bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Consumers' stock preferences beyond expected financial returns
Authors: Aspara Jaakko , Tikkanen Henrikki
Published: April 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the links between individual investors' subjective evaluations of certain companies' products and brands, on one hand, and their willingness and decisions to invest in those companies' stocks, on the other. The authors aim to challenge the traditional assumption that individuals would make stock investment decisions purely on the basis of expected financial returns and risks.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey data were collected from 293 individuals who invest in the stock market of a European country and analyzed with PLS path modeling.

Findings

In the clear majority of the consumers' stock investment decisions that were analyzed, the consumers exhibited some willingness to invest in a chosen stock beyond its expected financial returns/risk. Two variables are found to elicit willingness to invest in a company's stock beyond its financial returns: the personal relevance that the individual attaches to domains (activities or areas of interest; ideas or ideals) supported or represented by the company's products; and the individual's affective evaluation of the company's product brand.

Research limitations/implications

Replicating the study with different companies from different industries and with consumers from different countries will be important. Overcoming a potential retrospection bias in the reported study is also a task for further research.

Practical implications

The findings provide insights that can serve segmentation, targeting, and positioning when it comes to marketing a company in the stock market so as to attract investors.

Originality/value

The paper provides new evidence on the influence of product and brand evaluations in consumers' stock investment decisions – suggesting that positive product evaluations elicit extra willingness to invest in a company's stock, over and beyond its financial returns.
Forecasting the development of a pursuit race between competitors
Authors: Kunstek Rolf
Published: April 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a method of forecasting the development of the market shares of competitors in a pursuit race.

Design/methodology/approach

The statistical concept of co‐integration is applied to a state space model in order to operationalize the pursuit race in competition. Two time series served as data input for the designed model. They document the development of the monthly market shares of German savings banks and German cooperative banks with respect to the end‐of‐month volume of non‐bank deposits.

Findings

The analysis of the competition between the two bank groups proves that the development of their market shares is co‐integrated in the shape of a long lasting pursuit race. Therefore, the forecasts of the changes in market shares are very accurate and reliable.

Practical implications

With the help of such a statistical analysis, a competitor is able to monitor the development of competition effectively to forecast the changes that are to be expected. Thus, the method described here helps the firm to react in time to the movements of its competitors.

Originality/value

This paper is an important contribution to gain insight in the quantitative dynamics of competition according to co‐integration by the parameters of state space model.
The effect of client industry structure on client preference for privacy and auditor concentration
Authors: Mithu Dey R.
Published: April 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of a client's potentially conflicting needs for privacy and industry expertise on auditor concentration.

Design/methodology/approach

The method examines the distribution of auditor concentration assuming that auditor choice occurs randomly. It then examines the observed distribution within the random assignment to consider whether the privacy or expertise motive dominates.

Findings

The main finding is that at the client industry level, clients in a dominant firm industry structure prefer privacy; whereas clients in a competitive market structure prefer expertise.

Research limitations/implications

An implication of this paper is that an increase in the number of large auditors may change auditor concentration in client industries that prefer privacy, an auditor different from its competitor.

Practical implications

Policy makers should note that auditor concentration is not only a function of the number of auditors, but also of the client industry structure.

Originality/value

The results provide a new measure for industry specialists and provide additional insight regarding auditor choice when privacy is relevant.
ISO 15489 Records Management: its development and significance
Authors: Healy Susan
Published: April 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of producing ISO 15489 Records Management, and to explore some of the professional and other issues that arise for consideration at an international level.

Design/methodology/approach

The process of producing ISO 15489 Records Management is described, along with some of the thinking behind that process,

Findings

In one sense, the contents of ISO 15489 are less important than its existence. The fact that records managers can point to an ISO/BSI Standard for their discipline can be used to improve the image and status of records management in the eyes of those who know little or nothing of the subject. The Standard is a statement of good practice in records management. It is also something that can be passed to professionals in other fields when working on projects together. Also, the internationalising process has made the Standard more suitable than AS 4390 for the UK environment.

Originality/value

The paper identifies some of the benefits of the Standard for records management in the UK.
Multiple‐buyer procurement auctions framework for humanitarian supply chain management
Authors: Ertem Mustafa A. , Buyurgan Nebil , Rossetti Manuel D.
Published: April 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to address the inefficiency in resource allocation for disaster relief procurement operations. It presents a holistic and reconfigurable procurement auctions‐based framework which includes the announcement construction, bid construction and bid evaluation phases.

