bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Regaining a seat at the table: marketing management and the e‐service opportunity
Authors: Hughes Tim 
Published: June 2007

PurposeThe study outlined in this paper seeks to deepen one's understanding of the theoretical and practical implications for marketing management where an internet component has been added to the business.Design/methodology/approachCases were developed primarily from individual in‐depth interviews with 30 managers from financial services.FindingsIn setting up an e‐commerce capability the case study organizations have been taking strategic decisions on customer interaction. Aligning channels cost‐effectively with appropriate customers requires difficult decisions to be made in targeting and managing different customer segments. At the operational level many aspects of customer interaction can be handled centrally, moving the emphasis of customer management into customer service departments.Research limitations/implicationsThe question of how best to manage customers effectively, using e‐service in an integrated manner with other channels, can be seen to be complex and requires further research in order to extend theory in this area and give more meaningful guidance to marketing practitioners.Practical implicationsThe marketing function has the potential to play a prime role in ensuring that remote customer management is effective. Recommendations are made for practising managers on developing an integrated channel strategy; setting up processes for managing customer feedback from the new channels and responding to this feedback.Originality/valueE‐service is throwing up new and fundamental challenges for organizations and this potentially provides new opportunities for marketing practitioners to play a leading role at strategic and operational levels. However, in the cases marketing management's strategic and operational contribution to resolving these issues was limited.
Search platforms revisited – the end of “native” interfaces?
Authors: Oberhelman David D. 
Published: June 2007

PurposeThis paper aims to look at the user‐friendliness of search interfaces of different databases.Design/methodology/approach – Looks at the capabilities of different search engines and the flexibility they allow within databases.Findings – Libraries are increasingly offering multiple means of accessing the data contained in their products, and the era of a single search platform for all library resources is not that far off, and in some cases is already here (with varying degrees of success). Thus the burden on vendors to create ever better search experiences for their users has become all the greater, and the competition both for superior content and superior search interface designing has become a little more intense.Originality/value – This paper shows search capabilities that are available now, and what may be available in the near future.
Quality costs in education
Authors: Green Trevor J. 
Published: June 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the relevance of Feigenbaum's quality costs model to managers in higher education and to put forward a possible way of implementing such a model in an educational area.Design/methodology/approachFollowing the author's Master's project into the relevance of TQM to a higher education institution, the need to increase student numbers without pro‐rata increase in costs is discussed along with the subsequent need to “measure”. Feigenbaum's model is described in detail with examples of industrial costs compared with higher education costs. A possible way of implementing the model is suggested with justification for the approach taken. The scope of the paper is limited to the model and its possible use.FindingsThe paper finds that taking the decision to implement the model requires a willingness to incur costs before realising savings. The examples show that planning the incurring of costs can result in the realised savings – but accurate measurement of the savings is difficult.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is a pilot study of the implementation of the model which would enable a clearer picture to emerge as to the willingness to view costs in a different way from that prevalent in the sector.Practical implicationsThe paper shows that managers will need to be prepared to relinquish some control of financial resources to pay for the planned costs. Academic and non‐academic staff will need to be prepared to identify failings, be prepared to identify practical ways of preventing those failings and be prepared to involve themselves in making the new procedures work.Originality/valueThe model is old, but the costs it describes are being incurred in many institutions in a haphazard way today. This paper suggests a route to making expenditure on day‐to‐day activities planned.
The effectiveness of quality improvement initiatives in service operational context
Authors: Yasin Mahmoud M. , Alavi Jafar 
Published: June 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to study the environmental and competitive factors in the service organizations and second, to investigate the extent of effective implementation of quality improvement initiatives in different operational settings.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper factor analysis is used to determine the underlying factors associated with the changes in the competitive environment. Proportional measures are used to study the implementation of quality improvement initiatives.FindingsThe paper finds that quality improvement initiatives are not implemented uniformly by all the service industries. Organizations implementing quality improvement initiatives face varying degrees of effectiveness. Positive operational and strategic outcomes have been observed by organizations implementing the quality improvement initiatives.Practical implicationsThe results of this paper show that implementation of different types of quality improvement initiatives has a positive impact on operational and strategic aspects of service organizations.Originality/valueThe empirical investigation in this paper shows the practical and theoretical value of issues related to the performance of service organizations.
Assessing customer focus using the EFQM Excellence Model: a local government case
Authors: Jacobs Brian , Suckling Steven 
Published: June 2007

