Florence Y.Y. Ling, Benjamin G.Y. Toh, Mohan Kumaraswamy and Kelwin Wong
The purpose of this paper is to investigates strategies for achieving better integration between the design and construction (DC) and operation and maintenance (OM) supply chains…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigates strategies for achieving better integration between the design and construction (DC) and operation and maintenance (OM) supply chains in Singapore. The specific objectives are to: discover the goals that stakeholders want to achieve in integrating the supply chains; identify the stakeholders that play important integration role in each supply chain; and investigate the effective strategies that may yield better integration of the supply chains.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The sampling frame was Singapore-based clients, consultants and construction firms involved in developing and managing built facilities.
Findings
The most important strategies for integrating the supply chains are: sharing relevant information and addressing sustainability issues jointly with DC and OM teams; and integrating life cycle optimization options in DC and OM supply chains.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations include low response rate, and the subjective nature of a Likert scale which was used to rate importance levels. The research implication is that activities in DC and OM supply chains can indeed be integrated, and this leads to higher value for all stakeholders.
Practical implications
The practical implication is that stakeholders could adopt the effective strategies identified by this study to foster closer integration of the two supply chains in Singapore. Teams from both supply chains need to work jointly instead of consecutively. Sharing information through an online platform by setting up a web-based database may help in their collaboration. It is also important that common goals need be set out at the onset, preferably by clients of built facilities, with strong buy-in by main contractors and consultants, so as to achieve better value.
Originality/value
The study revealed effective strategies for integrating DC and OM supply chains.
Details
Keywords
Tassilo Schuster, Judith Ambrosius and Benjamin Bader
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of personality and mentorship on expatriates’ psychological well-being. The authors argue that certain personality traits…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of personality and mentorship on expatriates’ psychological well-being. The authors argue that certain personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience) have positive effects on expatriates’ psychological well-being and that these personality traits enable them to derive a greater benefit from mentorship. By doing so, this study identifies for which personality traits which type of mentoring (home or host country mentor) is most beneficial.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on socioanalytic theory, the authors develop theory-driven hypotheses and test them against data of 334 expatriates.
Findings
The study shows that several personality traits as well as home country mentorship have a significant positive impact on psychological well-being, whereas host country mentorship shows no significant positive effects. Moreover, the study indicates that home and host country mentorship partially moderates the relationship between personality traits and psychological well-being.
Originality/value
Since the authors derive important implications for the selection process of expatriates as well as for the implementation of mentoring in multinational corporations, this study is of value for researchers and practitioners in the areas of human resource management and organizational studies.
Details
Keywords
Anja P. Schmitz and Jan Foelsing
During the past decade, fast-paced changes created a new environment organisations need to adapt to in an agile way. To support their transformation, organisations are rethinking…
Abstract
During the past decade, fast-paced changes created a new environment organisations need to adapt to in an agile way. To support their transformation, organisations are rethinking their approach to learning. They are moving away from traditional instructor-centred, standardised classroom-based learning settings. Instead, learning needs to be tailored to the individuals’ needs, available anywhere at any time and needs to enable learners to build their network. The development of digital tools, specifically network technology and social collaboration platforms, has enabled these new learning concepts.
The use of these new learning concepts in organisations also has implications for higher education. The present case study, therefore, investigates how universities can best prepare future employees and leaders for these new working environments, both on a content level and a methodological level. It also investigates if these new learning concepts can support universities in dealing with a changing environment.
The investigated case is a traditional face-to-face leadership lecture for a heterogeneous group of students. It was reconceptualised as a personalised and social collaborative learning setting, delivered through a social collaboration platform as the primary learning environment. Initial evaluation results indicate positive motivational effects, experience sharing and changes in perception of the student − lecturer relationship. The findings also supported previous challenges of computer-supported collaborative learning settings, such as the perception of a higher cognitive load. The implications of these results for the future teaching and business models of higher education are discussed. In addition, the potential of these computer-supported social collaborative learning settings is outlined.
Details
Keywords
Gary Mortimer, Larry Neale, Syed Fazal E Hasan and Benjamin Dunphy
Little is known about the adoption of mobile banking technologies in emerging Asian economies. The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the motivators that influence a…
Abstract
Purpose
Little is known about the adoption of mobile banking technologies in emerging Asian economies. The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the motivators that influence a consumer’s intentions to use mobile banking.
Design/methodology/approach
A web-based survey was employed to collect data from 348 respondents, split across Thailand and Australia. Data were analysed by employing exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, path and invariance analyses.
