bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The efficiency of African equity markets
Authors: McMillan David G. , Thupayagale Pako
Published: October 2009

Purpose

In order to assess the informational efficiency of African equity markets (AEMs), the purpose of this paper is to examine long memory in both equity returns and volatility using auto‐regressive fractionally integrated moving average (ARFIMA)‐FIGARCH/hyperbolic GARCH (HYGARCH) models.

Design/methodology/approach

In order to test for long memory, the behaviour of the auto‐correlation function for 11 AEMs is examined. Following the graphical analysis, the authors proceed to estimate ARFIMA‐FIGARCH and ARFIMA‐HYGARCH models, specifically designed to capture long‐memory dynamics.

Findings

The results show that these markets (largely) display a predictable component in returns; while evidence of long memory in volatility is very mixed. In comparison, results from the control of the UK and USA show short memory in returns while evidence of long memory in volatility is mixed. These results show that the behaviour of equity market returns and risks are dissimilar across markets and this may have implications for portfolio diversification and risk management strategies.

Practical implications

The results of the analysis may have important implications for portfolio diversification and risk management strategies.

Originality/value

The importance of this paper lies in it being the first to systematically analyse long‐memory dynamics for a range of AEMs. African markets are becoming increasingly important as a source of international portfolio diversification and risk management. Hence, the results here have implication for the conduct of international portfolio building, asset pricing and hedging.
Smart complexity
Authors: Mahler Daniel , Bahulkar Adheer
Published: October 2009

Purpose

For many firms the problems of manufacturing, marketing and distributing a complex product line persist, and it is driving up costs in an economy where cutting costs is essential to survival. This paper aims to promote the innovative concept of “Smart Complexity.”

Design/methodology/approach

This paper explains how a firm can adopt this new complexity management concept. It is an approach that challenges the notion that every new product variant drives growth.

Findings

Recently, a company that adopted this approach increased margins by 1 to 3 percent and set the foundation for ongoing improvements in profitability.

Practical implications

This four‐pronged approach to complexity management starts with consumer research to find the right level of variety. It adds richer SKU‐based data on costs across each step of a newly transparent value chain. It brings this data to a cross‐functional, integrated decision process. Finally, it implements process changes to ensure complexity is governed and managed over time.

Originality/value

The leadership lesson: desirable complexity drives consumer buying decisions. Undesirable complexity unduly complicates internal processes without making a whit of difference to the consumer. The new concept of Smart Complexity distinguishes between the two.
Entering the Chinese mid‐market segment: key to long‐term success?
Authors: Gebauer Heiko , Fischer Thomas , Fleisch Elgar
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The paper aims to provide guidance for managers seeking to successfully position their products in the Chinese mid‐market segment.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected and analyzed from about 25 international and Chinese manufacturing companies.

Findings

Findings identify barriers and key success factors and give guidance for international and Chinese firms to adopt a long‐term strategy to succeed in the Chinese mid‐market segment.

Research limitations/implications

Future studies in the context of product strategies in China would be beneficial when considering the long‐term effects of the perspectives and advantages of global scale and branding.

Practical implications

Managers benefit from a practical framework to overcome barriers during the strategy process on market entry into the Chinese mid‐market segment.

Originality/value

New strategic potentials and risks in China's emerging market make considering an entry into the mid‐market an imperative step for international and domestic firms.
A tiny start‐up offers invaluable innovation lessons for large manufacturers
Authors: Hoegl Martin , Weiss Matthias , Gibbert Michael , Välikangas Liisa
Published: October 2009

Purpose

This case aims to look at a small start‐up car maker called Loremo, Inc. in Marl, Germany, that hopes to thrive by challenging resource constraints with bold innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors found Loremo as part of their five‐year long study looking at how innovation manages to flourish in firms despite resource scarcity.

Findings

The paper finds that Loremo engineers had no other choice but to make virtue of necessity, to develop their car with existing technology and affordable materials, but to reconsider the traditional principles of automobile engineering, which other companies take for granted.

Research limitations/implications

The authors are doing research on companies that achieve bold innovation despite limited resources.

Practical implications

The Loremo engineers overcame the costly process that results from taking a “design stance,” a commitment to design parts to do a particular job.

