bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Top women managers as change agents in the machista context of Mexico
Authors: Barragan Salvador , Paludi Mariana I. , Mills Albert
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to focus on top women managers who act as change agents in the machista culture of Mexico. Specifically, the authors centre the attention not only on the strategies performed by these change agents to reduce inequality, but also on understanding the way in which they discursively reproduce or challenge essentialist notions of gender with respect to the cultural and organizational context.

Design/methodology/approach

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 top women managers in Mexico who are actively involved as change agents. A feminist poststructuralist methodological framework using critical discourse analysis was used to uncover competing notions of gender and related strategies developed to promote gender equality.

Findings

The analysis reveals that the 12 change agents perform strategies for inclusion, and only half of them engage in strategies for re-evaluation. The authors were unable to recognize whether these change agents are engaged in strategies of transformation. These change agents also reproduce and challenge “essentialist” notions of gender. In some instances – based on their own career experiences and gendered identities – they (un)consciously have adopted essentialism to fit into the cultural context of machista society. They also challenge the gender binary to eradicate essentialist notions of gender that created gender inequalities in the first place.

Research limitations/implications

The experience of these 12 top women managers may not represent the voice of other women and their careers. Ultimately, intersections with class, organizational level, nationality, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation must be taken into account so to represent other women’s particular interests with respect to equality.

Practical implications

For those researchers-consultants who may be involved in an intervention strategy, it is important to focus on helping the change agents in reviewing and reflecting on their own “vision of gender equity”. During the strategic activities of mentoring and training, these change agents could potentially “leak” a particular “vision of gender” to other women and men. Thus, part of the intervention strategy should target the change agent’s self-reflection to influence her capacity to act as change agents.

Originality/value

The authors contribute to the literature on change agents and interventions for gender equality. Intervention strategies usually centre on essentialist notions of gender. The study offers potential explanations for this approach by paying attention to the process of how change agents, in their efforts to promote gender equality, may be unconsciously projecting their own identities onto others and/or consciously engaging in strategic essentialism to fit into the machista context of Mexico.
What makes representation of executive women in business happen?
Authors: Palmer Alison , Bosch Anita
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the underlying organisational features, according to the gendered organisation theory, that have contributed to high levels of representation of women executives, contrary to the trend in the South African financial services industry.

Design/methodology/approach

A critical realist approach was employed, using semi-structured interviews, based on a theoretical framework of the gendered organisation. Data were aligned to the theoretical levels of critical realism.

Findings

The research found that the pool from which the successful candidates were appointed was influenced by two features. The first was the perceived attractiveness of the organisation as an employer, composed of organisational prestige, opportunity for altruism, and the sex of the CEO. The second was the role of the CEO as gatekeeper, most notably the CEO’s network and the impact of the similar-to-me paradigm during selection.

Originality/value

The utilisation of critical realism as an approach allowed for organisational features embedded in the theory of the gendered organisation to be identified and gives an indication of how the number of women at executive management level may be increased. The salient factors are the role the woman CEO played in the inclusion of more women at the executive level by virtue of her being a woman, and the attractiveness of the organisation to women employees. Organisational features identified were gendered towards the feminine.
Self-employment: is it a long-term financial strategy for women?
Authors: Redmond Janice , Walker Elizabeth Anne , Hutchinson Jacquie
Published: June 2017

Purpose

Becoming self-employed has appeal to both genders. For many women, balancing work and family is a key motivator. However, businesses owned and operated by women are often very small, with limited turnover. This potentially can have disastrous consequences when these women come to retire, unless a solid retirement savings strategy has been considered. The purpose of this paper is to outline many of the issues and implications of a lack of research in this area.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 201 small business owners via a convenience sample derived from various databases. The survey was completed on-line and analysed using SPSS.

Findings

Many self-employed women in Australia have neither enough savings for their retirement, or an actual retirement plan. This is exacerbated by the lack of regulation requiring mandatory contributions into a superannuation (personal pension) fund by small business owners, unlike pay as you go employees, whose employers must contribute a certain about on their behalf.

Social implications

Middle-to-older aged women are the biggest cohort of homeless people in Australia. This is likely to grow as self-employed Baby Boomers stop working and find they do not have sufficient personal financial resources to fund their retirement.

