bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An empirical investigation of the effect of advertising in shaping the relationship between sales and price of two entrepreneur brands in India
Authors: Baidya Mehir , Ghose Kamal , Maity Bipasha
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to see the role of advertising in the middle of sales-price relationship of two entrepreneur brands in India.

Design/methodology/approach

– Quarterly data on sales (in units), advertising (net of inflation) and price (net of inflation) have been compiled for two entrepreneur brands over a period 2007-2012. First, elasticity of price is estimated by regressing sales on price. Next, the response of price elasticity to advertising is captured using a semi-logarithmic regression model.

Findings

– Results reveal that price and sales are inversely related and advertising influences price elasticity negatively.

Practical implications

– Findings suggest that entrepreneurs/managers should allocate more funds to advertising and at the same time should charge a higher price point in order to increase revenue.

Originality/value

– By showing a new way of how to measure the effectiveness of advertising beyond traditional ones (inform, persuade or remind) of two entrepreneur brands this research definitely adds some value in the literature of marketing.
Franchise system investment disclosure: signaling value to prospective franchisees
Authors: Wright Owen , Winzar Hume
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The divergent interests of franchisor and franchisee give rise to significant ex-post conflict following the purchase of a franchise. Australian regulators have sought to assist transparency in franchising decision making by legislating for disclosure documents that expose key variables that theoretically determine choice on the part of prospective franchisees. The purpose of this paper is to explore the value proposition of the disclosure document and tests its normative effectiveness using a signal-theoretic perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

– Potential investors were asked to consider selected attributes through a choice-based survey, consistent with consumer theory, and focussing on an attribute-based determination of value. However, complex decision making in general and choice modeling can place severe cognitive burdens on respondents and induce satisficing rather than maximizing behavioral patterns. Best-worst scaling (BWS) provided a means for potential purchasers to respond coherently.

Findings

– Findings indicate limited capacity for potential investors to rationalize the simplistic choices presented, suggesting that franchise choice is determined to a large degree by non-rational factors.

Research limitations/implications

– This research is embryonic (exploratory) in nature with the findings providing an imperative for further investigation into workable attributes of franchise systems. Analysis is limited to prospective franchisees’ perceptions and needs to be triangulated with franchisor and policy-makers perspectives.

Practical implications

– Both franchisors and policy makers can utilize this research to improve transparency in the disclosure document. Prospective franchisees should then be able to make more effective decisions about the franchise systems of choice.

Social implications

– A reduction in conflict within the franchising sector (no matter how trivial) will improve the business operations, franchisee and employee welfare throughout the sector. Progress on this topic will improve the sustainability and overall attractiveness of the sector.

Originality/value

– Conjoint analysis has not been used previously in franchising research. The use of BWS on prospective franchisee perceptions is innovative providing a basis for much research to be done in this field of research.
Product information and Chinese consumers’ willingness-to-pay for fair trade coffee
Authors: Yang Shang-Ho , Qing Ping , Hu Wuyang , Liu Yun
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate Chinese consumers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for fair trade coffee given different amount of product information. Although coffee is becoming more popular in China, the concept of fair trade is often found unfamiliar to most Chinese consumers.

Design/methodology/approach

– A total of 564 consumers were interviewed in Hubei, China. The key survey question asked consumers’ willingness to purchase a cup of fair trade coffee compared to a traditional cup of coffee. A modified payment card approach was used to elicit WTP. Before answering the purchase question, respondents were randomly assigned to one of three different information scenarios: basic definition, impact on sustainability and the environment, and information including both environmental and social implications.

Findings

– Results indicated that consumers were generally willing to pay additional amount for fair trade coffee. Information played an important role in determining what types of consumers were responsive to fair trade coffee. Furthermore, the amount of information provided and consumer WTP did not follow a linear relationship.

Practical implications

– Results obtained in this study are useful for coffee marketers to better target their promotion strategies.

Originality/value

– In contrast to China's fast growing coffee market, little is known about consumer preferences and far less on fair trade coffee. This study is the first of its kind to understand Chinese consumers’ preferences for coffee in general and for fair trade coffee in specific.
Forward looking needs systematised megatrends in suitable granularity
Authors: Ahamer Gilbert
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to inquire about the applicability of the concept of granularity to the necessity of future research or – as often called in the European Union – forward looking (FL). After theoretical deliberation, it uses a planned world-wide information system as a case study for applying the notion of granularity regarding economic sectors, time steps, geographic regions and correlations for energy, water, land use and several other drivers of global change.

