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This article reviews the established understanding of the concept of expatriate failure, discusses its associated problems and presents a more sophisticated and comprehensive understanding of the concept. The article argues that it might well be time to abandon the concept of expatriate failure altogether and instead draw on the general human resource literature to analyse problems related to turnover and performance management in an expatriate context..

Suggests that most research on internationalization of service firms has investigated how companies over time have developed their outward business operations. Finds, however, that some service firms, especially within the tourism industry, have chosen another way of handling international business operations, namely by marketing their services abroad, often helped by middlemen such as tour operators and travel agents, expecting customers to come to their home country where services are produced and consequently must be consumed. Uses three cases to describe and analyse the process of “inward internationalization”, and to illustrate how the inward international activities may be carried out.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of adoption of the mandatory International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on the cost of equity capital in a unique Korean setting. In Korea, individual financial statements were taken as primary financial statements. Before the adoption of IFRS, consolidated financial statements were taken as supplementary financial statements.

The authors measure the cost of equity using the average estimates from the implied cost of capital models proposed by Claus and Thomas (2001), Gebhardt et al. (2001), Easton (2004) and Ohlson and Juettner-Nauroth (2005), using it as the primary dependent variable. Mandatory IFRS adoption, the independent variable in this study, is assigned a value of 1 for the post-adoption period and 0 otherwise.

Using a sample of listed Korean companies during the period from 2000 to 2013, the authors find evidence of a significant reduction in the cost of equity capital in Korean listed companies after mandatory adoption of the IFRS in 2011, after controlling for a set of market variables.

This study is one of a growing body of literature on the relations between mandatory IFRS adoption and the cost of equity capital (Easley and O’Hara 2004; Covrig et al. 2007; Lambert et al. 2007; Daske et al. 2008). According to the results of this study, increased financial disclosure and enhanced information comparability, along with changes in legal and institutional enforcement, seem to have had a joint effect on the cost of equity capital, leading to a large decrease in expected equity returns.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the use of the theory of attractive quality and the Kano methodology in an experience context in order to understand how different experienced attributes contribute to delight and satisfaction among customers.

The study applied theoretical and quantitative approaches in order to examine the theory of attractive quality and the Kano methodology. A total of 270 respondents responded to the survey instrument, which was based on qualitative interviews.

The research showed that existing questions and answering alternatives included in the Kano methodology must be adapted to the nature of experiences. The paper contributes in the form of a new evaluation table, having shown that existing tables were invalid in relation to the importance rating and the Must‐Be>One‐dimensional>Attractive>Indifferent evaluation rule. Finally, the paper also shows how hedonic attributes create delight and utilitarian attributes create satisfaction, which contributes to a holistic offering.

Managers should address the fact that simply including an attribute is not sufficient; they must also consider its nature and how it performs and attach to the offering when studying experiences to understand how it contributes to either delight or satisfaction.

To date, few studies have addressed or discussed the consequences of applying the theory of attractive quality and the Kano model – including its rules for classification – to experience‐based offerings. The present article does this and also offers a theoretical extension of the theory of attractive quality and service marketing in terms of how customers holistically consider value and how Kano survey results should be analysed.

This paper provides a quantitative review of the literature on the repercussions of idiosyncratic information on firms’ cost of equity (CoE) capital. In total, I review the results of 113 unique studies examining the CoE effects of information Quantity, Precision and Asymmetry. My results suggest that the association between firm-specific information and CoE is subject to moderate effects. First, the link between Quantity and CoE is moderated by disclosure types and country-level factors in that firms in comparatively weakly regulated countries tend to enjoy up to four times greater CoE benefits from more expansive disclosure—depending on the type of disclosure—than firms in strongly regulated markets. Second, a negative relationship between Precision and CoE is only significant in studies using non-accrual quality proxies for Precision and risk factor-based (RFB)/valuation model-based (VMB) proxies for CoE. Third, almost all VMB studies confirm the positive association between Asymmetry and CoE, but there is notable variation in the conclusions reached when ex post CoE measurers are used.

