bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Board diversity and intellectual capital performance
Authors: Al-Musali Mahfoudh Abdul Karem Mahfoudh , Ku Ismail Ku Nor Izah 
Published: October 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate if the effectiveness of board meetings moderates the relationship between board diversity (in terms of educational level and nationality) and intellectual capital (IC) performance.Design/methodology/approach– The empirical data are drawn from banks’ annual reports over the three-year period of 2008 to 2010. Public’s value-added intellectual coefficient method is applied to measure IC performance. The frequency of board meetings is used a proxy for board meeting effectiveness.Findings– Based on the hierarchical regression analysis, our results do not support the hypothesis that the effect of board diversity on IC performance is positive as the effectiveness of board meetings increases.Practical implications– Findings of this study indicate that there is a need for more effective meetings through providing appropriate and sufficient information to directors, particularly in strategic issues such as those related to IC that could make board members better prepared and more involved in meetings.Originality/value– This study adds to the literature, as it is the first study that explores the variables that could affect the relationship between board diversity and IC performance in the context of banks.
Mongolian mining mayhem
Authors: French Joseph J. , Martin Michael , Allen Garth 
Published: October 2015

Subject area
International Business, Ethics, International Legal Issues/Law, Environmental Management.

Study level/applicability
Upper-level undergraduates and graduate students. The case is appropriate for courses in International Law, Ethics, International Business and Strategy.

Case overview
This case is inspired by current ethical, legal, social and environmental issues that have plagued the multinational mining industry in frontier markets. The case focuses on a multitude of legal, ethical and strategic issues involving the multinational mining industry. This case describes a hypothetical assignment facing an operations manager at the fictional Minera, Inc. The assignment revolves around several dilemmas a manager must confront as he attempts to secure valuable mining licenses from the Mongolian Government while simultaneously attempting to harmonize seemingly detrimental operating practices with the organizations' stated beliefs. The case provides detailed background information on the social, economic and political climate in Mongolia, as well as the applicable laws, ethical frameworks and competitive market considerations facing multinational mining organizations.

Expected learning outcomes
This case will help students understand the complexity of international business in frontier markets; identify key international legal issues such as the foreign corrupt practices act; and recognize ethical issues and formulate economically, strategically, ethically and legally sound courses of action in complex environments.

Supplementary materials
Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.
Slow tech: bridging computer ethics and business ethics
Authors: Patrignani Norberto , Whitehouse Diane 
Published: October 2015