Originality/value

Whereas there is much written about gender and small business ownership, as well as retirement and savings planning, these two areas have not been researched before in Australia. Yet it is an issue for the majority of small business owners, particularly women.
Childhood-onset disability, strong ties and employment quality
Authors: Baldridge David , Konrad Alison M. , Moore Mark E. , Yang Yang
Published: June 2017

Purpose

Persons with childhood-onset disabilities are among the most marginalized populations, often unemployed or underemployment in jobs providing neither adequate hours for financial self-sufficiency nor fulfillment through skill-utilization. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which social capital in the form of strong ties with family and friends is associated with enhanced employment outcomes for persons with childhood-onset disabilities.

Design/methodology/approach

Questioning the current theoretical consensus that strong social ties are unimportant to employment quality, the authors draw on disability research and opportunity, motivation and ability social capital theory to propose a model of the impact of strong ties with family and friends on paid-work-hours and skill-utilization as well as the potential moderating role of gender and disability severity. The authors then test this model using data from 1,380 people with childhood-onset disabilities and OLS regression analysis.

Findings

As theorized, family-of-origin-size is positively associated with hours worked. Family-of-origin-size is also associated with having more close friends and children. These strong ties, in turn, are positively associated with hours worked. The impact of having more children on hours worked and skill-utilization, however, is positive for men but non-significant for women.

Originality/value

This study breaks new ground by focusing on the association between strong ties with family and friends and employment quality for people with childhood-onset disabilities – a marginalized and understudied group. Findings further indicate the particular vulnerability of women with disabilities.
How rumors and preannouncements foster curiosity toward products
Authors: Sääksjärvi Maria , Gill Tripat , Hultink Erik Jan
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the potentially positive role of rumors in generating curiosity about new products, and further shows how this prior knowledge through rumors affects consumer responses to subsequent official preannouncements about these products.

Design/methodology/approach

Building on the seminal work by Rogers (2003) on the innovation-adoption process, the authors examine how two factors – product newness (incremental vs radical) and rumor ambiguity (ambiguous vs unambiguous) shape consumer interest (curiosity) toward new products.

Findings

Study 1 experimentally tests the assumption that incremental and radical new products may benefit from different types of rumors, and shows that radical new products benefit more from ambiguous rumors as compared to incremental new products in terms of increased curiosity toward the product. Study 2 links rumors to preannouncements, and shows that rumors set expectations that become confirmed or disconfirmed by preannouncements. The results show that the curiosity evoked by the rumor has a significant impact on purchase intentions toward the new product, especially when they are confirmed by the preannouncements about the same product.

Originality/value

There is scant research investigating how rumors may shape consumer expectations about new products despite the prevalence of rumors in the marketplace, and this research provides a first outlook on the positive role that rumors play in the marketplace.
Combining knowledge to generate novelty: a study of disclosed ideas for life science inventions
Authors: Thune Taran , Gulbrandsen Magnus
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a combination of diverse sources of knowledge is important for generation of new ideas and address how institutional infrastructures and practices support integration of knowledge across organizations in medicine and life sciences.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper investigates new product ideas that emerge from hospital and university employees, and looks at the extent of interaction between clinical and scientific environments in the idea generation process. The paper utilizes data about all new product ideas within life science that were reported in South-Eastern Norway in 2009-2011, as well as information about the individuals and teams that had been involved in disclosing these ideas. Interviews with inventors have also been carried out.

Findings

Interaction and integration across scientific and clinical domains are common and important for generating new product ideas. More than half of the disclosed life science ideas in the database come from groups representing multiple institutions with both scientific and clinical units or from individuals with multiple institutional affiliations. The interviews indicate that the infrastructure for cross-domain interaction is well-developed, particularly for research activities, which has a positive effect on invention.

Originality/value

The paper uses an original data set of invention disclosures and investigates the hospital-science interface, which is a novel setting for studies of inventive activities.
Innovation capacity, organisational culture and gender
Authors: Cropley David , Cropley Arthur
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of gender diversity on organisational capacity for innovation, and explore the factors that affect the relationship between gender diversity and innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

The study applies the Innovation Phase Assessment Instrument (a 168-item survey instrument designed to assess an organisation’s alignment to six dimensions of human capital innovation inputs) to members of an Australian manufacturing firm, exploring relationships across both gender and work function in the firm.

Findings

Initial results suggest a negative relationship between proportion of females in functional areas and capacity for innovation. Further analysis suggests that capacity for innovation among female employees was suppressed by an unfavourable organisational climate (OC).