Findings
The findings indicate that for Australian consumers, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived risk (PR) were the primary determinants of mobile banking adoption. For Thai consumers, the main factors were PU, PR and social influence. National culture was found to impact key antecedents that lead to adoption of m-banking.
Research limitations/implications
The actual variance explained by the study’s model was higher in Australia (59.3 per cent) than for Thailand (23.8 per cent), suggesting future research of m-banking adoption in emerging Asian cultures.
Practical implications
The authors identify the important factors consumers consider when adopting m-banking. The findings of this research give banking organisations a foundational model that can be used to support m-banking implementation.
Originality/value
The study is perhaps the first to examine and compare the intention to adopt m-banking across Thai and Australian consumers, and responds to calls for additional research that generalises m-banking and m-services acceptance across cultures. This study has proposed and validated additional constructs that are not present in the original SST Intention to Use model.
Details
Keywords
Surjit Kumar Kar and Munmun Samantarai
The purpose of this case study is to understand effect of Indian ethos, socio‐cultural setup, etc. on growth of family‐based business; impact of ethnicity and genetic intelligence…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this case study is to understand effect of Indian ethos, socio‐cultural setup, etc. on growth of family‐based business; impact of ethnicity and genetic intelligence on development of entrepreneurial traits, etc. in family business contexts in India.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach takes a single case study on an organized retail firm named Bothra Megabazar Private Limited in Rourkela, India to comprehend the established theories and literature on emergence and spread of business community/class in India known for its own ethos and values as a country. As a part of narrative enquiry method in qualitative research, it collects the narratives of central and peripheral characters in the respective business house through “story telling” and by “restorying” the same, understands and explains the family‐based entrepreneurial journey amidst business dynamics.
Findings
The important findings of this case study are manifold. It finds that there is inter‐connectedness of different aspects amounting for success/growth of family business entrepreneurs and enterprises. Some of these factors are deep‐seated Indian ethos and values, multiple family and social networks, joint and undivided family structure, inheritance of family business down the generations, financial backing from members of family and social networks, long standing experience in trade, genetic intelligence across generations, internal capacity building with unique style of leadership and high‐risk appetite, etc.
Research limitations/implications
With its focus on one specific community like Bani(y)as or Marwaris in Indian business society, the case may not justify the understandings on genetic intelligence in case of other communities/class. However, the study elaborates scope of future studies in the same direction.
Practical implications
Practicing managers and research scholars can use this case for understanding of the key success/growth factors behind socio‐culturally guided family‐based business enterprises.
Originality/value
The paper presents a case that is original.
Details
Keywords
Benjamin Bader, Sebastian Stoermer, Anna Katharina Bader and Tassilo Schuster
The purpose of this paper is to investigate workplace gender harassment of female expatriates across 25 host countries and consider the role of institutional-level gender…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate workplace gender harassment of female expatriates across 25 host countries and consider the role of institutional-level gender discrimination as a boundary condition. Further, the study investigates the effects of workplace gender harassment on frustration and job satisfaction and general job stress as a moderator.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample is comprised of 160 expatriates residing in 25 host countries. The authors test the model using partial least-squares structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results show that female expatriates experience more workplace gender harassment than male expatriates. This effect is particularly pronounced in host countries with strong institutional-level gender discrimination. Moreover, the authors found significant main effects of gender harassment on expatriates’ frustration and job satisfaction. Further, the authors identified a significant association between frustration and job satisfaction. No significant moderation effect of general job stress was found.
Research limitations/implications
The study’s data are cross-sectional. Future studies are encouraged to use longitudinal research designs. Further, future studies could center on perpetrators of harassment, different manifestations of harassment, and effective countermeasures.
Practical implications
The study raises awareness on the challenges of harassment of female expatriates and the role of the host country context. Further, the study shows the detrimental effects of gender harassment on female expatriates’ job satisfaction which is a central predictor of variables crucial to international assignments, for example, performance or assignment completion.
Originality/value
The study is among the first endeavors to include institutional-level gender discrimination as a boundary condition of workplace gender harassment of female expatriates, and therefore puts the interplay between macro- and micro-level processes into perspective.
