bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Public relations scales: advancing the excellence theory
Authors: Laskin Alexander V. 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThis paper aims to develop five public relations scales as a substitutions for models/dimensions that were subject to much criticism. Based on this conceptual re‐evaluation of the excellence study, one of the dominant public relations paradigms, the manuscript proposes a measurement approach for the public relations practice.Design/methodology/approachThis is a conceptual paper based on a critical literature review aimed at understanding the errors in the public relations models conceptualization and their empirical tests. Based on this review, new and improved scales of public relations are proposed.FindingsThe study developed five scales of public relations as substitutions for models/dimensions. The study proposed a measurement approach for the public relations practice. Finally, the study concluded that further research advancing the excellence scholarship is essential to better understanding the profession of public relations.Practical implicationsThis manuscript creates a measurement approach which public relations practitioners can use to plan, monitor, and evaluate public relations campaigns and ongoing programs, as well as to manage knowledge and expertise of public relations practitioners and departments, and the expectations of the dominant coalition toward the public relations unit.Originality/valueThis re‐conceptualization can finally address the criticism of the earlier models and dimensions of public relations, establish a measurement approach for the practice of public relations, as well as provide a tool that can be used by both academic and practitioners in planning, monitoring, evaluating, and managing public relations.
Knowledge sharing and innovation in Spanish and Colombian high‐tech firms
Authors: Sáenz Josune , Aramburu Nekane , Blanco Carlos E. 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to empirically test the degree of influence of different knowledge sharing mechanisms (ICT‐based, personal interaction‐based, and embedded in management processes) on innovation capability (both on ideation and on innovation project management), as well as the influence of each first‐level innovation capacity on company performance.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire was designed and addressed to the CEOs of the companies making up the target population (Spanish and Colombian medium‐high and high technology firms with more than 50 employees and R&D activities). Structural equation modelling (SEM) based on partial least squares (PLS) was then applied to test the hypotheses drawn from the research.FindingsThe results obtained show that knowledge sharing is a key issue in order to enhance innovation capability. With the exception of ICT‐based knowledge sharing mechanisms (whose influence on the generation of new ideas is not statistically significant), all types of mechanism considered exert a significant impact both on ideation and on innovation project management (although their degree of relevance varies), and account for a great deal of variance in both constructs. Differences between countries arise when it comes to the influence of each first‐level innovation capacity on company performance.Research limitations/implicationsTraditional limitations of cross‐sectional studies apply.Originality/valueThe main contribution of this paper is to provide empirical evidence about the impact of knowledge sharing on innovation. Moreover, it reveals what the most effective knowledge sharing mechanisms are for this purpose and provide companies with a basic framework in order to shape their knowledge management strategies in this domain.
Bounded awareness and tacit knowledge: revisiting Challenger disaster
Authors: J. Ajith Kumar , Chakrabarti Amaresh 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThis paper's aim is to highlight the relationship between individual tacit knowledge and bounded awareness in managerial decision making.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews pertinent literature on bounded awareness, individual tacit knowledge and decision making as well as that on the NASA Challenger disaster of 1986. The authors then build logical arguments towards three distinct propositions.FindingsThe distinct three propositions are: managers' dependence upon their existing tacit knowledge interacts with the bounds on their awareness in a cycle of positive reinforcement; different decision makers in the organization can experience differing bounds on their awareness towards the same piece of information; and the tension between experiences of success and failure influences the development of bounded awareness in individuals.Research limitations/implicationsThis study reflects on only a single case of decision‐making failure in its analyses. A variegated sample of different failures in multiple contexts might lead to finer insights.Practical implicationsThese realizations bring to the fore a paradoxical property of dependence on tacit knowledge that it can be beneficial but can sometimes be harmful. This has implications for the field of knowledge management, wherein tacit knowledge is often a central construct.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, the relationship between bounded awareness and tacit knowledge has not been explicitly discussed before. The propositions can open useful new avenues for future researchers on the antecedents of, and remedies for, bounds on managerial awareness during decision making.
