bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Task structure and work outcomes
Authors: Billing Tejinder K. , Bhagat Rabi S. , Babakus Emin 
Published: January 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating role of the emphasis placed by individuals on scheduling of activities on the relationship between task structure and work outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction and job involvement).Design/methodology/approachData were collected using surveys from 387 employees working in US‐based organizations. Regression analyses were used to test the hypothesized relationships.FindingsThe results of the study show that for individuals who place high emphasis on scheduling of work and non‐work activities, the negative impact of highly structured tasks was weaker than for individuals who do not emphasize scheduling of activities. The results also provide support for the hypotheses concerning the direct relationships between task structure and work outcomes.Originality/valuePast research has largely ignored the role of individual differences in examining task structure. By providing empirical support for the moderating role of emphasis on scheduling on the task structure outcome relationships, this study not only paves the way for future studies but also emphasizes the importance of incorporating the role of time in examining task structure.
Exploring the determinants of e‐learning systems continuance intention in academic libraries
Authors: Chang Chiao‐Chen 
Published: January 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the relationships of web quality (system quality, information quality, and service quality), perceived value, and satisfaction to understand how these critical factors influence the continuance intention of using e‐learning systems in academic libraries.Design/methodology/approachThe study data come from a convenience sample of 302 undergraduate and graduate students who were 18 to 25 years old. A structural equation modelling (SEM) technique was conducted to identify causal relationships.FindingsThe findings demonstrate that web quality has significantly positive influences on perceived value and user satisfaction. Furthermore, perceived value and satisfaction determines users' continuance intentions of e‐learning systems in academic libraries.Research limitations/implicationsThis study addresses self‐reported continuance intentions as part of the survey; as a result, it could have introduced inaccuracies. The implications of proposed e‐learning success model are discussed.Practical implicationsAcademic librarians should reinforce the efficiency of e‐learning systems to influence users' willingness to continuously use such systems.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the determinants of continuance intentions of e‐learning systems in digital libraries and educates researchers, librarians, and system developers about how e‐learning systems are perceived by end‐users in digital libraries.
Decomposing European NUTS2 regional inequality from 1980 to 2009
Authors: Doran Justin , Jordan Declan 
Published: January 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse income inequality for a sample of 14 European countries and their composite regions using data from the Cambridge Econometrics regional dataset from 1980 to 2009. The purpose of the paper is to provide insight into the dynamics of regional and national cohesion among the EU‐14 countries studied.Design/methodology/approachInitially, inequality is decomposed using the Theil coefficient into between and within country inequality to assess the extent to which convergence has occurred. To investigate the underlying causes of the changes in inequality, the Theil coefficient is further decomposed to assess the contribution of productivity and employment‐population ratio differentials to inequality.FindingsThe results indicate that while between‐country inequality has declined, within‐country inequality has increased by approximately 50 percent. Subsequent decomposition indicates that while productivity levels among regions have converged, the employment‐population ratios have diverged substantially driving increasing levels of inequality. This suggests that while EU cohesion policies have reduced productivity inequalities they have had little effect in stimulating convergence of employment‐population ratios across regions.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper argues that national priorities, particularly in the context of the current European economic crisis, are likely to hinder European Union level policies to reduce income inequality at a regional level. This may result in further increases in regional inequality among European regions.Originality/valueThis paper's main contribution is to highlight how national convergence can lead to regional divergence being overlooked. The value of the paper is that it provides policy insights, based on empirical evidence, for European cohesion policy.
Financial market reactions to announcements of monetary policy decisions
Authors: Ferreira de Mendonça Helder , Faria Ivando 
Published: January 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to make an analysis of the Brazilian experience after the adoption of inflation targeting concerning the effects caused by the new practices of transparency and communication in the monetary policy.Design/methodology/approachChanges in the financial market's expectations due to monetary policy actions are analyzed based on methodologies proposed by Cook and Hahn and Kuttner. Daily data from transactions in the interbank deposit futures market of the Securities, Commodities and Futures Exchange (BMF&BOVESPA) are used for the period July 1999‐January 2009. Two sub‐periods are also considered: the “maturation period” – the first phase of the effects caused by an increase in central bank transparency; and the “wisdom period” – the second phase in the financial market's perception regarding an environment with more transparency.FindingsThe findings are in consonance with the idea that an increase in central bank transparency and communication improves the efficiency of expectations hypothesis of the term structure of interest rate and the anticipation of changes in the interest rate target.Originality/valueThis study offers some new insights into how central bank communication improves the efficiency of the monetary policy for developing countries, which have adopted inflation targeting.
Conditional pricing of risks
Authors: Yiu Wah Ho Ron , Strange Roger , Piesse Jenifer 
Published: January 2013

