bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Corporate social responsibility and consumers' perception of price
Authors: Abrantes Ferreira Daniela , Gonçalves Avila Marcos , Dias de Faria Marina
Published: June 2010

Purpose

This study intends to investigate whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) would positively influence the benefit and the value perceived by the consumer in the company's offer, the judgment of fairness in the price differential charged for it, and his/her buying intention, in a context where the socially responsible firm practises a price higher than the competition. It also investigates whether a social action, supported by the firm, with direct impact on the consumer's life, would provoke a higher effect in his/her reactions than a social action with indirect impact.

Design/methodology/approach

The objectives were achieved through experimental methodology, using scenarios. Prior studies contributions to CSR and consumer behavior domains and the theoretical framework supporting the model of perceived value generated the study's proposition, which was translated in a set of hypotheses.

Findings

The results obtained indicated that consumers perceived greater benefit and value in the offer of the socially responsible firm, and were showed to be willing to pay 10 percent more for its product, judging this price differential as being fair. Moreover, the social action with direct impact on the consumer's life influenced more positively his/her reactions than the social action with indirect impact.

Research limitations/implications

The research instrument opens up the possibility for people to try to give answers that are in accordance with socially established rules and conventions. Also, a non‐probabilistic convenience sample was adopted. Issues for future studies are: price sensitivity in the context of CSR; the importance of CSR as a factor of influence in buying decision compared with other factors; variables that could exert influence on the impact of CSR on consumers' reactions; the influence of information sources about CSR in the consumer's buying decision.

Practical implications

The results of the study indicate that companies have the opportunity to respond to their consumers' desires of feeling good about a purchase (incentivating CSR), while achieving their business goals and, simultaneously, giving their own contribution to society. Also, when deciding on the social project to invest, firms should try to know which social actions are more valued by their consumers, which are those they judge to benefit them more directly.

Originality/value

The results achieved the integration of CSR in the field of perception of price fairness, as one motive that contributes to a price differential be judged as fair. As a part of the study, a measurement scale was elaborated and tested for the variable perceived benefit.
Hotel employees' beliefs on unethical behavior
Authors: Gonenc Guler Emel , Yukselen Cemal
Published: June 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore the beliefs of employees who work in different positions in the hotels in Edirne, Turkey regarding unethical applications.

Design/methodology/approach

The survey method was used to determine the hotel personnel's unethical behaviors in the process of the service operation in hotels. The questionnaire was mainly developed from a Varinli study which was applied to the employees' job‐related ethics.

Findings

The findings have been evaluated and analyzed using the SPSS 11.5. The mean value and the t‐test were applied for the analysis. It was aimed to determine the beliefs of the hotel personnel's about unethical behaviors according to the 20 statements related to the topic. It was understood that the respondents significantly did not accept unethical behaviors that were scaled with 20 statements.

Research limitations/implications

Some statements in the questionnaire were either changed or extended, considering all the hotels in Edirne. The questionnaire was applied in 15 hotels from 9‐13 March in 2009 and excluded employees who were not on the premises during the process. After a week 160 valid questionnaires were either collected from or posted by those concerned.

Practical implications

The research aims to investigate the job‐related unethical beliefs of hotel employees. The housekeeping, food and beverage, and front‐office departments are mainly studied from the perspecive of the unethical applications. Nevertheless, the answers represented only the personnel's ethical beliefs. Whether they would “actually perform in such a way” in real life is difficult to verify. It is not possible to verify the employees' actual behavior compared with their answers in the questionnaire.

Originality/value

The paper is based on a Varinli study which was applied to the employees' job‐related ethics. In 2004 Varinli studied the hotel employees' beliefs regarding unethical applications in 3‐ and 4‐star hotels in Capadocia.
Global literacy: comparing Chinese and US high school students
Authors: Zhang Rong , Hsu Hui‐Yin , Wang Shiang‐Kwei
Published: June 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to compare high school students' global literacy level in metropolitan areas of China and the USA.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors adopted a global literacy instrument to surveyed 2,157 New York City (NYC) high school students and 2,220 Chinese high school students. This paper adopted an independent sample t‐test and an ANOVA to identify significant differences regarding demographic features on the Likert‐scale items, and used the Pearson correlation coefficient to explore the degree of association between factors.

