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Information and communications technology (ICT) offers enormous opportunities for individuals, businesses and society. The application of ICT is equally important to economic and non-economic activities. Researchers have increasingly focused on the adoption and use of ICT by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the economic development of a country is largely dependent on them. Following the success of ICT utilisation in SMEs in developed countries, many developing countries are looking to utilise the potential of the technology to develop SMEs. Past studies have shown that the contribution of ICT to the performance of SMEs is not clear and certain. Thus, it is crucial to determine the effectiveness of ICT in generating firm performance since this has implications for SMEs’ expenditure on the technology. This research examines the diffusion of ICT among SMEs with respect to the typical stages from innovation adoption to post-adoption, by analysing the actual usage of ICT and value creation. The mediating effects of integration and utilisation on SME performance are also studied. Grounded in the innovation diffusion literature, institutional theory and resource-based theory, this study has developed a comprehensive integrated research model focused on the research objectives. Following a positivist research paradigm, this study employs a mixed-method research approach. A preliminary conceptual framework is developed through an extensive literature review and is refined by results from an in-depth field study. During the field study, a total of 11 SME owners or decision-makers were interviewed. The recorded interviews were transcribed and analysed using NVivo 10 to refine the model to develop the research hypotheses. The final research model is composed of 30 first-order and five higher-order constructs which involve both reflective and formative measures. Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is employed to test the theoretical model with a cross-sectional data set of 282 SMEs in Bangladesh. Survey data were collected using a structured questionnaire issued to SMEs selected by applying a stratified random sampling technique. The structural equation modelling utilises a two-step procedure of data analysis. Prior to estimating the structural model, the measurement model is examined for construct validity of the study variables (i.e. convergent and discriminant validity).

The estimates show cognitive evaluation as an important antecedent for expectation which is shaped primarily by the entrepreneurs’ beliefs (perception) and also influenced by the owners’ innovativeness and culture. Culture further influences expectation. The study finds that facilitating condition, environmental pressure and country readiness are important antecedents of expectation and ICT use. The results also reveal that integration and the degree of ICT utilisation significantly affect SMEs’ performance. Surprisingly, the findings do not reveal any significant impact of ICT usage on performance which apparently suggests the possibility of the ICT productivity paradox. However, the analysis finally proves the non-existence of the paradox by demonstrating the mediating role of ICT integration and degree of utilisation explain the influence of information technology (IT) usage on firm performance which is consistent with the resource-based theory. The results suggest that the use of ICT can enhance SMEs’ performance if the technology is integrated and properly utilised. SME owners or managers, interested stakeholders and policy makers may follow the study’s outcomes and focus on ICT integration and degree of utilisation with a view to attaining superior organisational performance.

This study urges concerned business enterprises and government to look at the environmental and cultural factors with a view to achieving ICT usage success in terms of enhanced firm performance. In particular, improving organisational practices and procedures by eliminating the traditional power distance inside organisations and implementing necessary rules and regulations are important actions for managing environmental and cultural uncertainties. The application of a Bengali user interface may help to ensure the productivity of ICT use by SMEs in Bangladesh. Establishing a favourable national technology infrastructure and legal environment may contribute positively to improving the overall situation. This study also suggests some changes and modifications in the country’s existing policies and strategies. The government and policy makers should undertake mass promotional programs to disseminate information about the various uses of computers and their contribution in developing better organisational performance. Organising specialised training programs for SME capacity building may succeed in attaining the motivation for SMEs to use ICT. Ensuring easy access to the technology by providing loans, grants and subsidies is important. Various stakeholders, partners and related organisations should come forward to support government policies and priorities in order to ensure the productive use of ICT among SMEs which finally will help to foster Bangladesh’s economic development.

The purpose of this study is to review the use of partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) in the field of hospitality and tourism and thereby to assess whether the PLS-SEM-based papers followed the recommended application guidelines and to investigate whether a comparison of journal types (hospitality vs tourism) and journal qualities (top-tier vs other leading) reveal significant differences in PLS-SEM use.

A total of 206 PLS-SEM based papers published between 2000 and April 2017 in the 19 SSCI-indexed hospitality and tourism journals were critically analyzed using a wide range of guidelines for the following aspects of PLS-SEM: the rationale of using the method, the data characteristics, the model characteristics, the model assessment and reporting the technical issues.

The results reveal that some aspects of PLS-SEM are correctly applied by researchers, but there are still some misapplications, especially regarding data characteristics, formative measurement model evaluation and structural model assessment. Furthermore, few significant differences were found on the use of PLS-SEM between the two fields (hospitality and tourism) and between the journal tiers (top-tier and other leading).

To enhance the quality of research in hospitality and tourism, the present study provides recommendations for improving the future use of PLS-SEM.

The present study fills a sizeable gap in hospitality and tourism literature and extends the previous assessments on the use of PLS-SEM by providing a wider perspective on the issue (i.e. includes both hospitality and tourism journals rather than the previous reviews that focus on either tourism or hospitality), using a larger sample size of 206 empirical studies, investigating the issue over a longer time period (from 2000 to April, 2017, including the in-press articles), extending the scope of criteria (guidelines) used in the review and comparing the PLS-SEM use between the two allied fields (hospitality and tourism) and between the journal tiers (top-tier and other leading).

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of creative activity and storytelling in assisting development of students’ reflective ability and critical thinking.

Eight biomedical science students undertaking year-long work-based placements took part in this action research study. A coding scheme was designed to assess students’ reflections initially and at each stage of the study. Intervention activities involved students using mood boards, images and storytelling to assist development of creative learning spaces with a thematic approach employed to analyse both personal and collective reflections. Post-intervention evaluation considered possible long-term impact on students’ reflective ability.

Students’ pre-intervention reports showed little reflection focusing mainly on competence demonstration and descriptive situation summaries. During the intervention workshops, all students demonstrated both identification of self as a practitioner and a critically reflective approach. However, this was not maintained long term as initial post-intervention reports tended to revert to a more descriptive style of writing suggesting longer-term support is required.

The importance of further research into the long-term usefulness of creative collaborative learning spaces in work-based programmes is suggested.

This is the first study investigating the approach to supporting critical reflection during work placement in biomedical scientists. It is suggested that the current competence-based training programme provides limited opportunities for developing and embedding critical reflection. Where opportunities are provided, such as creative learning spaces, students’ critical reflection was greatly enhanced. However, it appears essential that this approach is maintained throughout training as critically reflective skills developed during collaborative learning have limited transferability to subsequent reflective report writing.

The purpose of this study is to examine how dialogic spaces were co-constituted (opened, broadened and deepened) between students engaged in divergent and convergent collaborative learning tasks, orchestrated by teachers in Finnish primary and secondary schools. The concept of dialogic space refers to a dynamic, shared resource of ideas in dialogue and has come to represent an ideal form of educational interaction, in the contexts of collaborative learning, joint creative work and shared knowledge-building.

A socio-cultural discourse analysis of video-observed classroom dialogue, entailing the development of a new analytic typology, was undertaken to explore the co-constitution of dialogic space. The data are derived from two qualitative studies, one examining dialogue to co-create fictive video stories in primary-school classrooms (divergent task), the other investigating collaborative knowledge building in secondary-school health education (convergent task).

Dialogic spaces were opened through group settings and by the students’ selection of topics. In the divergent task, the broadening of dialogic space derived from the heterogeneous group settings, whereas in the convergent task, from the multiple and various information sources involved. As regards the deepening of dialogic space, explicit reflective talk remained scarce; instead the norms deriving from the school-context tasks and requirements guided the group dialogue.

This study lays the groundwork for subsequent research regarding the orchestration of dialogic space in divergent and convergent tasks by offering a typology to operationalise dialogic space for further, more systematic, comparisons and aiding the understandings of the processes implicated in intercreating and interthinking. This in turn is of significance for the development of dialogic pedagogies.

Personality traits and perceived value have been the focus for research in online learning adoption. However, there is a lack of understanding of how the effects of perceived value on online learning adoption vary according to the different personality traits and the levels of a personality trait. This study explores the moderating roles of the Big Five personality traits (i.e. neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and agreeableness) in the relationships between the perceived value (i.e. value for money, quality, emotional value, and social value) and intention to study online courses.

A survey questionnaire was used to collect data from university students. This study used the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method to measure the quality of the formative and reflective constructs and examine the moderating effects of the five personality traits in four models. The regression of intention to study online courses on the perceived value at the different levels of a personality trait was analyzed by the simple slope analysis approach.

The study found that particular personality traits moderate the relationships between the perceived value and intention to study online courses. Neuroticism and openness to experience have the moderating effects on the relationship between perceived value for money and intention to study online courses. Neuroticism is the only personality trait that moderates the effect of perceived emotional value on intention to study online courses. In addition, the different levels of a personality trait differentially moderate the effects of the perceived value on intention to study online courses.

This study is considered among the first research attempting to explore the moderating roles of the Big Five personality traits in the context of online learning adoption. It bridges the research gap in online learning literature and generalizes the impacts of perceived value on online learning adoption to the different personality traits and the levels of a personality trait. The results provide guidance for educational institutions to develop an effective online learning strategy by creating and communicating the right value propositions to the right group of students based on their personality traits.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the awareness and practice responsible lobbying in the EU. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which responsible lobbying criteria are fulfilled and to investigate whether responsible lobbying yields concrete benefits in the political arena.

The study takes a quantitative approach combining descriptive and multivariate partial least squares (PLS) analysis based on data gained from an online survey among lobbyists in the EU. A new measurement instrument for responsible lobbying is used that grasps the multidimensional phenomenon with a formative-formative higher-order construct.