PurposeA critical problem for managers in South Staffordshire Council's one‐stop‐shop customer contact centre, known as South Staffordshire Solutions, was how to assess the achievement of “customer focus” in local services. The purpose of the paper is to view how managers adopted a model of self‐assessment to address the problem.Design/methodology/approachThe paper shows how the EFQM Excellence Model enabled managers to effectively self‐assess critical performance issues relating to customer focus. It also shows how the assessors used the fundamental concepts of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model to identify a range of service interrelationships affecting customers.FindingsThe paper finds that the assessors need to take account of the interrelationships between customer focus, results and learning to assess delivery of value to external customers. The EFQM Excellence Model provided South Staffordshire Council with an effective way of self‐assessing customer‐related issues.Practical implicationsThe paper shows that self‐assessment enabled managers in the customer contact centre to assess customer focus within the broader context of the Council's Balanced Scorecard commitment to enhancing performance under the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA).Originality/valueIn this paper the assessors used the EFQM model to develop a narrative about sustained customer value creation by combining the fundamental concepts of the model with thinking about the unique value proposition offered to customers by the service.
Job design for learning in work groups
Authors: Lantz Annika , Brav Agneta 
Published: June 2007

PurposeWhat is required of job design and production planning, if they are to result in a work group taking a self‐starting approach and going beyond what is formally required of it? This paper aims to contribute to group research by testing a theoretical model of relations between job design on the one hand (captured as completeness, demand on responsibility, demand on cooperation, cognitive demand, and learning opportunities), and reflexivity and learning processes within natural work groups in industry on the other hand.Design/methodology/approachThe results are based on detailed task analyses and questionnaires from 40 work groups at the shop‐floor level in manufacturing industry in Sweden.FindingsJob design and work routines show strong effects on reflexivity and learning processes. Four dimensions of job design – completeness, demand on cooperation, cognitive demand and learning opportunities – impact on reflexivity and learning processes. Job design correlates with social routines, and social routines with work routines.Practical implicationsIt is crucial to create a job design that puts challenging demands on the group if group processes are to be characterized by reflexivity and learning. Managers have a challenging task to provide both a space and a climate that supports reflexivity and learning. All functions affected by production planning need to be involved in job design to balance conflicts between productivity and innovation.Originality/valueDetailed task analysis is worthwhile as it captures aspects that are prerequisites for innovative groups not previously accounted for.
Bureaucratic boundaries for collective learning in industrial work
Authors: Kira Mari , Frieling Ekkehart 
Published: June 2007

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to explore individual and collective workplace learning and the connections between them in the contemporary industrial work.Design/methodology/approachTwo case studies were carried out in the Finnish package‐supplier sector. The research methods applied were standardized observations and qualitative interviews.FindingsThe cases show that the socio‐technical influences have created learning‐conductive work at the individual level, but failed to create optimal possibilities for collective learning. The still‐prevailing bureaucratic power relations prevent employees from fully contributing to collective learning and organizational development.Research limitations/implicationsWorkplace‐learning research should study more rigorously the connections between individual and collective learning and, especially, the ways in which the prevailing power relations influence them. Integrating concepts from chaordic systems thinking to the workplace‐learning theory seems fruitful and could be pursued further.Practical implicationsIn order to become organizations in which internal and external development may take place at the individual and collective levels alike, the case companies should directly address their shared mental models regulating employees' participation opportunities rather than leave those models to develop in a non‐reflected way.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the field of workplace learning by presenting a conceptual model on sustainable development building on concurrent individual and collective learning. With the help of this model, founded on several theoretical traditions, strengths and weakness in an organization's approach to workplace learning can be detected.
Integrated care pathways: pathways to change in health care?
Authors: Whittle Claire , Hewison Alistair 
Published: June 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that, if teams in healthcare focus on the patient using the framework of a care pathway, change can occur without the overt need to “manage” it directly.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper the relevant literature is reviewed and it is demonstrated that if this approach is used it also provides a means for addressing difficult professional and organisational issues that are often unresolved in broader projects of organisational change. This is not presented as a panacea or the solution to all change projects, rather the contention here is that it is one means among many that can be used to bring about important changes in practice.FindingsThe paper finds that care pathways represent a useful tool, which teams can use to work through the contextual and practical issues involved in changing practice.Originality/valueThe paper describes the development of integrated care pathways, which can be regarded as a fortunate fusion of managerial and professional concerns.
Nurse retention strategies: advice from experienced registered nurses
Authors: Dietrich Leurer Marie , Donnelly Glenn , Domm Elizabeth 
Published: June 2007