Originality/value

Manufacturers in all the developed countries that are struggling with the need for radical innovation might take number of lessons from the tiny Loremo car company.
When an initiative is stalled by warring factions
Authors: Stone Laura
Published: October 2009

Purpose

This paper aims to reveals how taking an elegantly simple approach to resolving complex issues can help teams identify, align and quickly execute on the areas with the greatest impact by examining a case of a failing, but ultimately successful, $180‐million offshore outsourcing project beset by disparate interests.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper describes how a retail company and a technology service provider recently underwent a turbulent process to implement a transformational outsourcing initiative.

Findings

A consultant used a simple five‐step process to guide the parties through the systemic challenges and issues plaguing the business relationship and operational functions.

Research limitations/implications

The case draws on the consultant's experience during the assignment.

Practical implications

Leaders need to cultivate their organization's readiness and ability to change quickly. By emphasizing this kind of “nimbleness” businesses can gain a powerful strategic advantage, the capability to adapt faster than their competition.

Originality/value

The consultant improved the business relationship by aligning managers of the client and the outsourcing firm around a one‐team strategic partnership that focused on end‐user (customer) issues.
Bottom‐up or top‐down?
Authors: Heart Tsipi , O'Reilly Philip , Sammon David , O'Donoghue John
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The limited success of electronic health records (EHRs) implementation in the healthcare services in general, and a national EHR in particular, requires better understand and documentation of the current drivers and inhibitors of EHR adoption, together with a definition of a national EHR. This paper aims to address these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

Factors affecting EHR adoptions are elicited from extant literature and the stakeholder/actor framework is used as the theoretical framework. The multiple case study approach is used as the research method, and data are collected in Ireland and Israel by interviews and analysed using text coding methods.

Findings

Factors elicited in the literature are generally corroborated, yet the salient factor on the localized perspective appears to be the degree of centralization of the healthcare services; while different factors affect the national perspective. In summary, it seems that Israel is more ready for national EHR implementation than Ireland due to the high level of computerization and high levels of integration of primary and secondary care patient data.

Research implications

Contribution to research is in the definition of a national EHR, the illustration of various levels of analysis and their relative impacts on EHR adoption, the analysis framework, and by showing that EHR adoption is a top‐down, change management process.

Practical implications

EHR adoption should be driven by a powerful actor in the healthcare sector addressing the need for a high level of integration within and between care levels, while focusing on clinicians' requirements. Technological and legislative infrastructures are mandatory for establishing a national EHR.

Originality/value

Data for this study are collected in two countries that represent different healthcare structures, one being highly centralized while the other is just the opposite. These differences provide an additional interesting lens through which factors affecting EHR adoption can be assessed. As far as we know, not many previous studies have compared EHR adoption across two diverse healthcare systems.
A comparison study of using a mobile medical information system
Authors: Jokela Jorma , Han Shengnan , Harkke Ville , Kallio Markku , Lindgren Leena , Castrèn Maaret
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a comparison study of using a mobile medical information system between civilian medical students and physicians undergoing military service in Finland. Special emphasis is on differences in system usage, and perceptions towards the mobile medical system. Other points of interest are the important features of the mobile medical system, advantages and disadvantages of using the system in actual emergency situations and use of the device to search for general information.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is conducted between two groups of users, medical students and physicians undertaking military service.

Findings

The two groups are found to have similar behaviors toward the mobile system in different contexts. This study helps develop an understanding of how the two groups of users use a mobile medical information system while also providing insights of some behavioral differences between them. Not all of the differences are significant; indicating the possibility of developing a universal tool for both military and civilian contexts, but more contents of military medicine should be supplemented for military physicians.

Originality/value

This paper addresses an area of increasing research interest, i.e. mobile medical informatics.
Standards for information security and processes in healthcare
Authors: Söderström Eva , Åhlfeldt Rose‐Mharie , Eriksson Nomie
Published: October 2009

Purpose

Regardless of who or where we are and when we get sick, we expect healthcare to make us well and to handle us and our information with care and respect. Today, most healthcare institutions work separately, making the flow of patient information sub‐optimal and the use of common standards practically unheard of. The purpose of this paper is to emphasise the use for standards to improve information security in process‐oriented distributed healthcare.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper introduces a real‐life case which is analysed to highlight how and where standards can and should be used in order to improve information security in process‐oriented distributed healthcare.

Findings

In total, 11 flaws or problems in information security and process‐orientation are identified. From these, six changes are suggested which address how information is handled, and how organizational routines should be standardized.

