bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Digital content creation and copyright issues
Authors: Mahesh G. , Mittal Rekha
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the modes of digital content creation for digital libraries and discuss the associated copyright issues with the types of digital content.

Design/methodology/approach

Prevalent copyright laws in India in the context of digital content have been studied and issues related to specific types of digital content have been discussed.

Findings

In addition to two known types of digital content, namely born digital and turned digital, a third type, gained digital has been delineated. It is found that extant copyright laws, particularly in India, allow scope for forming opinions with regard to digital content thereby giving room for insecurity for digital content creators.

Research limitations/implications

Copyright laws in the context of World Intellectual Property Organization and India only have been discussed.

Practical implications

The paper will be useful to digital content creators and digital library managers/administrators to understand copyright issues relevant to the digital library.

Originality/value

The classification of digital libraries based on content as has been delineated in this paper is an original work and has reported for the first time. The linking of digital content with the copyright issues makes it useful.
Use of e‐journals by research scholars at Aligarh Muslim University and Banaras Hindu University
Authors: Mannan Khan Abdul , Ahmad Naved
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to find out the level of awareness and use of e‐journals by the researchers of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) – both central universities funded by the University Grants Commission.

Design/methodology/approach

A well‐structured questionnaire is administered to the research scholars of the AMU and BHU to collect data regarding the use of e‐journals.

Findings

The survey reveals that most of the research scholars are aware of the availability of e‐journals and largely use them for reference purposes in their research work. They fully agree that with the usage of e‐journal the quality of research work improves with enrichment of appurtenant contents and materials leading to high‐quality manuscript. It is however found that lack of training is the obstacle in proper and full utilization of e‐journals.

Research limitations/implications

The present paper consists only of e‐journal users and the geographical area is restricted to AMU, Aligarh and BHU, Varanasi. The scope of the paper can be extended to additional centrally funded universities. An intra‐comparative study could also be made between some select central and state universities for users of e‐journal.

Originality/value

There are a number of studies on the use of e‐journals, but this is the first of its kind within Indian central universities. As such, it should pave the way for research in other Indian universities as well as elsewhere.
Factors influencing use of the internet
Authors: Williams Nwagwu E. , Adekannbi Janet , Bello Olayiwola
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors influencing use of the internet by students of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and to establish the variation of this use by students' personal characteristics, and as a result to recommend improvements where necessary to the benefit of the student community.

Design/methodology/approach

Participants are recruited through a random sampling technique, and data are collected from them using a questionnaire. A one‐way analysis of variance is used for the analysis to uncover the variation of use across demographic and other factors.

Findings

It is shown that students who communicate with varies significantly with age, gender and level of study while the various tools they use vary significantly with age, gender, faculty and level of study. Both younger users (<24 years) and older colleagues (>24 years) use chat rooms. Across gender, educational purpose dominates the use of the internet, but it varies with age, level of study and faculty. Higher educational level is associated with less use of the internet for leisure and entertainment. About 73 per cent of the respondents considers internet information as useful while much less than this (44.4 per cent) reported finding internet information as trustworthy.

Research limitations/implications

A major limitation of this paper is that data are collected using only a questionnaire, whereas interview sessions would have uncovered more issues.

Practical implications

Based on this result, this paper suggests discriminated internet education programmes and access by faculty, level of study and gender in order to maximise the use of the internet services by the students in the university.

Originality/value

This study provides useful research information that can guide the university in fine‐tuning its internet projects for optimal benefits of the student community. Other universities in similar situations in Africa as well as elsewhere can also benefit from the findings.
Document delivery from Texas to Qatar: an international inter‐campus service
Authors: Yang Zheng Ye (Lan) , Gyeszly Suzanne D.
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe document delivery services between Texas A&M University Libraries (TAMUL) and Texas A&M University at Qatar Library (TAMUQL) from 2003 to 2008.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper provides insights into the development of the new service provided by main campus libraries from College Station, Texas to the new branch library in Doha, Qatar.

Findings

Document delivery is a popular, accurate, prompt, and well appreciated service for students, faculty, researchers, and staff to obtain needed curriculum and research materials unavailable at TAMUQL due to space limitations.