Findings

From this global literacy scale, compared with NYC high school students, Chinese students have greater awareness of comprehending and appreciating cross‐cultural perspectives, becoming global citizens, and exhibited greater approval of the performance of their own country's interconnectedness and interdependence with other countries. Students in the two countries exhibited similar confidence in using new literacies.

Practical implications

Students would pay close attention to global issues if they were aware of how these issues affect their daily life and future. With critical‐thinking abilities, students would be in a better position to make decisions that contribute to the common good. With awareness of diverse cultures, students could learn the values, strengths, and weaknesses of people. With fluency in new literacies, students could research and analyze information from multiple resources, and collaborate with others through the use of technology.

Originality/value

This paper profiles the global literacy of US and Chinese high school students, describes factors correlated with both US and Chinese students' global literacy, and suggests students' preferences regarding “global education”‐related activities.
Culturally responsive teaching awareness through online fiction
Authors: Cain Fehr Mary
Published: June 2010

Purpose

This paper aims to examine preservice teachers' understanding of culturally responsive teaching and the use of technology to deliver pedagogical information and facilitate inquiry.

Design/methodology/approach

The study in this paper blended qualitative methods, specifically grounded theory within a framework of narrative inquiry. The study is situated within a theoretical framework related to the use of storytelling for teaching and research and of the use of web‐based technologies to deliver instruction and conduct research. An online fictional story was used to initiate dialogue about culturally responsive teaching, provide a framework for organizing ideas and reflecting, and encourage participants to tell their own stories.

Findings

Findings indicate that the use of online fiction effectively facilitated participants' reflection and communication of their thoughts and levels of awareness and understanding, thereby facilitating data collection.

Research limitations/implications

Limitations include possible researcher bias, participant honesty, short duration of the study, and the scope of the study.

Practical implications

This paper demonstrates the practical value of combining technology and fictional storytelling to promote and examine awareness of culturally responsive teaching in pre‐service teachers.

Social implications

The findings of this paper are significant in their relevance to preparing future teachers for diverse classrooms, a critical factor in eliminating inequities, cultural misunderstanding, and prejudice in society.

Originality/value

The unique use of technology and narrative in this paper is significant to teacher educators who seek ways to engage preservice teachers in sensitive topics and to facilitate research on their understanding. The use of narrative is unique in this paper because it is initiated with a fictional story which is then revised to include participants as characters in the final chapter.
Exploring attitudes towards computer use among pre‐service teachers from Singapore and the UK
Authors: Teo Timothy , Noyes Jan
Published: June 2010

Purpose

This paper aims to compare the pre‐service teachers from Singapore and the UK on their self‐reported attitude towards computer use (ATCU) by employing the technology acceptance model (TAM) as the research framework.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 395 pre‐service teachers completed a survey questionnaire measuring their responses to three constructs: perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEU) and ATCU. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used as the technique for data analysis.

Findings

The results of this paper show that there are full configural and metric invariance, and partial scalar invariance and factor variance. In addition, it is found that pre‐service teachers' attitudes towards computer use in the UK are less affected by PU compared to their counterparts in Singapore.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the growing interest among technology acceptance researchers in expanding and extending the TAM to explain users' ATCU. Although much research has been conducted using the TAM, comparisons across different cultural users are few. This paper shows the similarities and differences of two culturally diverse technology users: Singapore and the UK. The use of multi‐group invariance analysis as part of the SEM framework allow more complex analysis to be conducted, relative to the t‐test that is commonly used to compare mean differences between two groups.
Malay, Chinese, and internet banking
Authors: Khalil  , Sutanonpaiboon Janejira , Hamimah Mastor Nor
Published: June 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the impact of cultural traits on the intention to use internet banking. Drawing from the technology acceptance model and trust literature, the paper examines the influence of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and trust on the intention to use internet banking among Malay and Chinese ethnic groups.

Design/methodology/approach

The questionnaire was distributed to final year business students and Master of Business Administration students at four public universities in Malaysia. A separate multiple regression was employed to analyze the data for each ethnic group.

Findings

For both ethnic groups, the results showed that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and trust, all have significant effect on the intention to use internet banking. Further examination of the regression coefficients revealed the cultural traits that may explain the extent to which they influence factors that affect the intention to use.

