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This work contributes to the literature on career adaptability by examining the criterion validity of the Cooperation dimension, supporting the inclusion of cooperation into the career adaptability construct and informing the nomological network of career adaptability (Nye et al., 2018; Savickas and Porfeli, 2012). The authors also evaluate the improvements in cross-cultural generalizability argued for by Nye et al. (2018) by conducting a criterion validity study of the CAAS including cooperation using a non-Western sample.

Survey responses from a Chinese adult working sample (N = 208, 53.4% male) were analyzed via relative weights analysis, facilitating the comparison of the Cooperation dimension to other career adaptability dimensions and general adaptability.

Results demonstrate the added value of the Cooperation dimension across several work outcomes (i.e. work engagement, career commitment, occupational well-being, occupational stress) and highlight Cooperation in predicting interpersonal outcomes (i.e. supervisor and coworker satisfaction).

The inclusion of Cooperation, a dimension originally conceptualized as a career adaptability factor but only recently subjected to additional psychometric evaluation, within the career adaptability paradigm should promote both predictive validity and cross-cultural generalizability.

The construction industry (CI) is a major contributor to the gross domestic product of most economies. Yet, the industry is characterized by poorly performing projects, plagued with cost overruns, delays, with a relatively high-risk nature and marginal returns. Given that construction projects are financially dynamic, relying on highly fluctuating working capital and cash-flow requirements, there is an imperative need to understand the working capital management (WCM) of the CI. This study aims to review the extant literature on WCM in the CI to present a contemporary positional paper and engender a wider polemic debate on this crucial phenomenon.

A systematic literature review methodology is used, using Google Scholar as the literature database.

Despite the importance of this research theme, only 16 publications dedicated to the topic of WCM in the CI are identified. This is an important finding in itself and is indicative of hitherto scant research conducted. Other observations include the lack of experts examining the field, with no authors exploring the theme more than once. Subthemes of WCM are also scarce, with only the topic of the relationship between “WCM and profitability” been revisited and refined in literature; all other topics being cursory.

This study is among pioneering papers in developing economies that have taken stock of WCM in the CI. As a result, the conclusion of this paper is to call out the paucity of research in WCM and set a broad agenda for future research.

This article investigates the possibility of studying modern organizations with the feudal model. We introduce feudalism as an ideal type and explain why it is necessary for understanding organizations. The model synthesizes several perspectives on intra-organizational conflict. After defining the feudal model and tracing its theoretical roots, we review several empirical studies to identify the conditions under which feudal conflicts arise. These factors include decentralization, structural interdependence, uncertainty and informal power. The feudal model highlights several overlooked aspects of organizations, including personal relations, the manipulation of formal rules, bribery, corruption and sabotage. However, given the model's limitations, we propose a “segmented approach” to social analysis, which emphasizes the need for multiple models to explain any organization, past or present.

Forensic crime labs play an important role in the criminal justice system’s response to violent gun crimes in the USA. The purpose of this paper is to describe the methods of firearms analysis including ballistics imaging and proposed best practices for investigating gun crimes. A separate line of research has begun to explore the structure of forensic labs and how structure impacts lab performance.

To date, however, proposed best practices in firearms investigation have not been empirically tested within crime labs. The authors address this gap in the literature by using a mediation model examining organizational correlates of a limited number of tasks (identified by Peter Gagliardi’s 13 Critical Tasks) believed to enhance our final dependent measures, forensic crime lab outcomes (NIBIN acquisitions and hits). The authors examine, therefore, the relationship between organizational correlates, collected from a sample of publicly funded labs in the USA, on several of Gagliardi’s tasks and then explore the relationship of those tasks on our outcome variables: NIBIN acquisitions and hits.

Results indicate agency size and number of agencies serviced by a lab are significant factors associated with our mediating variables (Gagliardi’s tasks). Communication was identified as a significant task associated with achieving NIBIN acquisitions and hits. In general, this study underscores the importance of communication between labs and other institutional constituents for increasing ballistics imaging outputs. Furthermore, findings provide partial support for Gagliard’s tasks, by highlighting the role of enhanced communication on organization-based performance outcomes.