Design/methodology/approach

The holistic framework is developed in a way that auctioneers and bidders compete amongst each other in multiple rounds of the procurement auction. Humanitarian organization in disaster locations are considered as auctioneers (buyers) and suppliers are considered as bidders.

Findings

Unique system parameters (e.g. announcement options, priority of items, bidder strategies, etc.) are introduced to represent the disaster relief environment in a practical way. The framework is verified by simulation and optimization techniques using the system characteristics of the disaster relief environment as an input. Based on the parameters and their values, behavioural changes of auctioneers and suppliers are observed.

Originality/value

Combining the three phases of procurement auctions is unique both in the auction literature and in the disaster relief research, and it helps the humanitarian organizations supply the immediate and long‐term requirements in the disaster location more efficiently.
Reverse logistics capabilities: antecedents and cost savings
Authors: Jack Eric P. , Powers Thomas L. , Skinner Lauren
Published: April 2010

Purpose

The use of reverse logistics has received increased attention in the literature, although the role that reverse logistics capabilities plays in enabling firms to achieve cost savings has not been empirically examined. Reverse logistics capabilities can enable retailers to enhance their return policies and improve their overall cost position. This paper aims to address these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a survey of 295 retailers, this paper evaluates the influence of customer and retailer related antecedents of reverse logistics capabilities and their subsequent impact on cost savings.

Findings

The results indicate that resource commitments and contractual obligations positively influence reverse logistics capabilities and that these capabilities result in cost savings. Customer opportunism is found to be negatively related to reverse logistics capabilities. It is also reported that reverse logistics capabilities partially mediates the relationship between resource commitments, contractual arrangements, and reverse logistics cost savings.

Originality/value

This work builds on the recent research in reverse logistics; however, unlike other contributions in this research stream, the role of retailers who perform a critical role in this area is addressed.
Bio‐thermal convection caused by combined effects of swimming of oxytactic bacteria and inclined temperature gradient in a shallow fluid layer
Authors: Avramenko A.A. , Kuznetsov A.V.
Published: April 2010

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to investigate the onset of bio‐thermal convection in a shallow fluid layer; the convection is thus driven by the combined effect of swimming of oxytactic microorganisms and inclined temperature gradient.

Design/methodology/approach

Linear stability analysis of the basic state is performed; the numerical problem is solved using the collocation method.

Findings

The most interesting outcome of this analysis is the correlation between three Rayleigh numbers, two traditional, “thermal” Rayleigh numbers, which are associated with the vertical and horizontal temperature gradients in the fluid layer, and the bioconvection Rayleigh number, which is associated with the density variation induced by the upswimming of microorganisms.

Research limitations/implications

Further research should address the application of weakly nonlinear analysis to this problem.

Practical implications

The increase of the horizontal thermal Rayleigh number stabilizes the basic flow. The effect of increasing the horizontal thermal Rayleigh number is to distort the basic temperature profile away from the linear one. The increase of the Schmidt number stabilizes the basic flow. The increase of the Prandtl number first causes the bioconvection Rayleigh number to decrease and then to increase.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research dealing with the effect of inclined temperature gradient on the stability of bioconvection.
Homotopy perturbation method for the nonlinear dispersive K(m, n, 1) equations with fractional time derivatives
Authors: Koçak Hüseyin , Öziş Turgut , Yıldırım Ahmet
Published: April 2010

Purpose

This paper aims to apply He's homotopy perturbation method (HPM) to obtain solitary solutions for the nonlinear dispersive equations with fractional time derivatives.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors choose as an example the nonlinear dispersive and equations with fractional time derivatives to illustrate the validity and the advantages of the proposed method.

Findings

The paper extends the application of the HPM to obtain analytic and approximate solutions to the nonlinear dispersive equations with fractional time derivatives.

Originality/value

This paper extends the HPM to the equation with fractional time derivative.
Biomagnetic fluid flow in the presence of a line dipole
Authors: Papadopoulos Polycarpos K.
Published: April 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of a magnetic field on the flow of a biomagnetic fluid.

Design/methodology/approach

The flow takes place in a straight circular duct and the magnetic field is produced by a line dipole placed perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of the duct.