Originality/value

This research provides useful and practical information for administrators and librarians planning to establish document delivery and interlibrary loan services.
Copac: current activity and future developments
Authors: Jeskins Lisa , Ruddock Bethan
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of the paper is to describe the purpose and functions of Copac to the ILL community, and to inform them about recent and forthcoming developments.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper takes a descriptive approach based on desk research.

Findings

Some indications of how Copac is being used by ILL practitioners are reported. New functionality is described.

Originality/value

The findings should prove to be of practical value for the ILL community. The description of new/forthcoming features allows the community to stay up‐to‐date with the Copac service.
The digital library programme at the British Library: goals and priorities
Authors: Green Steve
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to show how the British Library (BL) is responding to the changing world of publishing through the Digital Library Programme.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is a descriptive review of the factors that led to the BL establishing the Digital Library Programme. The paper describes the goals of the programme, the priorities for the programme, the mechanisms for providing access to digital material acquired by the Library and gives an overview of the approach to ensuring that material stored in the Digital Library System remains permanently accessible. It also gives a brief overview of some of the main challenges that the Programme faces.

Findings

The unique position of the BL within the research environment means that there is great benefit to be had in building a digital library to store significant amounts of material even where it is already available elsewhere. The reason for this is the ability of the Library to sustain storage and access over a much longer period than can be achieved by commercial companies. The Library has also built up significant expertise and a world leadership in the field of digital preservation. The use of a programme and project structure to manage the development of the infrastructure, processes and procedures has already shown that it can deliver significant benefit in the changing landscape of digital dissemination of information. The use of an iterative and incremental approach both for the programme as a whole and for projects within the programme has shown significant benefits in allowing the BL to make progress where the end goal is very ambitious and there is no obvious off‐the‐shelf solution.

Practical implications

This may have broad applications for similar complex projects.

Originality/value

The BL Digital Library Programme is providing a solution to the acquisition and dissemination of digital material on a larger scale than is common within the library and archiving community.
Why are scholarly journals costly even with electronic publishing?
Authors: Galyani Moghaddam Golnessa
Published: October 2009

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the reasons for the high costs of scholarly journals.

Design/methodology/approach

A brief review of the literature on journal publishing costs is carried out. The paper focuses on the economics of scholarly English language journals published mainly in the USA and Europe, but which are sold worldwide, largely to academic and research libraries.

Findings

Journal literature has long played a prominent role in the scholarly communication chain. In recent decades, however, the scholarly communication system has been facing a crisis due to the ever‐escalating costs of journals. Two of the features of the journal publishing industry cited a decade ago and still valid today are a lack of competition and perverse incentives. “First‐copy cost” is reported to be the main reason for high journal prices both in print and electronic publishing.

Originality/value

The paper provides a useful overview to researchers and document supply librarians, enabling them to achieve quickly a clear picture of journal publishing industry costs.
Interlending and document supply: a review of the recent literature: 68
Authors: McGrath Mike
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of the paper is to provide a review of the most recent literature concerning document supply and related matters.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper's approach is the reading of over 150 journals as well as monographs, reports and websites.

Findings

Electronic books remain a minority market but the literature at least remains optimistic and readers are improving in quality and acceptability. Open access continues to grow but with continuing and widely differing views on its impact – especially the author‐pays model. Recent mandating decisions will mean a step change in the both the creation and the growth of institutional and subject repositories. Increasing concerns are being expressed about the monopolistic implications of Google and there are some stout counter arguments. A number of interesting articles on document supply show it to be in robust health. The economic crisis will have a mixed impact on document supply as libraries consider cuts in acquisition budgets.

Originality/value

The paper represents a useful source of information for librarians and others interested in document supply and related matters.
On upscaling of discrete element models: similarity principles
Authors: Feng Y.T. , Loughran J.
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The main purpose of this paper is to derive a set of similarity principles for discrete element modelling so that a numerical model can exactly reproduce the physical phenomenon concerned.

Design/methodology/approach

The objective is achieved by introducing the concepts of particle “strain” and “stress” so that some equivalence between the physical system and the numerical model can be established.

Findings

Three similarity principles, namely geometric, mechanical and dynamic, under which the numerical model can exactly reproduce the mechanical behaviour of a physical model are proposed. In particular, the concept of the scale invariant interaction law is further introduced. The scalability of a number of most commonly used interaction laws in the discrete element modelling is examined.

