bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Training and management development in Chinese multinational enterprises
Authors: Shen Jie , Darby Roger 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThis paper aims to explore international training and development policies and practices in Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs). The issues examined in this study include pre‐departure and post‐arrival training for expatriates and their spouses and families, training for host‐country nationals (HCNs), reasons for Chinese MNEs not providing adequate training and the approaches of Chinese MNEs to international management development.Design/methodology/approachThis paper used a semi‐structured, interview‐based survey for collecting data from ten Chinese MNEs. The case companies consist of a range of industries and economic ownership types. A total of 30 in‐depth interviews involving general managers, HR managers at headquarters and executive managers in subsidiaries were carried out.FindingsThe paper reveals that Chinese MNEs provide only limited training to expatriates and other nationals, and lack a systematic international management development system. They adopt usually an ethnocentric approach to international training and development, and provide different levels of international training and management development for HCNs and PCNs.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper has many issues, especially those relating to the organizational determinates of international training and management development, their impact on organizational performance, and the effect of different approaches to training and development on different nationals; these require further investigation.Originality/valueThe paper shows that HRM in Chinese MNEs has not been much considered. This study has examined a selection of international training and management development issues in Chinese MNEs that have not been reported in the literature to date.
Positive and negative emotional attractors and intentional change
Authors: Howard Anita 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the process by which individual change occurs.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual paper presents the intentional change theory (ICT) perspective on the role of positive and negative emotion in individual level intentional change. Existing emotion research is reviewed to provide a framework for discussion.FindingsICT offers a new understanding on the role of positive and negative emotion in the process of intentional change. The positive emotional attractor (PEA) triggers constructive cognitive and physiological responses that enhance an individual's motivation, effort, optimism, flexibility, creative thinking, resilience and other adaptive behaviors. The negative emotional attractor (NEA) triggers another process by calling attention to current social and environmental stressors that may compromise an individual's effectiveness. While both emotional attractors play an important role in intentional change, it is critically important to leverage the beneficial effects of PEA arousal.Practical implicationsThrough thorough understanding of the PEA and NEA coaching and other ways of helping adults change can be enhanced. ICT is currently used worldwide in MBA classrooms, executive education programs and executive coaching contexts. Research on the impact of positive and negative emotion in intentional change can enhance these practice applications.Originality/valueTo date, no one has conceptualized the PEA and NEA in this manner. This proposes an enhancement of the previously developed notions of the value of positive emotion and positivity.
Elasto‐plastic analysis of plates by the element free Galerkin method
Authors: Belinha J. , Dinis L.M.J.S. 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to extend the Element Free Galerkin method (EFGM) in order to perform the elasto‐plastic analysis of isotropic plates.Design/methodology/approachThe EFGM shape‐function construction is briefly presented. The Newton‐Raphson method and the elasto‐plastic algorithm adapted to the EFGM, are described. Several plate bending non‐linear material problems are solved and the obtained solutions are compared with available finite element method (FEM) solutions.FindingsThe paper finds that the developed EFGM approach is a good alternative to the FEM for the solution of non‐linear problems, once the obtained results with the EFGM show a high similarity with the obtained FEM results.Research limitations/implicationsComparing the FEM and the EFGM there are some drawbacks for the EFGM. The computational cost of the EFGM is higher, the imposition of the essential boundary conditions is more complex and there is a high sensitivity of the method in what concerns the choice of the influence domain and the choice of the weight function.Practical implicationsThe knowledge that the EFGM formulation can be treated almost as the FEM formulation once the EFGM parameters are calibrated and optimized.Originality/valueThe extension of the EFGM to the elasto‐plastic analysis of isotropic plates.
The psychometric properties of eTail quality
Authors: Caruana Albert , Ewing Michael T. 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThe links between quality and customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty in offline retail settings are well established. It therefore seems fair to posit that quality will also be a determinant of online retailer success. This assumption motivated Wolfinbarger and Gilly to develop a scale for the measurement of “eTail quality”. The paper's purpose is to validate that scale.Design/methodology/approachThe study investigates the equivalence of the eTailQ scale across different product categories in three countries. Tests for both conceptual and psychometric equivalence are conducted.FindingsFindings suggest that eTailQ exhibits conceptual equivalence. It also exhibits psychometric equivalence by providing acceptable levels of reliability, variance extracted and both discriminant and nomological validity.Originality/valueeTailQ can be used with confidence by online goods and service retailers in English speaking countries outside the USA.