Research limitations/implications

The case setting is Swedish healthcare, but problems can be shared across international borders. The purpose is to highlight the issues at hand.

Practical implications

If suggested changes are implemented, healthcare processes will be more streamlined and focused on patients. Routines will be standardized and uncertainties thus removed in terms of how to act in certain situations.

Originality/value

Healthcare and academia has yet to address both document and process issues concerning standardization in distributed healthcare. There are also few actual cases from a patient perspective. This paper provides lessons learned from a real‐life case, where results may impact how standardization is addressed in healthcare organizations.
The entrepreneurial marketing mix
Authors: Martin Diane M.
Published: October 2009

Purpose

This paper identifies and examine a divergence of philosophies and practice between corporate/traditional marketing (CTM) and entrepreneurial marketing (EM). The paper examines the case of an entrepreneur who also possesses a deep understanding of CTM practices. The purpose of this paper is to learn which set of marketing practices entrepreneurs are likely to privilege.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is an ethnographic investigation of a marketing entrepreneur: one who possesses a deep understanding of CTM and who is also a successful entrepreneur. Data collection and analysis included participant observation, multiple interviews, and interpretation of textual and video data.

Findings

Entrepreneurs with CTM expertise privilege elements of EM. Rather than relying on the traditional four Ps (product, price, place, and promotion), their marketing strategy and practice is reminiscent of the entrepreneurial four P's (purpose, practices, process, and people). Communication competency is foundational to successful EM.

Practical implications

Entrepreneurs are encouraged to assess their personal situations and identify ways to improve their organizational and interpersonal communication skills and personal contact network processes.

Originality/value

This paper provides a provocative look at how CTM theory and practice are superseded by the creativity, flexibility, and innovation of day‐to‐day entrepreneurship. The paper validates a framework for analysis of marketing practices specific to entrepreneurs.
Internationalisation and sport branding strategy: a French perception of the Big Four brands
Authors: Chanavat Nicolas , Bodet Guillaume
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide better understanding of potential foreign customers or satellite fans' perceptions of professional‐football brands, as this constitutes a necessary step toward setting up an internationalisation strategy to create a global professional‐sport brand.

Design/methodology/approach

Twelve semi‐directed individual interviews with French satellite fans about how they perceive the English Big Four brands of Arsenal Football Club (FC), Chelsea FC, Liverpool FC and Manchester United are conducted.

Findings

The paper found the common and specific features of each club's brand equity and the typical fans' perceptions of the clubs, which constitute major dimensions upon which the clubs are differentiated in the customers' minds. It also identified such key antecedents to building strong professional‐sport brand equity in the French market as the fit between the image, the values or both of the foreign club and the local club a fan supports.

Research limitations/implications

The main limitation is the size of the sample, even if the saturation‐semantic criterion is applied.

Practical implications

This paper emphasises the need for professional‐sport clubs not to underestimate the need for strategic‐marketing steps different from those used at home before implementing foreign marketing operations and constitutes a first step toward future research into the analysis of the perceptions of potential foreign customers or satellite fans in broader contexts.

Originality/value

Although many studies have dealt with the perception of local professional‐sport brands, this paper represents one of the first empirical studies of the perceptions of professional‐football brands in a foreign market.
Integral team effectiveness: validity analysis of a theory‐based team measure
Authors: Cacioppe Ron , Stace Roger
Published: October 2009

Purpose

This paper seeks to develop a self‐report instrument completed by team members, the Integral Team Effectiveness Measure (ITEM), in order to assess team strengths and weaknesses based on a review of research and models of effective teams. The ability of the instrument, based on an “integral” or holistic framework, to capture a latent factor relevant to team success is tested. Based on two studies, support for the construct and predictive validity of the ITEM measure is provided.

Design/methodology/approach

Psychometric evaluation of a survey instrument is described. A quasi‐experiment to see whether an objective measure of team performance can be predicted from the instrument and multi‐level modelling was also incorporated.

Findings

Although there are many elements necessary for good teamwork, there is nevertheless an underlying common theme. This underlying theme or construct of integral team effectiveness can be measured with a self‐report instrument, which successfully predicted subsequent team performance in a sample of 45 teams.

