bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The effect of market structure, regulation, and risk on banks efficiency
Authors: I. Maghyereh Aktham , Awartani Basel 
Published: May 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to analyze the efficiency performance of the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) banking sector. The primary focus is to assess whether market power, risk taking activities, and regulations have significant effects on GCC banks’ efficiency performance.

Design/methodology/approach
– The estimation and inference has been implemented using a double bootstrap procedure that simultaneously corrects for bias and validates inference on the influence of covariates. In the first stage, efficiency scores are estimated with data envelopment analysis (DEA). In the second stage, variation in the resulting efficiency scores is explained using a truncated regression model with inference based on a semi-parametric bootstrap routine.

Findings
– The authors found compelling evidence that efficiency is not independent of the market structure, the bank's risk taking activities, and the regulatory environment. In particular, the Lerner Index provides evidence that market power decreases efficiency. The capital adequacy, the supervisory power and the market discipline were all found to improve efficiency. Additionally, when the risk is measured by the Z-Score or even by the ratio of non-performing loans to total loans, it adversely affects efficiency.

Research limitations/implications
– The results of the current study have important implications for regulators and supervisors. Promoting banks’ competitive environment in the GCC countries through reducing the information barriers to entry, encouraging bank privatization, and lowering the activities restrictions can potentially improve operational efficiency of banks. Also enhancing banks’ diversification activities and risk management techniques may have the advantage of increasing operational efficiency. Furthermore, improvements in the regulatory conditions that enhance banking supervision and monitoring would also improve efficiency.

Originality/value
– The main contributions of the paper are threefold: first, to the knowledge, this study is the first to employ by far the most comprehensive data set of GCC banks investigated to date. Second, the analysis focusses on the influence of a wide set of factors, most of them was not covered before in related economic literature on bank efficiency of the GCC countries. Third, the methodological innovation involves applying a double bootstrap procedure proposed by Simar and Wilson (2007).
Interaction with external agents, innovation networks, and innovation capability: the case of Uruguayan software firms
Authors: Saenz Josune , Pérez-Bouvier Andrea 
Published: May 2014

Purpose–The aim of this paper is to disentangle the interplay between nurturing interaction with external agents, innovation networks, and innovation capability. In particular, the paper argues that nurturing interaction with external agents (by means of participation in different events that allow face-to-face interaction, or via collaborative technology) positively affects the innovation capability of firms by allowing the development of innovation networks and making them run smoothly.Design/methodology/approach–For this to be tested, an analysis has been carried out in Uruguayan software firms. A questionnaire was designed and addressed to the managers of the firms making up the target population. Structural equation modeling (SEM) based on partial least squares (PLS) was then applied to test the hypotheses put forward by the research.Findings–The results obtained show that nurturing interaction with external agents has a positive and significant influence both on the formation of innovation networks and on their operational performance. This influence is much stronger when it comes to ensuring the smooth operation of the network than when it comes to facilitating its formation. Moreover, innovation networks and their functioning clearly mediate the relationship between interaction with external agents and innovation capability.Research limitations/implications–Traditional limitations of cross-sectional studies apply.Originality/value–Although previous literature highlights the relevance of social interaction for the creation of new knowledge and subsequent innovation, the role of mediating variables has been hardly considered. This research helps to shed some light on this issue in the case of social interaction with external agents. In particular, the mediating role of innovation networks has been analyzed.
Measuring the risk of knowledge drain in communities of practice
Authors: Lee Suchul , Suh Euiho , Lee Modeum 
Published: May 2014

Purpose–The aim of this paper is to develop a metric that quantitatively measures the risk of knowledge drain associated with the departure of a member in communities of practice (CoP).Design/methodology/approach–This paper considers two possible cases in which departure of a member has a high risk of causing knowledge drain: when the member is a network leader, and when the member is an isolated expert. Network analysis is used to identify network influence of each member. The proposed metric is designed considering network influence and knowledge level of individual members, and applied to a case study using real-world data from an online CoP.Findings–This paper demonstrates that the proposed metric properly provides information about the members whose departure could cause serious damage to the CoP because of their strong influence or their inactivity in the network. The metric enables practitioners to identify critical members, and to enact precautions to reduce the vulnerability of the CoP.Originality/value–Compared to the threat of knowledge drain, few studies have attempted to measure the risk associated with departure of a member. This study has developed a metric to measure the risk of knowledge drain in a CoP. The approach and methods of this paper offer a foundation for designing assessment methods for knowledge networks and provide new insights into quantitative research in knowledge management.
Identification, emergence and filling of organizational knowledge gaps: a retrospective processual analysis
Authors: Haider Sajjad 
Published: May 2014