Are you enjoying globalization yet? The surprising implications for business
Authors: Slywotzky Adrian , Baumgartner Peter , Alberts Larry , Moukanas Hanna 
Published: July 2006

PurposeGlobalization is changing the nature of competition and value creation in ways more subtle and fundamental than simply cost. By incubating scores of new business models that can unseat established companies, globalization is creating opportunities for new value creation and highly profitable growth at the two ends of the value chain – new customer connections at one end and new models of innovation at the other. This article discusses globalization and the changing nature of competition and value creation.Design/methodology/approachProvides a viewpoint of globalization and the changing nature of competition and value creation.FindingsFor many companies, the most powerful moves will be to take advantage of university alliances and global talent sourcing. Every company today, large or small, has to draw the global map of the key talent pools for its business, whether that talent consists of software programmers, machinists, biotechnologists, materials scientists, cinematographers, financial analysts, medical technicians, call center operators, or electronics engineers. The key point is to spend more on the highest‐impact activities. One way is to practice the “open innovation” approach as described by Henry Chesbrough of the University of California at Berkeley, which advocates building on the innovations of others. There is tremendous leverage in shifting your thinking from “not invented here” to “invented elsewhere, monetized here.”Originality/valueFirms that follow the approach advocated in this paper may gain an advantage in value creation by concentrating not on being the first to deploy a technology but on being the best at designing and using their information.
Corporate marketing
Authors: Balmer John M.T. , Greyser Stephen A. 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThe aims of the paper are to examine the nascent area of corporate marketing.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on some of the key literature relating to the history of marketing thought.FindingsThe study reiterates the case that corporate identity, corporate branding, corporate communications, and corporate reputation should be integrated under the umbrella title of corporate marketing. The paper introduces the 6Cs of corporate marketing.Originality/valueThe paper integrates British and US perspectives on the area and draws on Balmer's workvis‐à‐viscorporate marketing and Greyser's historical overview of marketing written for the Marketing Science Institute (MSI)
Properties of anticorrosion pigments depending on their chemical composition and PVC value
Authors: Kalenda P. , Kalendová A. , Veselý D. 
Published: July 2006

PurposeTo identify the dependence of the anticorrosion efficiency of chemically varying pigments on their concentration in steel protecting paints.Design/methodology/approachAnticorrosion pigments from a group of nontoxic substances were chosen and compared with a chromate pigment. With all pigments, the following parameters were observed namely, oil absorption, critical pigment volume concentration value, density, extract pH, specific surface, particle size, water‐borne substances content, and the specific electrical conductivity of pigment extracts. The aqueous extracts of pigments were used to determine the corrosion loss of steel. The morphology of pigment particles was observed by means of an electron‐scanning microscope. Paints containing these pigments were formulated on the binder basis of an epoxy resin. The paints prepared were subjected to measurement of physical‐mechanical properties such as hardness and resistance in deep drawing. Paints containing anticorrosion pigments were subjected to corrosion tests in a SO2 condenser chamber, salt spray cabinet and to a test according to Machu and Schiffman.FindingsThe experimental investigations revealed the absolute values of the anticorrosion effects of individual pigments as well as dependence of efficiency on the concentration of the pigments in the paints. It was found that environment‐friendly pigments achieved comparable or even better anticorrosion efficiency than toxic strontium chromate.Research limitations/implicationsThe anticorrosion properties of the paints concerned can be tested in paints by means of atmospheric exposure such as the Florida test.Practical implicationsThe results find their application in the formulation of anticorrosion paints for industrial applications with environment‐friendly effects.Originality/valueThis research paper presents the results of the anticorrosion effects of a great number of industrially used pigments. Based on this paper, the formulation of highly effective steel‐protecting paints can be optimised.
Consumer innovativeness and perceived risk: implications for high technology product adoption
Authors: Hirunyawipada Tanawat , Paswan Audhesh K. 
