Search results

In a competitive environment, firms continually need to establish new business objectives to fulfill their corporate visions. A whole organization should be structured to achieve these objectives. In order to support the objectives, information technology (IT) needs to be aligned to the organization’s mission. IT professionals have provided systems for the organization and, in most cases, these systems consist of individual function, which should be used in an integrated manner. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software has emerged to offer an integrated IT solution. It is suggested that ERP could facilitate achieving compatibility between task characteristics and technology characteristics, a long overdue IT solution. ERP has become one of the major IT investments for many organizations. Unfortunately, little research has been done to provide managers guidance on ERP potential for their organizations. Some useful information about ERP can be found by examining the technological evolution of ERP from MRP.

The time-varying equivalent linear temperature gradient (ELTG) significantly affects the development of faulting and must therefore be accounted for in pavement design. The same is true for faulting of bonded concrete overlays of asphalt (BCOA) with slabs larger than 3 x 3 m. However, the evaluation of ELTG in Mechanistic-Empirical (ME) BCOA design is highly time-consuming. The use of an effective ELTG (EELTG) is an efficient alternative to calculating ELTG. In this study, a model to quickly evaluate EELTG was developed for faulting in BCOA for panels 3 m or longer in size, whose faulting is sensitive to ELTG.

A database of EELTG responses was generated for 144 BCOAs at 169 locations throughout the continental United States, which was used to develop a series of prediction models. Three methods were evaluated: multiple linear regression (MLR), artificial neural networks (ANNs), and multi-gene genetic programming (MGGP). The performance of each method was compared, considering both accuracy and model complexity.

It was shown that ANNs display the highest accuracy, with an R² of 0.90 on the validation dataset. MLR and MGGP models achieved R² of 0.73 and 0.71, respectively. However, these models consisted of far fewer free parameters as compared to the ANNs. The model comparison performed in this study highlights the need for researchers to consider the complexity of models so that their direct implementation is feasible.

This research produced a rapid EELTG prediction model for BCOAs that can be incorporated into the existing faulting model framework.

When using a service, customers often develop their own solutions by integrating resources to solve problems and co-create value. Drawing on innovation and creativity literature, this paper aims to investigate the influence of place (the service setting and the customer setting) on customer creativity in a health-care context.

In a field study using customer diaries, 200 ideas from orthopedic surgery patients were collected and evaluated by an expert panel using the consensual assessment technique (CAT).

Results suggest that place influences customer creativity. In the customer setting, customers generate novel ideas that may improve their clinical health. In the service setting, customers generate ideas that may improve the user value of the service and enhance the customer experience. Customer creativity is influenced by the role the customer adopts in a specific place. In the customer setting customers were more likely to develop ideas involving active customer roles. Interestingly, while health-care customers provided ideas in both settings, contrary to expectation, ideas scored higher on user value in the service setting than in the customer setting.

This study shows that customer creativity differs in terms of originality, user value and clinical value depending on the place (service setting or customer setting), albeit in one country in a standardized care process.

The present research puts customer creativity in relation to health-care practices building on an active patient role, suggesting that patients can contribute to the further development of health-care services.

As the first field study to test the influence of place on customer creativity, this research makes a novel contribution to the growing body of work in customer creativity, showing that different places are more/less favorable for different dimensions of creativity. It also relates customer creativity to health-care practices and highlights that patients are an untapped source of creativity with first-hand knowledge and insights, importantly demonstrating how customers can contribute to the further development of health-care services.

To transcend the long-standing debate regarding whether workers are driven into the informal economy by either their involuntary “exclusion” or voluntary “exit” from the formal economy, the purpose of this paper is to propose and evaluate the existence of a dual informal labour market composed of an exit-driven “upper tier” and an exclusion-driven “lower-tier” of informal workers, and to explore its policy implications.

To do so, data are reported from a 2015 survey of the informal economy conducted in South-East Europe involving 6,019 face-to-face interviews in Bulgaria, Croatia and FYR Macedonia.

Identifying a dual informal labour market with three exit-driven informal workers for every exclusion-driven informal worker, a multinomial logit regression analysis reveals that, compared to the exclusion-driven “lower tier”, the exit-driven “upper tier” is significantly more likely to be populated by the formally employed, retired and those not struggling financially. Participation is not affected by the perceived severity of penalties and likely risks of detection, but relative to those in the exclusion-driven “lower tier”, there is a significant correlation between those doing so for exit rationales and their lack of both horizontal trust and vertical trust in formal institutions.

The outcome is a call to transcend the conventional deterrence approach of increasing the penalties and risks of detection. Instead, to tackle those driven by exit rationales, tackling both the lack of horizontal trust that other citizens are operating in a compliant manner and the lack of vertical trust in formal institutions is advocated. To tackle exclusion-driven informal workers, meanwhile, a focus upon the macro-level economic and social conditions which lead to their participation is required.

This is the first paper to empirically evaluate the existence of a dual informal labour market and to evaluate its policy implications.

This study aims to examine whether, and how, perceived product scarcity strengthens the attitude–behavior relation in the case of sustainable luxury products.

Three online studies were conducted to examine the moderating role of perceived product scarcity on the attitude–willingness to pay (WTP) relationship in the case of sustainable luxury products. A preliminary study (n = 208) examined the existence of an attitude–WTP gap toward a sustainable luxury product (i.e. a bag). Study 1 (n = 171) investigated the moderating effect of perceived scarcity induced by a limited quantity message on the relationship between consumer attitude and the WTP for a sustainable luxury product (i.e. a pair of shoes). Study 2 (n = 558) replicated these findings using a different product category (i.e. a wallet) while controlling for demographic variables and examined the moderating role of consumer characteristics on the scarcity effect.

