bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
BPM capability development – a matter of contingencies
Authors: Niehaves Bjoern , Poeppelbuss Jens , Plattfaut Ralf , Becker Joerg 
Published: January 2014

Purpose
– Business process management (BPM) is a key concept in information systems (IS) research that helps to connect business strategy with the use of technology in an organization. Contemporary BPM research is no longer only about methods, procedures, or tools for managing or modeling processes but about assessing and developing BPM capability in organizations. For this purpose, a vast collection of maturity models has been designed by practitioners and scholars alike. Such models are used to assess the status quo and benchmark it against other organizations, and, most important, to guide the development of BPM capability. With this study, the paper challenges the maturity model perspective of such development models.

Design/methodology/approach
– In this study, methods of qualitative IS research are employed to address the research objectives.

Findings
– The paper shows that maturity model-based guidance would be inadequate. Instead, other concept-external factors resulting from organizational and environmental characteristics appear to be important indicators. The theory discussion introduces alternative takes on BPM capability development, lays out implications for BPM practice, and presents potentially fruitful paths for future research in the area of BPM capability development.

Originality/value
– This paper challenges the current perspectives and contributes a new direction for conceptualizing BPM capability development.
Moving in, moving on: liminality practices in project-based work
Authors: Borg Elisabeth , Söderlund Jonas 
Published: January 2014

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the practices mobile project workers rely upon to deal with their liminal work situation, i.e. a work situation in which they are “in-between” and do not have a clear long-term belonging to any specific organisation or project.Design/methodology/approach– The study employs a qualitative approach and draws upon in-depth interviews with 24 engineers working for one of Scandinavia's leading technical consultancies. The aim of the qualitative data analysis was to identify a set of commonalities and differences in their experiences and ways of dealing with liminality.Findings– The data indicate that mobile project workers experience their liminality in two separate dimensions; one which is primarily technical and task related, and one that is predominantly group related and social. These types of liminality are dealt with either actively, to lower or handle the ambiguity in the situation, or passively when the individual waits for the situation to be dealt with by others. Based on these two dimensions and types, the paper identifies and discusses four kinds of liminality practices.Research limitations/implications– The paper demonstrates the importance of focusing on individuals in project-based work, and specifically how they deal with work in-between. The paper shows when and how individuals make use of different liminality practices in their work, and calls for further research on the different skill sets and competencies that are needed to deal with liminality.Originality/value– By identifying four liminality practices applied in situations signified by the experience of being in-between, this study offers an important contribution to the literature on flexible and mobile work conditions. Thus, the paper contributes to the knowledge of threshold-like employment positions that denotes the everyday work situation for an increasing number of individuals engaged in knowledge-intensive and project-based work.
Boosting customer orientation through coaching: a Canadian study
Authors: Pousa Claudio , Mathieu Anne 
Published: January 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent bank manager's coaching, a managerial relationship behavior based on mutual trust, openness and quality of exchanges, affects front-line employee's performance through the mediating effect of salesperson's customer orientation.

Design/methodology/approach
– The paper conducted a non-experimental, cross-sectional study; a Canadian bank agreed to participate in the study and 122 financial advisors with sales responsibilities answered a web-based survey; data were analyzed using structural equation modelling.

Findings
– The paper found support for the hypotheses that managerial coaching behavior can help bank employees develop their customer orientation and increase their performance, as well as reduce opportunistic behavior (sales orientation). The paper found that the direct link between coaching and performance, plus the mediating effect of sales orientation and customer orientation (SOCO) can potentially explain a significant variation in employee's performance (r2=0.23). The paper also found that the hypothesized model provided better explanations of the phenomenon when compared with two rival models, one considering SOCO as a full mediator between coaching and performance, and the other one considering only the effect of coaching on performance.