Practical implications

The Integral Team Effectiveness Measure (ITEM) is an instrument that captures an important underlying quality of teams. Organisations relying on teams may benefit from using the ITEM to diagnose weaknesses and to design corrective interventions.

Originality/value

Although many previous studies have described variables which impact team performance, integral team effectiveness is an original contribution in that it describes and measures an underlying essence of teamwork. Managers and team members may find integral team effectiveness valuable for overcoming the apparent complexities and contradictions that confound sincere efforts to improve team performance.
Team training for creating performance templates
Authors: Lyons Paul
Published: October 2009

Purpose

This paper seeks to explain how team training in template construction and maintenance is achieved to improve the performance of individuals and teams on the job. The aim is to explain the training model in detail and to present the theory base for the model. Also, another important purpose is to demonstrate how the model is actually used in the field.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology consists of two major features: the explication of how the template approach is applied, in general; and then the performance of teams and groups of employees is compared following training. It shows that one group was trained in the template approach, while the other group was trained using more conventional methods.

Findings

The hypotheses stated that in comparing the differently trained teams/groups there would be no difference in performance on these measures: gross sales attained; manager rating of employee performance; and customer satisfaction with regard to sales representatives; product knowledge; helpfulness in the business context; and overall performance. Significant differences were noted for manager rating, product knowledge, and overall performance. The groups could be compared; however, the teams were too small to rely on standard statistical tools for analysis.

Research limitations/implications

The study was exploratory in nature with a limited range of performance measures. The sample sizes (teams) were not large; however, the groups were large enough to make comparisons. The use of different pairs of trainers for the sub‐samples helps to dampen trainer bias but also creates differences in training conditions that could influence employee learning and performance.

Practical implications

The results demonstrate that the training approach has merit and warrants further study. The study depicts how a partnership among trainers, managers, and employees can lead to successful training outcomes. Another implication is that it is possible to involve trainers, teams and managers, cooperatively, to create models of training and performance improvement.

Originality/value

There are only a few templates or script‐based approaches reported in the training literature; hence this work adds to the literature. The template approach helps team members leverage their learning and also improve performance.
A case study of total productive maintenance implementation at precision tube mills
Authors: Ahuja I.P.S. , Kumar Pankaj
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contributions of successful total productive maintenance (TPM) initiatives to competitive manufacturing. It also seeks to critically examine the implications of strategic TPM implementation initiatives in an Indian manufacturing organisation.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is carried out at a precision tube mill that has successfully implemented TPM and has reaped significant benefits as a result of TPM implementation, to study the TPM implementation issues and achievements realised as a result of strategic TPM implementation. The approach is directed towards the justification of TPM implementation for its support to competitive manufacturing in Indian industries.

Findings

The study reveals the exploits of Indian entrepreneurs with TPM practices and highlights the contributions of TPM in realising the overall organisational goals and objectives. The study reveals that strategic TPM initiatives can significantly contribute towards the improvement of manufacturing performance in the organisation, leading to the realisation of core competencies for meeting global challenges.

Research limitations/implications

The study is conducted to develop an understanding of contributions of TPM initiatives towards building manufacturing competencies in Indian manufacturing industry. The present study endeavours to investigate the effect of an aggressive TPM implementation plan for strategically meeting global challenges and competition.

Practical implications

The study highlights the contributions of strategic TPM initiatives to organisational performance and highlights the need for the successful management of TPM programmes for establishing sustained maintenance improvement initiatives.

Originality/value

The study highlights the contributions made by holistic TPM implementation at a precision tube mills in an Indian manufacturing enterprise.
Comparison and evaluation of maintenance operations in lean versus non‐lean production systems
Authors: Moayed Farman A. , Shell Richard L.
Published: October 2009

Purpose

Previous studies have found general differences between non‐lean and lean production systems, but none of them have identified the major factors in supporting operations such as maintenance which are important in shifting the production from a non‐lean to a lean system. The purpose of this paper is to determine the major factors and parameters of maintenance operations that are most effective in enhancing production to a lean system.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire is constructed and a direct mail survey is conducted in the greater Cincinnati/tri‐state region. The data collected are analyzed with SAS software using contingency tables with Fisher's exact test and a logistic regression analysis method.

Findings

The results show strong correlations between a lean production system and some of the major maintenance variables and parameters such as annual costs of maintenance personnel, parts/materials, and training.

