Chen Zhu, Timothy Beatty, Qiran Zhao, Wei Si and Qihui Chen
Food choices profoundly affect one's dietary, nutritional and health outcomes. Using alcoholic beverages as a case study, the authors assess the potential of genetic data in…
Abstract
Purpose
Food choices profoundly affect one's dietary, nutritional and health outcomes. Using alcoholic beverages as a case study, the authors assess the potential of genetic data in predicting consumers' food choices combined with conventional socio-demographic data.
Design/methodology/approach
A discrete choice experiment was conducted to elicit the underlying preferences of 484 participants from seven provinces in China. By linking three types of data (—data from the choice experiment, socio-demographic information and individual genotyping data) of the participants, the authors employed four machine learning-based classification (MLC) models to assess the performance of genetic information in predicting individuals' food choices.
Findings
The authors found that the XGBoost algorithm incorporating both genetic and socio-demographic data achieves the highest prediction accuracy (77.36%), significantly outperforming those using only socio-demographic data (permutation test p-value = 0.033). Polygenic scores of several behavioral traits (e.g. depression and height) and genetic variants associated with bitter taste perceptions (e.g. TAS2R5 rs2227264 and TAS2R38 rs713598) offer contributions comparable to that of standard socio-demographic factors (e.g. gender, age and income).
Originality/value
This study is among the first in the economic literature to empirically demonstrate genetic factors' important role in predicting consumer behavior. The findings contribute fresh insights to the realm of random utility theory and warrant further consumer behavior studies integrating genetic data to facilitate developments in precision nutrition and precision marketing.
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Marsha B. Keune, Timothy M. Keune and Linda A. Quick
Voluntary changes in accounting principle represent explicit and fundamental decisions by managers to exercise accounting discretion. This paper develops an organizing framework…
Abstract
Voluntary changes in accounting principle represent explicit and fundamental decisions by managers to exercise accounting discretion. This paper develops an organizing framework to review prior literature on voluntary changes, provides descriptive insights on contemporary changes, and identifies opportunities for future research on voluntary changes. The voluntary change literature is robust and has examined many questions using data prior to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). We find that contemporary voluntary changes often vary across the pre-SOX, post-SOX, and post-SFAS No. 154 periods by the materiality of their income effect, issue type, and justifications provided by managers, suggesting that manager use of voluntary changes has evolved over time. Our future research opportunities consider potential determinants of voluntary changes including strategic incentives, environmental conditions, and manager characteristics, as well as the potential direct or moderating role of corporate governance and auditors on manager use of voluntary changes. They also consider user reactions to voluntary changes. By providing insight into both extant voluntary change research and the contemporary use of voluntary changes, our study informs standards setters who grant managers the ability to exercise this form of accounting discretion, as well as researchers who plan to study accounting choice through voluntary changes.
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Tracey S. Dagger and Timothy K. O'Brien
Although customer relationships transpire through a process of time, encounters and experience, few studies have examined the dynamics of service relationships. This paper aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
Although customer relationships transpire through a process of time, encounters and experience, few studies have examined the dynamics of service relationships. This paper aims to address this issue by examining the effect of experience on the association between relational benefits and relationship quality, and between relationship quality and loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a national sample of 376 service consumers and nine service industries, the study examines whether the impact of relationship benefits on perceptions of satisfaction, trust and commitment, and ultimately customer loyalty, differs significantly between novice and experienced customer cohorts.
Findings
The results indicate significant differences between novice and experienced cohorts. Specifically, the impact of confidence, social and special treatment benefits on perceptions of satisfaction, trust and commitment, and ultimately customer loyalty, differ significantly based on a customer's level of relationship experience.
Practical implications
The findings of this study have tactical and strategic implications for service firms, including effective customer asset management, resource allocation, and relationship strategy.
Originality/value
This study makes a significant new contribution to theory and practice.
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Ying Wang, Melissa Chapman, Louise Byrne, James Hill and Timothy Bartram
This case documents an innovative human resource management (HRM) practice adopted by an Australian organization in the energy sector, purposefully introducing lived experience…
Abstract
Purpose
This case documents an innovative human resource management (HRM) practice adopted by an Australian organization in the energy sector, purposefully introducing lived experience informed “mental health advocate” (MHA) roles into the organization, to address pressing mental health workforce issues. MHA roles provide experiential, first-hand knowledge of experiencing mental health issues, offering a novel, common-sense and impactful perspective on supporting employees with mental health challenges.
Approach
Data that informed this case came from desktop research using publicly available resources, as well as a series of conversations with four key stakeholders in the organization. This approach allowed insights into Energy Queensland’s journey towards establishing novel MHA roles to delineate the day-to-day work practice of these roles.
Contribution to Practice
This is a novel HRM practice that has only recently emerged outside of the mental health sector. We discuss key considerations that enabled the success of the roles, including taking an evolutionary perspective, obtaining support from senior executives and relevant stakeholders, making a long-term financial commitment, and providing autonomy and flexibility in role design. This is the first article that documents this innovative practice to offer new insights to HRM scholars, as well as practical guidelines to other organizations in addressing workforce mental health issues.
