Search results
1 – 10 of 29Tom Isaacson and Anastasios Theofilou
Football is the world's most popular sport and the role of football on campus is of interest to university public relations (PR) and management professionals tasked with…
Abstract
Purpose
Football is the world's most popular sport and the role of football on campus is of interest to university public relations (PR) and management professionals tasked with operations, promotions and reputation management. The purpose of the study is to explore similarities and differences in the structure and promotion of football on campus in the USA and the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors completed this case study research by focusing on two related cases using cross-case pattern identification. Consistent with case study research, data collection methods were combined. Depth interviews with PR and management professionals at USA and UK universities were supported by archived documents, published media and social media accounts.
Findings
Football maintains a high level of popularity among students on campus, but each country's approach reveals different models and competitive market forces. In the USA, varsity football faces competition from popular revenue-producing sports (e.g. American football and men's basketball), but growth in the overall game, which is assisted by international influences, indicates future advancement opportunities. In the UK, football is the dominant campus sport with unique ties to professional football and high growth potential for the women's game. The lack of a fan-based model indicates the possibility for structural change, but stiff competition exists with the historically popular and well-developed professional game.
Research limitations/implications
A well-known limitation of case study research is the absence of generalizability, and each case has aspects that are unique to the research (Lucas et al., 2018). That applies in this instance as well. Variance is expected to exist between, and among universities and, based on this data, this is not possible to generalize to other universities. However, future survey research could use these results to help with the development of research questions using quantitative methods.
Originality/value
Sports PR research using the case model with professional teams has been conducted, but the authors found no published PR research comparing the structure and promotion of football at USA and UK universities. The outcomes can help with future research inquiries and theory development and are instructive for professionals working in the field.
Details
Keywords
Joseph Eyo Duke, Arzizeh Tiesieh Tapang, Obal Usang, Kechi Alphonsus Kankpang and Samuel Edet Etim
This paper examines the moderating role of firm size (FS) and industry type in the relationship between high-performance work practices (HPWPs) and entrepreneurial firm…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the moderating role of firm size (FS) and industry type in the relationship between high-performance work practices (HPWPs) and entrepreneurial firm performance.
Design/methodology/approach
A descriptive research design involving a five-year dataset from firms in the retail and services industries of Nigeria was used in the analyses.
Findings
The use of HPWPs is widespread among entrepreneurial firms, with ability- and motivation-enhancing practices being dominant. Country context influences the types of HPWPs implemented by entrepreneurial firms. FS and industry type do not have significant moderating effects on the relationship between HPWPs and the performance of entrepreneurial firms. The positive effect of HPWPs on performance is consistent with findings made in prior studies.
Research limitations/implications
FS plays a neutral role in the relationship between HPWPs and entrepreneurial firm performance. Within the broader retail and services industries, this relationship is weaker in capital-intensive firms compared to less capital-intensive ones. The restricted focus on only retail and service industries may limit the universal applicability of the findings.
Practical implications
Findings indicate that the efficacy of HPWPs is neither influenced by FS nor industry type. Entrepreneurial firms with higher capital intensity benefit relatively more from the use of HPWPs.
Originality/value
Unlike other research efforts focusing on a single moderating influence, this study combines two important contextual factors, FS and industry type, to provide a better understanding of HPWPs. The study spotlights the effects of country context in the implementation of HPWPs in a way that prior studies have not done.
Details
Keywords
Kaisa Aro, Kati Suomi and Richard Gyrd-Jones
This study aims to add to the understanding of the interactive nature of brand love by using a multilayer perspective that incorporates individual, group and societal contexts.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to add to the understanding of the interactive nature of brand love by using a multilayer perspective that incorporates individual, group and societal contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
The qualitative empirical study uses abductive reasoning. Its theories and conclusions are grounded in naturally occurring data from an online brand community. The approach revealed new interactive processes of brand love.
