bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Ethnic identity and dietary habits among Hispanic immigrants in Spain
Authors: Romo Rodrigo , Gil José M. 
Published: January 2012

PurposeFocussing on Latin American immigrants in Barcelona, the objective of this paper is twofold: to measure their degree of ethnical identity; and to analyse the relationship between food habits and their ethnical identity.Design/methodology/approachFace‐to‐face interviews with a representative sample of Latin American immigrants in the Metropolitan area of Barcelona are undertaken. Ethnic identity is measured using the MEIM scale, which combines aspects from the social identity and personal development theories. Finally, a Multinomial Logit Model is used to identify the relationship between food habits and ethnical identity.FindingsResults indicate that the higher the level of ethnic identity and feeling of belonging of immigrants in Catalonia, the greater the persistence of dietary habits from the country of origin. Contrasting with results from other studies, no correlation is found between the persistence of dietary habits and either the length of time spent in Spain or the level of integration into the Catalan culture (measured through use of the Catalan language).Research limitations/implicationsFindings should logically be interpreted within the context of the population and sample studied. Further research should be addressed to analyze other immigrant groups such as Muslims, Asians and Eastern Europeans.Originality/valueThis study explores the strength of traditional food habits of immigrants living in a foreign cultural environment and the role of ethnic identity in contributing to this strength. While past literature focussing on this topic is based on atheoretical and partial indicators to measure ethnic identity, this study provides evidence on the usefulness of using a theory‐based and multidimensional measure. The behaviour of Latin American immigrants in Spain is used as a case study.
The impact of emotionally intelligent leadership on talent retention, discretionary effort and employment brand
Authors: Palmer Benjamin R. , Gignac Gilles 
Published: January 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present research on the relationship between the emotional intelligence (EI) of managers and levels of engagement amongst their direct reports. The findings are discussed in terms of a business case for EI development as a strategy to improve employment brand, talent retention and productivity.Design/methodology/approachWithin three different organisations, employees completed an assessment of their engagement and the EI of their manager via an online web survey system. Correlation analyses were then performed with the data.FindingsThe EI of managers was found to meaningfully correlate with employee engagement scores. A substantial amount of the variability in direct report engagement scores was accounted for by managers' EI.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research needs to establish whether the EI of managers correlates with direct report engagement scores whilst controlling for direct reports' EI. Additionally, whether employee engagement scores improve as a result of improvements in managers' EI needs to be examined.Practical implicationsOrganisations may be able to improve their employment brand, talent retention and productivity by developing the EI of management.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to report on the empirical relationship between managers' EI and employee engagement. It will be of interest to those who are challenged with the task of improving leadership and employee engagement more broadly.
Management of change in a multinational company
Authors: Hurn Brian J. 
Published: January 2012

PurposeThe paper is based on leading a management of change simulation involving trainee managers in a global oil company who were tasked with preparing a proposal for senior management regarding the management of change to face future challenges. The purpose of the paper is to comment on models of change management, overcoming resistance to change, the necessary skills and commitment to implement change and stages in the planning. It concludes with the key outcomes of the simulation exercise.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a management of change simulation exercise from which guidelines for good practice are deduced.FindingsThe paper identifies key factors necessary for successful change management, including anticipation of the need for change, communication at all levels, overcoming resistance, skills required and the planning stages to implementation.Practical implicationsThe learning outcomes of the simulation and the discussions reflect accepted models of change management.Originality/valueThe paper provides examples of good practice arising from a two‐day simulation exercise.
Credit where it is due: drivers of loyalty to credit cards
Authors: Parahoo Sanjai K. 
Published: January 2012

PurposeIn a fiercely competitive industry, credit card issuers need to develop a loyal customer base and motivate their card holders to use their cards at a sufficient level to assure profitability. The purpose of this article is to propose a consumer model of customer loyalty in the credit card industry.Design/methodology/approachA model of customer loyalty incorporating service quality, value and involvement is developed theoretically and validated empirically through SEM using data collected from a global sample of 114 credit card holders.FindingsThe loyalty model proposed was validated, showing that the independent variable, i.e. customer involvement, had path loadings of 0.32 and 0.26 on quality and value, respectively, while both service quality and value had direct effects on loyalty, with path loadings of 0.30 and 0.51, respectively.Research limitations/implicationsCustomer involvement has been shown to directly influence both service quality and value, and it should be further investigated for its effect on sustaining relationships, as well as a variable for segmenting customers.Practical implicationsIn order to develop sustainable relationships, marketers of credit cards should leverage involvement in their customers by employing strategies such as branding, positioning, and attractive and flexible frequent use benefits. Further, credit card customers desire high service quality, but at an affordable cost, therefore making value a prime consideration for achieving loyalty.Originality/valueThis study has identified “involvement” as an independent variable that provides stability and sustainability to the firm‐customer relationship. Despite its pertinence, this customer characteristic that may be also used to segment customers has not been investigated in prior quantitative studies.
