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I. INTRODUCTION This study attempts to extend and expand previous research conducted by the Department of Marketing at Strathclyde on the adoption and diffusion of industrial products.

The purpose of the paper is to investigate whether, and, if so, to what extent, the valuation that nations place on individual personality traits change with economic growth and development.

The paper compares the averages of the cross‐country valuations of eight different personality characteristics for various levels of development, and, in addition, employs cross‐country regression analysis to assess the impact of economic growth on the value placed on these characteristics.

In general, the findings of both the comparative analysis and the cross‐country regression analysis indicate that the valuation counties place on individual personality characteristics change with economic growth and development, and for certain characteristics, rather dramatically.

A major implication of the findings of the paper is that economic growth may not just act in a neutral fashion by merely providing additional material goods, but may have profound effect on future national identity, on the definition of the type of individual that a nation values.

Since economic growth changes the way personality characteristics are valued by a nation, it is possible that the growth process itself can alter the future growth prospects of a nation, because some personality characterizes are apt to be growth fostering, while others are likely to be growth inhibiting.

The paper should be of interest to anyone interested in the changes brought about by growth and development.

Organizations have become increasingly interested in developing their human resources. One tool that has been explored in this quest is mentoring. This has led to a surge in mentoring research and an increase in the number of formal mentoring programs implemented in organizations. This review provides a survey of the empirical work on mentoring that is organized around the major questions that have been investigated. Then a conceptual model, focused on formal mentoring relationships, is developed to help understand the mentoring process. The model draws upon research from a diverse body of literature, including interpersonal relationships, career success, training and development, and informal mentoring. Finally, a discussion of critical next steps for research in the mentoring domain is presented.

Smart card-based E-payment systems are receiving increasing attention as the number of implementations is witnessed on the rise globally. Understanding of user adoption behavior of E-payment systems that employ smart card technology becomes a research area that is of particular value and interest to both IS researchers and professionals. However, research interest focuses mostly on why a smart card-based E-payment system results in a failure or how the system could have grown into a success. This signals the fact that researchers have not had much opportunity to critically review a smart card-based E-payment system that has gained wide support and overcome the hurdle of critical mass adoption. The Octopus in Hong Kong has provided a rare opportunity for investigating smart card-based E-payment system because of its unprecedented success. This research seeks to thoroughly analyze the Octopus from technology adoption behavior perspectives.

Cultural impacts on adoption behavior are one of the key areas that this research posits to investigate. Since the present research is conducted in Hong Kong where a majority of population is Chinese ethnicity and yet is westernized in a number of aspects, assuming that users in Hong Kong are characterized by eastern or western culture is less useful. Explicit cultural characteristics at individual level are tapped into here instead of applying generalization of cultural beliefs to users to more accurately reflect cultural bias. In this vein, the technology acceptance model (TAM) is adapted, extended, and tested for its applicability cross-culturally in Hong Kong on the Octopus. Four cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede are included in this study, namely uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, individualism, and Confucian Dynamism (long-term orientation), to explore their influence on usage behavior through the mediation of perceived usefulness.

TAM is also integrated with the innovation diffusion theory (IDT) to borrow two constructs in relation to innovative characteristics, namely relative advantage and compatibility, in order to enhance the explanatory power of the proposed research model. Besides, the normative accountability of the research model is strengthened by embracing two social influences, namely subjective norm and image. As the last antecedent to perceived usefulness, prior experience serves to bring in the time variation factor to allow level of prior experience to exert both direct and moderating effects on perceived usefulness.

The resulting research model is analyzed by partial least squares (PLS)-based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach. The research findings reveal that all cultural dimensions demonstrate direct effect on perceived usefulness though the influence of uncertainty avoidance is found marginally significant. Other constructs on innovative characteristics and social influences are validated to be significant as hypothesized. Prior experience does indeed significantly moderate the two influences that perceived usefulness receives from relative advantage and compatibility, respectively. The research model has demonstrated convincing explanatory power and so may be employed for further studies in other contexts. In particular, cultural effects play a key role in contributing to the uniqueness of the model, enabling it to be an effective tool to help critically understand increasingly internationalized IS system development and implementation efforts. This research also suggests several practical implications in view of the findings that could better inform managerial decisions for designing, implementing, or promoting smart card-based E-payment system.

Healthy employees are assets for organizations, especially in service organizations. This study considered variables that lead to psychological, life and workplace well-being for hotel employees. A comprehensive model is proposed for which Job Demand–Resource (JD-R) theory provides theoretical support.

Data from four hundred and five hotel employees were collected to observe the individual and organizational factors that directly and indirectly result in three types of well-being: workplace, psychological and life.

Results provide significant positive direct and indirect effects of individual characteristics (personal cynicism and job stress) on psychological, life and workplace well-being. Similarly, organizational characteristics (organizational values and job characteristics) showed positive direct and indirect effects on life and workplace well-being.

The findings provide a strong recommendation for managers to focus on individual- and organizational-level factors that enhance the well-being of employees.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of work characteristics on members’ self‐efficacy and collective efficacy, and the subsequent effect on police officers’ performance.