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the pricing effects of risks conditional on market situations.Design/methodology/approachThe model used to test for the conditional pricing effects of risks is a modified version of Pettengill et al.'s cross‐sectional regression model, based on Hong Kong equity data.FindingsThe paper postulates a five‐factor asset pricing model, which hypothesizes that five risk factors are relevant in the pricing of equity stocks, namely beta, size, book‐to‐market equity, market leverage, and share price, but conditional on market situations, i.e. whether the market is up or down.Practical implicationsThe findings enrich our understanding of capital market behaviour, and should prove helpful to investors and corporate managers in both their domestic and international financial decisions.Originality/valueThis study yields important results on a Chinese market, which lend support to the conditional risk pricing hypotheses originally developed in the US, implying that conditional risk pricing is applicable not only in the US market but also in other markets around the globe.
“The unreasonable power of creativity”: Robert Senior, CEO, EMEA at Saatchi and Saatchi Fallon Group, on how ideas are crucial to a more positive future
Authors: Bell Gareth 
Published: January 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to provide an interview with Robert Senior, CEO, EMEA of SSF (Saatchi and Saatchi Fallon Group).Design/methodology/approachThe paper provides an interview with Robert Senior.FindingsSenior discusses the importance of creativity and idea generation, and the issues facing the advertising industry.Originality/valueThe interview offers advice for senior professionals working in the creative industries.
Financial distress, earnings management and market pricing of accruals during the global financial crisis
Authors: Habib Ahsan , Uddin Bhuiyan Borhan , Islam Ainul 
Published: January 2013

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to examine empirically the managerial earnings management practices of financially distressed firms, and to consider whether these practices changed during the recent global financial crisis. Although corporate distress has been a topic of research interest for many years, earnings manipulation by distressed firms has received relatively little attention.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses three measures of distress, and discretionary accruals, a popular proxy for earnings management, to investigate the impact of distress on earnings management.FindingsThe paper finds that managers of distressed firms engage more in income‐decreasing earnings management practices compared to their healthy firm counterparts. The paper also finds some evidence of the effect of the global financial crisis on the association between financial distress and earnings management. Finally, the paper shows some evidence of positive market pricing of discretionary accruals in the non‐crisis period, but a substantial reduction in pricing coefficients during the global financial crisis period.Practical implicationsFinancial distress experienced by firms provides incentives to managers for earnings manipulation. However, the direction of the earnings management could be income‐increasing or income‐decreasing. The findings from this study will allow investors to make better investment decisions for firms that are experiencing financial difficulties.Originality/valueThis paper is the first in New Zealand to investigate the association between firm distress and managerial earnings management decisions. Recently, New Zealand experienced a spate of finance company collapses that somewhat contributes, indirectly, to financial distress experienced by firms. The New Zealand reporting environment is characterized by concentrated ownership, relaxed monitoring by regulatory authorities, and a very low litigation threat that provides an interesting setting to examine the research question. This paper is also the first to test the market pricing of earnings components in New Zealand.
Global interoperability and linked data in libraries
Authors: Zengenene Dydimus 
Published: January 2013

PurposeThis paper aims to provide a report for the seminar on “Global Interoperability and Linked Data” which was held at the University of Florence in Italy from 18‐19 July 2012.Design/methodology/approachThe paper goes beyond a report by introducing the concept of linked data and how it is beneficial to libraries. It is derived mainly from papers presented at the seminar in English as well as other complementary sources.FindingsThe paper reports that linked data in libraries has become a subject of interdisciplinary interest as evidenced by the diversity of participants and presentations at this conference.Originality/valueBased on the experiences presented at the conference, this report concludes by encouraging libraries to build from each other in adopting linked data.
The selection of a dean in an academic environment: are we getting what we deserve?
Authors: Harvey Michael , Shaw James B. , McPhail Ruth , Erickson Anthony 
Published: January 2013