Practical implications

With a trend towards greater gender diversity as a means for improving organisational innovation, managers should be aware of the role that OC plays in assisting innovation. The relationship between gender diversity and innovation is not merely quantitative, but is also qualitative. Simply increasing the number of females in male-dominated firms may not result in improved innovation capacity. Unless the OC of the firm is aligned to what is needed for successful innovation, the benefits of greater gender diversity may not be realised.

Originality/value

This study integrates research from the psychology of creativity and innovation with consideration of organisational design and innovation management. The study demonstrates that a highly differentiated analysis of psychological antecedents to innovation can be used to cast new light on the origins of gender and other group differences in firms. The findings add important new knowledge to the arguments in favour of greater gender diversity as a means for improving organisational innovation.
Methods to enhance students’ entrepreneurial mindset: a Swedish example
Authors: Lindberg Erik , Bohman Håkan , Hultén Peter
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of intervention methods in an entrepreneurship education (EE) course that was designed to enhance the students’ entrepreneurial mindset by targeting their opportunity identification, creativity and risk management capabilities (RMC).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors formulate hypotheses on enhancement of opportunity identification, creativity and RMC, and they test them using data collected from pre- and post-tests of three courses: one treatment course group and two control course groups.

Findings

The pretests and posttests of the treatment course demonstrate that the applied intervention methods have a positive impact on how the participants perceive their opportunity identification and creative capabilities. The participants in the control groups, which used a traditional course design, reported no such effects. Combined, the authors’ findings suggest that the new intervention methods positively affected the participants’ entrepreneurial mindset.

Originality/value

This study contributes to extant EE literature by examining the question of how certain pedagogical intervention methods enhance the participants’ self-efficacy with regard to possessing opportunity identification, creativity and RMC. The findings reported in this paper have implications for EE scholars, program evaluators and managers who seek methods to enhance the entrepreneurial mindset of people in their organizations.
Improving the quality of nutrition in pediatric trauma
Authors: Wang Alice , Pelletier Helena , Calligan Diana , Coates Angela , Allison Bailey Karen
Published: June 2017

Purpose

Nutrition plays a key role in the recovery of pediatric trauma patients. A catabolic state in trauma patients may hinder recovery and inadequate nutrition may increase morbidity, mortality and length of hospital stay. The purpose of this paper is to review the current nutrition support practices for pediatric trauma patients at McMaster Children’s Hospital (MCH), describe patient demographics and identify areas to improve the quality of patient care.

Design/methodology/approach

A retrospective chart review was conducted on pediatric trauma patients (age<18 years) identified through the trauma registry of MCH. Pediatric trauma patients admitted from January 2010 to March 2014 with an Injury Severity Score (ISS)=12 and a hospitalization of =24 hours were included.

Findings

In total, 130 patients were included in this study, 61.1 percent male, median age ten years (range: 0-17 years) and median ISS of 17 (range: 12-50). Blunt trauma accounted for 97.7 percent of patients admitted and 73.3 percent had trauma team activation. In total, 93 patients (71.5 percent) had ICU stays. The median time to feed was 29 hours (interquartile range: 12.5-43 hours) from the time of admission. An increased hospital length of stay was associated with longer time to initiation of nutrition support, a higher ISS and greater number of surgeries (p<0.05).

Originality/value

Local nutritional support practices for pediatric trauma patients correspond with recommended principles of early feeding and preferential enteral nutrition. Harmonization of paper-based and electronic data collection is recommended to ensure that prescribed nutritional support is being delivered and nutritional needs of pediatric trauma patients are being met.
Impact of rising food prices on consumer welfare in the most populous countries of South Asia
Authors: Aftab Shafque , Yaseen Muhammad Rizwan , Anwar Sofia
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the welfare cost resulted from an increase in food prices in the three most populous countries of south Asia (Pakistan, India and Bangladesh).

Design/methodology/approach

The effect of rising food prices on consumer welfare is analyzed by using the compensating variation technique. The measurement of the total consumer welfare effect requires the estimation of price elasticities which are calculated by using linear approximation version of the almost ideal demand system.

Findings

The results indicate that cereals (wheat, rice) are relatively price inelastic. However, protein-rich food items like chicken and mutton are relatively more income elastic where consumer welfare declines in all countries mainly for cereals and milk, as these food items are relatively less elastic to price fluctuations.

Social implications

Pakistan, India and Bangladesh represent together about 37 percent of the total world undernourished population. This study suggests that government should target the most vulnerable consumers (low-income group) to improve the income level in these countries.