Purpose– This discussion paper focuses on a notion of information and communication technology (ICT) that is good, clean and fair that the authors call Slow Tech. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Slow Tech approach in order to explain how to create a suitable bridge between business ethics and computer ethics.Design/methodology/approach– The paper’s approach is discursive. It provides a viewpoint. Its arguments are based in an examination of literature relevant to both business ethics and computer ethics. Justification is produced for the use of Slow Tech approach. A number of potential future research and application issues still to be investigated are also provided.Findings– Slow Tech can be proposed, and used, as a bridging mechanism between companies’ strategies regarding computer ethics and business ethics. Three case studies illustrate the kind of challenges that companies have to tackle when trying to implement Slow Tech in concrete business context. Further study need to be undertaken to make progress on Slow Tech in applied, corporate settings.Practical implications– ICT companies need to look for innovative, new approaches to producing, selling and recycling their services and products. A Slow Tech approach can provide such insights.Social implications– Today’s challenges to the production and use of good, clean, and fair ICT, both conceptual and concrete, can act as incentives for action: they can further applied research or encourage social activism. Encouraging the study, and the application, of Slow Tech provides a first step in the potential improvement of a society in which information technology is totally embedded.Originality/value– The value of this paper in not only for academics and researchers, but also for practitioners: especially for personnel working in ICT companies and for those involved with designing, developing and applying codes of conduct at both European and globally.
Work-family enrichment through I-Deals: evidence from Chinese employees
Authors: Tang Yipeng , Hornung Severin 
Published: October 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a model of idiosyncratic deals (i-deals), embedded in the processes of work-family enrichment.Design/methodology/approach– Hierarchical linear regressions and indirect-effect analyses were used to analyze the data from 179 working parents surveyed in a Chinese city.Findings– Successful i-deal negotiation was contingent on both personal initiative of the employee and a positive influx of support from the family to the work domain. Additionally, the results suggested that: development i-deals enriched the intra-work role experience by customizing intrinsic work features and thus enhancing intrinsic motivation. Flexibility i-deals enriched the work-to-family boundary experience through increased instrumentality of the work role, connected to the economic basis of employment.Research limitations/implications– Providing new insights into the antecedents and consequences of i-deals, the study suggested a model through which employees can create balance and use synergies in their work-life quality. Based on single-source cross-sectional data, the results are preliminary.Practical implications– Human resource management needs to consider the family lives of employees, especially in the Chinese culture. The authors further discussed applications of and limitations to the use of i-deals.Social implications– The study provides a new approach to addressing the issue of balance between different social roles.Originality/value– The study is the first to investigate i-deals in the context of work-family enrichment, explore the role experiences of i-deal recipients, and link i-deals to distinct motivational processes.
Learning climate and customer-oriented behaviors: the mediation of customer knowledge
Authors: Wang Mei-Ling 
Published: October 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of learning climate on customer-oriented behaviors by incorporating salespeople’s customer knowledge in the banks. It also explores the mediating role of customer knowledge between learning climate and customer-oriented behaviors.Design/methodology/approach– A conceptual two-level model that links learning climate to customer-oriented behaviors was developed and tested using data collected from salespeople and customers in banks in Taiwan. Data from 444 customers involving 92 salespeople was collected via a questionnaire and analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling.Findings– The results show that learning climate encourages salespeople to develop customer knowledge and customer-oriented behaviors, and that salespeople’s customer knowledge positively influences customer-oriented behaviors. This study also provides empirical support for the hypotheses that learning climate helps salespeople increase customer-oriented behaviors through improving salespeople’s customer knowledge.Research limitations/implications– The findings highlight the importance of enhancing learning climate and customer knowledge to enable banks to improve salespeople’s customer-oriented behaviors. This research also points to customer knowledge as mediating mechanisms that can explain the association between learning climate and customer-oriented behaviors in the sales context.Originality/value– By integrating knowledge management with organizational learning research, this study evaluates the effect of learning climate on salespeople’s customer-oriented behaviors by incorporating their customer knowledge. In addition, the present study points to salespeople’s customer knowledge as one of several mediating mechanisms that explains the association between learning climate and customer-oriented behaviors.
Social norm perceptions predict citizenship behaviors
Authors: Jacobson Ryan P. , Jacobson Kathryn J. L. , Hood Jacqueline N. 
Published: October 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which perceptions of injunctive and descriptive norms for workplace organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) affect an individual’s frequency of performing such behaviors. The study also explores whether the effects of norm perceptions are moderated by the individual’s need to belong (NTB) to social groups.Design/methodology/approach– Hierarchical regression analysis was used to analyze data from 77 employed MBA students. Perceptions of OCB norms and NTB were assessed with an initial survey. Eight weeks later, a second survey assessed the individual frequency of OCBs.Findings– Descriptive norms, injunctive norms, and NTB independently predicted OCB frequency. Additionally, NTB moderated the effects of injunctive norm perceptions. The injunctive norm was particularly influential for employees high in NTB.Research limitations/implications– Limitations of this study include its cross-sectional nature and the possibility of common method bias.Practical implications– Study results indicate that managers can encourage OCBs by drawing attention to the prevalence of OCBs in the workplace (descriptive norm) and by showing approval of OCBs (injunctive norm). Hiring those with high NTB will also increase OCBs and enhance the effects of any effort on management’s part to signify approval of OCBs. OCBs can also be encouraged through new employee orientation and training that emphasizes the descriptive and injunctive norms for OCBs.Originality/value– This is the first study to demonstrate social norms and NTB as predictors of workplace OCBs. This study also provides the first evidence that the effects of injunctive norms are moderated by NTB.
Contrasting effects of nutrient enrichment on below‐ground biomass in coastal wetlands
Authors: Graham Sean A. , Mendelssohn Irving A. 
Published: October 2015

Summary

Anthropogenically enhanced nutrient availability is often cited among the most important drivers of altered ecosystem function and loss of services world‐wide. Although the above‐ground consequences of nutrient enrichment on plant growth patterns are numerous and well documented, below‐ground impacts are less clear but nonetheless critical from a global change perspective. In coastal wetlands, for example, plant–soil–nutrient dynamics directly affect the capacity to sequester carbon as soil organic matter, keep pace with sea level rise and resist storm‐induced erosion.

Here, we investigate the effects of excess nutrient loading on below‐ground plant growth in an oligohaline marsh fertilized for 7 years with a factorial combination of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). We used two common assessment procedures, the ingrowth and standing crop methods, to simultaneously quantify distinct aspects of below‐ground plant growth, which are (i) below‐ground biomass accumulation into unexploited open resource space and (ii) in situ, or maintenance, below‐ground biomass of plants in equilibrium with their environment, respectively. Our objective was to determine if plant growth responses to nutrient enrichment differed depending on process and/or biomass component measured.

