Hokey Min, C. Christopher Lee and Seong-Jong Joo
To identify sources of the success and failure of COVID-19 control measures and develop best-practice public health policy in mitigating the spread of COVID-19, this paper aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
To identify sources of the success and failure of COVID-19 control measures and develop best-practice public health policy in mitigating the spread of COVID-19, this paper aims to evaluate the efficiency of various combinations of government COVID-19 control measures among OECD countries. This paper also identifies which factors critically influence the efficiency of COVID-19 control measures.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper employed two-stage network SBM (slacks-based measure of efficiency) models with variable returns-to-scale and constant returns-to-scale, respectively, among various forms of data envelopment analysis (DEA) models. As a post hoc analysis, the authors used Tobit regression for examining the causal relationship between a nation's cultural dimensions and its COVID-19 control measure's efficiency scores.
Findings
The authors found that the pervasive less individualistic and higher uncertainty avoiding culture positively influenced the efficient control of COVID-19 outbreaks since such a culture helped the government impose its mandatory COVID-19 control measures without people's strong resistance to those measures.
Originality/value
Many public health policymakers are wondering why COVID-19 control measures are not effective in coping with the COVID-19 outbreaks. This paper helps the government find the most efficient combination of COVID-19 controls measures for curbing the spread of the stubborn coronavirus. This paper is one of the first attempts to identify pandemic risk mitigation factors from a cultural perspective.
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C. Christopher Lee, Hyoun Sook Lim, Donghwi (Josh) Seo and Dong-Heon Austin Kwak
This study explored moderating effects of employee generations on factors related to employee retention and motivation in the workplace.
Abstract
Purpose
This study explored moderating effects of employee generations on factors related to employee retention and motivation in the workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors developed a survey instrument and collected the survey data via Amazon Mechanical Turk. After filtering out bad responses, the authors ended up with 489 sample cases for this study. The authors used structural equation modeling for data analysis.
Findings
Evidence showed that only transformational leadership was significantly related to retention of Generation X employees and only work–life balance had a significant relationship with intrinsic motivation. For Generation Y employees, transformational leadership was the only factor affecting their retention while both transformational leadership and autonomy showed significant impacts on their intrinsic motivation. Generation Z employees reported that only transformation leadership affected their retention while transformational leadership, corporate social responsibility and autonomy were significantly related to their intrinsic motivation in the workplace. All three generations showed statistical significance between intrinsic motivation and employee retention.
Practical implications
This study could help business practitioners increase employees' work motivation and retention.
Originality/value
First, our results revealed interesting similarities and differences between generations in terms of the factors that affected employees' retention and motivation. Second, this study proved that employees' generation affects the impacts of transformational leadership, CSR, autonomy, WLB and technology on their motivation and retention in the workplace. Third, the results of our study also showed that employees of different generations are intrinsically motivated by different factors, proving the importance of considering generational differences in motivation literature.
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Nehal Mhatre, Seong-Jong Joo and C. Christopher Lee
The purposes of this study are twofold: first, the authors attempt to confirm the effect of the income elasticity of demand in the retail industry by investigating the performance…
Abstract
Purpose
The purposes of this study are twofold: first, the authors attempt to confirm the effect of the income elasticity of demand in the retail industry by investigating the performance of department stores; second, the authors measure and benchmark the performance of individual department stores in order to develop strategic insights.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors employ data envelopment analysis for measuring and benchmarking the relative performance of department stores by using pertinent variables collected over a five-year period – 2006-2010.
Findings
The results confirmed that the luxury department stores were more sensitive to an economic cycle, and all department stores in this study demonstrated higher performance in recent years, except for one discount department store that showed consistently deteriorating performance over the observation period.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations of this study include the use of financial data from companies' annual reports, along with the limited number of decision-making units and variables.
Originality/value
Major contributions of this study include the confirmation of the effect of the income elasticity of demand in the retail industry in general and suggested strategic implications for specific department stores, which are not found in the current literature at the time of this study.
