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1 – 10 of over 5000Rodney W. Thomas, Brian S. Fugate, Jessica L Robinson and Mertcan Tasçioglu
The purpose of this paper is to make an initial attempt to understand if environmental and social sustainability practices of suppliers influence the buying decision and ultimate…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to make an initial attempt to understand if environmental and social sustainability practices of suppliers influence the buying decision and ultimate supplier selection in a purchasing organization.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to test the effects of sustainability on sourcing decisions, this research utilizes two scenario-based behavioral experiments grounded in a transportation carrier selection context.
Findings
Two scenario-based experiments with managerial participants were conducted and results suggest that environmental and social aspects of sustainability are indeed relevant sourcing considerations that impact both economic and relational aspects of exchange relationships. These sustainability aspects enable carriers to differentiate themselves in a highly commoditized market.
Originality/value
Extant research advocates for sourcing organizations to take an active role in selecting sustainable suppliers. However, little is known about how supplier sustainability performance impacts sourcing decisions and supplier selection. This research addresses this gap in the literature and explores the effects of price, environmental, and social sustainability on purchase intentions and trust formation in a transportation carrier selection context.
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To address three issues of survey-based methods (i.e. the absence of behaviors, the reference inequivalence, and the lack of cross-cultural interaction), the purpose of this paper…
Abstract
Purpose
To address three issues of survey-based methods (i.e. the absence of behaviors, the reference inequivalence, and the lack of cross-cultural interaction), the purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of using the behavioral experiment method to collect cross-cultural data as well as the possibility of measuring culture with the experimental data. Moreover, challenges to this method and possible solutions are elaborated for intriguing further discussion on the use of behavioral experiments in international business/international management (IB/IM) research.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper illustrates the merits and downside of the proposed method with an ultimate-game experiment conducted in a behavioral laboratory. The procedure of designing, implementing, and analyzing the behavioral experiment is delineated in detail.
Findings
The exploratory findings show that the ultimate-game experiment may observe participants’ behaviors with comparable references and allow for cross-cultural interaction. The findings also suggest that the fairness-related cultural value may be calibrated with the horizontal and vertical convergence of cross-cultural behaviors (i.e. people’s deed), and this calibration may be strengthened by incorporating complementary methods such as a background survey to include people’s words.
Originality/value
The behavioral experiment method illustrated and discussed in this study contributes to the IB/IM literature by addressing three methodological issues that are not widely recognized in the IB/IM literature.
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Minna Kaljonen, Marja Salo, Jari Lyytimäki and Eeva Furman
The critical role of diet in climate change mitigation has raised behavioural approaches to the top of the agenda. In this paper, the authors take a critical look at these…
Abstract
Purpose
The critical role of diet in climate change mitigation has raised behavioural approaches to the top of the agenda. In this paper, the authors take a critical look at these behavioural approaches and call for a more dynamic, practice-oriented understanding of long-term changes in sustainable food consumption and supply.
Design/methodology/approach
This approach is based on the experiences from a long-term experiment promoting sustainable eating in a workplace lunch restaurant using a series of informational and nudging techniques. In the experiment, the authors found that focussing solely on eating behaviours did not help to capture the multi-level change processes mobilised. The authors therefore propose a more dynamic, practice-oriented methodology for examining long-term changes in sustainable eating. The emprical data of the experiment are based on qualitative and quantitative data, consisting of customer survey, customer and kitchen personnel focus group discussions and monitoring data on the use of food items in the restaurant and their climate impacts.
Findings
The results draw attention to a series of practical challenges restaurants face when promoting sustainable eating. Directing analytical attention to tinkering helped to reveal the tensions brought about by labelling and nudging in menu planning and recipe development. The results show how tinkering required attentiveness to customers' wishes in both cases. Nudging offered more freedom for the restaurant to develop menus and recipes. In the case scrutinised, however, nudging customers towards tastier and more satiating vegetarian dishes included the use of dairy. This partly watered down the climate benefits gained from reduced meat consumption.
Originality/value
Rather than looking separately at changes in consumer behaviour and in the supply of food, the authors show how we need analytical concepts that enable the evaluation of their mutual evolution. Tinkering can assist us in this endeavour. Its adaptive, adjustive character, however, calls for caution. The development of praxis in food services and catering requires critical companions from the transdisciplinary research community. Research can provide systematic knowledge on the impacts of labels and nudges on kitchen praxis. However, research itself also needs to tinker and learn from experiments. This necessitates long-term speculative research strategies.
