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Competition is a prominent topic of discussion among academics and practitioners; yet the relevant literatures in management and psychology lack a consistent definition to describe this phenomenon. Consequently, much of the mixed results concerning competition's impact on attitudes and performance might be due to conceptual differences about the construct. A survey administered in a laboratory setting demonstrated individuals perceive different types of competition, and these different types had different impacts on attitudes and behavior. One type of competition identified here, the opportunity for informal competition, draws from a vast literature in social psychology—using social comparisons to evaluate performance. These results support broadening the definition of competition and expanding future research investigation efforts. Informal social competition can potentially benefit efforts to effectively direct and enhance motivation.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the market potential of a locally produced and high quality food product (i.e. white bean “Mongeta Ganxet” (MG)) from Catalonia, Spain. Consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for the product is elicited using a non‐hypothetical economic experiment and then the sensitivity of WTP values is analyzed with regard to additional information provided to participants that includes reference prices, leaflets and tasting. Finally, a sample‐selection model is estimated to assess the factors that significantly affect consumers' WTP for the product.

To elicit the willingness to pay a premium for the local food product, 90 subjects were invited to participate in a random nth price experimental auction. Before auctioning the product, participants were asked to complete a questionnaire about consumer attitudes and purchase habits.

Only 7 percent of participants are willing to pay a price higher than the minimum price from which the MG product may be purchased directly from a producer or the local producing market. Also, it was found that providing reference prices of substitute products (both conventional and alternative high quality white beans) positively affects WTP for the MG. Interestingly, however, provision of information on organoleptic, nutritional and cooking characteristics of the MG and product tasting do not significantly influence WTP. Finally, the level of consumption, the degree of knowledge about the product and the participants' previous experience increase the purchasing intention for the MG.

In contrast to traditional market research studies that use hypothetical methods, the authors use non‐hypothetical elicitation mechanism to elicit consumers' valuation for an important local food product in Catalonia, Spain. Since actual products and cash were used in the experiments, the authors provided the respondents with an incentive to reveal their true preferences and valuation for the product of interest. The authors also tested the effect of provision of certain types of information on WTP and analyzed the factors that significantly influence consumers' WTP for the product.

Low dielectric constant printed circuit board materials are becoming available. There are four or more materials that can produce boards with a dielectric constant of 28. This paper will discuss the electrical and system advantages of having a lower dielectric constant, and the advantages and disadvantages of each of the principal new materials. In particular, the use of lower dielectric to increase circuit density will be stressed, rather than the more usual expectation that the lower dielectric constant will be used to increase propagation velocity or reduce capacitance. The increase in circuit density will reduce the size of boards, and achieve the reduction in propagation delay even though the capacitance and characteristic impedance are unchanged.

The purpose of this study is to understand how a salesperson’s preset goals, customer satisfaction levels and past performance affect the extent of goal achievement, as well as how job-specific attitudes and emotions affect the relationship between preset goals and goal achievement.

This study uses a modeling framework with both main, moderating and mediating effects, using transaction data and survey results from a telecommunications firm.

The results indicate that preset goals and customer satisfaction, interestingly, have an inverted-U relationships with goal achievement. Further, attitudes and emotions regarding workplace conduciveness and workplace ethics and diversity, reduce the effect preset goals have on goal achievement. However, attitudes and emotions regarding workplace philosophy strengthens the effect preset goals have on goal achievement, whereas with disagreement, this relationship diminishes.

Two of the primary limitations of this study are: one, because of the cross-sectional nature of the study, there is limited opportunity to control for unobserved heterogeneity; and two, performance goal achievement, though is important for the firm, is one of many potential goals that affect a salesperson. For example, customer satisfaction goals or a one-time special event goals could play a role. Therefore, only using performance goal achievement could be a limitation of this study.