Findings

The numerical results show that the magnetic field affects the characteristics of the flow, the velocity components and the friction factor, even for medium field intensity. A relation is proposed for the maximum and minimum longitudinal pressure drop in the pipe.

Originality/value

From the present results it is obtained that it is important to take into account the magnetic properties of blood in the various applications that involve blood flow in the presence of a magnetic field.
Modelling and simulation of flow boiling heat transfer
Authors: Krause Fabian , Schüttenberg Sven , Fritsching Udo
Published: April 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and application of a numerical model for analysis of flow boiling phenomena and heat transfer.

Design/methodology/approach

For flow boiling processes, the fluid and vapour flow regimes in connection with the conjugate heat and mass transfer problem for specimen quenching through the entire boiling curve is modelled. Vaporisation and recondensation, the vapour fraction distribution and vapour movement with respect to the liquid are considered in the calculation of the two‐phase flow and heat transfer process. The derived flow boiling model is based on a mixture model and bubble crowding model approach for two‐phase flow. In addition to the conventional mixture model formulation, here special model implementations have been incorporated that describe: the vapour formation at the superheated solid‐liquid interface, the recondensation process of vapour at the subcooled vapour‐liquid interface, the mass transfer rate in the different boiling phases and the microconvection effect in the nucleate boiling phase resulting from bubble growth and detachment.

Findings

The model prediction results are compared with experimental data for quenching of a circular cylinder, showing good agreement in boiling state and heat transfer coefficient distribution. Simulation and experiments lead to a better understanding of the interaction of incident flow in the boiling state and the resulting heat transfer.

Research limitations/implications

Fluid temperatures in the range of 300‐353 K and specimen wall temperatures up to 1,000 K are considered.

Practical implications

Flow boiling is an efficient heat transfer process occurring in several technical applications. Application background of the model development is in quenching of complex metallic specimen geometries in liquids subject to fast changing heat fluxes.

Originality/value

A general model for the complex two‐phase boiling heat transfer at high wall temperatures and fast flow conditions that can be used in engineering applications does not yet exist. The results provide detailed information describing the non‐uniform phase change during the complete quenching process from film boiling to pure convection.
New product development assessment: towards a normative‐contingent audit
Authors: Panizzolo Roberto , Biazzo Stefano , Garengo Patrizia
Published: April 2010

Purpose

A large amount of research deals with the identification of management practices related to new product development (NPD) success. To this purpose, assessment tools capable of helping enterprises to set up improvement processes are of extreme importance. The aim of this paper is to build a product development assessment model based upon a normative‐contingent approach.

Design/methodology/approach

First, a literature review of the main approaches and models used in NPD assessment was carried out. Second, the tool was tested in five firms. The case studies allowed the authors to test the tool in its prototypal phase in order to assess both its limits and potential and also to highlight possible improvements.

Findings

The assessment tool developed yields a clear understanding of the current state of product development process in an organization in order to facilitate a shared understanding of the weakness and deficiencies, to enable effective process management, to develop implementation plan to support change initiatives and to support process improvement using metrics.

Originality/value

The product development assessment model is based upon a normative‐contingent approach meaning that the prescriptive requirements are defined according to the logic of coherence: requirements vary in relation to contextual conditions. In particular, there are two important context factors which are considered to have a significant influence on NPD process: the complexity of the product‐market interface and the enterprise's NPD strategic orientations.
Application of QFD in product development of a glass manufacturing company in Kazakhstan
Authors: Ahmed Shamsuddin , Amagoh Francis
Published: April 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how quality function deployment can be used to improve the quality of tinted glass produced by a glass manufacturing company in Kazakhstan.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected using a combination of Delphi method, unstructured, and semi‐structured survey. Principal component and Pareto analysis were used to identify the ranking of customer wants needed to improve the acceptability of the product in the market.

Findings

The paper suggests that satisfying all customer needs require the deployment of all the technology and resources available to the company. It illustrates the possible courses of action company management can take based on prevailing market conditions.

Research limitations/implications

The research shows the specific requirements of customers for tinted glass used in industrial settings. From supply chain perspective, downstream customer opinions were used to identify the desired product attributes.

Practical implications

Since no studies to date have been conducted on the glass manufacturing industry in the Central Asian region, this paper could help glass manufacturers in the region to improve their production practices.

