The fundamental change in accounting rules for equity-based compensation (EBC) instituted by SFAS 123, SFAS 123r, and IFRS 2 has allowed for new insights related to a variety of…
Abstract
The fundamental change in accounting rules for equity-based compensation (EBC) instituted by SFAS 123, SFAS 123r, and IFRS 2 has allowed for new insights related to a variety of research questions. This paper discusses the empirical evidence generated in the wake of the new regulation and categorizes it into two broad streams. The first stream encompasses research on the changed use of EBC and the incentives provided. The second stream addresses how firms account for EBC, including the underreporting phenomenon and how it was affected by the mandatory recognition of EBC expenses. I discuss where research delivers unanimous findings versus contradictory results. Using these insights, I make recommendations for further research opportunities in the area of EBC.
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Andreas Ziegltrum, Stefan Emrich, Thomas Lohner, Klaus Michaelis, Alexander Brodyanski, Rolf Merz, Michael Kopnarski, Bernd-Robert Hoehn and Karsten Stahl
This paper aims to address the influence of tribofilms and running-in on failures and friction of gears. The operation regime of gears is increasingly shifted to mixed and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to address the influence of tribofilms and running-in on failures and friction of gears. The operation regime of gears is increasingly shifted to mixed and boundary lubrication, where high local pressures and temperatures occur at solid interactions in the gear contact. This results in strong tribofilm formation due to interactions of lubricant and its additives with the gear flanks and is related to changes of surface topography especially pronounced during running-in.
Design/methodology/approach
Experiments at a twin-disk and gear test rig were combined with chemical, structural and mechanical tribofilm characterization by surface analysis. Pitting lifetime, scuffing load carrying capacity and friction of ground spur gears were investigated for a mineral oil with different additives.
Findings
Experimental investigations showed a superordinate influence of tribofilms over surface roughness changes on damage and friction behavior of gears. Surface analysis of tribofilms provides explanatory approaches for friction behavior and load carrying capacity. A recommendation for the running-in of spur gears was derived.
Originality/value
Experimental methods and modern surface analysis were combined to study the influence of running-in and tribofilms on different failures and friction of spur gears.
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Maqsood Ahmad Sandhu, Mariam Hamad AlMeraikhi, Asima Saleem and Mariam Farooq
This study explores the determinants of value co-creation in the semi-government hospitals managed by Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) and Mubadala in the United Arab…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the determinants of value co-creation in the semi-government hospitals managed by Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) and Mubadala in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected through a structured survey questionnaire from 1,000 patients attending different healthcare facilities in the UAE. To minimize errors, a pilot study was performed on 50 respondents. The study took the structural equation modelling (SEM) approach, adopting confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), reliability analysis and regression analysis to test the hypothesis.
Findings
This study confirms the substantial influence of communication, relationships, technological enhancement and customized service delivery on the co-creation of value. The findings also confirm in all respects the mediating role of trust in building value co-creation. This sheds light on the ways that healthcare facilities can enhance value co-creation and elevate healthcare services. Notably, the direct and indirect influence of knowing on trust is deemed insignificant in the context of value creation.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of this research derives from its coverage of a subject that few empirical studies have targeted before; there were few models to draw on to demonstrate validity.
Practical implications
The research aids healthcare administrators in uncovering the dynamics of interactions between practitioners and patients, facilitating advances in the commitment to co-create value. The comprehensive insights into value co-creation contribute to the development of a versatile knowledge foundation, empowering proactive initiatives in the design of healthcare delivery models.
Originality/value
The uniqueness of this study lies in its expansion of previous research, making clear the effectiveness of various engagements that contribute to value co-creation in healthcare settings. It specifically focuses on semi-government hospitals managed by SEHA and Mubadala in the UAE.
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Fabio Cassia, Nicola Cobelli and Marta Ugolini
Previous research has shown that business-to-business (B2B) brand image has positive effects on customer loyalty. However, the results have been inconsistent because they have…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous research has shown that business-to-business (B2B) brand image has positive effects on customer loyalty. However, the results have been inconsistent because they have highlighted that B2B brand image has either direct or mediated effects on loyalty. Drawing on the framework of service transition, this study aims to develop and test a model that reconciles previous findings. This model suggests that goods-related and service-related B2B brand images coexist in customers’ perceptions and impact customer loyalty in different ways.
Design/methodology/approach
A model was developed and estimated using covariance-based structural equation modeling. The data used in the analysis were collected through a survey in the Italian health-care industry, focusing on the relationship between hearing aid manufacturers and audiologists.
Findings
Both goods-related and service-related B2B brand images have positive effects on loyalty. However, while the effects of goods-related image on loyalty are fully mediated by satisfaction, service-related image has both direct and mediated effects on loyalty.
