bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Silicon Valley’s Indian diaspora: networking and entrepreneurial success
Authors: Basu Anuradha , Virick Meghna 
Published: August 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that influence the success of entrepreneurial ventures started by members of the Indian diaspora in Silicon Valley.Design/methodology/approach– It is based on survey data collected from Indian-born high-tech entrepreneurs living in Silicon Valley, and uses Bayesian estimation to test hypotheses aimed at understanding entrepreneurial growth. Specifically, the paper examines the linkages between prior startup experience, participation in diasporic networks, and new venture growth.Findings– It finds that entrepreneurs with prior startup experience displayed more active participation in diasporic networks, and were more likely to have co-founders. Active network participation over a length of time was positively related to new venture growth. The findings contribute toward the understanding of the value of startup experience in leveraging social networks, and the relationship between diasporic network participation and entrepreneurship.Research limitations/implications– As a cross-sectional study with a single data source, it is subject to concerns about causality and common method variance.Practical implications– The results highlight the value of serial entrepreneurship and the potential benefits to immigrant entrepreneurs of participating in diasporic social networks, especially those with a global reach. They also suggest that investors would be better off investing in entrepreneurs who have greater startup experience and participate actively in diasporic networks.Originality/value– The paper is based on a very unique sample of Indian-born immigrant high-tech entrepreneurs based in the Silicon Valley. It provides a deeper understanding of the role of diasporic social networks, and their relationship with prior startup experience and entrepreneurial success within that context.
Motherland or home state? Allegiance of the Indian diaspora and its effect on reverse FDI
Authors: Chand Masud 
Published: August 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential regional preferences of the diaspora and explain how such preferences affect their decision when engaging in reverse Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Since diasporas often act as conduits for trade and investment, the author is interested in whether these regional preferences affect their choice of destination for FDI.Design/methodology/approach– The author developed and pre-tested a questionnaire that was administered in pen and paper as well as online. Totally, 158 professional, managers and entrepreneurs with Indian diasporic background in the USA and Canada participated in the study. Follow-up interviews were conducted with 25 participants.Findings– Participants indicated that they did not favor their region of origin over the entire country. However, most of the participants only invested in their region of origin.Research limitations/implications– Interviews were based on the original survey questionnaire and did not further probe other issues. The current study should be treated as exploratory in nature and the results should be used as a springboard for future research.Practical implications– It would seem that the region of origin was important in the decision to migrate and for reverse FDI, even though cognitively the participants did not recognize it to the same extent. This might point to a mediation effect, which should be investigated in future studies. This paper helps businesses and governments understand the extent to which sub-national regional ties explain the investment motivations of people investing back in their home countries.Social implications– Furthermore, the importance of regional ties in the decisions to both invest and migrate point to the importance of studying sub-national cultural and institutional issues rather than treating large multicultural countries such as India as a monolithic bloc.Originality/value– The author used network ties theories to investigate and explain the investment behavior of Indian diaspora. While other disciplines (e.g. geography, sociology and economics) might have studied similar phenomena, the author looked and expanded the knowledge from a management perspective.
The ingredients of a success recipe
Authors: Moghaddam Kaveh 
Published: August 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to identify the antecedents of successful South Asian opportunity diaspora entrepreneurship. Furthermore, it examines the successful South Asian diaspora opportunity entrepreneurs’ (DOE) interactions with their country of origin and country of residence.Design/methodology/approach– With a qualitative approach, this study employs the NVivo software to examine a set of semistructured interviews of eight South Asian diaspora entrepreneurs.Findings– The qualitative analysis in this study suggests that a South Asian DOE with a college education, previous industry-related experience, prior startup experience, and a tendency to attribute entrepreneurship talent to training rather than birth exhibits a high-entrepreneurial venture growth rate. Furthermore, the qualitative analysis suggests that a south Asian DOE who emphasizes market analysis, accentuates building the right team of employees, and pursues adventurous choice of financing (i.e. bootstrapping or small bank) exhibits a high-entrepreneurial venture growth rate.Research limitations/implications– Due to the small sample and exploratory nature of the study, results may not be generalized. Future research is encouraged to test the robustness of the findings.Practical implications– The findings of this qualitative study offer implications for immigrant individuals who might have interest in starting a new business and wonder what the ingredients of a diaspora entrepreneurship success recipe might be.Originality/value– This study provides an enhanced understanding of diaspora opportunity entrepreneurship. Furthermore, it contributes to the qualitative approach by offering a novel research design to avoid common problems of researcher bias and mono-method bias.
Methodological issues in group-referenced measurement of Indian culture
Authors: Messner Wolfgang , Schäfer Norbert 
Published: August 2015

Purpose
– The cultural dimensions of the Hofstede and Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) studies are often used to capture cultural differences and operationalize them in academic research, corporate business, and teaching. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if this context is appropriate for the Indian information technology (IT) offshore services industry; that is, if Indian culture can be measured with group-referenced items, averaged, and explained by discrete dimensions.