Research limitations/implications

This is a preliminary research for a very important and challenging topic. More research, particularly in the understanding of the convergent properties of discrete element models, is needed.

Originality/value

The paper provides some important theoretical guidances to computational modelling of particle systems using discrete element techniques.
On the application of quaternion‐based approaches in discrete element methods
Authors: Johnson Scott M. , Williams John R. , Cook Benjamin K.
Published: October 2009

Purpose

Though the problem of resolving translational motion in particle methods is a relatively straightforward task, the complications of resolving rotational motion are non‐trivial. Many molecular dynamics and non‐deformable discrete element applications employ an explicit integration for resolving orientation, often involving products of matrices, which have well‐known drawbacks. The purpose of this paper is to investigate commonly used algorithms for resolving rotational motion and describe the application of quaternion‐based approaches to discrete element method simulations.

Design/methodology/approach

Existing algorithms are compared against a quaternion‐based reparameterization of both the central difference algorithm and the approach of Munjiza et al. for finite/discrete element modeling (FEM/DEM) applications for the case of torque‐free precession.

Findings

The resultant algorithms provide not only guaranteed orthonormality of the resulting rotation but also allow assumptions of small‐angle rotation to be relaxed and the use of a more accurate Taylor expansion instead.

Originality/value

The approaches described in this paper balance ease of implementation within existing explicit codes with computational efficiency and accuracy appropriate to the order of error in many discrete element method simulations.
A poly‐ellipsoid particle for non‐spherical discrete element method
Authors: Peters John F. , Hopkins Mark A. , Kala Raju , Wahl Ronald E.
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a simple non‐symmetric shape, the poly‐ellipsoid, to describe particles in discrete element simulations that incur a computational cost similar to ellipsoidal particles.

Design/methodology/approach

Particle shapes are derived from joining octants of eight ellipsoids, each having different aspect ratios, across their respective principal planes to produce a compound surface that is continuous in both surface coordinate and normal direction. Because each octant of the poly‐ellipsoid is described as an ellipsoid, the mathematical representation of the particle shape can be in the form of either an implicit function or as parametric equations.

Findings

The particle surface is defined by six parameters (vs the 24 parameters required to define the eight component ellipsoids) owing to dependencies among parameters that must be imposed to create continuous intersections. Despite the complexity of the particle shapes, the particle mass, centroid and moment of inertia tensor can all be computed in closed form.

Practical implications

The particle can be implemented in any contact algorithm designed for ellipsoids with minor modifications to determine in which pair of octants the potential contact occurs.

Originality/value

The poly‐ellipsoid particle is a computational device to represent non‐spherical particles in DEM models.
Estimating 3D particle motion from high‐speed video for simulation validation
Authors: Price Mathew , Morrison Garry
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present an image based method for estimating the 3D motion of rigid particles from high‐speed video footage (HSV). The computed motion can be used as either a means to generate quantitative feedback for a process or to validate the accuracy of discrete element method (DEM) simulation models.

Design/methodology/approach

Experiments consist of a diamond impacting an angled plate and video is captured at 4,000 frames per second. Simple image analysis is used to track the particle in each frame and to extract its 2D silhouette boundary. Using an approximate 3D model of the particle generated from a multi‐camera setup, a pose estimation scheme based on silhouette consistency is used in conjunction with a rigid body model to compute the 3D motion.

Findings

Under reasonable conditions, the method can reliably estimate the linear and angular motion of the particle to within 1 per cent of their true values.

Practical implications

As an example application, we demonstrate how the method can be used to validate DEM simulations of simple impact experiments captured with HSV, providing valuable insight towards further development. In particular, we investigate the effects of shape representation through sphere‐clumping and the applicability of different contact models.

Originality/value

The novelty of our method is its ability to accurately compute the motion associated with a real world interaction, such as an impact, which provides numerical ground truth at an individual particle level. While similar schemes have been attempted with ideal particles (e.g. spheres), the resulting models do not naturally extend to realistic particle shapes. Since our method can track real particles, real‐world processes can be better quantified.
Are supply chains global or regional?
Authors: Rugman Alan M. , Li Jing , Hoon Oh Chang
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the following questions: Are supply chains global or regional? What are the performance implications for firms?

