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Despite the increasing popularity of virtual communities of practice (VCoPs), our understanding of how to intentionally form, develop and sustain them is still at an embryonic stage. Aims to go some way to remedying this.

Investigates the attempt by 14 organizations to implement 18 VCoPs. Using existing documents, detailed logs, and focus groups, a large quantity of qualitative data was gathered, coded, and analyzed.

The study shows that the environment, the relevance of the VCoP's objectives to its members' daily work, and the degree to which the VCoP is embedded in the organizational structure of an organization are the three structuring characteristics most likely to explain the success or failure of a VCoP at the launching stage.

The focus is limited to the launching phase; further research should investigate different stages of development.

The results may offer an indication as to the most important characteristics to consider at the launching stage of a VCoP. Management may want to work at changing the characteristics or take actions to counteract their obstructive effects.

This paper highlights the need for a contingency approach in VCoPs research and practice, and rids one of the misconception, which is pervasive in the extant literature, that all VCoPs are the same and should be managed the same way.

How do organizations act as entrepreneurs and what are the outcomes of their innovations? This paper intersects two broad areas of organizational research: the sociology of entrepreneurship and the study of organizational forms. A case study of Kaiser Permanente's role as an institutional entrepreneur in the creation of the health maintenance organization form illuminates the benefits and pitfalls of institutional entrepreneurship – in this case, the act of turning identity into form. Examining organizations as institutional entrepreneurs also raises questions and challenges for future research about both entrepreneurs and models of organizing.

The authors herein carry out a literature review of retirement planning and highlights that proper retirement planning starts by looking at the level of income an individual is likely to continue receiving at retirement if they were to take no action, then comparing this to what they would need to lead the lifestyle they desire. The authors review the traditional economic theories that many are accustomed to when interpreting financial matters (i.e., rational behavior) and compares this to the various studies and articles found in literature. The authors then dig into retirement planning in Malta and the behavioral obstacles to proper planning and how these are tackled in different European countries.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and provide empirical evidence for the combined effects of individual characteristics, training design factors as well as environmental factors (as pre-training factors) on training transfer.

Primary data were collected from 235 managerial-level full-time employees in two phases with a temporal gap of two months. Both procedural and statistical measures were used to minimize the common method variance problem. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to analyze the data.

The results of this study clearly point out that all four predictor variables (voluntary participation, prior training information, training needs identification and training evaluation) positively and significantly influence training transfer.

The study contributes to the training transfer literature in three ways. One, the authors have shown the positive influence of pre-training factors (together as well as independently) on training transfer. The study is grounded in a strong theoretical framework, thus fulfilling the previous gap. This study brings more clarity to those variables (such as voluntary training) which are having contradicting views in the extant literature.

The study has significant findings for the organizations operating in the current business scenario in their endeavor to enhance learning transfer, which is very low and a major cause of concern for every organization. If management is aware of the success factors of training transfer, they can ensure a better training transfer.

The training transfer literature showcases two significant gaps; first of all, it lacks in using appropriate motivational theories, and second, there is variability in the results. This paper bridges both the gaps and attempts to advance our understanding of training transfer grounded in the theoretical framework by focusing on the role of individual, motivational and situational factors of training transfer to understand better which predictor variables can improve training transfer.

Further investigation of the thoughts and attitudes contributing to the voluntary pursuit of an MBA degree and career change is necessary to better understand career motivations and to satisfy career goals. This two-part article attempts to achieve this objective.

Factors contributing to the cognitive decision to enrol in an MBA program and the subsequent impact of self-discovery gained on program entry on career strategy were explored using a 32-question survey based on empirical research findings.

Part-time and full-time MBA students exhibited differences in decision criteria applied for MBA program entry. Following program enrolment, opportunities for career growth led to upward goal revision and increasingly focused goals.

Participation was potentially limited by survey distribution during a demanding academic period where many project reports and group presentations were due. A single MBA program in the downtown Montreal area may not be representative of all programs in the population.

Anchoring individual career identity and social identity has become increasingly complex as employers in many industries undergo continuous transformational change.

Integration within the work environment of identified career roles requires additional attention to validate an individual's strategic career efforts.

Surveying MBA candidates about career decisions and goal-revision allows for a valuable “snapshot” of career evolution over time. By promoting increased self-awareness, applied knowledge gained through MBA program activities acts as a catalyst for self-efficacy beliefs which results in upward distal goal-revision or increased goal focus.

This study examines share price reaction to the enrollment by companies in the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. We find that, on average, in the month of enrollment, shareholders of companies that join the CFBAI experience abnormal return of −3% and so do the shareholders of the immediate competitors that do not join the initiative. However, over the subsequent five years, while the shareholders of companies enrolled in the initiative experience an average abnormal return of +16.6%, that of non-enrolled competitors experience a further abnormal return of −34%. The abnormal returns for the two groups (at the time of enrollment and over the subsequent five years) are uncorrelated and so benefitting at the expense of competitors does not appear to be the motive for enrolling in the CFBAI. The study also provides comparison of number of employees and other important financial ratios before and after enrollment in the CFBAI for the two groups.