Research limitations/implications

Respondents of this study were students. This factor may decrease generalizability of the study because students' interest on the use of internet banking may be different from those of the general public. One research implication of this study is that there is a need to consider the role of culture in examining factors that affect behavioral intention.

Practical implications

Banks need to highlight the benefits of internet banking, make internet banking easy to use, and enhance internet banking's security to improve consumers' trust. Given the fact that culture affects one's behavior, each customer group needs to be evaluated differently and the “one‐size‐fit‐all” approach to encourage internet banking usage should be avoided.

Originality/value

This paper attempts to link cultural traits that may explain the extent to which it influences factors that affect the intention to use internet banking.
The X model – a tool for describing and assessing individual projects
Authors: Andersen Erling S.
Published: June 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present the X model, which is an inputs – processes – outputs (IPO) model well suited to describing and assessing individual projects. It argues and illustrates that this kind of model is appropriate for project control. It shows that X models can be used on the macro level by presenting the typical Norwegian project of 2008 based on several X models.

Design/methodology/approach

The theoretical justifications (systems and socio‐technical theories) for IPO models, and the X model in particular, are presented. Empirical data in the form of X models from 54 Norwegian projects are used to illustrate the application of X models.

Findings

The findings are on two levels. For the single project, the paper demonstrates that the X model provides an insight into the situation of a project and causal relationships usually not available with other forms of project control. On the macro level based on the sample of X models, the paper presents the situation for the typical Norwegian project of 2008, which appears to be sufficiently robust to adopt. It shows that further improvements in project management and leadership, good information and feedback to the team members, and good cooperation with the base organisation will give even better results.

Research limitations/implications

Further studies are needed to verify the usefulness of X models.

Practical implications

This paper provides practitioners with an insight into how an IPO model like the X model can be applied to project management. The technique is particularly useful for project owners, and even for project managers, in their control of a project.

Originality/value

The paper presents new ways of looking at project control and describing and assessing both a single project and a community of projects.
Good and simple – a dilemma in analytical processes?
Authors: Jonny Klakegg Ole , Torp Olav , Austeng Kjell
Published: June 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe the transfer of experiences to improve the basis for overcoming the dilemma of trying to achieve analyses and systems that are both good and simple. The quality of decisions relating to projects depends on how well the assumed basis for the project actually fit the reality of the situation in which the consequences occur. Good value and cost estimations support good decisions about projects insofar as the assumptions on which they are based mirror the reality, and the decision makers can understand the analysis.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses a longitudinal case study and qualitative analysis. Data relating to a large number of cases have become available to the authors through many years of research and consulting activities. Through joint experience and discussion the patterns are analysed. This paper is descriptive with respect to the challenges and empirical examples. The analysis itself ends with a rather normative conclusion.

Findings

There is a dilemma embedded in the processes used to analyse uncertainty and risks associated with projects. On the one hand, an important task is to reduce the complexity of a given situation to render the issues sufficiently simple for them to be understood and assessed. On the other hand, the models and assumptions upon which an analysis is based have to be sufficiently precise and detailed in order to make sense. The same dilemma is found when considering actions to address risks and uncertainties, as well as in designing management systems. It is concluded that the dilemma is real. Solutions have to be found among both good and simple options.

Research limitations/implications

The paper does not answer questions on “how to” and does not dig deep into theoretical perspectives on the current dilemma. More research to understand all aspects of the issue is needed.

Practical implications

Uncertainty analysis and management systems have to be good (precise enough) and at the same time simple (practical). There is no value unless it is used. Practical examples in the paper are intended to help practitioners identify alternative options.

Originality/value

The dilemma of good and simple has not been explicitly addressed before in light of practical experience and theory. The value added is increased awareness of an important problem in analytical processes.
Flexibility in contract terms and contracting processes
Authors: Nystén‐Haarala Soili , Lee Nari , Lehto Jukka
Published: June 2010

Purpose

New business models, such as life‐cycle contracting, challenge the narrow and static understanding of contracts with hard and precise terms. The aim of this paper is to examine how flexibility could be incorporated into contracting processes.

Design/methodology/approach

The data of the paper have been gathered applying the triangular method; first, by interviewing key personnel participating in contracting at eight Finnish firms; second, examining contract and other documents of those companies; and third, studying earlier research on contracting practices. Theoretically, the paper is based on relational contract and proactive approaches to law on the one hand and on organizational studies based on new institutional economics on the other.

