bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Sustainable, hedonic and efficient
Authors: Cervellon Marie-Cecile , I. Carey Lindsey 
Published: August 2014

Purpose
– This paper aims to investigate the influence of consumer reviews on the evaluation, post-experience, of products with a combination of sustainable, hedonic and utilitarian properties.

Design/methodology/approach
– In the first instance, consumer reviews for organic and non-organic cosmetics posted on the French Web site beauté-test.com were analyzed. Second, a full-factorial two product types (organic and non-organic) × three reviews (positive, negative and no reviews) experiment was conducted. Sixty French women tested a beauty product and evaluated it on hedonic and utilitarian (ambiguous and non-ambiguous) properties. In a second experiment, 132 English-speaking students evaluated an herbal tea at home, along a full-factorial two product types (fair-trade and non-fair-trade) × three product properties (hedonic, utilitarian ambiguous and utilitarian non-ambiguous) × two reviews (negative review and no review) between-subject design.

Findings
– First, consumers are significantly less influenced by reviews for hedonic products compared to utilitarian products. In particular, they rely on reviews when evaluating utilitarian ambiguous properties (e.g. anti-aging properties) which they find difficult to judge on their own. Second, consumers are more resistant to the persuasive effect of reviews when the product focus is on sustainable (organic or fair-trade) credentials, in particular when judging ambiguous properties.

Originality/value
– This paper explores a topic neglected in the literature so far: the moderating role of product properties and sustainability, in particular, on consumers’ responses to persuasion and consumer reviews in the context of this paper. Its originality lies in the demonstration that consumers learn through product testing for hedonic and utilitarian unambiguous product properties and through consumer reviews for utilitarian ambiguous product properties. Additionally, it highlights the resistance of sustainable products (organic and fair-trade in this research) to negative product reviews.
Implicit sponsorship effects for a prominent brand
Authors: Herrmann Jean-Luc , Corneille Olivier , Derbaix Christian , Kacha Mathieu , Walliser Björn 
Published: August 2014

Purpose
– This research seeks to examine the influence of sponsorship on spectators' consideration sets by investigating, in a naturalistic setting, whether sport sponsorship adds a prominent brand to spectators' consideration sets, with and without the explicit memory that the brand is a sponsor.

Design/methodology/approach
– A field study involved 1,084 visitors to a tennis tournament. For the control group (n=276), the interviews took place before the spectators entered the stadium; interviews with the exposed group (n=808) were conducted after they had attended at least one match. Three hypotheses related to consumer status and consideration set conditions were tested.

Findings
– Sponsorship can influence the likelihood that a prominent brand becomes part of the consideration set in a naturalistic setting, even without an explicit memory that the brand is a sponsor. This implicit sponsorship effect was limited to the memory-based consideration set of non-consumers of the brand.

Originality/value
– This study establishes an implicit sponsorship effect for prominent brands in naturalistic environments and contributes to a better understanding of moderating (boundary) conditions.
Skill-based pay in practice
Authors: Léné Alexandre 
Published: August 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this study is to explore how the employees and managers experienced skill-based pay (SBP) plans through the lens of the organizational justice perspective. The article investigates SBP plans and highlights the difficulties encountered in implementing them. SBP plans take a number of different forms that may diverge from the declared model.

Design/methodology/approach
– This study investigates the SBP plan implementation in situ. Following Yin’s case study design method, documents were collected, semi-structured interviews were conducted and observations were recorded in two different companies in France.

Findings
– The organizational justice concepts allow the authors to shed light on the mechanisms through which SBP implementation may lead to negative outcomes. First, the authors argue that injustice perceptions are a critical element in the SBP implementation. Second, they argue that the way SBP plans are implemented by front-line managers influence employee attitudes and behaviours. When employees consider that the decisions are established on the basis of criteria that lack legitimacy, they adopt withdrawal behaviour.

Research limitations/implications
– The majority of studies on SBP are largely atheoretical in nature. It is suggested that the organizational justice framework should be utilized to improve the authors’ understanding of what shapes the reaction of workers towards such plans. The authors consider that justice and trust are a particularly useful duo of lenses through which to examine the motivation of workers to be engaged in such plans.

