Search results

To provide an advanced product definition methodology based on quality function deployment (QFD) principles to identify minimize the risks of project failures due to failure to align with the voice of the business. The methodology was developed by reviewing current design product definition and QFD tools and then applied to a number of industry‐based design projects in academia as well as an in‐depth case study at one industry organization. The tool has been well accepted for its ease and approach in both industry and academic environments and already used to help guide project management. The methodology has only been applied to limited projects in industry and advancements and improvements are still being made. A new simple but powerful tool based on QFD principles that can be readily applied to a number of current design projects; in addition, it demonstrates how the QFD method can be expanded to non‐traditional domains and systems. This paper not only identifies current product development issues but also explores a practical and proven solution to error‐proof the design process.

The purpose of this study is to understand Chinese consumers’ responses to ethnically tailored hotel services from the theoretical perspective of cultural essentialism.

Data collection was conducted through an online survey with Chinese respondents. Hierarchical moderated regression was performed to analyze the data.

The results show a positive relationship between cultural essentialism and consumer responses to hotel services that are tailored to their culture. Furthermore, the findings show that prior service satisfaction does not only positively influence the consumer responses, but also amplifies the link between cultural essentialism and the consumer responses.

Hoteliers are recommended to consider the cultural essentialism of Chinese consumers when adaptive services are introduced. Hotel services that are tailored to Chinese culture is a viable strategy if most Chinese customers are cultural essentialists.

This study adds knowledge to the hospitality scholarship by introducing cultural essentialism and demonstrating its role in influencing consumer preferences for familiarity as opposed to exotic hotel services. Furthermore, the moderating role of service satisfaction extends the consumer behavior literature.

The physical nature of electricity generation and delivery creates special problems for the design of efficient markets, notably the need to manage delivery in real time and the volatile congestion and associated costs that result. Proposals for the operation of the deregulated electricity industry tend towards one of two paradigms: centralized and decentralized. Transmission congestion management can be implemented in the more centralized point‐to‐point approach, as in New York state, where derivative transmission congestion contracts (TCCs) are traded, or in the more decentralized flowgate‐based approach. While it is widely accepted that theoretically TCCs have attractive properties as hedging instruments against congestion cost uncertainty, whether efficient markets for them can be established in practice has been questioned. Based on an empirical analysis of publicly available data from years 2000 and 2001, it appears that New York TCCs provided market participants with a potentially effective hedge against volatile congestion rents. However, the prices paid for TCCs systematically diverged from the resulting congestion rents for distant locations and at high prices. The price paid for the hedge not being in line with the congestion rents, i.e., unreasonably high risk premiums are being paid, suggests an inefficient market. The low liquidity of TCC markets and the deviation of TCC feasibility requirements from actual energy flows are possible explanations.

Persistent change has placed considerable pressure on organizations to keep up or fade into obscurity. Firms that remain viable, or even thrive, are staffed with decision-makers who capably steer organizations toward opportunities and away from threats. Accordingly, leadership development has never been more critical. In this chapter, the authors propose that leader development is an inherently dyadic process initiated to communicate formal and informal expectations. The authors focus on the informal component, in the form of organizational politics, as an element of leadership that is critical to employee and company success. The authors advocate that superiors represent the most salient information source for leader development, especially as it relates to political dynamics embedded in work systems. The authors discuss research associated with our conceptualization of dyadic political leader development (DPLD). Specifically, the authors develop DPLD by exploring its conceptual underpinnings as they relate to sensemaking, identity, and social learning theories. Once established, the authors provide a refined discussion of the construct, illustrating its scholarly mechanisms that better explain leader development processes and outcomes. The authors then expand research in the areas of political skill, political will, political knowledge, and political phronesis by embedding our conceptualization of DPLD into a political leadership model. The authors conclude by discussing methodological issues and avenues of future research stemming from the development of DPLD.

