Marli Möller, Karine Dupré and Ruwan Fernando
The purpose of this study is to provide a global snapshot of the current state of knowledge regarding attrition rates of women architects. The intended audience includes all the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to provide a global snapshot of the current state of knowledge regarding attrition rates of women architects. The intended audience includes all the stakeholders of the profession, as well as those interested in professional attrition studies, with the aim to contribute to a social debate, which places increasing value on diversity, equal representation and retention in this field.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper has utilized the structured analytical technique of a systematic review of the scholarship involving scholarship published over two decades between the years 2000 and 2020. Having selected research on this topic following a series of exclusionary and inclusionary criteria for relevancy and accuracy, this select research has been categorically and thoroughly analyzed using this technique.
Findings
This literature review identifies four main recurring themes among the literature, which address this research question, including: (1). cross-national differences and similarities; (2) demotivating factors leading to attrition; (3) graduate/architect terminology, which blurs the distinction between participants in architecture; and (4) implications of female architects as represented in professional publications and the “reward system.” Consequently, this literature review finds that to date no singular cause can be pinpointed as the sole cause of women's attrition, but rather a series of complex and intertwining factors, some of them specific to the profession.
Originality/value
This paper suggests areas for further study into the reduction of attrition rates of registered women in this discipline, with an emphasis that further research may expand to focus rather on positive aspects of the profession resulting in areas of retention, which has been of little focus in current research. Additionally, these findings make suggestions toward a series of recommendations that may assist in framing the industry toward more positive and equitable career and industry trajectories.
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Mario Fernando, Stephen Fox, Ruwan Bandara and Daniel Hartley
The purpose of this study is to examine the nature of interdisciplinary thinking and the conditions and processes that foster it among first-year undergraduate students.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the nature of interdisciplinary thinking and the conditions and processes that foster it among first-year undergraduate students.
Design/methodology/approach
This study with 510 Australian students drawn from 2 cohorts explored an initiative to promote interdisciplinary teaching in an undergraduate ethics-based subject. The study focused on a case-study-based reflective essay intervention to compare the teaching and learning outcomes in the two student cohorts.
Findings
The results show how a case-study-based reflective essay intervention impacted on interdisciplinary learning. Introducing the case-study-based reflective essay improved interdisciplinary thinking. Findings show that integral to engaging students in interdisciplinary learning is a need for more experiential and active approaches built into education itself.
Research limitations/implications
The study findings extend Spelt et al.’s (2009) model in the business education context to link student learning outcomes to the learning processes, learning environment and interdisciplinary thinking. A key limitation of this study is that the intervention is limited to only two student cohorts.
Practical implications
The study recommends the use of reflective practice in interdisciplinary subjects to support a variety of learning outcomes across disciplines including classroom-based and assignment-based reflective practices which influence interdisciplinary thinking and active learning.
Originality/value
There is limited understanding on how business schools should or could attempt to promote interdisciplinary teaching and the actual methods for doing so. This study highlights the significance of integrating reflective practice in undergraduate business education to promote students’ interdisciplinary thinking.
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Ruwan Bandara, Mario Fernando and Shahriar Akter
The purpose of this study is to examine privacy issues in the e-commerce context from a power-responsibility equilibrium theory (PRE) perspective.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine privacy issues in the e-commerce context from a power-responsibility equilibrium theory (PRE) perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
The data was collected using an online survey (n = 335) from online shopping consumers. This study used partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) techniques to empirically examine the proposed relationships.
Findings
A lack of corporate privacy responsibility and regulatory protection can deprive consumers of privacy empowerment and damage consumer trust to trigger privacy concerns and subsequent defensive responses. Also, the fsQCA revealed five causal configurations to explain high consumer defensive behaviours.
Research limitations/implications
This study identifies the importance of PRE theory in the privacy context. Consumer privacy concerns, privacy empowerment and trust are established as strong mediators between corporate/regulatory privacy protection efforts and consumer backlash. The application of fsQCA verified that consumer privacy behaviour can be better explained by different configurations of the same causal antecedents.
Practical implications
The findings highlight the importance of increasing trust and privacy empowerment as mechanisms to manage privacy concerns and consumer backlash through responsible organisational and regulatory privacy protections. The importance of balancing power and responsibility dynamics for maintaining a healthy information exchange environment is identified.
Originality/value
This study extends the PRE framework of privacy to include corporate privacy responsibility, privacy empowerment and trust. This is one of the first studies to explore both antecedents and outcomes of privacy empowerment. Also, the application of complexity theory and fsQCA to explain consumers’ defensive responses is novel to the literature.
