bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The roles of xinyong and guanxi in Chinese relationship marketing
Authors: Leung T.K.P. , Lai Kee‐hung , Chan Ricky Y.K. , Wong Y.H. 
Published: June 2005

PurposeThis study incorporates two Chinese cultural variables guanxi (personal relationship) and xinyong (personal trust) with other relational variables that are well defined in the west, i.e. supplier competence, commitment, conflict handling and satisfaction to see how they generate partnership relationship in a sino‐western relationship marketing context.Design/methodology/approachResearch objectives are achieved through a combination of model building, quantitative design, testing of hypotheses using AMOS and analysis of findings. The subject scope is imbedded within cultural impact on relationship marketing in a sino‐western context.FindingsThis study finds that Western suppliers must be competent in product knowledge, market development, and adaptation to buyers' requirements to resolve conflicts in order to establish their xinyong with the buyers. Competence allows suppliers to show psychological commitment and establish guanxi with the buyers. It also shows that guanxi has a stronger influence on xinyong than on satisfaction. Suppliers should use guanxi to generate buyer's perception on xinyong whilst maintaining a reasonable level of buyer satisfaction with their products and services. Also, relationship between xinyong and satisfaction is not significant. A buyer's satisfaction on the supplier's product and services does not necessarily mean that this buyer perceives the supplier having xinyong because Chinese mix (up) business with personal relationships together and sometimes they make trade‐off between them!Research limitations/implicationsThis relationship study was conducted in a single‐product relationship context within the clothing industry in the PRC environment and therefore, its findings may not be generalised to other industry. Future Chinese relationship study should increase the sample size so as to cover more industries to allow comparison across industries. This is especially valid between a manufacturing and a service‐based industry. A service‐based industry may even emphasize more on guanxi and xinyong because of its intangible aspects! Future research should include the xinyong constructs, the concepts of face and reciprocity. To what extent these important Chinese cultural values affect satisfaction and xinyong have not been determined.Practical implicationsEffective conflict handling skills and guanxi are vital to formulate a xinyong positioning strategy. A supplier must be competent in product knowledge, market development skills, and adapt to a buyer's requirements to resolve conflicts with the buyer to establish xinyong.Originality/valueThis research is an initial attempt to establish the relationship between guanxi, xinyong and partnership relationship and generates a new research area in Chinese relationship marketing.
Is the seven‐year hitch premature in industrial markets?
Authors: Barnes Bradley R. 
Published: June 2005

PurposeThe paper reports on an exploratory study aimed at analysing a series of independent variables derived from international industrial marketing and channel management literature.Design/methodology/approachThe respondents represent a number of dyadic business‐to‐business relationships of different duration, and involve firms of different size (multinational enterprise buyers and their corresponding medium sized enterprise suppliers).FindingsInitial findings support much of the extant literature on relationship marketing, demonstrating that certain aspects of a relationship tend to change over time. In particular, the study revealed that: there is a high degree of optimism associated with dyadic relationships at early stages, and these are characterised by both parties having high initial perceptions of the relationship; in mid‐term relationships some negativity maybe apparent, where certain aspects regress; and in long‐term situations, there is a tendency for relationships to be well structured, and these are particularly highly perceived among both exchange parties.Research limitations/implicationsThe research approach shares those benefits as well as limitations associated with earlier empirical investigations. That is a trade‐off in favour of undertaking dyadic exploration, than administering large samples and data sets. As a consequence of the sample size, some caution should be exercised when interpreting these findings.Practical implicationsFirms need to pay particular attention to relationships of differing time duration. This is because specific aspects of relationships may not develop in a uniform direction.Originality/valueThe research attempts to unravel the complexities and difficulties associated with obtaining data of a dyadic perspective for a significant number of relationships of different length. Such studies that map the evolvement of buyer‐seller relations over time are rare.
An analysis of quality management in franchise systems
Authors: Fernández Monroy Margarita , Melián Alzola Lucía 
Published: June 2005