Originality/value

The paper is of value to those glass producers interested in the glass manufacturing industry in Central Asia.
Applying structuration theory to the benchmarking analysis
Authors: Gao Ping , Hua Li Jing
Published: April 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how to use structuration theory as a benchmarking tool to analyze the formulation of a national strategy.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper presents a longitudinal case study of the telecommunications industry of China.

Findings

The case study demonstrates structuration theory is a useful tool for the benchmarking analysis. It is found that China's telecommunications industry has transformed by stages and undergone several benchmarks. The specific social and technological elements of China have determined the formulation of its national telecommunications transformation strategy.

Research limitations/implications

The paper extends benchmarking research to strategy formulation. It proposes structuration theory can be used in this aspect of benchmarking analysis.

Practical implications

Implications for how to use structuration theory in the benchmarking analysis, especially that of national strategy formulation are given.

Originality/value

For the first time in the literature, this paper applies structuration theory to benchmarking analysis.
An investigation of the status of the Malaysian construction industry
Authors: Razak Bin Ibrahim Abdul , Roy Matthew H. , Ahmed Zafar , Imtiaz Ghaffar
Published: April 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand the production processes utilized by the Malaysian construction industry (MCI).

Design/methodology/approach

The paper follows an earlier work published in this journal in which the authors analyze the global construction industry focusing on the evolution of lean production systems.

Findings

The future of construction is exciting. International markets, innovations in technology, and techniques of construction project management, new relationships across disciplines are all avenues of development. To make the best use of their opportunities, the MCI must invest in research and development (R&D), undertake public education about the field and develop new methodologies to improve operational performance in construction.

Originality/value

This paper provides a detailed analysis of the MCI, it's impact on the economy, key success factors, struggles and problems that the industry currently faces. Analysis of key functional areas like operations management, R&D, and occupational safety and health administration provide insights into improvement.
Higher education and curriculum innovation for sustainable development in India
Authors: Banga Chhokar Kiran
Published: April 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and profile significant national developments in higher education for sustainable development in India and to compare different educational approaches emerging in connection with education for sustainable development.

Design/methodology/approach

This is an evaluative review of contrasting initiatives to provide environmental and sustainability education in different institutions, that takes into account philosophy, policy and practice in Indian higher education. Academic programmes, policy statements and education projects are analyzed, to highlight important developments, challenges and the prospects for future progress.

Findings

Several principles of sustainable development are embedded in India's education policy. It is perhaps the only country where the highest court has mandated environmental education at all levels of formal education, which includes a compulsory undergraduate course. However, the challenges of implementing this requirement effectively are hampered by lack of inter‐disciplinary competence among staff and students, and traditional methods of assessment in HE. India has examples of successful community‐based initiatives but these often have resource implications. Many efforts to develop learning opportunities in this field have emerged primarily from academic and student interests and priorities rather than from formal policy initiatives.

Originality/value

This paper provides an evaluative perspective on the diverse and innovative responses to sustainability emerging in Indian higher education, in curriculum development and to address issues of practice on campus and in local communities. The opportunity to analyse the implementation of a national initiative is unusual, particularly in the distinctive context of India, which has considerable prior engagement with sustainable development at the level of policy and practice.
Environmental education for sustainability in higher education institutions in the Philippines
Authors: Galang Angelina P.
Published: April 2010

Purpose

To present a national profile of developments in higher education for sustainable development in the Philippines and to analyse a new initiative to accelerate environmental education for sustainable development (EESD) within academic institutions.

Design/methodology/approach

This is an evaluative review that examines the design and piloting of an innovative scheme within the Philippine education system. The analysis is situated in relation to the approaches taken by prior initiatives and framed in order to draw out significant challenges, developments, and prospects for EESD at the organizational level.

Findings

The paper finds that EESD in the Philippines has an official base in the National Environmental Education Action Plan, which provides a framework to guide higher education. Two national networks promote environmental education, while environmental training and curriculum projects have been supported by government agencies and academic institutions, but without explicit policy support for more widespread changes. In contrast, the Dark Green Schools (DGS) program offers a distinctive “whole institution” approach and accreditation system devised in line with the principles of EESD for coherent systemic change. The design and pilot year of the DGS program shows positive potential for “greening” academic institutions and the issues that arise in seeking curriculum change, future funding, and formal support at sector level.

