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1 – 10 of 19Vida Siahtiri, Welf Hermann Weiger, Christian Tetteh-Afi and Tobias Kraemer
As consumer debt can substantially impair subjective well-being, it is crucial for research to gain insights into how consumers can be motivated to improve financial planning…
Abstract
Purpose
As consumer debt can substantially impair subjective well-being, it is crucial for research to gain insights into how consumers can be motivated to improve financial planning. This paper aims to investigate how frontline employees in financial services can help consumers regulate their financial planning behaviors and how financial service providers can effectively support their frontline employees in this effort through leadership and organizational climate.
Design/methodology/approach
We incorporate regulatory focus theory and conservation of resource theory to develop a conceptual model that we test in a triadic study with a unique dataset collected from consumers, frontline employees, and managers in the banking sector.
Findings
We find that frontline employees must pay attention to the details of consumers’ needs and customize the service to those needs to trigger consumer promotion focus and stimulate consumers’ financial planning behaviors. Moreover, our results emphasize that the organization must act as an integrated entity. Thus, a manager’s servant leadership and an organizational climate of customer stewardship are crucial for frontline employees to transform consumers’ financial planning behaviors.
Research limitations/implications
The study highlights frontline employees’ key role in motivating consumer financial planning behavior, offering a new perspective in transformative service research on enhancing financial well-being.
Practical implications
The findings provide financial service providers with actionable implications for enhancing consumers’ financial planning. This benefits both consumers and financial institutions, as customers with greater spending power can buy more financial products.
Originality/value
This study advances transformative service research on consumer financial planning behavior, which has largely focused on consumer-related or society-level variables, by exploring the role of frontline employees and organizational support in terms of leadership and climate.
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Nadine L. Ludwig, Sven Heidenreich, Tobias Kraemer and Matthias Gouthier
Over the last years, the concept of customer delight has moved into the focus of attention. The necessity of surprise for achieving customer delight and the problem of increased…
Abstract
Purpose
Over the last years, the concept of customer delight has moved into the focus of attention. The necessity of surprise for achieving customer delight and the problem of increased customer expectation (spiral of expectations) have been controversially discussed in the literature. The purpose of the paper is therefore to investigate whether customer delight necessarily requires surprise and whether a misdirected delight strategy can backfire by creating disloyal customers.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employs a 2 (after-sales extra value: yes vs no)×2 (knowledge about the extra value: yes vs no) between-subject, scenario-based experiment (n=472) in a hotel environment and partial least squares structural equation modeling to analyze the data.
Findings
Study results show that surprise is not a necessary prerequisite for achieving customer delight, but its presence strengthens the delight experience for the customer, positively impacting customer loyalty intentions. Conversely, a surprising nonoccurrence of an expected delight measure causes anger, inducing negative word of mouth and reduced repurchase intentions.
Practical implications
To pursue a sustainable customer delight approach, companies should recognize that they do not need to surprise their customers on every occasion, but rather ensure that customers do not fall short of anticipated delightful events.
Originality/value
The current research strives to contribute to the theory and practice by shedding light on two so far not appropriately addressed research areas of customer delight: the necessity of surprise to evoke customer delight and the consequences of absent but expected delight measures.
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Tobias Kraemer and Matthias H.J. Gouthier
Personnel turnover entails considerable costs and is a major problem for the call center industry. By modifying the job demands-resources model, this study aims to examine how…
Abstract
Purpose
Personnel turnover entails considerable costs and is a major problem for the call center industry. By modifying the job demands-resources model, this study aims to examine how emotional exhaustion and organizational pride affect turnover intentions. In addition, it investigates how emotional exhaustion and organizational pride are formed by job demands and job resources and how gender and organizational tenure moderate the model.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper surveyed 252 call center agents and tested the research hypotheses with component-based structural equation modeling. Two multi-group analyses clarify the proposed moderating effects of gender and organizational tenure.