Originality/value

The results of this study can be used as a guideline for engineers, experts and managers in order to monitor the maintenance operation during the transition process from a non‐lean to a lean production system.
E‐maintenance and information logistics: aspects of content format
Authors: Karim Ramin , Candell Olov , Söderholm Peter
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe aspects of content sharing within e‐maintenance, with a view to merging the two areas of maintenance and ICT in a content management perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach is an explorative literature study covering aspects of ICT. The analysis is founded on theories related to maintenance and maintenance support. The conclusions of the study are corroborated by experiences from earlier software development and testing.

Findings

Most existing contributions to the e‐maintenance debate seem to suffer from too wide a gap between data processing and knowledge management. This tendency can be due to too great a focus on data collection, without any clear identification of the stakeholders' requirements. Hence, a mature e‐maintenance solution should focus on the enhancement of service‐oriented information logistics based on content sharing for an output‐based information strategy.

Research limitations/implications

This study focuses on the needs of content format and transformation content, which includes data format, data structures and data type for objects that are relevant for the maintenance process. Hence, further research could include aspects of infrastructure and service architecture, which are on a higher level of an e‐maintenance solution.

Practical implications

The paper contributes with knowledge that supports decisions about content format in the development of an e‐maintenance solution. This can in turn support a reduction of maintenance‐related hazards through the improved use of ICT.

Originality/value

This paper describes the importance of content management within the e‐maintenance approach. Hence, the paper has implications for both practitioners and researchers as described above.
Feasibility study of using statistical process control to optimize quality assurance in radiotherapy
Authors: Gerard Karine , Grandhaye Jean‐Pierre , Marchesi Vincent , Aletti Pierre , Husson François , Noel Alain , Kafrouni Hanna
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and improve the quality and the reliability of pre‐treatment quality controls of an efficient technique of radiotherapy called IMRT (intensity‐modulated radiation therapy). The aim is then to determine if the controls can be safely reduced while keeping an optimal level of quality.

Design/methodology/approach

The statistical process control method (SPC) was applied to quality assurance in IMRT. In order to characterize prostate and head‐and‐neck treatment process variability, individual value control charts and moving‐range control charts were established.

Findings

Control charts showed that prostate and head‐and‐neck treatment processes are only subject to random causes of variability, which means they are statistically controlled. It was proved that both processes are statistically stable and capable.

Originality/value

The paper shows that SPC is an efficient method to objectively determine if quality controls can be reduced.
A new CUSUM‐S2 control chart for monitoring the process variance
Authors: Castagliola P. , Celano G. , Fichera S.
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and investigate the performances of a new CUSUM‐S2 control chart designed to monitor the sample variance of samples from a normally distributed population.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed chart monitors a statistic computed as a logarithmic transformation of the sample variance; the introduction of the sample variance logarithmic transformation has a twofold effect: to quickly detect the occurrence of an “out‐of‐control” condition; to deal with a quasi‐standard normal statistic.

Findings

A design strategy trying to minimize the “out‐of‐control” average run length (ARL) of the chart is presented and the statistical performance of the CUSUM‐S2 chart has been assessed through a comparison with an EWMA‐S2 control chart proposed in the literature to monitor the process dispersion.

Research limitations/implications

The paper only deals with uncorrelated normally distributed data.

Practical implications

The obtained results show how the CUSUM‐S2 chart is particularly suitable when reduction in the process dispersion should be detected by means of subgroups having limited sample sizes.

Originality/value

The paper shows the new CUSUM‐S2 control chart allows a decreasing of the variability to be detected faster than the corresponding EWMA‐S2 control chart proposed earlier in the literature.
Monitoring capability indices using run rules
Authors: Castagliola P. , Maravelakis P. , Psarakis S. , Vännman K.
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is propose a methodology for monitoring industrial processes that cannot be stabilized, but are nevertheless capable.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed procedure uses the CP(u,v) family of capability indices proposed by Vännman (including the indices CPK, CPM, CPMK) combined with one‐sided two‐out‐of‐three and three‐out‐of‐four run rules strategies.

Findings

This paper introduces a new strategy, where capability indices are monitored in place of the classical sample statistics like the mean, median, standard deviation or range.

Practical implications

When doing a capability analysis it is recommended to first check that the process is stable, e.g. by using control charts. However, there are occasions when a process cannot be stabilized, but is nevertheless capable. Then the classical control charts fail to efficiently monitor the process position and variability. The approach suggested in this paper overcomes this problem.

