sharma Piyush , Herjanto Halimin , Kingshott Russel P.J.
Published: October 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of four types of acculturation behaviors of frontline service employees (assimilation, separation, integration, and marginalization) on customer satisfaction and customer commitment.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 377 ethnically diverse customers of a retail bank in New Zealand participated in this study. SmartPLS3 was used to test all the hypotheses.

Findings

Assimilation and integration have positive effects on both customer satisfaction and commitment. Marginalization has a negative effect on both customer satisfaction and commitment but separation has a negative effect only on customer satisfaction and not on customer commitment.

Research limitations/implications

Future research may validate and extend the authors findings in diverse cultural settings and use experimental method to explore the socio-psychological mechanisms underlying the influence of frontline service employees’ acculturation behaviors on customer satisfaction and commitment.

Practical implications

This study will help managers understand the importance of service employees’ acculturation behaviors and develop suitable recruitment strategies and training programs to improve their impact on customer satisfaction and commitment.

Originality/value

This study extends current research on intercultural service encounters by looking beyond the moderating effects of four types of service employees’ acculturation behaviors, to explore their direct effects on customer satisfaction and commitment.
Marketing social selling jobs: a re-labelling strategy
Authors: Kim Yuna , Talbott John S.
Published: October 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether communicating recent changes in the sales profession, shifting from a performance-focused model to a customer need-focused model, to job candidates by re-labeling job descriptions can increase job candidates’ interest in pursuing sales jobs.

Design/methodology/approach

Two experiments using job candidates (undergraduate business students) were conducted at two public US universities to examine: whether job candidates use job title or job description to determine their interest in pursuing jobs and whether terminology used in the job description affects job candidates’ interest in pursuing sales jobs.

Findings

Results show that job candidates’ interest in pursuing jobs are affected by job titles more than the actual job responsibilities. Further, job candidates’ interest in pursuing sales jobs is affected by terminology used in the job descriptions, where customer need-focused (selling-focused) terminology increases (decreases) interest in pursuing a sales job.

Practical implications

Sales jobs have been recognized as one of the hardest job positions to fill. Results from this paper can help recruiters develop effective strategies to improve job candidates’ interest in pursuing sales jobs, especially the emerging social selling jobs.

Originality/value

Contrary to most extant research that investigates resistance toward sales jobs by examining job candidates’ idiosyncratic characteristics, this paper adopts a branding and consumer learning perspective and examines how job candidates’ interest in pursuing a job is influenced by their ability or willingness to process job information.