Research limitations/implications
This study reconciles previous work arguing that B2B brand image has either direct or mediated effects on loyalty by focusing on the transition from a goods-oriented logic for branding to service branding. In particular, the analysis focuses on the role of the brand in the co-creation process, suggesting that a service-related brand image reflects the value unfolding over time through co-created experiences. However, additional research needs to be conducted in other industries before the results can be generalized.
Practical implications
The findings provide managers with insights for the co-creation of their B2B brand images. In particular, the results urge managers to integrate the traditional goods-oriented approach to branding with service branding, showing that enriching B2B brand image with service-related aspects will have a direct and positive effect on loyalty. However, brand image cannot be created or changed unilaterally by the firm as it is determined by the customer based on co-creation experiences.
Originality/value
This is the first study to explicitly and separately consider the effects of goods-related and service-related aspects of B2B brand image on loyalty. It also is one of the first studies to apply service logic to B2B branding issues.
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The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) (UN, 2006) obliges its signatory states to establish inclusive school systems. Germany ratified…
Abstract
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) (UN, 2006) obliges its signatory states to establish inclusive school systems. Germany ratified the document in 2008. This international steering impulse triggered a real “inclusion shock” (Heinrich, 2015, p. 235) when it came into force, because hardly any other country in Europe has worse conditions for implementing the convention than Germany. The school structure with up to nine special schools was called upon to fundamentally changes or adaptations by the CRPD. Since 2008, it has been observed that the various federal states in Germany react very differently to this impulse according to their own development. From an empirical point of view, this raises the question of the concrete “steering” of these inclusion-oriented transformations. The chapter examines the question of how the actors in the school system of the federal state Schleswig-Holstein reacted to this challenge between 2008 and 2014. The focus of the research interest is above all on the collective coordination of action by state and non-state actors in the multi-level system, the intentions of regulatory impulses and the effects of steering efforts in the process of implementing the CRPD. With regard to the implementation of Art. 24 of the CRPD, the “Governance-perspective“ makes it possible to conceive state activities and hierarchical forms of coordination as an integrative component of political regulatory processes, so that the complex mechanisms of influence, the intention to change, steering decisions and steering effects can be examined from an overarching perspective.
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Mark Avis and Isaac Levi Henderson
This paper aims to critically evaluate the definition of the brand concept, support the critique with an empirical study and provide a definition to resolve the problems that have…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to critically evaluate the definition of the brand concept, support the critique with an empirical study and provide a definition to resolve the problems that have been identified.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper combines a conceptual critique with empirical research using a sample of 730 journal papers to analyse the scope and number of brand-related concepts in extant literature.
Findings
The brand concept has evolved to become problematic with no clarity of definition. There has been an explosion in the number of brand-related concepts that make the brand concept opaque and unwieldy. Based upon the findings, the authors argue that it is necessary to return to a “label and associations model” of the brand concept to ameliorate these issues.
Research limitations/implications
The empirical research presented examines only 730 papers from a much wider body of brand literature. Nonetheless, it illustrates the fact that researchers and theorists are not talking about the same concept when using the term “brand”.
Practical implications
Practitioners are not being served by academic branding literature because no two researchers appear to be studying the same entity. This prevents a body of research from being built to guide practitioners.
Originality/value
This paper makes an original contribution by combining a conceptual critique and empirical study to examine the problems arising from the absence of an agreed definition of the brand concept and uses this as a foundation for creating a resolution to the problems.
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Yuri Seo, Carol Kelleher and Roderick J. Brodie
While extant service-centric research has largely focussed on managerial advantages, few studies have addressed how brand engagement emerges in the broader context of consumer…
Abstract
Purpose
While extant service-centric research has largely focussed on managerial advantages, few studies have addressed how brand engagement emerges in the broader context of consumer lives. The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel intersubjective hermeneutic framework that bridges the socially constructed as well as the individualised meanings of brand engagement in the context of service research.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper adopts a theory-building approach based on recent developments in the service-centric marketing literature.
Findings
The authors offer a novel theoretical perspective that recognises the intersubjective and phenomenological nature of individual and collective consumer brand experiences, and show how such experiences emerge from socially constructed brand engagement practices using the co-constituting lens of value-in-use.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed conceptual framework invites further empirical and contextual investigations of intersubjective brand engagement in both online and offline contexts.
Originality/value
The contribution of this framework is twofold. First, the authors draw on the intersubjective orientation and hermeneutic framework to provide conceptual clarity in relation to the nature of brand engagement practices, brand experiences, and value-in-use, and discuss their interrelationships. Second, the authors address the nature of meaning ascribed to engagement beyond customer-firm-brand relationships, and discuss why any given consumer’s experience of brand engagement reflects a complex dialectic between socially constructed and individualised brand meanings. In doing so, the integrative framework recognises the interplay between the intersubjective and phenomenological natures of consumer brand experiences, and offers insights as to how these experiences are framed by broader socially constructed engagement practices.