Originality/value

The experimental results presented in this paper demonstrate how the new proposed approach efficiently monitors capable processes by detecting decreases or increases of capability level.
Modeling and experimental results of concentration with support material in rapid freeze prototyping
Authors: Bryant Frances D. , Leu Ming C.
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a physics‐based model that can predict how a main build material of water interacts with a water‐soluble sacrificial support material in the rapid freeze prototyping (RFP) process.

Design/methodology/approach

RFP uses water freezing into ice in a layer‐by‐layer manner as a main build material to create ice structures with complex geometries in a sufficiently cool environment. A eutectic dextrose‐water solution is used as a sacrificial support material. The supported areas in an ice structure are removed by placing the fabricated structure in an environment of appropriate temperature.

Findings

Two methods of concentration modeling have been developed to predict the interaction between the main and support materials around their interface region. The two models are described in detail and their predictions are compared to experimentally measured data. The experimental height data compared to the simulation result based on the concentration models agrees to within 6 percent for various build ambient temperatures. As ambient temperatures decreased, diffusion between the two materials also decreased.

Originality/value

The results obtained from this paper can be used as an aid in building complex ice parts in the RFP process so that minimal interaction between the main and support materials can be attained. An understanding of the interaction occurring during fabrication is provided with the concentration models. The method used to develop the concentration models can be applied to other layered manufacturing processes when using two miscible materials.
CFPC material characteristics and SLS prototyping process
Authors: Floersheim R. Bruce , Hou Gene , Firestone Kent
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the material properties of carbon fiber polyamide composite (CFPC) used in a 3D rapid prototyping process based upon selective laser sintering (SLS) and demonstrate that the SLS process introduces a bias in the micro‐fiber orientation such that the CFPC solid is an orthotropic structural material.

Design/methodology/approach

Material coupons for tensile tests from each of the orthogonal planes are created using the SLS process. After tensile testing, the coupons are examined under scanning electron microscopy to verify the micro‐fiber orientation bias. A complex 3D structure developed utilizing the CFPC material is subjected to modal testing to extract the natural frequencies. These frequencies are compared to predictive numerical analysis results from computer‐aided engineering (CAE) software to validate the coupon test results.

Findings

This paper proves that the CFPC solid material is orthotropic after the SLS process and that the process itself creates bias in the micro‐fiber orientation. Predictions of natural frequencies from CAE software for a complex 3D structure created from CFPC are within 2 percent of the actual natural frequencies determined during modal testing.

Practical implications

The paper has determined the tensile material characteristics of solid CFPC correcting the original material data sheet information which lists the solid CFPC as isotropic with much stronger tensile characteristics. It has also provided evidence of the bias that SLS introduces to embedded micro‐fibers during the rapid‐prototyping process.

Originality/value

The paper deals with experimental work on determining the material characteristics of a relatively new composite material for which very little test data exists in literature. In particular, an original contribution is demonstration of the micro‐fiber orientation bias introduced by the SLS process.
The effects of relational embeddedness on entrepreneurship
Authors: Tsai Cheng‐An , Wen Chao‐Tung
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of relational embeddedness on entrepreneurship in Taiwanese subsidiaries in China that are facing an uncertain and emerging environment.

Design/methodology/approach

First, four case studies are conducted to modify theoretical concepts and measuring instruments to fit them into the entrepreneurial context of multinational subsidiaries in a transitional economy. In the second stage, a survey is conducted to examine the associations between relational embeddedness and subsidiary entrepreneurship. A total of 265 executive officers, which is approximately 29 percent of 922 managers in the mailing list, reply to the questionnaire on their subsidiaries.

Findings

This study finds that subsidiary entrepreneurship has an inverse U‐shaped relationship with regards to customer or supplier relational embeddedness, a positive relationship with corporate relational embeddedness and no relationship with government relational embeddedness.