Design/methodology/approach

This paper classifies 183 large North American firms into home‐region oriented, host‐region oriented, bi‐regional, and global firms by using geographic distributions of their upstream and downstream activities. The performance implications of the regional supply chains of a broader set of 273 firms by using Tobin's Q and data on intra‐regional sales or assets are further evaluated.

Findings

It is found that the evidence to support the regional nature of supply chains – that is, over 85 percent of firms in our sample – have their supply chains within North America. The paper also finds that a regional focus of firms in terms of sales contributes to improved performance as measured by Tobin's Q.

Originality/value

The regionalization perspective proposed by Rugman and Verbeke to develop and test the regional nature of supply chains is applied.
The internationalisation of born global and international new venture SMEs
Authors: Crick Dave
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether differences exist between born global (BG) firms and international new ventures (INVs) in respect of their performance in overseas markets. These terms have arguably been used as interchangeable to characterise firms that internationalized rapidly, typically but not exclusively within three years of their business start‐up. The term “global” suggests firms have a presence in at least the world's triad regions and arguably a commitment spread across them. INVs, however, may have internationalized quickly to address opportunities but without necessarily a global presence.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology in this exploratory study employs both quantitative but also primarily a qualitative methodology involving 21 technologically oriented small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) based in the UK. This methodological approach is used to assess the strategies used by the two types of firms after their start‐up phase and the factors that shaped their international trajectory and performance.

Findings

The findings provide some initial understanding of the two types of firms' patterns of internationalization and more specifically suggest foreign market strategies can be formulated in various ways, i.e. some planned and others by serendipitous means, but that BG and INVs exhibit different characteristics. BGs focused globally in comparison to the more regional focus of INVs.

Practical implications

The implication of the findings is to suggest that researchers should not use the terms interchangeably to characterise different types of firms and behaviour.

Originality/value

The main aspect of originality is to offer insights into managerial practices of different types of firms that have to date been viewed in some studies as representing the same international marketing behaviour.
International marketing adaptation versus standardisation of multinational companies
Authors: Vrontis Demetris , Thrassou Alkis , Lamprianou Iasonas
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to position multinational companies on a linear continuum indicating their overall attitude towards standardisation/adaptation, examines the reasons influencing multinational companies' tactical (7Ps – marketing mix) behaviour towards it, and finally presents the underlying managerial implications of the results.

Design/methodology/approach

A rating scale Rasch model is used in order to place the multinational companies' attitude towards standardisation and adaptation on a linear continuum. Structural equation modelling is subsequently used in order to investigate the relationship between the adaptation and standardisation variable against other variables. An extensive literature review is also undertaken to provide the theoretical foundation.

Findings

The paper corroborates the findings of past research by placing multinational companies on a linear continuum; by identifying their overall attitude towards adaptation/standardization; and by describing the relationship between AdaptStand and other variables. Furthermore, it categorises the reasons pulling towards adaptation or standardisation into “significant” and “peripheral”; and provides valuable insights towards practical application.

Practical implications

The paper provides marketing researchers and practitioners with an overview of the main factors that influence marketing tactical behaviour in international markets. Additionally, the research transcends descriptive analysis to identify vital behavioural issues and to prescribe marketing approaches regarding internationalisation.

Originality/value

Though the subject of “adaptation versus standardisation” has been extensively researched, this paper provides original work through in‐depth quantitative analysis of a sufficient sample of multinational companies. The paper reaches specific and explicit conclusions that scientifically test existing theory on the subject, categorise factors according to their significance in the adaptation/standardisation decision process and offer valuable prescriptions of marketing tactics based on the findings.
Signals of global advertising appeals in emerging markets
Authors: Oyedele Adesegun , Minor Michael S. , Ghanem Salma
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate advertising appeals and cultural values in television advertisements from newly emerging markets. Specifically, the paper hypothesizes that the advertising appeals in the advertisements of sub‐Saharan African (SSA) emerging consumer markets (ECMs) with higher level of economic development (South Africa) will reflect more hedonic appeals than the ones from SSA ECMs with a lower level of economic development (Ghana). The paper also developes hypotheses in relations to Munene, Schwartz, and Smith's cultural value framework in SSA.

Design/methodology/approach

The research approach used in this paper, entails a combination of qualitative and empirical content analysis of 505 unduplicated advertisements from Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa. Content analysis technique is appropriate if the paper is focused on testing how environmental trends (e.g. cultural values, economic situations, etc.) impact the content of sampled advertisements from different regions of the world (Holbrook, 1977).