Findings
This study extends our understanding of the interactive nature of brand love by adopting a layered perspective incorporating micro- (individual), meso- (in-group), macro- (in-group vs out-group) and mega-layer (societal) social dynamics that complements the predominant focus on individual psychological processes. It challenges the linear, monodirectional trajectory approach to brand love, suggesting that brand love is in constant flux as individuals move across the layers in their identification with the brand.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides data from one destination brand in Finland. Future studies could consider other types of brands and contexts in other countries and cultures.
Practical implications
This study shows brand managers that brand lovers can be divided into subgroups with distinct drivers of their love to which brand managers should attend.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to describe the interactive nature of brand love through interactions between and within four layers of brand love. Furthermore, this study enhances our understanding of the contradictory aspects of brand love.
Details
Keywords
Ali Mohammad Mirzaee and Igor Martek
Optimal clean-up procedures lie at the heart of the closeout phase of construction projects under contract law. However, due to its complexity involving multiple issues…
Abstract
Purpose
Optimal clean-up procedures lie at the heart of the closeout phase of construction projects under contract law. However, due to its complexity involving multiple issues, potentially unfulfilled contractual obligations, performance claims and counter-claims, combined with consequently deteriorating stakeholder relationships, the management of closeouts is fraught with difficulties leading to suboptimal outcomes. This is particularly true where general contractor (GC) organizations do not have a claims management office (CMO) dedicated to improving such suboptimal clean-up outcomes. Thus, this study aims to develop a model by which CMOs’ may effectively manage the clean-up phase in an environment of closeout claims.
Design/methodology/approach
X-inefficiency theory was utilized as the theoretical lens guiding this study. The theory helps identify closeout strategies implemented by a GC, which manages completion claims through a CMO. Data were received and analyzed from a large GC, which served as the firm case study. In this case, managing the closeout completion claims was the main function of the CMO.
Findings
The average delay of closeout completion was four times greater than construction phase delays. The GC results highlighted the “economic destruction tsunami of projects,” as a root cause for these completion delays. Wrap-up activities under contract law are identified, including within the domains of statements of completion, project handover and debt settlement. Behavior strategies are also defined, including relational and contractual approaches. Moreover, a process for improving closeout claim performance is described, comprising project closeout identification, rational intra-firm behavior, closeout completion and program closeout practice.
Originality/value
Findings from this work can significantly contribute in X-inefficiency theory in relation to how a decrease of X-inefficiency will lead to better closeout claim performance. It also offers practical insights into how best to minimize delayed closeout completion while providing valuable lessons for stakeholders in complex infrastructure projects. Further, a model is developed that may be utilized by owners, consultancies, designers and other contractor organizations in an effort to improve closeout claim performance.
Details
Keywords
The modern corporation is evaluated by many measures that go beyond profit, which was the emphasis for years previously. Today’s corporation is weighed against expectations of…
Abstract
Purpose
The modern corporation is evaluated by many measures that go beyond profit, which was the emphasis for years previously. Today’s corporation is weighed against expectations of many stakeholders, including not just customers but employees, investors, the government and even the public at large with no discernible financial or other tie to a company. As such, corporate boards necessarily must be concerned with more than financial performance, including corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the increasing emphasis on environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics. Given that public relations scholars and practitioners have long been concerned with stakeholder relationships, social responsibility and other non-financial indicators, it would make sense that public relations has a more obvious presence on corporate boards.
Design/methodology/approach
This study examined the 25 companies in the Fortune Modern Board 25 to determine how many board members had a background or expertise in public relations that would contribute to the leadership necessary for the concerns of the modern corporation, and whether the boards had a committee designated to public relations or related functions.
Findings
Results show that there are few corporate boards that have public relations represented prominently in either their members or committees. The same is true for executive leadership teams. Public relations or communications executives do appear to play some role in ESG, CSR and DEI reporting, but often there are staff members with those specific titles and roles.
Research limitations/implications
The study was limited to 25 corporations on a Forbes list that ranked them as best in communicating ESG, CSR and DEI. The method examined publicly available literature which was revealing to the research questions, but more could be learned by interview or survey with CCOs.