Further investigation of the thoughts and attitudes contributing to the voluntary pursuit of an MBA degree and career change is necessary to better understand career motivations and to satisfy career goals. The purpose of this two-part paper is to achieve this objective.

Factors contributing to the cognitive decision to enroll in an MBA program and the subsequent impact of self-discovery gained upon program entry on career strategy were explored using a 32-question survey based on empirical research findings.

Part-time and full-time MBA students exhibited differences in decision criteria applied for MBA program entry. Following program enrollment, opportunities for career growth led to upward goal revision and increasingly focussed goals.

Participation was potentially limited by survey distribution during a demanding academic period where many project reports and group presentations were due. A single MBA program in the downtown Montreal area may not be representative all programs in the population.

Anchoring individual career identity and social identity has become increasingly complex as employers in many industries undergo continuous transformational change.

Integration within the work environment of identified career roles requires additional attention to validate an individual's strategic career efforts.

Surveying MBA candidates about career decisions and goal-revision allows for a valuable “snapshot” of career evolution over time. By promoting increased self-awareness, applied knowledge gained through MBA program activities acts as a catalyst for self-efficacy beliefs which results in upward distal goal-revision or increased goal focus.

Little is known about perceptions of medical expenditure risks despite their presumed relevance to the demand for health insurance. This is the first study to examine households’ beliefs about their future spending on health care. The study made a unique elicitation of subjective probabilities of medical expenditures from rural Ethiopians participating in a panel survey and offered the opportunity to enrol in a health insurance programme. The vast majority of respondents give logically consistent responses to the subjective probability questions. The data indicate that the cross-sectional variance of realized expenditures, which is often used to proxy risk exposure, greatly overestimate the risk faced by any single household. Consistent with the serial correlation observed in realized expenditures, expectations are positively correlated with past expenses. They are revised upward in response to an increase in realized expenditure and, to some extent, they predict expenditure incurred in the year ahead. Despite containing information on future medical expenditures, there is no evidence that expectations influence the decision to take out health insurance, although plans to insure are positively related to the perceived volatility of expenses.

These results suggest that adverse selection may not threaten the viability of voluntary health insurance. A caveat is that measurement error in the reported probabilities may weaken the test for adverse selection. Notwithstanding this limitation, measurement of household-specific distributions of future medical expenses is feasible and avoids relying on the cross-sectional variance, which provides an upwardly biased estimate of medical expenditure risk.

Objective – To understand the role and influence of villagers’ trust for the health insurer on enrollment in a community-based health insurance (CBHI) scheme in Cambodia.

Methodology/approach – This study was conducted in northwest Cambodia where a CBHI scheme operates with the highest enrollment rates in the country. A mixed method approach was employed to gauge how individuals in the community trust the health insurer, and whether this plays a role in their decisions to enroll in CBHI schemes. Focus groups and household surveys were carried out to identify and measure trust levels, and to explore the association between insurer trust and enrollment in CBHI schemes.

Findings – Although villagers generally trusted the health insurance organization, villagers with poor experiences with other organizations in the past were less willing to trust the insurer. Insurer trust represented a combination of interpersonal and impersonal trust. After controlling for demographic factors, health care utilization, and household socio-economic status, insurer trust levels for villagers who newly enrolled (RRR=1.07, p<0.001) and renewed insurance (RRR=1.15, p<0.001) were significantly higher than those who never enrolled in CBHI schemes.

Implications for policy – This study illustrates the relationship between CBHI enrollment and villagers’ trust for the health insurer in a low-income, post-conflict country. It highlights the need for staff of health insurance organizations to place greater emphasis on building trusting interpersonal relationships with villagers. Understanding the nature of trust for the health insurer is essential to improve health insurance enrollment and protect people in poor rural communities against the impact of health-related shocks.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how firm size impacts pension workforce coverage with a particular focus on automatic enrolment (AE) to pension plans in small organisations.

The paper examines the alignment of government AE interests with those of small employers, their employees and pension providers to better understand how firm size impacts pension workforce coverage.

The alignment of interests between stakeholders (government, pension providers, employers and employees) differs between large and small organisations, and empirical findings from large organisations cannot be assumed to apply in small organisations.

The paper calls attention to the need for future empirical research and identifies a number of research questions for further analysis to examine how AE impacts pension participation in small organisations and advance the field.

The policy of automatically enroling employees into occupational pension plans, recently legislated for all eligible workers in the UK and under consideration in the USA and Ireland, was developed from research conducted in a small number of large organisations. Pension coverage is particularly inadequate for the large number of employees working in small organisations (1–49 employees). However, little research attention has been focussed on pensions in small organisations with pension policy makers assuming that legislated AE will work as effectively in small organisations as it did in large organisations. This paper addresses this gap in the field.