Originality/value

Based on this study of Taiwanese subsidiaries operating in China there is an inverse‐U‐shaped link between relational embeddedness and customers and suppliers. Hence, this study confirms that over‐embeddedness with customers or suppliers negatively influences subsidiary entrepreneurship.
Differentiating factors of venture growth: from statics to dynamics
Authors: Littunen Hannu , Virtanen Markku
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to analyse which factors differentiate growing firms from the non‐growth businesses. It seeks to analyse the start‐up factors as well as the changes in the activities and the characteristics during the seven‐year period from the start‐up stage.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is a part of a longitudinal research project that has followed the development of 200 SMEs in Finnish metal‐based manufacturing and business services since their start‐up in 1990. The paper uses a contingency approach and concentrates on 86 respondents who have survived after seven years' activity. The paper develops a model for testing the factors that differentiate growing ventures from the non‐growth companies.

Findings

Static characteristics of the entrepreneur and the firm other than group management style do not explain the growth of the firm. The factors that differentiate growing businesses from non‐growth companies include mainly dynamic variables such as increases in production capacity and external network relations, and changes in adopting a specialised product policy. In most cases extrovert attitude and proactive strategies, particularly with respect to markets, were necessary to achieve growth over an extended period.

Research limitations/implications

The study is restricted to two branches of industry and the period covered included a severe recession in the economy. Thus more branches and development during a less turbulent time period could be included. The most important implication of the study is that analysing growth should concentrate on the dynamics of firm development rather than on static characteristics of the entrepreneur or the firm.

Practical implications

The practitioners, e.g. venture capitalists, could use the results when selecting their portfolio companies, since the findings suggest the variables which should be used in differentiating growing businesses from non‐growth companies.

Originality/value

The paper uses a contingency approach together with longitudinal data in the analysis. The results show that the differentiating factors of growing companies are dynamic variables, including especially motivation and strategy factors. Thus longitudinal data are a necessary condition for robust analysis of growth.
On the relationship between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions
Authors: Zampetakis Leonidas A. , Kafetsios Konstantinos , Bouranta Nancy , Dewett Todd , Moustakis Vassilis S.
Published: October 2009

Purpose

This paper aims to propose and empirically test a theoretical model positing relationships among emotional intelligence (EI), creativity, proactivity, and attitudes towards entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intent.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire survey was completed by a random sample (n=280) of business, engineering and science students across three Greek universities. Results were based on structural equation modelling analysis.

Findings

Results provide strong support for the proposition that students' creativity and proactivity fully mediate the positive effect of trait EI on attitudes towards entrepreneurship. Attitudes towards entrepreneurship fully mediated the effects of creativity and proactivity on entrepreneurial intent.

Originality/value

The paper demonstrates that EI is positively related to three important antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions and provides the literature with another important piece of the puzzle concerning entrepreneurial motivation. This evidence adds to the academic literatures on entrepreneurship and trait EI, and offers several practical implications for entrepreneurship education.
Selecting techniques for use in an internet survey
Authors: Wiley James B. , Han Vallen , Albaum Gerald , Thirkell Peter
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The paper's aim is to illustrate the use of a technique that can help researchers choose which techniques, and at what level, to employ in an internet‐based survey.

Design/methodology/approach

A screening experiment, designed as a Plackett‐Burman design, is used to study main effects of 11 techniques for increasing survey response. Three measures of effect used are click rate, completion rate, and response rate. A convenience sample of students at a large university in New Zealand is used.

Findings

Follow‐up had significant impact on click rate; incentive and pre‐notification had a significant impact on completion rate; no technique had significant effect on response rate.

Research limitations/implications

Main effects are examined. Also, a limited number of approaches for each technique are studied.

Originality/value

This paper illustrates the use of a methodology that researchers, practitioner, and academics alike, can use to select techniques to employ in an internet survey. This is the first known application of the technique for selecting data collection techniques in marketing.
Exploratory evaluation of potential and current consumers of organic cotton in Hawaii
Authors: Lin Shu‐Hwa
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify attitudes, behaviors, motivations, and consumption patterns of potential and current consumers of organic cotton products in the Hawaii market.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from face‐to‐face structured interviews from an intercept sample of 420 Hawaii consumers. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, chi‐square tests and correlation analysis to provide additional information about the association of variables.

Findings

Significant associations were found between gender and knowledge about organic cotton, between cotton preference and ethnicity, and between cotton preference and knowledge of differences among organic and conventional cotton. This study also found that people who preferred organic cotton were more likely to purchase organic products and were more concerned about the environment than people who preferred conventional cotton, and that people who owned organic cotton products were more eco‐literate than people who did not own organic cotton products. A profile describing characteristics of organic cotton consumers was developed which may assist organic product producers, marketers, and sellers.