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual model of behavior in the franchise network from the perspective of quality management.Design/methodology/approachBased on the review of the literature, the development of a theoretical scale for measuring quality in franchise systems in the short term (i.e. transactional quality) and in the long term (i.e. relationship quality) is proposed.FindingsTwo dimensions of transactional quality are identified from the franchisee perspective: contents and assistance. The dimensions of transactional quality from the franchisor's point of view refer to two aspects: formality and identify. The relationship quality identifies variables such as trust between cooperation partners, mutual commitment, and relationalism.Research limitations/implicationsThe proposed model is a theoretical model; an additional step is to validate empirically the dimensions of the model.Practical implicationsThe main practical implication is that the contract does not completely reflect the actual conduct of franchisor‐franchisee relationships. It is necessary to harmonize the transactional or contractual perspective with the relationship view.Originality/valueThe franchise system has assumed great importance as a pattern for the expansion of services and, just like any other organization, needs to preserve the quality of the business concept to achieve overall success. On that basis, this paper aims to contribute to quality management in franchise networks and proposes a dual model for measuring quality: transactional and relational quality.
Exploring the partnership between line managers and HRM in Greece
Authors: Papalexandris Nancy , Panayotopoulou Leda 
Published: June 2005

PurposeThis article seeks to discuss the role that line managers take up concerning human resource management issues among Greek firms and to propose ways for enhancing the synergistic relationship between human resource (HR) and line managers.Design/methodology/approachIt presents the trends of line management involvement in Greek firms, from 1993‐2003, based on the CRANET survey. The survey results are enhanced by qualitative data from focus groups.FindingsFindings show that during the past ten years there has been an increasing tendency for collaboration, with the main responsibility increasingly falling on the HR department. Moreover, the main obstacles to this collaboration are presented.Research limitations/implicationsThe main research limitation is the limited data that the CRANET questionnaire provides on the issue of HR – line management partnership. However, the focus groups enrich the survey data with qualitative results. Implications for practice derive from the qualitative results.Originality/valueThe value of this paper is mainly to line managers that are involved in human resource management activities, since the difficulties that occur from this partnership are discussed.
The service quality dimensions and patient satisfaction relationships in South Korea: comparisons across gender, age and types of service
Authors: Choi Kui‐Son , Lee Hanjoon , Kim Chankon , Lee Sunhee 
Published: June 2005

PurposeAims to investigate the structural relationships between out‐patient satisfaction and service quality dimensions under a South Korea health care system where patients have substantial freedom in choosing their medical service providers and to further study the causal relationship between service quality and satisfaction between out‐patient subgroups obtained on the basis of gender, age and types of services received.Design/methodology/approachAfter assessing the construct validity of the service quality dimensions based on confirmatory factor analysis, a path model specifying the relationships between service quality dimensions and patient satisfaction was estimated. The next analysis was a series of multi‐sample analyses. A multigroup LISREL analysis was used to test the invariance of structural paths between service quality dimensions and patient satisfaction.FindingsResults indicated that the general causal relationship between service quality and patient satisfaction was well supported in the South Korean health‐care delivery system. An examination of the estimated path coefficients showed that the pattern of relationships between service quality and patient satisfaction was similar across the gender, age, and service type subgroups. Results also revealed that the level of satisfaction, on the other hand, was not the same for subgroups when divided by age and the types of services received.Originality/valueSince the majority of the past studies have been geographically concentrated in the countries in North America and Western Europe, the findings of this study expand understanding of the relationships between service quality and patient satisfaction.
Individualistic orientation and consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence
Authors: Mourali Mehdi , Laroche Michel , Pons Frank 
Published: June 2005

PurposeInterpersonal influences play a major role in shaping consumer choice decisions. This is particularly evident in the case of services, where intangibility and variability add to the decision difficulty. While all consumers are susceptible to interpersonal influence, people differ in the extent of their susceptibility to interpersonal influence, with some individuals being chronically more susceptible to social influence than others. Seeks to speculate in this paper that, in addition to individual differences, susceptibility to interpersonal influence also varies systematically across cultures with varying degrees of individualism‐collectivism.Design/methodolog/approachHypothesis is tested by investigating and comparing the structure, properties, and mean levels of the susceptibility to interpersonal influence scale across samples of French and English Canadian consumers.FindingsIt is found that: French Canadians are significantly more susceptible to normative influence than English Canadians; French Canadians score significantly lower than English Canadians on measures of individualism; and individualism has a significant negative effect on consumer susceptibility to normative influence.Originality/valueBy showing that French Canadians were indeed less individualistic than English Canadians, and that individualistic orientation had a significant negative effect on both the utilitarian and the value‐expressive dimensions of consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence, hopefully it has been demonstrated that differences in susceptibility to normative influence between French and English Canadians are partly driven by cultural differences in individualistic orientation.
Turkish school principals’ earthquake experiences and reactions
Authors: Akbaba‐Altun Sadegul 
Published: June 2005