PurposeThe purpose of the development of the paper was due to the seemingly endless searching for deans to replace the former dean of three to four years.Design/methodology/approachThe paper was developed around the present relevant secondary data.FindingsThe key findings of the paper were that deans were being replaced due to the difference in expectation of the various constituents (e.g. students, faculty, administration, parents) in the performance of the SBA.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations of the study were not providing primary data to support the theory based hypotheses of the study.Practical implicationsDeans need to recognize that there will be conflicting expectations relative to the performance of the dean and that deans have a very short time to effectuate change in academic organizations.Social implicationsNot having such high turnover in dean's positions should provide the stability of management to bring about change need in institutions of higher education.Originality/valueIdentification of key mistakes made by deans as well as the mistakes made by faculty undermine the performance of deans.
Therapeutic communities for drug addicts in Israel: comparing addicts born in the Former Soviet Union and in Israel
Authors: Ranz Rebecca , Dekel Rachel , Itzhaky Haya 
Published: January 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to focus on comparing background characteristics, self‐efficacy, and family support of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and of veteran Israelis who join therapeutic communities in Israel, and their adjustment to these communities. The aim of this research was to examine whether therapeutic communities are an appropriate rehabilitative setting for immigrants who come from a different cultural background.Design/methodology/approachThe study sample consisted of 213 people with addictions, who were being treated in therapeutic communities in Israel: 110 were Israeli‐born and 103 were immigrants from the FSU. The data in the present study are based on questionnaires, which the participants completed upon their arrival into the communities: socio‐demographic data; perceived self‐efficacy in resisting the temptation of drugs; and family support. The dropout rates from the therapeutic communities were also examined.FindingsThe findings indicate that the addicts who immigrated from the FSU had lower self‐efficacy in resisting high‐risk drug situations as well as lower levels of family support, whereas the dropout rate from the treatment program was considerably higher among the Israeli‐born participants.Originality/valueThe findings suggest that the therapeutic community is an appropriate setting for addicts from the FSU, and that they had a lower dropout rate than did the Israeli‐born addicts. Thus, the main value of this research is that it suggests that the communities are an appropriate rehabilitative setting for the immigrants.
Consistency, continuity and stability – organizational virtues or not?
Authors: Holmes Peter , Williams Susan 
Published: January 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose that some level of disorder in daily life can be of benefit. The article aims to draw from recent ideas suggesting that chaos in a business setting has the potential to yield rich gains, and consider how these might be applied to a therapeutic community (TC) setting.Design/methodology/approachThe authors combine sociological approaches with trends in commercial contexts to reflect on the potential implications for TC environments.FindingsThe instinctive quest for stability, control and continuity is suggested to run counter to the need for change at an organisational level. Chaos can be considered as both disorder and hidden order, each creating opportunities for positive change through a chaordic process. It is suggested that TCs are well‐suited to embrace the relational dynamic required, if they are willing to engage in this chaos organisationally.Practical implicationsThe article has a very serious and far‐reaching range of implications for TC life, in suggesting that at an organisational level TC processes should be designed to accommodate the chaordic process. Rather than the TC simply being a container in which therapeutic change happens, it is proposed that the TC itself can undergo a dynamic of discontinuous change that brings additional benefit to its members.Originality/valueThis article is intentionally interdisciplinary, embracing thinking from the social sciences, especially sociology, as well as recent examples from business and organisational theory. In bringing some of these ideas into TC life the authors are also drawing on their own research and findings from founding and running a TC, observing on numerous occasions the positive outcomes following times of chaos, disorder and upheaval in the lives of clients and the TC.
From tulip bulbs to sub‐prime mortgages examining the sub‐prime crisis
Authors: Stephens Alan A. , Brian Atwater J. , Kannan Vijay R. 
Published: January 2013

PurposeThe collapse of the sub‐prime mortgage market parallels several earlier failures within the financial services sector, begging the question why the lessons of past failures were not learned. Throughout history from the tulip bulb crisis of the 1600s to the most recent economic crisis, decision‐makers keep making the same mistakes. This occurs in part because of a failure to recognize similarities between past and current events. This conceptual paper aims to use systems dynamics tools to examine the crisis and illustrate how seemingly independent events are linked.Design/methodology/approachThe paper provides a fundamental review of systems thinking concepts and uses a tool of systems dynamics, causal loop diagrams (CLD), to provide a visualization of the dynamics of the sub‐prime market collapse over time. This approach provides insights that traditional analytic methods do not, which should be beneficial in understanding future cases where speculative demand drives behavior.FindingsThe paper uses the CLD tool to understand the evolution of the recent financial crisis. It finds that the dynamics of the collapse closely mirror many historic financial disasters (the paper cites several) and proposes the fundamental CLD of this phenomenon be elevated to a special category of the “limits to growth” archetype model. The paper makes this recommendation in the hope it will allow investors and policy makers to quickly recognize future speculative events when they happen again.Originality/valueThis paper argues that, despite the surface level uniqueness and complexity of the recent economic collapse, there is an underlying simplicity that links the recent collapse with speculative boom/busts going back over 400 years. The representation that the paper develops applies the language of systems thinking to the most recent financial crisis. A mental model of this system and the corresponding systems structure can be used to not only understand what happened, but also inform decision‐makers when similar speculative behavior occurs in the future.
Discordant retail brand ideology in the House of Barbie
Authors: McGrath Mary Ann , Sherry John F. , Diamond Nina 
Published: January 2013