Originality/value

It is the first effort to estimate and compare that how food inflation affects the consumer welfare in the most populated countries of South Asia. This type of study is also important for the policy planners to overcome the welfare cost under different setting of price and income so it is an effort toward this direction.
The effect of globalization and credit market imperfections on the incidence of child labour
Authors: Fatima Ambreen
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of globalization and credit market imperfections on child labour.

Design/methodology/approach

Analysis is based on cross-country regression framework, incorporating 129 developing countries for the period 1970-2010.

Findings

The findings indicate that countries that are more open to trade and having higher foreign direct investment inflow have lower incidence of child labour. As child labour in export-related industries is hard to find, trade sanctions may not have a significant effect on child labour. Further study concludes that income of the bottom quartile of the population is the best representation of the income of the poor when studying child labour.

Research limitations/implications

The study uses the data compiled by International Labour Organization (ILO). Though much of the variation in the data is because of the adjustments made by ILO, this is the only comparable cross-country estimates available. Hence in the absence of the cross-country comparable estimates, many empirical studies have used this data set (e.g. Cigno et al., 2002; Dehejia and Gatti, 2002; Rogers and Swinnerton, 2001). This study acknowledges this limitation but again in the absence of any comparable estimates, the assessment is also based on this data set.

Originality/value

Study contributes in the literature by comparing the effect of export and trade and by exploring the effect of an alternate measure of the income, estimated by using Gini coefficient, on child labour. Further studies exploring the effect of globalization did not explore the presence of imperfect credit market, however, this study has explored the effect of credit market imperfections as well.
Subjective equivalence scale – cross-country and time differences
Authors: Kalbarczyk-Steclik Malgorzata , Mista Rafal , Morawski Leszek
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to calculate the subjective equivalence scale and poverty rates for Poland and compare them to equivalence scales in Eastern and Western Europe.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis is based on European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions data for 2005-2012. In particular, the authors capture the minimum needs income question and, knowing the minimum needs income of each individual’s observation, apply OLS regression controlling for income and household structure to estimate the poverty threshold, equivalence scales and poverty.

Findings

The subjective equivalence scales for the Euro Zone are constant for the period 2004-2012 and less stable for the CEE countries. The child cost in relation to the cost brought by an additional adult is higher in the CEE countries than in the Euro Zone countries. The subjective poverty rates are lower than the OECD rates. The only exceptions are Latvia, Estonia and Bulgaria.

Originality/value

The authors extend the analysis made by Bishop et al. (2014) by adding data for the years after 2007 and countries outside the Euro Zone.
Does access to finance alleviate poverty? A case study of SGSY beneficiaries in Kashmir Valley
Authors: Khaki Audil Rashid , Sangmi Mohi-ud-Din
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to question and analyse the basic tenets of financial inclusion and to understand the relationship between access to finance and poverty reduction. The paper attempts to elaborate the importance of unrestrained access to finance in building an inclusive financial sector, which is believed to reduce poverty by enabling poor and excluded people to participate in the economic process by employing their skill sets, labour and innovations in the productive activities of the economy, thereby not only increasing their own welfare and standards of living but also contributing at very high marginal returns to the overall economic growth.

Design/methodology/approach

This study evaluates the progression of the participants/beneficiaries of National Rural Livelihood Mission Scheme (erstwhile Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana Scheme) across various dimensions of poverty by making use of the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).

Findings

The results suggest that the participation has in fact lead to increase in the standard of living, thereby reducing multidimensional poverty. Further, the results suggest that participation does not reduce deprivations in the “education” dimension, whereas in all other dimensions reduction in deprivations is significant. The results also suggest that the programme under study seems to be seriously mistargeting by allocating the programme to non-poor sections rather than absolute poor.

Research limitations/implications

The study has been conducted without following the participants over a longer period of time. The study has adopted a pre-post methodology, collecting the responses at only one point using a reflexive quasi-experimental design which leads to a recall limitation.

Originality/value

The paper tries to evaluate the impact of access to financial inclusion through a new perspective – the MPI. The paper examines the targeting of government-sponsored programmes and the utility of such intervention in the changing milieu of financial services.
Are you able to recall the brand? The impact of brand prominence, game involvement and persuasion knowledge in online – advergames
Authors: Vashisht Devika , S. Pillai Sreejesh
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of brand prominence, game involvement and persuasion knowledge on gamers’ brand recall and attitude in the context of online advergames. Specifically, this investigation uses limited capacity model of attention and persuasion knowledge model to expound the conditions under which brand placements create attention, elaboration and subsequent brand recall and brand attitude.