Findings

The paper reveals some global advertising appeals. The findings from the paper also suggest that the advertisements from SSA are homogenous in terms of the use of the cultural values underlying the conservatism dimension and heterogeneous with respect to the use of the cultural values underlying the hierarchy dimension.

Practical implications

The paper uncovers important dimensions that can be employed in implementing standardized and localized advertising programs in SSA.

Originality/value

The paper identifies novel categories of cultural values (e.g. hospitality) in the television commercials from SSA.
Babbling before banking? Online communities and pre‐purchase information seeking
Authors: Berger Sven C. , Messerschmidt Christian M.
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explain the use of online communities for information seeking in the financial products purchasing process and identify relevant usage antecedents.

Design/methodology/approach

A theoretical framework is proposed based on the three dimensions community, environment and user characteristics. Subsequently, a representative survey among German consumers is described, illustrating the value of the framework.

Findings

The study validates the framework to analyze online community usage and identifies financial knowledge and employment status as main drivers of financial community usage among user characteristic.

Research limitations/implications

The present study was carried out in only one country, but provides a starting point for more international research.

Practical implications

The results identify community users as an interesting clientele, which should be considered in financial services providers' online strategy development, especially by encouraging word‐of‐mouth communication. Usage drivers should be considered in web site development to prevent churn. Providers of communities should be concerned about system usability, but also especially take measures to boost the social aspects of community experience.

Originality/value

The study is the first to explain online community usage in the economically highly relevant pre‐purchase stage for financial services.
The social role of financial companies as a determinant of consumer behaviour
Authors: del Mar Garcia de los Salmones Maria , Perez Andrea , Rodriguez del Bosque Ignacio
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The present study aims to analyze the influence of ethical and philanthropic responsibility of a financial entity on consumer behaviour. Specifically, it aims to analyze relationships among these dimensions and diverse constructs, such as the relationship satisfaction, trust, identification with the firm, business performance, relational outcomes and loyalty.

Design/methodology/approach

The benefits of corporate social responsibility as a marketing tool are analyzed in a real context, directly asking the user for his/her perceptions about the financial entities. A personal survey for users was carried out, obtaining 789 valid responses. In order to comply with the aims of this research a model of structural equations was developed.

Findings

It is seen that the relationship satisfaction, trust and identification with the entity are the main determinants of loyalty, while the ethical and social dimensions have an indirect effect. The ethical behaviour influences the perceived commercial performance and it enhances trust, while corporate philanthropy improves the identification with the bank.

Practical implications

The findings of this study indicate that social responsibility influences consumer behaviour and loyalty, so financial entities must especially take care of these aspects. A firm with a correct ethical behaviour and a strong social commitment will be able to achieve better financial results.

Originality/value

This paper completes the loyalty model with the inclusion of variables of social responsibility. Specifically, it analyzes separately two dimensions of social responsibility in order to check the effect of each dimension on the consumer behaviour.
The fit between organisational structure, management orientation, knowledge orientation, and the values of ISO 9000 standard
Authors: Shah Abdullah Hazman , Ahmad Jasmine
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to examine the fit between values underpinning the ISO 9000 standard and selected managerial and organisational factors.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is a conceptual one relying on the literature on the selected strategic factors and also the standard. The values of institutionalisation, explicitation, systematisation, delineation and Taylorisation underpinning ISO 9000 standards were distilled from the origin and the principles of ISO 9000 and the ISO 9000 certification practices. The values are juxtapositioned with the imperatives of control and creativity, knowledge management and organisational structure to understand the consequent synergism or tension.

Findings

It is postulated that the more mechanistic and explicit knowledge based organisations will enjoy ISO 9000 certification while the more organic and tacit knowledge based organisations will experience tensions arising from lack of fit. Hence, conceptually, the standard will work best in a more mechanistic and routine knowledge based settings. Creativity oriented strategies will find the standard quite dysfunctional while control and operation‐based strategies are likely to benefit most from the certification.

