Search results

The purpose of this paper is to describe the course, “Designing Education for Better Prisoner and Community Health,” which provided students with the knowledge, skills and resources needed to build real-world health education materials for persons who are criminal justice involved.

A multiphase engaged scholarship course was designed and implemented through the Brown University School of Public Health in Rhode Island, USA.

Students collaborated closely with instructors, subject matter experts and affected community members to develop highly tailored health education projects across six topic areas. The structure and outcomes of the paper are described with the hope that other instructors and institutions might replicate components of the model.

Engaged scholarship in public health can provide students with rich, collaborative learning experiences, and when executed effectively, these endeavors can provide underserved communities with robust and informed health education interventions and programs.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the antecedents of speed to market (SM). Further, a model was established on SM with the organizational variables of enacting organizational environment (EOE), organizational infrastructure (OI), project complexity (PC) and creation of collective mind (CCM).

This research was based on structured survey questionnaire data of 415 managers from private and public sector firms in India. The data analysis was carried out with SPSS 20 and AMOS 18 for structural equation modeling.

Research results indicated that the exogenous factors were EOE and OI. PC and CCM were the intervening variables and SM was the endogenous variables. The result indicated that there was significant positive relationship between EOE and PC, EOE and CCM. There was also a significant positive relationship between the variables EOE with PC, OI with PC and CCM with PC. Finally there existed a significant positive relationship between PC and SM and CCM and SM.

This research study was one of the first research studies developing a model on SM with the exogenous variables of EOE and OI and the intervening variables of PC and CCM.

The managers in both public and private sector organizations looking to create and sustain competitive advantage by providing a fast and apt response to market demand by product development can use the inputs from the study. Organizations should be developed in such a manner to enrich the EOE and have a agile and flexible OI. This would help organizations in having CCM and undertake PC. A well-coordinated effort encompassing all these would help the organization to have a fast and steady SM.

This research was one of the very first studies relating SM with EOE, OI, PC and CCM in an emerging market context.

The present study aims to advance a new framework to spur creativity at individual and team levels in the construction industry by studying a leader's sense of humor. The authors develop and test a multi-level model to investigate the direct and indirect effects of leader's humor on creativity within teams working on construction projects. The authors draw on the benign violation theory to hypothesize that a leader's sense of humor influences the acceptability of norm violations in teams, which helps to improve their creativity. The authors also integrate the benign violation theory with the social information processing theory to examine the indirect effects of project leader's sense of humor on individual- and team-level creativity via team psychological safety.

The authors collected data from 165 members nested in 45 teams working on construction projects in China. The construct's factor structure and discriminant validity were established through confirmatory factor analysis. The authors used multi-level modeling via Mplus to test team-level to the individual-level direct and indirect hypotheses, while team-level direct and indirect hypotheses were tested using ordinary least squares regression.

The results show that the leader's humor has a dual positive direct effect on individual and team creativity. Furthermore, these effects are partially mediated by team psychological safety. The implications of these findings to improve the construction management theory and practice are discussed in the manuscript.

The current study contributes to the literature by understanding the significance of leader humor in predicting individual-level and team-level creativity within the construction sector. It expands the literature by examining team psychological safety as the underlying mechanism in the relationship between leader humor and creativity.

The owners of mega projects typically assemble multiple academic research units and enterprises to form an innovation alliance, which carries out knowledge transfer and knowledge creation targeting technical challenges in the process of engineering construction. Due to high technical and management complexity of mega projects, factors affecting knowledge transfer among innovation subjects are complex and diverse. This study proposes a mixed system dynamics (SD) method to build and simulate the process of knowledge transfer in mega projects innovation and analyzes the driving mechanism that enhances knowledge stock of enterprises and engineering innovation results.

First, this paper proposes a conceptual model for knowledge transfer in mega projects by adopting event analysis of the data gained from investigations and interviews. Then, a qualitative model of knowledge transfer that considers mutual influences of the owner, academic research unit and enterprises is developed. Based on that, mathematical relationship among variables of the qualitative model is determined and a quantitative model of knowledge transfer that considers heterogeneity of knowledge sender is built. Finally, simulation is achieved using Vensim software.