Follow‐up in head and neck cancer: patients' perspective
Authors: Trinidade Aaron , Kothari Prasad , Andreou Zenon , Hewitt Richard J.D. , O'Flynn Paul 
Published: January 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to determine head and neck cancer patients' perspective of their follow‐up regime and to suggest ways in which these perspectives can be incorporated into current practice.Design/methodology/approachThis is a prospective survey‐based study. A total of 263 patients consecutively attending a head and neck cancer clinic completed a survey about their experience of the follow‐up process in the post‐treatment period between January 2009 and October 2009.FindingsThe paper finds that, of the patients, 67 per cent (n=176) felt that the clinic met the goals they hoped would be achieved during their visit; 84 per cent (n=221) felt that their follow‐up visits were too frequent. In total 60 per cent (n=159) were booked to see both an allied health professional and the attending clinician. Of these, 84 per cent (n=134/159) felt that issues addressed at follow‐up with the clinician duplicated those addressed by the allied healthcare professionals. When asked about their opinion of a less intensive follow‐up system based on patients reporting problems and requesting appointments, 73 per cent (n=192) favoured it. When asked who they would like to contact first in such a system, most patients (n=118, 45 per cent) stated a clinical nurse specialist.Practical implicationsCurrent follow‐up regimes may be too prescriptive in their approach without taking patient perspective into consideration. Patients felt that being seen intensively for the first year, then having visits tapered off over the next two years and finally being seen according to symptoms thereafter to be appropriate and felt that this represented an overall better system.Originality/valueThese data suggest the need for a more patient‐focused, individualised approach to follow‐up in head and neck cancer.
The role of ideology in brand strategy: the case of a food retail company in Italy
Authors: Massa Silvia , Testa Stefania 
Published: January 2012

PurposeThis paper aims to study the role of ideology in brand strategy with reference to large‐scale food retailing. By means of a thorough case study investigation of highly ideology‐focused food retailer Eataly, the paper aims to enrich existing theory on retailer branding. The various elements of Eataly's brand have been studied in order to identify how they enact the ideology for which the retailer stands. This topic is particularly relevant in a context where consumers appear increasingly committed to social responsibility and business ethics. So the final goal of the paper is to identify ideology‐focused brand choices that lead to a preference towards the retailer.Design/methodology/approachIn order to address this paper's research aim, a well known framework developed by Esbjerg and Bech‐Larsen is adopted to conceptualize the retail brand. Case study methodology is applied.FindingsThis paper provides both research‐related and practical contributions. From a research perspective, it provides empirical evidence on the role of ideology in large‐scale food retailing, a field which has been traditionally neglected in the ideology debate. From a practical perspective, it provides a contribution to retailers and brand managers. Three main lessons can be mentioned. First, a company's ideology should be pervasively applied to each aspect of a brand and it seems to be primarily situated within tangible and physical attributes, rather than within symbolic features, at least in the case investigated. Second, an explicit ideology is not exempt from risks. Third, ideology can be subject to multiple interpretations that may give rise to unintended consequences.Research limitations/implicationsThis study tries to attenuate the reliability issues that are inherent in qualitative research by interviewing multiple informants with different positions inside the company. Triangulation using different types of data sources and systematic data analysis was also employed.Originality/valueThe paper raises the importance of ideology in large‐scale food retailing. It adopts the Esbjerg and Bech‐Larsen framework and introduces the dimension of ideology as a lens through which each aspect of a brand can be interpreted. Moreover, it suggests that a brand's functional attributes play more of a leading role in transmitting ideology than symbolic features, which is somewhat counterintuitive.
