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1 – 10 of over 8000Haili Zhang, Hans van der Bij and Michael Song
While some studies have found that cognitive biases are detrimental to entrepreneurial performance, others have conjectured that cognitive biases may stimulate…
Abstract
Purpose
While some studies have found that cognitive biases are detrimental to entrepreneurial performance, others have conjectured that cognitive biases may stimulate entrepreneurial action. This study uses a typology of availability and representative heuristics to examine how two patterns of biases affect entrepreneurial performance. Drawing on ideas from cognitive science, this study predicts that various levels of biases in each pattern stimulate entrepreneurial behavior and performance.
Design/methodology/approach
A profile-deviation approach was employed to analyze data from 253 entrepreneurs and zero-truncated Poisson regression and the zero-truncated negative binomial regression to test hypotheses.
Findings
This study finds some positive associations between a particular level of cognitive biases in each of the two patterns and entrepreneurial behavior and performance. Results show that the patterns of biases often stimulate and never hurt entrepreneurial behavior and performance. The opposite holds for a lack of cognitive biases, which hurts and never stimulates entrepreneurial behavior and performance.
Originality/value
This study examines patterns of cognitive biases of entrepreneurs instead of single biases. The study broadens the perspective on the heuristics and cognitive biases of entrepreneurs by examining patterns of biases emanating from the availability and the representativeness heuristic that make a difference for entrepreneurial behavior and performance. The study also brings the “great rationality debate” closer to the entrepreneurship field by showing that a normative rule based on statistics and probability theory does not benefit entrepreneurial behavior and performance.
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Alpo Karila, Jarmo Vakkuri and Juhani Lehto
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the dynamics of budgetary biasing in the context of public hospitals.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the dynamics of budgetary biasing in the context of public hospitals.
Design/methodology/approach
The study applies theories of accounting and budgeting behaviors in the specific institutional context of health care systems. Based on the theoretical framework, data from interviews with hospital budget officers were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.
Findings
A typology of biases is provided. It proved to be useful and highlighted the central empirical assumptions and preliminary results of biasing dynamics.
Practical implications
Understanding the logic of budgeting actors and the drivers of bias may help explain why bias so often appears in health care budgeting. It further contributes to understanding whether the bias is functional or dysfunctional.
Originality/value
The concepts of budgetary bias are rarely used in the context of health care budgeting, so the study fills a gap in research knowledge.
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Christine Shearer, Jennifer Bea Rogers-Brown, Karl Bryant, Rachel Cranfill and Barbara Herr Harthorn
Research has found a subgroup of conservative white males have lower perceptions of risk across a variety of environmental and health hazards. Less research has looked at…
Abstract
Research has found a subgroup of conservative white males have lower perceptions of risk across a variety of environmental and health hazards. Less research has looked at the views of these “low risk” individuals in group interactions. Through qualitative analysis of a technology deliberation, we note that white men expressing low risk views regarding technologies for energy and the environment also often express high social risks around potential loss of control. We argue these risk perceptions reflect identification with corporate concerns, usually framed in opposition to government and mirroring arguments made by conservative organizations. We situate these views within the broader cultural struggle over who has the power to name and address risks.
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Cleopatra Veloutsou, Evangelos Gioulistanis and Luiz Moutinho
The growth of own label brands of products offered by supermarket chains is changing the “rules of the game” when managing fast moving consumer good products. A lot is…
Abstract
The growth of own label brands of products offered by supermarket chains is changing the “rules of the game” when managing fast moving consumer good products. A lot is written on the development of these brands and the consumers' behaviour in regions where their use is widely spread, but not in other markets. This paper compared the importance of choice criteria when purchasing own label and national brands and the perceived characteristics of the products carrying store and manufacturer brands in two regions of the European Union where the development of own label brands is at a different stage, Greece and Scotland. The results indicate that own label and manufacturer brands have an overall different positioning; Greeks are less familiar with own label products and assess them somewhat differently than the Scots, while several own label related attributes may be good predictors of the loyalty to the supermarket.