Design/methodology/approach

– A planet-wide information system might optimally include areas such as human development indicators, water demand and supply and deforestation issues. A short literature analysis on “granularity” shows this concept to have a highly culturally determined and constructivist nature.

Findings

– The spatial, temporal and sectoral granularity of data presentation strongly impacts conclusions and considerations while looking forward. Hence, granularity issues are of key importance for the question of which megatrends are ultimately discerned as most relevant.

Practical implications

– These findings may impact the regular report on global megatrends authored by the European Environment Agency, as well as world-wide energy and emission scenarios and technological foresight, such as the “Global Change Data Base” as a next step of research.

Social implications

– In future research, the step from purely quantitative perceptions towards structural perceptions, pattern recognition and understanding of system transitions might be facilitated. The FL statements of larger companies might be diversified, enlarged in scope and use deeper structural understanding.

Originality/value

– Earlier databases tend to have been focused on one or several single disciplines; the present approach, however, attempts transdisciplinarity and a multiparadigmatic approach.
Journal benchmarking for strategic publication management and for improving journal positioning in the world ranking systems
Authors: M. Moskovkin Vladimir , A. Bocharova Emilia , V. Balashova Oksana
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to introduce and develop the methodology of journal benchmarking.

Design/methodology/approach

– The journal benchmarking method is understood to be an analytic procedure of continuous monitoring and comparing of the advance of specific journal(s) against that of competing journals in the same subject area, together with the application of best practices defined in order to improve a journal's own advance and gain a position among leading scientific journals.

Findings

– As a realization of this method, it is suggested to build up a journal scoreboard, which is a matrix of journal indicators, distributed for different journals. For the journal scoreboard on the subject of lasers and optics (36 journals, five indicators) a series of regression equations was built up that allow forecasts to be made for journals’ impact factor levels, depending on the International Collaboration and Reference per Document indicators included in the SCIMAGO database.

Practical implications

– The detailed journal scoreboard and prediction calculations allow elaborating strategies and policies for the promotion of journals in the Web of Science and Scopus databases.

Originality/value

– The research presents the building up of a journal scoreboard in combination with prediction calculations that can be helpful for improving journal positioning in international Scientometric databases.
Farmers’ intention to maintain quality certification
Authors: Karipidis Philippos , Tselempis Dimitrios
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore farmers’ intention to stay under a quality certification scheme, and the factors that impact this intention.

Design/methodology/approach

– Combining the agricultural household approach with the value concept, the paper analyses farmers’ intention using field research data. The improvements farmers observe after certification are viewed as utilities the farm household derives, which have an impact on farmers’ intention. These improvements are located as “enablers” and “results” in the EFQM Excellence Model to better explain the findings.

Findings

– Farmers’ intention tends to be positive, and impacted by five improvements. These are located in both the enablers and results fields, implying that farmers’ intention is holistically shaped. Furthermore, eight characteristics of the farm and farm household, and four sources of information, shift farmers’ intention.

Research limitations/implications

– Since farmers’ intention is examined independently of the quality standards that each one implements, future research should account for the impact of these differences. It should also examine the impact of various policy measures on farmers’ intention. Since analysis assumes a linear relationship, future research should introduce a more complex model, possibly in structural form.

Practical implications

– Public authorities should make the maintenance of quality certification more attractive, especially for segments without strong intention. Certifiers should adjust their audit services to enhance value; and players in the food supply chain should consider the drivers of farmers’ intention when building marketing strategies.

Originality/value

– To the authors’ knowledge, there are no extant studies exploring farmers’ intention to maintain certification. In addition, the paper proposes a novel theoretical framework, which should also be used in cases where quality-related changes in enterprises impact the income and quality of life of the enterprise owners, for instance in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Through a pupil's eyes […]. A “chalk face” study on ideological conflict in a Flemish school during World War II
Authors: Van Ruyskensvelde Sarah
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the ways in which World War II ideologically interacted with education and social networks within a school context, on the basis of a pupil's diary. More specifically, this paper looks at pupils’ active involvement in contesting the patriotic school climate and deals with the effects of what happens when the predominant school's belief or value system is questioned “from below”.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper presents a case study of ideological conflict in a Flemish school, the Sint-Jozefscollege in Turnhout, during the second half of 1940. It is primarily based on the diary of one pupil.