Purpose–The purpose of this paper is to analyze the processes of identification, emergence and filling of organizational knowledge gaps over an extended period of time, using the strategy in action perspective. Specifically, it aims to explore the nature and types of knowledge gaps, to capture their changes and to shed some light on the processes of filling knowledge gaps.Design/methodology/approach–The study is based on two case studies and adopts a processual approach. It analyses 40 years of data collected using secondary sources and semi-structured interviews over a period of two years and identifies critical organizational events both in retrospect and real time.Findings–The findings show that the two case study companies have identified a number of knowledge gaps over the 40 years period. Changes in the nature and type of knowledge gaps are identified and discussed in detail leading to a new taxonomy of organisational knowledge gaps. The findings report that knowledge gaps emerge due to changes in both exogenous and endogenous conditions over time. The filling of those gaps depends on a number of factors. Among these, the ability to make a distinction between “strategic” and “imposed” knowledge gaps and the ability to build absorptive capacity within a stipulated time frame have a predominant role.Research limitations/implications–The respondents were asked to look back into the history of their company using their memory of events to provide explanations surrounding critical organizational events. Since some of the respondents had not witnessed all of the events in question, their responses were at times based on hearsay. However, every effort was made to check the authenticity of the respondents ' explanations, such as using a range of sources and discussing the events with respondents at different hierarchical levels of the company.Practical implications–This study provides examples of knowledge in practice and puts forward a new taxonomy of knowledge gaps which can help managers to deal with imposed and strategic knowledge requirements. Specifically, this study equips managers with tools on how to devise their knowledge strategy, how to identify their knowledge requirements and what are different sources (internal and external) which they can explore to fill those knowledge gaps.Originality/value–The paper builds on the strategy in practice perspective, which stresses the need for further studies to link theoretical frameworks with practical solutions. In this respect, this paper attempts to make sense of organizational knowledge theory by applying it in real life business situations and by unearthing the concept and usage of knowledge gaps. The use of a retrospective processual approach to study changes in organizational knowledge requirements over time is another interesting aspect of this research. Finally, the paper provides a new taxonomy of organizational knowledge gaps.
From relevance to relevate
Authors: Chia Robert 
Published: May 2014

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to tease out the real value-adding contributions university-based business schools can make to the business community and to society at large without compromising in any way its own ethos of academic rigour and scholarship in seeking knowledge and understanding for its own sake.Design/methodology/approach– This is a discursive discussion piece that excavates and examines the philosophical and historical underpinnings of universities as places of “higher” learning with a view to interrogating and clarifying the unique role university business schools can play in straddling the university/industry nexus. It draws from the author's extensive hands-on experiences in business, from the author's philosophical interests honed in academia, and from the author's wide-ranging experiences of being involved in bespoke executive education provision for senior business practitioners in large multinational corporations.Findings– The paper concludes with the view that paradoxically, university-based business schools must resist the temptation to capitulate to the demands to teach only what appears immediately “relevant” to the business world in order to be actually useful to business. Instead, they must rigourously seek to expand horizons of comprehension amongst students and business executives through the process of relevating the seemingly irrelevant. This way they can genuinely help prepare students and business executives for the challenges and exigencies of a dynamic and fast-changing world.Research limitations/implications– The paper points to a need for reframing and refocusing the aims and agenda of management education such that greater pedagogical priority is placed on refining perceptual sensibilities and expanding horizons of comprehension over that of content-knowledge dissemination.Practical implications– Business schools will have to revise their curriculum from a conventional emphasis on teaching functional business disciplines to include drawing from the wider humanities fields of study in order to emphasize the cultivation of aesthetic sensibilities and a deeper awareness of underlying global trends, patterns of relationships and social forces shaping business priorities and perceptions.Social implications– An enhanced sensitivity and awareness of the interrelatedness of socio-political, cultural and economic contexts, and managerial situations leads to more effective executive decision making that is economically sustainable, ethically informed and more attuned to the collective common good.Originality/value– There has been much debate surrounding the rigour/relevance issue within business schools. This paper shows that this false distinction is created by an insufficient examination of the underlying commonality mutually shared by both the very best of rigourous scholarship and the very best of business practices.
Putting policy initiatives into practice
Authors: Ingirige Bingunath , Wedawatta Gayan 
Published: May 2014

