bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Competitive advantage, what does it really mean in the context of public higher education institutions?
Authors: de Haan Haijing Helen 
Published: January 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to critically investigate the discourse on “competitive advantage”, a concept that has been widely applied in the public higher education sector, but rarely defined and conceptualised.Design/methodology/approach– In order to get some insightful understanding about how “competitive advantage” is actually manifested in the life and activities of public higher education institutions (PHEIs), it is necessary to obtain data about the perceptions held by education practitioners in different sub-sectors and at various job function levels. In total, 73 interviews at 16 Dutch PHEIs were conducted in the period of 2009-2011.Findings– By studying the diversified meanings, 13 elements were identified in constructing the competitive advantages sought by PHEIs, and, more importantly the significance of each element is rated and ranked. Furthermore, this research discovered that the research universities and universities of applied sciences perceive this concept differently; also, the practitioners holding different job functions gave divergent meanings to this term. The clarification of this container concept “competitive advantage” leads to the conclusion that the business way of defining “competitive advantage” should be critically reviewed and verified in the context of the public higher education sector.Research limitations/implications– This study used just two parameters for the selection of individual respondents: their job function and the length of their working experience. Further studies that adopt different selection parameters are, therefore, encouraged as offering the potential to further enrich our knowledge about how competitive advantage is perceived and put into practice. It is hoped that the findings from this research offer some guidance in developing a framework for such further studies.Practical implications– The sectorial differences revealed by this study can help research universities and universities of applied sciences design their competitive strategies more suitable with their specific characteristics. The job function level differences shown by the research findings can help institutions to identify and close the gaps between the central level and faculty level in their strategic planning and implementation.Originality/value– The clarification of the container concept “competitive advantage” is unique in the current educational management literature, particularly in both qualitative and quantitative ways. The comparisons between two institutional types and two job function levels may help PHEIs to effectively design competitive strategies according to their specific institutional characteristics and by understanding the gaps between the central and faculty level.
The student-customer orientation questionnaire (SCOQ)
Authors: Koris Riina , Nokelainen Petri 
Published: January 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to study Bayesian dependency modelling (BDM) to validate the model of educational experiences and the student-customer orientation questionnaire (SCOQ), and to identify the categories of educatonal experience in which students expect a higher educational institutions (HEI) to be student-customer oriented.

Design/methodology/approach
– This paper employs a cross-sectional quantitative survey study, mixed methods research, exploratory factor analysis and BDM.

Findings
– The validated model of educational experiences and the SCOQ; results indicate that students expect to be treated as customers in some, but not all categories of educational experience.

Research limitations/implications
– The authors contribute to existing literature on two fronts: the validated model of educational experiences and the categories of educational experience in which students expect to be treated as customers.

Practical implications
– The validated SCOQ presented in the paper may be used by other HEIs to assess the degree to which students expect a particular HEI to be customer oriented. Also, HEIs should assess students’ expectations concerning student-customer orientation before employing such an approach.

Originality/value
– The paper presents a validated model of educational experiences and a SCOQ. Additionally, the study does not investigate whether students expect a HEI as such to be student-customer oriented (as most studies have done so far); instead, the aim is to find out whether, in which categories of educational experience and to what extent students expect a HEI to be student-customer oriented. Thus, the study explores the phenomenon of student-customer orientation at a deeper level, i.e. separately at the level of educational experiences.
Open innovation and knowledge networking in a multinational corporation
Authors: Schneckenberg Dirk 
Published: January 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to inquire how large multinational firms can develop and implement knowledge-sharing measures that move their corporate strategy towards the open innovation paradigm, since open innovation becomes increasingly important as source for competitive advantage.

Design/methodology/approach
– We review the literature on open innovation and combine it with a single case study of one multinational firm that is gradually implementing its open innovation strategy. We pay special attention to the development and usage of a collaborative IS infrastructure that is deployed to create a culture of openness and to support knowledge networking amongst the workforce.

Findings
– The in-depth case study demonstrates that managers have to balance a complex interplay of human and IT components to make open innovation happen. Measures taken to foster openness and knowledge exchange inside the firm include developing managerial innovation capabilities, creating communities and networks around strategic topics and leveraging the adoption of the collaborative IS infrastructure through piloting use of cases in innovation projects.

Research limitations/implications
– The findings of this case study remain limited to the characteristics of large firms in multinational markets.