The factors affecting knowledge stock of enterprises are analyzed from three aspects: (1) the individual motives and capability of academic research units and enterprises; (2) the gap between academic research units and enterprises; (3) the heterogeneity of academic research units. The results show that the willingness and capability of knowledge reception by enterprises, specific knowledge transfer context such as relational distance and organization distance between academic research units and enterprises and academic research units with high knowledge stock have key influences on the knowledge stock of enterprises.

Factors affecting knowledge transfer within the alliance of innovation in mega projects and their correlations are highly complicated and difficult to determine. Despite massive investigations and interviews on many long-span bridges in China in this study, it is barely possible to directly obtain accurate data for all variables in the model. Limitations of historical data result in limitations on applications of the proposed model.

By building the mega projects knowledge transfer model and conducting simulation analysis, this paper has generated practical values for the owners of mega projects on fostering, organizing, coordinating and managing of innovations. Especially, this study provides specific strategies and suggestions on selection of innovation subjects, motivation and guaranteed efficiency of knowledge transfer and knowledge creation of academic research units and enterprises.

This study proposes a conceptual model for factors affecting knowledge transfer that applies to innovations in mega project context, which fills the gap in the research of knowledge management in mega project innovations. Additionally, combining with the method of SD, the unique role of owner in knowledge transfer of mega projects and the differences among various knowledge senders and their influences on knowledge stocks of enterprises are thoroughly considered, and the research method of modeling and simulation of knowledge transfer mechanism is supplemented and extended.

The financial restructuring of the US department store industry is commonly interpreted as a time of corporate excess, value‐destruction and ultimately collapse. The purpose of this paper is to re‐analyse these events using qualitative methods to understand the background to the leveraged transactions and to review the implications that their failure had for the longer term strategy and structure of the US department store industry.

The research is based on two extensive periods of fieldwork in the US when the author interviewed (n=28) many of the protagonists of the 1980s restructuring period and those who inherited the management of the bankrupt businesses in the 1990s. By adopting a qualitative perspective, we are accessing social and human perspectives of these developments as well as their wider effects.

The leveraged transactions were conceptually an appropriate attempt to centralise the structure of the industry but their execution was not possible under such extreme financial distress. However, bankruptcy protection provided the environmental conditions to realise the benefits of more efficient strategic and subsequent wide‐ranging structural change.

This research differs from economistic readings of the period that analyse changes in market value of the constituent firms and the more reactionary journalistic accounts. The paper re‐casts the failed financial restructuring in a new light, underlining the regenerative effects of Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection in promoting firm revival, alongside visionary leadership.

Local Chambers of Commerce networks provide small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with an opportunity to access essential information and networking with other businesses, resulting in improved business performance. However, rural SMEs are less likely to participate in these networks and often possess lower performance. This paper aims to examine the relationship between being members of local Chambers of Commerce networks and rural SMEs’ performance by comparing business performance between rural SMEs who are members and non-members of local Chambers of Commerce networks. This paper also further explores difference in business growth plans between rural SMEs members and non-members.

The empirical analysis draws on cross-sectional data of 3,769 rural SMEs in England and Wales from the UK's Government Longitudinal Small Business Survey 2015. Propensity score matching (PSM) is applied to control for selection bias and variations in business characteristics before comparing business performance, measured in terms of annual turnover, sale growth and profitability, between rural SMEs that are members and non-members of local Chambers of Commerce networks.

Our results show that rural SME members of local Chambers of Commerce networks are more likely to grow their sales than non-members. However, they perform as good as non-members in terms of turnover and profitability. The results also emphasise that local Chambers of Commerce networks are crucial for rural SMEs to develop the skills of the workforce and leadership capability of managers, new product/service development and new working practices. Therefore, to enhance rural SMEs' performance, tailoring the services of local Chambers of Commerce to support rural businesses' needs and encouraging rural SMEs to make use of business networks are recommended.

The paper unpacks the relationships between being local Chamber of Commerce membership and business performance, offering lessons for rural SMEs to boost their business performance and growth through participating in local business association networks.

This paper is the first study that explores the comparative analysis of business performance and growth plans between rural SMEs that are members and non-members of the local Chamber of Commerce networks. We provide an empirical evidence-based analysis to existing literature regarding the advantages of being local Chamber of Commerce memberships to enhance business performance in rural areas.