Originality/value

The DGS is an innovative program to promote “whole institution” change for EESD in the Philippines. Whilst similar approaches have been developed in some countries at the level of school education, such initiatives are rare at the level of higher education. This paper therefore includes lessons and findings that help to inform global debate in this important area of EESD in higher education.
Guiding the content of tourism web advertisements on a search engine results page
Authors: Lin Chin‐Feng , Liao Yu‐Hung
Published: April 2010

Purpose

This study seeks to focus on the following: discovering consumer preferences regarding package tours to China; revealing differences among consumers' cognition related to these package tours, travel advertisements on web sites and search engine results; identifying the similarities among travel agency web sites; and establishing a consumer cognitive structure to assist marketers in designing written content for display in search engine results.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopted means‐end chain theory as a theoretical basis and used the written content of tourism web sites displayed in search engine results as an empirical object. By comparing the contents of tourism web sites and the search engine results, the researchers could analyse and compare similarities and differences among web site content, search results and consumer cognition.

Findings

Using the utility score of each attribute level to calculate the total utility can uncover the customers' preferred attribute level portfolio. The calculation results identified the most preferred tour package. The study found that the greater the variety of package tours to China provided by the web sites of a particular travel agent, the higher the possibility of that agent providing discount incentives. Furthermore, the text content of each web site provides more attribute information regarding package tours and less information about the consequences of travelling and value satisfaction.

Originality/value

This is one of the first studies to provide a methodology integrating conjoint analysis and the means‐end chain approach. Understanding the written content of web sites preferred by Chinese people can help marketers and web site designers design web sites attractive to this market.
Comparing sentiment expression in movie reviews from four online genres
Authors: Na Jin‐Cheon , Thura Thet Tun , Khoo Christopher S.G.
Published: April 2010

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the characteristics and differences in sentiment expression in movie review documents from four online opinion genres – blog postings, discussion board threads, user reviews, and critic reviews.

Design/methodology/approach

A collection of movie review documents was harvested from the four types of web sources, and a sample of 520 movie reviews were analysed to compare the content and textual characteristics across the four genres. The analysis focused on document and sentence length, part‐of‐speech distribution, vocabulary, aspects of movies discussed, star ratings used and multimedia content in the reviews. The study also identified frequently occurring positive and negative terms in the different genres, as well as the pattern of responses in discussion threads.

Findings

Critic reviews and blog postings are longer than user reviews and discussion threads, and contain longer sentences. Critic reviews and blogs contain more nouns and prepositions, whereas discussion board and user reviews have more verbs and adverbs. Critic reviews have the largest vocabulary and also the highest proportion of unique terms not found in the other genres. The most informative sentiment words in each genre are provided in the paper. With regard to content, critic reviews are more comprehensive in coverage, and discuss the movie director much more often than the other genres. User reviews discuss the scene aspects (including action and visual effects) more often than the other genres, while blogs tend to talk about the cast, and discuss the music and sound slightly more often.

Research limitations/implications

The study only analysed movie review documents. Similar content and text analysis studies can be carried out in other domains, such as commercial product reviews, celebrity reviews, company reviews and political opinions to compare the results.

Originality/value

The main contribution of the study is the sentiment content analysis results across genres, which show the similarities and differences in content and textual characteristics in the four online opinion genres. The insights will be useful in designing automatic sentiment summarisation methods for multiple online genres.
Good corporate citizenship in the Australian construction industry
Authors: Petrovic‐Lazarevic Sonja
Published: April 2010

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the relevance of the application of an environmental management system in creating the image of a good corporate citizen in the Australian construction industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The author applied a research method based on data collected from annual reports, corporations' websites and publicly available statistics; and interviews conducted with stakeholders of the leading Australian construction industry corporations.

Findings

The environmental management system has a part in creating the image of a good corporate citizen. Majority of the companies pursues the corporate governance structure that is concerned about healthy environment. None of the companies includes both suppliers and community representatives in the board of directors. There is a different interpretation as to what healthy working environment comprises, and how to sustain a healthy environment of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. The implementation of the occupational, health and safety regulations varies from state of state in Australia.

Practical implications

All companies should pursue the governance structure that ensures the social values of the organization are aligned with those of the community; overall unique stakeholders' understanding of a healthy working environment should support sustainability; equal implementation of occupational, health and safety regulations for each state in Australia could contribute overcoming for much‐needed occupational, health and safety improvement.