Design/methodology/approach
– The authors devised items based on the GLOBE study, and conducted empirical research with 291 employees of two services sourcing providers in Pune and Bangalore, India. The authors then scrutinized the data set on item and dimension level using statistical methods, such as interrater agreement, t-test, arithmetic mean, and standard deviation.

Findings
– An interpretation of the analysis posits that cultural assumptions based on dimensions and means are problematic in the context of the Indian IT offshore services industry. The two digit exact values of the GLOBE study (and similarly the ordinal scale by Hofstede) suggest a level of accuracy and absoluteness which could not be replicated in the empirical research. Therefore, one authors should be very careful referring to Indian national culture when conducting intercultural awareness programs and coaching international teams who are engaging with India.

Originality/value
– The GLOBE study omits to report basic statistics of questionnaire development. Through this replication study in India, the authors provide empirical evidence that the construct validity of cultural dimensions and the concept of national/group averages may be flawed.
How “quality” determines customer satisfaction
Authors: Liu Chih-Hsing , Chou Sheng-Fang , Gan Bernard , Tu Jin-Hua 
Published: August 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to develop a research framework to explain the relationship between overall restaurant quality and customer satisfaction.Design/methodology/approach– To test this model, the authors deploy 48 mystery shoppers to evaluate 496 Taiwanese restaurants. Further, the authors performed two different regression models and performing the Baron and Kenny (1986) procedure to test the hypotheses.Findings– This study investigates whether restaurants are susceptible to the quality and level of restaurant service, and the restaurant’s physical atmosphere. Further, this study investigates whether these two constructs are likely to improve customers’ perception of restaurant quality, and whether such a strategy may also lead to customers’ satisfaction and facilities word-of-mouth recommendations.Practical implications– The evidence suggests that the construct of “restaurant service” and “physical atmosphere” are strong determinant of improving customers’ perception of overall quality of restaurant. That is, there is a tendency to innovate when restaurant managers prioritize customers’ satisfaction. Further, managers who believe that service and physical atmosphere issues are top priorities will also improve the overall quality in their restaurants.Originality/value– Measuring the relationships between Michelin star evaluation criteria via a large observation sample is rare in the present literature. As far as the authors know, this is the first paper to exam the relationships between Michelin star evaluation criteria.
The resistance to change in implementation of total quality management (TQM) in Iranian schools
Authors: Pourrajab Masoumeh , Basri Ramli , Daud Shaffe Mohd , Asimiran Soaib 
Published: August 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to identify the level of resistance to change in implementation of total quality management (TQM) in Iranian schools and investigate the influence of principals’ and teachers’ gender and years of experience on resistance to change.

Design/methodology/approach
– This study presents the results of survey research carried out in Iran. The participants of this study are secondary school principals and teachers. The researchers employed descriptive analysis on data collected. Independent sample t-test was used to determine the difference in resistance to change based on teachers and principals gender, and one-way ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis H-test were applied to determine the difference in resistance of teachers and principals based on years of experience.

Findings
– The researchers found that the level of resistance to change in Iranian schools is medium; the most important factor for resistance to change is confidence in the status quo. Gender has an effect on resistance to change only for teachers. Years of experience do not have an effect on resistance to change.

Originality/value
– The study identifies some useful points for school’s principals and teachers to implementation of TQM in school.
The moderating effect of motivations on the relationship between obtaining ISO 9001 certification and organizational performance
Authors: Valmohammadi Changiz , Kalantari Mohsen 
Published: August 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is threefold, first to investigate if ISO 9001 certified companies in an Iranian province (Kermanshah) perform better than non-certified ISO 9001. Second, what is the main motivation of the manufacturing companies of Kermanshah province on obtaining ISO 9001 certification, i.e., internal or external motivations. And finally, if ISO 9001 certified companies with high scores of internal motivations, show better levels of performance in comparison with certified companies obtaining low scores of internal motivations.

Design/methodology/approach
– A survey questionnaire was distributed to the 350 companies with ISO 9000 certification, and a total of 287 usable responses were returned. Using a structural equation model, this study empirically examines the relationship between ISO 9000 implementation and firm performance, and the moderating role of firm motivation on organizational performance.

Findings
– The results demonstrate that ISO 9001 certified companies show better organizational performance than non-certified ISO 9001 companies and internal motivations play more important role on obtaining ISO 9001 certificate than external motivations. Also ISO 9001 certified companies with high scores of internal motivations show better levels of performance than those ISO 9001 certified companies with low scores of internal motivations.

Research limitations/implications
– The sample is restricted to only a single region and manufacturing, so it would be strongly recommended that data be gathered from various parts of Iran including both manufacturing and service industries. As in this study the data gathered were cross-sectional, it is recommended in order to gain deeper understanding of the cause-and-effect relationship among the variables data to be gathered longitudinally.