Practical implications
– The implications for the practice of management surround the issue of unanticipated results of actions. It is not simply a question of designing the most appropriate SBP plans. The key issue is how they are actually implemented by front-line managers. Specifically, the findings highlight the pivotal role front-line managers play in building trust towards employees. Training in procedural justice should accompany SBP implementation.

Originality/value
– This paper highlights the complexity of implementation of SBP. By examining SBP implementation through the lenses of the organizational justice concepts, it sheds light on the under-theorized reactions to SBP implementation, and advances understanding of the mechanisms through which it affects employee attitudes and behaviours.
Training needs assessment of fishermen in Oman through concept mapping technique
Authors: Belwal Rakesh , Belwal Shweta , Al Jabri Omar 
Published: August 2014

Purpose
– This study aims to assess the training needs of fishermen in Oman using the concept mapping technique. This study was the part of a larger research project on the training needs assessment (TNA), where a mixed method approach was used to identify the training needs.

Design/methodology/approach
– Perspective of 12 instructors on a focus question was taken during a brainstorming session at a Fishermen Training Institute in Oman. Using the concept mapping technique involving the multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis, the data recorded was analyzed to arrive at the need clusters, which were later rated and ranked to assign relative importance.

Findings
– The identification led to a ten-clustered solution, covering a range of areas, requiring technical and behavioral skills. The top five training concerns were also identified using the participants’ ratings of the identified training-need clusters. Furthermore, the merit of concept mapping technique over purely quantitative assessments was also realized.

Research limitations/implications
– The study not only identified and evaluated the training needs but also observed the relevance of concept mapping technique. It was observed that the concept mapping technique struck a balance between the two extremes of subjectivity and objectivity while identifying the training needs. The application of concept mapping technique can help in covering the concerns of multiple stakeholders in TNA.

Practical implications
– It identifies some key training areas for Fishermen Training Institutions and government bodies in Oman. The research also supports the extension of the application of concept mapping technique to decision-making situations in other areas.

Social implications
– Training interventions based on the needs assessment will help fishermen from the Oman’s Batinah coast in gaining additional skills, expertise and income.

Originality/value
– This study applies the concept mapping technique in assessing the training needs of fishermen. The research also shares the outcomes of a pioneering attempt to identify fishermen’s training needs in Oman.
Capacity augmentation with VSM methodology for lean manufacturing
Authors: Basu Protik , K. Dan Pranab 
Published: August 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this study is to enhance the output of a manufacturing set-up in phases, by identifying the wastages in the existing line and, thereby, reducing them.

Design/methodology/approach
– Feasibility checking and optimization of capacity enhancement of a processing line have been discussed. Value stream mapping (VSM) methodology has been used as a data-driven decision-making tool to identify the constraints in the current state and subsequent states. The future state has been achieved in stages using VSM tool of lean manufacturing, coupled with the management philosophy of Theory of Constraints. An example of an Indian company has been added to demonstrate the suitability of the approach.

Findings
– The proposed approach addresses an important issue of phased increase in customer demand and the process of accommodating it through multi-phased maneuvering of productive capacity at constraint points instead of enhancing the capacity at one go. The underlying problem of capacity enhancement has been addressed using lean principles and the optimum feasible option has been designed so that the increase in cost is minimized along with satisfying the stepwise increase in demand.

Research limitations/implications
– This research work is applicable to the manufacturing sector.

Originality/value
– This paper proposes a methodology for phased upgrading of a production flow-line in keeping with a steady increase in customer demand. Here, VSM has been applied in a phased manner, and the constraint in the current state as well as in each subsequent phase has been identified and removed.
Forces affecting one Lean Six Sigma adoption process
Authors: Assarlind Marcus , Aaboen Lise 
Published: August 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to identify forces (in the form of converters and inhibitors) of Lean Six Sigma adoption by studying the gradual adoption of Lean Six Sigma in a medium-sized Swedish manufacturing company. The paper suggests how the converters and inhibitors interact toward increased maturity of the adoption and, in this case, stagnation thereof.

Design/methodology/approach
– Thirteen interviews were recorded and analyzed to identify converters that were moving the process forward or backward, as well as inhibitors that caused it to linger.

Findings
– It was discovered that activities that had initially moved the process forward were not sufficient to move it beyond its current point. However, an increased knowledge of Lean Six Sigma throughout the organization now prevents the process from moving in the opposite direction. In this medium-sized Swedish manufacturing company, Lean Six Sigma becomes a framework for thought and communication during Lean work.