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Inshik Seol, Joseph Sarkis and Zhihong (Rita) Wang
Based on the theoretical development by House et al. (2004), the purpose of this paper is to investigate the cross-cultural differences of internal auditors’ perceptions on the…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on the theoretical development by House et al. (2004), the purpose of this paper is to investigate the cross-cultural differences of internal auditors’ perceptions on the importance of internal auditor skills.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors developed a survey based on the competency framework for internal auditing and collected data from the UK (Anglo cultural cluster) and Korea (Confucian cultural cluster). In total, 231 internal auditors participated in the study.
Findings
The results showed that UK auditors perceived behavioral skills as more important than cognitive skills, while Korean auditors had an opposite perception. Not surprisingly, UK auditors rated each sub-category of behavioral skills higher than Korean auditors; Korean auditors gave higher scores than UK auditors for each sub-category of cognitive skills.
Research limitations/implications
One limitation of the study is that two different data collection methods were used for the study: online for the UK and paper-based for Korean auditors. Another limitation of the study is that the authors did not analyze the possible impact of each participating auditor’s background knowledge.
Practical implications
The findings of the study contributes to professional practice by providing culturally adaptive criteria for regulators’ policy-making, organizations’ employee hiring and training, and educators’ curriculum design across various cultural environments.
Originality/value
The findings of the study can provide some insights on cultural impacts to help academic researchers develop models regarding the internal auditor selection and training in different nations.
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Brian S. Fugate, Rodney W. Thomas and Susan L. Golicic
The purpose of this research is to investigate the direct and interaction effects of managers' tactics to deal with time pressure on behaviors and relational norms across…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to investigate the direct and interaction effects of managers' tactics to deal with time pressure on behaviors and relational norms across transactional and collaborative buyer‐supplier relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
This research utilizes a novel scenario‐based experimental design. The lack of behavioral experimentation in logistics research is noticeable given the vital role that human judgment and decision making play in managing contemporary supply chains.
Findings
When supplier personnel exhibit signs of coping with time pressure, individual boundary spanners in buying organizations are less willing to engage in key collaborative behaviors and relational norms. These adverse effects are intensified in closer buyer‐supplier relationships.
Research limitations/implications
Although internal validity is maximized in this type of research, such gains are achieved through the development of artificial business scenarios that lack external validity.
Practical implications
Although it should not be as much of a concern in working with transactional customers, supplier personnel involved in collaborative relationships should be cognizant of the potential negative impact of coping with time pressure and allot sufficient resources to manage critical partnerships.
Originality/value
This research contributes to better understanding the clash between maintaining collaborative relationships while simultaneously coping with time pressure.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore whether there is a prevalent entrepreneurial learning style trait associated with successful knowledge industry entrepreneurial practice.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore whether there is a prevalent entrepreneurial learning style trait associated with successful knowledge industry entrepreneurial practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews prior entrepreneurship studies utilizing experiential learning theory and examines the learning style preferences of 168 knowledge industry entrepreneurs to deduce a hypothesized entrepreneurial learning style. The entrepreneur participants’ Kolb Learning Style Inventory scores are modeled to explore causal links to individual and firm level entrepreneurial success.
Findings
Preference for the Kolb Active Experimentation (AE) learning mode over Reflective Observation (RO) predicts adoption of a key entrepreneurial innovation behavior and significant entrepreneurial performance benefits. In contrast to published theories, the RO learning mode exhibits surprising negative effects on entrepreneurial performance. Data analysis also reveals that 90 percent of sampled co-founder/partners had at least one partner with the hypothesized entrepreneurial style.
Research limitations/implications
The study fills a major research gap in entrepreneurial learning literature by identifying learning style traits associated with entrepreneurial success. The study findings can also be used by educators, practitioners and investors to help identify, appraise and develop entrepreneurial talent.
Originality/value
The study provides novel insights into the learning styles of practicing technology entrepreneurs by establishing a significant preference within this community for the AE and Concrete Experience learning modes. The study illustrates the negative effects of the RO learning mode which has previously linked to successful entrepreneurial practice.
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The purpose of this paper is to describe two social simulations created to assess leadership potential and train leaders to make effective decisions in turbulent environments. One…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe two social simulations created to assess leadership potential and train leaders to make effective decisions in turbulent environments. One is set in the novel environment of a lunar moon colony and the other is a military combat command. The research generated from these simulations for assessing the decision effectiveness of potential leaders with different personality traits and decision styles under varying degrees of information quantity, uncertainty and complexity is summarized. Opportunities and limitations of applying current computer assisted technology to social simulations for assessing and developing leaders' decision effectiveness in turbulent environments is discussed.
Design/methodology/approach
College undergraduates and officer candidates in university ROTC programs made a series of decisions while being subjected to varying degrees of environmental turbulence in social simulations. The decision effectiveness of subjects with different personality characteristics under varying degrees of environmental turbulence was assessed through researcher observations, self‐reports, and peer ratings.