A multilevel model is adopted to analyze quantitative data obtained by using 812 police officers and 54 chiefs of police stations in Taiwan as the research objects.

The authors found that work characteristics affected members’ self‐efficacy and collective efficacy, which further affected the individual‐ and group‐level performance and the contextual effect of social work characteristics (SWCs) and collective efficacy on self‐efficacy and individual performance. The authors also confirmed the cross‐level moderation of social characteristics on the relationship between motivational work characteristics (MWCs) and self‐efficacy, and between self‐efficacy and individual performance.

A limitation was the characteristics of the sample, which consisted of mostly first‐line uniformed police officers in Taiwan. From the perspective of managerial implications, it is felt that police organizations should beef up the training on police officers’ collective efficacy, such as building group spirit, improving members’ sense of responsibility, and building up trust with the organization.

The findings prove that the study of work design is particularly important for enhancing the management effectiveness of police organization, because it explains the causes of a number of organizational behaviors as well as a number of important results that influence the police organization (e.g. efficacy and performance).

Sharing knowledge of physicians in hospitals is critical and significant in terms of providing better healthcare services. Despite the significance of knowledge sharing in the healthcare setting, very few studies have empirically investigated knowledge sharing drivers among physicians. Particularly, the process of knowledge sharing through the interplay between individual characteristics, knowledge characteristics, and intention in a healthcare setting has received very little empirical support. In this study, the authors draw upon personality traits and knowledge characteristics theories to develop a theoretical model to empirically examine the effect of individual characteristics and knowledge characteristics on physicians' knowledge sharing behavior.

Based on a sample of 215 physicians from 20 hospitals in Jordan, the authors conducted data analysis using the partial least squares statistical technique.

The study revealed that the personality traits (Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness) significantly influence physician intention to share knowledge. Knowledge characteristic (Situatedness) was also found to affect the intention to share knowledge.

Very little is known about the effect of individual characteristics and knowledge characteristics on knowledge sharing behavior among physicians. The study contributes to the related literature by empirically investigating how individual characteristics and knowledge characteristics influence physicians' knowledge sharing behavior. The findings add to the understanding of the role of personality traits and knowledge characteristics in physicians' intention to share knowledge and give important insights for practice and theory.

The purpose of this article is to provide a basis for comparing the interactions between the level of environmental support for leadership development and individual leadership characteristics in determining leadership selection and effectiveness within organizations.

A contextual model of leader selection and effectiveness examining the interactions between the level of environmental support and individual leadership characteristics to predict specific research propositions based on organizational needs is presented. The paper first provides an overview of leadership selection and effectiveness research and then illustrates a contextual model of leadership selection and effectiveness. The model design is based on a four‐quadrant structure with two propositions being suggested for each quadrant. Findings – Describes the context and proposed outcome of each respective quadrant for identifying and selecting potential leadership talent within an organization. The model also highlights the tendencies of organizational leadership to promote or select potential leadership talent from predictable employee groups based on how they match preconceived expectations. Research limitations/implications – The model has not yet been tested empirically. Practical implications – A very useful approach for organizations looking to improve their internal leadership development capabilities and leadership selection processes. This model lays the foundation for leadership identification and selection from all areas of an organization while emphasizing the necessity for leadership development at all levels. Originality/value – All organizations face the challenge of leadership identification, growth, development and effectiveness. This paper offers insights into understanding how leaders are identified for growth and development within an organization and how individuals within those organizations perceive themselves participating in leadership opportunities.

This study examines the effects of a family's and individual children's characteristics on the probability of having a divorce. Current research shows a clear indication of increased divorce risks if an individual's parents or siblings have experienced a divorce. Explanations include both shared family characteristics (including genetic effects) and common characteristics of the individual children involved. This study analyzes the effects of shared family background characteristics on the divorce risk of individuals. By analyzing siblings within families and including individual children's characteristics in the analysis, it is possible to separate individual-level and family-level effects.

In addition to employing a multi-level structure of individual siblings nested within families, the data cited here are censored. For all individuals, the length of the marriage and the divorce status are known, but the divorce status is interpreted differently for individuals who have or have not experienced divorce. For divorced individuals, the final divorce status is known; for individuals who have not experienced divorce, the final marriage status is unknown or censored. The proper analysis model for such data is event history (also called survival) analysis. This study therefore employs a multi-level event history model.

Our results show that there is a similarity in the divorce risks of siblings from the same family, which is not explained away by the available child and family characteristics. This finding suggests that shared genetic and social heritage play an important role in the intergenerational transmission of divorce risks.

Missing in most of the research on selling has been an examination of the process from the point of view of the customer. When satisfaction in selling has been considered, researchers have focused on the satisfaction of the salesperson with his job and/or the impact of this job satisfaction on performance (e.g. Bluen, Barling & Burns, 1990; Churchill, Ford & Walker, 1979; Pruden & Peterson, 1971). To concentrate on salesperson performance while neglecting customers is to ignore the most important half of the relationship between buyers and sellers and entirely disregards the marketing concept and the streams of research in customer satisfaction. This research takes a different approach and examines customers’ satisfaction with salespeople.