Design/methodology/approach

A 2 (brand prominence: prominent versus subtle) × 2 (game involvement: high versus low involvement) × 2 (persuasion knowledge: high versus low) between-subjects measures design is used. A total of 224 student gamers participated in the study. A between-subjects measures multivariate analysis of variance is used to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The results show that an advergame with prominent brand placement under low game involvement condition results in high brand recall but less favorable brand attitude than under high game involvement condition. Furthermore, a three-way interaction shows that for a prominent brand placement advergame with high game involvement, the subjects with high persuasion knowledge report high brand recall than the subjects with low persuasion knowledge. The findings also reveal that for a prominent brand placement advergame with high game involvement, the subjects with high persuasion knowledge report less favorable brand attitude than the subjects with low persuasion knowledge.

Research limitations/implications

This paper adds to advertising literature from a non-traditional advertising viewpoint, predominantly in the context of online advergames, and expounds the role played by brand placement and its boundary conditions to create customers’ brand memory and attitude. Furthermore, this investigation adds to the marketing knowledge on how and where to position and embed the brands effectively in advergames taking into account the characteristics of the gamer, such as the game involvement and gamers’ persuasion knowledge about the advergame.

Originality/value

This study adds to the works of online advertising, particularly the advergames by discovering the impact of brand prominence, game involvement and persuasion knowledge on gamers’ brand recall and attitude. Also, this study is the first in its stream toward understanding the moderating role of persuasion knowledge on Indian gamers’ recall and attitude in the context of online advertising.
Like is a verb: exploring tie strength and casual brand use effects on brand attitudes and consumer online goal achievement
Authors: Renton Michelle , Simmonds Hamish
Published: June 2017

Purpose

This paper aims to offer fresh insight into attitudes towards casually used brands and the role of tie strength in the building of online non-brand-related network relationships amongst young consumers.

Design/methodology/approach

Thirteen consumers aged between 18 and 24 years took part in in-depth interviews. The interviewees were matched on gender, age, occupation, residency and social media usage.

Findings

Tie strength effects are evident in changes to brand attitudes, choice of social media platforms and in the casual use of brands to further consumer relationship building and identity creation goals.

Research limitations/implications

This paper answers calls for greater understanding of the way in which network structure influences consumers’ online motivations and attitudes towards the brand.

Practical implications

This paper explores the importance of managers viewing brands as embedded in broader social contexts and tailoring social media communications to those broader contexts.

Originality/value

This paper is the first to combine tie strength with casual brand use to examine non-brand-related network effects on brand attitudes, growing and maintaining consumer relationships and building online identity.
When perceived ability to influence plays a role: brand co-creation in Web 2.0
Authors: Kennedy Eric , Guzmán Francisco
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of Millennials’ perceived ability to influence a brand and how this perception about the brand impacts the consumers’ desire to engage in co-creation. Additionally, the paper examines the effects of perceived influence on attitude toward the ad and purchase intention.

Design/methodology/approach

Two studies were developed. In the first study, Millennial consumers identify technology brands they feel they are able to influence and not able to influence. Using the results from Study 1, Study 2, a 2 × 2 between subjects factorial design, is used to test the impact that perceived brand influence has on co-creation, attitude toward the ad and purchase intention.

Findings

The results of this paper offer new insight into consumer co-creation. Instead of co-creation being a constant that a brand can rely on, managers must now consider the attributions that consumers have about the brand. If a brand is perceived as being unable to be influenced, then not only will consumers not engage in co-creation but attitude toward that ad and purchase intention will also decrease.

Research limitations/implications

This paper focuses exclusively on Millennial consumers. While this segment of the population is large and important, validating the results with a national generalizable sample could shed additional insight into the power of the ability to influence on co-creation. The survey was created to mimic an online social media platform that a consumer interacts with on a regular basis. To further verify the test results, additional platforms for co-creation, including company websites and retail settings, could be tested.

Practical implications

If a brand wishes to engage Millennial consumers with active co-creation, then the perception of the brand is important for success. Brand managers must create a perception of the brand that is open to engagement with consumers – which allows for consumers to give input and help to shape the brand. Consumers should become comfortable with the idea of the brand asking for, accepting and implementing feedback from customers.