The effect of competitive strategies and organizational structure on hotel performance
Authors: Tavitiyaman Pimtong , Qiu Zhang Hanqin , Qu Hailin 
Published: January 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of competitive strategies and organizational structure on hotel performance and to explore whether organizational structure has a moderating effect on the relationship between competitive strategies and hotel performance.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed a causal and descriptive research design to determine the cause‐and‐effect relationships among competitive strategies, organizational structure, and hotel performance based on previous studies. A 28‐question self‐administered questionnaire comprising three sections was employed. The target population for this study was US hotel owners and general and executive managers whose e‐mail addresses were listed on a publicly available database. A census survey was carried out and e‐mails were sent to all of the hoteliers listed in the database.FindingsThe results show a competitive human resources (HR) strategy to have a direct impact on a hotel's behavioral performance, and a competitive IT strategy to have a direct impact on a hotel's financial performance. Organizational structure is found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between both of these strategies and behavioral performance, a result similar to those reported by Jogaratnam and Tse and by Tarigan. However, the results of the current study show that organizational structure has no influence on the relationship between a brand image strategy and a hotel's behavioral performance, nor does it have any moderating effect on the relationship between a hotel's financial performance and its competitive brand image, HR or IT strategy.Practical implicationsWhen hoteliers face an uncertain environment, they need to select which form of organizational structure to adopt with care. Hotels that adopt an organic structure allow greater flexibility in the workplace, meaning that they may lose control of their employees and productivity. A mechanistic organizational structure, in contrast, gives hoteliers the power to monitor employee behavior and productivity, which may help them to achieve goals and boost financial performance.Originality/valueThe paper provides further evidence of how competitive HR and IT strategies help to explain hotel performance, whereas a brand image strategy and organizational structure are not good explanatory factors in this regard. Hotels with a mechanistic such structure enjoy a greater relationship between a competitive HR strategy and behavioral performance than their organically structured counterparts. With regard to IT strategic implementation, in contrast, hotels with an organic structure enjoy superior behavioral performance to those with a mechanistic structure.
The paradox and fog of supervision
Authors: Cherry Nita 
Published: January 2012

PurposeSeveral paradoxes have been presented in the literature as inherent in supervision of doctoral students. The purpose of this paper is to explore these paradoxes and offer the concept of praxis as a way of effectively engaging with complex and paradoxical dimensions of supervision, rather than denying or avoiding them.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on sometimes provocative offerings of others, and the seminal work of Grant, views are presented that problematise supervision, challenging its representation as something to be transparently understood, planned and managed. Sophisticated theories of supervision have been offered in literature to hold its inherent paradoxes while opening up its practice for inquiry. It is suggested that supervision is usefully understood as the development of praxis: challenging supervisor and student to understand their practice journey as one of interwoven, often tacit, dimensions of knowing, doing, being and becoming (that are personally and therefore distinctively resolved.FindingsGenerative metaphors drawn from other complex domains of human experience suggest useful ways of engaging with the intensity, individuality and murkiness of supervision. Such metaphors draw attention to the identities and authorities that are in play and offer markers that can be identified even through the fog.Originality/valueVoice work is explored as a metaphor for supervision, suggesting reflective practices that ask supervisor and candidate to pay deep attention to the sounds of their voices as well as to the nuances of the dialogue they create together.
Supervisor reflections on developing doctoralness in practice‐based doctoral students
Authors: Blass Eddie , Jasman Anne , Levy Roger 
Published: January 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to share the reflections of a group of five academics who started supervising practice‐based doctoral students at a similar time in the same institution.Design/methodology/approachThe supervisors engaged in a collaborative research process themselves, exploring their supervision practices, due in part to the relatively limited literature available in the field, and in part as a support mechanism to help them understand what they were doing.FindingsAs the first students have now completed, the learning from taking students through the cycle from start to finish for the first time is also now complete in itself. While the supervisors continue to learn both from and within the supervision process itself, that initial experience of supervising doctoral students is now complete and in many ways the doctoral development process of the students themselves.Originality/valueThis paper offers insight into the doctoral development process from the supervisor's perspective, and offers reflections on the supervision process itself, as well as insight into the difficulties that can be encountered when researching your own practice.