The study reveals that criteria of responsible lobbying are fulfilled to a large extent according to the lobbyists. The PLS analysis confirms the applicability of the multidimensional model of responsible lobbying, although there is only a weak link between Dimension (1), referring to the company’s stated corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitment and coherence with lobbying and the second-order construct responsible lobbying. Based on the information given by respondents, the analysis provides evidence for a positive impact of responsible lobbying on both lobbying success and corporate reputation, but also for the dependence of these two variables on additional factors.

Responsible lobbying as an aligned approach to CSR and lobbying is a long neglected research topic, which has been gaining interest recently. This study contributes to empirical knowledge on the awareness and practice of responsible lobbying in the EU by taking a quantitative approach based on a solid theoretical foundation.

The pressure on higher education providers (HEPs) and national programme partnerships to evaluate the impact of widening participation (WP) interventions has intensified as a result of wider changes in higher education (HE) policy and regulation, including the imposition of market forces. This chapter describes how policy stakeholder assumptions about how evaluation works and the outcomes it delivers have evolved over the last two decades. It shows how regulatory emphasis has shifted from a focus on monitoring and tracking, through to a call for return-on-investment analysis, before falling back on a pragmatic theory-informed approach. This chapter goes on to locate WP evaluation in the middle of a paradigm war, caught between proponents of a medicalised trial-based conception of evaluation methodology, and a practitioner-led position, which points to the complex contextual character of WP activities. It continues by exploring some of the many practical challenges faced by WP evaluators and argues that these have contributed to the sector’s perceived failure to deliver robust evidence of the impact of fair access activity. This chapter concludes with a look at the expanding market for WP evaluation products and services, which emerged in response to new flows of WP investment created by the 2012 increase in tuition fees.

This paper aims to develop and empirically test a conceptual framework explaining the influence of the sales force on brand equity relative to the product and promotion elements of the marketing mix, in the context of business‐to‐business marketing.

Six research hypotheses, relating to the effects of four key drivers of B‐to‐B brand equity identified in a review of the relevant literature, were empirically tested with a sample of 201 respondents in B‐to‐B firms in Germany, using partial least squares analysis.

The results confirm the high relevance of the sales force to the building and maintenance of a strong B‐to‐B brand. The most important driver of brand equity in this environment is the salesperson's behaviour, followed in sequence by his or her personality, product quality and non‐personal marketing communications.

The sample size permits only a general analysis and conclusions. The choice of PLS analysis and formative scales limits the rigorousness of scale and model evaluation. The decision to interview one manager per company may have introduced informant bias.

The study identifies controllable variables that are critical to the effective management of a B‐to‐B brand and offers an alternative approach to the measurement of brand equity in B‐to‐B marketing.

This is the first study to test the widely claimed influence of the sales force on B‐to‐B brand equity empirically, developing a simple but powerful framework to integrate sales management and brand management in this context.

Structural equation modeling (SEM) depicts one of the most salient research methods across a variety of disciplines, including hospitality management. Although for many researchers, SEM is equivalent to carrying out covariance-based SEM, recent research advocates the use of partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) as an attractive alternative. The purpose of this paper is to systematically examine how PLS-SEM has been applied in major hospitality research journals with the aim of providing important guidance and, if necessary, opportunities for realignment in future applications. Because PLS-SEM in hospitality research is still in an early stage of development, critically examining its use holds considerable promise to counteract misapplications which otherwise might reinforce over time.

All PLS-SEM studies published in the six SSCI-indexed hospitality management journals between 2001 and 2015 were reviewed. Tying in with the prior studies in the field, the review covers reasons for using PLS-SEM, data characteristics, model characteristics, the evaluation of the measurement models, the evaluation of the structural model, reporting and use of advanced analyses.

Compared to other fields, the results show that several reporting practices are clearly above standard but still leave room for improvement, particularly regarding the consideration of state-of-the art metrics for measurement and structural model assessment. Furthermore, hospitality researchers seem to be unaware of the recent extensions of the PLS-SEM method, which clearly extend the scope of the analyses and help gaining more insights from the model and the data. As a result of this PLS-SEM application review in studies, this research presents guidelines on how to accurately use the method. These guidelines are important for the hospitality management and other disciplines to disseminate and ensure the rigor of PLS-SEM analyses and reporting practices.

Only articles published in the SSCI-indexed hospitality journals were examined and any journals indexed in other databases were not included. That is, while this research focused on the top-tier hospitality management journals, future research may widen the scope by considering hospitality management-related studies from other disciplines, such as tourism research or general management.

This study contributes to the literature by providing hospitality researchers with the updated guidelines for PLS-SEM use. Based on a systematic review of current practices in the hospitality literature, critical methodological issues when choosing and using the PLS-SEM were identified. The guidelines allow to improve future PLS-SEM studies and offer recommendations for using recent advances of the method.