Originality/value

The originality of the paper is in applying the framework for examining the environmental management system pertinence to the image of defined good corporate citizen. The paper is useful to construction industry practitioners, academics, and government.
Board characteristics of medium and large Chinese companies
Authors: Liu Hongxia , Fong Michelle W.L.
Published: April 2010

Purpose

This paper aims to contribute to research studies on boards of directors in the Chinese transition economy that are by far, few and limited.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses basic data compilation method to investigate the board characteristics of large and medium Chinese companies listed on the Shenzhen and Shanghai Stock Exchange between 2004 and 2006. Sample data on these companies were obtained from the China Center for Economic Research (CCER) database that contains information on at least 1,350 listed companies in a particular year. Companies with missing data or incomplete information on board attributes are not included in the sample in this paper. Studies of relationships between board characteristics and firm performance in the Chinese context are compared to those studies in the West for determining whether there is a conclusive empirical outcome.

Findings

This investigation found some significant differences in board characteristics between the Chinese and Western contexts, such as non‐compliance with legal requirement, equity‐based compensation structure for board members, and lag in the establishment of Chinese board committees as compared to their counterparts in developed Western countries. In addition, the literature review reveals that studies of relationships between board characteristics and firm performance from the small community of scholars investigating the Chinese context produce inconclusive results similar to those studies of the West.

Practical implications

The empirical findings and literature review suggest that the prototype of an effective board may vary from one industry to another, or even from one company to another, and perhaps across time for the same company.

Originality/value

This contingency approach to board impact on firm performance may be relevant to companies operating in the Chinese transition economy, where factors are evolving continuously at the micro, macro, and international levels.
Corporate governance and institutional ownership: evidence from Jordan
Authors: Al‐Najjar Basil
Published: April 2010

Purpose

This paper aims to be one of the first papers to investigate the relationship between ownership structure and corporate governance, namely the factors that determine institutional investors' investment decisions in emerging markets using Jordanian data.

Design/methodology/approach

A panel data analysis is applied to the dataset that includes non‐financial Jordanian firms.

Findings

The results show that the Jordanian institutional investors consider firms' capital structure, profitability, business risk, asset structure, asset liquidity, growth rates, and firm size when they take their investment decisions. In addition, institutional investors in Jordan prefer to invest in services firms rather than manufacturing firms. Furthermore, the study cannot find any significant relationship between firms' dividend policy and institutional investors.

Practical implications

The practical implication of the study is that institutional investors should take under consideration the investigated variables in this study when they take their investment decisions.

Originality/value

This study highlights the importance of the institutional investors as the main owners of Jordanian firms, to the legislative authorities to enhance the corporate governance decisions in Jordan.
Corporate social responsibility: a strategy for sustainable business success. An analysis of 20 selected British companies
Authors: Samy Martin , Odemilin Godwin , Bampton Roberta
Published: April 2010

Purpose

This paper attempts to prove that strategically investing in corporate social responsibility (CSR) will maximize profits while satisfying the demands from multiple stakeholders.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper adopts a quantitative analysis and exploratory approach. It studies the CSR practices of 20 selected UK companies. The analysis of CSR policies is based on the global reporting initiative (GRI) guidelines. The analysis took a further step in examining the trends of earnings per share (EPS) of the selected companies.

Findings

The findings revealed that out of the 20 selected companies, only four achieved all six guidelines as per the GRI. In regression analysis of the variables CSR and EPS, a very weak (causal) but positive relationship was evident (R2=0.147).

Research limitations/implications

The study was applied to 20 selected companies in the UK. Future research should be extended to a larger sample in order to analyze the strength of the relationship between EPS and CSR. The study applied variables of CSR based on GRI. Other measures may reveal different insights.

Practical implications

In the strategic sense, CSR investments are not just another business cost but are essential for a firm's continued survival in the ever increasingly competitive business world of today. This understanding is crucial as there is an escalation of concern by both society and corporations in the modern world. More so, it is increasingly and widely accepted that attempting to isolate business from society is unrealistic and that dichotomising economic and social objectives as distinct and competing is false.

Originality/value

The paper applies the variable EPS and seeks to establish a relationship with the CSR as measured according to the GRI.
Engaging employees through whole leadership
Authors: Hayward Simon
Published: April 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explain the “whole leadership” approach to engaging the heads, hearts and guts of employees.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on research and case study material to demonstrate the importance of engaging employees to achieve organizational goals.