This paper aims to explore and compare academics’ experiences of managing work-life balance (WLB) in the British and Chinese contexts. The authors have three specific purposes. Firstly, to investigate whether there are marked gender differences in either context, given female and male academics’ work is considered fully comparable. Secondly, to examine contextual factors contributing to gender differences that influence and shape decisions in WLB and career paths. Thirdly, to explore the gendered consequences and implications.

A cross-national and multilevel analytical approach to WLB was chosen to unpick and explore gender land contextual differences and their influence on individual academics’ coping strategies. To reflect the exploratory nature of uncovering individual experience and perceptions, the authors used in-depth, semi-structured interviews. In total, 37 academics participated in the study, comprised of 18 participants from 6 universities in the UK and 19 participants from 6 universities in China.

This study reveals gendered differences in both the British and Chinese contexts in three main aspects, namely, sourcing support; managing emotions; and making choices, but more distinct differences in the latter context. Most significantly, it highlights that individual academics’ capacity in cultivating and using coping strategies was shaped simultaneously by multi-layered factors at the country level, the HE institutional level and the individual academics’ level.

Very few cross-cultural WLB studies explore gender differences. This cross-national comparative study is of particular value in making the “invisible visible” in terms of the gendered nature of choices and decisions within the context of WLB. The study has significant implications for female academics exercising individual scope in carving out a career, and for academic managers and institutions, in terms of support, structure and policy.

The theoretical value of scenario-planning as a strategic tool is well recognized in literature. The purpose of this study is to explore the corporate reasoning of formal and informal usage (or non-usage) of scenario-planning in strategic decision-making.

An overview of the relevant literature on scenario-planning as a strategic decision-making tool in the context of complexity and uncertainty is presented, in combination with 15 case studies on executives in the South African context.

The findings are based on a study in the emerging market context. From the case studies reported, it is evident that industry, organizational and leadership-related factors influence the effective use or non-use of scenario-planning.

Empirical findings are reported, contributing to an assessment framework to revisit the usage of formal and informal scenario-planning in strategic decision-making. Further research to determine which supportive tools and technologies should be used for scenario-planning across multiple contexts is needed.

The study expands upon previous insights into the formal and informal usage (or non-usage) of scenario-planning in strategic decision-making based on an emerging market context.

This study contributes to understanding the value of scenario-planning in complex contexts that require strategic adaptability and offers a hands-on toolkit and shortlist of assessment criteria to conceptualize the organizational reasoning and scholarly framing of formal, informal or non-scenario-planning in strategic decision-making.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the corporate requirements, benefits and inhibitors of scenario planning in strategic decision-making.

This paper is based on a sample of 15 case studies with executives in the South African context to reveal the perceived corporate requirements, benefits and inhibitors of scenario-planning.

From the cases, it is evident that industry-, organizational- and leadership-related factors enable or inhibit scenario planning. Requirements, benefits and inhibitors are revealed in strategic decision-making.

Further research to determine supportive tools and technologies for enabling scenario-planning across multiple contexts is needed.

This paper expands insights into the requirements, benefits and inhibitors of scenario-planning in strategic decision-making.

Given the increasing complexity of the business environment, a framework of scenario-thinking is presented and recommend greater emphasis on developing strategic decision-making competence, changed mindsets and organizational agility.

This study empirically verified employee engagement (EE) as an outcome of organizational communication and confirmed that the formation of EE is strengthened when smartphone use (SU) is at a higher level.

A quantitative approach was used in this research, whereby 408 valid samples were collected with an online survey. The hypotheses of direct effects were tested using the structural equation modeling (SEM) procedure, and the moderating effects were tested using the unconstrained product indicator method and the PROCESS macro.

The results showed that EE was significantly influenced by person–organizationvalue fit (POVF), transformational leadership (TFL) and job autonomy (JA), and the effects of POVF and TFL were moderated significantly by SU. Although the influence of social support (SS) on EE was insignificant in the full model, SU moderated the effect of SS. The evidence also showed that work–family conflict (WFC) had no negative impact on EE.

The participants of this study were restricted to a local area.

Organizations should develop job designs via two-way communication to bring up EE and SU can facilitate the process.

Previous research has identified EE as an outcome of organizational communication, but this concept has not yet been empirically verified. This research provides evidence to verify the above-mentioned concept and additionally confirms the moderating role of SU.