Practical implications
– This article offers valuable insights for corporate strategists, IT specialists and change managers who want to open up corporate innovation. We present a range of institutional measures that help to overcome silo mentalities and knowledge-sharing barriers and establish an open innovation culture within large firms operating in multinational markets.

Originality/value
– Complementing previous research, this article highlights how large firms can use a combination of strategic, cultural and technological measures to bring open innovation from strategic vision to organisation-wide reality. We identify in addition factors which either inhibit or foster the implementation of knowledge sharing and open innovation practices inside large firms.
The supplier perspective: forging strong partnerships with buyers
Authors: Roloff Julia , Aßländer Michael S. , Zamantili Nayir Dilek 
Published: January 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to identify three commonly observed mistakes made when managing suppliers and describe factors that contribute to successful buyer–supplier partnerships.

Design/methodology/approach
– Five extensive case studies in the automotive and clothing industry, as well as cases discussed in the literature, are analysed.

Findings
– Barriers to successful partnerships are a too strong emphasis on cost cutting and a too controlling management approach on the part of the buyer, and the abuse of insider knowledge for faking performances on the side of the supplier. Open communication, willingness to engage in mutual learning and encouraging innovations are observed in successful partnerships.

Research limitations/implications
– A limited number of case studies in the German automotive industry and the Turkish clothing industry are used. Both industries are subject to significant change which means that generalisations should be made with caution. Therefore, we discuss only problems and solutions that have also been identified in studies conducted in other industries and/or countries.

Practical implications
– Managers learn how to best manage partnerships with suppliers and what mistakes to avoid.

Social implications
– Partnerships aiming at improving working conditions are discussed. Findings and recommendations help managers improve their corporate social performance in the supply chain.

Originality/value
– Partnerships are approached from the perspective of the supplier to identify commonly made mistakes and successful practices of buyers.
Measuring intellectual capital in a firm belonging to a strategic alliance
Authors: Veltri Stefania , Venturelli Andrea , Mastroleo Giovanni 
Published: January 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to propose a method to measure intellectual capital (IC) in firms involved in strategic alliances, an area that has received scant attention in the literature, as existing research is focused mainly on organizational level mainly and increasingly on macro-level unit such as regions or nations. There are very few works at the meso-level (i.e. alliances, clusters), and the paper aims to fill this void, by providing researchers and practitioners with a tool capable of combining measurement and management aims, developed at organizational level with the active participation of the researchers.Design/methodology/approach– The method of analysis is based on a model formalized through a fuzzy expert system (FES). The FES are able to merge the capabilities of an expert system to simulate the decision-making process with the vagueness typical of human reasoning, maintaining the ability to still have a numeric value as a response. Its construction requires the participation of experts, whose knowledge of the problem is accumulated in the form of blocks of rules. These features make it possible to formalize the decision-making process related to the IC valuation, handling qualitative and quantitative variables, and exploring the cognitive mechanisms underlying this process.Findings– The outcome of the application is a system designed to measure the intangible performance deriving from participation in a strategic alliance using FES. This study contributes to the broadening of the research community’s understanding regarding the alternative measurement of IC created within strategic alliances.Research limitations/implications– To the best of the authors’ knowledge, IC literature lacks methods expressly designed to measure the incremental value of IC originating from collaboration among firms. From a measurement perspective, the results may be regarded as valuable proof that IC performance within strategic alliances can be measured quantitatively.Practical implications– On the management side, the possibility of retracing the determinants of different IC intermediate indicators composing the final IC index allows strategic alliances managers to use this information for decision-making purposes.Originality/value– To the best of the authors’ knowledge this is the first study applying FES to measure IC in a firm belonging to a strategic alliance. In the authors’ opinion, fuzzy logic methodology, recently applied in empirical work designed to evaluate IC, represents a reliable methodology because of the “fuzzy” nature of IC.
Using the Diversity Impact Navigator to move from interventions towards diversity management strategies
Authors: Wondrak Manfred , Segert Astrid 
Published: January 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to study current problems of implementing Diversity Management (DM) in businesses and presents a concept for measuring and estimating a value for diversity interventions.

Design/methodology/approach
– An intellectual capital approach is used to identify a matrix of problems while implementing DM. To address the accounting problem for DM, advantages and disadvantages of the Diversity Scorecard are discussed and issues that require further conceptual development are identified.

Findings
– Understanding DM as a part of intellectual capital helps solve accounting problems. The tests of the concept of Diversity Impact Navigator show that measuring DM at this stage requires a simple design, that using key indicators forces diversity interventions and that the process of valuation increases the understanding of DM by all stakeholders and thus its economic legitimation.