Originality/value
– This study represents a first attempt to construct a conceptual framework that integrates the motivations behind implementing ISO 9000 certification, and ISO 9000 performance in the context of Iran and gives a particular focus on the Iran manufacturing companies.
Identification and prioritization of barriers to total quality management implementation in service industry
Authors: Talib Faisal , Rahman Zillur 
Published: August 2015

Purpose
– Despite the potential benefits of total quality management (TQM) articulated by quality experts and practitioners, these benefits are not easy to achieve in practice. Many service industries have found difficult to implement TQM successfully. The present study investigates and categorizes the barriers to a successful implementation of TQM program in the service industry. The purpose of this paper is to understand TQM barriers and prioritize their relative importance by ranking them in the service industry.

Design/methodology/approach
– Based on previously published literature on TQM barriers in service industry and after discussions with quality experts, this study utilizes a set of 12 barriers to TQM as identified by the authors of TQM barriers to accomplish the objectives of the present study. The 12 barriers were divided into three categories. These barriers were prioritized and ranked using an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach, a multi-criteria decision-making process.

Findings
– In this research, the category “managerial issues” was found to be the most important, followed by “people-oriented issues” and “organizational issues” based on their priority weights. The results have also highlighted that the barrier “lack of communication” was the most significant among all the other barriers. It was followed by “lack of top-management commitment,” “employee’s resistance to change,” and “lack of coordination between departments.” The least significant barrier was “high turnover at management level.”

Practical implications
– The study ranks the barriers, from the most important to the least important, which will allow managers and practitioners in the service industry to decide which barriers they need to pay attention to and work on for a successful implementation of TQM.

Originality/value
– The strength of this study is the development of a comprehensive model for the investigation and prioritization of barriers that the service industry experiences when implementing a TQM program. Presenting TQM barriers in the form of AHP-based model and categorizing barriers is a new effort in the area of TQM.
Capturing the Impact of Unobserved Sector‐Wide Shocks on Stock Returns with Panel Data Model
Authors: Hong KiHoon Jimmy , Peng Bin , Zhang Xiaohui 
Published: August 2015

Unobserved sector‐wide common shocks cause the issue of cross‐sectional dependence (CSD) in panel data modelling of stock returns. In this study we apply two econometric techniques: the seemingly unrelated regression approach and a Bayesian estimator for panel data models with factor structural errors, to allow for CSD within a particular sector. By applying these models to monthly stock returns of S&P100 companies from six sectors over 10 years, we can capture and measure the heterogeneous impacts of not only observed individual company accounting fundamentals and market‐wide common shocks, but also unobservable sector‐wide common shocks. Results from the empirical study show that the impacts from both observed factors and unobserved sector‐wide common shocks vary markedly across companies. After controlling for observed accounting fundamentals and market‐wide common factors, a considerable proportion of the variation in stock returns can be attributed to unobservable sector‐wide common shocks.
Hydrocellular foam dressing increases the leptin level in wound fluid
Authors: Yoshino Sawako , Nakagami Gojiro , Ohira Tomomi , Kawasaki Rui , Shimura Mari , Iwatsuki Ken , Sanada Hiromi , Kobayashi‐Hattori Kazuo , Oishi Yuichi , Yamane Takumi 
Published: August 2015

ABSTRACTHydrocellular foam dressing (HCF) absorbs excessive wound fluid, which contains various cytokines and growth factors, and ensures a moist environment to promote wound healing. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the wound fluid component changes induced by HCF are poorly understood. In the present study, we examined the effect of HCF on wound healing and the associated regulatory mechanisms in relation to variations in cytokine levels in the wound fluid. We created full‐thickness wounds on the dorsolateral skin of rats and collected the resulting wound fluid samples. HCF was immersed in a plate containing the wound fluids. HCF was then removed and the excess wound fluid remaining in the plate was examined by cytokine array and enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. We also used a rat model and human dermal fibroblast cultures to examine the effect of wound fluid component changes during the wound healing process. Upon treatment with HCF, leptin levels were upregulated in the wound fluid. Fibroblast proliferation was enhanced and the effect was suppressed in the presence of leptin antagonist. In our in vivo model, HCF increased wound contraction compared with film dressings and this positive effect of HCF was suppressed by addition of leptin antagonist. Our results suggest that dermal fibroblast proliferation is upregulated by HCF due to increased leptin level at the wound surface, and these effects promote wound healing. We believe that the present study contributes to furthering the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the effects of HCF‐induced wound healing.
Deficient Natural Killer Dendritic Cell Responses Underlay the Induction of Theiler's Virus-Induced Autoimmunity
Authors: Chastain Emily M. L. , Getts Daniel R. , Miller Stephen D. 
Published: August 2015

