Amir M. Hormozi, Gail S. Sutton, Robert D. McMinn and Wendy Lucio
Planning plays an important role in determining the degree of success realized by a new or small business. Essential elements to business success are identification of goals…
Abstract
Planning plays an important role in determining the degree of success realized by a new or small business. Essential elements to business success are identification of goals, followed by development of strategies to meet those goals. A business plan is an effective tool used by businesses to organize these goals and objectives into a coherent format. It can be defined as operating a company on paper. No matter the size or stage of development, companies use business plans to improve internal operations and to describe and market the business to potential outside financiers. A business plan should not only reflect the individuality of the new business but should also follow a standard format. This format is comprised of four major sections: introductory elements, business section, financial statements, and the appendix. This paper seeks to address that utilizing business planning as a tool will allow new or small businesses to achieve and even surpass their goals.
Details
Keywords
S. J. Oswald A. J. Mascarenhas
“The unexamined life is not worth living” (Socrates). That is, without critically inquiring into the knowledge of life which is well-being and valuable, life is not worth living…
Abstract
Executive Summary
“The unexamined life is not worth living” (Socrates). That is, without critically inquiring into the knowledge of life which is well-being and valuable, life is not worth living. Critical thinking questions existing theories and their unexamined and obsessive assumptions and generalizations, constraints, and “best” practices of the prevailing system of management and tries to replace them with more valid assumptions and generalizations that uphold the dignity, uniqueness, and inalienable rights of the individual person and the community. Better outcomes result from asking the right questions than from having the right answers. In the diverse, pluralist cultural environment of today, the promise of a truly generative dialog among Occidental (Western) and Oriental (Eastern) cultures and civilizations holds great hope for the future. Critical thinking (CT) is an “inclusive” thinking system that can facilitate this dialog such that all of us have a meaningful space and place in this universe. After defining CT and arguing its importance for executives, this chapter introduces CT in two parts: Part 1: Various Approaches to Critical Thinking; Part 2: Major Theories of Critical Thinking. Several contemporary business cases will be invoked to illustrate the need, nature, and scope of corporate CT.
Andrew Moreo, Robert Woods, Gail Sammons and Christine Bergman
As a service segment, the food and beverage industry has great potential for intensive interface between the consumer and the service provider and between the service provider and…
Abstract
Purpose
As a service segment, the food and beverage industry has great potential for intensive interface between the consumer and the service provider and between the service provider and the back of the house staff. Given the significance of the perception of the provision of service to the consumer, it is important to study every aspect of the interaction. With this in mind, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between emotional labor, service quality, purpose of consumption, satisfaction and customer loyalty as seen through the perceptions of the consumer.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data were collected from 400 respondents using an online market research firm in the USA. This research used three independent variables (emotional labor, service quality and purpose of consumption), each with two levels in a between-subjects 2 × 2 × 2 factorial experimental design. Eight scenarios were used to represent the eight different combinations of variables to test their effects.
Findings
Two very interesting findings emerged from this study. The first was that consumers’ purpose of consumption, whether dining for leisure or business, had no significant impact on their satisfaction or loyalty, either independently or in conjunction with emotional labor or service quality. The second most interesting finding was that the interaction of service quality and emotional labor did have a significant impact on satisfaction but not loyalty.
Practical implications
A restaurants’ standards of service should be the same, regardless of the business or leisure demographic being served. Authenticity matters, and therefore, employers should incorporate personality evaluation into the hiring process. Perhaps, focusing more on attitude and less on skill would lead to great customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Originality/value
This article furthers the relatively young research stream examining the impacts of emotional labor on the consumer.
Details
Keywords
Taewon Suh, Jae C. Jung, Gail M. Zank and Richard J. Arend
Assuming that supplier knowledge can either strengthen the partnership by nurturing the commitment and trust between partners or allow the buyer to be more calculative, this study…
Abstract
Purpose
Assuming that supplier knowledge can either strengthen the partnership by nurturing the commitment and trust between partners or allow the buyer to be more calculative, this study aims to propose two types of knowledge sharing in supplier relationship – a type benefiting the partnership and another privately benefiting only one partner.
Design/methodology/approach
Using structural equation modeling and a surveyed dataset from 352 buyer–supplier partnerships, this study tested the research model of dual mechanism, where two types of knowledge sharing co-exist and have opposite effects on partnership longevity.
Findings
This study found that the two types of knowledge sharing create divergent effects on partnership continuation. For a buyer firm developing supplier knowledge, its supplier firm reciprocates by sharing knowledge with the buyer. While relation-specific knowledge promotes partnership longevity through developing trust, institutionalized knowledge hampers partnership longevity.
Research limitations/implications
Findings overall indicate that knowledge plays a more instrumental role in sharing knowledge in a buyer–supplier relationship, and alternative forces simultaneously work in the partnership. Although this study explicates two mediating mechanisms for the effect of supplier knowledge, there remain many unknown aspects of the effect.
