bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Lean Six Sigma in SMEs: an exploration through literature review
Authors: Prasanna M. , Vinodh Sekar 
Published: September 2013

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to explore the researches reported in literature on Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and determine the avenues by which lean anchorage can be improved in LSS implementation.

Design/methodology/approach
– The literature on lean manufacturing, Six Sigma and LSS was reviewed. The literature has been reviewed from four major perspectives. The findings of this review were used to find the methods for the improvement of lean anchorage. The proposed model is explained with a hypothetical case study.

Findings
– The major finding of the exploration reported in this article is that the lean anchorage in LSS process is found to be weak and it has to be enhanced for improving the effectiveness of LSS approach. The results derived from the hypothetical case study have been presented.

Research limitations/implications
– The researches on LSS from the perspective of implementation in small- and medium-sized enterprises have been explored. But the lean anchorage method proposed could be extended to other organizations also.

Practical implications
– The findings of this literature exploration pinpoint the need for enhancing the efficacy of LSS approach.

Originality/value
– This article has identified and presented systematically four major perspectives of LSS. The deficiency has been identified and the improvement methods have been proposed. Hence, the contributions of this article are original and valuable.
The private sector's involvement in the water industry of Ghana
Authors: P.C. Chan Albert , Effah Ameyaw Ernest 
Published: September 2013

Purpose
– The past few years have seen some private sector involvement in urban and small-town water provision in Ghana, as the government strives to improve access to water supply services for its citizens in line with millennium development goals. Since 1995, both central and local governments have entered into various forms of public-private partnerships (PPPs) contracts. The paper aims to examine challenges and investment needs of Ghanaian water supply sector that necessitated private sector involvement; trends, and factors that constrain the development and implementation of projects with private sector involvement in the sector.

Design/methodology/approach
– A research approach integrating multi-stage critical review of relevant related literature and case studies is adopted in this paper. The study is further informed by the authors' experience in the sector and knowledge of PPPs. Analysis of data from different sources, using both approaches, provides both historical and contemporary approach to water management practice in Ghana.

Findings
– The paper reveals that the Ghanaian water supply sector mirrors the classic challenges of public sector utilities in developing countries. Under-investment by government is the major cause of the ill-performance of the sector, necessitating private sector involvement. Management contract has emerged as a popular form of water supply PPP in Ghana. Further, optimal risk allocation has not been widely adopted in these contracts, and not yet been given much attention by practitioners and researchers in the literature of water management in Ghana.

Originality/value
– The paper provides useful insights into the constraints of the water supply sector, development and implementation challenges of PPPs in the sector, and prompts a need for more research on risk allocation in water supply PPP contracts.
Entrepreneurship and political risk
Authors: Dutta Nabamita , S. Sobel Russell , Roy Sanjukta 
Published: September 2013

Purpose
– Previous literature has clearly demonstrated the need for sound government policies or “institutions” to promote and support entrepreneurship in a country. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of one such institution – political stability – in boosting entrepreneurial endeavors. A politically stable nation will have lower risk and transaction/contracting costs, and higher levels of government transparency, predictability, and accountability. Thus, the paper should expect that with greater political stability there should be a greater degree of entrepreneurial activity.

Design/methodology/approach
– Using dynamic panel estimators (System GMM estimators) and considering multiple proxies of political risk, our results confirm this hypothesis. Such estimators handle challenges associated with panel data efficiently.

Findings
– The paper's results show that greater political stability for a country does indeed lead to an increased rate of entrepreneurship and wealth creation.

Originality/value
– Entrepreneurship is critical to the process of economic growth and development. To prosper, countries must unleash the creative talents of their citizens through the decentralized process of formal private sector entrepreneurship. New legal businesses create jobs, opportunities, wealth, and goods and services that make a nation grow. Sadly in many nations, this process is stifled and poverty is the result. While previous research has examined which types of specific policies matter for promoting entrepreneurship, the paper considers the different question of how the stability of political institutions impacts the rate of entrepreneurship.
An agenda for service research at the base of the pyramid
Authors: Gebauer Heiko , Reynoso Javier 
Published: September 2013

Purpose
– The article aims to combine research priorities in the service domain with the emerging topic of service management for the base of the pyramid (BoP). This combination allows us to construct an agenda for service research at the BoP.

Design/methodology/approach
– The paper uses bibliographic methods for structuring the BoP contributions, and a literature review for the current research priorities in the service domain.

