Search results
1 – 10 of 628Zilu Shang, Chris Brooks and Rachel McCloy
Investors are now able to analyse more noise-free news to inform their trading decisions than ever before. Their expectation that more information means better performance is not…
Abstract
Purpose
Investors are now able to analyse more noise-free news to inform their trading decisions than ever before. Their expectation that more information means better performance is not supported by previous psychological experiments which argue that too much information actually impairs performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the degree of information explicitness improves stock market performance.
Design/methodology/approach
An experiment is conducted in a computer laboratory to examine a trading simulation manipulated from a real market-shock. Participants’ performance efficiency and effectiveness are measured separately.
Findings
The results indicate that the explicitness of information neither improves nor impairs participants’ performance effectiveness from the perspectives of returns, share and cash positions, and trading volumes. However, participants’ performance efficiency is significantly affected by information explicitness.
Originality/value
The novel approach and findings of this research add to the knowledge of the impact of information explicitness on the quality of decision making in a financial market environment.
Details
Keywords
Ahmad Jafarnejad, Mansoor Momeni, Seyed Hossein Razavi Hajiagha and Maryam Faridi Khorshidi
Medical equipment’s supply chains play a vital role in performance of national 1healthcare systems. This supply chain is confronted with different internal and external risks. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Medical equipment’s supply chains play a vital role in performance of national 1healthcare systems. This supply chain is confronted with different internal and external risks. The purpose of this study is to investigate and find the key factors affecting the resilience of the supply chain of medical equipment and to examine the dynamic relations among these factors.
Design/methodology/approach
A hybrid methodology is used for meeting the purpose of this study. First, the Delphi method is extended by using hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets to identify the key factors of supply chain resilience. At the second phase, using the system dynamic methodology, the dynamic relations among identified resilience factors are analyzed.
Findings
Using the Delphi method, agility, collaboration among actors, sharing of information, trust among actors, explicitness of supply chain, risk management culture, adaptability, structure, funding and environment conditions are identified as ten major factors affecting medical equipment’s supply chain resilience. Also, four scenarios are simulated along with their impacts on the system.
Originality/value
The main contribution of this study is extending a hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets-based Delphi and applying it along a system dynamic analysis to identify the key factors affecting resilience of medical equipment’s supply chain for the first time.
Details
Keywords
A significant body of literature suggests that shipping companies operate in an extremely volatile and risky environment, relying on the effective use of information to remain…
Abstract
Purpose
A significant body of literature suggests that shipping companies operate in an extremely volatile and risky environment, relying on the effective use of information to remain competitive. However, decision-making in this market is demanding because of the high uncertainty, market competition and significant capital investments. Moreover, the rapid spread of COVID-19 renders information uncertainty a daunting challenge for companies engaged in global trade. Hence, this study aims to explore the information behavior of managers in a time of crisis seems compelling.
Design/methodology/approach
This study provides novel insights into the information behavior of senior managers by adopting a qualitative approach. Forty-nine semi-structured face-to-face interviews with individuals from Hellenic shipping companies were conducted. Moreover, this study explores the extant theory qualitatively, using the grounded theory methodology and shows that an unprecedented event (pandemic crisis) can redefine the information behavior of managers.
Findings
This study highlights the importance of information in decision-making. Moreover, the results show that, during a pandemic, managers resort to alternative information sources, adopt collaborative information behaviors and take advantage of digital technology.
Originality/value
There is limited research in exploring the information behavior of managers in times of pandemics. This research underscores the fact that during a crisis, managers seek information from digital information resources and decision-making assumes a more decentralized form. This study concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.
Details
Keywords
GODFRIED AUGENBROE, HANS VERHEIJ and GERHARD SCHWARZMÜLLER
Web hosted project spaces offer dedicated collaboration and information sharing functions to dispersed members of design, engineering and manufacturing teams. During the recent…
Abstract
Web hosted project spaces offer dedicated collaboration and information sharing functions to dispersed members of design, engineering and manufacturing teams. During the recent dot.com boom these so‐called ‘e‐Project’ services became increasingly popular in the A/E/C (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) industry. This industry has started to refer to these products as ‘project web sites’. Their basic service component is a web enabled ‘information space’ for building teams offered through an Application Service Provider (ASP) business model, and accessible via an Extranet requiring only a standard web browser. An expanding set of web hosted applications is meanwhile included in most products, e.g. for messaging and calendaring, data and document management, design reviews and project management. This paper shows how the functionality of project web sites can be enriched by adding advanced task coordination features. Such features are especially relevant for design management. In particular, the paper deals with the need to support the formation and coordination of spontaneous short‐lived sub‐teams in the course of a project. A crucial element of these ‘self‐appointed’ teams is the need to establish rapid agreement on a shared coordination template for the execution of the task at hand. It will be demonstrated how task templates for that purpose can be defined and managed. The chosen solution serves as a task sensitive filter to the overwhelming amount of documents stored typically on a project web site. The approach will be demonstrated on a daily exercise in academic environments: the abstract and paper review process in the preparation of a conference.
