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1 – 10 of 59Shengnan Liu, Philip Hallinger and Daming Feng
In this era of global education reform, teacher professional learning (TPL) has emerged as a key factor in efforts to create sustainable school improvement. The same holds in…
Abstract
Purpose
In this era of global education reform, teacher professional learning (TPL) has emerged as a key factor in efforts to create sustainable school improvement. The same holds in Mainland China where ambitious curriculum reforms have been undertaken since 2000. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of learning-centered leadership (LCL) and teacher trust (TT) in fostering TPL in Chinese schools. More specifically, the authors examined two research questions: (1) What is the nature of the relationship of LCL to TT and professional learning?; and (2) How LCL practices influence TT and professional learning.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employed a cross-sectional survey design. The authors collected survey data from 1,259 teachers in 41 primary and secondary schools in three different Chinese provinces. The research employed confirmatory factor analysis to confirm the measurement model and structural equation modeling to examine interactions among the three main variables.
Findings
The results affirmed a positive association between LCL and TPL, and highlighted TT as a significant mediator in this relationship. Additional analyses distinguished between the effects of different dimensions of LCL on TT and TPL. Although the results of these analyses were broadly consistent with prior findings reported in the literature, divergent findings also emerged. More specifically, there was a limited use and no significant impact of “leadership modeling” on either TT or professional learning.
Research limitations/implications
The authors suggest that this pattern of leadership practice is linked with features of China’s institutional cum socio-cultural context. The authors recommend the use of qualitative and mixed methods studies capable of gaining further insight into relationships.
Practical implications
These findings in Mainland China reaffirm the efficacy of school-level leadership that builds a safe, trusting but focussed environment for teacher learning in the workplace. This is a potentially significant finding in a society where the use of top-down directives and reliance on legitimate authority by leaders can rob teachers of the motivation and initiative that undergirds sustainable professional learning. The findings, in concert with those of other scholars, suggest that “building trust” represents a useful strategy for principals who seek to establish productive learning environments for their teachers.
Originality/value
The value of this study lies in two areas. First, this is one of a growing but still limited set of quantitative empirical studies of school leadership in Mainland China. Second, the study tests the nature of mediation in the relationship between leadership, trust and TPL, a topic of relatively recent vintage in the educational leadership literature.
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The purpose of this paper is to review English-language publications about school principalship in China published between 1998 and 2013 and to present an overview of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review English-language publications about school principalship in China published between 1998 and 2013 and to present an overview of the authorship, topics, methodologies and key findings of these publications.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology includes an exhaustive review of journal articles and book chapters about Chinese school principalship published in the English language. In total, 39 articles and 17 book chapters are identified for the 1998-2013 period. Qualitative analysis is conducted to determine the basic patterns of authorship, topics, methods and key findings. The changes or continuities in these patterns during the study period are also discerned.
Findings
The paper identifies several continuous and discontinuous patterns in each of the review categories and provides a better understanding of on-going research into the practice of school principalship in China. The results also suggest areas that require deeper exploration.
Originality/value
This paper explores the landscape of school principalship in China as reflected in the international literature and indicates the ways that this landscape has changed or remained the same over the years. As such, the paper contributes to the thin knowledge base concerning school principalship in China and sheds light on the enduring local-global tension in the evolution of education systems.
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Mary Ann McGrath, John F. Sherry and Nina Diamond
The aim of this paper is to expand the scant literature related to retail branding ideology and the application of mythotypes to flagship stores within the Chinese setting. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to expand the scant literature related to retail branding ideology and the application of mythotypes to flagship stores within the Chinese setting. The study explores the transplantation of a retail brand ideology in the form of complex home‐country cultural content to a host culture whose local retail narratives differ significantly from those of the brand enterprise.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an ethnographic study that spans the two years of the focal store's existence. With the help of native‐speaking graduate assistants, store visits, interviews with Chinese locals and internet mentions and secondary information were collected. Data include fieldnotes, interview transcripts, photographs, news articles, blog comments and website information.
Findings
The paper details the mythotypic mistuning of marketscape and mindscape that contributed to the failure of this flagship store and build theory concerning the implementation of retail brand ideology and retail theatrics. The paper concludes that successful themed flagship brand stores encapsulate ideology in stories composed of mythotypes and encourages the enactment of that ideology through multiple, interrelated brand experiences. Misalignments of these mythotypes can impede the acceptance of retail brand ideology and the diffusion of the retail theatre concept.
Originality/value
While foreign and domestic flagship brand stores have flourished in China, cultural propriety of these stores includes a host of physical design cues that must mesh with the local culture's sensibilities and the brand's provenance. To translate the retail brand ideology into customer‐centric meaning is challenging. The presence or absence of mythotypes comprising the servicescape profoundly affect their success.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges faced by rural women entrepreneurs in Lebanon and explore how stakeholder engagement strategies, guided by stakeholder…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges faced by rural women entrepreneurs in Lebanon and explore how stakeholder engagement strategies, guided by stakeholder theory, can mitigate these challenges. By analyzing the interactions between stakeholders and women entrepreneurs, the study aims to uncover effective solutions that contribute to the sustained success of women entrepreneurs in Lebanon's rural areas.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses participatory action research (PAR) and narrative inquiry. PAR involves women entrepreneurs as active collaborators, fostering participation and enabling marginalized voices to address business challenges. Narrative inquiry delves into their experiences deeply, accessing multiple perspectives and insights.