Findings

– The author argue that the diary can reveal the ways in which the war did or did not penetrate language and daily school life and that this type of research enables us to grasp the many complexities of past society, or even, to some extent, offers a corrective for the “grand narrative” of both educational and World War II history, which unavoidably present some generalisations. This paper suggests that this grand narrative could benefit from the confrontation with personal documents that focus more on private interpretations of these big events.

Originality/value

– As a result of the prevalent use of “traditional” written sources in historiography, the history of war-time schooling “at the chalk face” in large part remains virgin territory. The diary is one of few sources that leave us with an idea of pupils’ experiences in the period under review.
School-based drug education: the shaping of subjectivities
Authors: Bennett Cary
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore how school-based drug education programmes in Australia have sought to reduce adolescent drug use.

Design/methodology/approach

– Drawing on insights from Foucault's later works and writers on governmentality, the paper considers how, through the use of various technologies, techniques and strategies, students have been encouraged to problematise their understanding of self by way of a series of choices they are required to make in relation to recreational drug use.

Findings

– Drugs are positioned as a key factor in the psychic and social well-being of youths insofar as their health and personal happiness is said to depend on the decisions they make concerning their use of drugs. In the process, moral and political objectives are met as students internalise norms, values and objectives consonant with a self-disciplined, self-governing society.

Practical implications

– By bringing into question school-based drug education, a space is created for further discussions around this historically controversial strategy.

Social implications

– What is common to all school-based drug education programmes is that the problem is conceptualised in terms of individual and interpersonal deficiencies or inadequacies. Conceptualised thus, both the problem and the solution lay with the individual; it is the individual who must change.

Originality/value

– The focus of this paper has not been on why school-based drug education is needed or how to improve it (the focus of most research on the subject), but rather on the methods employed to influence student use of recreational drugs. By identifying how school-based drug education has sought to shape student subjectivities, this paper has exposed specific moral and political dimensions of the project.
Becoming an education provider of choice in Hong Kong: an inquiry into student decision making
Authors: Po Cheung Lai Angel , Gibson Paul , Muthaly Siva
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– Managers in higher education require cost effective ways to attract the optimal number of students. The purpose of this paper is to address that general problem at the college level, and in doing so, it points toward strategies that could also be relevant at university and at national level. Two crucial issues are whether potential students are more influenced by parents or by peers when it comes to choosing a college; and whether spending money on advertising is more efficacious than spending money on making direct contact with potential students. The findings provide essential market intelligence for strategically managing the scarce resources available for attracting students.

Design/methodology/approach

– Data were gathered through a survey instrument and the partial least squares (PLS) technique was subsequently applied to 314 responses.

Findings

– Secondary school guidance counselors, followed by current and previous college students were the highlights in order of magnitude for non-marketing information sources for college choice. Social life received the highest loadings among college attributes and phone calls from the admissions office received the highest loading among marketer controlled variables. The results reflect the nature of Chinese culture, which is regarded as being highly collectivist.

Research limitations/implications

– The model proposed in this study is applicable to students of sub-degree courses, but may need to be adapted to degree and postgraduate courses students.

Practical implications

– This study helps educational managers to identify which factors most strongly influence choice of higher education provider, and as a consequence enable managers to make more strategic use of scarce resources.

Originality/value

– This is one of very few studies which employ PLS analysis to discover the key factors that influence student selection of a higher education provider, and one of few studies that focusses on Hong Kong.
The intellectual identity of educational administration: views of Israeli academics
Authors: Oplatka Izhar , Nupar Idit
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is twofold, to answer two questions: how do senior educational administration (EA) field members perceive the field's scholarly aims and boundaries and the meaning of their intellectual work? and what are the similarities and differences between “outsider” and “insider” perceptions of the field's major purposes and directions?

Design/methodology/approach

– Semi-structured interviews with 12 Israeli academics who work in departments of EA in varied universities and colleges.

Findings

– The field members in the study shared similar views of the field's purposes and challenges, but were divided about the field's desired knowledgebase and scholarly boundaries. Some implications for the field's future development are suggested.

Originality/value

– The exploration of academics’ perceptions of their own field of study may increase the intellectual and theoretical understandings of major epistemological aspects of EA as a field of study.
Exploring future research agendas in the field of gender and entrepreneurship
Authors: Marlow Susan
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore future research agendas in the field of gender and entrepreneurship by outlining a critical overview of the current theorising regarding the influence of gender upon entrepreneurial behaviours and activities.