Details
Keywords
Peter G. Kelly, Benjamin H. Gallup and Joseph D. Roy-Mayhew
Many additively manufactured parts suffer from reduced interlayer strength. This anisotropy is necessarily tied to the orientation during manufacture. When individual features on…
Abstract
Purpose
Many additively manufactured parts suffer from reduced interlayer strength. This anisotropy is necessarily tied to the orientation during manufacture. When individual features on a part have conflicting optimal orientations, the part is unavoidably compromised. This paper aims to demonstrate a strategy in which conflicting features can be functionally separated into “co-parts” which are individually aligned in an optimal orientation, selectively reinforced with continuous fiber, printed simultaneously and, finally, assembled into a composite part with substantially improved performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Several candidate parts were selected for co-part decomposition. They were printed as standard fused filament fabrication plastic parts, parts reinforced with continuous fiber in one plane and co-part assemblies both with and without continuous fiber reinforcement (CFR). All parts were loaded until failure. Additionally, parts representative of common suboptimally oriented features (“unit tests”) were similarly printed and tested.
Findings
CFR delivered substantial improvement over unreinforced plastic-only parts in both standard parts and co-part assemblies, as expected. Reinforced parts held up to 2.5x the ultimate load of equivalent plastic-only parts. The co-part strategy delivered even greater improvement, particularly when also reinforced with continuous fiber. Plastic-only co-part assemblies held up to 3.2x the ultimate load of equivalent plastic only parts. Continuous fiber reinforced co-part assemblies held up to 6.4x the ultimate load of equivalent plastic-only parts. Additionally, the thought process behind general co-part design is explored and a vision of simulation-driven automated co-part implementation is discussed.
Originality/value
This technique is a novel way to overcome one of the most common challenges preventing the functional use of additively manufactured parts. It delivers compelling performance with continuous carbon fiber reinforcement in 3D printed parts. Further study could extend the technique to any anisotropic manufacturing method, additive or otherwise.
Details
Keywords
The literature on expatriation rarely considers environmental stressors beyond cultural differences or interaction adjustment from the standpoint of host country nationals (HCNs)…
Abstract
Purpose
The literature on expatriation rarely considers environmental stressors beyond cultural differences or interaction adjustment from the standpoint of host country nationals (HCNs). The authors develop a typology of expatriate–HCN interaction adjustment in response to a call to investigate the conditions under which pandemic stress facilitates cohesion or division among culturally diverse colleagues.
Design/methodology/approach
The typology is based on Berry’s acculturation model, developed with conservation of resources theory and extended with the dual-concerns problem-solving framework from the conflict management literature.
Findings
The authors propose that expatriate and HCN perceptions of resource adequacy to cope with pandemic stress shape their choice of adjustment mode, and that contextual resources, including those provided by the organization, are critical. An Integration adjustment mode characterized by perceptions of adequate contextual resources and collaborative problem-solving is proposed to be most beneficial in the context of a pandemic to foster cohesion among culturally diverse colleagues, while a Separation mode characterized by perceptions of inadequate contextual resources and competitive problem-solving is proposed to foster division. Theoretical and practical contributions are provided.
Originality/value
The study takes a novel interdisciplinary approach to develop a contextualized typology of interaction adjustment between expatriates and HCNs. It contributes to the literature on managing multinational enterprise stakeholders in high-risk environments and offers insights into the formulation of international HRM policies and practices during a pandemic that are applicable to other high-risk contexts.
Details
Keywords
Roshan Bhakta Bhandari, Christine Owen and Benjamin Brooks
This study reports on a survey of experienced emergency management personnel in Australia and New Zealand to identify the influence of organisational features in perceived…
Abstract
Purpose
This study reports on a survey of experienced emergency management personnel in Australia and New Zealand to identify the influence of organisational features in perceived emergency management performance. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of organisational features in emergency response performance and to discuss how this knowledge can be used to enhance the response capacity of emergency services organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a review of the literature, a conceptual theoretical model for organisational performance is first developed based on four organisational features found to be previously important in emergency management organisation. These are, adaptability, leadership, stability (mission and direction) and stakeholder communication. An organisational survey was distributed to all 25 fire and emergency services agencies in Australia and New Zealand which included indicators of these elements. Responses were received from experienced emergency management personnel from fire and emergency services agencies. The sample was stratified into the three main organisational types, namely, established, expanding and extending organisations.
Findings
The findings reveal that the predictive significance of organisational features in emergency response performance vary among established, expanding and extending organisations. The predictive significance of stability, adaptability and leadership for perceived success is strong in all organisational types. It is interesting to note that the predictive significance of communication with external stakeholders is low in all organisation types. This indicates the preference of emergency services agencies to look internally within their own operations than externally to build relationships with different specialism.
Originality/value
The theoretical model in this study makes a first attempt to understand the role of organisational features in emergency response performance of organisations in Australia and New Zealand. This work contributes to theorizing emergency operations by highlighting how organisations need to manage two orientations simultaneously: their own internal as well as external orientations, together with their processes for managing both mission and direction and the need for change and flexibility.