This study is the first to examine the mediating effect of Gagliardi’s tasks on the organizational performance of ballistics imaging systems within crime labs. In addition, this study examines the influence of organizational correlates on these mediating tasks.

This study aims to better understand how academics-in-the-making construe doctoral performance and the impacts of this construal on their positioning in relation to doctoral performance expectations.

This study is based on 25 semi-structured interviews with PhD students from Canadian, Dutch, Scottish and Australian business schools.

Based on Decoteau’s (2016) concept of reflexive habitus, this study highlights how doctoral students’ construal is influenced by their previous experiences and by expectations from other adjacent fields in which they simultaneously gravitate. This leads them to adopt a position oscillating between resistance and compliance in relation to their understanding of doctoral performance expectations promoted in the academic field.

The concept of reflexivity, as understood by Decoteau (2016), is found to be pivotal when an individual integrates into a new field.

This study encourages business schools to review expectations regarding doctoral performance. These expectations should be clear, but they should also leave room for PhD students to preserve their academic aspirations.

It is beneficial to empirically clarify the influence of performance expectations in academia on the reflexivity of PhD students, as the majority of studies exploring this topic mainly leverage auto-ethnographic data.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to find out the adoption level of multivendor ATM technology among customers and second, to develop and validate a model to explain the multivendor ATM usage in India.

First, a conceptual model on adoption of multivendor ATM technology was developed by referring relevant literature. Scale items for each construct of the model were culled from relevant literature sources. A pilot survey was conducted to validate the constructs. The survey was conducted online using Surveymonkey that garnered response from 136 respondents. The pilot survey data were analyzed to find the reliability and validity of the scales, based on which few items were dropped to improve the construct’s validity. The revised instrument was used to conduct the final survey, which was closed after collection of 543 responses. On screening for completeness, and normality test, 372 responses were retained for data analysis.

The major findings from analysis of the screened 372 responses were: awareness emerged as a significant factor influencing usage behavior and other perceptual factors; perception of personalized features influenced the attitude as well as usage behavior of the customers; personal control dimensions such as outcome desirability and controllability influenced both perceptual variables and usage behavior; and no relationship was found among attitude, intention and usage behavior, which contradicted findings of some studies in this area, thus creating the ground to understand multivendor ATM usage behavior. The findings have been discussed further.

The findings of the study can be useful for banks and suppliers in understanding the adoption of their ATM technology by their customers that would help them initiate activities to enhance the adoption of the technology and increase their customer base. The findings will also encourage suppliers and banks to add more personalized features in this technology.

Multivendor technology is at its nascent stage in India and this study is the first of its kind. The model developed here is an extension of technology acceptance model (TAM) with the introduction of some new variables such as perception of personalized features and personal control. This study also reveals that some of the hypotheses of original TAM model may not fit in the context of the technology where usage behavior is habitual and lifestyle oriented.

The aim of this study was to identify these enablers in literature and subsume them under broad categories for the development of a framework showing the interrelationships among the enablers.

Fifty-four (54) relevant articles were desk reviewed from different construction peer-reviewed journals and published conference proceedings to identify 20 core enablers of incorporating indoor environmental quality (IEQ) into building designs.

The identified enablers include improved occupants' health, well-being and satisfaction, environmental conservation, high return on investments and co-operative methods of design and construction management among others. To better understand the enablers identified, they were classified into seven main interconnected categories: economic enablers, environmental enablers, occupant and end-user enablers, process enablers, corporate image, culture and vision enablers, client-related enablers and external enablers.

The interconnectedness brought to the fore a subtler appreciation of the drivers of IEQ, which could help expand current knowledge outside the narrow scope of isolated drivers. The fact that the papers selected in this study are not limited geographically underscores the wide applicability of the findings to the global construction industry.

Understanding that the enablers will enhance the adoption and design of quality indoor environments, help in building the capacity of consultants to adopt the design of quality IEs and reduce the impact of construction on the environment.