Originality/value
– A newly developed concept helps solve the problem of measurement and valuation of DM. The paper presents the first test results.
Determinants of mutual fund flows
Authors: Kopsch Fredrik , Song Han-Suck , Wilhelmsson Mats 
Published: January 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to study the determinants of aggregate fund flows to both equity and hybrid mutual funds. The authors test three hypotheses that help explaining the relationship between mutual fund flows and stock market returns, namely; the feedback-trader hypothesis, the price-pressure hypothesis, and the information-response hypothesis.

Design/methodology/approach
– The study relies on Swedish quarterly data on mutual fund flows over the period 1998-2013. The methodology is twofold; through the structural models (AR(1)) the authors can say something regarding the relationship between mutual fund flows and financial macro variables. The analysis is further strengthened by utilizing a vector autoregressive model to test for Granger causality in order to determine the order of events.

Findings
– Similar to both Warther (1995) and Jank (2012), the authors only find support for the information-response hypothesis. Additionally, the authors find new financial variables that have predictive power in determining mutual fund flows, namely; market fear (VIX), exchange rate, households’ expectation regarding inflation as well as outflows from mutual bond funds.

Originality/value
– The study contributes to the body of literature in three ways. First, it complements recent findings on determinants of mutual fund flows but the authors also add to the knowledge by included new macro financial variables describing the real economy. Second, the authors include a few additional variables. Third, the vast majority of previous studies have used US data, the authors add to that a deeper understanding of determinants of mutual fund flows in smaller economies by using Swedish data.
Lender evaluations of start-up business prospects
Authors: Miettinen Marika , Niskanen Mervi 
Published: January 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate lender evaluations of start-up success in a sample of Finnish firms that are customers of a state-owned financial institution. The database allows the authors to examine how qualitative information, based on the personal history, firm-specific characteristics, subjective credit-analyst evaluations of business prospects, and market position impact firm performance.Design/methodology/approach– The data for this study was collected in 2003 and 2005 from the database of Finnvera, a state-owned financial institution. The authors employed logistic regression in the analyses, usingt-test analyses to describe the sample before developing the different models.Findings– The results suggest that the lenders’ evaluations of the business prospects at the start are suitable predictors of good performance. However, the determinants of the actual firm performance (att5) and business prospects (att0) are, to some extent, different. The results confirm previous findings indicating that humans display fallibility because they have a tendency to overestimate less relevant cues and, conversely, underestimate the more relevant ones.Research limitations/implications– The study data includes only the customers of a state-owned financial institution; therefore, the results cannot be generalized across other financiers. Another constraint relates to the pre-selection bias, since this data excludes information on loan applicants who were rejected, which was not recorded in the lender’s files.Practical implications– The findings of this study provide lenders (especially state-owned financiers), policy makers, and entrepreneurs with clearer guidance regarding the important aspects of a firm’s period of establishment. For lenders, this may provide a step toward improving the quality of judgments.Originality/value– This paper is one of the few that sheds light on lender evaluations using non-accounting variables in order to examine their ability to predict firm performance, not failure, and to compare it with lenders’ evaluation. Another original contribution is that the data consists of the customers of a state-owned financial institution.
Role of phenolic acids and enzymes of phenylpropanoid pathway in resistance of chayote fruit (Sechium edule) against infestation by melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae
Authors: Shivashankar S. , Sumathi M. , Krishnakumar N.K. , Rao V.K. 
Published: January 2015