Purpose
– Amidst the current economic climate, which places many constraints on expensive flood defence schemes, the policy makers tend to favour schemes that are sympathetic to the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and which promote empowering local communities based on their individual local contexts. Research has shown that although several initiatives are in place to create behavioural change among SMEs in undertaking adaptation approaches against flooding, they often tend to delay their responses by means of a “wait and see” attitude. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach
– This paper argues that unless there are conscious efforts in the policy-making community to undertake explicit measures to engage with SMEs in a collaborative way, the uptake of adaptation measures will not be achieved as intended. With the use of the “honest broker” approach the paper provides a conceptual way forward of how a sense of collaboration can be instigated in an engagement process between the policy makers and SMEs, so that the scientific knowledge is translated in an appropriately rational way, which best meets the expectations of the SMEs.

Findings
– The paper proposes a conceptual model for engaging SMEs that will potentially increase the uptake of flood adaptation measures by SMEs. This could be a useful model with which to kick start a collaborative engagement process that could escalate to wider participation in other areas to improve impact of policy initiatives.

Originality/value
– The paper lays the conceptual foundation for a new theoretical base in the area, which will encourage more empirical investigations that will potentially enhance the practicality of some of the existing policies.
Strategies for integrating design and construction and operations and maintenance supply chains in Singapore
Authors: Y.Y. Ling Florence , G.Y. Toh Benjamin , Kumaraswamy Mohan , Wong Kelwin 
Published: May 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigates strategies for achieving better integration between the design and construction (DC) and operation and maintenance (OM) supply chains in Singapore. The specific objectives are to: discover the goals that stakeholders want to achieve in integrating the supply chains; identify the stakeholders that play important integration role in each supply chain; and investigate the effective strategies that may yield better integration of the supply chains.

Design/methodology/approach
– Data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The sampling frame was Singapore-based clients, consultants and construction firms involved in developing and managing built facilities.

Findings
– The most important strategies for integrating the supply chains are: sharing relevant information and addressing sustainability issues jointly with DC and OM teams; and integrating life cycle optimization options in DC and OM supply chains.

Research limitations/implications
– The limitations include low response rate, and the subjective nature of a Likert scale which was used to rate importance levels. The research implication is that activities in DC and OM supply chains can indeed be integrated, and this leads to higher value for all stakeholders.

Practical implications
– The practical implication is that stakeholders could adopt the effective strategies identified by this study to foster closer integration of the two supply chains in Singapore. Teams from both supply chains need to work jointly instead of consecutively. Sharing information through an online platform by setting up a web-based database may help in their collaboration. It is also important that common goals need be set out at the onset, preferably by clients of built facilities, with strong buy-in by main contractors and consultants, so as to achieve better value.

Originality/value
– The study revealed effective strategies for integrating DC and OM supply chains.
Application of the concept of cost benefits analysis (CBA) to property level flood risk adaptation measures
Authors: Joseph Rotimi , Proverbs David , Lamond Jessica , Wassell Peter 
Published: May 2014

Purpose
– There has been a significant increase in flooding in the UK over the past ten years. During this time, Government policy has moved from investment in flood defences towards encouraging property owners to take responsibility for reducing the impact of flooding. One of the ways in which this can be achieved is for homeowners to adapt their properties to flood risk by implementing property level flood risk adaptation (PLFRA) measures. While there has been some attempt to develop an understanding of the benefits of such measures, these previous studies have their limitations in that the intangible benefits have not been fully considered. As such, there remains a need for further development of these studies towards developing a more comprehensive understanding of PLFRA measures. It is against this background the purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual cost benefit analysis (CBA) framework for PLFRA measure. This framework brings together the key parameters of the costs and benefits of adapting properties to flood risk including the intangible benefits, which have so far been overlooked in previous studies.

Design/methodology/approach
– A critical review of the standard methods and existing CBA models of PLFRA measures was undertaken. A synthesis of this literature and the literature on the nature of flooding and measures to reduce and eliminate their impacts provides the basis for the development of a conceptual framework of the costs and benefits of PLFRA measures. Within the developed framework, particular emphasis is placed on the intangible impacts, as these have largely been excluded from previous studies in the domain of PLFRA measures.