Findings

Flexibility is often introduced to contracts with relational methods, relying on good personal relationships between business partners or negotiation power and negotiation skills. Contract documents often do not contain mechanisms for dealing with contingencies, or “soft” contract terms. The paper finds the following reasons that may explain this. First, firms heavily rely on model contracts to develop their own templates and the lack of contract models in new business areas hinders firms to develop their templates. Second, unfamiliarity with using soft elements makes it difficult to use them. Additionally, in some cases firms may prefer using relational capability.

Research limitations/implications

The findings need verification from further multidisciplinary empirical research.

Practical implications

The findings support firms in developing their contracting capabilities to meet the requirements of the changing business environment and gain competitive advantage from well‐organized contracting.

Originality/value

This paper is one of the first empirical studies comprising also the legal approach.
Enhancing creative knowledge‐work: challenges and points of leverage
Authors: Björklund Tua A.
Published: June 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore critical success factors in knowledge‐intensive creative project work, using product development as an example field.

Design/methodology/approach

Critical‐incident based in‐depth interviews of 11 product development experts (chosen based on their recommendations and length of experience) were carried out. The results were categorized into thematic classes of critical factors.

Findings

Most challenges are embedded in the context of the product development projects. Collaboration and cognitive‐motivational factors such as trust, attitude, and intrinsic motivation‐related issues formed the most common classes of discovered critical factors behind product development project success, along with the mediating categories of goal and autonomy‐related factors. Furthermore, product development specific skills or knowledge accounted only for a small minority of the identified factors.

Practical implications

The most pressing learning objective becomes not updating product development knowledge, but that of increasing motivation, initiative, trust, and collaboration. As the discovered challenges are embedded in the context of work, addressing them ultimately requires project managers to master some of the personnel development aspects traditionally left for human resources management. Training efforts need to be tailored to the project context if they are to have a lasting impact on behavior.

Originality/value

In addition to providing further support for the importance of climate factors, this paper suggests that special attention should be directed towards goal setting and autonomy, as they play a significant role in many of the climate and cognitive‐motivational constructs increasing creativity.
Coping with an unexpected event
Authors: Tukiainen Sampo , Aaltonen Kirsi , Murtonen Mervi
Published: June 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the sensemaking processes leading to project managers' responses to an unexpected event in an international project setting. High uncertainty and unexpected events are prevalent in international projects conducted in challenging and complex environments. The paper analyzes how an unexpected event and the ways to cope with it were made sense of by a Finnish and a Chinese project manager in a system supplier's delivery project in China.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper builds on a qualitative case study of the two project managers' sensemaking processes in the face of a single unexpected event. Narrative interviews were used as the method for data collection. The actantial framework by Greimas was used in analyzing the interview narratives.

Findings

The paper shows how the project managers' sensemaking processes, even within the same project management team, are highly subjective, leading to the coexistence of multiple, and highly divergent responses to the unexpected event. The paper also highlights how these sensemaking processes create the coexistence of multiple, divergent systems of project structures and boundaries for coping with the unexpected event.

Originality/value

While the existing project management literature has distinguished various tactics used by project managers for responding to unexpected events, of lesser attention have been the actual sensemaking processes underlying and producing these responses. The paper especially stresses how the sensemaking processes between project managers coming from culturally different backgrounds can yield highly contrasting interpretations and responses to the same event.
Are Saudi banks productive and efficient?
Authors: Hanif Akhtar Mohammad
Published: June 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the data envelopment analysis (DEA) efficiency scores and Malmquist productivity indices of banks in Saudi Arabia, an economy that is heavily dependant on the hydrocarbon sector.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper adopts the intermediation approach of banking services where financial institutions like banks are perceived to be manufacturing units, employing inputs such as interest and non‐interest expenses to produce outputs such as net interest and non‐interest incomes. The research methodology is comprised of the DEA and Malmquist productivity index (MPI) as a measure of change in total factor productivity, reflecting industry's performance over time.

Findings

The results on MPI reflect an improvement in average productivity of banks. However, the major increase in productivity gains emerged through technological change relative to the efficiency change. The banks across the Kingdom appear to have succeeded in catching up with the best practices, even though the average scores on technical efficiency (TE) stood beyond optimal levels.