We show that excess N concurrently increased live root biomass accumulation in ingrowth cores and reduced in situ live root standing crop. Similar, albeit non‐significant, response trajectories were apparent for other below‐ground biomass pools using both methods, excepting dead biomass and total standing crop. A review of previously published research supports our results and suggests that nutrient enrichment consistently has contrasting effects on below‐ground plant growth depending on whether biomass accumulation or standing crop is measured, and that living biomass components are most responsive to enhanced nutrient availability.

Synthesis. We conclude that eutrophic conditions can be both beneficial and detrimental to ecosystem function by either stimulating below‐ground biomass accumulation in unexploited soil or reducing the below‐ground standing crop required to sustain the nutritional needs of established plants in mature communities. Thus, nutrient enrichment may, in the short‐term, contribute to soil organic matter (i.e. carbon) accumulation by increasing below‐ground growth as plants exploit new resource space. Over the long‐term, however, nutrient enrichment has the potential to negatively impact soil organic matter content as plants equilibrate to excess nutrient availability by down‐regulating below‐ground standing crop.
Chromohalobacter is a Causing Agent for the Production of Organic Acids and Putrescine during Fermentation of Ganjang, a Korean Traditional Soy Sauce
Authors: Jung Ji Young , Chun Byung Hee , Jeon Che Ok 
Published: October 2015

AbstractGanjang, a Korean traditional fermented soy sauce, is prepared by soaking doenjang‐meju (fermented soybeans) in approximately 20% (w/v) solar salt solution. The metabolites and bacterial communities during ganjang fermentation were simultaneously investigated to gain a better understanding of the roles of the microbial population. The bacterial community analysis based on denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that initially, the genus Cobetia was predominant (0 to 10 d), followed by Bacillus (5 to 74 d), and eventually, Chromohalobacter became predominant until the end of the fermentation process (74 to 374 d). Metabolite analysis using 1H‐NMR showed that carbon compounds, such as fructose, galactose, glucose, and glycerol, probably released from doenjang‐meju, increased rapidly during the early fermentation period (0 to 42 d). After removal of doenjang‐meju from the ganjang solution (42 d), the initial carbon compounds remained nearly constant without the increase of fermentation products. At this point, Bacillus species, which probably originated from doenjang‐meju, were predominant, suggesting that Bacillus is not mainly responsible for ganjang fermentation. Fermentation products including acetate, lactate, α‐aminobutyrate, γ‐aminobutyrate, and putrescine increased quickly with the rapid decrease of the initial carbon compounds, while Chromohalobacter, probably derived from the solar salts, was predominant. Multivariate redundancy analysis indicated that the Chromohalobacter population was closely correlated with the production of the organic acids and putrescine during the ganjang fermentation. These results may suggest that Chromohalobacter is a causing agent responsible for the production of organic acids and putrescine during ganjang fermentation and that the solar salts, not doenjang‐meju, is an important microbial source for ganjang fermentation.
Judging trustworthiness from faces: Emotion cues modulate trustworthiness judgments in young children
Authors: Caulfield Frances , Ewing Louise , Bank Samantha , Rhodes Gillian 
Published: October 2015

By adulthood, people judge trustworthiness from appearances rapidly and reliably. However, we know little about these judgments in children. This novel study investigates the developmental trajectory of explicit trust judgments from faces, and the contribution made by emotion cues across age groups. Five‐, 7‐, 10‐year‐olds, and adults rated the trustworthiness of trustworthy and untrustworthy faces with neutral expressions. The same participants also rated faces displaying overt happy and angry expressions, allowing us to investigate whether emotion cues modulate trustworthiness judgments similarly in children and adults. Results revealed that the ability to evaluate the trustworthiness of faces emerges in childhood, but may not be adult like until 10 years of age. Moreover, we show that emotion cues modulate trust judgments in young children, as well as adults. Anger cues diminished the appearance of trustworthiness for participants from 5 years of age and happy cues increased it, although this effect did not consistently emerge until later in childhood, that is, 10 years of age. These associations also extended to more subtle emotion cues present in neutral faces. Our results indicate that young children are sensitive to facial trustworthiness, and suggest that similar expression cues modulate these judgments in children and adults.
ToRCH “co‐infections” are associated with increased risk of abortion in pregnant women
Authors: Rasti Sima , Ghasemi Fatemeh Sadat , Abdoli Amir , Piroozmand Ahmad , Mousavi Seyed Gholam Abbas , Fakhrie‐Kashan Zohreh 
Published: October 2015