Findings
Emotional exhaustion and organizational pride essentially determine turnover intentions. Organizational pride, which has received little attention in related research, plays a central role. Two job demands and three job resources strongly influence emotional exhaustion and organizational pride, respectively. Gender and organizational tenure moderate several effects.
Research limitations/implications
This study is based on a sample of call center agents from three different call centers in one country. Therefore, the generalizability of the findings has to be tested. Furthermore, the paper examines turnover intentions, which are good predictors of turnover behavior. Nevertheless, further research should investigate the relationship between the variables and actual turnover. Moreover, the model included six different job determinants. Future research should test the proposed model with other job demands and resources.
Practical implications
Emotional exhaustion and organizational pride substantially affect turnover intentions. Call center managers should protect employees from emotional exhaustion and enhance organizational pride, using specific job demands and resources. This study shows how the importance of certain variables differs for various groups of employees.
Originality/value
This study is the first to examine how certain job resource foster organizational pride and how organizational pride affects voluntary employee turnover in call centers. Further, the study demonstrates that the socio-demographic variables gender and organizational tenure moderate the creation of emotional exhaustion and organizational pride, which together explain a large amount of the variance in turnover intentions among call center agents.
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Katherine Assante Perrotta and Joseph R. Feinberg
College instructors are entering a new frontier of teaching in the 21st century. Millennial students are bringing to university classrooms different experiences regarding the ways…
Abstract
College instructors are entering a new frontier of teaching in the 21st century. Millennial students are bringing to university classrooms different experiences regarding the ways they learn and engage in critical thinking. As online universities gain more popularity across the country, higher education institutions are offering more hybrid and distance-learning courses on the Internet match the demand for using technology for teaching and learning. This action research study evaluates how the Annenberg Media digital simulation The Constitutional Convention of 1787 effected student engagement in an undergraduate history course at a community college in a metropolitan region of the Southeast. Practical suggestions are provided for college level history instructors to adapt digital simulations for teaching curricular and content skills that foster critical thinking, digital literacy, and engaged learning.
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Tobias Bucher and Robert Winter
The purpose of this paper is to explore project types (PTs) of business process management (BPM). PTs are a key concept to describe development situations in situational method…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore project types (PTs) of business process management (BPM). PTs are a key concept to describe development situations in situational method engineering (SME). SME acts on the assumption that generic methods need to be adapted to the specifics of the development situation in which they are to be applied.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on results from an empirical analysis directed at the identification of design factors of and realization approaches to BPM. It extends an earlier study through the inclusion of new data points that allow for the derivation and characterization of PTs. To this end, multivariate data analysis techniques such as regression analysis, factor analysis, and cluster analysis are applied. Albeit inherently behavioral, the research described in the paper constitutes an important foundation for subsequent design research (DR) activities, in particular for the engineering of situational methods.
Findings
The analysis suggests that there are three major and two minor PTs that characterize development situations of BPM. The common ground of the three major PTs is that they are characterized by a common target state, in this paper denoted as individualist realization approach to BPM. When compared to other realization approaches, this approach is characterized by high maturity and high customization requirements for process management.
Research limitations/implications
The gain in insight into the PTs of BPM is particularly useful for the engineering of situational methods aimed at the implementation and advancement of process‐oriented management within real‐world organizations. However, there are some research limitations/implications for further research: the empirical results are derived from a relatively small data set. The PTs identified in the present contribution therefore need further validation. In order to complete the proposed scenario structure for BPM, a taxonomy of complementary context types needs to be identified, too.
Practical implications
Many methods to support BPM or particular aspects thereof have been proposed and discussed. A major shortcoming of most of these methods is that they claim to be of universal validity. SME acts on the idea that there is no “one‐size‐fits‐all” method. Instead, generic methods need to be adapted to the specifics of the development situation in which they are to be applied. The proposed PTs represent a starting point to enable the engineering of situation methods for BPM.
Originality/value
The research results of this paper are useful for the construction of methods in the field of BPM which can be adapted to specific development situations.