AbstractMelon fly is a serious pest of cucurbits all over the world causing huge losses to yield. However, the only exception is the chayote fruit (Sechium edule) that shows resistance to melon fly infestation. Studies on culture of melon fly indicated the absence of plant traits resisting oviposition on chayote fruit. However, the melon fly was unable to complete its life cycle successfully on chayote showing that factors inhibiting larval development in melon fly could be attributed to biochemical constituents. Studies were, therefore, carried out to compare the biochemical responses of chayote, a melon fly resistant species and bitter gourd, a susceptible species to melon fly infestation with regard to the levels of phenolic acids and activities of the enzymes of phenylpropanoid pathway (PPP) leading to synthesis of lignin. The resistant chayote exhibited significantly higher accumulation of lignin associated with higher activities of phenylalanine ammonia‐lyase (PAL), tyrosine ammonia‐lyase (TAL), cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD) and peroxidase (POD). On the contrary, the susceptible bitter gourd recorded lower activities of PAL, CAD and POD and a decreasing trend of TAL during infestation associated with a lower lignin content. The monomer composition of lignin in the resistant chayote showed twofold higher level of guaiacyl (G) and syringyl (S) units compared to susceptible bitter gourd and the G/S ratio during infestation increased in chayote while decreasing in bitter gourd. The levels of PPP intermediates, p‐coumaric acid was higher in chayote while p‐hydroxy benzoic acid, a chemo‐attractant, was higher in bitter gourd. Incorporation of p‐coumaric acid in the larval diet strongly inhibited larval growth even as p‐hydroxy benzoic acid promoted growth confirming the direct role of p‐coumaric acid in conferring resistance to chayote. The level of salicylic acid, a signal molecule involved in induction of defence response, was higher in chayote compared to bitter gourd. Chayote also exhibited higher level of activity of POD in the phloem exudates compared to bitter gourd. The higher concentration of sugars in exudates of chayote might act like signalling molecules causing activation of plant genes, especially of the phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway and possibly produce an osmotic effect inducing resistance against the melon fly. Thus, the study revealed that the resistance in chayote to melon fly infestation is a complex, multi‐layered process in which the activities of PPP enzymes generating phenolic intermediates leading to lignin biosynthesis and the composition of exudates appear to play significant roles. Besides, the study also indicated that different forms of lignin might play a role in the resistance of chayote against melon fly infestation.
What Does Remediation and Probation Status Mean? A Survey of Emergency Medicine Residency Program Directors
Authors: Weizberg Moshe , Smith Jessica L. , Murano Tiffany , Silverberg Mark , Santen Sally A. 
Published: January 2015

AbstractObjectivesEmergency medicine (EM) residency program directors (PDs) nationwide place residents on remediation and probation. However, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the EM PDs have not defined these terms, and individual institutions must set guidelines defining a change in resident status from good standing to remediation or probation. The primary objective of this study was to determine if EM PDs follow a common process to guide actions when residents are placed on remediation and probation.MethodsAn anonymous electronic survey was distributed to EM PDs via e‐mail using SurveyMonkey to determine the current practice followed after residents are placed on remediation or probation. The survey queried four designations: informal remediation, formal remediation, informal probation, and formal probation. These designations were compared for deficits in the domains of medical knowledge (MK) and non‐MK remediation. The survey asked what process for designation exists and what actions are triggered, specifically if documentation is placed in a resident's file, if the graduate medical education (GME) office is notified, if faculty are informed, or if resident privileges are limited. Descriptive data are reported.ResultsEighty‐one of 160 PDs responded. An official policy on remediation and/or probation was reported by 41 (50.6%) programs. The status of informal remediation is used by 73 (90.1%), 80 (98.8%) have formal remediation, 40 (49.4%) have informal probation, and 79 (97.5%) have formal probation. There was great variation among PDs in the management and definition of remediation and probation. Between 81 and 86% of programs place an official letter into the resident's file regarding formal remediation and probation. However, only about 50% notify the GME office when a resident is placed on formal remediation. There were no statistical differences between MK and non‐MK remediation practices.ConclusionsThere is significant variation among EM programs regarding the process of remediation and probation. The definition of these terms and the actions triggered are variable across programs. Based on these findings, suggestions toward a standardized approach for remediation and probation in GME programs are provided.
Confucianism, Moral Equality, and Human Rights: A Mencian Perspective
Authors: Kim Sungmoon 
Published: January 2015

AbstractThis paper attempts to show the compatibility between Confucianism and human rights, first by revisiting the moral philosophy of Mencius, a key founder of the Confucian tradition, then by reconstructing the Mencian‐Confucian idea of human rights from the perspective of his moral philosophy. One of my central claims is that not only did Mencius acknowledge core human rights—socioeconomic as well as civil‐political—justified by his foundational faith in universal moral equality and human dignity, but he further understood the right to subsistence as an essential part of Confucian‐constitutional rights. Contrary to the widely received notion that in Mencian‐Confucianism the right to subsistence has an overriding value vis‐a‐vis civil‐political rights, I argue that Mencius (and Confucians in general for that matter) never stipulated such a lexical ranking among rights. I conclude by discussing how the type of Confucian moral reasoning that Mencius employs in justifying the moral value of human rights can be re‐appropriated to produce Confucian rights suitable for today.… … … … … …