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Mario Fernando, Shahriar Akter and Ruwan J. Bandara
How employees connect with their work organisation and how it may play a role in their moral courage and ethical behaviour remain under-explored. This study, using Psychological…
Abstract
Purpose
How employees connect with their work organisation and how it may play a role in their moral courage and ethical behaviour remain under-explored. This study, using Psychological Contract Theory, aims to explore how employee–organisation connectedness influences employees' moral courage and ethical behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
The hypotheses were tested using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) on data collected through a questionnaire survey from 212 Australian healthcare professionals.
Findings
Employee connectedness with their work organisations showed a significant and direct impact on ethical behaviour. Along with moral courage, connectedness explained over half of the variance in ethical behaviour. Furthermore, moral courage partially mediated the effect of employee connectedness on ethical behaviour.
Research limitations/implications
The overall theoretical implication of this study is that psychological contracts between employees and their organisations operationalised through employee–organisation connectedness can explain the role of moral courage in ethical behaviour.
Practical implications
With increasing borderless management of organisations, organisational connectedness can be a critical factor in developing employees' moral courage and ethical behaviour within organisations. Socialisation interventions can be useful to promote employee–organisation connectedness.
Originality/value
The study developed a higher-order connectedness model and validated it with PLS-SEM. The study provides novel empirical evidence on the relationships between employee–organisation connectedness, moral courage and ethical behaviour.
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Ruwan Adikaram and Alex Holcomb
In this study, the authors investigate if analysts, as knowledgeable information intermediaries, can correctly identify bank corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and…
Abstract
Purpose
In this study, the authors investigate if analysts, as knowledgeable information intermediaries, can correctly identify bank corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and can reliably transmit that information to investors. Hence, the authors specifically explore if analysts perceive and behave differentially in the presence of genuine bank CSR activities (strengths). The authors also analyze if financial markets differentially assess bank CSR strengths. The authors further explore the viability of focusing on analyst and financial markets to validate genuine bank CSR strengths.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use COMPUSTAT and CRSP for firm and financial data, I/B/E/S for analyst reporting data and MCSI Research KLD for CSR data. The sample consists of 329 distinct banks and 2,525 bank-year observations from 2003 to 2016. The primary CSR score is the total number of CSR strengths less the total number of CSR concerns, across six of the seven dimensions for each firm in each year of the sample (Adjusted CSR Score). In addition, the authors estimate all the analyses with dis-aggregated measures of total CSR strengths and total CSR concerns (Adjusted Total Strength Score).
Findings
The authors find that analysts correctly distinguish and construe bank CSR strengths from CSR concerns. Specifically, bank CSR strengths increase analyst following and forecast accuracy, while decreasing analyst forecast dispersion. The authors further find that bank CSR strengths increase bank market returns. These results are reversed for bank CSR concerns. Additionally, the authors demonstrate that this method using knowledgeable intermediaries can help validate bank CSR strengths.
Research limitations/implications
The sample is limited to US banks and financial markets. The regulatory and information environment is likely to be different from global or emerging markets. However, since banks in many countries aspire to emulate the US banks, these results would be a precursor of banking sectors conditions in emerging markets. Additionally, the availability of data limits the sample to a period that ends in 2016. To the extent that the importance of ESG and CSR concerns has increased in the intervening time, the results may not accurately reflect the current state of the market.
Practical implications
This investigation benefits researchers, customers, banking executives, regulators and activist groups. First, the authors show that in addition to customers, analysts and the financial markets appreciate bank CSR strengths. Second, despite sophisticated financial reporting by banks, analysts correctly distinguish and construe bank CSR strengths. Third, the authors demonstrate a method for bank marketing researchers to validate genuine bank CSR activity, as well as provide additional support for customer related bank CSR outcomes. Fourth, the findings highlight the importance for banks to have high-quality CSR reporting. This might be especially helpful to a bank rebuilding its reputation after a CSR failure. Finally, this investigation using US banks could serve as a precursor for future bank CSR research and help develop CSR reporting guidelines for banks in emerging economies.
Social implications
This investigation benefits researchers, customers, banking executives, regulators and activist groups.
Originality/value
This investigation benefits researchers, customers, banking executives, regulators and activist groups. First, the authors show that in addition to customers, analysts and the financial market appreciates bank CSR strengths. Second, despite sophisticated financial reporting by banks, analysts correctly distinguish and construe bank CSR strengths. Third, the authors demonstrate a method for bank marketing researchers to validate genuine bank CSR activity, as well as provide additional support for customer related bank CSR outcomes. Fourth, the findings highlight the importance for banks to have high-quality CSR reporting. This might be especially helpful to a bank rebuilding its reputation after a CSR failure. Finally, this investigation using US banks could serve as a precursor for future bank CSR research and help develop CSR reporting guidelines for banks in emerging economies.