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1 – 10 of over 19000Ander Maiz, Nieves Arranz and Juan Carlos Fdez. de Arroyabe
The purpose of this paper is to focus on understanding the factors which affect the social interaction in the case of Facebook. Many authors point out the great potential of these…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on understanding the factors which affect the social interaction in the case of Facebook. Many authors point out the great potential of these networks for social interaction and as conduits of information. However, studies show that the topology of the network is disconnected, consisting of small sub-networks that make Facebook unsuitable for disseminating information. This situation has created the need to introduce exogenous factors, aimed at boosting and providing cohesion to the network structure. In this context, the authors test the following question: how exogenous and endogenous factors contribute to encouraging social interaction on Facebook.
Design/methodology/approach
For the analysis of social interaction on Facebook, a population consisting of all the followers of the walls of ten corporate social networks was used. From the total 269,424 users analyzed, a stratified sample of 132 followers was obtained and networks were built for each of them. The authors then proceeded to search for each follower’s friends and friends of friends to build the social network up to the fourth level, obtaining a total of 132 subnets with 1,628,074 links between them. To determine the impact of both exogenous and endogenous factors in the interaction of the network the authors performed a causal analysis.
Findings
The results obtained from this study provide empirical evidence on the adequacy of companies’ dynamization measures used and how exogenous and endogenous factors influence the social interaction on Facebook. Thus, the results show that exogenous factors, such as the activity of the community manager and the digital marketing investment in the network, do not have a significant effect on the interaction. On the other hand, endogenous factors, such as network density and clustering, have a positive effect on the trigger of social interaction between the followers. Therefore, companies must consider the importance of the structural factors that characterize network followers, such as density or clustering coefficient, to be able to interpret and optimize them to obtain higher levels of social interaction.
Originality/value
This is one of a few papers that examine interactions in social network sites (SNS), particularly in corporate network sites in Facebook. The results expose the importance for organizations to have reliable information on the patterns of interaction to properly manage the resources allocated for this purpose in SNS.
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Palitha Konara, Zita Stone and Alex Mohr
The authors combine options logic with transaction cost economics to explain why firms maintain, divest or buy out their international joint ventures (IJVs). It is suggested that…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors combine options logic with transaction cost economics to explain why firms maintain, divest or buy out their international joint ventures (IJVs). It is suggested that a decline in environmental risk and higher partner-related risk makes a firm more likely to acquire an IJV but less likely to divest an IJV. The study also investigates how IJV age moderates the effects of a decline in environmental risk and higher partner-related risk.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs competing risks analyses to examine the drivers of different termination outcomes using a dataset consisting of 459 IJVs in the People's Republic of China, of which 110 were either acquired or divested by their foreign parent.
Findings
The study finds that changes in environmental risk and partner-related risk affect how firms terminate their IJVs in the People's Republic of China. Specifically, the authors find that the effect of exogenous and endogenous risk are more pronounced for the acquisition of IJVs than for the divestment of IJVs.
Research limitations/implications
The study contributes to international marketing research by complementing options logic with transaction cost economics to provide a theoretical explanation of the different ways in which IJVs in the People's Republic of China are terminated.
Practical implications
IJVs continue to be an important yet often unstable method to serve international markets. Our findings increase managers' awareness of the effect that two important sources of risk may have on the termination of IJVs in the People's Republic of China.
Originality/value
The study provides novel insights into the effect that changes in exogenous and endogenous risk have on a firm's choice of termination mode drawing on novel data on the different ways in which foreign firms have terminated their IJVs in the Peoples' Republic of China.
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Artwell Kadungure, Garrett Wallace Brown, Rene Loewenson and Gwati Gwati
This study examines key adaptations that occurred in the Zimbabwean Results-Based Financing (RBF) programme between 2010 and 2017, locating the endogenous and exogenous factors…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines key adaptations that occurred in the Zimbabwean Results-Based Financing (RBF) programme between 2010 and 2017, locating the endogenous and exogenous factors that required adaptive response and the processes from which changes were made.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a desk review and thematic analysis of 64 policy and academic literatures supplemented with 28 multi-stakeholder interviews.
Findings
The programme experienced substantive adaption between 2010 and 2017, demonstrating a significant level of responsiveness towards increasing efficiency as well as to respond to unforeseen factors that undermined RBF mechanisms. The programme was adaptive due to its phased design, which allowed revision competencies and responsive adaptation, which provide useful insights for other low-and-middle income countries (LMICs) settings where graduated scale-up might better meet contextualised needs. However, exogenous factors were often not systematically examined or reported in RBF evaluations, demonstrating that adaptation could have been better anticipated, planned, reported and communicated, especially if RBF is to be a more effective health system reform tool.
