Rosalind Heather Whiting, Paul Hansen and Anindya Sen
The purpose of this paper is to develop a rating and scoring tool for measuring small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) reputation, engagement and goodwill (REG), including internet…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a rating and scoring tool for measuring small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) reputation, engagement and goodwill (REG), including internet presence and following on social media, by an exploratory study undertaken in New Zealand.
Design/methodology/approach
A discrete choice experiment (DCE) applying the PAPRIKA method via an online survey was conducted to determine weights representing the relative importance of six indicators related to SMEs’ REG. Usable responses were received from 159 people involved with SMEs. Cluster analysis to identify participants with similar patterns of weights was performed.
Findings
The six indicators, in decreasing order of importance (mean weights in parentheses), are: “captured” customer opinions about the business (0.28); contact with customer database (0.19); website traffic (0.16); Google Search ranking (0.15); size of customer database, (0.11); and following on social media (0.11). These indicators and weights can be used to rate and score individual SMEs. The cluster analysis indicates that participants’ age has some influence on their weights.
Research limitations/implications
Only 159 usable responses for the DCE.
Practical implications
The indicators and their weights provide a practical and inexpensive tool for measuring SMEs’ REG.
Originality/value
This is the first study to use a DCE to determine weights representing the relative importance of indicators included in a tool for measuring SMEs’ REG. The tool is innovative because it includes readily available indicators of firms’ internet presence and following on social media.
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Paul Hansen, Alison Hendry, Ray Naden, Franz Ombler and Ralph Stewart
This paper aims to describe a new process for creating points systems – i.e. decision criteria and their point values – for prioritising patients for access to elective health…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe a new process for creating points systems – i.e. decision criteria and their point values – for prioritising patients for access to elective health services.
Design/methodology/approach
The process was developed in New Zealand from a project the authors were closely involved in, beginning in 2004, to create new points systems, initially for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery and then successively for other elective services. The objective was to overcome the limitations of earlier methodologies for creating points systems.
Findings
The process, supported by internet‐based software, consists of seven steps performed by a working group of clinical leaders for the elective service concerned, in consultation with patient groups and other clinicians. The authors' experience reveals it is acceptable to clinicians and their professional organisations as well as to patient groups.
Originality/value
The process creates points systems that are valid and reproducible and based on a consensus of clinical judgements. The process is explained in a step‐by‐step manner so that it is possible for readers to apply it themselves to create points systems for their own patient‐prioritisation applications.
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Paul Hansen and Stephen Knowles
Models of endogenous economic growth typically assume that aggregate production is characterised by increasing returns to scale, often as a result of the accumulation of physical…
Abstract
Models of endogenous economic growth typically assume that aggregate production is characterised by increasing returns to scale, often as a result of the accumulation of physical and human capital. In this paper, an international data‐set on formal educational attainments is used to disaggregate total employment in order to estimate a Cobb‐Douglas aggregate production function. The function is estimated, using a pooled cross‐section time‐series model, for a selection of high income OECD countries for five years in the period 1960‐85. The estimation results suggest that increasing returns to scale prevailed.
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This study aims at investigating the differential impact of different CSR communication strategies on consumers' brand trust and consequent attitudes and behaviors in the credence…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims at investigating the differential impact of different CSR communication strategies on consumers' brand trust and consequent attitudes and behaviors in the credence goods market.
Design/methodology/approach
An experimental laboratory study was conducted to collect data from graduate students (n = 414) from two Chinese universities. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized model.
Findings
The results show that a dialogical communication strategy, compared to a monological communication strategy, is significantly more effective in increasing consumers' brand trust for credence goods as well as their willingness-to-buy and positive word-of-mouth. The results also confirm the mediating effect of CSR knowledge and the moderating effect of broad-scope trust on the relationship between CSR communication strategies and brand trust.
Practical implications
This study implies that in order to promote consumer trust and supportive behaviors toward brands, managers of companies in credence goods market should consider the increased use of various dialogical CSR communication strategies.