This study contributes to academic literature in three ways. First, it demonstrates the diminishing effect of customer satisfaction on goal achievement. Second, it identifies an inverse U-shaped relationship between preset goals and goal achievement. Finally, it examines how attitudes and emotions regarding workplace culture (conduciveness, ethics and diversity and philosophy) affect the relationship between preset goals and goal achievement.

Managers today, in looking for ways to manage their staff effectively and to increase productivity, too often turn to the latest “management tool” or technique as the panacea to all their manpower problems. Attracted by glossy promises or presentations, these are introduced, generally from the top, without reference to the ever‐growing research evidence. Reviews some of the research into the use of goals in organizations. Concludes that there is research evidence to show that staff at all levels involved in setting their own goals will increase their production, quality and motivation, but that the setting of goals does not require a complex and costly process. The use of any goal is better than no goal but outcomes are better in simple participative systems.

Although the understanding of both positive and negative factors influencing sports consumption is essential, previous research has mainly focused on motivators. The purpose of this study was to examine three different models of constraints and motivators that influence attendance: a correlated model, a hierarchical model and a moderated model. Twenty factors were identified and classified into four main categories. The results indicated that 16 out of 20 motivators and constraints had a significant relationship with attendance in the theoretically expected direction.

Telecom equipment is subject to thermal cycles caused by both variations in temperature between day and night and variations in the telephone traffic. To simulate such thermal excursions, accelerated thermal cycle testing between — 10°C and 100°C has been established as a standard method within Ericsson Telecom. Thermal cycle tests have been carried out for frequencies ranging from one cycle per day to 30 cycles per hour in order to cover the different thermal excursions that occur in telecom equipment. It has been found that the life of a surface mounted PWB assembly can be predicted from the accelerated testing results using a frequency modified Coffin‐Manson relation. Factors which influence the fatigue life of solder joints such as solder material, compliant leads, compliant surface layers and mismatch between package and board are discussed. Based on results from accelerated testing it is suggested that the optimal PWB design for leadless ceramic chip carriers should be a moderate TCE matching combined with a compliant surface layer.

This paper aims to explore the complex relationships between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, pay satisfaction and job satisfaction at the retailer that uses a pay‐for‐performance plan for front‐line employees.

This paper draws on a single organization case study across seven stores, and uses a survey, archival documents, open‐ended questions and researcher interaction with employees and managers.

The results provide some support for the complementary nature of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation was positively associated with pay and job satisfactions, whereas extrinsic motivation was negatively associated with job satisfaction, and not associated with pay satisfaction. The qualitative insights indicate that pay fairness is important, and those who perceived pay was not fair generally made comparisons with others or felt that pay did not reflect their effort. It is also found that the majority of employees perceived that goals were clear.

The dominance of extrinsic motivation without including behavioural, social, and psychological factors in agency theory research is questioned. The research finds no support for “crowding out”, but rather finds some evidence of “crowding in” where intrinsic motivation is enhanced, to the detriment of extrinsic motivation.

The findings highlight that managers should enhance both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and pay employees well to increase job satisfaction.

Few studies examine incentives for front‐line employees, and there is evidence that minimum wage employees can have high intrinsic motivation. Perceptions of pay fairness can vary across motivation levels, age, and gender.

The mechanical and thermal responses of encapsulated flip chip solder bumps on a surface laminar circuit (SLC) board have been determined in this study. The mechanical responses of the solder bumps and encapsulant have been obtained by shear, tension and torsion tests. The thermal stress and strain in the solder bumps and encapsulant have been determined by a non‐linear finite element method and the thermal fatigue life of the corner solder bump is then estimated based on the calculated plastic strains, Coffin‐Manson law and isothermal fatigue data of solders. Also, an assembly process of the test boards is presented.

In this paper an overview of the issues underlying surface mount solder joint long‐term reliability is presented. The paper gives state‐of‐the‐art solutions for ‘Design for Reliability’ in simple design tool form, discusses the important accelerated reliability test issues, and provides the equations to estimate the reliability of SM product in use as well as the expected cyclic life in accelerated tests.