ABSTRACTThe initiating events in autoimmune disease remain to be completely understood, but it is thought that genetic predisposition synergizes with “environmental” factors, including viral infection, leading to disease. One elegant animal model used to study the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis that perfectly blends genetics and environmental components in the context of virus-induced autoimmunity is Theiler's murine encephalitis virus-induced demyelinating disease (TMEV-IDD). TMEV-infected disease-susceptible SJL/J mice develop a persistent central nervous system (CNS) infection and later develop autoimmune demyelination, while disease-resistant C57BL/6 (B6) mice rapidly clear the infection and develop no autoimmune pathology. Mice of the (B6 × SJL/J)F1cross between these two mouse strains are classified as intermediately susceptible. We employed this model to investigate if rapid virus clearance in B6 versus SJL/J mice was perhaps related to differences in the innate immune response in the CNS of the two strains in the first few days following intracerebral virus inoculation. Here we show that SJL/J mice lack, in addition to NK cells, a novel innate immune subset known as natural killer dendritic cells (NKDCs), which express phenotypic markers (CD11cintNK1.1+) and functional activity of both NK cells and DCs. These NKDCs are activated in the periphery and migrate into the infected CNS in a very late antigen 4 (VLA-4)-dependent fashion. Most significantly, NKDCs are critical for CNS clearance of TMEV, as transfer of NKDCs purified from B6 mice into TMEV-IDD-susceptible (B6 × SJL/J)F1mice promotes viral clearance. Together the findings of this work show for the first time a link between NKDCs, viral infection, and CNS autoimmunity.IMPORTANCEViral infection is an important cofactor, along with genetic susceptibility, in the initiation of a variety of organ-specific autoimmune diseases. Thus, in-depth understanding of how virus infections trigger autoimmunity may lead to novel ways to prevent or treat these diseases. Theiler's murine encephalitis virus-induced demyelinating disease (TMEV-IDD) serves as an important model for the human T cell-mediated autoimmune demyelinating disease multiple sclerosis. Induction of TMEV-IDD is genetically controlled as SJL/J mice develop persistent central nervous system (CNS) infection leading to chronic autoimmune demyelination, while C57BL/6 mice rapidly clear virus and are disease resistant. We determined that, as opposed to resistant B6 mice, disease-susceptible SJL/J mice lacked a unique innate immune population, the natural killer dendritic cell (NKDC), which was shown to play a critical role in early CNS virus clearance via its ability to both present virus antigen to T cells and to lyse target cells.
Glycated haemoglobin A1c is associated with low-grade albuminuria in Chinese adults
Authors: Huang Xiaolin , Zhou Yulin , Xu Baihui , Sun Wanwan , Lin Lin , Sun Jichao , Xu Min , Lu Jieli , Bi Yufang , Wang Weiqing , Xu Yu , Ning Guang 
Published: August 2015

Background and objectiveDiabetes is a strong risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, whereas few studies have investigated simultaneously the associations of glycated haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), fasting blood glucose (fasting plasma glucose (FPG)) and 2 h postload blood glucose (2 h PG) with low-grade albuminuria, which is an earlier marker of cardiovascular diseases in the general population. Our study aimed to investigate and compare associations of HbA1c, FPG, and 2 h PG levels with risks of low-grade albuminuria in the middle-aged and elderly Chinese.Design and methodsThis was a cross-sectional study involving 9188 participants aged 40 years or older. All participants underwent a standard 75 g oral glucose tolerance test. Low-grade albuminuria was defined as the highest quartile of urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) (>6.10 mg/g in males and >8.76 mg/g in females) in respondents without microalbuminuria or macroalbuminuria.ResultsHbA1c, FPG and 2 h PG were all significantly correlated with urinary ACR after adjustment for confounders (all p values <0.0001). After adjustment for HbA1c, the relationships of FPG and 2 h PG with ACR reduced to null. HbA1c levels were still significantly associated with ACR after further adjustment for FPG and 2 h PG. Multiple logistic regression showed that risks of low-grade albuminuria were positively associated with HbA1c levels in a dose–response manner. Compared with participants with HbA1c ≤37 mmol/mol (5.5%), ORs (95% CIs) for low-grade albuminuria were 1.05 (0.94 to 1.18), 1.25 (1.04 to 1.50), 1.40 (1.04 to 1.90) and 2.21 (1.61 to 3.03) for HbA1c categories of 38–42 mmol/mol (5.6–6.0%), 43–48 mmol/mol (6.1–6.5%), 49–53 mmol/mol (6.6–7.0%), and >53 mmol/mol (7.0%), respectively (pfor trend<0.0001).ConclusionsHbA1c, but not FPG or 2 h PG, was independently associated with an increased risk of low-grade albuminuria in the middle-aged and elderly Chinese.