Search results

The purpose of this paper is to discover the latent factors amongst identified enablers of growth which can enhance growth performance in construction companies in India.

Factor analysis has been used to determine latent factors among the enablers of growth. The data for the analysis were collected through a questionnaire survey administered on 30 leading construction companies in India.

Factor analysis reveals that company systems and processes, customer orientation or value enhancement, future businesses, visionary leadership and intent, and versatile workforce are required to be optimally synergized for growth. Specific task forces or delegation of activities may be setup to look after each one of the above five factors.

Focus on these factors will help streamline the structure and functioning of a construction company and help strategise to achieve growth performance.

Understanding about priorities in enablers and inhibitors can help firm devise appropriate strategies and action plans.

This paper reduces several identified enablers of growth into few factors to practically design appropriate structure and work processes to deliver performance.

This paper has a twofold aim. Firstly, to give some insight into competitive intelligence practices in a little‐explored area in the field of competitive intelligence: the higher education sector. Secondly, to find out more about the factors influencing competitive intelligence practices, since little research on this subject has been published.

The investigation used a mixed‐methods approach, including face‐to‐face, semi structured interviews with 47 university managers (degree coordinators, deans and vice‐rectors), followed by a semi‐structured questionnaire carried out with 400 degree coordinators and deans and analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The interviews informed the questionnaire design.

The survey confirms the proposed framework's usefulness for analysing the enabler and inhibitor factors in an organisation for promoting efficient competitive intelligence practice and also gives some insight into which factors enable or inhibit the efficacy of competitive intelligence practices in Spanish universities.

The research focused on degree design adapted to the EHEA. A larger study designed to focus on other management areas in universities would provide a fuller picture of factors influencing competitive intelligence practices.

The findings indicate the areas where universities could plan actions to optimise intelligence activities, make the most of them and stand out from the rest.

This paper sets out a framework to describe factors related to intelligence function and cycle. In addition, the study reveals which indicators act as enablers or inhibitors for competitive intelligence practices and takes account of some of the particular features of the higher education sector.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the resistance behavior of smart factories in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing upon dual factor perspective, this study examines how two types of quality and perceived usefulness impact user resistance as enabling factors and how switching cost, skepticism, habit and inertia contribute to user resistance as inhibiting factors. Additionally, multi-group analysis is employed to compare small and medium enterprises.

Purposive sampling technique was employed to collect 460 Korean SMEs employees, consisting of 235 small enterprises and 225 medium enterprises. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used for data analysis.

The results reveal that all three inhibiting factors, switching cost, skepticism and habit, are key antecedents of inertia. In small enterprises, skepticism has a greater impact on inertia, which in turn strongly affects resistance. Additionally, system quality is more crucial for small enterprises, whereas information quality holds more importance for medium enterprises in mitigating resistance. Moreover, when the implementation level of a smart factory is high, the effect of perceived usefulness on user resistance diminishes.

This study has revealed the importance of considering both enabling and inhibiting factors for the adoption of smart factory systems in the context of SMEs. Additionally, it has provided evidence that as the level of the smart factory system increases, the effect of perceived usefulness on user resistance decreases, thus making the transition to smart factory systems more challenging.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the changes in governance structures that evolved as reverse logistics systems were developed. The UK car crash repair sector was used as a case study.

The value‐chain governance framework proposed by Gereffi et al. was used to assess changes in governance systems as firms developed a reverse logistics flow and three transactional variables were used to determine how supply chains are governed and change. Both forward and reverse product flows for two supply chains were assessed to determine what changes in governance of the supply chain took place as reverse logistics operations developed.

The authors' analysis documents how relationships between the focal firm and other supply chain members altered as the new reverse logistic system developed. The modular governance structure that developed through increased supplier capability coupled with higher levels of knowledge and information codifications were shown to be important factors in the establishment of a reverse logistics system. Supplier capability, knowledge codification and transaction complexity were found to be moderating variables which can enrich the traditional models on buyer‐supplier relationships based on trust and ongoing commitment.

Reverse logistics continues to be a major issue for business. Our findings provide an insight into some of the governance and knowledge management developments as focal firms respond to growing pressures to re‐use materials and parts. In total, six factors were identified which can assist firms in assessing their current governance structures and the development of a pathway for implementation of reverse logistics.

Little research has been conducted into supply chain governance structures needed to manage the new reverse logistics systems for the re‐use, recycling and repair of products.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and design a paradigm model for universities' information acquisition behavior in competitive intelligence process.

The sampling has been conducted in two stages. First, purposive sampling has been done among Iranian universities of medical sciences. Second, 20 university staff members were selected using the snowball method. The research was conducted through semi-structured interviews.

The purpose of acquiring information in competitive intelligence process is to meet organizational and individual information needs in active and passive ways. The characteristics of information acquisition and how to acquire it are varied. Enablers include the information sources, individual, organizational characteristics and environmental pressures. Barriers are individual, organizational, environmental factors. The consequences of information acquisition are success, failure and partial success. Accordingly, a paradigm model of information behavior has been designed.

This is the first study to identify information behavior of universities in competitive intelligence process. In addition to why and how to acquire information, this study also looks at facilitators and barriers factors.

This paper aims to examine how competitive intelligence (CI) relates to the strategy formulation process of firms.

Due to the novelty of the phenomenon and to the depth of the investigation required to grasp the mechanisms and logics of CI, a multiple case study has been performed related to four companies located in Brazil that adopted CI practices within dedicated business units to inform and support strategic decision-making.

The authors provide detailed empirical evidence on the connection and use of CI practices throughout each stage of the strategy formulation process. Moreover, the study suggests that CI practices, despite their strategic relevance and diffusion, are still extensively adopted for tactical use.