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Juliana Salvadorinho, Peter Hines, Maneesh Kumar, Carlos Ferreira and Leonor Teixeira
This article seeks to explore the key motivational factors driving Generation Z (Gen Z), within the context of the significant influence of the digital paradigm, employing the…
Abstract
Purpose
This article seeks to explore the key motivational factors driving Generation Z (Gen Z), within the context of the significant influence of the digital paradigm, employing the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a content motivational framework.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilizing an abductive methodology, the study combines deductive insights from a systematic literature review on Gen Z’s motivational predictors with inductive findings from a workshop involving six medium and large - scale global manufacturing companies. The synthesis of these results contributes to the creation of a matrix that highlights the relationship between motivational predictors and the psychological needs stemming from intrinsic motivation.
Findings
This paper suggests an extension of SDT tailored for Gen Z, identifying six motivational factors—autonomy, competence, relatedness, purpose, flow state, and achievement.
Practical implications
This research emphasizes the need for a modern leadership approach capable of effectively overseeing remote teams, fostering a balanced integration of personal and professional aspects, and nurturing individual purpose. This approach goes beyond fulfilling the basic needs of Maslow’s pyramid to focus on elevating the significance of work, training, and employee engagement to satisfy higher levels of self-actualization and transcendence.
Originality/value
The study delves into the motivations of Gen Z, a demographics that has received limited attention in the existing literature. The integration of the six factors with SDT reflects a synthesis tailored to the distinctive characteristics of Gen Z and aligns with the principles of the PERMA model within positive psychology.
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Man Lai Cheung, Wilson K.S. Leung, Man Kit Chang, Randy Y.M. Wong and Sin Yan Tse
Despite the promising development and marketing potential of the metaverse, our understanding of how realistic metaverse environments impact user engagement and behaviours remains…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the promising development and marketing potential of the metaverse, our understanding of how realistic metaverse environments impact user engagement and behaviours remains limited. This study investigates the role of perceived realism in influencing user engagement, thereby affecting external search behaviour and visit intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
We surveyed 270 active metaverse users to test the research model. The data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).
Findings
The results of our study show that three dimensions of realism – avatar involvement, perceptual pervasiveness and social realism – significantly enhance user engagement, which in turn influences external search behaviour and visit intention. In contrast, simulation realism and freedom of choice have minimal effects on absorption and dedication.
Research limitations/implications
This study highlights the role of perceived realism in enhancing user engagement with the metaverse and its impact on physical world behaviours. It contributes to metaverse literature by demonstrating that engagement within the metaverse significantly influences physical world behaviours, including visit intentions and external search behaviours.
Practical implications
This study offers practical guidance for developers to enhance user engagement in metaverse environments. Specifically, our findings advocate for visual and audio quality enhancements, greater persuasiveness of virtual spaces, improved avatar representativeness and a closer alignment of metaverse activities with real-life events.
Originality/value
This study advances the theoretical understanding of perceived realism by examining how its dimensions – such as visual and audio quality, avatar representativeness and alignment with real-life events – impact user engagement in the metaverse. It also explores how this engagement influences offline behaviours, thus bridging the gap between virtual and real-world interactions.
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Over the next few months a lively image of Dick Whittington and his cat will be making its appearance in the capital. Walking briskly along, with his cat trotting obediently…
Abstract
Over the next few months a lively image of Dick Whittington and his cat will be making its appearance in the capital. Walking briskly along, with his cat trotting obediently behind or dashing ahead with its tail in the air, he will stride across the print and posters of the Museum of London as the Museum's new corporate image.
Under the influence of the digital economy, the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises has attracted widespread attention from scholars at home and abroad due to its…
Abstract
Purpose
Under the influence of the digital economy, the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises has attracted widespread attention from scholars at home and abroad due to its uniqueness and importance. However, the existing literature is still deficient in the inner mechanism of digital transformation and lacks research on the digital transformation process. Through in-depth interviews and rooted theory, this paper focuses on the key factors of digital development of manufacturing enterprises and constructs a model of the digital transformation process.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper takes China's manufacturing enterprises as research projects. First, through a literature search, the authors proposed three key factors for constructing sustainable competitiveness from digital transformation, that is, core technology innovation, business model re-engineering and organizational structure optimization. Second, the authors adopted the grounded theory approach to identify three sustainable competitive factors of manufacturing enterprises resulting from digital transformation and constructed a theoretical model. Third, based on Chinese manufacturing enterprises data, the authors used an empirical study to validate the three influencing factors. Finally, the authors identified the inner mechanism of the digital transformation of enterprises and put forward suggestions for enterprises to maintain sustainable competitiveness.