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to explore the insights of experienced nurses regarding initiatives they believe would effectively retain nurses like themselves in the nursing profession.Design/methodology/approachAs part of a qualitative investigation into the perceptions of nurses regarding issues affecting their profession, experienced nurses were asked to describe what retention strategies they would recommend to policy‐makers. A total of 16 semi‐structured interviews were conducted with long‐term nurses in a health region in western Canada.FindingsThe paper found that seven retention strategies were commonly mentioned by the participants. The qualitative mode of inquiry allowed the nurses to convey the context, attitudes and feelings behind their recommendations.Research limitations/implicationsThe work environments and accompanying retention policies experienced by nurses vary widely according to the specific employment context. As is typical with qualitative research, the findings of this study cannot be considered as generalizable to all nurses in all health care settings.Practical implicationsThe results of this paper provide a deeper understanding of the attitudes, emotions and contextual issues behind the nurse retention strategies seen as most appropriate by the target audience of long‐term nurses.Originality/valueWhile there is much literature advocating the implementation of nurse retention strategies, very little evidence has been presented from a qualitative lens. It is necessary to directly listen to the voices of those impacted by policies in order to better appreciate how such policies are perceived from a bottom‐up perspective.
Organisational justice and employee perceptions on hospital management
Authors: Wiili‐Peltola Erja , Kivimäki Mika , Elovainio Marko , Virtanen Marianna 
Published: June 2007

PurposeThe purpose to clarify what kind of managerial challenges employees experience regarding organisational justice in hospitals.Design/methodology/approachThis exploratory study of 8,971 employees working in 14 hospitals and examines the concept of organisational justice in management with qualitative and quantitative methods.FindingsAn inductive content analysis of the comments revealed five integrative frames describing challenges in hospital management at respondents' workplaces. These frames should be regarded as major managerial challenges in hospitals. These findings illustrate important antecedents of organisational justice and suggest that work units tend to share the same perceptions of justice. They also reveal that individually produced comments reflect collective experiences in organisational justice. Further, the results indicate that problems in management and policies are often experienced in a complex way, and people making justice judgements do not separate procedural and interactional factors.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the commentators producing qualitative data represented many organisational hierarchy levels, the results should not be generalised to apply to horizontal, informal social relationships.Practical implicationsThis paper gives useful information regarding challenges in human resources management in hospitals.Originality/valueThe paper suggests that people making fairness judgements do not make a distinction between procedural and interpersonal factors. Instead, they use any information available to judge the righteousness of the management events. This paper serves to guide hospital managers towards a better understanding of the importance of organisational justice and its collective nature.
Clarifying concerns about doctors' clinical performance
Authors: Berrow Diane , Humphrey Charlotte , Field Rosemary , Jobanputra Rena , Faw Leyla 
Published: June 2007

PurposeThe UK National Clinical Assessment Service (NCAS) provides local NHS bodies with advice and support in relation to concerns about individual doctors and dentists and in some cases also conducts a detailed assessment of practitioner performance. The purpose of this paper is to identify the contribution of NCAS performance assessment to clarifying concerns about clinical performance through comparison of concerns suspected at initial referral with those identified at assessment.Design/methodology/approachIn the paper a sample of 50 NCAS medical cases, performance issues reported at the point of referral to NCAS and those identified at assessment were grouped into five broad domains (clinical care, behaviour, health, education and training, organisation). Concerns identified at assessment were compared with those reported at referral for each domain of concern. Conclusions and recommendations following assessment were also reviewed.FindingsWithin each domain, some concerns noted at referral were confirmed; others were challenged or redefined. In all areas, but particularly in respect of the work environment, new concerns were identified for the first time at assessment. In 20 percent of cases, the concerns identified at referral were not borne out at assessment. In 12 percent of cases the issues revealed at assessment were more serious than anticipated.Practical implicationsFindings indicate that the NCAS assessment process provides a more accurate and comprehensive “diagnosis” of performance issues, enabling more appropriate recommendations for “treatment” and helping to differentiate between potentially remediable and more fundamental problems.Originality/valueThere is currently little published evidence about the contribution of this type of performance assessment programme to clarifying performance issues.
Dynamic relationships and technological innovation in hot and cold issue markets
Authors: Walker Thomas J. , Lin Michael Y. 
Published: June 2007