This study sheds light on how CI practices may inform, support, and be integrated in the strategy formulation process, as few studies have done before.

The purpose of this study is to identify inhibitors and enablers of Kaizen event effectiveness, as perceived by participants, and categorize them into shared mental models to understand the factors participants believe to be affecting Kaizen event success. The findings are also interpreted using the lens of attribution bias and previous studies of Kaizen event effectiveness.

A qualitative approach involving coding responses from participants was adopted. The identified significant inhibitors and enablers were then assigned to shared mental model types using a mapping and categorization approach.

The results are largely consistent with previous studies and show that job/task and technology/equipment mental models dominate participant views of inhibitors, while enablers were primarily drawn from team and team interaction mental models. This also suggests that attribution bias is present.

The methods used to measure shared mental models in this study are cross-sectional and exploratory in nature. Future research could involve the intensive study of a smaller number of Kaizen events over time.

The findings in this study can be used by organizations to identify training needs for Kaizen event teams by identifying areas of potential attribution bias, by divergence of perceptions between facilitators and team members and by underestimated factor effects.

This investigation offers understanding of the Kaizen event team shared mental models with respect to inhibitors and enablers of event success. Organizations can harness common perceptions among continuous process improvement teams to increases chances of Kaizen event success.

Wearable health technologies (WHTs) show promise in improving the health and well-being of the aging population because they promote healthy lifestyles. They can be used to collect health information from users and encourage them to be physically active. Despite potential benefits of WHTs, recent studies have shown that older people have low continued use intention toward WHTs. Previous work on this topic is disjointed, and new theoretical viewpoints are required.

The authors propose an enablers and inhibitors perspective to model factors influencing continued use intention of WHTs among the elderly. To test the model, we collected data from Chinese elderly (N = 295) who had prior experience using WHTs.

The study results show that social value is the strongest enabler of continued WHT use, and emotional and epistemic values and device quality also increase use continuance. Inertia and technology anxiety were identified as significant inhibitors. A post hoc importance performance map analysis revealed that while emotional value is a highly significant predictor of continued WHT use, existing WHTs do not stimulate such value in our sample.

The research findings illustrate the importance of incorporating user resistance in technology acceptance studies in general and WHT usage studies in particular. This study contributes by providing an integrative model of technology continued use intention for the elderly along with practical implications for policymakers.

A limited number of prior studies have taken both enablers and inhibitors into account when explaining continued WHT use intention among the elderly. This paper fills this research gap and contributes to the WHT literature by considering both enablers and inhibitors in the same model. Moreover, this study contributes to the ongoing research on WHT, and more broadly, gerontechnology use among the elderly.

The auto ancillary industry in India has witnessed huge capacity expansion and modernization due to entry of foreign automobile manufacturers in the post liberalization era. In spite of potential benefits, the adoption of advanced IT among small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) is low in India. There are several technological, economical and organizational factors that enable or inhibit the adoption of advanced IT. The primary objective of this research is to identify and evaluate the key factors that are enabling or inhibiting adoption of advanced IT in the Indian auto ancillary SMEs.

In order to identify and evaluate the enablers and inhibitors, a detailed survey was carried out among registered Indian auto ancillary SMEs during 2010. Out of 584 registered SMEs, 110 owners/top managers of the SMEs responded to the survey. The data collected through the survey were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and multivariate regression to evaluate the influence of enablers and inhibitors of advanced IT adoption by the auto ancillary SMEs.

The survey findings show that the level of advanced IT adoption in auto ancillaries is low with only 17 per cent of SMEs having adopted technologies. This study reveals that “perceived benefits” and “perceived competitive pressure” enable advanced IT adoption among auto ancillary SMEs in India. However, “lack of financial capacity”, “small scale operation and “lack of in‐house IT manpower” inhibit the adoption. It is also found that enablers such as “changes in business environment”, “IT experience of CEO/owner” and “increased information linkage with OEM/customer” do not have any influence on the adoption. Similarly in the case of inhibitors, “lack of IT Infrastructure” and “lack of information security” do not have significant association with IT adoption. Despite the positive external IT environment and recognition of benefits, advanced IT adoption by SMEs in the auto ancillaries is limited by lack of financial capabilities and in‐house IT human resources.

This is one of the early papers that brings out the enablers and inhibitors of advanced IT adoption by auto ancillaries in India. Further, these factors are systematically analyzed to assess the relative importance with reference to the SMEs. The findings contribute to theory of IT adoption among SMEs, but more importantly to the SMEs in the auto ancillary, and policy makers and IT service providers who are likely to facilitate increased adoption.

This study aims to examine customers’ willingness to engage in service interactions enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) controlled voice assistants (VA). Drawing on the tenets of dual-factor theory, this study measures the impact of both enablers and inhibitors – mediated by trust in Alexa – on customers’ intentions to transact through VAs.

Data from a survey of 290 users of VAs from Japan was collected through “Macromill”. The authors used a covariance-based path analysis technique for data analysis after establishing the validity and reliability of the measures.

The results of this study demonstrate that convenience and status-seeking act as enablers and positively influence trust in VAs, whereas risk barrier acts as an inhibitor and negatively influence trust in VAs. In turn, trust in VAs positively influences the intention to use VAs for transactional service interactions. This association is positively moderated by technology comfort.

This study applies dual-factor theory to the context of VAs – a context that scholars have, to date, examined solely from a technology adoption perspective. For the first time, the authors adopt a dual-factor approach to identify a new set of antecedents for customers’ intentions to use VAs for transactional service interactions.