Reconstruct creative destruction knowledge through creative disruption
Authors: Nizam Zainuddin Muhammad , Fairuz Abd Rahim Mohd , Rozaini Mohd Rejab Mohd 
Published: January 2012

PurposeWith internet technology, knowledge acquisition surpasses the confinement of the university's campus or syllabus. Concurrently, an entrepreneurship programme has recently been offered to students, positioning universities as an experimental ground for the breeding of entrepreneurs. Thus, this paper seeks to evaluate the effect of entrepreneurship education syllabi empowered with current information communication technology (ICT) exposure towards students' entrepreneurial self‐efficacy together with social norms and their entrepreneurial intention; and whether this latest development lives up to stakeholders' expectations.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through a census survey of entrepreneurship students at four MSC‐Status universities that offer entrepreneurship degree programmes. Quantitative analyses such as regression were performed.FindingsSpecialised entrepreneurship education with ICT exposure significantly affects a student's entrepreneurial self‐efficacy. However social norms were found to be a poor predictor towards entrepreneurial intention, explaining the diminished level of influence lecturers had upon their students' behaviour.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focuses on a group of entrepreneurship students who are exposed to ICT applications at that stipulated time, and as such, the findings cannot be generalised as technology evolves rapidly. The findings are also limited to only entrepreneurial intention and demonstrate the outcome in Malaysia's higher education industry.Practical implicationsThe two direct stakeholders i.e. the university's management and lecturers, may need to reconstruct their respective initiatives by introducing “creative disruption” philosophies, policies and pedagogies to facilitate the “creative destruction” mode of education into realising its full potential.Originality/valueThis paper provides an insight into challenges that universities face in delivering distinctive knowledge consisting of theories and practices. Together, they require constructive and radical yet practical initiatives.
The convergent behavior in REIT markets
Authors: Tsai I‐Chun , Lee Cheng‐Feng 
Published: January 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze whether a convergent behavior exists in the price indexes of the seven Asian Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) markets.Design/methodology/approachThe authors investigate the convergent behavior in Asian REIT indexes against Japan and the USA by conducting the unit‐root testing procedure.FindingsResults show that the Asian REIT markets are more connected with the US REIT market than with that of Japan. The convergent behavior was more obvious since 2007.Practical implicationsThe underlying assets of real estate securities in different countries are usually not directly related; hence, there should be segmentation to a certain extent between international REIT markets as well. If the performances of Asian REIT markets are converged, this linkage can be viewed as a contagion effect.Originality/valueThe results of this paper indicate that the risk of REITs might be underestimated and the benefit that investors may acquire from adding REITs to their portfolios might be overestimated.
Has the UK court created a lease guarantee nightmare?
Authors: Dowden Malcolm 
Published: January 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to highlight the practical difficulties resulting from the UK Court of Appeal's recent guidance on the effect of anti‐avoidance provisions in the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995.Design/methodology/approachThe paper analyses the Court's guidance, focusing on the inability of a guarantor to take a valid assignment of a lease from the outgoing tenant.FindingsThe paper identifies significant implications for due diligence, valuation and pricing of property investments, arguing that the result could be to deprive landlords of access to covenant strength that is crucial to its valuation or to any sale price.Originality/valueThe paper reflects practitioner discussions since the Court of Appeal gave its ruling in K/S Victoria Street v. House of Fraser. It highlights significant new issues that must be factored into property due diligence.
Fuzzy TOPSIS‐based computerized maintenance management system selection
Authors: Uysal Fahriye , Tosun Ömür 
Published: January 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a structured methodology to permit the optimal selection of the best‐suited computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software within maintenance information technologies.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis has been executed adopting a multi‐attribute decision‐making methodology, namely the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS). For the selection process, 17 criteria under five main heading have been defined. Data obtained from questionnaires and interviews with the company's maintenance managers have been used in fuzzy TOPSIS.FindingsThe application of the proposed approach allows the maintenance practitioners to concentrate on a limited subset of CMMS applications and to compare their actual capabilities in order to select the right one, rather than considering only their purchase cost.Research limitations/implicationsComparisons with other multi‐attribute decision‐making techniques such as AHP (analytic hierarchy process) and ELECTRE (elimination and choice expressing reality) under fuzzy conditions can be done for further research.Practical implicationsThis paper is a very useful source of information both for maintenance managers and stakeholders in making decisions about the selection of CMMS software.Originality/valueThis paper addresses CMMS software evaluation and selection criteria for practitioners and proposes a new multi‐attribute decision‐making methodology, hierarchical fuzzy TOPSIS, for the problem.