Andrew S. Gallan, Diogo Hildebrand, Yuliya Komarova, Dan Rubin and Ronen Shay
Designing and developing responsible business practices can create various tensions for service organizations. The purpose of this research is to develop a deeper understanding of…
Abstract
Purpose
Designing and developing responsible business practices can create various tensions for service organizations. The purpose of this research is to develop a deeper understanding of the relationship between customer engagement (CE) and responsible business practices (e.g. environmental, social and/or governance [ESG], corporate social responsibility [CSR] and diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI]) and explore customer engagement tensions that service organizations may face.
Design/methodology/approach
This research develops a list of CE-related responsible business practice tensions and empirically explores their relevance through in-depth interviews with nine ESG professionals.
Findings
This paper makes three important contributions. First, we find support for nine distinct but related tensions with implications for CE that organizations must navigate when pursuing responsible business practices. Second, interview participants provide some suggestions for tackling these tensions, which we support with relevant theories. Finally, we develop a conceptual framework that may stimulate future service research and inform the implementation of ESG strategies.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to conceptualize and empirically explore the tensions that emerge between responsible business practices and CE. The authors develop a novel analysis of the CE-related tensions that emerge when pursuing an ESG strategy.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are based on a small sample of ESG professionals. Future research may take a quantitative approach to further evaluate the role that these tensions play in engaging customers.
Practical implications
This research provides a conceptual framework that may guide ESG professionals in understanding, framing and navigating CE-related tensions when pursuing responsible business practices.
Social implications
A social benefit may be found when service organizations are better able to successfully navigate CE-related tensions when pursuing responsible business practices.
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The concept and practice of e-services has become essential in business transactions. Yet there are still many organizations that have not developed e-services optimally. This is…
Abstract
The concept and practice of e-services has become essential in business transactions. Yet there are still many organizations that have not developed e-services optimally. This is especially relevant in the context of Indonesian Airline companies. Therefore, many airline customers in Indonesia are still in doubt about it, or even do not use it. To fill this gap, this study attempts to develop a model for e-services adoption and empirically examines the factors influencing the airlines customers in Indonesia in using e-services offered by the Indonesian airline companies. Taking six Indonesian airline companies as a case example, the study investigated the antecedents of e-services usage of Indonesian airlines. This study further examined the impacts of motivation on customers in using e-services in the Indonesian context. Another important aim of this study was to investigate how ages, experiences and geographical areas moderate effects of e-services usage.
The study adopts a positivist research paradigm with a two-phase sequential mixed method design involving qualitative and quantitative approaches. An initial research model was first developed based on an extensive literature review, by combining acceptance and use of information technology theories, expectancy theory and the inter-organizational system motivation models. A qualitative field study via semi-structured interviews was then conducted to explore the present state among 15 respondents. The results of the interviews were analysed using content analysis yielding the final model of e-services usage. Eighteen antecedent factors hypotheses and three moderating factors hypotheses and 52-item questionnaire were developed. A focus group discussion of five respondents and a pilot study of 59 respondents resulted in final version of the questionnaire.
In the second phase, the main survey was conducted nationally to collect the research data among Indonesian airline customers who had already used Indonesian airline e-services. A total of 819 valid questionnaires were obtained. The data was then analysed using a partial least square (PLS) based structural equation modelling (SEM) technique to produce the contributions of links in the e-services model (22% of all the variances in e-services usage, 37.8% in intention to use, 46.6% in motivation, 39.2% in outcome expectancy, and 37.7% in effort expectancy). Meanwhile, path coefficients and t-values demonstrated various different influences of antecedent factors towards e-services usage. Additionally, a multi-group analysis based on PLS is employed with mixed results. In the final findings, 14 hypotheses were supported and 7 hypotheses were not supported.
The major findings of this study have confirmed that motivation has the strongest contribution in e-services usage. In addition, motivation affects e-services usage both directly and indirectly through intention-to-use. This study provides contributions to the existing knowledge of e-services models, and practical applications of IT usage. Most importantly, an understanding of antecedents of e-services adoption will provide guidelines for stakeholders in developing better e-services and strategies in order to promote and encourage more customers to use e-services. Finally, the accomplishment of this study can be expanded through possible adaptations in other industries and other geographical contexts.
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This chapter focuses on diversity issues in France. It shows how these issues came historically in the French context and how the main tensions generated, notably the…
Abstract
This chapter focuses on diversity issues in France. It shows how these issues came historically in the French context and how the main tensions generated, notably the equality-diversity and universality-diversity tensions, are not understandable without a knowledge of the French Republicanism which gives to the foundations of the French social fabric its peculiarities.
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Although social studies teachers are charged with explicitly teaching about citizenship, all teachers in a school implicitly teach about citizenship. That is, in their daily…
Abstract
Purpose
Although social studies teachers are charged with explicitly teaching about citizenship, all teachers in a school implicitly teach about citizenship. That is, in their daily interactions with students, whether specific to subject area content or not, teachers impart lessons to their students about what citizenship is and what it means to be a citizen. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Examining the “powerful” stories of three teachers, only one of whom teaches social studies, this paper focuses on “informal citizenship education” across schools.
Findings
It concludes with implications for workers in and beyond the field of social studies education.
Originality/value
Ultimately, it suggests that as notions of citizenship education expand to include informal citizenship education, teachers will better teach students to be effective citizens.