Published: July 2006

PurposeTo investigate consumer innovativeness (CI) from a hierarchical perspective and examine the simultaneous impacts of hierarchical perspective of CI and perceived risk on new product adoption.Design/methodology/approachAn extended innovativeness and perceived risk model was developed. A structural equation model was used to test the hypotheses using empirical data from 746 respondents in a high technology product context.FindingsThe results provide support for the hierarchical perspective of CI; domain specific CI mediates the relationship between global CI and new product adoption. Specifically, cognitive and domain‐specific innovativeness enhances the actual adoption of new products; whereas sensory innovativeness and perceived social and physical risks enhance consumers' propensity to acquire novel information about new products. Financial risk, on the other hand, has a negative impact on the propensity to acquire novel information about new products. Time, performance, psychological, and network externalities risks show no significant relations with the tendency to acquire novel information about new products.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings provide an explanation to the less than consistent relationship between consumer innovativeness and new product adoption. However, a single research context of high tech consumer goods may be a limitation and future studies need to replicate this hierarchical perspective of CI as a predictor of new product adoption in different research contexts for greater generalizability.Practical implicationsThe findings of the study provide some guidelines to marketers on how to increase the new product commercialization success. Marketers should tap into the cognitive and domain‐specific innovativeness to enhance the new product adoption. The sensory part of CI and perceived social and physical risks have implications for the promotion and communication aspects of new product marketing.Originality/valueProvides new insights about consumer innovativeness trait as a useful predictor of new product adoption.
A theory of organizing informed by activity theory
Authors: Prenkert Frans 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to provide a solid theoretical base to the study of paradox in organized activity. It draws upon activity theory to show the managerial and analytical potential of the activity systems model (ASM) as a systematic tool to analyze paradox in organizational practice.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology employed in the study can be described as a longitudinal multiple case study approach. The focal organization was followed over a period of three years. About 25 interviews and 50 participatory observations were made. Text documents were analysed using an analytical tool developed from theory – the “Analysis Readiness Review (ARR)” – to structure and categorize data.FindingsThis study shows that the locus of paradox can be empirically identified within and between the constituent elements of an ASM, and that the consequence of such paradox is the emergence of a new genetically more evolved ASM. Hence, paradox in organized activity will eventually usher in change, such as the rearrangement of the elements of organized activity, and the replacement of one or many of those elements.Research limitations/implicationsThis research is limited in that it models only two principal types of contradictions in activity systems, both of which are inner contradictions intrinsic to the activity system in question. The case study is merely indicative and more empirical research is needed to further extend our knowledge of paradox in various types of organized activity.Originality/valueManagers can utilize the ARR‐tool as a systematic checklist to identify the elements of the organizational practice and to locate paradoxes. In doing so, they can actively take part in shaping the dialectical processes of change that the paradoxes create, by paying attention to the contradictions present in the activity system. This is the challenge to management that paradoxical organizational practice poses, and this paper provides one tool to help managers and researchers to better face this challenge.
Reconciling institutional theory with organizational theories
Authors: de la luz Fernández‐Alles María , Valle‐Cabrera Ramón 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThe aim of the paper is to review and compare traditional and new institutional postulates in order to address some of the criticism that this theory has received.Design/methodology/approachThroughout this paper, five interesting paradoxes are presented in management contexts of change, the creation of competitive advantages, and organizational behaviour.FindingsLight is shed on the integration efforts that seek to combine institutional theory with transaction cost theory, the resource‐based view of the firm, and the resource dependence theory.Originality/valueThe paper reviews the Oliver contribution work done around neoinstitutional theory. The paper offers a different view of organizational change, the creation of competitive advantage, and organizational behaviour.
Why small retailers endure in Latin America
Authors: D'Andrea Guillermo , Lopez‐Aleman Belen , Stengel Alejandro 
Published: July 2006

PurposeTo understand the drivers behind small‐scale retailers' collective success, even after a decade of sustained growth of the “modern” retail sector in Latin America.Design/methodology/approachThe study described in this paper was sponsored by the Coca‐Cola Retailing Research Council – Latin America. Consumer research for this study was based both on primary and secondary sources. To understand the drivers behind small‐scale retailers' collective success, standard frameworks were adapted for evaluating their value proposition and business model. Customer‐facing value drivers were examined along with selected ratios from the strategic resource model.FindingsIn spite of being “poor,” emerging consumers have a substantial purchasing power as a group. They work with a very specific set of products, categories and store format needs that distinguish them from other consumers. These distinct needs imply that it is not “just a matter of money and time” for them to change their purchasing patterns over to the “modern trade”. In fact, the evidence shows that smaller scale retailers fit the needs of emerging consumers quite well. Despite perceptions that the small retail sector draws its resilience from informality, we conclude that that the sector can be surprisingly efficient. Furthermore, the retailers exhibit a sustainable business model.Originality/valueAlthough a wide variety of studies have been developed around small‐scale retailers, less effort has been devoted to learn about local storekeepers that are actually conducting successful business, especially in reference to less developed countries.