Findings
– First, the paper highlights the main topics in the emerging BoP debate. Second, the paper constructs a research agenda for service management at the BoP. This agenda can guide service researchers in the selection of feasible empirical fields, support them in finding appropriate research designs, and finally, help them to develop suitable theoretical perspectives.

Research limitations/implications
– Limitations arise from the literature review and bibliographic methods themselves.

Practical implications
– Service research on the BoP provides new ideas for practitioners interested in learning about BoP markets, strategies, and entrepreneurial initiatives.

Social implications
– Understanding the need to explore BoP activities is fundamental to working with a huge segment of society, not only as passive consumers, but also as genuine entrepreneurs capable of creating and managing “inclusive” innovations.

Originality/value
– The research agenda for future service management offers a relevant source of ideas and guidance for interested researchers to rethink their empirical fields, research approaches, and theoretical perspectives.
Diagnosing service brand strength: customer-dominant brand relationship mapping
Authors: Martin Strandvik Tore , Heinonen Kristina 
Published: September 2013

Purpose
– Managing service brands entails managing a portfolio of brand relationships with customers and non-customers. The paper develops a framework for diagnosing the strength of a service brand colored by a customer-dominant business logic perspective. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach
– Combining insights from the literature on branding, service, and relationship management, the paper develops a customer-dominant conceptual and methodological approach. Brand strength captures customers' attachment to a brand in terms of their thoughts, feelings, and actions toward the brand. Since brand strength is the configuration of customers' and non-customers' brand relationships, the paper divides the brand relationship into two components – brand connection and purchase status – to compose a brand strength map.

Findings
– Grounded in customers' accumulated positive and negative experiences, the framework creates a diagnostic picture of the strength of the brand, and an illustrative empirical study demonstrates the mapping procedure's applicability to service brands.

Research limitations/implications
– The approach is an alternative to a traditional measurement scale development approach. Future studies should explore the framework's adaptability to different contexts, stakeholders, and industries.

Practical implications
– The distinctive model comprehensively captures the aggregate picture of customers' brand relationships, and the managerially parsimonious framework can be adapted to different service settings.

Originality/value
– The framework represents a novel diagnostic tool for service companies to explore their brand's strength. The approach is unique because it adopts a customer-dominant perspective. Furthermore, it includes behavior with a relational perspective and negative responses, which reduce overall brand strength.
From the 4Ps to COM-SM: reconfiguring the social marketing mix
Authors: Tapp Alan , Spotswood Fiona 
Published: September 2013

Purpose
– In this paper, the authors aim to contend that the 4Ps of social marketing have been stretched beyond breaking point. Originally designed for social marketing mixes that contained products and prices, the social marketing 4Ps are no longer fit for purpose in an age where social marketing interventions are so wide ranging. There is an urgent need for a replacement – a model that helps social marketers with the process of choosing an appropriate intervention design to fit the particular behaviour change problem faced. Here, the authors propose a model, the COM-SM framework, that connects social marketing programme types with the “capability, opportunity, motivation” model of behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach
– This article is based on critical review of the efficacy of the 4Ps model in helping managers design social marketing programmes, followed by the conceptual development of an alternative.

Findings
– Using some typical scenarios, it is contended that the COM-SM model better enables the marketer to adapt their designs to fit the behavioural challenges that they face.

Originality/value
– The COM-SM model reworks the association between behaviour change insights and the social marketing mix, proposing a new way of designing social marketing interventions.
Will you be my friend? Social networking in the workplace
Authors: Del Bosque Darcy 
Published: September 2013

Purpose
– This paper aims to provide an overview of the perceptions of librarians regarding the use of social networking in their professional lives.

Design/methodology/approach
– A survey was administered to a random sample of librarians at academic institutions.

Findings
– Adoption rates for social networking were high, with 85 percent of the 765 respondents reporting an account in at least one social networking account. Responses reveal opinions about privacy, boundaries, and professional relationships within social networking, suggesting that it does influence relationships within the profession.

Research limitations/implications
– The paper presents a snapshot of users' perceptions. Since social media changes rapidly, it is likely that perceptions will also likely change over time.

Practical implications
– The paper presents a snapshot of the perceptions of librarians towards social media. This article could be useful to librarians who currently use or are considering creating a social media account.

Originality/value
– This paper looks at social media and how it changes interactions between co-workers, which have been little studied in the past. This can be valuable to organizations who create policy and also to employees, who need to consider privacy issues as they become involved in social media.
Succession planning at Notre Dame: lessons for librarians
Authors: González Cristina 
Published: September 2013

Purpose
– One of the biggest challenges facing American librarians at present is a mass retirement of highly trained professionals, which will result in a significant loss of expertise. When libraries look at universities for examples of succession planning, they find, for the most part, that they are behind, not ahead of them. A notable exception is the University of Notre Dame, which, as a Catholic institution led by priests, has a very small pool of candidates for high-level positions, so it is forced to select and prepare its top leaders through succession planning. This article aims to examine the work of one such leader.