Research limitations/implications

The question, whether small banks are more productive and efficientvis‐à‐vislarge banks, remains unanswered. Likewise, to what extent the changes in oil prices and revenues affect the efficiency and productivity of banks, a second‐stage regression of efficiency on oil prices and revenues along with other variables would help in calculating the degree of impact. However, these are the agenda for subsequent research.

Practical implications

The banks in Saudi Arabia need to rationalize their costs to line up across the efficiency frontiers.

Originality/value

The paper manages to explore the critical issues of TE and productivity changes across the banking sector in Saudi Arabia. It provides valuable insights to both the bank executives and public policy makers, who are seeking for improvements in efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness across the banking sector in the Kingdom.
Correlates of work‐family conflicts among managers in Egypt
Authors: Burke Ronald J. , El‐Kot Ghada
Published: June 2010

Purpose

The work‐family interface has received considerable attention during the past two decades but inconsistent findings have been reported. Reasons for this include the use of different work‐family conflict (WFC) measures, samples, outcomes, and countries and cultures. Carlsonet al.developed and provided an initial validation of a new comprehensive measure of bi‐directional WFC having three forms: time‐, strain‐, and behavior‐based conflict. The purpose of this paper is to replicate and extended their work employing a large sample of managers working in various organizations and industries in Egypt, a large Muslim country, and including additional correlates.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 242 respondents, 146 males and 96 females, using anonymously completed questionnaires, a 48 percent response rate. Measures included three forms of WFC, personal demographic and work situation characteristics, stable individual difference personality factors, job behaviors, work outcomes, after‐work recovery experiences, indicators of quality of life (e.g. WFC, life satisfaction) and psychological well‐being.

Findings

The three measures of WFC were acceptably reliable and inter‐correlated to the same extent as reported by Carlson and her colleagues in their US study. The mean values in the Egyptian sample were higher than those in the US study indicating more WFC, and the gender differences reported by Carlsonet al.were not found in the Egyptian sample. Both stable personality characteristics (e.g. need for achievement) and job demands (e.g. perceptions of work intensity) were positively associated with WFC. Use of recovery experiences after work had limited and mixed effects on levels of WFC. WFC generally had negative relationships with work outcomes and indicators of psychological well‐being.

Research limitations/implications

The presence of country differences suggests the need for more cross‐cultural research involving participants in the same occupations.

Practical implications

Results suggest that both individual characteristics and job demands are associated with levels of WFC. Efforts to reduce levels of WFC need to address both.

Originality/value

The paper adds to the understanding of work experiences of managers in Egypt and replicates and extends earlier work.
Shariah parameters reconsidered
Authors: Azhar Rosly Saiful
Published: June 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explain three additional parameters, namelymaqasid al‐Shariah, financial reporting, and legal documentation of contract for determining Shariah legitimacy of financial instruments in Islamic financial institutions. Currently, contract ('aqd) is the only parameter recognized by Shariah scholars at the supervisory level.

Design/methodology/approach

This analysis begins with examining the pitfalls of the contract approach and proceeds to present themaqasid, financial reporting and legal documentation approaches in ascertaining absolute Shariah compliant of financial products.

Findings

The paper argues that the four approaches must be applied in package in determining Shariah compliant status to avoid costly errors that might lead to litigations and loss of competitiveness in the Islamic financing business.

Originality/value

The paper provides new insights and integrated analysis of Shariah auditing where knowledge clusters concerning the Shariah, economics, finance and accountancy, and law are algamated to ascertain wholesome Shariah viewpoint.
Who needs gender research and what is its role in the twenty‐first century? A personal reflection
Authors: McGregor Judy
Published: June 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to consider the following questions: who needs gender? Can there possibly be any intelligence left to share? What is the role of gender researchers in 2010 and in the twenty‐first century?

Design/methodology/approach

This reflective piece considers these issues against the author's own personal experience as Gender in Management's Regional Editor: Australasia, as the Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner in the New Zealand, as an occasional gender researcher, and as a woman.

Findings

Gender in Management has, and continues to act, as a catalyst for authentic, lived collegiality among its networks.