Details
Keywords
Shi‐Ming Huang, Chia‐Ling Lee and Ai‐Chin Kao
To provide useful references for manufacturing industry which guide the linkage of business strategies and performance indicators for information security projects.
Abstract
Purpose
To provide useful references for manufacturing industry which guide the linkage of business strategies and performance indicators for information security projects.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses balanced scorecard (BSC) framework to set up performance index for information security management in organizations. Moreover, BSC used is to strengthen the linkage between foundational performance indicators and progressive business strategy theme.
Findings
The general model of information security management builds the strategy map with 12 strategy themes and 35 key performance indicators are established. The development of strategy map also express how to link strategy themes to key performance indicators.
Research limitations/implications
The investigation of listed manufacturing companies in Taiwan may limit the application elsewhere.
Practical implications
Traditional performance measurement system like return on investment, sales growth is not enough to describe and manage intangible assets. This study based on BSC to measure information security management performance can provide the increasing value from improving measures and management insight in modern business.
Originality/value
This study combines the information security researches and organizational performance studies. The result helps organizations to assess values of information security projects and consider how to link projects performance to business strategies.
Details
Keywords
Bruce R. Neumann, Eric Cauvin and Michael L. Roberts
In the growing debate about designing new management control systems (MCS) to include stakeholder values, there has been little discussion about information overload. Stakeholder…
Abstract
In the growing debate about designing new management control systems (MCS) to include stakeholder values, there has been little discussion about information overload. Stakeholder advocates call for including more environmental and related social disclosures but do not consider how information overload might impair the use and interpretation of corporate performance measures. As we know, shareholders and boards of directors are most concerned with market data such as earnings per share, dividend rates, and market value growth. In this chapter, we assert that management control system designers must consider information overload before expanding the MCS to include social and nonfinancial disclosures.
The paradox in expanding MCS is that demand for sustainability performance measures will likely result in overload for both information preparers and information users. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and similar sustainability disclosures are likely to overload MCS and overwhelm the readers and users by performance reports that include multiple dimensions.
CSR affects the design of companies' annual reports because stakeholders are increasingly concerned with how organizations address their social responsibilities and how they disclose their societal responses. Management accountants are accustomed to providing performance measures within an organization and MCS usually have an internal focus. CFOs are often not accustomed to balancing the needs of stakeholders with those of managers and owners. We suggest that companies and CFOs will face an information overload dilemma in making these determinations, and that users will be overloaded in sifting through the multiple dimensions of information that are increasingly being provided. We suggest that the bias toward financial performance measures will distort both the provision of relevant information and the use of sustainability performance measures. We modified the Epstein and Roy sustainability model (2001) to illustrate some of these potential impacts.
We note that the balanced scorecard (BSC) was developed as one such tool to reflect and communicate multiple measures. We summarize a previous study showing how managers ignored multiple performance measures in a performance scorecard study. We then relate our results to some of the information overload literature to support our suggestion that stakeholders will face many of the same information overload issues and constraints when using and processing social disclosures.
Our summary of the information overload literature results in a call for more interdisciplinary information overload research involving real-world contexts and tasks. We note that most of the extant information overload literature is restricted to discipline-based silo-oriented studies and to simplistic evaluations, brand identification, or forecasting tasks. Our study went into some depth to describe the business, its strategies and objectives, and a comparison of actual results to specific goals. As management control systems evolve or are designed to report sustainability data, the issues surrounding increasing complexity and information overload will become exponentially problematic. We suggest that future research also include consideration of information overload conditions facing preparers and disclosers of sustainability measures.
Details
Keywords
Anita Zehrer and Gabriela Leiß
This paper aims to explore the pertinent issues, barriers and pitfalls of intergenerational communication in business families during their leadership succession period.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the pertinent issues, barriers and pitfalls of intergenerational communication in business families during their leadership succession period.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on relational leadership theory, the paper makes use of an action research approach using a qualitative single case study to investigate communication barriers and pitfalls in business transition.