Research limitation/implications

This research only involved collecting and analyzing information from participants in Hawaii, therefore, more research may be needed to compare characteristics of potential organic cotton consumers in different regions of the USA.

Originality/value

In addition to providing researchers with further understanding of potential and current organic cotton consumers, this study may provide organic product producers and sellers further insight about their potential customers which may help develop better ways to market their products.
The effects of positive and negative ad‐evoked associations on brand attitude
Authors: Praxmarer Sandra , Gierl Heribert
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to research on the cognitive capacity theory. The paper aims to examine the effects of advertising recipients' positive and negative associations, that is their memories and fantasies evoked by the advertising stimulus, on brand attitude for advertisements that require little effort to process; focusing on positively framed advertisements.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper suggests a model on the effects of positive and negative association on brand attitude and tests it using partial least square. Advertisements that are easy to process were selected in a pre‐test.

Findings

It is shown that if advertisements are easy to process, the effects of consumers' associations depend on their favourableness: positive associations have a positive effect and negative associations have a negative effect on brand attitude. These findings are an extension of knowledge on the effects of associations, because for informational advertisements previous research has demonstrated that associations generally have a negative effect on brand attitude.

Practical implications

Results of this study suggest that evoking positive memories and fantasies in the target group enhances the effectiveness of advertisements that require little effort to process.

Originality/value

Effects of associations on brand attitude have not been studied for advertisements that require little effort to process. Previous studies have not distinguished positive and negative associations; this study analyses their effects separately.
Food risk and knowledge in the satisfaction‐repurchase loyalty relationship
Authors: Huy Tuu Ho , Ottar Olsen Svein
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to test the relationships among perceived risk, consumer satisfaction and repurchase loyalty, and to explore the moderating role of knowledge on the relationship between these constructs.

Design/methodology/approach

The results are based on a cross‐section sample of 846 households in Vietnam using self‐administrating questionnaires, with fish as a main research object, and analyzed using structural equation modelling.

Findings

The relationship between perceived risk and satisfaction is negative and satisfaction has a significantly positive effect on repurchase loyalty. This study suggests that perceived risk has an indirect effect on repurchase loyalty through satisfaction. Besides direct effects on perceived risk and satisfaction, knowledge proves to moderate negatively both the relationship between perceived risk and satisfaction, and the relationship between satisfaction and repurchase loyalty.

Research limitations/implications

This study mainly focuses on fish as a common food and considers the role of food risk with an emphasis on perceived health risk and subjective knowledge. Thus, future study should include other dimensions of risk, objective knowledge and other products. Other antecedents toward repurchase loyalty (e.g. price/value) or other moderators (e.g. ambivalence, personal characteristics) should be used in future studies.

Practical implications

Management attention should focus on reducing risks with which consumers may be faced through producing fresh or safe fish products, and communicating broadly safe signals of their products. Communication strategy should focus much more on improving knowledge and signing food safety for consumers with lower knowledge than the others.

Originality/value

This is believed to be the first study to empirically examine the combined role of perceived risk and knowledge within a satisfaction‐loyalty framework in the Vietnamese market.
Development of retailers' own label products in Taiwan
Authors: Yuen Shan Au‐Yeung Amelia , Lu Jessica
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to establish an understanding of the development of retailers' views on own label in Taiwan. In particular, the study aims to investigate the extent to which the development of retailers' own label in the region resembles or differs from the historical development of that in the West as documented in the literature.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is exploratory in nature and adopts a qualitative approach. Primary data were obtained from managers responsible for own label development strategy in eight key retailers in Taipei through the use of a structured questionnaire with both closed and open‐ended questions. Secondary data from various sources were also used.

Findings

The development of retail own label products in Taiwan does not follow the pattern witnessed in the West as described in the literature. Only some of the strategic motives of using own label as stated in existing literature are fully echoed in this study. Furthermore, the progress of most of the retailers studied in Taiwan does not mirror the typical stages of evolution as advocated by Laaksonen and Reynolds.

Originality/value

Many retailers, especially the international ones, believe that use of own label in Taiwan is important. However, an understanding of the development and strategic use of own label by retailers in Taiwan is not yet well established. The current study serves as a first step to fill this gap and sheds some light on the implications for own label development strategies to grocery retailers in Taiwan.