Originality/value
The study is one of the first to verify the impact of dialogical vs monological CSR communication strategies on consumers of credence goods.
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Smart card-based E-payment systems are receiving increasing attention as the number of implementations is witnessed on the rise globally. Understanding of user adoption behavior…
Abstract
Smart card-based E-payment systems are receiving increasing attention as the number of implementations is witnessed on the rise globally. Understanding of user adoption behavior of E-payment systems that employ smart card technology becomes a research area that is of particular value and interest to both IS researchers and professionals. However, research interest focuses mostly on why a smart card-based E-payment system results in a failure or how the system could have grown into a success. This signals the fact that researchers have not had much opportunity to critically review a smart card-based E-payment system that has gained wide support and overcome the hurdle of critical mass adoption. The Octopus in Hong Kong has provided a rare opportunity for investigating smart card-based E-payment system because of its unprecedented success. This research seeks to thoroughly analyze the Octopus from technology adoption behavior perspectives.
Cultural impacts on adoption behavior are one of the key areas that this research posits to investigate. Since the present research is conducted in Hong Kong where a majority of population is Chinese ethnicity and yet is westernized in a number of aspects, assuming that users in Hong Kong are characterized by eastern or western culture is less useful. Explicit cultural characteristics at individual level are tapped into here instead of applying generalization of cultural beliefs to users to more accurately reflect cultural bias. In this vein, the technology acceptance model (TAM) is adapted, extended, and tested for its applicability cross-culturally in Hong Kong on the Octopus. Four cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede are included in this study, namely uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, individualism, and Confucian Dynamism (long-term orientation), to explore their influence on usage behavior through the mediation of perceived usefulness.
TAM is also integrated with the innovation diffusion theory (IDT) to borrow two constructs in relation to innovative characteristics, namely relative advantage and compatibility, in order to enhance the explanatory power of the proposed research model. Besides, the normative accountability of the research model is strengthened by embracing two social influences, namely subjective norm and image. As the last antecedent to perceived usefulness, prior experience serves to bring in the time variation factor to allow level of prior experience to exert both direct and moderating effects on perceived usefulness.
The resulting research model is analyzed by partial least squares (PLS)-based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach. The research findings reveal that all cultural dimensions demonstrate direct effect on perceived usefulness though the influence of uncertainty avoidance is found marginally significant. Other constructs on innovative characteristics and social influences are validated to be significant as hypothesized. Prior experience does indeed significantly moderate the two influences that perceived usefulness receives from relative advantage and compatibility, respectively. The research model has demonstrated convincing explanatory power and so may be employed for further studies in other contexts. In particular, cultural effects play a key role in contributing to the uniqueness of the model, enabling it to be an effective tool to help critically understand increasingly internationalized IS system development and implementation efforts. This research also suggests several practical implications in view of the findings that could better inform managerial decisions for designing, implementing, or promoting smart card-based E-payment system.
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Peyman Akhavan, Akbar Rahimi and Gholamhossein Mehralian
Knowledge sharing (KS) of employees has numerous benefits for organizations. Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide a model for KS in research centers (RCs) that can…
Abstract
Purpose
Knowledge sharing (KS) of employees has numerous benefits for organizations. Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide a model for KS in research centers (RCs) that can facilitate the employee's knowledge sharing behavior (KSB).
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the extensive literature review, a valid instrument was adopted to collect the required data set on KS, KSB and intention to KS, and finally 317 complete questionnaires were collected from Iranian research centers. The structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to assess the measurement model and to test the research hypotheses.
Findings
The findings show that intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors and intention to methods of KS play an important role in KSB. In other words, simultaneous supply of motivational factors and KS methods interesting for employees lead to their KSB. The SEM confirmed the research model and showed a good fit of it.
Practical implications
The implication emanating from this study is that the employees' KSB in RCs as a significant part depends on simultaneous supplying of motivational factors (especially intrinsic motivational factors) and methods of KS that are interesting for employees.