Findings
This study uncovers challenges in resource accessibility, societal norms and market limitations for rural women entrepreneurs in Lebanon. Stakeholder influence, especially community support and tailored training programs, proves crucial. However, governmental involvement remains limited, relying more on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and expert mentorship. Targeted interventions and policies are essential for inclusive growth and gender equality in entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
This paper offers a unique perspective by focusing on rural women entrepreneurs in Lebanon, exploring their specific challenges within the country's socioeconomic landscape. Its interdisciplinary approach and actionable recommendations for practical strategies, along with a comprehensive stakeholder analysis, provide novel insights into women's entrepreneurship in rural settings.
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Pianpian Yang, Qingyu Zhang and Yuanyue Feng
With the rise of social media, online tipping has developed markedly in recent years. Drawing on emotional accounting, this research examined the effects of pride-tagged money…
Abstract
Purpose
With the rise of social media, online tipping has developed markedly in recent years. Drawing on emotional accounting, this research examined the effects of pride-tagged money (PTM) and surprise-tagged money (STM) on online tipping. It examined the mediating role of self-inflation and the moderating role of the perceived importance of money in the proposed relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Five experimental studies were conducted to test the hypotheses using ANOVA, SmartPLS3 and bootstrap analyses.
Findings
The results reveal that pride-tagged (vs surprise-tagged) money leads to higher self-inflation, which leads to an increased willingness to engage in online tipping. It illustrates that when the perceived importance of money is low, PTM results in a higher willingness to engage in online tipping than STM. However, when the perceived importance of money is high, the effect of PTM (vs STM) on the willingness to conduct online tipping is attenuated, and no significant difference exists in the willingness to engage in online tipping between people with PTM and those with STM. In addition, it shows that PTM (vs STM) leads to a higher amount of online tipping, and self-inflation mediates the proposed relationship.
Practical implications
Practically, web-based marketing managers should design programs (e.g. content that encourages users to feel pride in their achievements) that cause users to emotionally tag their money with pride as a means of increasing their willingness to engage in online tipping and to increase the amount of such tipping.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides the first evidence of how different sources of money influence online tipping.
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Alessandro Bressan, Abel Duarte Alonso, Oanh Thi Kim Vu and Daniel Borer
The purpose of this study is to examine factors contributing to family firms’ survival in the ongoing COVID-19 crisis; in this endeavour, the study espouses the underpinnings of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine factors contributing to family firms’ survival in the ongoing COVID-19 crisis; in this endeavour, the study espouses the underpinnings of social exchange theory and entrepreneurial resilience.
Design/methodology/approach
The views of 128 Italian family micro and small-sized firm owners/managers operating in different industries were gathered through an online questionnaire.
Findings
The analysis uncovers 12 fundamental factors contributing to firms’ survival; these are encapsulated in three dimensions and presented in two theoretical frameworks. The “beneficiary” dimension stresses the support from various internal and external stakeholders, while the “benefactor” dimension illustrates the commitment to extend the family tradition and be responsive to stakeholders. Finally, the “immersion/embeddedness” dimension denotes firms’ entrepreneurial behaviour, agility, decision-making and drive.
Originality/value
Firstly, and from a practitioner perspective, this study addresses recognised knowledge and research gaps in contemporary family business research, including how family firms are confronting the current unprecedented crisis. This response to current extant gaps provides first-hand empirical findings that could be primarily considered by industry stakeholders. Secondly, and from a theoretical angle, the aforementioned dimensions revealed through the analysis, coupled with the development of a theoretical framework, contribute to conceptual rigour and, therefore, a deeper understanding of family firms’ journey through an unprecedented event.
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Yongchang Jiang, Hejie Zhu and E. Bai
The existence of the advertising delay effect and its impact on supply chain operations have been demonstrated in the current study. Therefore, this study develops a timely…
Abstract
Purpose
The existence of the advertising delay effect and its impact on supply chain operations have been demonstrated in the current study. Therefore, this study develops a timely inventory control strategy for the fresh produce supply chain to address the advertising delay effect in the fresh produce supply chain.
Design/methodology/approach
This study proposes a game model based on the Nerlove-Arrow time delay differential equation and Pontryagin's maximum principle. Through comparative analyses of the optimal equilibrium strategies, the authors compare the optimal equilibrium strategies, product goodwill and optimal inventory trajectories for suppliers and retailers under secondary replenishment decisions and decentralized decisions.
Findings
The authors find that (1) Only when the sales cycle meets certain conditions can the overall profit of the supply chain under the secondary replenishment decision be greater than that under the decentralized decision. As the price markup coefficient increases, the total profit of the supply chain first increases and then decreases. (2) With the increase in the delay time, the replenishment quantity during the initial period gradually decreases. After the delay time elapses, the inventory depletion rate under secondary replenishment decisions is faster than that under decentralized decision-making. (3) Although there is a continuously increasing maximum value of product goodwill with the increase in delay time, it becomes difficult to achieve this value for longer delays.
Practical implications
The authors’ findings provide a theoretical basis for supply chain members of fresh agricultural products to select replenishment and inventory control strategies when adopting different levels of delay in advertising marketing.
Originality/value
Firstly, this paper explains the impact of advertising delay effect on fresh produce supply chain from a dynamic perspective, and secondly, it provides guidance on advertising formulation and inventory replenishment for fresh produce retailers under the influence of advertising delay effect.
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