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1 – 10 of 221Rocio Rodriguez, Mornay Roberts-Lombard, Nils M. Høgevold and Göran Svensson
This study aims to propose a conceptual framework based on organisational and environmental indicators of business-to-business sellers’ sales performance in services firms.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to propose a conceptual framework based on organisational and environmental indicators of business-to-business sellers’ sales performance in services firms.
Design/methodology/approach
A descriptive research design was applied and data was gathered from 389 respondents across industries and different-sized services firms in Norway using a self-administered questionnaire.
Findings
Results show that the proposed six-dimensional framework of organisational and environmental indicators can be applied to manage seller–customer relationships in a business-to-business environment.
Research limitations/implications
A six-dimensional framework of organisational and environmental indicators is tested successfully in services firms.
Practical implications
Increasingly, services firms will need to work closely with business-to-business sellers to proactively adapt to market changes through a co-creation approach to build long-term seller–customer relationships.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous study has focused on relationship marketing in business-to-business relationships that proposes a conceptual framework based on organisational and environmental indicators of business-to-business sellers’ sales performance in services firms.
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This paper aims to investigate whether revenue diversification affects the financial sustainability of microfinance institutions (MFIs).
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate whether revenue diversification affects the financial sustainability of microfinance institutions (MFIs).
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a worldwide panel data set of 443 MFIs in 108 countries for the period 2013–2018 and two-step system Generalized Method of Moments estimation model.
Findings
The study finds that revenue diversification has a significant and positive effect on the financial sustainability of MFIs.
Practical implications
The findings of this study actually offer important managerial and policy lessons on MFIs’ financial sustainability. Microfinance managers and policymakers should consider revenue diversification as a strategy through which MFIs can attain financial sustainability instead of overreliance on donations and government subsidies
Originality/value
Unlike previous studies that examined revenue diversification in the context of banking firms, this study contributes to literature by examining the impact of revenue diversification of the financial sustainability of MFIs.
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Lluis Mas, Paul Bolls, Emma Rodero, Miguel Barreda-Ángeles and Ashley Churchill
The purpose of this study is to determine how sonic logo’s acoustic features (intensity, pitch and pace) based on melodic tunes with no voice orient the response of consumers…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to determine how sonic logo’s acoustic features (intensity, pitch and pace) based on melodic tunes with no voice orient the response of consumers, attract attention, elicit levels of pleasantness and calmness and transmit brand personality traits.
Design/methodology/approach
A within-subject experimental factorial design is applied to measure emotional arousal (indexed as electrodermal activity) and enhancement on perceptual processing (indexed as heart rate), as well as self-reported factors, namely, calmness/excitement, pleasantness and brand personality scales.
Findings
Results show a significant increase on electrodermal activity associated with fast-paced sonic logos and a decrease in heart rate in slow-paced long sonic logos. Also, fade-up, pitch-ascending fast sonic logos are defined as more exciting and descending-pitch sonic logos as more pleasant.
Research limitations/implications
The use of sonic logos with no voice does limit its implications. Besides, the use of three variables simultaneously with 18 versions of sonic logos in a laboratory setting may have driven participants to fatigue; hence, findings should be cautiously applied.
Practical implications
First, sonic logos are best processed in a fade-up form. Second, fast pace is recommended to orient response, whereas slow pace is recommended to transmit calmness. Practitioners may opt for fast-paced sonic logos if the design is new or played in a noisy environment and opt for slow-paced sonic logos in already highly recognized sound designs.
Originality/value
To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to combine psychophysiological measures and self-reported scales in a laboratory experiment on how sonic logo’s acoustic features orient response, transmit emotions and personality traits.
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Marianne Thejls Ziegler and Christoph Lütge
This study aims to analyse the differences between professional interaction mediated by video conferencing and direct professional interaction. The research identifies diverging…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyse the differences between professional interaction mediated by video conferencing and direct professional interaction. The research identifies diverging interests of office workers for the purpose of addressing work ethical and business ethical issues of professional collaboration, competition, and power in future hybrid work models.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on 28 qualitative interviews conducted between November 2020 and June 2021, and through the theoretical lens of phenomenology, the study develops explanatory hypotheses conceptualising four basic intentions of professional interaction and their corresponding preferences for video conferences and working on site.
Findings
The four intentions developed on the basis of the interviews are: the need for physical proximity; the challenge of collective creativity; the will to influence; and control of communication. This conceptual framework qualifies a moral ambivalence of professional interaction. The authors identify a connectivity paradox of professional interaction where the personal dimension remains unarticulated for the purpose of maintaining professionality. This tacit human connectivity is intertwined with latent power relations. This plasticity of both connectivity and power in direct interaction can be diminished by transferring the interaction to video conferencing.
Originality/value
The application of phenomenology to a collection of qualitative interviews has enabled the identification of underlying intention structures and the system in which they affect each other. This research identifies conflicts of interests between workers relative to their different self-perceived abilities to persevere in competitive professional interaction. It is therefore able to address consequences of future hybrid work models at an existential and societal level.
