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Monthly 1980–2014 data are examined to determine how employment responds to money supply shocks in Canada and the United States. The focus of the analysis is a comparison of the real economies’ responses to the financial crisis and the great recession. Employment is used as a proxy for real output, though it may respond to monetary shocks with a longer lag. Vector autoregression models are specified, estimated, and interpreted. Impulse response functions are examined to assess the impact of innovations in monetary policy. A comparison of the response of employment to monetary innovations allows for evaluation of alternative business cycle theories and of the relative efficacy of Canadian v. U.S. monetary policy. Cross-border impacts are also assessed. Granger causality tests are used to examine whether money supply growth causes unemployment, whether monetary shocks cause higher or lower employment, and distinguish between short-run and long-run effects.

This paper deals with concept of total productive maintenance (TPM) and its implementation approach. It also presents the identification of critical factors for effective implementation of TPM. The reliability analysis identified potential areas where more concentration is required. The application of hypothesis testing in productivity maintenance should be promoted by parametric test and significantly instrumental in explanation of phenomena. It is also indispensable to better understand quality data and provide guidance to production control.

The various critical success factors of TPM implementation has organised into set of eight performance measure and thirty three sub-factors for getting the in-depth details of each indicator. The paper identifies the reliability of these factors and understands the problem with greater clarity and its ramification. Researcher collected responses from forty one manufacturing organisations through structured designed questionnaire. The reliability analysis was carriedout by calculating the value of Cronbach's alpha method. To draw the meaningful conclusions supported by relevant empirical data, provisional formulation is required, and it was carried by hypothesis testing. In this test, samples are taken from a population with known distribution (normal distribution), and a test of population parameters is executed. It determines the relevancy of facts directs the researcher's efforts into productive channels. The statements were hypothetically tested by calculating the arithmetic value of Chi-Square (χ²) and MINITAB-19 software was used for identification of p-value.

This study identified that main factors and sub-factors of TPM which are critical for implementation of TPM. The study also avoids the complexities involved in implementing TPM by reliability analysis. It is found that all identified CSFs are reliable as Cronbach's alpha is above 0.6. The hypothesis testing shows that all alternative hypothesis statements are acceptable as Chi-Square (χ²) value has satisfied the conditions and null hypothesis are true as calculated p-value is less than the 0.05 for eight identified TPM critical factor.

In this paper researcher provides a comprehensive typology of TPM-CSFs, and its ranking and importance in manufacturing sector. The preparedness of such study related to TPM implementation is becoming a major sourcing base for the world and there is a paucity of such studies. Such studies are equally important in a global context.

This paper compares impact of Industry 4.0 / emerging information and communication Technologies (ICTs), for example, Internet of things (IOT), machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and cloud computing, on 22 organisational performance indicators under nine combinations of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and quality management systems (QMS).

Survey of 105 Indian organisations was done about their experience of using QMS, Lean Six Sigma and emerging ICTs. Respondents included both manufacturing and service enterprises of different scales and sectors. The responses collected were compared, and statistically significant difference among them was evaluated using chi-square test.

The study confirmed statistically significant difference among 20 organisational performance indicators under different combinations of QMS, LSS and ICTs. These indicators include quality performance, delivery performance, sales turnover, inventory level and so forth. However, for two indicators, namely, absenteeism and throughput, significant difference in responses was not established.

All possible combinations of QMS, LSS, only LSS tools and ICTs were not studied because of either theoretical impossibility (e.g. using LSS without LSS tools) or practically rare situations (e.g. organisations using ICTs and LSS without QMS). Furthermore, the impact from different sequences of implementing QMS, LSS and ICTs can be studied.

Using this study, practitioners can identify which LSS, Quality System and ICT combination results in best performance and quick success. On theoretical front, the study confirms impact of LSS and QMS on organisational performance.

This study evaluates organisational performance under several possible combinations of QMS, LSS, and emerging ICTs, which was so far unexplored.

This quantitative research paper examined factors influencing re-engagement intentions and re-engagement behavior of lapsed health club members and identified which sales promotion incentives are most effective in re-engaging this lapsed member market. While previous studies examined re-engagement intentions and re-engagement behavior in isolation, no research could be located which examined both simultaneously and the impact of promotion incentives in the health and fitness industry.

Study A (mail survey) examined re-engagement intentions of one hundred lapsed members of a medium size suburban health club. Study B (an experimental field study) measured actual true re-engagement behavior using price and gift token as incentives to re-engage 300 lapsed members of the same health club. Ten hypotheses were tested using chi-square, logistic regression and correlation analysis.

Results indicate that price is the most influential incentive in promoting re-engagement intentions, while the experimental field study tested this survey finding and reported that although incentives were more effective than nonincentives in terms of re-engagement behavior, price played a far greater significant role than gift token in actual re-engagement behavior of lapsed members. Highly satisfied customers are likely to have stronger re-engagement intentions with frequent attendees more influenced by price in terms of re-engagement intentions, while those who lapsed most recently demonstrated stronger re-engagement behavior.