Research limitations/implications
– The study benefited from considering forces pushing the process forward as well as backward. Thus, the authors suggest that future studies will benefit from focusing beyond critical success factors that may at times are static in nature. As a limitation, for discussions about the past, the memories of interviewees, generally, may have a tendency to be biased.

Originality/value
– The paper contributes knowledge of Lean Six Sigma adoptions and how they may attain greater future success by reporting on difficulties and setbacks in the current gradual adoption process in a chosen company.
Overlooked and undervalued: the caring contribution of older people
Authors: Carmichael Fiona , G. Ercolani Marco 
Published: August 2014

Purpose– Older people are often perceived to be a drain on health care resources. This ignores their caring contribution to the health care sector. The purpose of this paper is to address this imbalance and highlight the role of older people as carers.Design/methodology/approach– The study uses a unique data set supplied by a charity. It covers 1,985 caregivers, their characteristics, type and amount of care provided and the characteristics and needs of those cared-for. Binary and ordered logistic regression is used to examine determinates of the supply of care. Fairlie-Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions are used to disentangle the extent to which differences in the supply of care by age are due to observable endowment effects or coefficient effects. Nationally representative British Household Panel Survey data provide contextualization.Findings– Older caregivers are more intensive carers, caring for longer hours, providing more co-residential and personal care. They are therefore more likely to be in greater need of assistance. The decompositions show that their more intensive caring contribution is partly explained by the largely exogenous characteristics and needs of the people they care for.Research limitations/implications– The data are regional and constrained by the supplier's design.Social implications– Older carers make a significant contribution to health care provision. Their allocation of time to caregiving is not a free choice, it is constrained by the needs of those cared-for.Originality/value– If the burden of care and caring contribution are measured by hours supplied and provision of intimate personal care, then a case is made that older carers experience the greatest burden and contribute the most to the community.
Why do costs act as a barrier in maternity care for some, but not all women? A qualitative study in rural Nepal
Authors: Simkhada Bibha , R. van Teijlingen Edwin , Porter Maureen , Simkhada Padam , P. Wasti Sarada 
Published: August 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to analyse cost as a barrier to the uptake of antenatal care (ANC) in rural Nepal amidst a variety of barriers and facilitators.

Design/methodology/approach
– A qualitative study with face-to-face interviews were conducted with 50 ANC users and non-users participants. The setting is rural Nepal, some 20 kilometres outside the capital Kathmandu. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed and translated into English and results were presented thematically.

Findings
– Cost was sometimes a barrier to seeking ANC for poor rural women. It included transport costs, opportunity costs of not being able to work in the household and service-related costs (such as blood or urine tests). The effect of cost as a barrier varied between women of different socio-economic status. Cost was a barrier to accessing ANC partly due to the women's lack of control over household resources.

Social implications
– It is important to consider cost in the wider socio-economic context of rural people's lives as financial costs alone do not explain the level of uptake of ANC.

Originality/value
– This study provides an original insight of women's experiences on financial issues relating to the use of ANC services in Nepal. Another important aspect of this study was approached with the multiple respondents (i.e. women, their husbands and their mothers-in-law) regarding the use of ANC and financial impact in the use of services. The findings of this study have important implications in health policy formation by providing clear picture of women's financial situation in access to ANC.
Empirical analysis of the changing pattern of sex segregation of occupation in Ghana
Authors: Baah-Boateng William 
Published: August 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to assess the changing pattern and direction of sex segregation of occupation as a measure of unbalanced distribution of occupation by sex in Ghana between 1960 and 2010, identify the sources of the changes and show whether female-male earnings difference has changed in line with the changes in occupational segregation.

Design/methodology/approach
– The paper applies two segregation indices to data from population censuses and household surveys in the empirical analysis

Findings
– The outcome of the segregation measure indicates a generally modest to high but declining occupational sex segregation in Ghana over a period of five decades. Sex composition and occupational mix effects are found to be the underlying drivers of the declining segregation with the former coming up strongly during the initial 40 years. This has, however, not translated into narrowing female-male earnings gap.