Practical implications

The paper provides useful guidelines for a whole leadership approach and suggestions for how HR professionals can implement learning opportunities to introduce whole leadership skills and behaviors in their organizations.

Originality/value

The paper demonstrates the value of a whole leadership approach in engaging, motivating and inspiring employees, particularly during periods of economic uncertainty, increasing globalization and complexity in organizational life.
Building a culture of high employee engagement
Authors: Tomlinson Gary
Published: April 2010

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the key drivers for employee engagement within an organization. It seeks to answer the question: what are the keys to improving the level of employee engagement?

Design/methodology/approach

A case study illustrates a strategy for employee engagement that was based on research on the key drivers of engagement.

Findings

The paper presents practical case study material from Kia Motors – the South Korean automotive manufacturer. It shows how Human Resources (HR) worked to develop a strategy to address very poor levels of employee engagement. A clear set of engagement measures was developed to assess the impact of the engagement strategy.

Originality/value

This paper ascertains some of the key drivers of employee engagement as illustrated by the case study. It demonstrates a number of practical tools HR professionals can utilize to build employee engagement within their organizations.
A study of Turnitin as an educational tool in student dissertations
Authors: Biggam John , McCann Margaret
Published: April 2010

Purpose

This paper explores the use of Turnitin as a learning tool (particularly in relation to citing sources and paraphrasing) and as a vehicle for reducing incidences of plagiarism.

Design/methodology/approach

The research was implemented using a case study of 49 final‐year “honours” undergraduate students undertaking their year‐long core dissertation module. Over the course of the academic year student submissions to Turnitin were analysed in terms of improvements to their Turnitin scores and academic writing.

Findings

The majority of students submitted the first three chapters of their dissertation to Turnitin (Introduction, Literature Review and Methodology); less than half the students submitted their Findings and Conclusion to Turnitin. Over the course of the academic year, students submitted their dissertation work on average five times. Student Turnitin “similarity scores” were reduced but student use of Turnitin did not significantly enhance the quality of their writing.

Research limitations/implications

It is clear that mechanisms need to be explored to convince students of the potential educational benefits of Turnitin and to encourage staff to engage more in the process.

Practical implications

Theoretically, using Turnitin for the dual purpose of preventing plagiarism and enhancing student academic writing skills has an obvious appeal; however, this study illustrates that one cannot take for granted both student and staff buy‐in.

Originality/value

This paper is of value to academic staff who wish to explore the benefits, and pitfalls, of using Turnitin as an educational tool.
A flexible locality‐aware peer‐to‐peer streaming system
Authors: Chan Yu‐Wei , Lai Chih‐Han , Chung Yeh‐Ching
Published: April 2010

Purpose

Peer‐to‐peer (P2P) streaming quickly emerges as an important application over the internet. A lot of systems have been implemented to support peer‐to‐peer media streaming. However, some problems still exist. These problems include non‐guaranteed communication efficiency, limited upload capacity and dynamics of suppliers which are all related to the overlay topology design. The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel overlay construction framework for peer‐to‐peer streaming.

Design/methodology/approach

To exploit the bandwidth resource of neighboring peers with low communication delay, application of the grouping method was proposed to construct a flexible two‐layered locality‐aware overlay network. In the proposed overlay, peers are clustered into locality groups according to the communication delays of peers. These locality groups are interconnected with each other to form the top layer of the overlay. In each locality group, peers form an overlay mesh for transmitting stream to other peers of the same group. These overlay meshes form the bottom layer of the overlay.

Findings

Through simulations, the performance was compared in terms of communication efficiency, source‐to‐end delivery efficiency and reliability of the delivery paths of the proposed solution currently. Simulation results show that the proposed method can achieve the construction of a scalable, efficient and stable peer‐to‐peer streaming environment.

Originality/value

The new contributions in this paper are a novel framework which includes the adaptability, maintenance and optimization schemes to adjust the size of overlay dynamically according to the dynamics of peers; and considering the importance of locality of peers in the system.
An efficient method to measure the semantic similarity of ontologies
Authors: Wang James Z. , Ali Farha , Srimani Pradip K.
Published: April 2010

Purpose

With the recent availability of large number of bioinformatics data sources, query from such databases and rigorous annotation of experimental results often use semantic frameworks in the form of an ontology. With the growing access to heterogeneous and independent data repositories, determining the semantic similarity or difference of two ontologies is critical in information retrieval, information integration and semantic web services. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new sense refinement algorithm to construct a refined sense set (RSS) for an ontology so that the senses (synonym words) in this refined sense set represent the semantic meanings of the terms used by this ontology.