Originality/value

This paper is the first of its kind to combine attribution theory, theory of reasoned action and co-creation to measure the perceptions that consumers have about a brand. The results of this paper provide valuable insight to the limits and conditions in which co-creation will occur.
Online brand communities as heterogeneous gatherings: a netnographic exploration of Apple users
Authors: Özbölük Tuğba , Dursun Yunus
Published: June 2017

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the different types of members based on their roles within an online brand community dedicated to Apple.

Design/methodology/approach

Design/methodology/approach Data are drawn from an 18-month netnographic study, including participant and non-participant observation.

Findings

Findings reveal that members of the online brand community share a common goal but they are heterogeneous in many respects. In this research, five different types of brand community members are identified: learner, pragmatist, activist, opinion leader and evangelist. These findings emphasize the heterogeneity of the brand community or the differences of members and subgroups they form in the community.

Practical implications

This paper offers some insights for brand managers. There are different sub-tribes in online brand communities and these sub-tribes develop their own meanings of the brand. This means that online brand communities do not form one single homogenous target group and can be segmented into subgroups. Findings also offer a deeper understanding of negative characteristics of online brand community members. The role “activist” found in this study may be crucial for marketers, as activists can represent the negative side of online brand communities.

Originality/value

The literature on brand communities has focused predominantly on the homogeneity of these communities. This paper extends the literature by demonstrating the heterogeneity in an online brand community. The paper contributes to the brand community literature by substantiating that online brand community members can be segmented into subgroups based on their roles within the community. In addition, the paper extends the existing literature on brand communities that has overlooked the destructive consumer roles.
Taking a bite out of Apple: Jailbreaking and the confluence of brand loyalty, consumer resistance and the co-creation of value
Authors: Lee Michael SW , Soon Ian
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the phenomena of Apple iPhone jailbreaking, a novel scenario where a company actively oppresses and discourages the co-creation of value and customisation of its products by loyal consumers.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper conducted a qualitative content and thematic analysis of online jailbreaker discourse to understand the motivations and reasons driving consumers to resist a brand to which they remain extremely loyal.

Findings

Three themes explain jailbreaker motivations: enhanced experience, individual right of self-expression and anti-hegemony. Further two themes explain the differing motivations driving hacktivists to create the “exploits” that are subsequently used by jailbreakers (liberating the masses; status and notoriety). Finally, an integrative conceptual model is provided to showcase how disparate theories of consumer behaviour are synthesised during this novel phenomena.

Originality/value

In contrast to previous work, the consumer activists featured in this paper are devoted to the brand and product they are resisting. Rather than switching to an alternative brand, these jailbreakers and hacktivists remain loyal to the product in a genuine effort to help the brand. Even more interesting is the brand actively oppressing these loyal consumers’ attempts to modify and, in some cases, improve their products. Overall, this paper highlights the contradictory relationship between Apple and some of its consumers and demonstrates how brand loyalty, dissatisfaction, resistance/activism and co-creation can co-exist within the same consumer–brand relationship.
How to offer mobile targeting promotion under asymmetry
Authors: Wan Qin , Zhu Jing , Li Huijing , Wang Lili
Published: June 2017

Purpose

Based on consumers’ geographic real-time locations, firms can utilize mobile targeting promotion (MTP) to target consumers through some applications embedded in mobile device. This paper aims to focus on two competing firms about how to make MTP strategies under asymmetric mobile accessibilities, i.e. the proportions of consumers who can be targeted by firms through apps are different.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper develops a game model for two competing firms. Aiming to maximizing profit, firms should consider how to utilize MTP strategies to trade off the benefit (expand market share) and the cost (intensive price competition).

Findings

The optimal MTP strategies and equilibrium prices have been presented under different scenarios. This paper verifies that asymmetry can make the firm with high mobile accessibility obtain extra profits. Furthermore, when unit targeting cost is relatively low, profit of the firm with low mobile accessibility increases first and decreases later with respect to its mobile accessibility.

Practical implications

Competing firms’ optimal MTP strategies and equilibrium prices are determined not only by unit targeting cost but also by consumers’ mobile accessibilities to firms. Firms have strong incentive to enlarge the mobile accessibility to procure more profit in monopoly context, but, under competing context, a higher mobile accessibility may not mean better for firm.