Findings
Social simulations are a cost effective way to assess and train leaders to make effective decisions in turbulent environments. The results of controlled experiments in social simulations have suggested that leaders with high levels of cognitive complexity and incongruity adaptation are more likely to be successful in highly turbulent environments than leaders with lower levels of incongruity adaptation ability and cognitive complexity who are more effective in more stable and structured situations.
Research limitations/implications
The ease of modifying computer games renders them effective as low‐cost virtual worlds that have relevance in military leadership experimentation. However, the use of computer simulations alone fails to capture the impact that relationships and emotions have on leader decision making, highlighting the continuing need for social simulations that include these interpersonal aspects of decision making.
Practical implications
By participating in realistic social simulations, leaders can experiment with new decision styles without the risk of making real world mistakes that could jeopardize their own and their organization's future. The leaders who are most successful in adapting their decision style to the more complex requirements can be identified for promotion or assignment to appropriate settings.
Originality/value
Both military and civilian organizations are in need of cost effective way to assess and train leaders to make effective decisions in turbulent environments. Social simulations provide a unique approach to meeting these needs and can simultaneously provide a venue for research in associated areas.
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This study examines the effects of technological and marketing capabilities on administrative and product innovativeness, and the mediation effects of resource flexibility.
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the effects of technological and marketing capabilities on administrative and product innovativeness, and the mediation effects of resource flexibility.
Design/methodology/approach
This study tests a conceptual model based on survey data from 303 Chinese firms using structural equation modeling.
Findings
Technological and marketing capabilities are found to have positive effects on administrative and product innovativeness, as well as resource flexibility. Resource flexibility positively influenced administrative innovativeness and product innovativeness, and resource flexibility mediated the relationships between technological and marketing capability and administrative and product innovativeness.
Originality/value
This study advances the authors' understanding of firm innovativeness and resource flexibility, addresses the missing link between firm capability and firm innovativeness, and contributes to the authors' knowledge of value-generating paths in resource management research.
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The unavailability of practitioners is one of the disturbing realities that often prevent the use of experimental methods in accounting research. The availability of pragmatic…
Abstract
Purpose
The unavailability of practitioners is one of the disturbing realities that often prevent the use of experimental methods in accounting research. The availability of pragmatic alternatives to accounting practitioners demands that researchers explore such alternatives fully before conducting expensive experiments with practitioners. However, the use of students as surrogates for non‐students has been a controversial issue and this has led to an under‐utilization of the experimental method in management accounting research. Recent research has warned that relying solely on practitioners as subjects in experimental methods may result in “negative externalities”. The purpose of this paper is to inquire in to the feasibility of using student subjects in behavioral accounting research so that better judgments can be made about the benefits and dangers of using students in experiments.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper relies on a review and synthesis of the literature on the student surrogate debate.
Findings
The paper shows that accounting students may be adequate surrogates for practitioners in many decision‐making experiments.
Research limitations/implications
The paper demonstrates that maintaining the experimental realism of a study and replications are more important than the type of subject when generalizing results.
Originality/value
The paper provides an analysis and synthesis of literature that will enable researchers to make sound judgments about the selection of subjects for experiments.
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Debbie Spain, Jacqueline Sin, Laura Harwood, Maria Andreina Mendez and Francesca Happé
Individuals who have autism spectrum disorders (ASD) commonly experience anxiety about social interaction and social situations. Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is a recommended…
Abstract
Purpose
Individuals who have autism spectrum disorders (ASD) commonly experience anxiety about social interaction and social situations. Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is a recommended treatment for social anxiety (SA) in the non-ASD population. Therapy typically comprises cognitive interventions, imagery-based work and for some individuals, behavioural interventions. Whether these are useful for the ASD population is unclear. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to undertake a systematic review to summarise research about CBT for SA in ASD.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a priori criteria, the authors searched for English-language peer-reviewed empirical studies in five databases. The search yielded 1,364 results. Titles, abstracts, and relevant publications were independently screened by two reviewers.
Findings
Four single case studies met the review inclusion criteria; data were synthesised narratively. Participants (three adults and one child) were diagnosed with ASD and SA. There were commonalities in interventions and techniques used: participants were encouraged to identify and challenge negative thoughts, enter anxiety-provoking social situations, and develop new ways of coping. Unlike CBT for SA in non-ASD individuals, treatment also included social skills interventions. Outcomes were assessed using self- or informant-reports. Improvements in SA, depressive symptoms, social skills, and activity levels were noted. Generalisability of results is hampered, however, by the small number of studies and participants and lack of randomised controlled trial conditions employed.
Research limitations/implications
Future studies should investigate how beliefs and behaviours indicative of SA can be ameliorated in individuals with ASD.
Originality/value
This is the first review to synthesise empirical data about CBT for SA in ASD.
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