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This paper aims to investigate how small/medium hospitality (SMH) firms set preferences for knowledge transfer relating to customer service improvement activities, through a determination of the most valued activities, preferred forms of media delivery and why best practice choice is valued.

A single cross‐sectional survey was used of 255 owners, managers or owner‐managers of SMH firms in Australia using attitude rating scales.

In nominating preferred customer service training/business performance improvement activities, the reasons for reporting a highly valued activity were grouped into six themes. Relevance and novelty of the activity were the two highest ranked activities. The remaining four themes of informative, credible, ease of use, and social were ranked equally.

The findings suggest that hospitality firms are reluctant to embrace knowledge transfer activities in general and customer service training in particular. These findings shed light on specific preferred activities and indicate the reasons why.

The results from this study have been integrated with other studies to present a range of communication‐based strategies to assist industry policy makers. It is recommended that communication strategies to sell the “novelty, relevance and newness” of the customer service activity should be promoted.

The paper synthesises literature from the small business sector, together with hospitality‐specific papers and extends thinking beyond prescriptive advice. Given that knowledge transfer, delivered as prescriptive advice, tends to be ignored by the sector at large, this paper focuses on what managers do in practice and how they can be reached more directly.

Many manufacturers are transforming into manufacturing service industry to enhance their value creation. Adopting the value‐added chain model, this study aimed to conduct four case studies, including Acer, Giant, TSMC and Eternal, to verify the high‐valued strategies and the common characteristics of service provisions.

Four case studies, including Acer, Giant, TSMC and Eternal, were conducted to verify the high‐valued strategies and the common characteristics of service provisions. Specifically, these companies are selected from different industry and value chain position to enhance the robustness of the research findings.

This study concluded that the manufacturing firms strengthen their position as system integrator. The provision of high‐valued services is orientated toward the integration of the value chain stages according to the industry and business model. The companies are going to upstream or downstream, outsource non‐core manufacturing activities, and sell some manufacturing assets. The high‐valued service strategies provided the manufacturing firms with new approaches to compete in a rapidly changing economy. The findings also provided the direction for the emerging economies in confronting with industrial structure transformation.

This study focuses on the transformation of four manufacturing firms toward providing high value‐added services. The results conclude that manufacturing firms can integrate forward and backward stages in the value‐added chain, and provide the knowledge‐based services including R&D, marketing, information system, branding, financial and after‐sale services to enhance the market value of their products. This study argues that the high value‐added service strategies can be a great opportunity for the manufacturers.

The objective of this chapter is to identify the key characteristics of Global Services businesses that will thrive and achieve success in the future. These factors are integrated into three main pillars, which we refer to as the Triple-Win. The first and most obvious pillar is technology as a tool. The second pillar is the design and sustainability of the business model, without which the previous factor would be merely a cost and not an investment. And last but not the least, there is the purpose which gives meaning to the proposal, focusing on the human being and their environment. The DIDPAGA business model sits at the intersection of these three elements.

Expectancy-value theory is prominent in different areas in psychology, and a number of educational and developmental psychologists who study the development of achievement motivation have utilized this theory in their work (see Schunk, Pintrich, & Meece, 2006; Weiner, 1992; Wigfield & Eccles, 1992; Wigfield, Tonks, & Klauda, 2009 for overviews). In this chapter, we discuss current expectancy-value theoretical models of achievement motivation and review research based on these models. Much of this research has focused on the development of children's expectancies and values, and how expectancies and values relate to performance, choice of different activities, and emotions. We discuss the major findings from each of these areas of research. We also provide suggestions for future research based in this theory for the next decade. We focus our review and suggestions for future research primarily on elementary and secondary school students, but include some relevant work done with college students.

Cigarette smoking remains the primary preventable cause of mortality and morbidity globally. The overarching goal of the paper is to disseminate the Behavioral Activation Treatment for Smoking (BATS), which integrates behavioral activation principles with standard treatment guidelines to assist individuals in achieving short- and long-term smoking cessation. Through a series of sequential steps, BATS guides individuals who wish to quit smoking to increase their engagement in healthy, pleasurable, and value-consistent activities.

The document provides the BATS rationale and contains an abridged manual for use by clinicians and/or researchers in the context of clinical trials. Findings: BATS is accruing empirical evidence that suggests its ability to promote successful smoking cessation outcomes while decreasing any associated depressive symptoms.