Jose Marichal and Richard Neve
The purpose of this paper is to apply Connolly’s (2003) concept of agonistic respect to develop a typology of agonistic/antagonistic discourses on Twitter. To develop the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to apply Connolly’s (2003) concept of agonistic respect to develop a typology of agonistic/antagonistic discourses on Twitter. To develop the typology, this study examines 2,236 Tweets containing the hashtag #guncontrol and uses NodeXL (Smith et al., 2010) to create a network map from which the 75 most influential accounts are derived. Using constant-comparative analysis (Glaser and Strauss, 1967), the authors identify seven categories of discourse style based on Connoly’s (2001) notion of ressentiment and “good faith presentations” of opposing arguments: furtive/secretive, cravenly opportunistic, willfully ignorant, irrational sentimental, misunderstanding/misguided, contingently wrong and reciprocal inquiry. The typology provides a useful and unique way to operationalize agonistic democratic theory and serves as the possible basis for training a machine learning classifier to detect antagonistic discourses on social media platforms.
Design/methodology/approach
To determine the level of agonism on Twitter, the authors examine tweets that employed the hashtag #guncontrol on March 12, 2018, one month after the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14. The authors used the NodeXL excel add-on to collect and map 2,236 tweets. Using grounded theory/constant-comparative analysis (Glaser and Strauss, 1967), the authors develop a typology of seven types of discourses ordered from most antagonistic to most agonistic using Connolly’s (1993) concept of agonistic respect.
Findings
After examining the top 75 most shared tweets and using constant-comparative analysis to look for patterns of similarity and dissimilarity, the authors identified seven different ways in which individuals present their opponents’ value positions on Twitter on the issue of gun control. The authors were guided by agonistic theory in the authors’ inquiry. The authors looked at how Twitter users expressed their opponent’s faith/value positions, how pluralistic the discourse space was in the comment threads and how much the “talk” was likely to elicit ressentiment from adversaries.
Research limitations/implications
Because the authors intended to engage in theory building, the authors limited the analysis to a selected number of tweets on one particularly salient topic, on one day. The intent of this was to allow for a close reading of the tweets in that specific network for the purposes of creating a useful typology that can be applied to a broader range of cases/issues/platforms.
Practical implications
The authors hope that typology could serve as a potential starting point for Twitter to think about how it could design its algorithms toward agonistic talk. The typology could be used as a classification scheme to differentiate agonistic from antagonistic threads. An algorithm could be trained to spot threads overwhelmingly populated by antagonistic discourse and instructed to insert posts from other threads that represent agonistic responses like “contingently wrong” or “reciprocal inquiry.” While generous presentations or deeper, more nuanced presentations of the opponent’s value position are not a panacea, they could serve to change the orientation by which users engage with policy issues.
Social implications
Social media platforms like Twitter have up to now been left alone to make markets and establish profitability off of public sphere conversations. The result has been a lack of attention to how discourse on these platforms affects users mental well-being, community health and democratic viability. Recently, Twitter’s CEO has indicated a need to rethink the ways in which it promotes “healthy discourse.” The utilitarian presumption that, left to our own devices, we will trial and error our way to the collective good does not account for the importance of others in refining one’s preferences, arguments and world views. Without an “other” to vet ideas and lead us toward becoming wiser, we are left with a Wyly antagonism that moves discourse further and further away from agonistic respect and toward antagonistic virtual struggle. Platforms that allow antagonistic talk that breeds ressentiment run the risk of irrevocably damaging democracy through poisoning its public sphere.
Originality/value
This paper is unique in providing a typology/framework for thinking about the types of “political talk” that exists on Twitter. By using agonistic political theory as a framework, the authors are able to establish some guiding principles for “good political talk” that acknowledges the incommensurability of value positions on issues like gun control. The typology’s emphasis on agonistic respect, ressentiment and generosity in the presentation of alternative value positions provides a starting point from which to map and catalog discourse on Twitter more generally and offers a normative model for changing algorithmic design.