Design/methodology/approach

A new concept of a semantic set is introduced that combines the refined sense set of ontology with the relationship edges connecting the terms in this ontology to represent the semantics of this ontology. With the semantic sets, measuring the semantic similarity or difference of two ontologies is simplified as comparing the commonality or difference of two sets.

Findings

The experimental studies show that the proposed method of measuring the semantic similarity or difference of two ontologies is efficient and accurate; comparisons with existing methods show the efficacy of using the new method.

Originality/value

The concepts introduced in this paper will improve automation of bioinformatics databases to serve queries based on heterogeneous ontologies.
Policies for enhancing sustainability and competitiveness in tourism in Colombia
Authors: Inés Sánchez Clara , Jaramillo‐Hurtado Maria Eugenia
Published: April 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of tourism policy in Colombia and explain the measures being adopted to enhance the competitiveness and the economic contribution of the tourism sector.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper presents an historical perspective on tourism in Colombia from 1998 to 2008 and explains the policy initiatives that have been designed to advance the development of tourism and expand the impact of sustainable ecotourism as a strategy for promoting conservation and protection of the Amazon rainforest in Colombia.

Findings

The paper discusses the success of Colombia where tourism grew (and is projected to grow) at a rate faster than that predicted for global tourism. The partnerships forged at the national level have also been important to implement policy decisions aimed at the development of sustainable tourism.

Practical implications

Member Countries of the Treaty of Amazon Cooperation that have not yet defined or elaborated a mid‐ to long‐term national tourism development strategy would find the Colombia model a useful point of reference.

Originality/value

This paper holds special value for those working in the areas of tourism policy development and tourism planning in Amazon Member Countries.
Sustainable tourism as a tool for conservation and protection of the Amazon rainforest in Guyana?
Authors: Butts Treina , Sukhdeo‐Singh Tameca
Published: April 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential of sustainable tourism as a vehicle for the protection and conservation of the Amazon rainforest in Guyana through an overview of the current status of the industry and initiatives that are employed.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper examines the development of community‐based tourism, protected areas, birding tourism, utilisation of protected areas for research and development through initiatives by the government, non governmental organisations and private individuals.

Findings

The paper concludes that sustainable tourism can be used as a vehicle for protecting the Amazon rainforest in Guyana as long as mechanisms are in place to ensure that it is developed in a manner that does not destroy the forest and the biodiversity but ensures the well being of the communities that it supports.

Practical implications

The paper will benefit tourism officials as well as persons within the field of conservation and environmental management. It will provide them with a framework of the current policies and initiatives and the future plans for the rainforest and its stakeholders.

Originality/value

Guyana has embarked on the promotion of the low carbon development strategy which has its genesis in sustainable development and protection of the rainforest. Thus, the paper will prove to be a very valuable resource for scholars, researchers, tourism and environmental practitioners.
A sustainable tourism approach to the protection of the Amazon rainforest
Authors: Yánez Elva , Sevilla Eduardo
Published: April 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present an institutional model of decentralized administration as a response to the challenge of the management of the development of sustainable tourism in the Amazon region of Peru.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper provides an overview of the geography of Peru delineating the Amazon region and highlighting its importance as the most bio‐diverse region in the world. The paper then outlines the protected area approach to the matter of bio‐diversity protection, as employed by the government of Peru and then discusses the centrality of sustainable tourism to this effort. Finally, the paper offers a unique institutional model of the management entities as the administrative innovation of Peru for the management of sustainable tourism in the Amazon region.

Findings

The management entity model is presented as an administrative experiment in response to the particular political management structures obtaining in Peru. The management entity seeks to harmonize efforts and inputs of actors from a plurality of sectors across the spectrum of political administration.

Practical implications

Although focusing particularly on a made‐for‐Peru institutional model, this research has relevance to all tourism administrators in the Amazon region, as it stresses the principle of inclusivity in the management and direction of regional tourism programmes.

Originality/value

Both from the standpoint of tourism scholarship and from the perspective of tourism administration and management this paper is of immense value and interest across the entire tourism management spectrum in the Amazon.