Originality/value
RBF is an increasingly popular health system reform tool in LMICs. However, there are questions about how exogenous factors affect RBF performance and acknowledgement that unforeseen endogenous programme design and implementation factors also greatly affect the performance of RBF. As a result, a better understanding of how RBF operates and adapts to programme level (endogenous) and exogenous (external) factors in LMICs is necessary.
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A D Ibrahim, A D F Price and A R J Dainty
Governments throughout the world are being forced to review how to fund the increasing demand and rising expectations of their citizens. This is especially relevant for developing…
Abstract
Governments throughout the world are being forced to review how to fund the increasing demand and rising expectations of their citizens. This is especially relevant for developing countries, which often have limited capital resources to meet the soaring needs for essential infrastructure. This has consequently led to increased involvement of the private sector in the provision of public services, using various forms of Public‐Private Partnerships (PPPs). It is, however, important for both the public and private sectors to understand the various risks associated with PPPs throughout the whole life cycle of the projects in order to guarantee long‐term success. This is especially true in Nigeria and other countries where the use of PPPs are still in the early stages of development. Sixty‐one PPP risk factors were identified from literature and classified into exogenous and endogenous risks. This paper presents the results of the questionnaire survey that investigated the perception of Nigerian construction professionals on the relative importance of the identified risks and their preferences of allocation between the public and private sectors. The results show that the three most important PPP risk factors in Nigeria are “unstable government”, “inadequate experience in PPP” and “availability of finnance”. The respondents’ risk allocation preferences show that while most of the endogenous risk factors could be assigned to the private sector partner, the public sector should retain political and site acquisition risks, while relation‐ship‐based risks should be shared between the private and public sector partners
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Theories of the business cycle can be classified into two main groups, exogenous and endogenous, according to the way they explain economic fluctuations – either as responses of…
Abstract
Theories of the business cycle can be classified into two main groups, exogenous and endogenous, according to the way they explain economic fluctuations – either as responses of the economy to factors that are external (exogenous shocks) or as upturns and downturns of the economic system internally generated (by endogenous factors). In endogenous theories, investment is generally a key variable to explain the dynamic status of the economy. This essay examines the role of investment in endogenous theories. Two contrasting views on how changes in investment and profitability push the economy towards expansion or contraction are represented by the insights of Kalecki, Keynes, Matthews and Minsky versus those of Marx and Mitchell. Hyman Minsky claimed that investment ‘calls the tune’ to indicate that investment is the only variable not determined by other variables, so that future profits, investment and the dynamic status of the economy are determined by current investment and investment in the near past. However, this hypothesis does not appear to be supported by available empirical data for 251 quarters of the US economy. Statistical evidence rather supports the hypothesis of causality in the direction of profits determining investment and, in this way, leading the economy towards boom or bust.
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Richard Grover and Christine Grover
The purpose of this paper is to review what is known about property cycles following the financial crisis of 2008.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review what is known about property cycles following the financial crisis of 2008.
Design/methodology/approach
The method is to review the literature on property cycles published since the 1930s, to examine the extent to which endogenous causes have been identified as distinct from exogenous factors that may have produced cyclicality resulting from weak adjustment mechanisms but not cycles.
Findings
Whilst there is broad consensus that the property market has delays in adjustment which produce oscillations resulting from external shocks, it is more difficult to identify endogenous causes of cycles, though there are some possible candidates, notably technical progress.
Practical implications
The slump after 2008 has cost savers and taxpayers dear, so better means of predicting cycles so that policy makers can mitigate them is desirable.
Originality/value
The debate about whether property cycles result from exogenous shocks or endogenous causes is in danger of being lost sight of. If the former, then the property industry is a channel through which external factors feed through to the economy, albeit magnified by weak adjustment factors. If there are endogenous causes, then policy makers would be unwise to overlook their potential destabilising impact on the economy.
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Luqman Oyekunle Oyewobi, Abimbola Windapo, James Olabode Bamidele Rotimi and Richard Jimoh
The study aims to identify and examine the construction organisational environments and its dimensions that have an impact on the performance of contracting companies in South…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to identify and examine the construction organisational environments and its dimensions that have an impact on the performance of contracting companies in South Africa.