Comparing young SMEs' growth determinants across regions
Authors: Federico Juan , Rabetino Rodrigo , Kantis Hugo 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThe aim of this study is to advance the understanding of firm growth determinants by comparing the factors influencing young firms' growth in 13 countries corresponding to three contrasting regions.Design/methodology/approachThe authors propose an integrated model of venture growth where entrepreneurs' profile, firm resources and market characteristics are combined. This model is tested using three OLS regressions, one corresponding to each region.FindingsThe results show that compared with the remainder two regions, the less favorable business conditions verified in Latin American countries emphasize the relevance of entrepreneurs' human capital endowments in determining business development and its further growth. On the contrary, market‐related issues and the availability of financial resources are more important in South‐East Asia and Mediterranean Europe. Team size and particularly its growth are positively associated with firm growth in all the studied regions.Practical implicationsThe results of this study confirm that a firm's growth determinants as well as their importance vary across regions. Consequently, policy interventions should take into account the specificity of each region when designing entrepreneurial policies, avoiding the adoption of “one size fits all” solutions.Originality/valueThe main contribution of this paper is twofold: first, it collects empirical evidence about young firm growth in less studied regions; second, by comparing the results for each region differential effects of several determinants of firm growth in quite contrasting contexts are discussed.
Barriers to small business growth in Canada
Authors: Gill Amarjit , Biger Nahum 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThe paper seeks to extend the findings of Okpara and Wynn and Robson and Obeng related to “barriers to small business growth” by using Canadian data.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilized survey research (a non‐experimental field study design). Small business owners from Western Canada were surveyed to gather information. Subjects were asked about their beliefs and feelings regarding barriers to growth of their small businesses. To test the hypotheses, p < 0.05 significance level was used to accept or reject a null hypothesis.FindingsThe findings of this paper indicate that lack of financing, market challenges, and regulatory issues are perceived as barriers to small business growth in Canada. The results also show that sales level of small firms (“past success”) has positive impact on small business growth in Canada.Research limitations/implicationsThis is an exploratory study to determine perceived barriers to small business growth in Canada, so the findings do not necessarily apply to other North American countries. The present study asks for responses from fixed format, set‐questions survey tools, which could exclude additional factors.Originality/valueThe findings may be useful for the Canadian governments and small business management advisors.
Promoting health in small and medium‐sized enterprises
Authors: Williams Sharon J. , Snow Dawn M. 
Published: November 2012

PurposeWorkplaces are described as “excellent” locations for promoting health as many employees spend more time here than in other locations, yet, many organisations overlook this opportunity. This paper seeks to examine the inhibitors and enablers that small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) face when promoting health within their workplaces. Previous research within workplace health promotion has largely focused on large, often multi‐national organisations.Design/methodology/approachA descriptive qualitative approach was adopted which involved interviewing health‐promotion champions/co‐ordinators within five SMEs located in south Wales in the UK. A thematic content analysis was undertaken and key themes identified.FindingsThe results identify key enablers to participating in health‐promotion programmes as being an external facilitator and the appointment of an internal health champion/co‐ordinator. The main inhibitors were resources, time and the longevity of the external support funded by a government initiative.Practical implicationsThe paper identifies the enablers and barriers to SMEs promoting workplace health. An adaptation of a framework is provided to assist SME owner/managers to promote workplace health.Originality/valueFew studies have examined the workplace health promoting activities of SMEs and particularly the role of externally supported programmes. This paper fills some of the gaps.
Approaches to personality disordered offenders: experiential and empirical lessons from the Forensic Personality Disorder Assessment and Liaison Service
Authors: Nathan Rajan , Cramond Laura , Brown Andrew , McEllin Bernadette , Whittington Richard 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThe profile of personality disorder in forensic clinical practice has been raised by key developments over the last decade, although services remain in the large part piecemeal and disconnected. This paper aims to describe the lessons learnt from the development of one specialist service for personality disordered offenders.Design/methodology/approachThe policy context in which the service was developed, the challenges of working in this area, and data relating to the clinical and risk profile of referred cases are presented.FindingsData demonstrate extensive comorbidity and heterogeneity amongst those referred to the service. With reference to the experience gained in the first four years of the service, it is suggested that a systematic and formalised model of “understanding” the psychology of the individual should be the core process of future developments for this group of offenders, and subsequently recommendations are made to enhance the practical utility of such formulations rate.Research limitations/implicationsConclusions are mostly based on expert opinion and upon one particular service provision, and therefore care should be exercised in generalising the results of this study to existing services. The need for further research in order to enhance knowledge and understanding of this complex group is highlighted.Practical implicationsThe heterogeneity and comorbidity within this group of offenders emphasises the need for services to offer a range of assessment methods and interventions to meet individuals' requirements.Originality/valueThe experiences and recommendations in this paper are valuable to professionals working with personality disordered offenders and to the development of more extensive services for such individuals.