PurposeThe main aim of this paper is to explore the elementary school principles’ experiences and reactions toward two earthquakes, which hit the north‐west region of Turkey on August 17 and November 12, 1999.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative methodology was used since the goal of the researcher was to delineate the experiences and reactions of school principals in such an unexpected natural disaster. Data included interview and official documents and was analyzed through content analysis.FindingsThe findings indicated that school principals considered earthquakes to be an unexpected phenomenon. Second, while school principals considered earthquakes as a negative experience in the short term, they considered it a positive experience in the long term. Third, they felt the earlier regulations prepared by the Board of Education for natural disasters, such as for earthquakes, were not adequate. Finally, school principals lived through mixed emotions between their professional careers and their families.Research limitations/implicationsSchool principals’ experience may inform future policy, practice and research about school leaders.Originality/valueThe lessons learned from this article should be helpful, not only to schools and other educational departments, but also to other organisations in Turkey.
Managing “challenging” teachers
Authors: Yariv Eliezer , Coleman Marianne 
Published: June 2005

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the ways in which elementary school principals in Israel deal with teachers who are “challenging” in their behaviour, that is those who are perceived as under‐performing. This is an important and under‐researched area of educational management.Design/methodology/approachInterviews were carried out with 40 elementary school principals, every fourth school being sampled in the northern district of Haifa. They were asked to recall a particularly difficult teacher and their shortcomings and then asked about the measures they took, in chronological order, to solve the problem.FindingsThe findings indicated that the principals preferred supportive measures or making changes to the organization rather than confronting the teachers. More than half the principals had started by ignoring the difficulties. In the end most did discuss the situation with the teacher and that sometimes involved direct criticism. In half of the cases the teacher left the school by the end of the year.Research implications/limitationsThe research findings are limited as they only relate to the views of the principals, leading to the possibility of researcher empathy with the principals. Further research might investigate the teachers perspective.Practical implicationsFrom a practical point‐of‐view, the current findings indicate that elementary school principals need to be better equipped with knowledge, managerial skills and sources of assistance to solve personnel difficulties.Originality/valueThis paper adds to the limited literature on the subject of under‐performing teachers and reveals the resulting personnel difficulties faced by principals.
Temporal coordination through communication: using genres in a virtual start‐up organization
Authors: Im Hyun‐Gyung , Yates JoAnne , Orlikowski Wanda 
Published: June 2005

PurposeTo explain how genres structure temporal coordination in virtual teams over time.Design/methodology/approachThe first year e‐mail archive of a small distributed software development start‐up was coded and analyzed and these primary data were complemented with interviews of the key participants and examination of notes from the weekly phone meetings.FindingsIn this paper, it is found that members of a small start‐up organization temporally coordinated their dispersed activities through everyday communicative practices, thus accomplishing both the distributed development of a software system and the creation of a robust virtual team. In particular, the LC members used three specific genres – status reports, bug/error notifications, and update notifications – and one genre system – phone meeting management – to coordinate their distributed software development over time.Research limitations/implicationsThe study confirms the various suggestions from prior virtual team research that structuring communication and work process is an important mechanism for the temporal coordination of dispersed activities. In particular, an attempt has been made to show that the notions of genre and genre system are particularly useful to make sense of and analyze how such structuring actually occurs over time.Originality/valueIn this paper, the research focus is shifted from how a given set of temporal coordination mechanisms affect team performance to how coordination mechanisms emerge, are stabilized, and adapted over time. It is also shown how the notion of genre may be used to shed light on the practices through which temporal coordination is accomplished in geographically distributed teams.
Digital genres: a challenge to traditional genre theory
Authors: Askehave Inger , Ellerup Nielsen Anne 
Published: June 2005

