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The purpose of this paper is to explore the economic performance of Norwegian crop farms using a stochastic frontier analysis.

The analysis was based on a translog cost function and unbalanced farm-level panel data for 1991–2013 from 455 Norwegian farms specialized in crop production in eastern and central regions of Norway.

The results of the analysis show that the mean efficiency was about 78–81 percent. Farm management practices and socioeconomic factors were shown to significantly affect the economic performance of Norwegian crop farms.

Farmers are getting different types of support from the government and the study does not account for the different effects of different kinds of subsidy on cost efficiency. Different subsidies might have different effects on farm performance. To get more informative and useful results, it would be necessary to repeat the analysis with less aggregated data on subsidy payments.

One implication for farmers (and their advisers) is that many of them are less efficient than the estimated benchmark (best performing farms). Thus, those lagging behind the best performing farms need to look at the way they are operating and to seek out ways to save costs or increase crop production. Perhaps there are things for lagging farmers to learn from their more productive farming neighbors. For instance, those farmers not practicing crop rotation might be well advised to try that practice.

For both taxpayers and consumers, one implication is that the contributions they pay that go to subsidize farmers appear to bring some benefits in terms of more efficient production that, in turn, increase the supply of some foods so possibly making food prices more affordable.

Unlike previous performance studies in the literature, the authors estimated farm-level economic performance accounting for the contribution of both an important farm management practice and selected socioeconomic factors. Good farm management practices, captured through crop rotation, land tenure, government support and off-farm activities were found to have made a positive and statistically significant contribution to reducing the cost of production on crop-producing farms in the Central and Eastern regions of Norway.

This paper aims to center on the value of cultivating norms for market orientation (MO) in professional service firms (PSFs). Based on social capital theory, three variables for norm-based behavioral activities of MO were suggested, i.e. leadership support (LS), relationship learning in teams (RLT) and collective engagement (CE). Moreover, three variables were suggested as performance outcomes of norm-based behavioral activities of MO, i.e. employee commitment (EC), service quality provision (SQP) and two dimensions of a firm’s innovative capability (exploratory [EXPLOR] and exploitative innovation [EXPLOIT]).

Using a survey, a conceptual model was developed and empirically tested. All participants were employed in consultancy firms representing the population of PSFs.

The findings reveal that RLT, LS and employee CE are particularly suitable in forming norm-based behavioral activities of MO for PSFs. Moreover, the findings reveal that the two dimensions of a firm’s innovative capability (EXPLOR and EXPLOIT) provide strong performance outcomes for norm-based behavioral activities of MO. Moreover, the results also reveal that norm-based behavioral activities of MO for PSFs influenced both EC and SQP.

Using social capital theory, the study contributes to identifying both forming variables and performance outcomes centered on norm-based behavioral activities of MO for PSFs.

This study clarifies the factors that foster individual innovative behaviour in the public sector by examining the effects and roles of empowering leadership, work group cohesiveness and individual learning orientation. This study also explores the direct effect of empowering leadership on work group cohesiveness and individual learning orientation, the influence of work group cohesiveness on individual learning orientation and the mediating roles of work group cohesiveness and individual learning orientation.

Data were collected from an online survey of respondents working in a public sector organization. Partial least squares structural equation modelling and mediation analysis by the bootstrap method were used for the data analysis.

Empowering leadership and individual learning orientation had significant direct effects on individual innovative behaviour. Both empowering leadership and work group cohesiveness have significant direct effects on individual learning orientation. Empowering leadership was positively related to work group cohesiveness. The mediation analysis revealed that individual learning orientation mediates the relationships between empowering leadership and individual innovative behaviour and between work group cohesiveness and individual innovative behaviour.

The study focuses on three factors that foster individual innovative behaviour in a public sector organization.

This study offers new insights into the factors that foster individual innovative behaviour in the public sector. The findings reveal the importance of using a balanced leadership style and encourage learning in the workplace for individual innovativeness by public leaders.

This paper aims to examine the factors related to organizational attractiveness (OA), a concept originating in the strategy of employer branding. Previous research on OA has predominantly adopted the perspective of external applicants. In contrast, the present study takes the perspective of internal and current employees, extending further the scope of studies on OA.

Quantitative data were collected from a survey consisting of a sample of 164 nurses, all employees of public hospitals. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data. Furthermore, the indirect effects were tested by mediator analysis.

Interdepartmental collaboration climate, management support and service quality of care were shown to have a positive effect on OA, with the three factors explaining 45% (R² = 0.45) of OA. The relationship between management support and OA was found to be mediated through the interdepartmental collaboration climate, and that between the interdepartmental collaboration climate and OA was found to be mediated through the service quality of care.