BATS is accruing empirical evidence that suggests its ability to promote successful smoking cessation outcomes while decreasing any associated depressive symptoms.

A description of key components, forms, and strategies to address common treatment barriers are included.

BATS’s strong roots in learning theories and its idiographic nature allow for the intervention to be implemented flexibly across a wide range of settings and smoking populations. The treatment may also be combined seamlessly with pharmacotherapies. BATS targets both cigarette smoking and depressive symptoms, which constitute a significant barrier to cessation, through a common pathway: increasing rewarding activities. The treatment offers a parsimonious complement to standard smoking cessation treatments.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework – the 4V model – for better understanding how global brands create firm value. Organized around the global brand value chain, the 4V model includes four sets of value-creating activities: first, valued brands; second, value sources; third, value delivery; and fourth, valued outcomes.

The approach is conceptual with illustrative examples.

The sources of global brand value and the processes through which global brands contribute to firm value differ systematically across types of global brands. This paper highlights interrelations and how different activities built upon and reinforce each other.

The 4V model ties together broad strands of research conducted to date and offers insights into ways the paper might better understand and study global brands. It should inspire empirical research on the associations between the 4Vs.

International marketing managers should be able to develop and evaluate global brand strategies more effectively using the 4V model described in this paper. Linking their strategies to valued outcomes puts marketers more firmly at the level in the organization they deserve, namely, the C-Suite.

The framework offered in this paper is unique in that it blends insights obtained from multiple sources, namely, academic research, articles that appeared in the business press, case studies, and interactions with managers and policy makers around the world.

One powerful public support instrument to support the economic interests abroad is via commercial diplomacy (CD). CD is practice gaining more importance in today's economy, but is poorly addressed in research. The available existing research, however, lack detail on the beneficiary perspective and the value-added function of CD, let alone specific enterprises to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This study contributes to the field of CD by identifying the determinants of the value of CD from an SME (beneficiary) perspective. Out of a random sample of 450 SMEs contacted, 115 of them agreed to fill out a scale-based questionnaire and answer to open questions in the questionnaire. The results demonstrate that the perceived service quality by SMEs of CD influences the overall value SMEs attach to CD. No evidence was found in support of the hypothesis that institutional environment of a host country is negatively related to the value SMEs attach to CD. But we found a negative relationship between the international experience of an SME and the overall value SMEs attach to CD, and a positive relationship between the extent of having foreign public customers and the overall value attached to CD by SMEs. Opposite to what existing literature suggests, smaller SMEs do not attach more value to CD services. Also, for the business network we did not find evidence that SMEs with an established business network attach less value to CD. We did, however, find evidence that SMEs with an established business network attach less value to partner search services. Suggestions for further research are provided.

As neoliberal reforms take hold in the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia, there is renewed interest in the quality of teaching practice. However, despite the value of practitioner inquiry to the quality of teaching in schools, scholarly practice in higher education, and established links between the quality of teaching and outcomes for learners and between practice-based inquiry and pedagogic innovation in VET, the practices has received little attention. The purpose of this paper is to explore the value of a college-wide culture of scholarly activity to learners, enterprises, VET institutions, educators and the national productivity agenda.

Drawing on the education literature, empirical examples of scholarly activity drawn from the authors’ experiences of working with VET practitioners, this paper asks what constitutes research and inquiry in VET, why should these practices be integral to educative practice and what value do they bring to the sector? In addressing the questions, the authors explore how research and inquiry is defined in the literature and draw on three empirical examples of scholarly activities to provide a national, institutional and individual view. A discussion about the value of scholarly activities to VET stakeholders and how the practices might be fostered and sustained concludes the paper.

The paper concludes that practice-based scholarly activities in VET cultivate rich potential for renewed and innovative pedagogies that improve outcomes for learners, respond to industry demands for innovative skills, build “pedagogic capital” for VET institutions, enrich the knowledge base of policy makers and build resilience and professionalism. The authors conclude by positioning VET educators as scholars in their own right along a continuum of scholarly activity and posing the proposition that when valued, scholarly activities are practices for new times that will build a strong and vibrant profession for the future.