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to account for the genre characteristics of non‐linear, multi‐modal, web‐mediated documents. It involves a two‐dimensional view on genres that allows one to account for the fact that digital genres act not only as text but also as medium.Design/methodology/approachThe theoretical framework of the article is the Swalesian genre theory used in academic settings all over the world to investigate the relationship between discourse and social practice and to teach genre conventions to students of language and communication. Up till now most genre research has focused on the characteristics of “printed” texts, whereas less has been done to apply the genre theory to digital genres.FindingsThe article discusses the characteristics of digital genres, notably the media constraints that have a significant effect on the production and reception of digital genres and suggests an extension of the Swalesian genre model that takes the digital characteristics into account.Research limitations/implicationsThe suggestion for a revised genre model is not based on an extensive empirical study of various types of web sites. The observation is restricted to a limited number of commercial web sites.Originality/valueThe article proposes new insights into the concept of genre adapting traditional models of genre theory to web‐mediated texts. A revised two‐dimensional genre model incorporating media elements into the concept of genre thus takes account of the particular characteristics of the navigation and reading elements of web‐mediated genres.
Weblogs as a bridging genre
Authors: Herring Susan C. , Scheidt Lois Ann , Wright Elijah , Bonus Sabrina 
Published: June 2005

PurposeAims to describe systematically the characteristics of weblogs (blogs) – frequently modified web pages in which dated entries are listed in reverse chronological sequence and which are the latest genre of internet communication to attain widespread popularity.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents the results of a quantitative content analysis of 203 randomly selected blogs, comparing the empirically observable features of the corpus with popular claims about the nature of blogs, and finding them to differ in a number of respects.FindingsNotably, blog authors, journalists and scholars alike exaggerate the extent to which blogs are interlinked, interactive, and oriented towards external events, and underestimate the importance of blogs as individualistic, intimate forms of self‐expression.Originality/valueBased on the profile generated by the empirical analysis, considers the likely antecedents of the blog genre, situates it with respect to the dominant forms of digital communication on the internet today, and suggests possible developments of the use of blogs over time in response to changes in user behavior, technology, and the broader ecology of internet genres.
Reinventing the wheel: can librarians help?
Authors: Stringer‐Hye Suellen 
Published: June 2005

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to encourage librarians to become involved in the development of emerging technology standards.Design/methodology/approachLarge amounts of data are accumulating, both in corporations and on the web. New methods of structured information retrieval are under development to help manage and access this information. Librarians, preoccupied with changes internal to the institution of the library, have not been active participants in this process, although they have much needed expertise in this area. Several important standards bodies are profiled.FindingsWhile the web continues to be a public information space, its guardians will need to concern themselves with some of the same issues with which libraries and librarians always have been concerned. If librarians want to have a say in how the web develops, they will need to learn to speak the same language as those who currently determine the policy and direction of the web.Originality/valueIt will be useful for understanding current trends in structured information. Several pointers to continued research are indicated.
Psychology of virtual architecture
Authors: Fox Robert 
Published: June 2005

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide some ideas concerning the design and implementation of the library virtual architecture and its relation to the psychology of information‐seeking behavior.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is purely theoretical and speculative. No systematic design was involved.FindingsThe renovation of a library's “virtual space” can be as important as the renewal of the physical space. Many libraries are taking advantage of user‐centric design principles as they renew the physical layout and service orientation of their libraries from an architectural standpoint. These same principles can be applied to virtual architecture in order to provide a positive and successful user experience on web sites.Practical implicationsThis paper may assist librarians in being more comprehensive in the planning of virtual architecture on web sites and in the creation of electronic finding aids.OriginalityvalueShould be interesting to those librarians who focus in their daily work on issues of information architecture and web site usability. It may also be useful to those who work in some reference capacity or regularly assist patrons in finding information.
Influencing: a critical skill for managing digital library project teams
Authors: Cervone H. Frank 
Published: June 2005

PurposeTo develop an understanding of the role successful influencing plays in managing a digital library project team.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on a prior article that discussed methodologies for coming to decisions within a group, the question remains of how to deal with situations where the team leader needs to influence people in order to accomplish the work of the project. This article outlines a methodology for practising effective influencing in a project team environment.FindingsProject managers can be more successful in influencing if they are attentive to the differing needs of team members and how they can best meet those differing needs. Different influencing styles interact with different personality types, so no one influencing style is universally appropriate and project managers need to be comfortable using several styles.Originality/valueAll people are influenced, one way or another, by other people. This paper fills a gap in the digital project management literature by helping project managers understand how influencing can be used to make project teams more effective.