This study contributes to an understanding of OA from a current employee perspective. Specifically, it reveals how the three factors of interdepartmental collaboration climate, management support and service quality of care influence and shape the perception of current employees (nurses) toward the attractiveness of their organization.

The aim of this paper is to develop the concept of team learning capability in professional service firms. Thereafter, to examine the effect of team learning capability on innovation ambidexterity. The aspects of exploitive and explorative knowledge creation in teams and its impact on incremental and radical service innovation are in focus.

Structural equation modelling was applied to establish reliability and validity and measure the size of relationships. Evidence is drawn upon an empirical sample of 210 consultants in the professional service industry.

The findings support the concept of team learning capability and reveal that team learning capability consists of relationship learning in teams, trusting team climate and employee commitment. The results indicate a strong positive relationship between team learning capability and innovation ambidexterity in professional service firms.

This study is the first to offer an empirical-based and contextualized framework for team learning capabilities and a valid measure.

The overall aim of this study is to explore factors associated with academic performance among university students. Specifically, it explores whether a supportive study climate is directly related to academic performance and whether students’ psychological capital (PsyCap), positive emotions and study engagement play a role in the relationship between supportive study climate and academic performance.

A total of 588 bachelor students from a range of academic programs participated in a survey. The partial least squares (PLS)-based structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the conceptual models and the hypothesized relationships, using the software SmartPLS.

No support was found for a direct relationship between supportive study climate and academic performance. However, the results show that PsyCap, positive emotions and study engagement have a mediating role between supportive study climate and academic performance. In addition, the findings reveal a multifaceted pattern among PsyCap, positive emotions and study engagement that promotes academic performance.

This is the first study that simultaneously explores the role of PsyCap, emotions and study engagement between supportive study climate and academic performance among university students. Consequently, it broadens and deepens previous research and offers both theoretical and practical implications.

This study aims to examine the relationships between students’ psychological capital (PsyCap), social-contextual factors and study-related outcomes. Social-contextual factors are represented by two education-related variables: academic support and peer support. Three study-related outcome variables are included, namely, study engagement, academic performance and student well-being.

Students from different higher education campuses and academic programs in Norway participated.

PsyCap is directly related to the three study-related outcome variables. The relationship between PsyCap and academic performance is mediated by study engagement. The two social-contextual factors (academic support and peer support) are both related to PsyCap. Finally, PsyCap also mediated the relationship between the two social-contextual factors and the three study-related outcome variables.

Overall, the findings reveal that PsyCap has a key role in all study-related outcomes. Accordingly, managers of higher education institutions should take students’ PsyCap seriously and seek ways to intervene and manage the different resources embraced in the concept of PsyCap.

This study contributes to a relatively new but seemingly growing area of research in educational management, focusing on the role of student PsyCap.

The aim of this study is to examine the role of organizational climate in employees’ creative performance using the public sector as an empirical context. The employees’ creative performance is divided into two entities and studied as two separate effect variables: individual creativity and individual innovative behavior.

A conceptual model is developed and tested in a survey in which employees of a public sector organization participated.

The findings indicate that organizational climate has an important role in employees’ creative performance. The organizational climate showed a positive and significant link to the two creative performance variables included in this study. Moreover, the study revealed that individual creativity mediates the relationship between organizational climate and individual innovative behavior.

This paper is limited to examining the role of organizational climate on two creative performance variables related to individual employees in the public sector. To trigger individual creativity and individual innovative behavior in the public sector, there is a need for managers to build, develop and maintain an organizational climate that supports both employees’ creativity and enthusiasm in implementing those novel and useful ideas.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first in the public sector to demonstrate the importance of organizational climate for employees’ individual creative performance. The findings of this study adds to our current knowledge and understanding of the value of organizational climate, and its influence on individual creative performance in the public sector.

Tourism research contains a large share of consumer behavior-orientated studies using multidimensional constructs (exogenous/endogenous). Accordingly, scholars have mainly made use of a two-step approach that can be referred to as PCA-MLR (principal component analysis and then ordinary least squares multiple linear regression analysis) to examine the relationships among exogenous and endogenous constructs in a statistical model. Although this two-step approach has contributed to the advancement of tourism research, it still suffers from a number of drawbacks which can readily be overcome by a so-called second-generation statistical tool, namely, partial least squares approach to structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The current chapter explains and illustrates (with an application to tourism data) the advantages (e.g., several layers of estimations, suiting small sample sizes, robustness to multicollinearity, model-based clustering, etc.) of PLS-SEM both from a statistical and practical point of view. Finally, an elucidation is also provided for suggesting PLS-SEM as an alternative to PCA-MLR instead of COV-SEM (covariance-based structural equation modeling). The chapter concludes by proposing that PLS-SEM is a reliable and flexible statistical approach that is of high value, in particular, for applied research.