Practical implications
– The paper recommends measures towards economic transformation for a change in occupational structure backed by implementation of education policy to enhance female access to male-dominated science and engineering programmes and employment in high-skill occupations.

Originality/value
– The strength of the paper is seen from its originality as it is the first attempt to assess changing pattern of occupational segregation over a long period of five decades with consistent and comparable data sources.
Establishing the connection between demographic and economic factors, and gender status in the Middle East
Authors: Haghighat Elhum 
Published: August 2014

Purpose– Multiple dimensions influencing women's status in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region – factoring in socio-demographic, economic, and political forces are discussed in this paper. Process of modernization has been complicated by a strong patriarchal culture, the overlap of religion and government, and the absence of a diversified economy along with presence of wealth producing oil resources. Religious ideology, cultural beliefs, and traditional principles, however, cannot be argued as the only reason for women's status lagging behind in these countries. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach– Six diverse MENA countries – Iran, Libya, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen – that differ from one another with respect to geography, economy, demographics, modernization characteristics and cultural history are examined for comparative reasons.Findings– Even though Islam is commonly portrayed as the main factor controlling women's lives and opportunities in MENA, the analysis shows that there are other significant processes at work. To date, women's higher level of educational attainment and unusually swift fertility decline in the MENA region deviates from the expectation that predicts a strong positive correlation between these demographic factors and increased women's social status and higher social mobility.Originality/value– This conceptual paper demystifies the connection between women's social status and empowerment in the MENA region and its connection to economic development, employment opportunities, and political stability.
Low-status work repercussions on Egyptians’ collective organisation
Authors: Fouskas Theodoros 
Published: August 2014

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to focus on the repercussions of work and employment in low-status jobs upon the collective organisation and representation of Egyptian immigrant workers.Design/methodology/approach– Focusing on results from 117 in-depth interviews, the qualitative research (2010-2013) and analysis examines the case of Egyptians in Athens, Greece and on how the frame of their work and their employment affects participation in the immigrant work association Union of Egyptian Workers in Greece/EL-RAPTA and in Greek trade unions as well.Findings– Evidence from in-depth interviews proves that Egyptians are supported by friendly and relative relations in search for solidarity; they develop individualistic behaviours and find alternative solutions for survival and protection.Practical implications– Through the research, what is analysed is how immigration has affected social welfare and collective forms of representation but also how the immigrants themselves view and act within the collective frameworks. The results are of great concern to immigration policymakers to facilitate integration, combat undeclared work and identify weaknesses in worker rights and organisations.Originality/value– The research, the first in Greece specifically for Egyptians immigrant workers and their work association, contributes to the broader body of sociological literature on the study of labour migration and immigrant voluntary associations and it is original as it is based on primary research on the experiences of Egyptian immigrants.
Factors underlying sex preference of domestic servants in Nigeria
Authors: Tade Oludayo , A. Aderinto Adeyinka 
Published: August 2014

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine factors underlying gender preference of domestic servants (DS). Children in domestic service constitute the most common form of urban child labour. Literature has shown that domestic service employment has a gender face with the girl-child more susceptible. This is the gap this research fills.Design/methodology/approach– The study employed both quantitative and qualitative strategies selecting respondents and analysing the study. The respondents were employers of DS and were mainly women. Qualitative data were generated from 15 employers reached through the snowball method. The stratified purposive sampling technique was used to identify private and public organisations in the selected localities where copies of a questionnaire were administered.Findings– The results showed that factors considered for employing DS are linked to traditional conception of household tasks. Consequently, girls (86.4 per cent) were preferred for performing domestic chores, providing emotional support for employers’ children and were viewed as receptive, “mouldable”, and hardworking to male (11.4 per cent). Not minding these functional roles they perform, some employers reported that female DS could “snatch” their husbands, influence their children negatively, and may be spiritually possessed and physically “unclean”. Male servants were considered foul, repulsive, and revolting to correction; besides, they sexually assault female children of employers; hence they were least demanded.Research limitations/implications– Because of the size of the sample which is small, the research results may lack generalisability. More expansive works are needed in this regard.Practical implications– The paper includes implications for policy initiative concerning the plight of working women and security of DS.Social implications– The paper reveals the social factors considered in recruiting DS and their implications on family relations.Originality/value– This paper fulfills the identified gap to study gender preference in domestic servitude.