Originality/value

This is one of the few papers which study mobile targeting based on game theory considering unit targeting cost and asymmetric mobile accessibility simultaneously.
Does mixed ownership improve the financial quality of Chinese listed companies?
Authors: Zhou Tingting , LI Juan
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore financial quality problems, based on the dynamics of the ownership structure, in the privatization process to clarify the internal relation among the ownership’s attribution of the commercial mixed ownership company, the company’s performance and its financial relationships. This paper also examines the mixed ownership enterprise’s potential problems during the development process.

Design/methodology/approach

Adopting the single case study method, the authors selected the mixed ownership public company Hubei Sanxia New Building Materials Co., Ltd. (stock code: 600293) to explore, from a privatization perspective, the impact of mixed ownership on financial quality.

Findings

The study found that Sanxia experienced tight cash flow and heavy debt burdens due to the privatization and that its controlling shareholders used non-operating income to support Sanxia, thus characterizing the dual role of “the grabbing hand” and “the helping hand.” Sanxia’s privatization process highlighted the volatility of performance, the exception of monetary funds and the existence of accounting fraud rather than the prosperous development of the capital combination.

Originality/value

These findings provided case support that privatization negatively affects the financial quality of the company. Previous studies have indicated that there should be greater focus more on the issue that state-owned shares rebound during the process of privatization and that, with respect to commercial mixed ownership reform of state-owned enterprises, such reform must avoid the passive transfer of corporate control, ensure the fairness of the related transactions, prevent the loss of state-owned assets and preclude the controlling shareholders from seizing interests of listed companies.
Low carbon supply chain with energy consumption constraints: case studies from China’s textile industry and simple analytical model
Authors: Shen Bin , Ding Xuemei , Chen Lizhu , Chan Hau Ling
Published: June 2017

Purpose

This paper aims to discuss the low carbon supply chain practices in China’s textile industry. To curb greenhouse gas emissions, the Chinese government has launched restrict regulatory system and imposed the energy consumption constraint in the textile industry to guarantee the achievability of low carbon economy. The authors aim to examine how the energy consumption constraint affects the optimal decisions of the supply chain members and address the supply chain coordination issue.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conduct two case studies from Chinese textile companies and examine the impact of energy consumption constraints on their production and operations management. Based on the real industrial practices, the authors then develop a simple analytical model for a low carbon supply chain in which it consists of one single retailer and one single manufacturer, and the manufacturer determines the choice of clean technology for energy efficiency improvement and emission reduction.

Findings

From the case studies, the authors find that the textile companies develop clean technologies to reduce carbon emission in production process under the energy consumption enforcement. In this analytical model, the authors derive the optimal decisions of the supply chain members and reveal that supply chain coordination can be achieved if the manufacturer properly sets the reservation wholesale price (WS) despite the production capacity can fulfill partial market demand under a WS (or cost sharing) contract. The authors also find that the cost-sharing contract may induce the manufacturer to increase the investment of clean technology and reduce the optimal WS.

Originality/value

This paper discusses low carbon supply chain practices in China’s textile industry and contributes toward green supply chain development. Managerial implications are identified, which are beneficial to the entire textile industry in the developing countries.
Contract and incentive mechanism in low-carbon R&D cooperation
Authors: Liu Kening , Song Huaming
Published: June 2017

Purpose

This paper focuses on how the producer inspires his cooperative research partner to reduce carbon emission, by developing a menu of incentive contracts both in research and development (R&D) stage and recycling stage.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed mechanism combines the researcher with the producer in a two-staged closed-loop system. Based on the concept that the producer takes the environmental responsibility, this paper designs a dynamically updating contract for the producer to encourage low-carbon efforts. Meanwhile, the producer offers a menu of contracts against the asymmetric information, that is, the R&D partner owns private information on his low-carbon R&D capability. According to incentive mechanism, the researcher decides whether to tell the truth and how much effort she would exert in R&D and recycling stages.

Findings

Discriminating between different types of researchers hurts the producer’s profit. But the updated screening contract can inspire researchers to tell the truth and is beneficial in reducing carbon emissions in the two stages. The results give the optimal solutions of the incentive mechanism. The low-type researcher only obtains reservation profit, whereas the high-type is given more to induce the information.

Originality/value

This paper proposes a strategy of updating the contract factors for avoiding adverse selection and moral hazard. Considering the environmental responsibility of waste products, the producer would like to encourage low-carbon designs among the R&D partners in a closed-loop supply chain.
Is “transgenerational response” a hidden cause of failed corporate turnarounds and chronic underperformance?
Authors: Oliver John
Published: June 2017

Purpose

CEO turnover and chronic corporate underperformance are examined through the lens of Transgenerational Response.

