Search results

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the subjective perspectives on the development process of perceived employability (PE) among Western self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) working for a local organisation in China.

This empirical qualitative study is based on 23 in-depth interviews of Western SIEs, both repatriated and those who seek to continue their careers in local Chinese organisations in China.

This study adds to the current understanding of PE development by highlighting how the long-term PE development of Western SIEs is not only impacted by the perceptions of lost and acquired resources, but also by the host-country cultural context, which contribute to the levels and development of PE as a personal resource.

The findings of the study are highly relevant because today’s labour markets and the employability of skilled professionals are increasingly shaped by international career contexts. These are also emerging number of individuals who independently seek career opportunities in cross-cultural career and labour market settings. The findings also help explain why SIEs in cross-cultural career settings often express negative feelings when asked to review their assignments.

This study is one of the first to explore the career trajectories of Western SIEs, and to address the dynamic aspect of PE from the perspectives of the conservation of resources theory and non-local employees in cross-cultural career settings.

The purpose of this paper is to offer an employer perceptive on the employability of self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) by contrasting SIEs with other identified staffing groups available for the staffing of MNC subsidiaries in China.

This qualitative study is based on in-depth interviews with 24 Westerners with direct staffing responsibilities in subsidiaries of western MNCs located in China. The employability of each identified staffing group was assessed using the person-to-environment fit approach from four-fit perspectives (person-to-job and to-group, organisation and cultural context).

The study revealed how from the employer perspective SIEs do not form a heterogeneous group, but instead there are two groups with different fit profiles. The study illustrates how western SIEs are an uncommon and under-used staffing group in cross-cultural staffing settings in China due to their low employability in comparison to alternative staffing groups. The study also revealed the prevalent bipolarity (the Westerners vs the Chinese) and heterogeneity within the identified staffing groups.

The study recognises the lack of employer perspective in SIE literature and also that SIEs are an under-represented group in the staffing literature.

The findings help explain how MNC staffing is culturally bound and how the staffing process should incorporate more than just an assessment of job-related qualifications. The findings also help explain the challenges SIEs can experience in cross-cultural career settings.

The study is one of the first to provide an employer perspective on SIE careers and contrast SIEs to the other alternative staffing groups available to MNC subsidiaries in China.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether an example of Seclusion Room Contactless Monitoring Technology (VitalGuard^TM) is able to accurately detect the presence of life in a ward seclusion room ensuring patient wellbeing, without interference from background “living noise” (e.g. voices) or “electronic noise” (e.g. other systems).

The authors assessed the system’s ability to monitor movement caused by human respiration through its ability to discriminate false positives (i.e. presence of an inanimate object ± movement or noise, in the absence of a person in the seclusion room) and false negatives (i.e. failure to detect a human presence) in a ward setting.

The system displayed 100 per cent validity in terms of determining false positives (six conditions, each n=5) and the system did not alarm under either of the two false negative conditions tested (each n=5).

These findings demonstrate that this example of technology is able to monitor movement caused by human respiration and can accurately and reliably detect the presence of life in seclusion rooms, in the ward setting, without interference from background noise (living and electronic). This was a small evaluation study and further research on its effectiveness in practice would be beneficial in both the intellectual disability forensic setting and other settings of segregation and isolation.

This study suggests that the use of technology in a seclusion room setting can be used as a reliable tool to enhance patient observations and assist in the delivery of care in a safe and unobtrusive manner.

The study aims to figure out the impact of supply chain planning (SCP) on innovation performance (IP), the mediating role of agreement on supply chain vision and goals (ASCVG), and the moderated effect of information technology (IT) use with buyers and suppliers.

Based on 265 pieces of data collected from global manufacturing companies, the authors tested the proposed hypothesis through regression analyses. Meanwhile, the plug-in of statistical software SPSS, PROCESS (Model 4 and 14) was used to examine the mediation and moderated mediation models.

The results reveal that ASCVG partially mediates the effect of SCP on IP. Furthermore, the indirect influence of SCP on IP is stronger when the extent of IT use with buyers is higher, while this indirect effect is not moderated by IT use with suppliers.

In this study, the authors investigated the combined effect of SCP, ASCVG, and IT use with external partners on IP, which provides theoretical and practical insights into the ways that manufacturing firms effectively use the SCP, ASCVG and IT use with external partners to heighten IP.

Theory is an essential prerequisite in the development and maturation of any scholarly discipline. This study offers insight into theory development in reverse logistics (RL) studies, provides a synopsis of the theories employed in RL studies, and presents a comprehensive framework for choosing and applying theories in RL studies.

Using the systematic literature review approach, 265 various RL articles were analysed to discover the trend in using theories in RL studies and classify the individual theories employed. The analysis of the theoretical classification is presented to explain the type and frequency of the usage of theories.

The analysis discovered 52 specific theories from the sample. These theories were categorised under various categories: competitive, inventory, economic, decision, etc. The institutional, stakeholder, transaction cost economies, resource-based view, natural resource-based view, dynamic capability, agency and theory of planned behaviour were some of the key theories discovered. Finally, a comprehensive framework is provided to aid researchers in choosing and utilising theories.

This study gives authors, reviewers and editors perspectives on utilising theories in RL studies. It will give them the impetus to develop theories in RL and limit the borrowing or extension of theories from other disciplines to RL studies.

To the best of the researcher's knowledge, this is the first attempt to comprehensively provide an anatomical perspective into theory usage in RL studies. Besides, this study's proposed framework for selecting and using theories is a novelty in the domain of RL.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) secondhand resale platforms (SRP) are competitive places where different value systems beyond market values interact. This study aims to investigate the conflicts that may arise in interactions between users on SRP and the extent to which these conflicts are (ir)resolved, by drawing on economies of worth theory.

The study takes a qualitative and interpretative approach to examine 22 active users on P2P resales platforms such as Vinted, including in-depth interviews. Following the Straussian view of grounded theory, the study uses constant comparison (open, axial and selective coding) to analyze data on SRP users’ experiences.

Drawing on the economies of worth theory, the study shows that SRP users rely on four different value systems or “worlds” when using the platforms (market, domestic, green and civic worlds) that come into conflict, at either an interactional (three conflicts identified) or an individual (two conflicts identified) level. The findings reveal that these conflicts are temporarily resolved at the interactional level and in a sustainable way at the individual level.

This study sheds further light on the relationship between consumers on SRP by offering a more nuanced perspective on these exchanges than market-oriented exchanges. It also analyzes the data through the economies of worth theory, which is an appropriate lens to better understand social interactions and conventions. Finally, the study offers recommendations on how managers can improve buyers’ and sellers’ experiences on these platforms and, thus, foster their satisfaction.

This paper examines the relationship between marketing automation emergence and the marketers' use of heuristics in their decision-making processes. Heuristics play a role for the integration of human decision-making models and automation in augmentation processes, particularly in marketing where automation is widespread.

This study analyzes qualitative data about the impact of marketing automation on the scope of heuristics in decision-making models, and it is based on evidence collected from interviews with twenty-two experienced marketers.

Marketers make extensive use of heuristics to manage their tasks. While the adoption of new automatic marketing tools modify the task environment and field of use of traditional decision-making models, the adoption of heuristics rules with a different scope is essential to defining inputs, interpreting/evaluating outputs and control the marketing automation system.

The paper makes a contribution to research on the relationship between marketing automation and decision-making models. In particular, it proposes the results of in-depth interviews with senior decision makers to assess the impact of marketing automation on the scope of heuristics as decision-making models adopted by marketers.