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Tobias Menzel and Timm Teubner
This paper aims to present a conceptual framework for the emerging field of green energy platform economics.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a conceptual framework for the emerging field of green energy platform economics.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors develop a conceptual framework based on a careful review of the existing literature, and research into the current provider landscape and insights from academic and industry experts. The authors also examine the implications for the energy sector’s value chain and derive a research agenda based on those areas where research still needs to be pursued.
Findings
The framework combines the spatial characteristics of platform models (residential/mobile) with the different types of platform business model (B2C/C2C/C2Grid). Using this framework, the authors illustrate how green energy platforms can fundamentally disrupt the conventional electricity value chain by enabling prosumers to market their assets, creating new arenas for trading and collaboration, and by increasing transparency and competition in the sector. The authors also identify areas where more research is required, particularly empirical studies into energy forms other than electricity and analyses of currently underrepresented aspects such as user interfaces and social interactions.
Social implications
Green energy platforms have the potential to contribute meaningfully to the energy sector’s decarbonization, digitalization and decentralization, and hence to the deceleration of climate change.
Originality/value
This paper is among the first to provide a holistic perspective on platformization in the energy sector. It also offers a new perspective on platform economics in general that is based on the unique characteristics of energy as an economic good (intangibility, homogeneity, credence good).
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M. Kabir Hassan, Muneer M. Alshater, Hasanul Banna and Md Rabiul Alam
World legends and the scientific community have taken the devastating impact of poverty issue seriously which has been reflected in the growing trend of research in this area…
Abstract
Purpose
World legends and the scientific community have taken the devastating impact of poverty issue seriously which has been reflected in the growing trend of research in this area. Hence, this paper aims to conduct a bibliometric analysis on poverty alleviation literature, discuss the various dimensions of poverty alleviation and deliver some ideas for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
This study deploys a combined quali-quantitative method familiar as meta-literature review on 454 articles collected from the Web of Science (WoS) database with Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) coverage over the period 1971–2020. Using Rstudio, VOSviewer and Excel, the collected data have been analysed from different lenses.
Findings
This study considers the most contributing scientific actors like authors, journals, topics, institutions and countries as parameters for analysing articles. Based on the analysis from various perspectives, it determines five main research streams upon which it provides some potential research directions to be considered in future research.
Research limitations/implications
This study solely relies on the articles available in the WoS database with index in SSCI. However, it excludes analysing thousands of articles on the same topic available in other platforms.
Originality/value
This study provides a retrospective on the scientific works and collective efforts of scholars germane to poverty alleviation from the highest ranked journals, which would help better understand the literature development and the intellectual structure of this field.
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Muhammad Qamar Zia, Tobias M. Huning, Aamir Feroz Shamsi, Muhammad Naveed and Riaz Ahmed Mangi
The goal of this study was to examine the mediating mechanism of informal learning between dimensions of learning climate and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). In…
Abstract
Purpose
The goal of this study was to examine the mediating mechanism of informal learning between dimensions of learning climate and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). In addition, the study also aimed to investigate the learning climate, in the dimensions of learning facilitation, learning appreciation and error avoidance as antecedents of informal learning.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were gathered from sports items manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Sialkot, Pakistan. Sialkot is home to manufacturing businesses that export their products worldwide. Survey data of 318 middle managers collected at 2 different times were used for testing the research model using structural equation modeling (SEM).
Findings
The results demonstrate that facilitation and appreciation learning climate have a positive relationship with informal learning and error-avoidance has a negative relationship with informal learning. The analysis also revealed that informal learning mediated the linkage between learning climate dimensions and OCB. Moreover, informal learning is significantly related to OCB.
Practical implications
HR practitioners and organizational leaders of SMEs can use, encourage and promote informal learning to improve the skills and knowledge of employees at low cost. For instance, management should strategically implement informal learning at the workplace by providing a supportive learning climate.
Originality/value
Previous studies have overlooked the impact of informal learning on OCB and its mediating effect. The present study addresses this gap by examining the mediating mechanism of informal learning between learning climate and OCB.