Practical implications
The study shows the current presence of public relations capacity in terms of members of corporate boards, corporate committees and among the C-suite is not significant. Also, rather than PR as a function owning modern concerns of DEI, ESG and CSR, there are professionals with specific expertise in those areas who are responsible for those corporate issues.
Social implications
Corporate social responsibility (CSR), ESG (environmental, social, governance) and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) have recently been stressed as important for corporations to measure and report. The role of the public relations profession in managing and/or communicating in these areas is important to consider in terms of public expectations and satisfaction of communication on these subjects.
Originality/value
This paper is unique in integrating public relations theory and practice with board theory and the current management concerns with ESG, CSR and DEI. Little if any previous research has considered which professions are in charge of communicating on these concerns.
Details
Keywords
Osman M. Karatepe, Emmanuel Twumasi Ampofo, Taegoo Terry Kim and Seokyoun Oh
The purpose of this study was to develop and test a research model that explored leader psychological capital (LPsyCap) as a predictor of follower creative performance (FCRP). The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to develop and test a research model that explored leader psychological capital (LPsyCap) as a predictor of follower creative performance (FCRP). The model also investigated follower job crafting (FJC) and follower knowledge collecting (FKC) and follower knowledge donating (FKD) behaviors as the multiple mediators of the trickle-down effect of LPsyCap on FCRP in a sequential manner.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were obtained from hotel employees in Korea. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling with the user-defined estimands function.
Findings
LPsyCap boosted employees’ FCRP. FJC and FKC behaviors mediated the trickle-down effect of LPsyCap on FCRP in a sequential manner. As predicted, FKC behavior parallelly mediated the effect of FJC on FCRP.
Practical implications
Hotel firms should boost a workplace that would encourage employees to redefine and redesign their jobs. To achieve this, the presence of structural (e.g. learning new things in the workplace) and social (e.g. supervisor coaching) job resources and challenging job demands (e.g. willingly taking on additional tasks) would pay dividends.
Originality/value
This paper is one of its kind focusing on unexplored parallel and sequential multiple mediation effects that highlight FJC and FKC as the two potential mediators in the association between LPsyCap and FCRP.
Details
Keywords
Li Dai and Yongsun Paik
Conventional wisdom suggests that war in the host country makes it unattractive for foreign firms to invest. To see if this is true for US firms on the aggregate, this paper aims…
Abstract
Purpose
Conventional wisdom suggests that war in the host country makes it unattractive for foreign firms to invest. To see if this is true for US firms on the aggregate, this paper aims to examine the veracity of a “permanent war economy” hypothesis, that foreign direct investment (FDI) may, in fact, increase in the host country not despite, but because of, war, i.e. one that lends credence to the idea that, in the USA, “defense [has] become one of constant preparation for future wars and foreign interventions rather than an exercise in response to one-off threats.”
Design/methodology/approach
The authors test the hypotheses using Generalized Method of Moments estimation, with Heckman Selection, on US FDI data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and war data from the Correlates of War2 Project, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program/International Peace Research Institute data set, the International Crisis Behavior Project and the Center for Systemic Peace Major Episodes of Political Violence data set. The final sample consists of 351 country-year observations in 55 host countries from 1982 to 2006.
Findings
The findings indicate that overall US FDI in a host country in a given year decreases if the host country is engaged in wars with multiple countries and if the US Government is involved in the war. Most notably, the results show that US involvement in multiple host country wars is actually correlated with increased US FDI into the host country, providing empirical support for the “permanent war economy” hypothesis.
Originality/value
While other studies have focused on war and FDI, the authors have sought to show the impact of the involvement of arguably the most influential country, i.e. the USA, in the sovereign matters of a focal host country. By studying FDI from the USA as a function of US involvement in wars overseas, over the years with the greatest use of private military companies by the USA and the largest portion of global FDI accounted for by the USA, this work motivates a research agenda on home-host-"other” relations in the context of war and FDI, with the “other” being the supranational “elephant in the room.”