Originality/value

Most ISO 9000 related studies are weak on conceptualisation of the relationships examined. Despite the growing volume of studies on ISO 9000, the values of the standard have not been explicitly outlined. Consequently, discussion of the efficacy of the standard has focused on the explicit requirements of the standard rather than the instrumental values it promotes. Based on the explication of the standard's values, the article examines the possible synergies and contradictions between the standard and, management orientation (control vs creativity), knowledge orientation (explicit vs tacit) and structure (organic vs mechanistic).
Which management practices are contributory to service quality?
Authors: Ueno Akiko
Published: October 2009

Purpose

Previously, a questionnaire survey was conducted and it was found that some management practices were more influential to service quality than others. The purpose of this paper is to identify in more detail the reasons behind the survey findings.

Design/methodology/approach

Eighteen in‐depth interviews into a range of management practices which support service quality were conducted.

Findings

It was found that there were difficulties in implementing some of the management practices due to the type of staff employed and to the nature of tasks undertaken.

Research limitations/implications

As the purpose of this research is to facilitate interpretation of the quantitative data, the investigation did not go in detail beyond mass and technological services. Hence, individual organisational characteristics, individual circumstances, or details of the service offered to customers are not considered beyond the category of either mass or technological services.

Originality/value

The paper identifies that the actual contribution from different management practices to service quality varied, and explains the reasons behind the diverse contributions in each type of service business.
Modified closed loop model for service performance management
Authors: Parameshwaran R. , Srinivasan P.S.S. , Punniyamoorthy M.
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated closed loop performance management model for service industries.

Design/methodology/approach

The service performance of any organization is measured by considering qualitative and quantitative dimensions. The qualitative dimension includes the service quality factors. In order to measure the service quality precisely, fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) has been employed in this paper. The data pertaining to both qualitative and quantitative dimensions are combined using extended Brown‐Gibson (EBG) model to measure the service performance. As an improvement process, fuzzy quality function deployment (FQFD) has been employed to redesign the existing services. A case study from automobile repair shops illustrates the usability of the model.

Findings

The developed model quantifies service performance and ensures the improvement of the service process. The proposed model takes into account the uncertainty that occurs while capturing the subjective assessment from customers and service engineers. The case study shows that the model can be used to gain service process understanding and identify significant factors for redesigning. Detailed results are presented.

Originality/value

The paper describes a novel method for service performance management. Fuzzy assessment of customers' feedback and service managers' feedback is much closer to human thinking than methods based on crisp numbers.
Effects of electronic mail policies on invasiveness and fairness
Authors: Paschal Jennifer L. , Stone Dianna L. , Stone‐Romero Eugene F.
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The widespread use of electronic mail (e‐mail) at work has prompted a growing number of companies to implement e‐mail policies to protect both business interests and the privacy of employees. However, very little is known about the effects of such policies on such outcomes for employees such as perceived invasiveness and fairness. Thus, the paper aims to consider these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a 2×2 experimental design and a sample of 592 employed internet users to examine the effects of e‐mail policy characteristics (i.e. policy restrictiveness and policy justification) on perceptions of invasion of privacy (invasiveness) and fairness.

Findings

Results indicate that policy restrictiveness has effects on both invasiveness and fairness, and that policy justification has an effect on fairness. In addition, privacy values are related to both invasiveness and fairness, and moderated the effect of policy restrictiveness on fairness.

Practical implications

Implications for practice and the integration of organizational justice and organizational privacy theory are discussed. In terms of practice, for example, the study's results have implications for the formulation and enforcement of policies concerning the use of e‐mail systems.

Originality/value

This paper is the first to consider the effects of e‐mail policies on employee reactions (i.e. fairness and invasiveness).
Comparison of online and traditional performance appraisal systems
Authors: Payne Stephanie C. , Horner Margaret T. , Boswell Wendy R. , Schroeder Amber N. , Stine‐Cheyne Kelleen J.
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to compare employee reactions to the use of an online performance appraisal (PA) system to the traditional paper‐and‐pencil (P&P) approach.

Design/methodology/approach

A quasi‐experimental study is conducted comparing the reactions of a group of 83 employees evaluate with a traditional P&P PA instrument to the reactions of a group of 152 employees evaluated with an online version of the same assessment tool.

Findings

Employees rate with the online version reported significantly higher levels of rater accountability and employee participation than employees rate with the traditional instrument. They report no difference in perceived security of the ratings, utility of the ratings, or satisfaction with the PA. Online employees report significantly lower levels of quality for the PA ratings than traditional employees.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is limited to employees in one organization and the variables examined. In the future, researchers should examine supervisor and human resource (HR) manager reactions to the system, additional individual difference variables, variables related to technology acceptance and use, and additional PA reactions.