Professional associations in the health industry
Authors: Walsh Anne M. , Borkowski Susan C. 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThis national study of 540 executives in the health industry was designed to examine organizational factors which influenced participation of male and female executives in their professional associations. Instrumental and expressive factors which influenced association membership were also analyzed by gender to assess preferences for specific membership benefits.Design/methodology/approachSurvey methodology was used in this study with questionnaires mailed to 1,680 executives in the US resulting in a response rate of 32.1 percent. Dreher and Ash's mentoring scale was used to analyze preference for specific instrumental and expressive benefits.FindingsDues posed an organizational barrier to participation in a professional association for female executives. Gender differences also influenced the type of instrumental and expressive benefits desired by executives.Research limitations/implicationsFuture studies should explore multiple association relationships to assess if there are structural or professional factors which contribute to particular network constellations.Originality/valueFew studies focused on organizational barriers or key benefits that may affect participation in professional associations.
Organizational practices supporting women and their satisfaction and well‐being
Authors: Burke Ronald J. , Burgess Zena , Fallon Barry 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThe purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the relationship of the perceived presence of organizational practices designed to support women's career advancement and their work and extra‐work satisfaction and psychological well‐being.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 98 early career women in Australia using anonymously completed questionnaires. Five organizational practices combined into a composite measure were considered; top management support and intervention, policies and resources, use of gender in human resource management, training and development initiatives and recruiting and external relations efforts.FindingsWomen reporting more organizational practices supportive of women, with higher levels of job and career satisfaction, and indicated fewer psychosomatic symptoms and less emotional exhaustion. Organizational practices were unrelated to intent to quit or extra‐work satisfactions and physical or emotional well‐being.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research is needed to determine if results generalize to women in later career stages.Practical implicationsGuidance for organizations interested in supporting women's career advancement are offered.Originality/valueThe paper illustrates an understanding of the qualities that are part of work environments that are supportive of the career aspirations of women (and men).
The emerging threat of Asia's corporate tigers
Authors: Jain Vishrut , Malik Sandeep , Cruickshank Judith 
Published: July 2006

PurposeEvery businessperson has repeatedly heard myriad reports and newscasts about the huge market opportunity in Asia. But western business managers will be caught flat‐footed if they do not update their notions of the new competitive capabilities of Asian companies and the rate at which they are evolving.Design/methodology/approachNine conventional notions are presented in this article that are critical for business leaders to change.FindingsWestern businesses must reassess the strengths and weaknesses and update their competitive posture. First they need to jettison outdated conventional wisdom.Practical implicationsWestern companies need to start including Asian players and industry clusters in their competitor screening process, if they have not already. They must evaluate how these rivals could encroach on their businesses and develop strategies now to preempt them.Originality/valueTo compete, western companies are learning new capabilities to develop products around consumer preferences and to engineer a cost structure to deliver them profitably at local price points.
Making the case for the added‐value chain
Authors: McPhee Wayne , Wheeler David 
Published: July 2006

PurposePorter's value chain has been a keystone of strategic analysis. However, because of processes associated with economic globalization: outsourcing, brand marketing and “knowledge economy” phenomena, value drivers have changed dramatically over the last 20 years. The added‐value chain provides an expanded mental model for practitioners and academics to develop and communicate strategies for value creation.Design/methodology/approachThe expanded set of activities in the added‐value chain was developed based on experience using the value chain in real world situations and analyzing leading business and strategy models that are commonly used by firms today.FindingsThe added‐value chain incorporates new sources of value creation such as the firm's brand, reputation and “social capital” or goodwill in addition to profit margin. The Added‐Value Chain also adds three primary activities.Practical implicationsManagers performing value‐chain analysis need to take into account newly important business drivers.Originality/valueExpanding the value chain ensures that no potential strategic activity is forgotten and no opportunity for enhancing value is over‐looked.