Antonio Spiga and Jean-Marie Cardebat
The brand identity–image gap is a well-known marketing field. However, very little academic work has been done within the wine industry regarding collective brands. With the aim…
Abstract
Purpose
The brand identity–image gap is a well-known marketing field. However, very little academic work has been done within the wine industry regarding collective brands. With the aim of filling this gap, this paper analyzes and describes the relationship between identity and the image of Bordeaux wines. It is intended as a collective wine brand.
Design/methodology/approach
From a positivist–functionalist perspective, a 45-question survey has been administered online to N = 53 internal brand operators (winery owners or managers) and to N = 655 external consumers (mainly focusing on 18–25 year-old segment). Nonprobabilistic sampling techniques have been used. Questions were structured within a semantic opposition.
Findings
Data analysis has shown that the nine-dimension model (physical, personality, culture, self-image, reflection, relationship, positioning, vision and heritage) is capable of collecting a richer and more pertinent set of information concerning the brand identity; statistically significant gaps have been found in 25 out of 45 items; counterintuitively, the consumers have a very different opinion about the brand compared with existing ideas. Direct implications are that internal brand operators may suffer from imposter syndrome; information asymmetry may play a central role in brand perception; and the brand lacks symbolic and inspirational functions.
Originality/value
Providing an original model to analyze and evaluate the brand identity–image gap, specifically adapted for collective wine brands, this work contributes to the literature by increasing the knowledge about brand identity issues.
Details
Keywords
Oti Amankwah, Weng-Wai Choong and Naana Amakie Boakye-Agyeman
Although the quality of health-care infrastructure and equipment influences patient’s overall health-care experience, health-care infrastructure and equipment are not always…
Abstract
Purpose
Although the quality of health-care infrastructure and equipment influences patient’s overall health-care experience, health-care infrastructure and equipment are not always managed and maintained with the attention required. This is due mainly to the complexity of health-care infrastructure and equipment and shortage of maintenance budget. This study aims to determine if patient’s satisfaction of core health-care business is mediated by the quality of health-care infrastructure and equipment.
Design/methodology/approach
This cross-sectional study comprises 622 adult patients at the Physician OPD and Polyclinic of Komfo Anokye Teaching hospital, Tamale Teaching hospital and Cape Coast Teaching hospital in Ghana. Structural equation model Smart PLS was used to analyse the data.
Findings
The study results showed that the quality of health-care infrastructure and equipment has a positive significant influence (mediation) on the relationship between health-care delivery and patient’s satisfaction as well as the relationship between adequacy of health-care resources and patient’s satisfaction. However, it was shown not to have a positive significant influence (mediation) on the relationship between quality of health-care personnel and patients’ satisfaction as well as health-care administrative process and patient’s satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
First, the study findings are centred on cross-sectional data, which capture the opinion of the patients at a specific time period instead of over a period of time. Consequently, in future, though difficult to achieve, a longitudinal study can be piloted to provide more insight. Second, the data was collected from only one country (Ghana); thus, the ability to generalise the results may be a challenge.
Practical implications
The implication of this study is that there is the need to prudently maintain hospital infrastructure and equipment in good working condition as it has a positive effect on patients’ satisfaction of their overall health-care experience.
Originality/value
Most studies have concentrated on patient’s health-care experience. This study extends the knowledge of patient’s health-care experience by determining the mediating role of quality of health-care infrastructure and equipment on the relationship between patient’s satisfaction and core health-care business. There are limited studies of such nature in Ghana. Therefore, this study will provide invaluable empirical data for the health-care sector of a developing African country.
Details
Keywords
Ume Rubaca and Majid Khan
The study aims to examine whether job resourcefulness affects task performance through job crafting at the within-person level.
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to examine whether job resourcefulness affects task performance through job crafting at the within-person level.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected from employees of the tour and travel firms and their supervisors. Multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) was used for analysis due to the repeated data structure, for example, days (n = 900) nested in individuals (n = 180).
Findings
Results show a positive association between job resourcefulness and task performance, with the full mediation of job crafting at the within-person level.
Originality/value
The study concludes that variation in job resourcefulness impacts job crafting and task performance at the within-person level.
Details