Study A: While acknowledging that the sample size was limited, a respectable response rate of 49% was recorded for the mail survey in Study A but a greater response rate and larger sample size would have allowed for a more comprehensive analysis. However, the study is primarily exploratory in nature and serves to achieve the objectives of the research. The study was based on a medium size suburban health club, therefore no comparisons can be drawn between the results of this study and that involving larger health clubs, chains, urban clubs or those outside of Ireland. Although the inclusion of moderating effects was considered, it was not feasible to develop these interactions due to the limited sample size. Study B: Generalization of the findings in this study with other international markets is not possible due to differences in demographic factors, promotions and differences in the health and fitness industry. No comparison can be drawn either between health clubs which operate in a different environment, such as public or nonmembership-based clubs, urban clubs or those constituting a chain. While the offer incentives were of equal value, it is recognized that the gift token may have appealed more to females than to males.

Health clubs should consider changing strategic focus, from being overly concentrated on new customer acquisition to actively re-engaging the lapsed member market by finding out why they left and offer an incentive such as price to re-engage. Although loyalty, duration, age, gender and income were found not to be significant in this study, satisfaction, frequency and recency of lapse were significant. Therefore, health clubs should strive to keep members satisfied, monitor and increase frequency of attendance with creative programming and commence the re-engagement process prior to the membership expiry so as to maximize re-engagement and customer retention using price discount as an incentive.

The originality of this study is that is tests statistically consumer re-engagement intentions and actual re-engagement behavior simultaneously in a health club setting using a mail survey in Study A and Experimental Design in Study B.

Describes statistical methods applied to sensory discrimination tests. Illustrates binomial and chi‐square statistical analysis and discusses similarity testing, power and replication in discrimination testing.

This study aims to measure social enterprises’ (SEs’) social objectives under the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework, and explore the impact of SEs’ social objectives on their choices of legal forms.

This study used semi-structured questionnaires followed up by field interviews and observations of the sampled SEs. The survey sample includes 80 participants of Social Entrepreneurs Stars Competition in Zhejiang Province of China. The authors conduct content analysis to measure the objectives of SEs. The authors also perform descriptive analysis, chi-square test and regression analysis on the data.

The findings confirm the theoretical discussions that SEs’ choices of legal forms reflect SEs’ strategies toward achieving social objectives. Similar to certain countries, some SEs in China register as nonprofit entities to concentrate on nonprofitable sustainability objectives, while others register as commercial enterprises or hybrid organizations to generate profits. However, some SEs focus on profitable non-sustainability issues and fail to prioritize social objectives over economic objectives. There are positive effects of social entrepreneurs’ background similarity and negative effects of social entrepreneurs’ educational level on their SEs’ choices to register as commercial enterprises.

Due to the small size and nonrepresentative sample this study is based on, the findings need be further tested by a larger sample. SEs in different service domains rely on different types of financial resources (Mair et al., 2012; Doherty et al., 2014). In future research, the model can be expanded to test the effects of service domains and types of financial sources on SEs’ choices of legal forms.

To encourage more societal resources being allocated toward achieving the United Nations’ SDGs, policymakers and SE certification programs are recommended to explicitly incorporate sustainability objectives into the evaluation standards and supportive policies for SEs. Social entrepreneurs who aim to balance the social and economic objectives in their business are suggested to target the population with whom they share similar community background. Training or consulting programs for social entrepreneurs are suggested to provide advice tailored to their socio-economic background and personal experiences.

To the best of the authors’ this study is the first quantitative analysis to identify factors that associate with SEs’ choice of legal forms in China. The authors developed new instruments to measure SEs’ social objectives and service targets, access to financial resources and social entrepreneurs’ social-economic backgrounds.

This research aims to investigate how personality, identified through the psychological type, can contribute to a more robust process of identifying the investor's profile. The traditional process of investor profile analysis of Brazilian financial institutions is performed through a form in which basic information is required to define the profile. By adding psychological and behavioral aspects obtained through the Myers–Briggs type indicator (MBTI) typology, institutions participating in the financial and capital markets could enrich the understanding of their clients.

It presents a quantitative approach, with an exploratory-descriptive focus, with a survey carried out on a sample of 613 investors, in which nonparametric tests were performed to test hypotheses on the influence of personality on the behavioral aspects of these investors.

The results showed a relationship between the dimensions of the personality type and the investment profile, indicating that personality is a relevant factor in guiding investor behavior. In this context, evidence of the applicability of the principles of behavioral finance to investor behavior was found, to the detriment of traditional finance principles.

Findings help investors to plan and manage their finances more appropriate manner. Financial institutions can create more accurate and realistic investor profile analysis processes, adding psychological and behavioral aspects obtained through the MBTI typology. In this way, companies and financial advisors will be able to provide a better-quality service to their clients, recommending the most appropriate investment strategies.

The elements originality of this study are as follows: (1) methodology: there is a lack of research covering the application of personality assessment tools, particularly the MBTI, to improve investor's profile analysis; (2) geographical coverage: lack of research of the theme in Brazil and Latin America in general; (3) robustness of the database.