Originality/value

The paper offers insights into some of the big questions which spill out from commemorating 25 years of publication for Gender in Management, previously Women in Management Review.
Gender‐typicality of economic sectors and gender‐composition of working groups as moderating variables in leadership research
Authors: Wolfram Hans‐Joachim , Mohr Gisela
Published: June 2010

Purpose

Meta‐analytic evidence exists that the numerical dominance of one gender group among employees can affect the behaviour of female and male leaders. The purpose of this paper is to hypothesis that leaders will show more transformational behaviour when they hold a minority status. Transformational behaviour might help to mitigate discrepancies between male leaders' gender and the feminine context, as well as between female leaders' gender and the masculine leadership role.

Design/methodology/approach

N1=455 team members answered questionnaires about their work satisfaction and their team leaders' transformational leadership, whilst N2=142 team leaders answered questions regarding their teams' goal fulfillment.

Findings

Female and male leaders are rated more transformational in economic sectors and working groups where they hold a minority status. The paper finds a positive interrelation between transformational leadership and followers' work satisfaction for male leaders, but not for female leaders.

Research limitations/implications

Future research should compare female and male leaders from extremely gender‐typed economic sectors and from higher levels of the organisational hierarchy. This would provide evidence whether the findings could be generalised to other samples.

Practical implications

The findings point to the potential advantage of being a high‐transformational male leader in female‐dominated contexts. Irrespective of the numerical dominance of one gender group, followers of low‐transformational female leaders are more satisfied than those of low‐transformational male leaders.

Originality/value

The paper uses sector‐level (gender‐typicality of economic sectors) as well as group‐level data (gender‐composition of working groups) to account for the numerical dominance of female and male employees.
Systems thinking in quality management
Authors: Conti Tito
Published: June 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ongoing developments of quality management systems theories and to summarize results of experiments that the author has been conducting since 2003 on convergence of quality thinking and systems thinking and the value generation process in the systems perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper discusses the ongoing developments of quality management systems theories and summarizes results of experiments on convergence of quality thinking and systems thinking and the value generation process in the systems perspective.

Findings

The first finding is the real incorporation of the modern systems view into quality management; the second is the key role of joint quality and systems thinking in value generation. Techniques and technology are absolutely necessary, but they will not produce the necessary changes. Among the competitive factors, they are no longer the most critical. The fragmented view of management is not just a quality management problem, but also a general management problem. At the roots of the problem of approach and tool fragmentation there is a strategic fragmentation, the lack of systemic perspective, silos‐type organizations, excessive specialization.

Originality/value

The paper consequently focuses on the value creation process and on how to revisit managing for quality in the systems perspective.
Process management as a lever for managing social problems
Authors: Steketee Erik F.
Published: June 2010

Purpose

In The Netherlands it has become apparent that disruptive dysfunctional families do not receive the treatment and support they need. This has forced a breakthrough in critical social problems and creeping bureaucratic paralysis. This paper aims to investigate this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper illustrates how process management can be used successfully as a methodology to lever a social problem, namely with dysfunctional families with disruptive behaviour. In Amsterdam a revolutionary approach has been implemented in a pilot of five severely multi‐problem families.

Findings

It was found that the system of family care itself is responsible for dramatic family problems and low effectiveness of the programs. The pilot was evaluated and it was concluded that the model is successful. Families get a well‐managed and engaged supply of care, coaching and supervision. Waiting queues are by‐passed, evidence‐based family therapy is available, the process is consistent and binding to both parties involved.

Social implications

The model is being implemented throughout the city since the (Board of) Mayor and Aldermen invited other boroughs to adopt this approach and improve cooperation in the care supply chain.

Originality/value

The case study suggests that process management can have a large beneficial impact on managing various current social problems.
The global theme park industry
Authors: Milman Ady
Published: June 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the dimensions and practices that have shaped the present global theme park industry. The reader is first introduced to the characteristics of the global theme park industry. Following a historical review of the evolution of theme parks, the paper reports on the scope of the global theme park industry, according to major geographical regions. The overview continues with an explanation of how themes are created and communicated to guests and finally, addresses the impact of theme parks on the economic sustainability of destinations.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper provides an overview and historical examination of key concepts and phenomena. The paper is more descriptive than analytical.

Findings

The paper concludes that continuous growth of the global theme park industry will be influenced by the quality and amount of marketing and advertising campaigns, development of new products and guest experiences, as well as external variables that the parks have no control over like competitors' strategies, weather, economic conditions, gasoline prices, government regulations, and so on.

Research limitations/implications

The paper reports on several secondary research, scholarly as well as industry and government publications. Some of the original research quoted is conducted by the author.