Design/methodology/approach
– This article examines the work of one president, Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, whose succession planning efforts resulted in the preparation not only of his successor but also of the members of the administrative team.

Findings
– This case offers three important lessons for librarians. First, the leadership must be on board with the training program. Second, the training program must go beyond individuals and involve entire cohorts. Finally, the goal of training must be the development of as much talent as possible.

Originality/value
– The Notre Dame case demonstrates that when an organization looks for talent it finds it, indicating that much talent is lost because it is never recognized, let alone cultivated, and that is the most important lesson of all.
LILAC Conference 2013
Authors: J. Thompson Emma 
Published: September 2013

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to provide a flavour of the LILAC Conference held in Manchester, UK, in March 2013.

Design/methodology/approach
– The paper provides an overview of the themes, content, keynote speakers and selected parallel sessions of the LILAC conference.

Findings
– The conference held a series of parallel sessions covering six key themes: information literacy and employability; information literacy and the digital future; transliteracy; future-proofing the information literacy practitioner; collaboration and partnerships; active learning and creative pedagogical approaches

Originality/value
– The conference provided an insight into emerging trends for information literacy.
The “bookless” curriculum and the academic library
Authors: Massis Bruce 
Published: September 2013

Purpose
– The purpose of this column is to examine the concept of the electronic or “bookless” curriculum and the role the library can play in this evolving environment.

Design/methodology/approach
– This is a literature review and commentary on this topic that has been addressed by professionals, researchers and practitioners.

Findings
– In the all-electronic or bookless environment, the librarian's role still remains an essential one of supplementary instruction where teaching is paramount to the academic librarian's responsibilities. Whether providing expert research assistance or bibliographic instruction with the aim of imparting the student with the proper intellectual reinforcement, that role is not altered by any shift away from print.

Originality/value
– The value in addressing this issue is to support the discussion of this topic and provide the library and its librarians a motivation to rely upon during this shift.
Dominant resistance to Bt cotton and minor cross‐resistance to Bt toxin Cry2Ab in cotton bollworm from China
Authors: Jin Lin , Wei Yiyun , Zhang Lei , Yang Yihua , Tabashnik Bruce E. , Wu Yidong 
Published: September 2013

AbstractEvolution of resistance by insect pests threatens the long‐term benefits of transgenic crops that produce insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Previous work has detected increases in the frequency of resistance to Bt toxin Cry1Ac in populations of cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera, from northern China where Bt cotton producing Cry1Ac has been grown extensively for more than a decade. Confirming that trend, we report evidence from 2011 showing that the percentage of individuals resistant to a diagnostic concentration of Cry1Ac was significantly higher in two populations from different provinces of northern China (1.4% and 2.3%) compared with previously tested susceptible field populations (0%). We isolated two resistant strains: one from each of the two field‐selected populations. Relative to a susceptible strain, the two strains had 460‐ and 1200‐fold resistance to Cry1Ac, respectively. Both strains had dominant resistance to a diagnostic concentration of Cry1Ac in diet and to Bt cotton leaves containing Cry1Ac. Both strains had low, but significant cross‐resistance to Cry2Ab (4.2‐ and 5.9‐fold), which is used widely as the second toxin in two‐toxin Bt cotton. Compared with resistance in other strains of H. armigera, the resistance in the two strains characterized here may be especially difficult to suppress.
Business Cycle in China since the Lehman Crisis: Interaction among Macroeconomic Policy, Economic Growth and Inflation
Authors: Kwan C. H. 
Published: September 2013

AbstractThe major objectives of China's macroeconomic policy are to stabilize economic growth and inflation, which, in turn, are important factors determining key prices, such as the policy interest rate, the renminbi exchange rate and stock prices. In a framework that distinguishes different phases of the business cycle based on whether the current period's economic growth rate and inflation rate are above or below their “normal” values, this paper analyzes the interaction among macroeconomic policy, economic growth and inflation in China since the Lehman crisis, and the implications for these key prices. The path of China's economy indicates that stimulus measures taken by the government during the recession phase and tightening measures implemented during the overheating phase have helped minimize the fluctuation over the business cycle. Our analysis shows that Chinese authorities tend to rely more on adjusting the exchange rate than the interest rate to stabilize the economy. Comparing with conditions at the time of the post‐Lehman recession, the current slow pace of economic growth in China may reflect not only weakening demand, but also a lower potential growth rate associated with the arrival of the Lewis turning point.
Renminbi Nominal Effective Exchange Rate for Third Market Competition: An Approach Based on Disaggregated Trade Data
Authors: Xu Qiyuan , Yang Panpan , Liu Yue 
Published: September 2013