Design/methodology/approach

– The discussion reviews the state of existing knowledge and extrapolates future areas for potential research.

Findings

– Whilst there are a number of robust reviews of gender and entrepreneurship, there is much scope to add to existing knowledge particularly by employing a critical feminist stance. In addition, discrete gender critiques are vital to inform a broader and far-reaching appraisal of the entrepreneurial project dominating the contemporary socio economic context.

Research limitations/implications

– This article is limited by focusing upon discrete themes. However, these are used as exemplars to indicate the potential for future development.

Practical implications

– The author suggests future avenues for research development and encourages the development of more sophisticated analyses of interrelation between gender and entrepreneurship.

Social implications

– The author suggests that a gendered critique has broader implications for exposing the bias embedded within the current theorising.

Originality/value

– Although a review of existing research, there is a thematic development of new opportunities for research development and a call to use gender as a fulcrum to articulate a more searching and critical approach to theorising entrepreneurship.
Do gender-related differences exist in Spanish entrepreneurial activities?
Authors: Pablo-Martí Federico , García-Tabuenca Antonio , Luis Crespo-Espert José
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– Academic research has endeavoured to understand women's behaviours in entrepreneurial activity, identifying the differences when compared to men. The main topics analysed show similar findings in relation to characteristics and motivations, leadership style, strategic choice, obstacles and results. This paper delves further into these differences by examining the personal characteristics of entrepreneurs, the motivation to enter the activity and the performance of their enterprises. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors study Spanish entrepreneurial activity using a survey carried out in 2009 of 608 randomly selected entrepreneurs. The main methods used are descriptive analyses and logistic estimations.

Findings

– There were two groups of entrepreneurial women with different profiles and results: the first group comprises a variety of sectors reflecting the economy's average; and the second mainly operates in those sectors traditionally considered as female. Male and female reasons for success and survival are found to be substantially the same, but personal characteristics and motivations were found to be different. Among the differences found, it is worth highlighting the amount of time devoted by entrepreneurial women to household chores, the higher proportion of women in the staff they employ, and their commitment to product and service innovation.

Social implications

– The findings point to some ideas in terms of policies regarding entrepreneurial activity and gender. The women's greater commitment to innovation in goods and services suggests new approaches in policies aimed at promoting the entry of women in entrepreneurial activity.

Originality/value

– The main findings of the paper are consistent with relevant existing literatures, but the results offer new insights that contribute to improving the knowledge of the dynamics of entrepreneurial women.
Entrepreneurial growth strategies: the female touch
Authors: Reichborn-Kjennerud Kristin , Svare Helge
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– Research on entrepreneurship has documented differences in male and female entrepreneurs' growth ambitions. It has sometimes been criticized for disregarding important questions and contributions and for favoring a purely economic perspective. This includes a tendency to compare female entrepreneurs with a male norm. In this article, the authors, therefore, apply a more constructive approach and ask how and why entrepreneurial strategies are gendered. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

– By analysing six cases, three female- and three male-dominated companies, the authors examined how men and women do business. The authors based the analysis on Miles and Snow's typology on product and market strategy and at the same time expanded it.

Findings

– The findings substantiated that women and men have similar qualities as entrepreneurs, but women's ambitions and values tend to be different to those espoused by men. This influences their growth strategies. The Miles and Snow typology was adjusted to encompass different growth strategies; staying small or expanding. The article discusses the implications of these findings for regional development and sustainability.

Research limitations/implications

– The research design in this article does not necessarily allow the authors to grasp the internal workings of a typical small- or medium-sized business. Neither does it provide generalizable information. Instead, the authors chose to focus on highly gendered sectors of industry to identify potential gender differences.

Originality/value

– This article contributes to theory on the motivation for entrepreneurship and to research on growth strategies. It also contributes to the literature on Miles and Snow's typology questioning the taken-for-granted goal of growth in economic theories and raising the question of advantages of the choice of staying small. The authors direct the focus to perspectives of embeddedness and intersectionality as a direction for future research.
A gender perspective as trigger and facilitator of innovation
Authors: Fogelberg Eriksson Anna
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore whether a gender perspective contributes to or functions as a driving force for innovations in organizations. The following questions are addressed: how can a gender perspective generate innovations and what are the conditions that favour innovations driven by a gender perspective?