Practical implications

The theme park industry has generated a wide circle of social, economic, and political influences ranging from town planning, historic preservation, building architecture, shopping mall design, and landscaping. Its impact extends further to video and computer‐assisted education, home and office design, exhibit design, and crowd management.

Originality/value

The paper provides a general overview of the theme park and attraction industry.
New visitor attractions in Singapore and sustainable destination development
Authors: Henderson Joan C.
Published: June 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review the characteristics of new style visitor attractions and their role in sustainable destination development with specific reference to two projects in Singapore.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper adopts a case study approach and is based on the analysis of information in the public domain obtained from a variety of print and electronic media sources.

Findings

Large scale purpose built facilities are seen to typify the new style of visitor attraction preferred by some officials and investors. They have the potential to be successful and contribute to sustainable destination development, but there are also some limitations to consider.

Originality/value

The paper illuminates the destination development strategies favoured by authorities and the challenges confronting those responsible for opening and operating new attractions.
Impact of new attractions on theme park attendance
Authors: Cornelis Pieter C.M.
Published: June 2010

Purpose

Whereas investments in new attractions continue to rise within the theme park industry, knowledge regarding the effects of new attractions on theme park performance and attendance remains scarce. In order to isolate these effects, the purpose of this paper is to present the results of an econometric study explaining the variance in theme park visitor numbers and quantifying the effects of new attractions on theme park attendance.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on an econometric study, in which models were produced for four European theme parks. No pooled modelling was used, meaning that four different models were created; one for each participating theme park. Various variables affecting theme park attendance were identified and quantified, and subsequently the effects of new attractions on visitor numbers were isolated.

Findings

Findings indicate that all new attractions opened at Park D during the research period have had a positive long‐term influence on attendance. This positive influence lasted for no more than two years. No significant short‐term influence was found. There were significant differences in effect between new attractions which could not yet be explained.

Research limitations/implications

The research by design only takes into account the economic effects of new attractions and disregards all environmental and socio‐cultural effects. Even though the research provides an accurate approximation of the effects of new attractions on attendance, this effect should, according to the author, not be perceived as a stand‐alone effect yet as a part of a complex system. A situational approach taking into account several other situational as well as qualitative factors would do the complex reality more justice than a, even though effective, simplified and general approach.

Practical implications

Industry operators can now use the econometric model presented in this paper to determine the effects of new attractions on their theme park's attendance and use this knowledge to further fine‐tune their investment policy.

Originality/value

The paper presents the first econometric model successful at isolating and quantifying a new attraction's effect on theme park attendance and can thus be a valuable tool in perfecting one's investment policy. The paper furthermore includes a brief introduction to a situational approach of determining a new attraction's effects on theme park performance.
Corporate social responsibility: what are the top three Orlando theme parks reporting?
Authors: Holcomb Judy , Okumus Fevzi , Bilgihan Anil
Published: June 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine what the top three Orlando theme parks report about their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.

Design/methodology/approach

Through content analysis, web sites, annual reports, and CSR reports of the top three theme park companies in Orlando, namely, Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, and SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment were examined.

Findings

The top three theme parks in Orlando mainly reported their CSR activities in relation to environment, community, and customers. Their diversity policies, employee welfare programs and employee volunteerism were also widely reported. Walt Disney World seemed to provide the most detailed CSR reporting in all areas.

Research limitations/implications

In addition to content analysis of web sites and CSR reports, future studies may look at a single company and try to collect data via interviews and surveys. In addition, this paper only offers a view of the theme park's CSR reporting, since, each of the companies do not have any form of verification of their CSR activities. Therefore, it should not attest to the performance of each theme park in such activities.

Practical implications

The research findings suggest that according to their reporting efforts the top three theme park companies in Orlando undertake and participate in various CSR activities and initiatives, which are important for the environment, local community, customers, and employees. However, their reporting and emphasis of certain CSR activities seem to vary. These companies can better publicize and promote their CSR activities. With rising awareness regarding CSR activities, it is important for the theme park industry to begin profiling their CSR efforts as part of their overall corporate and business strategies. Again creating a CSR department to oversee and coordinate all CSR activities would be helpful for theme park companies.