OGIR: an ontology‐based grid information retrieval framework
Authors: Hung Chihli , Tsai Chih‐Fong , Hung Shin‐Yuan , Ku Chang‐Jiang 
Published: November 2012

PurposeA grid information retrieval model has benefits for sharing resources and processing mass information, but cannot handle conceptual heterogeneity without integration of semantic information. The purpose of this research is to propose a concept‐based retrieval mechanism to catch the user's query intentions in a grid environment. This research re‐ranks documents over distributed data sources and evaluates performance based on the user judgment and processing time.Design/methodology/approachThis research uses the ontology lookup service to build the concept set in the ontology and captures the user's query intentions as a means of query expansion for searching. The Globus toolkit is used to implement the grid service. The modification of the collection retrieval inference (CORI) algorithm is used for re‐ranking documents over distributed data sources.FindingsThe experiments demonstrate that this proposed approach successfully describes the user's query intentions evaluated by user judgment. For processing time, building a grid information retrieval model is a suitable strategy for the ontology‐based retrieval model.Originality/valueMost current semantic grid models focus on construction of the semantic grid, and do not consider re‐ranking search results from distributed data sources. The significance of evaluation from the user's viewpoint is also ignored. This research proposes a method that captures the user's query intentions and re‐ranks documents in a grid based on the CORI algorithm. This proposed ontology‐based retrieval mechanism calculates the global relevance score of all documents in a grid and displays those documents with higher relevance to users.
Online recruitment information as an indicator to appraise enterprise performance
Authors: Wang Bo , Guo Xiaojun 
Published: November 2012

PurposeFraudulent financial statements and the manipulation of stock prices can seriously affect investors' judgment of company performance, especially in stock markets in emerging economies. Apart from financial reports, which run the risk of being misreported, are there any other information sources that the public can trust when it comes to the truth about a company's performance? The purpose of this paper is to address this issue by assessing the correlation between online recruitment information and company performance and provide investors with a new framework to assist them in making decisions and to identify fraud.Design/methodology/approachThe research extracted the recruitment information of normal and fraudulent companies separately from the internet by employing techniques of natural language processing, opinion mining and competitive intelligence. A statistical tool was then used to study whether there is a difference in the correlation between the recruitment information intensity (RII) and the annually averaged stock price (AASP) of normal and fraudulent firms.FindingsThe experiments showed that recruitment information intensity is significantly correlated to company's stock performance for normal firms, which indicates that the company's recruitment activities are consistent with their performance. But for fraudulent companies, the fact that the result is quite the opposite may imply that the RII discloses the truth when managers make misreports.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that the intensity of a company's recruitment information is a valuable element for investors in evaluating the firm, and it also can be used as a reliable tool to assist in identifying fraudulent companies.Originality/valueThis paper provided a novel way for the public to break information barriers to reach the truth of companies' performance and avoid misleading fraudulent finance statements. It is also a useful application of natural language processing techniques.
Learning to lead the knowledgeable organization: developing leadership agility
Authors: McKenzie Jane , Aitken Paul 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThis paper seeks to identify how leadership can positively influence knowledge work and to explore which leadership practices need to be developed to support organisational learning and agility in the face of continuous change.Design/methodology/approachThe thinking combines a long history of leadership and change management advice and 12 years of knowledge management research with the insights from a collaborative research project involving 14 large organisations that are members of the Henley KM Forum.FindingsThe result is a framework of 12 leadership agility practices specifically focused on creating conducive conditions for knowledge sharing, learning, engagement and collaboration.Practical implicationsThose responsible for leadership development in the knowledgeable organisation could use this as a well‐grounded starting point for designing learning programs. Leaders in key roles can use it as a gauge for self‐assessment to identify development needs or reflect on how to change their approach when things are not working.Originality/valueThe 12 practices are complementary and mutually supportive. They focus on remedying potential causes of “dis‐ease” in learning and change, caused by the most frequently occurring conflicts and tensions in organisational life.