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James M. Kurtenbach and Robin W. Roberts
Accounting researchers have performed many studies related to public sector budgeting and financial management. Public sector accounting research seeks to explain the role of…
Abstract
Accounting researchers have performed many studies related to public sector budgeting and financial management. Public sector accounting research seeks to explain the role of accounting and auditing in the public sector. For example, researchers examine issues such as (1) the use of accounting information by elected officials, (2) the demand for auditing, and (3) the determination of bond ratings. This review of the public sector accounting literature describes some of the theoretical foundations utilized in public sector accounting research and reviews a sample of selected empirical studies.
The purpose of this paper is to treat disinformation and misinformation (intentionally deceptive and unintentionally inaccurate misleading information, respectively) as a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to treat disinformation and misinformation (intentionally deceptive and unintentionally inaccurate misleading information, respectively) as a socio-cultural technology-enabled epidemic in digital news, propagated via social media.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed disinformation and misinformation triangle is a conceptual model that identifies the three minimal causal factors occurring simultaneously to facilitate the spread of the epidemic at the societal level.
Findings
Following the epidemiological disease triangle model, the three interacting causal factors are translated into the digital news context: the virulent pathogens are falsifications, clickbait, satirical “fakes” and other deceptive or misleading news content; the susceptible hosts are information-overloaded, time-pressed news readers lacking media literacy skills; and the conducive environments are polluted poorly regulated social media platforms that propagate and encourage the spread of various “fakes.”
Originality/value
The three types of interventions – automation, education and regulation – are proposed as a set of holistic measures to reveal, and potentially control, predict and prevent further proliferation of the epidemic. Partial automated solutions with natural language processing, machine learning and various automated detection techniques are currently available, as exemplified here briefly. Automated solutions assist (but not replace) human judgments about whether news is truthful and credible. Information literacy efforts require further in-depth understanding of the phenomenon and interdisciplinary collaboration outside of the traditional library and information science, incorporating media studies, journalism, interpersonal psychology and communication perspectives.
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For private sector organizations, Palmrose and Simunic document a positive relationship between fees for management advisory services (MAS) and fees for audits paid to incumbent…
Abstract
For private sector organizations, Palmrose and Simunic document a positive relationship between fees for management advisory services (MAS) and fees for audits paid to incumbent auditors(1). In contrast, Abdel-Khalik provides evidence that the purchase of MAS does not affect audit fees.(2) This study, unlike previous studies, examines the relationship between the purchase of MAS and audit fees in government organizations. Results suggest a negative relationship between audit fees and fees paid for related audit services provided by incumbent auditors. In addition, bond issuance and consulting fees paid to incumbent auditors and all fees paid to nonincumbent auditors are found to be not significant.
Naomi Gerstel, Dan Clawson and Dana Huyser
To explain job hours in four health-care occupations – physicians, nurses, emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and nursing assistants, this paper focuses on three sets of…
Abstract
To explain job hours in four health-care occupations – physicians, nurses, emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and nursing assistants, this paper focuses on three sets of factors: class and gender, job conditions and commitment, and family situation. We find that class counts, whether understood in terms of occupation or earnings. Gender shapes hours, but more as a characteristic of occupations than of individuals. Job conditions that explain hours vary, depending on occupational grouping. Families also matter – children, but not spouses, shape the work hours of nurses; spouses, but not children, shape work hours for the other three occupations.
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the potential fruitfulness of the theory of Alasdair MacIntyre for understanding how social enterprises may facilitate well-being…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the potential fruitfulness of the theory of Alasdair MacIntyre for understanding how social enterprises may facilitate well-being, using empirical evidence from doctoral research to illustrate this.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on findings from research conducted at a mental health training and employment organisation which used gardening as rehabilitative tool. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews with staff, volunteers and service users were used to generate the data, a MacIntyrean lens used to analyse the data, and some suggestions are made as to why social enterprises may be particularly suited to such an approach.
Findings
Practitioners encouraged the seeking of “internal goods” or “goods of excellence” within practices, as it was this which was understood to facilitate well-being. Service users shared in this view, perceiving their time on the case site primarily as “work” and choosing to engage with the service out of a desire to meaningfully contribute to the community project.
Research limitations/implications
This research is conducted on a small scale and therefore lacks generalisability. The lack of comparison with other organisational forms using the same practice is also a limitation.
Originality/value
This theory offers an alternative lens for considering how social enterprises might contribute to well-being. The data presented here also complement the growing body of research literature on Work Integration Social Enterprises, considering some of the wider well-being benefits beyond work integration, which thus far has received limited empirical attention.
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Following a review of the methods used in the electronics industry to study the corrosivity of fluxes for soft soldering, two procedures have been developed based on a proposal…
Abstract
Following a review of the methods used in the electronics industry to study the corrosivity of fluxes for soft soldering, two procedures have been developed based on a proposal published by W. Rubin and B.M. Allen. In the first test, the loss in strength of anodically polarised copper wires coated with soldering flux residues is measured after exposure to humid conditions for 24 hours. The second test uses a printed circuit board carrying a copper track test pattern which is coated with soldering flux residues and held in a humid environment. Tracks on the test circuit are polarised anodically at 250 V and changes in their electrical conductivity are monitored. These give an indication of the progress of corrosion through a ‘corrosion factor’, Fc(t), derived from: