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The common market practice by foreign marketers is to sell their brands in standard or localised packaging or sometimes both in the context of Pakistan. By examining the differential influence of standard (Western) and local (Urdu) packaging on Pakistani consumers’ perceptions and choice under conspicuous and inconspicuous situations, this study aims to examine whether the localisation strategy is effective or even necessary.

A pre-test first identified suitable products and brands. The main survey was conducted using convenience sampling in popular shopping precincts of the Lahore district in 2015. Participants first rated the packaging of hedonic and utilitarian products. After rating the packaging likeability, the respondents were asked to assume the two consumption situations. Their choice of standard versus local packaging under conspicuous and inconspicuous consumption situations for the same brand was recorded.

Overall, findings suggest that for hedonic products, localisation is not an effective strategy particularly for well-known Western brands such as M&M’s. For utilitarian products, packaging localisation does not render a Western brand more competitive as consumers did not like one packaging type over the other. Mode of consumption did not change the preference for standard packaging in case of hedonic products, whereas in case of utilitarian products, the mode of consumption did moderate the results for the choice of packaging; standard packaging is chosen more often under conspicuous a situation but not under an inconspicuous situation.

The findings of this research show that indiscriminately localising the packaging of any products as they enter foreign markets may not be the most effective strategy for international marketers.

This is first study to question the common market practice of packaging localisation and investigate the differential effects of standard versus local packaging of foreign products on consumers’ perceptions and choice under varying consumption modes.

The common market practice by global consumer brands to create localised packaging for foreign markets conflicts with findings that cast doubt on this strategy. By examining the differential influence of standard (Western) and local (Chinese) packaging on Chinese consumers’ perceptions and choice behaviour, this study aims to examine whether this strategy is effective or even necessary.

A pre-test first identified suitable products and brands. Using a multiple methods approach, online participants in China first rated the brands and packaging of hedonic and utilitarian products. The ratings were then validated by triangulating with the results of a discrete choice experiment that captured participants’ choice behaviour.

For hedonic products, standard packaging is rated more positively and chosen more often than local packaging. For utilitarian products, there are no differences in ratings and choice. For hedonic products, brand likeability is higher for standard packaging than for local packaging. For utilitarian products, brand likeability does not differ between the two packaging types.

These findings cast doubt on the effectiveness of indiscriminate packaging localisation. International marketers need to rethink their approach, particularly in non-Western markets. Interviews with five brand managers in charge of major consumer brands in China revealed their actual market practice and further illuminate this study’s findings.

This is first study to question the common market practice of packaging localisation and investigate the differential effects of standard versus local packaging of foreign products on consumers’ perceptions and choice behaviour.

Identifying the in-built art-based, multi-dimensionally dynamic nature of the Chinese notion of harmony from the philosophical perspective of Yijing, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the mechanisms among the degree of harmony, employee affective commitment (AC) and compliance behavior at workplace in China.

This paper follows an empirical research design. To reduce extraneous sources of variation and measurement error, this study constrained the sample collection to full-time employees in manufacturing. Regression analysis was used to examine the hypotheses.

Results show that the degree of harmony is positively related to AC and compliance behavior. Findings also confirm the mediation effect of AC on the relationship between the degree of harmony and employee compliance behavior.

The research suggests that firms in China may exploit boosting the degree of harmony in organizations as an effective means to enhance employee AC to and compliance with their employers. It enables non-Chinese managers to gain a better understanding of the importance of creating harmonious environment for Chinese employees.

This study demonstrates the East-West cultural differences on the notion of harmony (art-based vs science-based views), investigating HR-related issues in China through a newer and broader lens, namely a revolutionary view of “East-West” integrative thinking. Using the model decoded by Yijing's eight trigrams to measure organizational harmony, this paper proposes a novel framework illustrating the relationships between a unique Chinese cultural variable (harmony) and two well-established Western measures (AC and compliance behavior), in response to the recent call for analyzing context-specific implications to develop new context-sensitive theories in HRM.

This paper aims to address the need for responsive methodologies to investigate how information and communication technologies (ICTs) are used in non‐business and non‐corporate environments.

The paper presents a case study on developing an IT strategic plan in a community organisation using the process modelling and analysis methodology called “Co‐MAP”.

Co‐MAP as a methodology is significant in being a participatory, responsive, and non‐obtrusive tool to work with welfare workers in getting to articulate information, knowledge and technical issues for decision making.

The research provides a way of obtaining knowledge about structuring of social‐technical relationships in a welfare organisation through a sympathetic approach to its business and culture.

Co‐MAP could be fruitfully used in other organisations, though whether this needs an external facilitator to carry out the process and manage the complex data analysis process is a moot point.

The significance of this case study is that it develops a model for adaptation of how to research and represent data, information, and knowledge flows within a social services organisation, for which there are few other detailed case studies.

This paper reports an investigation of the personal-values systems of 567 public-sector managers from the U.S., Canada, and Japan. The results of this research indicate that, despite some specific differences, there is an overarching, coherent North American public-sector managerial values systems. Moreover, it is similar in some ways to that of its Japanese counterparts. However, these values systems - North American and Japanese - are clearly distinct

In this research we test the generalizability of an existing model for classifying information‐intensive services that can be globally disaggregated to Internet services. This categorization allows us to judge which types of Internet Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) are likely to have superior performance. Specifically, we hypothesize that Internet firms with higher information intensity, lower physical presence and lower customer contact needs will have a greater probability of generating larger risk‐adjusted returns. We test these hypotheses on 340 Internet IPOs and find partial support for the model. In particular, Internet firms with high information intensity and low customer contact need yield superior performance. However, firms with low physical presence underperform in our sample.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the multiple anti-corruption agencies (ACAs) in Taiwan and their conflict resolution. The birth of the Agency Against Corruption (AAC) in 2011 created the unintended consequence of sibling rivalry with the elder Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB).

A historical background of these agencies is discussed and followed by an analysis of the diversified conflicts among the prosecutor’s office, the AAC and the MJIB. The empirical sources of this study include 17 in-depth interviews with government officials both at ministerial level and field level, scholars and NGO representatives.

The redundancy of ACAs in Taiwan is a fact, which is extremely difficult to change in the foreseeable future in the light of current political and fiscal constraints. This paper concludes that the conflicts among multiple ACAs and their operational weaknesses will not fade away after a mere directive from their superior, the Ministry of Justice, unless genuine cooperation is put into place in various individual cases.

This paper provides a road-map for decision makers to improve collective anti-corruption performance. Taiwan’s AAC serves as the latest example testing the efficacy of the multiple specialized ACAs.

This pioneering study provides insights into Taiwan’s anti-corruption policy and practices. More investigative studies should be conducted on the effectiveness of multiple ACAs in other countries.

Nursing homes experience high nursing staff turnover. Nursing staff in nursing homes is comprised of gray and blue collar workers that include registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs), and certified nurse assistants (CNAs). The relationship between human resource management (HRM)practices, organizational culture, and nursing staff turnover is examined in underresourced (high Medicaid) nursing homes. Survey data from 348 nursing home administrators (NHAs) of USA high Medicaid (85% or higher) facilities were merged with secondary data sources for 2017–2018. The dependent variables (nursing staff turnover rates) consisted of the percentages of RNs, LPNs, and CNAs that had voluntarily quit the organization during the past year. The independent variables were: (1) HRM practices (employee-centered and high involvement practices); and (2) organizational culture: clan, market, hierarchical, and non-dominant. Organizational and market variables were controlled for. Data were modeled using Poisson log-linear regression, and propensity score weights were used to adjust for potential survey non-response bias. Results show high involvement HRM practices and having a clan culture are associated with lower RN, LPN, and CNA staffing turnover. Study findings suggest that organizational culture and HRM practices may be instrumental in reducing nursing turnover in underresourced nursing homes.

This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in business-ethics and accounting’s top-40 journals this study considers research in eight accounting-ethics and public-interest journals, as well as, 34 business-ethics journals. We analyzed the contents of our 42 journals for the 25-year period between 1991 through 2015. This research documents the continued growth (Bernardi & Bean, 2007) of accounting-ethics research in both accounting-ethics and business-ethics journals. We provide data on the top-10 ethics authors in each doctoral year group, the top-50 ethics authors over the most recent 10, 20, and 25 years, and a distribution among ethics scholars for these periods. For the 25-year timeframe, our data indicate that only 665 (274) of the 5,125 accounting PhDs/DBAs (13.0% and 5.4% respectively) in Canada and the United States had authored or co-authored one (more than one) ethics article.