Originality/value
– In the banking sector, practitioners and scholars are paying increased attention to the role of trust and relationship behaviors in the development of market orientation and customer relationships. The paper identified a key relationship behavior (customer orientation) and tests its impact as a mediator between a relationship managerial behavior (coaching) and business outcomes (performance) in an international banking setting (Canada).
Financial giants and moral pygmies?
Authors: Li Shaomin , Gaur Ajai 
Published: January 2014

Purpose– How should a multinational corporation (MNC) from a mature democracy deal with the human rights issues in a country with a poor human rights standard? The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach– The authors develop a mathematical model to depict MNC's behavior in response to human rights violations in the host country.Findings– The authors show that, first, in a country with a high level of human rights abuses, a firm will have to lower its human rights standards to survive; but, second, a collective effort by all firms is essential to improve the human rights conditions in the host environment; and third, a firm's human rights practices may have a multiplicative effect that can significantly affect the momentum of human rights development in a host country.Originality/value– This study is one of the first attempts to provide a theoretical framework on the issue of MNCs and human rights in host countries.
Qualitative productivity analysis: does a non-financial measurement model exist?
Authors: Teng Harold Siow Song 
Published: January 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to highlight the fact that a common universal qualitative model of measurement is lacking in global productivity analysis. International quantitative comparisons of country macro-level measurements of productivity have been available in the world for decades. However, there has been no consensus on what exactly constitute the indicators and measures of productivity with a focus on quality.

Design/methodology/approach
– Through literature review and analysis, a new conceptual qualitative productivity measurement model is being suggested. This model could become the basis for future research undertakings in productivity studies.

Findings
– This paper finds that there are differences in the definitions of what constitute productivity at the global level and what measurements could be considered to make productivity studies more quantitative as well as qualitative at the same time.

Originality/value
– This paper aims to bring about further discussions for a general agreement on what factors constitute a more well-balanced qualitative as well as quantitative productivity measurement model.
Hand-held computers to increase accuracy and productivity in agricultural work study
Authors: Bechar Avital , Eben-Chaime Moshe 
Published: January 2014

Purpose
– Labor is the largest single cost contributor in agriculture. Accurate estimation of labor requirements is, thus, a key to cost reduction. Work measurement is the professional discipline for this type of estimations, in the industrial engineering domain. Horticulture, however, lays a substantial barrier to work and, thus, to work measurement. Till harvesting, its products – fruits/flowers, are in fixed positions, and for all tasks the workers have to arrive at the plant. The purpose of this paper is to develop, test and analyze a system to perform horticultural work study in agricultural environments in order to accurately estimate the required amount of labor for each activity and to improve productivity.

Design/methodology/approach
– In this paper, the development of an advanced system for work study on a hand-held computer (HHC) platform for horticultural work measurement is presented and an experimental study was conducted. The methodology consists of characteristics of the system platform including hardware, interface and software, development of a dedicated measuring software, a controlled experiment in agricultural environment and a statistical analysis.

Findings
– The study shows that a single surveyor who uses traditional tools is subject to measurement errors, which can be reduced only with the assistance of a second surveyor. The study further shows that the HHC platform enables to avoid this second surveyor – a single surveyor who uses the HHC platform performs as accurate as two surveyors who use traditional tools. Of course, being computers, the HHC platform maintains the advantage of error free data transfer, in practically negligible time.

Originality/value
– This paper presents a unique approach to perform work study in agricultural environment and contributes to minimize the errors accumulated in the process and the manpower required to perform the measurements.
Haiti'scaisses populaires: home-grown solutions to bring economic democracy
Authors: S. Hossein Caroline 
Published: January 2014

Purpose– Bad governance and corrupt politics have left millions of people disenfranchised. In spite of an oppressive and undemocratic state, poor Haitians have created their own informal groups, cooperatives andcaisses populaires(credit union) movements – a testimony to the democratic spirit of the poor masses. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach– A mixed qualitative study using interviews, surveys, focus groups, ethnography techniques and literature review.Findings– Lenders who run thecaisses populairesare not class or race biased; they understand how to make microfinance assist the marginalized poor in a society segregated by class and race. Cooperatives and credit unions (calledcaisses populairesin Haiti) are able to reach hundreds of thousands of people.Originality/value– These lenders one or two generations removed from the people they serve understand their reality and take careful steps and plan in a way to ensure their loans are structured to be socially inclusive. In fact, black microfinance lenders, as well as whitened local elites and foreigners, have a socially conscious philosophy of using microfinance as a vehicle to ensure economic democracy for the masses. In doing this, they take personal risks. Theti machannsrecognize these efforts and as a result trust these credit programs.
Measuring blog service innovation in social media services
Authors: Yang Ming-Hsien , Weng Sung-Shun , Hsiao Pei-I 
Published: January 2014