Proposes a model that combines the proactive and reactive nature of brand management. It is called the logical brand management model, abbreviated to the LOGMAN model. More specifically it combines insights from: Kaplan and Norton's balanced scorecard method; BCG's brand value creation method; the path analysis method; the gap analysis method; and the house of quality (QFD) method. It allows one to perform a logical brand consistency audit at several levels. It evaluates whether customer perceptions of the company's brand drivers and the external brand drivers are in line with the company's brand objectives. Furthermore, it analyzes the logical consistency of the company's brand policy across multiple customer segments and over time.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

The authors present nine dimensions to provide structure for the many Futures of Work (FoW). This is done to advance a more sociotechnical and nuanced approach to the FoW, which is too-often articulated as singular and unidimensional. Futurists emphasize they do not predict the future, but rather, build a number of possible futures – in plural – often in the form of scenarios constructed based on key dimensions. Such scenarios help decision-makers consider alternative actions by providing structured frames for careful analyses. It is useful that the dimensions be dichotomous. Here, the authors focus specifically on the futures of knowledge work.

Building from a sustained review of the FoW literature, from a variety of disciplines, this study derives the nine dimensions.

The nine FoW dimensions are: Locus of Place, Locus of Decision-making, Structure of Work, Technologies’ Roles, Work–Life, Worker Expectations, Leadership Model, Firm’s Value Creation and Labor Market Structure. Use of the dimensions is illustrated by constructing sample scenarios.

While FoW is multi-dimensional, most FoW writing has focused on one or two dimensions, often highlighting positive or negative possibilities. Empirical papers, by their nature, are focused on just one dimension that is supported by data. However, future-oriented policy reports tend are more often multi-faceted analyses and serve here as the model for what we present.

The complexity, uncertainty, and diminished control found in global operations hinder the development of world‐class competencies. For example, as a firm rationalizes manufacturing, logistical challenges increase. As a result, cost advantages achieved through production sharing are often offset by higher logistics costs. This multi‐method explores the cross‐functional development of quality and cost competencies in an international production sharing setting. Overall, the study found that information and planning capabilities are vital antecedants to cost and quality competencies. The impact of cost on a firm’s performance is direct, while the impact of quality is indirect, through productivity enhancements.

The purpose of this paper is to study the progression of business excellence (BX) in 13 repeat applicants for the New Zealand Business Excellence award over the period 1993‐2007.

A multiple case approach analyses quantitative scoring data along with qualitative interview and secondary data.

Formal, external assessments play a critical role in promoting continuous improvement toward BX. However, effective responses to feedback differ for enabler processes vs results. Achieving improved results requires a fundamental review of measurement approaches, as well as better alignment of performance measures to overall activities. Successful paths to continuous improvement vary depending on the starting point for this journey. Organisations starting with a relatively strong position can use external feedback to target improvement efforts for maximum benefit. Organisations starting at a more basic level of performance need to generalise improvement efforts across their full range of business activities. The research also identified the existence of hurdles along the road to BX.

The New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation, which administers the award scheme in New Zealand (NZ) had adopted the US Baldrige criteria as a whole, and no work has yet been done to validate the criteria for NZ conditions. This paper uses changes in scores between applications as a measure of progress to BX, so there is the possibility of applicants “gaming” the system (e.g. one research participant admitted they gained a large one‐off scoring improvement largely on the basis of writing a better application). Future research could extend this work by: studying the performance over time of a control group using Baldrige‐type criteria for internal assessment only; comparing one‐time applicants with repeat applicants; and studying the extent to which Baldrige criteria are appropriate within other national contexts such as NZ.

This research provides insight and advice into what works and what does not in implementing the Baldrige BX criteria.

This paper analyses a unique data source and contributes to the literature on drivers and barriers to continuous improvement, a key literature within operations management.