Findings
First, based on the existing literature, this paper identified the importance of digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises, and the essence of digital transformation of manufacturing companies was found to lie in the change in the combined effect of technological, market and organizational innovation. Second, based on the grounded theory, through in-depth interviews with manufacturing enterprises on digital transformation and open coding of interview transcripts, it was concluded that the key factors for the digital transformation manufacturing companies are core technology change, business model re-engineering and organizational structure optimization. Third, based on a dynamic perspective, the authors evaluated and validated digital transformation. The study found that manufacturing enterprises can improve their digital transformation capabilities through the trajectory of “core technology change – business model re-engineering – organizational structure optimization” to improve their sustainable competitive advantage.
Originality/value
Firstly, this study proposed three key factors for constructing sustainable competitiveness from digital transformation, that is, core technology innovation, business model re-engineering and organizational structure optimization, which enriched the theory of transformation and upgrading. Secondly, this study constructs the structural equation model of digital transformation and discovers the key factors pf digital transformation.
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The objective of this study is to investigate how country risk, different political actions from the government and bureaucratic behavior influence the activities in industry…
Abstract
The objective of this study is to investigate how country risk, different political actions from the government and bureaucratic behavior influence the activities in industry supply chains (SCs) in emerging markets. The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of these external stakeholders’ elements to the demand-side and supply-side drivers and barriers for improving competitiveness of Ready-Made Garment (RMG) industry in the way of analyzing supply chain. Considering the phenomenon of recent change in the RMG business environment and the competitiveness issues this study uses the principles of stakeholder and resource dependence theory and aims to find out some factors which influence to make an efficient supply chain for improving competitiveness. The RMG industry of Bangladesh is the case application of this study. Following a positivist paradigm, this study adopts a two phase sequential mixed-method research design consisting of qualitative and quantitative approaches. A tentative research model is developed first based on extensive literature review. Qualitative field study is then carried out to fine tune the initial research model. Findings from the qualitative method are also used to develop measures and instruments for the next phase of quantitative method. A survey is carried out with sample of top and middle level executives of different garment companies of Dhaka city in Bangladesh and the collected quantitative data are analyzed by partial least square-based structural equation modeling. The findings support eight hypotheses. From the analysis the external stakeholders’ elements like bureaucratic behavior and country risk have significant influence to the barriers. From the internal stakeholders’ point of view the manufacturers’ and buyers’ drivers have significant influence on the competitiveness. Therefore, stakeholders need to take proper action to reduce the barriers and increase the drivers, as the drivers have positive influence to improve competitiveness.
This study has both theoretical and practical contributions. This study represents an important contribution to the theory by integrating two theoretical perceptions to identify factors of the RMG industry’s SC that affect the competitiveness of the RMG industry. This research study contributes to the understanding of both external and internal stakeholders of national and international perspectives in the RMG (textile and clothing) business. It combines the insights of stakeholder and resource dependence theories along with the concept of the SC in improving effectiveness. In a practical sense, this study certainly contributes to the Bangladeshi RMG industry. In accordance with the desire of the RMG manufacturers, the research has shown that some influential constructs of the RMG industry’s SC affect the competitiveness of the RMG industry. The outcome of the study is useful for various stakeholders of the Bangladeshi RMG industry sector ranging from the government to various private organizations. The applications of this study are extendable through further adaptation in other industries and various geographic contexts.
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Abstract
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the knowledge existing in the literature on supply chain resilience for identifying the supply chain practices adopted for securing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the knowledge existing in the literature on supply chain resilience for identifying the supply chain practices adopted for securing resilience in given uncertain event.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review is conducted to identify 84 conceptual and empirical studies. The research findings are synthesized in categories of uncertain events, supply chain practices and outcomes.
Findings
A set of propositions linking the uncertain events, mechanisms and supply chain resilience improvement is developed. It was found that the sufficient conditions for resilience under unexpected disasters are substantially different from those required for resilience against disruptions caused by internal practices or complexity.
Originality/value
Practitioners can benefit from the knowledge of interventions and mechanisms to improve their supply chain resilience in the face of different unpredictable situations. The contribution of this paper is twofold: first, it develops an actionable theory of supply chain resilience by developing testable propositions in the context of supply chains exposed to uncertainties resulting from unexpected disruptions, complexity of supply chains and adoption of certain internal practice; second, the paper highlights the key shortcomings of existing literature and provides opportunities for further research and improvement.