Originality/value
What distinguishes this study from other studies in KS domain could be implied in two subjects. First, the presented model is simple and prepared of the introduced factors, which will lead to KSB. Second, this study was conducted in diverse research fields such as electrical and electronics, telecommunications, materials, chemistry, biotechnology, information technology, management and industrial engineering, computer network security, mechanical and manufacturing. The research model was derived from the collected data of these areas that is unique in this domain.
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Ideology as a mixture of consciously or unconsciously accepted ideas and beliefs provides the underlying support or rationalisation for fundamental features of thought and action…
Abstract
Ideology as a mixture of consciously or unconsciously accepted ideas and beliefs provides the underlying support or rationalisation for fundamental features of thought and action in a society. A vigorously promoted contending ideology may at any given time also influence developments. Value judgments, which are likewise not based on the logical rules of observation and verification, may for present purposes be taken as concerned with less comprehensive or less fundamental matters than ideology.
Olof Brunninge, Markus Plate and Marcela Ramirez-Pasillas
Purpose – This chapter explores the m+eaning and significance of family business social responsibilities (FBSRs) using a metasystem approach, placing emphasis on the role of the…
Abstract
Purpose – This chapter explores the m+eaning and significance of family business social responsibilities (FBSRs) using a metasystem approach, placing emphasis on the role of the family.
Design/Methodology/Approach – We employ a revelatory case study to investigate the complexity of family business (corporate) social responsibility. The main case, a German shoe retailer, is supplemented by other case illustrations that provide additional insights into FBSR.
Findings – To fully understand social responsibility in a family firm context, we need to include social initiatives that go beyond the actual family business as a unit. This FBSR connects family members outside and inside the business and across generations. As FBSR is formed through individual and family-level values, its character is idiosyncratic and contrasts the often standardized approaches in widely held firms.
Practical Implication – Family businesses need to go beyond the business as such when considering their engagement in social responsibility. Family ownership implies that all social initiatives conducted by family members, regardless if they are involved in the firm or not, are connected. This includes a shared responsibility for what family members do at present and have done in the past.
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The first and second authors of this book are, respectively, Professor and Associate Professor of Engineering Mechanics in the University of Michigan. They say in their Preface…
Abstract
The first and second authors of this book are, respectively, Professor and Associate Professor of Engineering Mechanics in the University of Michigan. They say in their Preface that the book has arisen from a course in vibration analysis given for several years in that University, and they add, ‘This course is the first of a series which treat the theory of mechanical vibrations and its applications to engineering problems. The aim of this first course has been to present the fundamentals and basic theory in a manner readily understood by the undergraduate, and yet, at the same time, on a plane acceptable to the graduate student. … A conscious effort has been made to present the theory in such a manner that it can be extended with ease to all the various and diverse vibration problems which the practising engineer has come to know. An equally sincere effort has been made to avoid the extension in detail to specific problems, which is counter to the purpose of this book.’
Simon K. Li and Hang Lai Samman Lee
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the urgency to ensure the preservation of the news archives of the crisis-packed Hong Kong-based Asia Television (ATV), the first Chinese…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the urgency to ensure the preservation of the news archives of the crisis-packed Hong Kong-based Asia Television (ATV), the first Chinese television station in the world. This paper also explores the life and times as well as the future of the historical collections of the ATV archives, which is a treasure trove that covers key events in Hong Kong’s history since 1957, a decade before its major rival Television Broadcasts Limited began to go on air.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting the qualitative approach with in-depth face-to-face interviews, the now defunct ATV News’ longest-serving as well as its very last Chief Librarians discusses the bleeding of priceless history in the 62-year-old news archives which contain Hong Kong’s collective memories.
Findings
An important role of the old news footage is to capture the public’s memories and to take people back to the actual unfolding of landmark events. The interview answers open the way for readers to understand the ways television archives hold immense historical value for a city’s memory and what could be done and preserved before their disappearance.
Originality/value
This paper will be of interest to those historians, journalists, scholars and archivists, including news librarians, who are interested in learning how the ATV’s half-a-century-old archival news footage is a significant asset and cultural record to the former colony.