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Timothy S. Kiessling and R. Glenn Richey
This manuscript discusses the contributions of Peter F. Drucker and the seminal influences on his logic made by the Austrian School of Economics. According to our research…
Abstract
This manuscript discusses the contributions of Peter F. Drucker and the seminal influences on his logic made by the Austrian School of Economics. According to our research, Drucker focused on four critical elements of the Austrian School: an interdisciplinary approach and philosophical sophistication; the vision of market competition as an endless dynamic process (creative destruction, entrepreneurship); the firm as a social entity and as a depository of knowledge; and the role of the government. The research also suggests that Peter Drucker's prolific legacy has significantly influenced modern management theory and practice through its grounding in Austrian School logic.
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Michael Harvey, Timothy Kiessling and Miriam Moeller
The paper seeks to examine the influence of the Austrian School of Economics and its views of innovations and entrepreneurship on one of their champions, Joseph Schumpeter…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper seeks to examine the influence of the Austrian School of Economics and its views of innovations and entrepreneurship on one of their champions, Joseph Schumpeter. Schumpeter's insights on innovation and entrepreneurship issues are discussed and compared to previous literature.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is conceptual in nature, highlighting that the key process in economic change is the introduction of innovations; the central innovator is that of the entrepreneur.
Findings
Insights gained from Schumpeter include the following: in the context of increasing global competition, the importance of innovations by entrepreneurs is becoming more important. The challenge though is for firms to find and make use of these individual for their survival. Another link is the distrust of the government and the ability of the free market to function, though imperfectly, without interference.
Originality/value
The paper suggests that innovation and entrepreneurship are the essence of the capitalist society. Entrepreneurs contribute to society as a whole by introducing new products/services that often are contradictory to institutional norms.
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Fang Meng and Yingjiao Xu
This research attempts to expand the understanding of the nature of tourist shopping behavior. More specifically, this study aims to explore the influences of the components of…
Abstract
Purpose
This research attempts to expand the understanding of the nature of tourist shopping behavior. More specifically, this study aims to explore the influences of the components of planned behavior, impulsive behavior, and experiential consumption on tourists' intentions to shop/purchase in the tourism context.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual study reviews and investigates the major current research in the areas of planned behavior, impulse purchase, experiential consumption, as well as tourism shopping behavior/experience. By reviewing and assessing important relevant concepts, this study proposes a conceptual framework of tourist shopping behavior.
Findings
Based on the extensive review and discussion of the related literature, this study proposes that tourist shopping intention and actual purchase behavior are influenced by various indicators, including planned behavior, impulsive behavior, and experiential consumption factors. In other words, tourist shopping behavior is a mixture of planned, impulsive, and experiential consumption behavior.
Originality/value
The study of tourism shopping is still limited and in an exploratory stage. The resulting theoretical framework of this study is an inclusive overarching structure systematically explaining the nature of tourist shopping behavior from the perspectives of planned behavior, impulsive buying, and experiential consumption. This study is expected to provide better information and understanding of the factors influencing tourist shopping behavior, which, in turn, will lead to improved planning, marketing and management of sales, expenditures and opportunities in the tourism and retail industries.
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This chapter examines the miners’ occupational culture of planisa at the level of supervisor–worker relations. The chapter presents a tale of two frontline production supervisors…
Abstract
This chapter examines the miners’ occupational culture of planisa at the level of supervisor–worker relations. The chapter presents a tale of two frontline production supervisors or shift-bosses as they were called on the mine – Jimmy and Lee. In this context, the ability of the production supervisor to make a plan in ways that enhance the social organisation of the production process and people management is crucial to the development of a reciprocal working relationship. The chapter argues that planisa also entails a valuable social organisational skill through which frontline supervisors could effectively use to manage work group dynamics and team performance associated with teamworking, intra-team conflict, effort-bargain and resistance.
The chapter reveals that by ‘getting on and getting by’ with his charges – going an extra mile to making plan for his mining teams wherever possible – Jimmy created a working environment that enabled his subordinates to achieve their production targets and increase their capacity to earn the much-desired productivity and safety bonuses. The case of Jimmy and his charges highlights the role of the frontline supervisor as a vital agent of workplace change that elicits worker cooperation and support for new work processes, not for the sake of pleasing management but in ways that benefit and make sense to them – going above and beyond organisational requirements to achieve the organisational performance goals at the point of production. On the contrary, the case of Lee, another frontline supervisor, demonstrates the opposite and highlights the harmfulness of poor supervisor–worker relations to the achievement of organisational, employee and team performance goals.
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The development and progressive refinement of the concept of academic freedom has generally occurred without material participation by the American business school. Whereas the…
Abstract
The development and progressive refinement of the concept of academic freedom has generally occurred without material participation by the American business school. Whereas the business school looms large as a component of higher education in the twenty-first century, most believe that it is indifferent or perhaps hostile to the concept of academic freedom. For the most part, business school faculty fail to share the liberal political leanings of their colleagues from across the university, and therefore are less likely to find themselves to need academic freedom protection from those who would like to squelch opinions that run contrary to government and establishment elites. This chapter recognizes the fundamental alignment of what is taught in the business school and what business faculty research. However, that does not gainsay prospects for academic freedom protection when such is not the case. The chapter explores public interest dimensions of being a faculty member in a business school and how these might be manifested. Examples of controversial work are offered for each of the major business disciplines.