Design/methodology/approach

– This study builds on a qualitative case study of an upper secondary school in Sweden, which has been showcased as a good example of gender awareness and gender mainstreaming in schools. Semi-structured interviews with representatives of the school were conducted and documents were analysed.

Findings

– The gender perspective contributed to innovations by triggering them and supporting the innovative processes, ensuring that the innovations did not stop at essentialist solutions. New ways of performing core processes were developed with the innovative leverage of the gender perspective. The perspective must be actively used and integrated into the core processes if it is to work properly, which was the case in this school.

Research limitations/implications

– This study indicates the importance of conducting further studies on innovations in the public sector as well as acknowledging gender in innovation studies, not least because this study focuses on a local case in a specific national context.

Practical implications

– This school exemplifies the use of a gender perspective as a driving force for innovations in organizations. The case points to important organizational conditions for innovation and actual gender-aware innovations.

Originality/value

– The study expands the understanding of innovation(s) in organizations and elaborates on the gendered dimensions of innovation as both process and product.
Using lesson study to assess pupils’ learning difficulties
Authors: Norwich Brahm , Dudley Pete , Ylonen Annamari
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to make the case for the novel use of lesson study (LS) for assessment purposes, in addition to its typical use to develop teaching and for professional development. The specific use of LS for assessment in this paper is for pupils experiencing learning difficulties in order to enhance understanding of their needs.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper explains briefly the origins and principles of LS and draws on evidence from various studies for why and how it can be used for assessment purposes. The key role of formative assessment in the LS process is connected to the parallel developments of dynamic assessment and the response to instruction approach to the assessment of pupils with learning difficulties.

Findings

– The paper concludes with an account of how the assessment use of LS can be translated into practical assessment procedures.

Originality/value

– The value of the paper is in the original and explicit explanation and justification of the use of LS principles for formative assessment of pupils with learning difficulties.
Relationships between quality of information sharing and supply chain food quality in the Australian beef processing industry
Authors: Juan Ding Ming , Jie Ferry , A. Parton Kevin , J. Matanda Margaret
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to analyze supply chain practices, and supply chain food quality performance indicator in the Australian beef processing industry.

Design/methodology/approach

– A conceptual model was developed to test how supply chain practices: strategic alliance, customer focus, information sharing, information quality, Lean system and antecedent cooperative behavior: trust and commitment impact on food quality. A survey questionnaire to 600 Australian beef processors was conducted to collect the empirical data for testing of the formulated hypotheses. The stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to test the hypothesized relationships.

Findings

– Strategic alliance, information quality and trust and commitment are significantly related to food quality. In particular, the standardized coefficient shows that information quality has a significant positive relationship with food quality.

Research limitations/implications

– As Lean principles have been widely adopted in the red meat industry, strategic alliance becomes even critical for maintaining cost and operation effectiveness in the beef supply chain. A various approaches in terms of innovative technologies can improve information quality and promote information sharing in the beef supply chain. To build trust and commitment among supply chain partners requires perception of mutual long-term goals.

Practical implications

– Australian Meat Manufacturers face greater regulatory challenges and restraints (product labeling, food safety and carbon tax) over the next five years. Therefore, to tackle the challenges, the findings of this research have significant practical implications.

Originality/value

– This study intends to fill the research gap and explore how advanced supply chain systems have a potential to provide contributions to Australian beef processing industry performance. Vertical integration between livestock producers, meat processors, wholesalers and retailers provides the opportunities for greater economies of scale in production and distribution.
On uncertainty in supply chain risk management
Authors: Vilko Jyri , Ritala Paavo , Edelmann Jan
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The concept of uncertainty is a relevant yet little understood area within supply chain risk management. Risk is often associated with uncertainty, but in reality uncertainty is a much more elaborate concept and deserves more in-depth scrutiny. To bridge this gap, the purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework for assessing the levels and nature of uncertainty in this context.

Design/methodology/approach

– The aim of the study is to link established theories of uncertainty to the management of risk in supply chains, to gain a holistic understanding of its levels and nature. The proposed conceptual model concerns the role of certainty and uncertainty in this context. Illustrative examples show the applicability of the model.

Findings

– The study describes in detail a way of analysing the levels and nature of uncertainty in supply chains. Such analysis could provide crucial information enabling more efficient and effective implementation of supply chain risk management.