PurposeThe puzzle of hot and cold issue markets has attracted substantial interest in the academic community. The behavior of IPO volume and initial returns over time is well documented. Few studies, however, investigate the dynamic interrelationship between these two variables. This paper aims to fill this gap. In addition, the technological innovations hypothesis of hot issue markets is tested. Welch and Hoffmann‐Burchardi suggest that the clustering of new issues is caused by IPO volume spikes in industries that have recently experienced technological innovations or favorable productivity shocks.Design/methodology/approachThis paper employs a sample of 8,160 initial public offerings filed in the USA between January 1972 and December 2001. A simultaneous equation approach is used to examine the endogenous relationship between IPO volume and initial returns. In addition, the paper analyzes the industry correlation matrix of new issue activity and estimates a fixed‐effects model based on industry‐level data to examine the impact of technological innovations on new issue activity.FindingsIt is found that higher IPO volume causes higher initial returns, but not vice versa. In addition, evidence is found against the technological innovations hypothesis. The findings suggest that economy‐wide rather than industry‐specific factors are responsible for the observed variations in IPO volume.Research limitations/implicationsAs with any empirical study, the results may be sample‐specific.Originality/valueThe paper extends the prior literature on the relationship between IPO volume and initial returns by applying two‐stage and three‐stage least squares models that go beyond prior methodological approaches used in the extant literature. In addition, the paper provides some of the first empirical evidence on the effect of technological innovations and productivity shocks on IPO activity.
Random walk currency futures profits revisited
Authors: Pukthuanthong Kuntara , Lee R. Thomas Lee R. Thomas , Bazan Carlos 
Published: June 2007

PurposeRecent research indicates that the random walk hypothesis (RWH) approximately describes the behavior of major dollar exchange rates during the post‐1973 float. The present analysis seeks to examine the profitability of currency futures trading rules that assume that spot exchange rates can be adequately modeled as a driftless random walk.Design/methodology/approachTwo random walk currency futures trading rules are simulated over all available data from the period 1984‐2003. In both cases, the investor buys currencies selling at a discount and sells those selling at a premium, as the RWH implies. The two rules differ only in the way they allocate the hypothetical investor's resources among long and short foreign currency positions.FindingsResults show that an investor who used these trading strategies over the past decade would have enjoyed large cumulative gains, although periods of profit were interrupted by periods of substantial loss.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings encourage the hope that profitable random‐walk‐based strategies for currency futures trading can be devised. The simulation results have important implications for those willing to hedge, borrowers, and speculators.Originality/valueThis paper provides evidence that purchasing futures contracts on currencies priced at a discount and selling futures contracts priced at a premium has generally been a profitable trading strategy during the last two decades of floating exchange rates.
Phenomenological approaches to work, life and responsibility
Authors: Faÿ Eric , Riot Philippe 
Published: June 2007

PurposeThis paper serves two purposes. It is an introduction to the theme of this issue of Society and Business Review which is devoted to “Phenomenological approaches to work, life and responsibility” as well as a presentation of the authors' various contributions. The authors of this paper share the sentiment that management sciences and practices may drive us in a way such that the sense of life has been altered and people, contrary to Kant's definition of moral behavior, are treated as means instead of ends. Moreover, starting from a widely‐spread malaise in modern organizations, they argue how phenomenology can provide us with an approach that can be helpful in assessing our present situation as well as getting a renewed perception concerning work and life.Design/methodology/approachThe authors demonstrate the relevance of Husserl's phenomenology in criticizing management techniques for they direct us to objectives that are abstract, calculable, not one's own, and distant. They single out Husserl's concept of epoche for its high relevance with the theme of this issue and its different papers.FindingsThe findings suggest Husserl's concept of epoche (suspension) can be considered as the starting point of a process allowing us to firstly take distance with our usual taken for granted assumptions regarding life and work (bracketing) and then to re‐establish a genuine connection with Husserl's “world of life”. In addition, they establish how epoche can be perceived as a hub linking and introducing the work of other researchers comprising this special issue and their various inspiring authors (Koselleck, Levinas, Henry).Originality/valueBy using a phenomenological perspective, this paper brings an original contribution to critical‐management approaches. It can contribute to a social responsibility renewal in the business arena by providing reflexive practitioners with clues that can trigger new and more human practices. Overall, this paper provides one as a human being an opportunity to analyze the causes of one's malaise and identify better ways to live one's life.