Originality/value

This is perhaps one of the first papers looking at CSR activities of theme park companies. It provides practical implications about reporting of CSR activities for theme parks. It is hoped that this paper stimulates further research into this area in the theme park industry.
An objective function utilizing complex sparsity for efficient segmentation in multi‐layer oscillatory networks
Authors: Ravishankar Rao A. , Cecchi Guillermo A.
Published: June 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to extend an analysis presented in earlier work which investigated the dynamical behavior of a network of oscillatory units described by the amplitude of and phase of oscillations, and to present an objective function that can be successfully applied to multi‐layer networks.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, an objective function is presented that can be successfully applied to multi‐layer networks. The behavior of the objective function is explained through its ability to achieve a sparse representation of the inputs in complex‐valued space.

Findings

It is found that if the activity of each network unit is represented by a phasor in the complex plane, then sparsity is achieved when there is maximal phase separation in the complex plane. Increasing the spread of feedback connections is shown to improve segmentation performance significantly but does not affect separation performance. This enables a quantitative approach to characterizing and understanding cortical function.

Originality/value

The formulation of the multi‐layer objective function and the interpretation of its behavior through sparsity in complex space are novel contributions of this paper.
Solving two‐armed Bernoulli bandit problems using a Bayesian learning automaton
Authors: Granmo Ole‐Christoffer
Published: June 2010

Purpose

The two‐armed Bernoulli bandit (TABB) problem is a classical optimization problem where an agent sequentially pulls one of two arms attached to a gambling machine, with each pull resulting either in a reward or a penalty. The reward probabilities of each arm are unknown, and thus one must balance between exploiting existing knowledge about the arms, and obtaining new information. The purpose of this paper is to report research into a completely new family of solution schemes for the TABB problem: the Bayesian learning automaton (BLA) family.

Design/methodology/approach

Although computationally intractable in many cases, Bayesian methods provide a standard for optimal decision making. BLA avoids the problem of computational intractability by not explicitly performing the Bayesian computations. Rather, it is based upon merely counting rewards/penalties, combined with random sampling from a pair of twin Beta distributions. This is intuitively appealing since the Bayesian conjugate prior for a binomial parameter is the Beta distribution.

Findings

BLA is to be proven instantaneously self‐correcting, and it converges to only pulling the optimal arm with probability as close to unity as desired. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the BLA does not rely on external learning speed/accuracy control. It also outperforms established non‐Bayesian top performers for the TABB problem. Finally, the BLA provides superior performance in a distributed application, namely, the Goore game (GG).

Originality/value

The value of this paper is threefold. First of all, the reported BLA takes advantage of the Bayesian perspective for tackling TABBs, yet avoids the computational complexity inherent in Bayesian approaches. Second, the improved performance offered by the BLA opens up for increased accuracy in a number of TABB‐related applications, such as the GG. Third, the reported results form the basis for a new avenue of research – even for cases when the reward/penalty distribution is not Bernoulli distributed. Indeed, the paper advocates the use of a Bayesian methodology, used in conjunction with the corresponding appropriate conjugate prior.
Dynamic scheduling for real‐time distributed systems using ant colony optimization
Authors: Shah Apurva , Kotecha Ketan , Shah Dipti
Published: June 2010

Purpose

In client/server distributed systems, the server is often the bottleneck. Improving the server performance is thus crucial for improving the overall performance of distributed information systems. Real‐time system is required to complete its work and deliver its services on a timely basis. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new scheduling algorithm for real‐time distributed system (client/server model) to achieve the above‐mentioned goal.

Design/methodology/approach

The ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms are computational models inspired by the collective foraging behavior of ants. They provide inherent parallelism and robustness. Therefore, they are appropriate for scheduling of tasks in soft real‐time systems. During simulation, results are obtained with periodic tasks, measured in terms of success ratio and effective CPU utilization; and compared with results of earliest deadline first (EDF) algorithm in the same environment.

Findings

Analysis and experiments show that the proposed algorithm is equally efficient during underloaded conditions. The performance of EDF decreases as the load increases, but the proposed algorithm works well in overloaded conditions also. Because of this type of property, the proposed algorithm is more suitable for the situation when future workload of the system is unpredictable.

Originality/value

The application of ACO algorithms for scheduling of client/server real‐time distributed system, never found before in the literature. The new concept proposed in this paper will be of great significance to both theoretical and practical research in scheduling of distributed systems in the years to come.