Purpose– Blog is a web-based social activity that has become mainstream media. The purpose of this paper is to develope a measurement instrument for assessing blog service innovation, which social media services providers and bloggers can use to promote blog functions and to ensure high quality blog services.Design/methodology/approach– The study adopted both qualitative and quantitative research methods and performed four steps of scale development, including item generation and item pooling, pretest and initial purification, scale refinement, and scale validation and critical item analysis.Findings– From a user-oriented service perspective, the major findings of the study were the 18 measurement items for blog service innovation scale (BLOG-S-INNO scale), which was derived from the innovative blog cognition of blog users. One critical factor in the BLOG-S-INNO scale was further identified to effectively predict outcomes of blog service innovation in social media services.Research limitations/implications– Management at social media services providers can apply the BLOG-S-INNO scale as a diagnostic tool to assess organizational innovation capabilities in relation to blog services, and to link their innovation strategies with the innovation experiences of bloggers improving bloggers’ affection. The findings of this study also make it possible to offer recommendations to help bloggers improve service innovation to increase the experience and preference of blog browsers.Originality/value– The study used qualitative research methods to construct a pool of items for measuring blog service innovation. Furthermore, the paper conducted quantitative research methods to develop a new blog service innovation scale and analyzed the key indicators of blog service innovation.
The effects of own- and other-prior entry modes in the internationalization of Japanese multinational companies in the electronic sector
Authors: Henrique Ogasavara Mario 
Published: January 2014

Purpose– This paper goes above and beyond the prior research on entry mode by considering the organizational approach and examines entry mode selection between wholly-owned subsidiaries and joint venture by taking into account the existence of different types of joint ventures. In this way, this paper seeks to investigate whether or not a relationship exists between the first entry strategy decision of a particular firm and the prior foreign market entries made by other firms. Moreover, considering that foreign market entry is not a one-time decision, this study analyses whether or not prior entry in a particular country has influence on the choice of repeated entries in the same country.Design/methodology/approach– This paper uses data of 1,470 subsidiaries established by Japanese electronics firms in 64 countries. The propositions are tested by applying a statisticalt-test to compare the mean differences between the analyzed cases.Findings– The findings revealed the legitimacy effect on the entry mode selection. Firms tend to follow the prior entry strategies of its rivals in the case of first time investors, while for subsequent investments, both prior entries made by the parent firm and competitors have great influence on the market access in a particular country. It suggests that the effect of market competition cannot be neglected when examining entry mode selection. Furthermore, there is a need to consider entry strategy as a dynamic rather than a static decision-making process.Originality/value– The findings from this study are useful for scholars interested in advancing the knowledge on entry mode strategies of multinational companies.
Cross market price support and agricultural development
Authors: J. Verteramo Chiu Leslie , G. Turvey Calum 
Published: January 2014

Purpose
– This paper aims to develop a market-driven mechanism for commodity price insurance in developing countries lacking access to futures markets or other forms of hedging products.

Design/methodology/approach
– The model incorporates futures, exchange rate and local basis risk under the Black-Scholes framework to develop quanto (quantity adjusting option). When the domestic price of a commodity in a developing country is strongly correlated to the price in a futures market, price support premiums can be estimated. The authors use daily corn futures prices, exchange rate MXP/USD, and prices of corn and sorghum at several locations in Mexico.

Findings
– The authors calculated the price insurance premium at various local markets in Mexico for corn and sorghum. The results are consistent with those for the USA, showing that relative price premiums are similar.

Research limitations/implications
– The results provide a benchmark to estimate the net welfare effects of government programs for agricultural price support.

Practical implications
– The model shows that privately provided agricultural price insurance is feasible under certain conditions for developing countries without an established futures market.