Findings
Through action research, interventions were taken in the underlying case, which increased the consciousness, as well as the personal and social competencies of the business family. Thus, business families stuck in ambivalent entanglement understand their underlying motives and needs within the change process, get into closer contact with their emotional barriers and communication hindrances, which is a prerequisite for any change, and break the succession iceberg phenomenon.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should undertake multiple case studies to validate and/or modify the qualitative methods used in this action research to increase the validity and generalizability of the findings.
Practical implications
Given the large number of business families in transition, our study shows the beneficial effects action research might have on business families’ communication behavior along a change process. The findings might help other business families to understand the value of action research for such underlying challenges and decrease communication barriers.
Originality/value
This is one of the few studies to have addressed intergenerational communication of business families using an action research approach.
Details
Keywords
Cynthia Rodriguez Cano, Doreen Sams and Joe Schwartz
The purpose of this paper is to seek to answer the question as to why socially responsible behavior is good business behavior.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to seek to answer the question as to why socially responsible behavior is good business behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
A two (presence/absence of warning label) by two (potentially hazardous/not hazardous product) experimental design tested four hypothesized relationships.
Findings
It was found that the more favorable attitudes formed when warning labels are present support the notion that consumers recognize and value the stewardship principle. The findings are consistent with the emerging trend toward the triple bottom line philosophy. The difference between 2002 and 2006 for condition 4 (i.e. potentially hazardous with warning label) suggest that market activities (i.e. increase awareness of hazardous products) results in a dilution effect in which weaker inferences are formed from non‐diagnostic information. Research limitations/implications – Clearly, the use of only USA samples provides a limitation in that we cannot address how these issues might vary across nations. Furthermore, moderating variables that might explain some of the counterintuitive findings were not considered in this study. As with all scientific research, bias (e.g. replying with an inaccurate but socially acceptable answer) should be considered when interpreting the findings of this study.
Practical implications
The current research makes two major managerial contributions: it supports the triple bottom line framework which suggests that the value of an organization should integrate economic, environmental, and social activities; and confirms the importance of voluntary labeling as a tool for capturing a competitive advantage.
Originality/value
This study addresses the gap in the literature as to the relationship between voluntary labeling, attitudes, and intentions and provides empirical evidence of the causal relationship.
Details
Keywords
This study analyzed the explicitness, the salience of ethics and the transparency of messages in firms' social reports based on their significance to strategic corporate social…
Abstract
Purpose
This study analyzed the explicitness, the salience of ethics and the transparency of messages in firms' social reports based on their significance to strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on institutional theory, this content analysis investigated 750 social reports from 125 firms for a ten-year period in liberal market economies (LMEs: US, UK), coordinated market economies (CMEs: Germany, Japan) and state-led market economies (SLMEs: France, South Korea).
Findings
First, firms in CMEs showed the highest level of transparency, and in all market economies, an overall trend of increase in the level of transparency was found. Second, firms in SLMEs communicated their CSR activities least explicitly. Third, firms in CMEs showed the lowest salience of ethics.
Originality/value
Useful theoretical as well as practical implications are provided in relation to the institutional perspective to CSR, and cross-national CSR communication.
Details
Keywords
Siv Skard and Helge Thorbjornsen
Previous research suggests that firms should articulate incongruent sponsorships to provide a rationale for the relationship between sponsor and sponsorship object. Fit…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous research suggests that firms should articulate incongruent sponsorships to provide a rationale for the relationship between sponsor and sponsorship object. Fit articulation is a strategy that communicates shared associations between sponsor and object. Based on conclusion explicitness theory, this paper aims to conceptualize and tests two fit articulation strategies in sponsorships: open-ended and closed-ended.
Design/methodology/approach
Research hypotheses were tested in two experiments.
Findings
Only open-ended fit articulation improved brand attitudes. Mediation analyses show that while open-ended articulation influenced brand attitudes through brand image (Study 1 and Study 2) and altruistic motive attributions (Study 2), there was an indirect effect of closed-ended articulation on brand attitudes through global fit perceptions (Study 2).
Practical implications
The results from two experiments suggest that incongruent sponsors should use open-ended conclusions about a shared image dimension. Although explicit arguments may increase global perceptions of fit, they may impede a positive impact on the articulated brand image dimension and generation of altruistic motive attribution. Therefore, sponsorship managers should be careful in terms of using explicit arguments for fit when the sponsorship is incongruent because such arguments may hinder articulation from generating goodwill and a positive brand image.
Originality/value
This is the first paper to develop and test different types of fit articulation strategies in sponsorships.
Details