Practical implications

– The study enhances understanding of the nature of the uncertainties faced in supply chains. Thus it should be possible to improve existing measures and analyses of risk, which could increase the efficiency and effectiveness of supply chain and logistics management.

Originality/value

– The proposed conceptual framework of uncertainty types in the supply chain context is novel, and therefore could enhance understanding of uncertainty and risk in supply and logistics management and make it easier to categorise, as well as initiate further research in the field.
Yet another careful re-examination of the SAD hypothesis
Authors: S. Khaled Mohammed , P. Keef Stephen
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The focus is on the seasonal affective disorder SAD hypothesis of Kamstra, Kramer and Levi (KKL). Examines the arguments advanced by KKL (2012) in their reply to the criticisms of the hypothesis raised by Kelly and Meschke (2010).

Design/methodology/approach

– Uses a mixture of research synthesis and standard statistical analysis to investigate the reliability of the claims raised and the veracity of the statistical arguments.

Findings

– The synthesis of the literature, and of the empirical models employed therein, raises questions about the validity of the SAD hypothesis.

Originality/value

– Offers a rigorous analysis of whether there is a sound statistical basis for the SAD hypothesis which is frequently cited in the literature as support for the importance of behavioural finance.
How project managers can encourage and develop positive emotions in project teams
Authors: Emil Berg Morten , Terje Karlsen Jan
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– This study provides insight into how project managers can use leadership tools to encourage and develop positive emotions among the project team members toward greater overall project success. The purpose of this paper is to provide the engineering industry with a closer look at how positive emotions can create good team member relations, reduce stress, develop clearer roles, creativity and joy at the workplace.

Design/methodology/approach

– The empirical data were obtained using in-depth interviews of three experienced project managers.

Findings

– The empirical data give insight as to how project managers can use their signature strengths. Additionally, the data also show how they can evolve and draw on positive meaning, positive emotions and positive relations. Various examples of positive meaning, positive emotions, positive relations and signature strengths have been identified and discussed.

Research limitations/implications

– Future research should apply a more comprehensive research design, for example a survey using a larger sample, so that these findings may be generalized.

Practical implications

– The paper contributes to portray and analyze positive psychology in a project management setting. Additionally, the paper assists understanding the connections among positive meaning, positive emotions, positive relations and signature strengths by presenting and discussing a model.

Originality/value

– This research extends current understanding of how project managers use their signature strengths to encourage and develop positive emotions in project teams.
Competitive forces and innovation strategies: a study of the Indonesian crab industries
Authors: Yusuf Muhammad , Trondsen Torbjørn
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the current competitive position and performance of Indonesian Crab Industries (ICI). The paper examines whether a reorientation of the innovation strategic vision is needed to build future industrial excellence.

Design/methodology/approach

– Data collected from secondary sources and interviews with processors and stakeholders in the major ICI are analyzed in a five competitive forces value chain model.

Findings

– It is significant that the industry's competitive position and its performance in relation to international buyers is strongly related to good infrastructure and the uniqueness of the products and services it offers to buyers. Key factors related to this include: the sustainability of the raw material supply, the volume of production demanded, the manufacturing facilities and innovations and the consistency of quality. These all strengthen the value chain position. Threats from substitute products like surimi are, however, limiting the price level. The lack of market-oriented capacity to effectively develop unique products and strategies is a major barrier for entering new markets.

Research limitations/implications

– The interview data are based on the industry managers’ experiences as suppliers of the US market. This study may be applied as an example for analyzing market performance factors in natural resource-based industrial environments.

Originality/value

– The paper provides original empirical data analysis of the development and innovation strategies of the crab industries in Indonesia. It contributes to the marketing literature by linking value chain structure and industrial perception of performance drivers.
Does Chinese university entrepreneurship education fit students' needs?
Authors: Tang Mingfeng , Chen Xiaogang , Li Qiaohua , Lu Yong
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– This paper aims to determine whether Chinese university entrepreneurship education matches the needs of undergraduates and whether the entrepreneurial interests and expectations of students who have received university entrepreneurship education differ from those of students who have not. The authors hope that the research findings can provide practical implications and suggestions for improving university entrepreneurship education.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors chose one business university, two technology universities, and one medical university in Sichuan province and sent questionnaires to 350 randomly selected undergraduates. Based on data from 315 valid questionnaires, the authors conducted an empirical analysis.