Design/methodology/approach
The study reports the result of quantitative research that obtained data from 72 construction organisations registered with the South African construction industry development board via a questionnaire survey. Descriptive statistics, non-parametric and exploratory principal component analysis were used to summarise forms of correlations among observed variables and to reduce a large number of observed variables to a smaller number of factors that provide an operational definition for the underlying dimension.
Findings
This study identified six exogenous and three endogenous environmental factors that have a varying degree of impact on construction organisation performance. Four dimensions of the environment were also examined, and environmental complexity has the highest variance explained which implies that the complexity of the construction business environment significantly influences the performance of construction firms.
Research limitations/implications
This paper studies the environment of the South African construction industry using cross-sectional data in exploratory research. A confirmatory study should be conducted using a longitudinal panel design with a larger sample in similar future research.
Practical implications
The study offers practical implications to construction organisation owners operating in the South African construction industry to understand the need to acquire market and environmental data and process them in a way that will reduce its uncertainty when making strategic decisions.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the current discourse on organisations’ business environments to better understand their influences on organisational performance.
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Fahad K. Alkhaldi and Mohamed Sayed Abou Elseoud
The current chapter proposes a theoretical framework to assess the sustainability of economic growth in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States. The authors integrate insights…
Abstract
The current chapter proposes a theoretical framework to assess the sustainability of economic growth in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States. The authors integrate insights from endogenous growth models and consider the unique socioeconomic characteristics of the GCC region to provide a comprehensive and tailored approach to understanding the determinants of economic growth and formulating effective policy measures to foster sustainable development and growth. This chapter highlights the environmental challenges faced by GCC; based on this, the authors suggested indicators to construct a theoretical framework (Economic Growth, Climatic Indicators, Energy Indicators, Social Indicators, and Economic Resources Indicators). The authors propose that policymakers and researchers in GCC States should take these factors into account when devising policies or conducting research aimed at fostering sustainable economic growth. Overall, this chapter presents significant insights for policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders involved in promoting the sustainable economic advancement of the GCC States.
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Mauro N. Garcia, George Bedinelli Rossi, Dirceu Da Silva and Fernando Debessa
This research aims at creating a model that could explain consumers’ value perception of restaurants attended on Sundays in the city of São Paulo. The research was carried out in…
Abstract
This research aims at creating a model that could explain consumers’ value perception of restaurants attended on Sundays in the city of São Paulo. The research was carried out in two phases. The first was an exploratory research – a focus‐group type with two groups of eight individuals each, whose objective was to discover the main variables that impact the value perception of consumers who attend restaurants on Sundays. Thus, a balanced Likert‐type scale was generated, with seven levels of concurrence. The scale was submitted to five experts for a theoretical validation and was applied to a nonprobabilistic sample pursuant to the judgment of 360 consumers with the same profile as of those of the focus group. Then, in a second phase, validation of the scale by the confirmatory factor analysis method was provided as well as the building and analysis of five causal models by the method of structural equation modeling and the five‐hypotheses test. The final model with a better adjustment (hypothesis 1) was composed of PRICE as an endogenous variable and ENVIRONMENT, SERVICE, FOOD, and HYGIENE as exogenous variables. Such conclusions allow the perception of the decision process in relation to restaurant selection in two phases: (1) when a group of restaurants is chosen, and (2) the moment when the PRICE variable takes over the role of defining the value offered by each restaurant, which will motivate the selection.
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Juliana Villegas, Ruben Guevara and Juan Esteban Escalante
Acknowledging that brands age over time, this paper aims to investigate the exogenous and endogenous factors that influence this phenomenon.
Abstract
Purpose
Acknowledging that brands age over time, this paper aims to investigate the exogenous and endogenous factors that influence this phenomenon.
Design/methodology/approach
The literature on brand ageing is scarce. Through a study of several Colombian organisations that have an international presence, the paper uses a grounded-theory qualitative methodology, including in-depth interviews and documentary brand reviews over a longitudinal time dimension, to perform an analysis of specific aspects that affect brand ageing processes.
Findings
The results revealed that the factors that determine brand ageing can be classified into the following two subgroups: exogenous (conditions of the economic environment, category conditions, entrance of new competitors, ageing current consumers and entry of new consumers) and endogenous (organisational growth, upper management convictions, marketing structure, brand architecture, inappropriate naming and obsolete brand image) factors.
Originality/value
This research provides substantial academic value and insights that allow a better understanding of specific aspects that influence the brand ageing process.
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