Consumers’ perceived scarcity for sustainable luxury products positively moderated the relationship between product attitudes and their WTP for the products. The moderating effect of perceived scarcity was significant for consumers regardless of their tendency toward socially responsible consumption and their preference for product innovativeness. Meanwhile, the scarcity effect was influenced by the consumers’ attitude toward the brand of sustainable products.

This research provides empirical evidence for marketers with clear managerial implications concerning how to immediately promote consumers’ acceptance of sustainable luxury products.

This study is the first to examine the role of scarcity strategy on strengthening the attitude–behavior relation for sustainable luxury products.

This review aims to synthesize the brand hate literature and suggest directions for future research on brand hate.

This study adopted an integrative literature review method to synthesize and assess the brand hate literature.

The synthesis showed that social identity theory, disidentification theory and duplex theory are prominently used in brand hate studies, and a larger portion of brand hate research was conducted in Western countries. Further, brand-related, self-congruity, personal factors, information influence and brand community influence are the major types of antecedents of brand hate which can produce soft or hard consequences. Lexicometric analysis showed causes of brand hate, consumers' negative emotional and behavioral outcomes and community anti-brand behavior as key themes of brand hate research.

The synthesis has followed predefined criteria for the inclusion research papers. Thus, the review is limited to articles that fulfilled the criteria for inclusion.

The finding will help marketers, specially brand managers, craft strategies to handle brand hate.

The brand hate literature is still developing and remains incoherent, suggesting that a synthesized review is needed. This study has systematically reviewed and synthesized the brand hate literature to study its development over time and proposes a framework which provides a comprehensive understanding of brand hate.

The Donner expedition to California in 1846‐1847 is one of the darkest tales of the great migrations west. While much has been written about the tragedy, a group analysis based on business research has not been undertaken. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that the story of the Donner Party is primarily a group failure, with implications for practicing managers employing temporary groups in uncertain situations.

Group theories concerning the nature of temporary work groups, interdependence, diversity, social identity, and leadership are employed to explain how negative group processes likely contributed to the disaster.

Based on books and a film about the incident, the Donner Party suffered a social breakdown based on: the changing nature of the goals of the expedition in mid‐course, which is difficult for temporary teams to handle; destructive forms of diversity based on cultural background and social status; and a lack of critical skills and effective leadership. The story also illustrates that small, cohesive groups had a better survival rate than individuals.

While only a single case, this study demonstrates the special nature of temporary groups and demonstrates that not all diversity is positive. Both issues require strong leadership. Furthermore, the study demonstrates the importance of considering context in group research.

This is an original analysis of the Donner Party using group theories. This study reminds managers of the fragility of temporary groups, and stresses the need to consider the possibilities of accidents/disasters when undertaking large projects.

The March issue of the Journal of Chemical Technology contains the following article, with every word of which we cordially agree. It is gratifying to find that there is one—if only one—of our scientific Journals which has the courage and the patriotism to speak out and to do so in vigorous terms. The indictment of the flabby persons belonging to the Chemical Profession who by their ineptitude and inertia are condoning the bestial crimes of the modern Huns is well‐timed and thoroughly deserved.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of managerial values in improving the effectiveness of employee performance management (EPM).

The research has been conducted as a conceptual study, in which EPM criteria are compared to managerial values and the related maturity model. A thorough review of the EPM and values literature identified relevant and significant works.

Despite copious extant literature on EPM, the process is riddled with persistent problems, particularly concerning the manager’s enthusiasm to adequately implement EPM and its subsequent effectiveness. A managerial grounded values framework is, therefore, proposed. Using a circular approach that is assisted by a values maturity model, it serves as a charter that guides the supervisor’s actions, goals, choices, decisions and attitudes; principles that are very much at the heart of an effective EPM process. Curiously, managerial values and EPM have not generally been connected.

This values-based circular framework contributes to the effectiveness of the EPM process and thus to a positive EPM experience that motivates, enhances engagement and guides personal development. When enacted individual values and EPM are linked, they are argued to lead to sustained superior financial performance.

This study makes an important and novel contribution to the performance literature by using a values-based maturity model to improve the effectiveness of the EPM process.

An unconscious concern regarding one’s inevitable death, known as mortality salience, may affect consumers’ brand choices in the aftermath of disastrous events, such as earthquakes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of self-identification with global consumer culture (IDGCC) in global brand purchase intention in response to disasters that heighten mortality salience. The roles of materialism, consumer ethnocentrism, cosmopolitanism and hope in this this process are also explored.

An online experiment was conducted with a large sample of Japanese consumers. Japan was selected because it had recently suffered from a series of devastating earthquakes. Participants’ mortality salience was primed with an earthquake scenario. All measures were adapted from prior research. The authors used structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses and validate the model.

The results reveal that IDGCC is a direct predictor of global brand purchase intention when mortality salience is high. It appears that identifying with global consumer culture and buying global brands enhances self-esteem and reduces anxiety for those with high IDGCC. As predicted, materialism and cosmopolitanism positively influence IDGCC, whereas consumer ethnocentrism does not impede IDGCC. Hope directly and positively affects global brand purchase intention.

Some consumers who experience traumatic events may resist mortality salience and experience a heightened sense of global citizenship. Meanwhile, those with lower IDGCC may revert to in-group favoritism, whereas those with higher IDGCC tend to purchase global brands. Using a scenario to simulate the mental state evoked by a disaster limits generalizability.

The findings illuminate how firms should modify their international marketing strategies in the face of traumatic global events when targeting consumers with high vs low IDGCC in terms of framing messages about global brands. Additionally, using global brands that emphasize an optimistic outlook may help global marketers capture attention from consumers high in IDGCC.

This study is one of the first to address traumatic events and hope, relating these concepts to IDGCC and global brand purchase intention in an international marketing context.