Findings

– The authors found that university entrepreneurship education does not fully satisfy students' needs. The authors also found no significant difference between the entrepreneurial interests and expectations of students who have received entrepreneurship education and those who have not.

Originality/value

– The existing studies mainly focus on the supply side of university entrepreneurship education but ignored the demand side. The research is to understand the demand side – namely, students' needs for university entrepreneurship education. Are university students interested in new-business creation?. What are their needs for entrepreneurship education? Does Chinese university entrepreneurship education fit those needs? And finally, do the entrepreneurial interests and expectations of students who have received university entrepreneurship education differ from those of students who have not? Moreover, the study context consisted of one business university, two technology universities, and one medical university in a fast-developing region – Sichuan province. These universities are representative of the main categories of Chinese universities. Finally, the authors employ both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies to conduct the study.
Proposing and validating a five-dimensional scale for measuring entrepreneurial orientation
Authors: Zhang Hongyun , Zhang Tan , Cai Haili , Li Yahui , Wei Huang Wayne , Xu Dongming
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to help enhance the scholarly conversation about the essential nature of the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) construct, its dimensionality and measurement. The authors focus on how EO was defined and measured in various contexts, which is the basis for the proposed five-dimensional EO scale (FDEOS).

Design/methodology/approach

– Survey was conducted in design industry in China. A pilot test was conducted with 20 Chinese firms. Questionnaires were sent to 1,200 firms. A total of 408 complete and valid questionnaires were received.

Findings

– It was found that a behavior aspect of EO as a second-order reflective model had a greater degree of agreement among scholarly community. As a result, a new FDEOS was proposed from behavioral perspective. Data were collected from 408 firms of design industry in a big developing country.

Originality/value

– While five-dimensional EO construct is a well-recognized concept in the literature on entrepreneurship, little is known about its measurement. The research reported in this paper provides support for this assertion and develops a new scale, FDEOS, that designed to be neutral with regard to industry context and type of organization.
The cumulative effect of satisfaction with discrete transactions on share of wallet
Authors: L. Keiningham Timothy , Aksoy Lerzan , C. Malthouse Edward , Lariviere Bart , Buoye Alexander
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical model for how consumers aggregate satisfaction with individual service encounters to form a summary evaluation of satisfaction, and further examines its effect on customers’ share of category spending (share of wallet (SOW)).

Design/methodology/approach

– The data used consist of 10,983 completed surveys from 1,448 customers whose transaction-specific satisfaction with a retailer and their subsequent purchase behaviors in the category were tracked for more than four transactions. Mixed effects models were employed to test the relationship between the cumulative effect of satisfaction with multiple service encounters on SOW.

Findings

– Cumulative satisfaction is a weighted average of satisfaction with specific encounters, with weights decaying geometrically so that more recent encounters receive more weight. More recent transaction-specific satisfaction levels tend to have greater influence on customers’ next purchase SOW allocations; this, however, is only the case for customers who are less than highly satisfied, with a rating of 8 or lower on a ten-point scale. Additionally, the impact of transaction-specific satisfaction on SOW is not linear. Highly positive transaction-specific satisfaction levels have a greater impact on SOW than negative levels.

Practical implications

– Many companies monitor satisfaction across multiple service encounters. This study shows how one can aggregate these measures to arrive at a cumulative effect, and highlights the importance to discriminate between first, more and less recent encounters and second, low vs high levels of satisfaction to better understand customers’ spending among different providers.

Originality/value

– Using a longitudinal data set with real customers, this paper identifies a new measure for taking into account the cumulative satisfaction, identifies the positivity bias, and shows how recency affects the relationship between satisfaction and SOW.
Trust in the supervisor and authenticity in service roles
Authors: Yagil Dana
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– Prior theoretical research focuses primarily on inauthentic emotional displays during the enactment of service roles, in the form of emotional labour, with little attention paid to factors that promote genuine emotional expressions during employees’ customer interactions. The purpose of this paper is to propose a model in which employee trust in the supervisor leads to more authentic emotional displays. Supervisors’ positive and negative affectivity constitute antecedents of this trust.

Design/methodology/approach

– To analyse the data, collected from supervisors and employee–customer dyads, this study used hierarchical linear modelling.

Findings

– Trust in the supervisor relates to authentic emotional displays in service encounters, according to both employees’ self-reports and customers’ evaluations. Supervisors’ positive affectivity relates positively to employees’ trust; trust mediates the relationship of affectivity with employees’ authentic emotional displays.