This paper brings together the authors’ experiences of working with VET practitioners as the authors engage in scholarly activities. While each vignette was drawn from a formal research project in each case, the paper itself was not structured around a formal research activity, although a small survey was undertaken for vignette 1. This poses limitations to the findings of the study. However, the purpose of the paper is not to be conclusive but to forward an argument for more scholarly activity in VET in order to promote further research and debate.

This paper contributes to the current debate in Australia about the quality of teaching in VET and the sectors’ capability to produce “work-ready” graduates. It brings to the fore the value of scholarly activity for educators, learners, industry and communities, VET institutions and the broader national innovation agenda. As such, it has relevance to all VET stakeholders, most particularly policy makers, leaders and practitioners in VET.

The evaluation of time-based performance is a valued approach in the lean management thinking which is based on delivering value from customer's perspective. This approach contributes for long-term competitiveness and success in today's business environment. The focus of this study is to analyse the cycle time and manufacturing lead time with value stream mapping (VSM) in the preparatory stage of the textile fabric manufacturing process and to identify and improve the non-value adding activities in the value chain (VC). The study presents an insight on the translation of performance improvement across functions and how upstream supply chain (SC) segments can be linked in the performance improvement program. It also covers how the application of VSM improves visibility and planning flexibility in textile fabric manufacturing process.

The time-based performance was evaluated using VSM and recording of the activity times in the existing process. The impact of the quality of supplier's raw material was also measured contributing to identify the strategy for procurement and the means to establish a feedback system to the upstream segments of the SC. The methodology of VSM, observation of the practice and the expertise of the individuals involved with the process were utilised to develop the value stream maps and to identify value adding activities, non-value adding activities, existing gaps and plans for improvement.

The means for improving the time-based performance were identified and their impact was measured. The factors responsible for improvement are related to the production system and with the procurement strategy. The improvement was achieved in terms of available capacity utilisation, balancing the work flow in the preparatory stages, visibility of the process by measuring its capability and flexibility for the planning function. The study revealed that the effectiveness and enhancement of VSM and related tools should be adopted to address the issue of limiting success rates of long term and repeating application of such tools. Continuous improvement, innovations and the systematic embedding of VSM in the process life cycle provide the ways for achieving long-term success.

The paper presents a real and in-depth study on the application of VSM in the textile manufacturing process. The scope of the study is broad; it covers activities across functions with actual estimates of activity times in the manufacturing process for the focused value streams. It offers researchers the opportunity to analyse the translation of productivity improvement across functions and how upstream SC segments can be linked in a performance improvement program.

The study offers useful insight for the managers in textile manufacturing and other sectors for improving the time-based performance and achieving higher utilisation of capacity. It identified the production factors and their impact on warping and sizing cycle time in selected value streams and those which share common activities. It also identified the directions for future research when repeating the application of VSM in the continuous improvement cycle. Furthermore, since the industries need to progress towards advanced systems including Industry 4.0 standards, adoption of advanced VSM tool with relevant technology can align their production systems to develop the required capability. This will also bring a sustainable competitive advantage in the system.

The focused sector is stagnant in terms of productivity and innovation. The adoption of the advanced tools can facilitate the implementation of continuous improvement and innovation strategies.

The main focus of this study is to analyse and improve the cycle time in the preparatory stage of the fabric manufacturing process. This has impact on other important and tangible measures including capacity utilisation and work flow and intangible measures including production planning flexibility and process visibility. The improvement impact is across departments.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the logic and processes for identifying, measuring and managing intellectual capital resources along side traditional economic resources to achieve sustainable outcomes valued by investors.

The approach is founded on classical finance theory and draws on and multi‐attribute value theory, system dynamics and the strands of thought known as intellectual capital in order to produce a grounded framework that both produces reliable results as well as achieves acceptance in the financial community.

The findings from this approach, the FVMT Methodology, provide a comprehensive management framework that is agnostic as to the form of resources being utilized and the activities that are involved in the transformation of one resource form into another on the way to achieving sustainable outcomes valued by investors.

Whilst the approach has proven to work well the limitations are that it requires both effort and access to market makers.

The implications is that for the first time an approach is now available that provides the same rigor for managing the future value component of a firm's share price as there already exist for managing the current value component of the firm's share price. This means that managers can both reduce the volatility surrounding their share price as well as predict the value outcomes of a given set of actions.

The authors believe that this is the first presentation of a methodology grounded in classical finance theory for the managing of the future value component of a firm's share price.