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The purpose of this paper is to examine the threshold effect of group size on customer's complaining intention under group service failures.

Based on two main laboratory experiments, through two 10×2 scenario simulation experiments, the authors examine the role of group size in customer's complaining intention.

Results show that: (1) the relationship between group size and customer's complaining intention follows an inverted “U” type trend; (2) evaluation apprehension mediates the relationship between group size and customer's complaining intention; (3) relational distance can change threshold values and (4) relational distance moderates the relationship between group size and customer's complaining intention.

Managers should judge the threshold of group size through experience so as to have a preliminary understanding of customer evaluation concerns and complaint intention. In the face of service failure groups smaller than the threshold range, managers should divided the group into several small groups. For service failure groups larger than the threshold range, the opinion leaders in the group should be given more attention, so as to control the whole group.

This paper is helpful to deeply understand the key role of group size in the process of customer complaints, and also provides decision-making basis for service enterprises to deal with group customer complaints.

There has been little research about the threshold effect of group size on customer's complaining intention. The previous studies on customer's complaining intention focus on its influences on group size, and draw a single common conclusion that the customer's intention to complain will increase with the growing number of groups increases. However, few studies are explored on the threshold of group size. Therefore, this paper will focus on the threshold effect of group size on customer's complaining intention to fill the gap.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of financial distress (FD) on investment-cash flow sensitivity (ICFS) of Indian firms.

The study uses the system generalized method of moments (GMM) technique to investigate the effect of FD on ICFS of Indian firms during the period from 2001 to 2019.

Using FD measures like Ohlson's bankruptcy method, Altman's Z-score model and financial-distress ratio, the researchers find that FD increases ICFS and negatively affects corporate investment. The researchers’ findings explain that FD increases restrictions on external financing, which makes cash flow more important for corporate investment. Additionally, the researchers find that the effects of FD on ICFS are weak (strong) for bigger and group affiliated (smaller and standalone) firms. The study’s findings are robust to several measures of FD, group affiliation and firm size.

First, the researchers find that FD affects the ICFS, therefore, financially distressed firms should have sufficient internal funds or external funds for investment. Second, lending agencies should also consider the firms' FD condition before providing funds to secure their money. Third, investors should be very careful while investing in a financially distressed firm as we find that financially distressed firms face a decline in their investment which might reduce firm profitability.

This study contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence by analyzing the impact of FD on ICFS in the context of India. As per the authors’ knowledge, this is the first-ever attempt to examine the effect of FD on ICFS.

The problems of One‐Man‐Bands (OMBs) began to be taken seriously in the early 1980s when the Aslib OMB group was formed. The group received considerable attention in the professional press, and became the object of a study by Judith Collins and Janet Shuter who identified them as “information professionals working in isolation”. Many of the problems identified in the Collins/Shuter study remain — not least of these being the further education and training needs of OMBs. These needs are studied in this report. The author has firstly done an extensive survey of the literature to find what has been written about this branch of the profession. Then by means of a questionnaire sent to the Aslib OMB group and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (INVOG), training and education needs have been pinpointed. Some of these needs have then been explored in greater detail by means of case studies. The author found that the most common deterrents to continuing education and training were time, cost, location, finding suitable courses to cover the large variety of skills needed and lastly, lack of encouragement from employers. The author has concluded by recommending areas where further research is needed, and suggesting some solutions to the problems discussed.

Examines the behaviour of the industrial buyer, and studies the purchasing of reprographic equipment. Looks at straight replacement purchases, first time purchases, rebuys involving high cost equipment and rebuys due to dissatisfaction, in terms of a perceived risk model. Accepts that the industrial communications practitioner receives much less planning guidance than his consumer‐based counterpart. States current research is founded on the belief that a theory of communication appropriate to industrial buying must take on 6 main points – these are itemised and discussed. Discusses research design; research methodology; the determinants of perceived risk in industrial buying; risk handling behaviour in industrial buying; and a perceived risk model of buyer behaviour and its implications for competitive industrial marketing policy – all these are examined in great depth and each one given individual conclusions. Concludes that these examples by no means exhaust all the possible empirical bases from which industrial marketing policies may be devised, they serve to illustrate the way in which the model can be realistically applied to derive such competitive policies.

The purpose of this paper is to propose advances for developing our understandings of valuable resources in small family firms. The focus is on group support behavior within firms. It is proposed that this behavior is unique and valuable within small family firms. Propositions are presented that are built upon previous work in psychology and family business research and is linked to the concept of familiness.

Two small family businesses are the two cases used to investigate the propositions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the owner/manager and several other staff within each firm.