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Although the impact of human capital on productivity has long been discussed in prior studies, empirical evidence for African firms remains limited. The existing few…
Abstract
Purpose
Although the impact of human capital on productivity has long been discussed in prior studies, empirical evidence for African firms remains limited. The existing few studies have focussed on one type of human capital in isolation and failed to explore the distinct role of different types of human capital on productivity. The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which various typologies of human capital – schooling, on-the-job training (OJT) and slack time –, both in isolation and as a combination, contribute to the productivity of African firms.
Design/methodology/approach
To this end, a cross-sectional firm-level data set from 13 African countries was used. To unravel the casual relationship, propensity score matching (PSM) and multinomial endogenous switching treatment regression (MESTR) techniques were employed.
Findings
Results indicate that all typologies of human capital – schooling, slack time and OJT – have a significant and positive impact on firms' productivity. The findings of the study further point out that the highest payoff, in terms of increased productivity, is achieved when various typologies of human capital are used in combination, rather than in isolation, in the production process.
Practical implications
The policy implications are that productivity of African firms can be improved by increasing the general level of schooling; encouraging firm-sponsored OJT; and giving employees time to develop new ideas.
Originality/value
The present study provides important insights into the distinct role of different types of human capital on productivity. In addition, it provides empirical evidence for a region where empirical evidence is scant.
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This study aims to provide service managers and researchers with a deeper understanding of the direct on-site interactions taking place between customers.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to provide service managers and researchers with a deeper understanding of the direct on-site interactions taking place between customers.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the Critical Incident Technique (CIT), 284 incidents are analysed to develop a typology of how service customers experience direct on-site CCI.
Findings
The research reveals a wide range of CCI. A typology consisting of nine distinct categories of CCI emerged: (1) shared use space, (2) assigned space and possessions, (3) information provision, (4) assistance, (5) social conversations, (6) disrespectful attitude, (7) queuing discipline, (8) transaction efficiency and (9) undesired customers and ‘camouflaged customers’. These categories can accommodate a multitude of customer behaviours that impact, negatively or positively, on the service experience of other customers.
Research limitations/implications
Future studies could be conducted following a more inclusive research design capable of gaining CCI insights from employees and managers.
Practical implications
Practitioners can use the typology to systematically identify the full range of specific CCI behaviours affecting their businesses. It also assists them in the analysis and understanding of individual C2C (customer-to-customer) interactions. For academics the typology makes available a comprehensive framework to guide future research into CCI.
Originality/value
The study constitutes the first systematic attempt to classify direct on-site CCI across a wide range of services. The typology, unrestricted by any single-industry bias, is robust and conceptually broad, and therefore highly portable across service industries.
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Aggeliki Tsohou, Maria Karyda, Spyros Kokolakis and Evangelos Kiountouzis
The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential of cultural theory as a tool for identifying patterns in the stakeholders' perception of risk and its effect on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential of cultural theory as a tool for identifying patterns in the stakeholders' perception of risk and its effect on information system (IS) risk management.
Design/methodology/approach
Risk management involves a number of human activities which are based on the way the various stakeholders perceive risk associated with IS assets. Cultural theory claims that risk perception within social groups and structures is predictable according to group and individual worldviews; therefore this paper examines the implications of cultural theory on IS risk management as a means for security experts to manage stakeholders perceptions.
Findings
A basic theoretical element of cultural theory is the grid/group typology, where four cultural groups with differentiating worldviews are identified. This paper presents how these worldviews affect the process of IS risk management and suggests key issues to be considered in developing strategies of risk management according to the different perceptions cultural groups have.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this research are based on theoretical analysis and are not supported by relevant empirical research. Further research is also required for incorporating the identified key issues into information security management systems (ISMS).
Originality/value
IS security management overlooks stakeholders' risk perception; for example, there is no scheme developed to understand and manage the perception of IS stakeholders. This paper proposes some key issues that should be taken into account when developing strategies for addressing the issue of understanding and managing the perception of IS stakeholders.
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