Originality/value
– This paper provides market-based agricultural options in Mexico which contributes to the existing government price support program.
The influence of cognitive tasks on mentoring provided
Authors: Waaland Torbjørn 
Published: January 2014

Purpose– The main purpose of this article is to study the influence of cognitive tasks on mentoring provided and the moderating influence of professional teacher education.Design/methodology/approach– This cross-sectional survey was based on a questionnaire that was sent to a total of 435 employees from 29 pre-schools in Norway. A total of 284 responses were returned, a response rate of 65.3 per cent. Two research hypotheses were formulated. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to develop three measurement models and structural equation modelling (SEM) based on multi-group analysis was used to test the hypotheses.Findings– The results revealed that cognitive tasks increase the occurrence of mentoring provided at work and professional teacher education moderates this relationship.Research limitations/implications– The use of convenience sampling and self-reports are discussed, especially related to representativeness and reporting biases.Practical implications– The findings implicate a need for increased interdisciplinary co-operation both at work and in the teacher education.Originality/value– This is an under-studied area and no previous research has used a confirmatory approach to investigate how cognitive tasks and professional education influence the occurrence of mentoring provided.
State of the art and future direction of additive manufactured scaffolds-based bone tissue engineering
Authors: Tarik Arafat M. , Gibson Ian , Li Xu 
Published: January 2014

Purpose– This paper aims to review the advances in additive manufactured (AM) scaffolds for bone tissue engineering (TE). A discussion on the state of the art and future trends of bone TE scaffolds have been done in terms of design, material and different AM technologies.Design/methodology/approach– Different structural features and materials used for bone TE scaffolds are evaluated along with the discussion on the potential and limitations of different AM scaffolds. The latest research to improve the biocompatibility of the AM scaffolds is also discussed.Findings– The discussion gives a clear understanding on the recent research trend in bone TE AM scaffolds.Originality/value– The information available here would be useful for the researchers working on AM scaffolds to get a quick overview on the recent research trends and/or future direction to work on AM bone TE scaffolds.
Pilot study of the wrist orthosis design process
Authors: Palousek David , Rosicky Jiri , Koutny Daniel , Stoklásek Pavel , Navrat Tomas 
Published: January 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to describe a manufacturing methodology for a wrist orthosis. The case study aims to offer new approaches in the area of human orthoses.

Design/methodology/approach
– The article describes the utilization of rapid prototyping (RP), passive stereo photogrammetry and software tools for the orthosis design process. This study shows the key points of the design and manufacturing methodology. The approach uses specific technologies, such as 3D digitizing, reverse engineering and polygonal-surface software, FDM RP and 3D printing.

Findings
– The results show that the used technologies reflect the patient's requirements and also they could be an alternative solution to the standard method of orthosis design.

Research limitations/implications
– The methodology provides a good position for further development issues.

Practical implications
– The methodology could be usable for clinical practice and allows the manufacturing of the perfect orthosis of the upper limb. The usage of this methodology depends on the RP system and type of material.

Originality/value
– The article describes a particular topical problem and it is following previous publications in the field of human orthoses. The paper presents the methodology of wrist orthosis design and manufacturing. The paper presents an alternative approach applicable in clinical practice.
Development of a patient-specific bone analog for the biomechanical evaluation of custom implants
Authors: J. Horn Timothy , L.A. Harrysson Ola , A. West II Harvey , P. Little Jeffrey , J. Marcellin-Little Denis 
Published: January 2014

Purpose– The aim of this study is to describe an improved experimental substrate for the mechanical testing of patient-specific implants fabricated using direct metal additive manufacturing processes. This method reduces variability and sample size requirements and addresses the importance of geometry at the bone/implant interface.Design/methodology/approach– Short-fiber glass/resin materials for cortical bone and polyurethane foam materials for cancellous bone were evaluated using standard tensile coupons. A method for fabricating bone analogs with patient-specific geometries using rapid tooling is presented. Bone analogs of a canine radius were fabricated and compared to cadaveric specimens in several biomechanical tests as validation.Findings– The analog materials exhibit a tensile modulus that falls within the range of expected values for cortical and cancellous bone. The tensile properties of the cortical bone analog vary with fiber loading. The canine radius models exhibited similar mechanical properties to the cadaveric specimens with a reduced variability.Research limitations/implications– Additional replications involving different bone geometries, types of bone and/or implants are required for a full validation. Further, the materials used here are only intended to mimic the mechanical properties of bone on a macro scale within a relatively narrow range. These analog models have not been shown to address the complex microscopic or viscoelastic behavior of bone in the present study.Originality/value– Scientific data on the formulation and fabrication of bone analogs are absent from the literature. The literature also lacks an experimental platform that matches patient-specific implant/bone geometries at the bone implant interface.