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Dusanee Kesavayuth and Vasileios Zikos
Obesity is a significant public health issue. With obesity increasing worldwide, risk factors for obesity need to be better understood and require careful examination. This study…
Abstract
Purpose
Obesity is a significant public health issue. With obesity increasing worldwide, risk factors for obesity need to be better understood and require careful examination. This study aims to examine mental health as a risk factor for obesity using longitudinal data from Australia.
Design/methodology/approach
The main identification strategy relies on the recent death of a close friend and a serious injury or illness to a family member as exogenous shocks to mental health.
Findings
The authors’ preferred estimates, which account for the endogeneity of mental health, suggest that mental health has a significant negative impact on obesity. This result proves to be robust to a suite of sensitivity checks. Further investigations reveal that poor mental health leads to increased smoking, which also has an effect on obesity.
Originality/value
The study’s findings provide a new perspective on how good mental health helps curb obesity.
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Gaffar Hafiz Sagala, Faisal Rahman Dongoran and Dedy Husrizal Syah
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed educational practices due to the intense use of information technology for teaching and learning. That phenomenon presents…
Abstract
Purpose
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed educational practices due to the intense use of information technology for teaching and learning. That phenomenon presents challenges for lecturers in higher education establishments because student engagement is threatened during online interactions. This study aims to analyze the effectiveness of the SME project for maintaining student engagement during online learning.
Design/methodology/approach
The research used a quasi-experimental method involving experimental and control groups. Researchers collect quantitative and qualitative data to obtain comprehensive information. The data were collected using an electronic questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, and open coding were used to analyze the data.
Findings
The research used a quasi-experimental method involving experimental and control groups. Researchers collected quantitative and qualitative data using an electronic questionnaire to obtain comprehensive information. Descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, and open coding were used to analyze the data.
Originality/value
This study provides the educational community with a new insight into optimizing PBL in the online learning environment. Qualified PBL, as practiced by educators, will lead to student engagement, which leads to meaningful learning.
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Yi-Shun Wang, Timmy H. Tseng, Yu-Min Wang and Chun-Wei Chu
Understanding people’s intentions to be an internet entrepreneur is an important issue for educators, academics and practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to develop and…
Abstract
Purpose
Understanding people’s intentions to be an internet entrepreneur is an important issue for educators, academics and practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a scale to measure internet entrepreneurial self-efficacy.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on an analysis of 356 responses, a scale of internet entrepreneurial self-efficacy is validated in accordance with established scale development procedures.
Findings
The internet entrepreneurial self-efficacy scale has 16 items under three factors (i.e. leadership, technology utilization and internet marketing and e-commerce). The scale demonstrated adequate convergent validity, discriminant validity and criterion-related validity. Nomological validity was established by the positive correlation between the scale and, respectively, internet entrepreneurship knowledge and entrepreneurial intention.
Originality/value
This study is a pioneering effort to develop and validate a scale to measure internet entrepreneurial self-efficacy. The results of this study are helpful to researchers in building internet entrepreneurship theories and to educators in assessing and promoting individuals’ internet entrepreneurial self-efficacy and behavior.
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Reem Marzouki and Wafa Belkahla
The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of lead users (LUs) on innovation success by proposing and validating an integrative model that links LUs, innovation success and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of lead users (LUs) on innovation success by proposing and validating an integrative model that links LUs, innovation success and knowledge sharing (KS) variables.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors research is quantitative in nature and data were collected through a survey conducted among 30 information technology Tunisian companies. The authors preliminary analysis was explored using the “SPSS” software and processed through exploratory factor analysis and regression analysis methods.
Findings
Results showed that LUs who possess advanced skills and valuable knowledge can contribute to enhance new successful innovations, and hence, enable companies to gain short and long-term profits. Besides, the authors confirmed that the impact of LUs on innovation success is mediated by the “KS” behavior.
Practical implications
An integrative framework that links LUs, innovation success and a third variable called KS is presented to see beyond the intended importance of this type of user regarding the development of new innovations.
Originality/value
The paper offers new insights to the topic of LUs by emphasizing the role of “KS” variable in strengthening the LUs – innovation success relationship.
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Peter J. Rimmer AM and Claude Comtois
This study revisits the Great Canadian Grain Logistics Crisis of 2013-14 to explore the competitiveness of the country's grain exports. An approach to comprehending the dilemmas…
Abstract
This study revisits the Great Canadian Grain Logistics Crisis of 2013-14 to explore the competitiveness of the country's grain exports. An approach to comprehending the dilemmas of the international grain supply chain and trade, and national logistics policy in an era of multinational corporations, draws upon the literature on global value chain analysis. This analysis identifies both the grain industry's global and local dimensions. An important literature on the 'politics’ of the supply chain is also called into play to discuss who controls what aspects. This task of interpreting the various steps in Canada's grain logistics chain recognizes the key economic actors - producers, grain companies, railway companies, port terminal operators and export buyers - and political struggles between them as they each seek to maximize their self-interest. Policy implications for streamlining logistics operations are drawn from identifying where changes in the supply chain arrangements have gained or lost opportunities in export markets, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.