Practical implications

The findings inform HR managers about how one sample of employees' reacted to an online appraisal. It is important for organizations to ensure all system users are well‐trained in how to provide quality ratings and feedback through the system.

Originality/value

This is the first quasi‐experiment comparing employees' attitudes toward an online administration of PA to a traditional P&P administration.
Technology, trainees, metacognitive activity and e‐learning effectiveness
Authors: Johnson Richard D. , Gueutal Hal , Falbe Cecilia M.
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to integrate previous research findings on the factors which affect e‐learning effectiveness. To do this, a model is developed which proposes that the effects of individual learner characteristics and technology characteristics on e‐learning outcomes are partially mediated by the metacognitive learning processes in which the learner engages.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey of 914 individuals in an online introductory information systems course examines the relations between general computer self‐efficacy (GCSE), locus of control, age, peer interaction, technology reliability, social presence, media synchronicity, and metacognitive activity and the e‐learning outcomes of course, performance, course utility, and course satisfaction.

Findings

The results indicate that GCSE, age, social presence, reliability, media synchronicity, and metacognitive activity are related to course satisfaction and utility judgments. In addition, age, metacognitive activity, and reliability are related to course performance and interaction is related to satisfaction. Finally, metacognitive activity partially mediates the relationship between social presence, media synchronicity and satisfaction, and utility judgments.

Originality/value

This paper represents one of the first to investigate a model of e‐learning effectiveness which integrates research on metacognitive activity as well as the role of technology and trainee characteristics.
Group membership salience and task performance
Authors: van Dick Rolf , Stellmacher Jost , Wagner Ulrich , Lemmer Gunnar , Tissington Patrick A.
Published: October 2009

Purpose

Social loafing is described in the literature as a frequent problem reducing individuals' performance when working in groups. This paper aims to utilize the social identity approach and proposes that under conditions of heightened group salience social loafing can be reduced and turned into social laboring (i.e. increased performance).

Design/methodology/approach

Two experimental studies are conducted to examine the impact of participant's group membership salience on task performance. In Study 1, school teachers work either in coactive or in collective working conditions on brainstorming tasks. In Study 2, participants perform both a brainstorming task and a motor task.

Findings

The results show social laboring effects. As predicted, participants in the high salient group conditions outperform participants in the low salient group conditions and the coactive individual condition.

Practical implications

The results indicate that rather than individuating group members or tasks to overcome social loafing, managers can increase group performance by focusing on group members' perceptions of their groups as important and salient.

Originality/value

The studies presented in this paper show that social identity theory and self categorization theory can fruitfully be applied to the field of group performance. The message of these studies for applied settings is that collective work in groups must not necessarily negatively impact performance, i.e. social loafing. By heightening the salience of group memberships groups can even outperform coactively working individuals.
On whistleblowing judgment and intention
Authors: Zhang Julia , Chiu Randy , Wei Li‐Qun
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose whistleblowing judgment (WBJ), positive mood (PM), and organizational ethical culture (OEC) as predictors of whistleblowing intention (WBI).

Design/methodology/approach

The study obtains the data from 364 usable questionnaires collected from Chinese employees of ten banks in China.

Findings

WBJ explains a high variance in WBI while OEC moderate the relationship. A three‐way interaction effect is observed, in which organizational culture affects the strength of PM as a moderator.

Research limitations/implications

Findings are interpreted with respect to theories of moral psychology and organizational behavior. Theoretical implications and limitations of the study are discussed, including potential self‐report bias and self‐selection bias.

Originality/value

The effect of PM on whistleblowing decision making depends on people's perceptions of OEC. Only when people perceive their organizational culture to be unethical do the effect of PM come into play.
Organizational socialization: the missing link between employee needs and organizational culture
Authors: Taormina Robert J.
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to address the two research gaps in the literature between employee needs and organizational socialization; and organizational socialization and organizational culture by examining the relationships among four employee motivational needs (for achievement, affiliation, autonomy, and power), four organizational socialization content areas (training, understanding, coworker support, and future prospects), and three facets of organizational culture (bureaucratic, innovative, and supportive).