Practical implications

– Positive supervisor affectivity and employee trust in the supervisor influence employee authenticity, and customers notice employees’ authenticity during service encounters.

Originality/value

– This study advances understanding of the factors that enhance employees’ authenticity in service interactions while also contributing to understanding of the role of the supervisor in service organizations.
Contact positions estimation of sensing structure using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system
Authors: Petkovic Dalibor , Issa Mirna , D. Pavlovic Nenad , Zentner Lena , Nor Ridzuan Daud Md , Shamshirband Shahaboddin
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– Tactile sensing is the process of determining physical properties and events through contact with objects in the world. The purpose of this paper is to establish a novel design of an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) for estimation of contact position of a new tactile sensing structure.

Design/methodology/approach

– The major task is to investigate implementations of carbon-black-filled silicone rubber for tactile sensation; the silicone rubber is electrically conductive and its resistance changes by loading or unloading strains.

Findings

– The sensor-elements for the tactile sensing structure were made by press-curing from carbon-black-filled silicone rubber. The experimental results can be used as training and checking data for the ANFIS network.

Originality/value

– This system is capable to find any change of contact positions and thus indicates state of the current contact location of the tactile sensing structure. The behavior of the use silicone rubber shows strong non-linearity, therefore, the sensor cannot be used for high accurate measurements. The greatest advantage of this sensing material lies in its high elasticity.
A fuzzy based self-check capable computerized MCDM aid tool
Authors: Ulker Birol , Sezen Bülent
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to determine as to develop a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) algorithm with self-check capability that can solve any manufacturing company's printed circuit boards (PCB) design computer aided design (CAD) tool selection problem and to implement it.

Design/methodology/approach

– An algorithm that consists of two sub-algorithms that use same inputs and alternative pool is developed, thus self-check capability is introduced. The first sub-algorithm designed as an integration of fuzzy AHP and TOPSIS, where the second sub-algorithm composes of fuzzy analytic network process and TOPSIS. Fuzzy set theory and linguistic variables were utilized to handle uncertainty and usage of verbal expressions, respectively. MATLAB programming language was used for the implementation. The used MCDM methods’ and fuzzy set theory's explanations are given along with the literature review prior to real life application of the developed algorithm.

Findings

– A MCDM algorithm with self-check capability is introduced. Moreover, a practical decision aid tool is generated for the usage of the manufacturing companies that are related with PCB design.

Practical implications

– A practical computerized MCDM aid tool is generated. Using the tool let the manufacturers, i.e. high-tech device manufacturers, evaluate available PCB CAD design tools with respect to tangible and intangible criteria, and obtain a reliable result.

Originality/value

– Self-check capability is incorporated into the decision process. Along with this capability, although the decision-making process takes place in a fuzzy environment, result of the algorithm becomes more reliable than the ones deprived of this characteristic. Furthermore, a practical computerized MCDM aid tool is generated.
A service oriented manufacturing grid system with uncertain information
Authors: Tong Yifei , Tang Zhaohui , Zhou Kaijun , dong Ying
Published: May 2014

Purpose

– The increase in demand variability created by manufacturing enterprises presents new challenges for increasing resource usage and sharing flexibility. For this reason, it is of great importance to research manufacturing grids and their service modes. The purpose of this paper is to establish a systematic strategy and a system tool for manufacturing grid systems.

Design/methodology/approach

– A manufacturing service oriented manufacturing grid (MSoMG) system is presented with open grid service architecture as the system architecture and GT3.9 as a development tool. A framework is proposed to support MSoMG by providing advisory tools and methods for uncertain information analysis and processing, multi-objective decision making of manufacturing grid service execution, manufacturing grid service performance prediction based on knowledge template, and flexible manufacturing grid service scheduling and solution. The methodology of the adopted rough set is discussed in detail. Finally, the design support strategies for MSoMG are investigated to guide the coordination of manufacturing activities.

Findings

– Many conventional methods and models become very limited for manufacturing grid service with uncertain information. The processing of uncertain information and reasonable application flow can help to improve the completion rate and reliability of manufacturing grid services.

Practical implications

– This research provides a solid foundation for manufacturing gird operations and can promote the use of a manufacturing grid mode.

Originality/value

– A MSoMG system is presented. The manufacturing grid service with uncertain information is considered as well as design support strategies.