Findings
– The framework provides a systematic way of assessing the costs and benefits of PLFRA measures. A unique feature of the framework is the inclusion of intangible impacts, such as anxiety and ill health, which are known to be difficult to measure. The study proposes to implement one of the stated preference methods (SPM) of valuation to measure these impacts, known as the willingness to pay method, as part of a survey of homeowners. The inclusion of these intangible impacts provides the potential to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the benefit cost ratio (BCR) for different stakeholders. The newly developed CBA conceptual framework includes four principal components: the tangible benefits to insurers; the tangible benefits to the government; the tangible benefits to homeowners; and the intangible benefits to homeowners.

Originality/value
– This tool offers the potential to support government policy concerned with increasing the uptake of PLFRA measures through increasing the information available to homeowners and thereby supporting the decision-making process.
“Charmingly delicious”: childhood obesity and General Mills’ dilemma
Authors: Yordy Eric D. , Paden Nita , Bryant Katlin 
Published: May 2014

Synopsis
In 2010, approximately one-third of US children and adolescents were classified as at least overweight, with 17 percent classified as obese. In addition to other causes, the marketing and advertising of food directly to children was identified by a Task Force on Childhood Obesity as a contributing factor. As a result, food industries began to self-regulate. Consumer advocacy organizations developed guidelines for advertising products targeted to children. Cereal companies, such as General Mills (GM), struggled with whether or not to adopt those standards. GM began to change both marketing and product advertising in small ways. The changes were considered steps in the right direction but GM continued to be under scrutiny of advocacy groups. This case addresses the struggle of General Mills to make changes to product nutritional content and/or marketing and to address the societal concern about childhood obesity while also meeting responsibilities to consumers and shareholders.

Research methodology
The case was researched utilizing secondary data – all materials are readily available to the public. There is no disguise of any actual person or entity and no relationship between the authors and the organizations or individuals mentioned in the case. Frequent sources include the General Foods, Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative and Center for Science in the Public Interest web pages.

Relevant courses and levels
This case could be used at an undergraduate or graduate level. Legal Environment of Business, Business Ethics and any Marketing course.

Theoretical basis
The ethics frameworks in most business law or ethics textbooks may be used to discuss the dilemma identified in this case. This Instructor's Manual uses Hosmer's model. Hosmer (2008), The Ethics of Management: A Multidisciplinary Approach, 7th ed.
Beta diversity among prairie restorations increases with species pool size, but not through enhanced species sorting
Authors: Grman Emily , Brudvig Lars A. 
Published: May 2014

SummaryUnderstanding variation in community composition across space, or beta diversity, is of longstanding interest in ecology, yet the determinants of beta diversity remain poorly known. In part, this results from a lack of manipulative tests of hypothesized drivers. The size of species pools is one putative driver, but few studies have provided a direct test of this mechanism through manipulation of clearly defined species pools independent of local communities. Furthermore, we know little about underlying mechanisms, such as enhanced species sorting, or whether a species pool size‐beta diversity relationship is scale‐dependent or modified by environmental conditions.Here, we evaluate 29 prairie plant communities restored from bare soil with known species pools (seed mixes) to address those questions. To address the generality of beta diversity drivers across scales, we investigated how the size of species pools during restoration influenced beta diversity in the plant community at two scales: among prairies and within prairies (among plots).Among a group of prairies sown with larger species pools, among‐site beta diversity was greater than among a group of prairies assembled from smaller pools, but not because of enhanced species sorting. We found an interaction between species pool size and an environmental filter, whereby beta diversity was higher among prairies restored with species‐rich seed mixes, but only when soil moisture was also high. We detected neither greater beta diversity nor stronger species sorting among plots within prairies sown with species‐rich mixes.Synthesis. This work provides what is to our knowledge the first large‐scale manipulative test of how species pool size influences beta diversity. We found higher beta diversity among restored prairies sown with species‐rich seed mixes, but little evidence for species sorting as a causal mechanism. Our results, based on manipulated real‐world communities, provide an important link between previous theoretical and observational studies and small‐scale experimental approaches. Of applied importance, our findings show that by creating communities of high beta diversity, ecological restoration can counteract widespread anthropogenic biotic homogenization.