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Uchenna Daniel Ani, Hongmei He and Ashutosh Tiwari
As cyber-attacks continue to grow, organisations adopting the internet-of-things (IoT) have continued to react to security concerns that threaten their businesses within the…
Abstract
Purpose
As cyber-attacks continue to grow, organisations adopting the internet-of-things (IoT) have continued to react to security concerns that threaten their businesses within the current highly competitive environment. Many recorded industrial cyber-attacks have successfully beaten technical security solutions by exploiting human-factor vulnerabilities related to security knowledge and skills and manipulating human elements into inadvertently conveying access to critical industrial assets. Knowledge and skill capabilities contribute to human analytical proficiencies for enhanced cybersecurity readiness. Thus, a human-factored security endeavour is required to investigate the capabilities of the human constituents (workforce) to appropriately recognise and respond to cyber intrusion events within the industrial control system (ICS) environment.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative approach (statistical analysis) is adopted to provide an approach to quantify the potential cybersecurity capability aptitudes of industrial human actors, identify the least security-capable workforce in the operational domain with the greatest susceptibility likelihood to cyber-attacks (i.e. weakest link) and guide the enhancement of security assurance. To support these objectives, a Human-factored Cyber Security Capability Evaluation approach is presented using conceptual analysis techniques.
Findings
Using a test scenario, the approach demonstrates the capacity to proffer an efficient evaluation of workforce security knowledge and skills capabilities and the identification of weakest link in the workforce.
Practical implications
The approach can enable organisations to gain better workforce security perspectives like security-consciousness, alertness and response aptitudes, thus guiding organisations into adopting strategic means of appropriating security remediation outlines, scopes and resources without undue wastes or redundancies.
Originality/value
This paper demonstrates originality by providing a framework and computational approach for characterising and quantify human-factor security capabilities based on security knowledge and security skills. It also supports the identification of potential security weakest links amongst an evaluated industrial workforce (human agents), some key security susceptibility areas and relevant control interventions. The model and validation results demonstrate the application of action research. This paper demonstrates originality by illustrating how action research can be applied within socio-technical dimensions to solve recurrent and dynamic problems related to industrial environment cyber security improvement. It provides value by demonstrating how theoretical security knowledge (awareness) and practical security skills can help resolve cyber security response and control uncertainties within industrial organisations.
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Angelica Carreira dos Santos, Daniel Araki Ribeiro, Jessica Almeida da Cruz Ferreira, Odair Aguiar, Dan Linetzky Waitzberg and Claudia Cristina Alves
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of prebiotic, probiotic and synbiotic supplementation on liver histopathology and TLR-4, NFκB and TNF-α gene expression…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of prebiotic, probiotic and synbiotic supplementation on liver histopathology and TLR-4, NFκB and TNF-α gene expression involved in the inflammatory cascade and pathogenesis of experimental nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
Design/methodology/approach
Wistar male adult rats (n = 40) were submitted to hypercholesterolemic conditions (60 days). On Day 30 of hypercholesterolemic conditions, rats were subdivided in five groups: negative control (NC), positive control (PC), prebiotic (PRE), probiotic (PRO) and synbiotic (SYN). All rats were sacrificed on Day 60. Liver tissue was used to verify histopathological changes and gene expression. Gene expression of TLR-4, TNF-α and NFκB was evaluated in liver tissue using RT-qPCR.
Findings
Histopathological analysis: PC showed more changes than NC, and PRE and SYN showed fewer alterations than PC. Gene expression analysis: PRE showed higher TLR-4, and NFκB and TNF-α compared to PC. Also, PRE showed higher TLR-4 when compared to PRO and SYN. SYN group revealed higher TLR-4 and NFκB expressions compared to PC. PRO group also showed higher NFκB expression compared to PC.
Originality/value
NAFLD is a significant health concern, and it found that prebiotic, probiotic and synbiotic supplementation could have positive effects as a nonpharmacological approach to control this disease.