Design/methodology/approach

The criteria for investigating Transgenerational Response in corporations consisted of identifying a Critical Corporate Incident, the number of corporate generations and the resultant corporate financial performance.

Findings

The evidence presented in the case studies illustrates how a Critical Corporate Incident has produced the consequential effect of chronic financial performance in the years following the incident.

Research limitations/implications

These case studies have not presented the “actual” adaptive responses, inherited attitudes and behaviours that have subsequently embedded themselves in a new corporate culture, post the Critical Corporate Incident, to the detriment of the long-term health and performance of each firm.

Practical implications

Examining CEO turnover and chronic corporate underperformance through the lens of Transgenerational Response means that business leaders can identify how a historic event has affected the performance of their firm in subsequent generations. With this knowledge in hand, they will be able to examine the inherited attitudes and behaviours, organizational policies, strategy and adaptive cultural routines that have combined to consolidate the firms chronic under performance.

Originality/value

This is a highly original, evidence based, idea that has the potential to reshape our current understanding of CEO turnover and underperforming firms. It will help business leaders identify how a historic event has affected the performance of a firm in subsequent generations.
Thomas Stewart: what leaders need to know about the new design revolution in services
Authors: Leavy Brian
Published: June 2017

Purpose

With the growing importance of services in the overall economy, it is surprising that the notion of service firms investing in systematic and dedicated innovation activities has taken so long to materialize. This is now set to change as service firms undertake the kind of research, design and development disciplines which for more than a century have been mainstays of modern manufacturing.

Design/methodology/approach

S&L interviews the well-known former editor of Harvard Business Review Thomas A. Stewart and his co-author, former BloombergBusinessweek.com editor Patricia O’Connell, in their latest book, Woo, Wow and Win: Service Design, Strategy and the Art of Customer Delight (Harper Business, 2016). They believe we are on the cusp of a “design revolution” in services.

Findings

The central thesis of their book is that services “should be designed with as much care as products are” and they include service “delivery” in that premise.

Practical implications

Service design principles offer powerful new ways to address the three basic strategy questions: What do we sell? To whom? And how do we win?

Originality/value

Service design helps you understand how to configure a set of activities, behaviors and touchpoints–a journey–that allows you to serve that customer well.
Carnivore carcasses are avoided by carnivores
Authors: Moleón Marcos , Martínez‐Carrasco Carlos , Muellerklein Oliver C. , Getz Wayne M. , Muñoz‐Lozano Carlos , Sánchez‐Zapata José A.
Published: June 2017

Ecologists have traditionally focused on herbivore carcasses as study models in scavenging research. However, some observations of scavengers avoiding feeding on carnivore carrion suggest that different types of carrion may lead to differential pressures. Untested assumptions about carrion produced at different trophic levels could therefore lead ecologists to overlook important evolutionary processes and their ecological consequences.

Our general goal was to investigate the use of mammalian carnivore carrion by vertebrate scavengers. In particular, we aimed to test the hypothesis that carnivore carcasses are avoided by other carnivores, especially at the intraspecific level, most likely to reduce exposure to parasitism.

We take a three‐pronged approach to study this principle by: (i) providing data from field experiments, (ii) carrying out evolutionary simulations of carnivore scavenging strategies under risks of parasitic infection, and (iii) conducting a literature‐review to test two predictions regarding parasite life‐history strategies.

First, our field experiments showed that the mean number of species observed feeding at carcasses and the percentage of consumed carrion biomass were substantially higher at herbivore carcasses than at carnivore carcasses. This occurred even though the number of scavenger species visiting carcasses and the time needed by scavengers to detect carcasses were similar between both types of carcasses. In addition, we did not observe cannibalism. Second, our evolutionary simulations demonstrated that a risk of parasite transmission leads to the evolution of scavengers with generally low cannibalistic tendencies, and that the emergence of cannibalism‐avoidance behaviour depends strongly on assumptions about parasite‐based mortality rates. Third, our literature review indicated that parasite species potentially able to follow a carnivore–carnivore indirect cycle, as well as those transmitted via meat consumption, are rare in our study system.

Our findings support the existence of a novel coevolutionary relation between carnivores and their parasites, and suggest that carnivore and herbivore carcasses play very different roles in food webs and ecosystems.