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to expand the scant literature related to retail branding ideology and the application of mythotypes to flagship stores within the Chinese setting. The study explores the transplantation of a retail brand ideology in the form of complex home‐country cultural content to a host culture whose local retail narratives differ significantly from those of the brand enterprise.Design/methodology/approachThis is an ethnographic study that spans the two years of the focal store's existence. With the help of native‐speaking graduate assistants, store visits, interviews with Chinese locals and internet mentions and secondary information were collected. Data include fieldnotes, interview transcripts, photographs, news articles, blog comments and website information.FindingsThe paper details the mythotypic mistuning of marketscape and mindscape that contributed to the failure of this flagship store and build theory concerning the implementation of retail brand ideology and retail theatrics. The paper concludes that successful themed flagship brand stores encapsulate ideology in stories composed of mythotypes and encourages the enactment of that ideology through multiple, interrelated brand experiences. Misalignments of these mythotypes can impede the acceptance of retail brand ideology and the diffusion of the retail theatre concept.Originality/valueWhile foreign and domestic flagship brand stores have flourished in China, cultural propriety of these stores includes a host of physical design cues that must mesh with the local culture's sensibilities and the brand's provenance. To translate the retail brand ideology into customer‐centric meaning is challenging. The presence or absence of mythotypes comprising the servicescape profoundly affect their success.
Decision making of retail buyers: perspectives from China and India
Authors: Manjeshwar Sonia , Sternquist Brenda , Good Linda K. 
Published: January 2013

PurposeBuying decisions are often viewed as random and therefore not generalizable. Additionally, retail buying is typically conducted by individuals and is impacted by cultural considerations. The aim of this paper is to identify critical incidents from China and India, and use theoretical concepts from buyer‐supplier literature to explain the outcome success or failure.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses the critical incident technique to capture retail buying decisions that resulted in either successful or unsuccessful outcomes. The authors analyze and match each critical incident with theoretical evidence to explain the result.FindingsA total of ten critical incidents were described by ten senior retail‐buying executives in China and India. Critical incidents were classified under four retailing categories: assortment planning, product promotion, sourcing issues, and supply chain issues, and analyzed under four theoretical themes: opportunism, trust, long‐term orientation and power‐dependence.Practical implicationsOrganized retailing is a new phenomenon in China and India. This study bears implications for the training of future retail buyers in both emerging economies, and emphasizes the integration of scientific, modern methods of decision‐making with the cultural values of the local country.Originality/valueThis study is unique because it relies on the voice of the retail buyer to explain real‐world decision making with theoretical evidence from buyer‐supplier literature. Methodologically, this paper is unique as it reports on the first study using critical incident interview techniques to study professional retail‐buying practices.
Surfing the Korean wave
Authors: Hong Soonkwan , Kim Chang‐Ho 
Published: January 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to present a theoretical framework to demythologize Asian consumers' cultural and ideological narratives in relation to the newly emerging popular culture developed in Korea, widely known as “Korean wave.” In addition, methodological considerations for the understudied consumption phenomenon are also discussed.Design/methodology/approachFrom the extant literature on popular culture and globalization, a theoretical overview of Korean popular culture (KPC) is provided. Subsequently, a condensed presentation of netnography employing critical discourse analysis (CDA) is provided.FindingsA netnography fused with CDA suggests a reflexive process in which a range of sociocultural tensions in the globalization process of KPC dynamically hybridize and transform into new cultural tastes in respective cultures.Research limitations/implicationsCultural branding can be revisited, as the new discourse generated in Asia envisions new entries into the global brandscape. Moreover, this endeavor helps explicate how a globalized trend is replaced with another through a paradoxical discursive process.Originality/valueAs this article discusses popular culture as a product to be consumed just as are other tangible products, it assists researchers in visualizing and theorizing about the globalization process of incorporeal, cultural products. The application of discursively enriched netnography facilitates pertinent analysis and ultimately theory‐building.