AbstractToRCH infections (toxoplasmosis, rubella, cytomegalovirus and Herpes simplex virus) have long been known to be associated with bad obstetric outcomes. However, little information is available about the impact of ToRCH co‐infections on the outcome of pregnancy. Hence, we tested the IgG and IgM antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii, Rubella, Cytomegalovirus and Herpes Simplex Virus among 81 pregnant women with abortion (case group) and 98 pregnant women with normal delivery (control group). In the single‐infection model, only CMV‐IgM seropositivity was significantly increased in case than control group (25.9% in case and 12.2 % in control, OR = 2.5, P = 0.019). In the co‐infection model, 14 patterns were recognized, but two patterns were significantly increased in the case than the control group. Co‐infection of T. gondii IgG + CMV IgM was 9.1‐fold increased in the case than the control group (8.6% in the case and 1% in control, OR = 9.1; P = 0.024). Also, co‐infection of T. gondii IgG + HSV IgG + CMV IgM was 7.7‐fold increased in case than the control group (7.4% in case and 1 % in control, OR = 7.7; P = 0.04). Although the OR of other co‐infections was higher in the case than the control group, the difference was not statistically significant. These findings indicate that ToRCH co‐infections are associated with increased risk of abortion than single infection. Hence, the rates of co‐infections should be considered in prenatal screening of ToRCH infections.
Breaking Down the Bilingual Cost in Speech Production
Authors: Sadat Jasmin , Martin Clara D. , Magnuson James S. , Alario François‐Xavier , Costa Albert 
Published: October 2015

AbstractBilinguals have been shown to perform worse than monolinguals in a variety of verbal tasks. This study investigated this bilingual verbal cost in a large‐scale picture‐naming study conducted in Spanish. We explored how individual characteristics of the participants and the linguistic properties of the words being spoken influence this performance cost. In particular, we focused on the contributions of lexical frequency and phonological similarity across translations. The naming performance of Spanish‐Catalan bilinguals speaking in their dominant and non‐dominant language was compared to that of Spanish monolinguals. Single trial naming latencies were analyzed by means of linear mixed models accounting for individual effects at the participant and item level. While decreasing lexical frequency was shown to increase naming latencies in all groups, this variable by itself did not account for the bilingual cost. In turn, our results showed that the bilingual cost disappeared when naming words with high phonological similarity across translations. In short, our results show that frequency of use can play a role in the emergence of the bilingual cost, but that phonological similarity across translations should be regarded as one of the most important variables that determine the bilingual cost in speech production. Low phonological similarity across translations yields worse performance in bilinguals and promotes the bilingual cost in naming performance. The implications of our results for the effect of phonological similarity across translations within the bilingual speech production system are discussed.
The N‐terminal pre‐A region of Mycobacterium tuberculosis 2/2HbN promotes NO‐dioxygenase activity
Authors: Pesce Alessandra , Bustamante Juan P. , Bidon‐Chanal Axel , Boechi Leonardo , Estrin Darío A. , Luque Francisco Javier , Sebilo Anne , Guertin Michel , Bolognesi Martino , Ascenzi Paolo , Nardini Marco 
Published: October 2015

A unique defense mechanisms by which Mycobacterium tuberculosis protects itself from nitrosative stress is based on the O2‐dependent NO‐dioxygenase (NOD) activity of truncated hemoglobin 2/2HbN (Mt2/2HbN). The NOD activity largely depends on the efficiency of ligand migration to the heme cavity through a two‐tunnel (long and short) system; recently, it was also correlated with the presence at the Mt2/2HbN N‐terminus of a short pre‐A region, not conserved in most 2/2HbNs, whose deletion results in a drastic reduction of NO scavenging. In the present study, we report the crystal structure of Mt2/2HbN‐ΔpreA, lacking the pre‐A region, at a resolution of 1.53 Å. We show that removal of the pre‐A region results in long range effects on the protein C‐terminus, promoting the assembly of a stable dimer, both in the crystals and in solution. In the Mt2/2HbN‐ΔpreA dimer, access of heme ligands to the short tunnel is hindered. Molecular dynamics simulations show that the long tunnel branch is the only accessible pathway for O2‐ligand migration to/from the heme, and that the gating residue Phe(62)E15 partly restricts the diameter of the tunnel. Accordingly, kinetic measurements indicate that the kon value for peroxynitrite isomerization by Mt2/2HbN‐ΔpreA‐Fe(III) is four‐fold lower relative to the full‐length protein, and that NO scavenging by Mt2/2HbN‐ΔpreA‐Fe(II)‐O2 is reduced by 35‐fold. Therefore, we speculate that Mt2/2HbN evolved to host the pre‐A region as a mechanism for preventing dimerization, thus reinforcing the survival of the microorganism against the reactive nitrosative stress in macrophages.DatabaseCoordinates and structure factors have been deposited in the Protein Data Bank under accession number 5AB8.