The paper presents evidence for the propositions, showing that work group support is unique in family firms as it is based on factors beyond the workplace. These relationships have the potential to be strong, contributing positively to the firm’s competitive advantage.

Two in-depth case studies of firms are included in this investigation. They are in a similar industry and location. As the findings are similar it lends weight to the evidence for the propositions; however, care should be taken with generalizing to other firms in other industries.

This research pulls together previous evidence and understandings and applies them to a specific aspect of small family firms that has not previously been examined in depth. The increased understanding can help family firms leverage their unique competitive advantage.

Properly conceived, conducted and interpreted, motivation research can be an extremely powerful management tool, designed to help the manufacturer or advertiser to sell more goods. Its aim is to expose the market situation, explain it and suggest courses of action which will lead to desired changes. It is a way of looking at a problem rather than a collection of specialist techniques and is strictly practical. Hence it can be used alongside other market research tools for the solution of marketing problems and can be applied to a wide range of business activities. Much of its development has been in the advertising field but it can also help in the formulation of production policy, solving packaging problems and marketing operations. It is examined here in all these contexts. The idea of motivation research, the reasons for its use and the techniques by which to apply it are discussed, as well as the pitfalls that are likely to occur. New and imaginary case studies are used throughout to illustrate points. A review of the subject literature is included.

This chapter employs a longitudinal social network approach to research small group teaching in higher education. Longitudinal social network analyses can provide in-depth understanding of the social dynamics in small groups. Specifically, it is possible to investigate and disentangle the processes by which students make or break social connections with peers and are influenced by them, as well as how those processes relate to group compositions and personal attributes, such as achievement level. With advanced methods for modelling longitudinal social networks, researchers can identify social processes affecting small group teaching and learning.

This chapter reviews 30 years of Advances in Group Processes. Its primary purpose is to study the part the series has played in the advances in the study of group processes that have taken place between 1984 and 2014.

This chapter places the 30 years of Advances in Group Processes in the context of the changes that took place between small groups research in the 1950s and group processes research in the 1980s and beyond.

Analyzing the policies of Advances in Group Processes and its contents, this chapter reflects on its role in the advances in group processes that have taken place since the 1980s. Between 1950 and 1980, small group research reinvented, reconceptualized, and reinvigorated itself as group process research. Between the two periods, small group research, its applied research, and its research programs became increasingly theory-driven and its concept of the group and its levels increasingly analytic. As a consequence of these changes, the concept of the field itself became increasingly analytic. The changes between the two periods in its theory, research, application, programs, and in its concept of the group and the way the field was conceptualized led to marked advances in group process research in the 90s and beyond – to more theory, more impact of it on application, and more, and more cumulative, growth of it. Advances in Group Processes was at once a reflection of the changes that took place between the two periods and a driving force in the advances in group processes research that have taken place ever since.

Advances in Group Processes is a fundamental resource for the development of theory and research on small groups and group processes. This chapter provides an overview of its contributions and places them in the context of the development of the field as a whole.

This chapter summarizes many conceptual, theoretical, and methodological topics related to studying group communication using qualitative research methods. First, it explains five of the most common theoretical frameworks used by group communication scholars (i.e., symbolic convergence theory, bona fide group perspective, unobtrusive control theory, dialectical theory, and structuration theory). Next, it discusses best practices and issues related to different data collection methods including observations, historical case studies, ethnographies, focus groups, and interview studies. Then, the chapter describes two primary data analytic tools, various iterations of constant comparison method, and qualitative content analysis. Finally, the chapter describes several innovative qualitative methods that may lead to new understandings of group communication processes including discourse analysis and discourse tracing, as well as new approaches to collecting qualitative network data and mediated data. The chapter concludes with a discussion of future research suggestions.

This qualitative study investigated how small group communication influences the development of shared mental models in a committee of public librarians addressing a problem-solving task. It examines the influence of communication themes, functions, roles, and rules on the group's development of shared mental models about the task and about team interaction. Data were collected over the course of a year from group meetings, email messages, group documents, and participant interviews and then analyzed using existing coding schemes and qualitative coding techniques. The findings indicate that within the group there was a strong superficial convergence around the task mental model and the team interaction mental model but a weaker convergence at a deeper level. Analysis of the group communication data shows that the group focused discussion on understanding the problem and identifying tasks, enacting group roles and rules that facilitated sharing information. The functions of their messages focused on task communication. The findings suggest that, in this group, communication themes most heavily influenced the development of a shared mental model about the task, while communication roles, rules, and functions were more influential toward the development of a shared mental model about team interaction. Implications for practice include adopting intentional tactics for surfacing mental models at various points in the group life and anchoring the emerging model within the collective cognition of the group through devices such as narratives, objects, or documentary materials.