These identified enablers are not limited geographically and thus could promote the design of quality indoor environments globally, particularly in green building design. To the global construction community, this review presents a list of enablers that would expedite the adoption of principles of IEQ designs in buildings thus taking the global construction industry one more step towards sustainable built forms. Promoting the identified enablers would ultimately steer stakeholders to design and build better indoor environments.

The fact that the papers selected in this study are not limited geographically underscores the wide applicability of the findings to the global construction industry.

This study seeks to examine the effect of industry classification on the capital structure of SMEs in Ghana.

The analytical technique employed is regression framework with various capital structure measures as dependent variables, and with industry as the independent variable. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and other non‐parametric tests were also used to examine the differences in the capital structure of the SMEs across industries.

The results of this study indicate that SMEs in the agricultural sector exhibit the highest capital structure and asset structure or collateral value, while the wholesale and retail trade industry have the lowest debt ratio and asset structure. The regression results indicate that agriculture and pharmaceutical and medical industries depend more on long‐term and short‐term debt than does the manufacturing sector. Information and communication, and wholesale and retail trade sectors are more likely to use short‐term credit than the manufacturing sector. The results also show that the construction and mining industry is less likely to depend on short‐term debt, while hotel and hospitality depend more on long‐term debt and less on short‐term finance. The results clearly indicate that industry effect is important in explaining the capital structure of SMEs and that there are variations in capital structure across the various industries.

The main value of this paper is the analysis of the effect of industry classification on SMEs' capital structure from the Ghanaian perspective. The study provides insights on the financing behaviour of SMEs across various industries in Ghana.

This paper seeks to report the results of an empirical study examining the influence of cross-cultural differences on the value creation process from e-business systems in the supply chain.

A questionnaire was sent out to senior managers in companies operating in two culturally distinct national cultures. The effects of cross-cultural differences were examined by testing for between-group differences in the structural model using the multi-group partial least squares (PLS) statistical approach.

Consistent with the resource-based view (RBV), contingency “fit” theory, and prior research, this study demonstrates that the value creation process from e-business systems is significantly enhanced in companies operating in national cultures that emphasize cooperation and interdependence, and promote group-level interests over individual interests.

The mechanisms through which performance improvement is achieved from e-business systems are still not fully understood. Little is still known about how digital capabilities and environmental factors work together to influence e-business value creation along the supply chain. In addition, while contextual factors have been highlighted within the stream, the knowledge base is especially limited regarding the role of global factors in shaping the attainment of value from e-business systems in this context. Filling these gaps, this study simultaneously investigates the roles of intermediate capabilities and the macro-environment in creating value from e-business in the supply chain.

The goal was emancipatory, to characterise and dislodge oppressive management practices, to allow for the possibility of seeking an alternative organisational construction free of postcolonial/subaltern subordination and discrimination in a local, well-documented narrative.

The study was informed by a postcolonial/subaltern perspective and drew on the employment experience of an Aboriginal woman, Canada’s first Indigenous Dean of a law school. The researcher employed a combination of case study and critical discourse analysis with the aim of advancing rich analyses of the complex workings of power and privilege in sustaining Western, postcolonial relations.

The study made several conclusions: first, that the institution, a medium-sized Canadian university, carefully controlled the Indigenous subaltern to remake her to be palatable to Western sensibilities. Second, the effect of this control was to assimilate her, to subordinate her Indigeneity and to civilise in a manner analogous to the purpose of Indian residential schools. Third, that rather than management’s action being rational and neutral, focused on goal attainment, efficiency and effectiveness, it was an implicit moral judgement based on her race and an opportunity to exploit her value as a means for the university’s growth and status.

Through a postcolonial/subaltern perspective, this study demonstrated how management practices reproduced barriers to the participation of an Indigenous woman and the First Nations community that an organisation was intended to serve. The study demonstrated how a Western perspective – that of a university’s administration, faculty and staff – was privileged, or taken for granted, and the Indigenous perspective subordinated, as the university remained committed to the dispossession of Indigenous knowledge and values.