Practical implications
From the buyer’s perspective, it is possible its institutionalized knowledge can facilitate its relationship with a current supply chain partner so that it can gain more benefits from the relationship. From the supplier’s perspective, caution should be exercised in selecting the type of knowledge to share.
Social implications
This study may have a broad impact on public policy by theorizing and testing why some partnerships last longer/shorter than others in association with the dynamics of the relationship initiated by one’s relational knowledge and the other’s knowledge sharing.
Originality/value
What this study contributes to involves the theorizing and testing the effects of the dual mechanism of knowledge sharing on partnership longevity. This study provides an example of a private investment in knowledge that is reciprocated with each type of knowledge – benefiting the partner and also benefiting the focal buyer firm.
Details
Keywords
The Witcher (Netflix, 2019) premiered seven months after Game of Thrones (HBO, 2011–2018) concluded. Given the similarities of genre (historical/high fantasy) and audience…
Abstract
The Witcher (Netflix, 2019) premiered seven months after Game of Thrones (HBO, 2011–2018) concluded. Given the similarities of genre (historical/high fantasy) and audience (indicated by nudity, violence and profanity), comparisons were quickly drawn. Game of Thrones earned criticism for the ‘sexist’ outcomes for some of its female characters, and so early analysis of The Witcher often evaluated its female representation and feminist values.
This chapter argues that the female representations in season one of The Witcher offers prominent female characters who are imbued with agency, institutional power and well-developed narrative arcs. These representations are somewhat at odds with some initial reaction to the show as sexist. Notably, it uses a dialectic approach to women who are framed by males as villainous (as Stregobor characterizes Renfri in ‘The End's Beginning’). However, the spectator positioning challenges this through devices such as its unrestricted, non-linear narrative structure.
Nevertheless, The Witcher encodes female characters with power as ‘other’, enhancing this otherness through magical abilities. Its archetypal male protagonist further emphasizes the difference of the female deuteragonists, placing him at various times in opposition to characters such as Ciri, Yennefer and Calanthe. This chapter also considers the issues of intersectionality in relation to Yennefer, whose transformative narrative arc has provoked ableist criticism, and how her representation is also impacted by the racial discourse in the series.
Through textual analysis and with reference to relevant folkloric, feminist and media scholarship, this chapter interrogates the representations the significant women of The Witcher through the lenses of gendered authorship, essentialist ‘female’ concerns, such as motherhood, the dynamics of the gaze and the varieties of responses to the female characters evident in online discourse.
Details
Keywords
Research suggests that “front‐line” service jobs typically require emotional labour owing to the high levels of interpersonal interaction inherent in such work. Although emotional…
Abstract
Purpose
Research suggests that “front‐line” service jobs typically require emotional labour owing to the high levels of interpersonal interaction inherent in such work. Although emotional labour can be performed face‐to‐face (in person) or voice‐to‐voice (on the telephone), little is known about whether the type of emotional demands and the relationships with strain outcomes differ according to mode of delivery. The purpose of this paper is to research these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Relationships are assessed between three dimensions of emotional labour (emotional display rules, and the faking and suppression of emotions) and strain outcomes (psychological distress, work‐life conflict and job satisfaction) in a sample of 124‐cabin crew (face‐to‐face interaction) and 122 telesales agents (voice‐to‐voice interaction). The emotional labour dimensions that are significant predictors of strain outcomes for both groups are examined by multiple regression.
Findings
No significant differences were observed between groups in mean levels of emotional labour variables. A greater proportion of variance in all types of strain was explained by the emotional labour components for participants who interact with customers face‐to‐face but these differences did not reach statistical significance. The emotional labour dimensions that predicted each strain outcome varied according to mode of delivery.
Practical implications
Ways by which service sector organisations might counteract the potentially negative effects of performing emotional labour are discussed.
Originality/value
The study provides some initial evidence that the impact of mode of delivery in emotion work is worthy of further investigation.
Details
Keywords
Gail Steptoe‐Warren, Douglas Howat and Ian Hume
The paper seeks to examine both management and psychological literature on strategic decision making.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper seeks to examine both management and psychological literature on strategic decision making.
Design/methodology/approach
A review of the management and psychological literature is undertaken, with particular focus on factors affecting strategic decision making.
Findings
The literature review reveals that managerial cognition as well as individual and corporate values can have an impact on strategic decision making. The review also finds that strategic competencies are important although there is no agreement within the literature on what those competencies are.
Originality/value
Strategic thinking and strategic decision making have been discussed within the psychological and management literature for decades. Psychological and management theoretical perspectives and empirical research have been discussed separately and failed to consider both together. The current paper reviews both psychological and management literature to provide an understanding of the strategic thinking and decision making process and factors that may affect the process.
Details
Keywords
The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains…
Abstract
The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.