This chapter discusses how attachment theory, a theory that provides insight into the processes through which psychological and emotional bonds are developed in relationships, can be useful for understanding mentoring relationships. We develop a conceptual model emphasizing how attachment-related constructs and their relationships with mentors’ and protégés’ behaviors and emotions influence each phase of a mentoring relationship. Recognizing reciprocity in the mentoring process, the model also explains how the interpersonal dynamics of the mentor–protégé relationship influence the benefits gained by both partners. Propositions for future research on mentoring relationships are provided. We contend that examining mentoring through the lens of attachment theory can increase our understanding of the underlying factors or mechanisms that determine individuals’ involvement in mentoring relationships and differentiate successful from unsuccessful mentoring relationships. The research and practical implications are discussed.

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature regarding the effect of country of origin on consumer perceptions of products and services. Results reveal that consumer perceptions differ significantly on the basis of product/service and country of origin. The country of origin may be an important element in the perceptions consumers have of products and services especially where little other information is known. However, the question of how much influence the country of origin provides in product and service evaluations remains unanswered and a number of other major issues have yet to be resolved. Directions for future research are developed.

On many occasions, organizational science research has been referred to as fragmented and disjointed, resulting in a literature that is, in the opinion of many, difficult to navigate and comprehend. One potential explanation is that scholars have failed to comprehend that organizations are complex and intricate systems. In order to move us past this morass, we recommend that researchers extend beyond traditional rational, mechanistic, and variable-centered approaches to research and integrate a more advantageous pattern-oriented approach within their research program. Pattern-oriented methods approximate real-life phenomena by adopting a holistic, integrative approach to research wherein individual- and organizational-systems are viewed as non-decomposable organized wholes. We argue that the pattern-oriented approach has the potential to overcome a number of breakdowns faced by alternate approaches, while offering a novel and more representative lens from which to view organizational- and HRM-related issues. The proposed incorporation of the pattern-oriented approach is framed within a review and evaluation of current approaches to organizational research and is supplemented with a discussion of methodological and theoretical implications as well as potential applications of the pattern-oriented approach.

Teams in extreme and disruptive contexts face unique challenges that can undermine coordination and decision-making. In this study, we evaluated how affective differences between team members and team process norms affected the team's decision-making effectiveness.

Teams were placed in a survival simulation where they evaluated how best to maximize the team's survival prospects given scarce resources. We incorporated multisource and multirater (i.e., team, observer, and archival) data to ascertain the impacts of affect asymmetry and team process norms on decision-making effectiveness.

Results suggest that teams with low positive affect asymmetry and low process norms generate the most effective decisions. The least effective team decision performance occurred in teams characterized by high variance in team positive affectivity (high positive affect asymmetry) and low process norms. We found no similar effect for teams with high process norms and no effect for negative affect asymmetry, however, irrespective of team process norms.

These findings support the affect infusion model and extend cognitive resource theory, by highlighting how affect infusion processes and situational constraints influence team decision-making in extreme and disruptive contexts.

Set in the newly emerging hybrid product research stream, and reflecting trends towards multi‐national production and sourcing, this paper aims to present a three‐country study on perceived quality and image of automobiles “made in and for” Southeast Asia.

The authors used a multiple cue design in the stimulus definition, reflecting assembly and component origin plus warranty level. Actual car owners were targeted, thereby adding to a relatively low number of studies requiring actual prior purchase. The related face‐to‐face interviews in the local languages resulted in 720 usable questionnaires.

Country‐of‐assembly is shown to affect perceived quality as well as perceived image. Warranty extension can moderate the quality effects to some extent, whilst buyers of luxury models display a smaller positive home bias in terms of perceived image than those of non‐luxury models. Such home region bias is not demonstrated to be significant for country‐of‐components.

The paper contributes towards ongoing theory‐building, especially with regards to an optimum level of origin cue decomposition. It also establishes the importance of adding image perception measurement to the arsenal of origin researchers normally focused on quality effects.

Managers need to make strategic decisions on the decomposition of product origin cues, reflecting consumers' abilities to notice several such cues. The selected product origin cues must then be supported with appropriate communications strategies.

For the first time, origin effects are demonstrated for the Southeast Asia region. The paper establishes the significance of country‐of‐target and contributes to research on the ever more complex product origin construct.