Ethical implications of the mediatization of organizations
Authors: Litschka Michael , Karmasin Matthias 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to give theoretical and empirical arguments for new forms of communication and structure of organizations within the media and information society. Organizations must legitimate their “licence to operate” through social discourses and stakeholder communication. Possibilities to institutionalize ethics within organizations and possible barriers to such a programme are analysed.Design/methodology/approachFirst, some theoretical arguments as to why mediatisation challenges organizations to prove ethical commitment are depicted, using a rights‐based and social contract approach. Second, empirical examples for structural and communicational barriers in Austrian companies show possible practical constraints.FindingsTheoretical findings refer to the usefulness of applying business ethical models (especially rights‐based, and social contract models) to reorganize mediatised organizations. Empirical findings concern the lack of institutionalized ethics management in companies and the corresponding problem of “PR‐style” communication instead of stakeholder discourses.Research limitations/implicationsThe research reported in one section of the paper relies on the qualitative survey of 14 experts in different branches of the Austrian economy. While interviews can give a picture on how respondents understand the relevant research question and construct the respective reality, they are far from providing a representative picture of communicative ethical problems in mediatised organizations.Practical implicationsPractical consequences should be possible, if companies understand the mediatised and communicative nature of their relationship with society and stakeholders and therefore react to that challenge by building up reputation through ethics management.Originality/valueThe paper gives new insights to the important relationship between organizations and the public and shows how, e.g. enterprises can legitimate their business models and secure their long‐term existence. New empirical research concerns cases from Austrian companies.
Technophilia, neo‐Luddism, eDependency and the judgement of Thamus
Authors: Coulthard Darryl , Keller Susan 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to reflect on society's relationship with technology and particularly our increasing dependence on electronic technology – so‐called eDependency. The paper argues that technology is not neutral and we must engage with the moral issues that arise from our relationship with it.Design/methodology/approachSociety's relationship with technology is examined through the lens of Socrates' consideration of the technology of writing. It identifies “technophilia” as a major theme in society and “neo‐Luddism” as the Socrates‐like examination of the benefits of technology.FindingsWhile rejecting both technology determinism and technology presentism the paper argues technology is not neutral and does afford social change within a particular social ecology. The authors suggest that ultimately the use of all technology, including the technology underpinning eDependency, leads to important moral questions which deserve considered debate. The paper concludes by arguing that the Information Systems (IS) discipline should take the mantle of King Thamus and that the study of these issues should become a key concern for the discipline.Originality/valueIn an age of technophilia, this paper calls considered debate on the moral issues that arise from our relationship with technology, how it is appropriated, to whose benefit, and how we change it and will be changed by it.
The international performance of standardizing and customizing Spanish firms
Authors: Almodóvar Paloma 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThis paper aims to shed new light on the multinationality‐performance debate by examining the performance of standardizing versus customizing firms from Spain.Design/methodology/approachThe reasons for variations in performance of exporting firms build on the industrial organization and resource‐based views of strategy, which are shown to be linked to the integration (standardization) versus responsiveness (customization) framework of international business. The paper also incorporates the Uppsala model and the home region nature of international business activity. It develops hypotheses for both standardizing and customizing paths of international expansion for exporting firms. The paper uses the Survey on Business Strategies which has the support of the Ministry of Industry of Spain. This databank collects data of a representative sample of the Spanish manufacturing sector. The paper uses fixed‐effects regression models for the period 2000‐2008.FindingsThe paper provides evidence on how firms with a strategy of product standardization follow an M curve‐fourth degree polynomial relationship between the degree of internationalization (DOI) and performance. In contrast, product customization firms are observed to follow an inverted M curve relationship. Furthermore, by using both models, an appropriate level of internationalization can be suggested.Originality/valueThe paper provides theoretical and empirical support for the different relationships of standardizing and customizing firms when expanding abroad. This paper is one of the first to find empirical support for an M curve relationship between the DOI and performance, and certainly is the first one testing and corroborating an inverted M curve.