Design/methodology/approach

Questionnaire data of 156 full‐time employees from a variety of organizations are analyzed by correlations, regressions, and structural equation modeling (SEM).

Findings

Employee motivational needs explain significant variance for all socialization domains; whereas socialization explains significant variance for all organizational cultures (while needs explain little or no variance for culture). Regression and SEM analyses establish that organizational socialization links employee needs to organizational culture.

Research limitations/implications

Whereas socialization is confirmed as the link between the person and the organization, future studies could examine how the socialization content areas link persons to other organizational variables, such as leadership styles and political behavior.

Practical implications

Employee needs should be taken into account as regards the content domains of organizational socialization programs, and management should consider these domains as relevant to the socialization of employees in all types of organizational cultures.

Originality/value

This is the first empirical study on the interrelationships among employee needs, organizational socialization content areas, and facets of organizational culture.
Contextualizing the features of the psychological contract: the case of Malta
Authors: Cassar Vincent , Briner Rob
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The psychological contract is defined as a perceived exchange agreement of promissory obligations between employee and organization. Most approaches to this concept ignore the role of context in shaping its features. However, others have pointed out the need to evaluate the features of the construct within the context in which it is studied. Three salient features of the construct include the use of the term “promises” versus “obligations”, its implicit nature and reference to the “other” party, and the exchange content. Rousseau and Schalk suggest that these features are weighted and interpreted differently across different countries. The purpose of this paper is to test this proposition in the island state of Malta, a European Union micro‐state.

Design/methodology/approach

Semi‐structured interviews are used. Three questions are addressed: do employment obligations vary from promises in this context? Are employment obligations in this context necessarily explicited? Who is considered the employer in this context?.

Findings

The results show that some findings are similar to those found in other settings (e.g. acknowledgement of an exchange relationship in employment), others are more context‐bound (e.g. the meaning of obligations as predicting future reciprocal behaviours compared to promises). The paper also shows that many of these understandings are related to and construed by the way the employment relationship is construed in a country like Malta.

Originality/value

These findings strengthen the need to incorporate the contextual realities in which the features of the construct are employed as this has implications for both the generalizability of results and theory building.
Auditors' internal control opinions: do they influence judgments about investments?
Authors: Schneider Arnold
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of internal control opinions on individuals' judgments about investments.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach used is a behavioral experiment where risk assessments and judgments about investments are made for four internal control opinion scenarios.

Findings

The results indicate that the type of internal control opinion made no difference for either risk assessments or investment decisions.

Research limitations/implications

Participants are provided with data sets that do not contain all of the information they may acquire when they make actual investment decisions. Also, there is a lack of real consequences for making good or poor investment decisions.

Practical implications

The type of internal control opinion has no effect on risk assessments or investing intentions. Thus, other considerations apparently dominate internal control opinions when making judgments about investments.

Originality/value

This is the first paper to examine whether intentions to invest might be affected by internal control opinions.
The effect of goals on auditors' judgments and their perceptions of and conformity to other auditors' judgments
Authors: Asare Stephen K. , Cianci Anna M.
Published: October 2009

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of goals on: auditors' inventory write‐off judgments; the conformity of their judgments (i.e. the degree of consistency between these judgments and the judgments they perceive other auditors will make); and the calibration of their judgments (i.e. the extent to which these perceived judgments agree with actual judgments of the other auditors).

Design/methodology/approach

An experiment was conducted in which 92 auditors are assigned either an accuracy goal, a goal to get along with the client, or a combined accuracy and get along goal (i.e. both goals), and are asked to make an inventory write‐off judgment.

Findings

Consistent with expectations, auditors with accuracy goals are more likely to recommend a write‐off of inventory than auditors in the other goal conditions; and auditors with both goals are more likely to recommend a write‐off than those with the get along goal. Also, while auditors' judgments are well calibrated, mixed evidence of conformity is found.

Practical implications

Goals may be a tool which audit regulators and practitioners could use to enhance audit effectiveness. In addition, the interactive audit environment may contribute to auditors' well calibrated judgments but judgment conformity may require more (such as accountability or incentives) than knowledge of other auditors' judgments.

Originality/value

This is the first paper to examine the impact of explicit and competing goals on the calibration and conformity of auditors' judgments.