AbstractWhen measuring the nominal effective exchange rate (NEER), three factors should be considered: direct import competition, direct export competition and third market competition. The traditional NEER methodology using aggregated export trade data underestimates the competition between countries producing homogeneous goods, so that the weight of the effective exchange rates is too reliant on trade scale. Based on 2002 6‐digit items of the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, this paper employs the competitive stress index to adjust the weighting system of the renminbi NEER for third market competition. In the new weighting system, European countries and some emerging economies have higher weights compared with some of the developed countries, including the USA, Japan and resources‐dominated economies. This research will facilitate the understanding of changes in China's export competitiveness.
Industry‐specific Real Effective Exchange Rate for China: 2000–2009
Authors: Dai Mi , Xu Jianwei 
Published: September 2013

AbstractThis paper measures the industry‐specific real effective exchange rate (REER) for China by matching domestic and foreign industry‐level price and trade data series. We find that after 2005 the REER appreciates more in the “chemical, plastics, rubber and fuels industry” and the “machinery and equipment industry,” but remains roughly constant or even depreciates in other industries. The nominal exchange rate generally accounts for over 50 percent of the aggregate real effective exchange rate fluctuations, but this conclusion does not apply to three of nine industries. We apply the industry‐specific REER to re‐examine the relationship between the exchange rate and trade, and find that the industry‐specific REER index performs better than the traditional aggregate REER index. We recommend that the Chinese Government officially adopt industry‐specific exchange rates instead of using the aggregate effective exchange rates to evaluate the competitiveness of Chinese industries in the international market.
Is the classic diaspora transnational and hybrid? The case of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress
Authors: Mokrushyna Halyna 
Published: September 2013

AbstractScholars studying migration processes through the transnational prism have expanded the concept of ‘diaspora’ with a new meaning as a transnational, hybrid identity and condition, which has displaced the classical interpretation constructed around ethnicity and territory. By analyzing the activities of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which represents the organised Ukrainian community in Canada, an old‐type diaspora, this paper argues that transnationality and hybridity have always been the inner attributes of diaspora identity and experience and stresses the importance of an essential characteristic of diaspora: the conscious effort to maintain a distinctive collective identity. Only if a community succeeds in maintaining its collective identity throughout multigenerational change can it qualify as a diaspora. These two dimensions – the self‐consciousness of diaspora as a distinctive group and the survival of its distinctive identity through multigenerational change – set diasporas apart from transnational communities.
Interactive nationhood: the relation between Croatian and Yugoslav national identity in the interwar period
Authors: Troch Pieter 
Published: September 2013

AbstractCroatian and Yugoslav national identity have been closely connected throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century. This article questions the assumption that Croatian national identification inherently opposed the Yugoslav nationalising efforts of the interwar Yugoslav state by means of a study of commemorative activities. In the commemoration of the millennial anniversary of the Croatian Kingdom in 1925, the Yugoslav level of national identity was activated as a complement to Croatian national identity. During the 1930s, commemorations of Matija Gubec and the Illyrian movement conveyed a mutually exclusive relation between Croatian and Yugoslav national identity. I argue that the dismissal of grassroots Croatian historical commemorations that were indifferent but not averse to Yugoslav nationhood in the integral Yugoslav policy of the authoritarian state during the 1930s curtailed the potential of these commemorations as vehicles for Yugoslav national identification and complicated the concurrence of Croatian and Yugoslav nationhood.
The Challenge for Peace within South Vietnam's Catholic Community: A History of Peace Activism
Authors: Thị Liên Trần 
Published: September 2013

Beyond the common vision of Vietnamese Catholics as a group who supported the defense of South Vietnam at all costs, this article brings to light the thinking of those who contemplated the end of the war and its significance in terms of reconciliation. The history of this Catholic engagement for peace is the story of activism at the crossroads of religious and political spheres during the period 1962–1975. This group was particularly productive through an impressive number of publications, which offer a large corpus of texts over 15 years. Confronted by many challenges (religious, economic, political), this progressive wing endeavored to produce an analytic reflection based on Vatican II values, on the Vietnamese situation, and to participate in the building of a political alternative for their country.