The Journal of American Academy

An International Comparative Study of Economic Development: The Recent Evidence

Dr. Tyler. T. Yu, Mercer University, Atlanta, GA

Dr. Miranda M. Zhang, Mercer University, Atlanta, GA

Dr. Lloyd Southern, Mercer University, Atlanta, GA

Dr. Carl Joiner, Mercer University, Atlanta, GA

ABSTRACT

Using data from 1990 to 2000 collected for 30 countries, ranging from high income, middle income, and low-income countries, this paper evaluates economic development by looking at the changes in socioeconomic factors between 1990 and 2000. The U.S. is used as the base country against which other countries are compared. Five social and economic variables are selected and examined for each country. These variables are: life expectancy at birth, infant mortality rate, adult illiteracy rate, merchandise trade exports, and GDP. Then, an ANOVA analysis is conducted to estimate the significance of the differences among these three groups in terms of the socioeconomic performance in the 10 year period. The worldwide uneven distribution of wealth and ability to achieve economic development has been the concern of many economists, political decision makers and others. Despite the trend of globalization and liberalization of markets, which provides opportunities of lifting developing countries out of poverty, there seems to be persistent, if not increasing, inequalities among countries. According to Kevin Watkins (2002), a Senior Policy Advisor with Oxfam, globalization is exacerbating inequalities at various levels. Income gaps based on access to markets, productive assets, and education are widening, acting as a brake on poverty-reduction efforts. The question is: why are some countries more successful than others in closing the development gaps. In order to find the answer to that question, we must first know where are the gaps and how large the gaps have become. The purpose of this paper is to examine and compare worldwide economic development. Using data collected for 30 countries, ranging from high income, middle income, and low-income countries, this paper evaluates economic development by looking at the changes in socioeconomic factors between 1990 and 2000.

Cited by:4

The Hewlett Packard – Compaq Computers Merger: Insight from the Resource-Based

View and the Dynamic Capabilities Perspective

Preeta Roy, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

Probir Roy, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we investigate the ongoing challenges faced by consolidation in the technology industry. We focus on two different paradigms to explore value creation in acquisition events: the resource-based view (RBV) and the dynamic capabilities perspective. We utilize the RBV perspective and Dynamic capability perspective to analyze the potential of technology mergers by focusing specifically on the merger of HP and Compaq. The HP-Compaq merger presents an interesting case in which these two paradigms can be used to gain insight on potential outcomes. We begin with an overview of relevant literature. We then analyze HP and Compaq in terms of resource mix and the combined synergies that might arise from related resources. This is followed by an analysis of each company’s acquisition experience to determine if there exists the (dynamic) capability to integrate. Mergers and acquisitions have been, and continue to be, a topic of great interest to researchers trying to understand the factors explaining why some firms perform better in managing the acquisition process than others. In managerial practice as well as in academic writings, the management of the post-acquisition integration phase is established as the single most important determinant of shareholder’s value creation (or value destruction) in the acquisition process (Zollo, 2001). As Zollo and Singh (2001) find, the type of acquisition (horizontal or market extension) is an important variable to understanding performance implications. In horizontal acquisitions, there exists a higher potential for efficiency-driven costs reductions. This position pertains to the resource-based view of the firm and the impact of resource (and market) relatedness between the two firms. On the other hand, such acquisitions require a more complex integration process. There are a greater number of potential overlaps of resources and activities across the organizations and the consequently large array of simultaneous, independent decisions and action steps necessary to accomplish this integration.

Cited by:48

Using Six-sigma to Improve Loan Portfolio Performance

Dr. Fataneh Taghaboni-Dutta, University of Michigan-Flint, Flint MI

Dr. Keith Moreland, University of Michigan-Flint, Flint MI

ABSTRACT

Six-sigma is a customer driven quality program that identifies critical customer requirements and incorporates them into process selection, design, and implementation. Many manufacturing companies have implemented six-sigma initiatives to improve quality and precision of processes and outputs. Applications to service firms have been much less common. In this case study, we explore how six-sigma is used to design, measure, and analyze process loss and guide process improvements with respect to guarantor and refinancing decisions in the student loan industry. The firm studied experienced poor performance in its portfolio of student loans acquired for rehabilitation and subsequent refinancing with the Student Loan Marketing Association (Sallie Mae or SLMA). Benchmarking and process review under six-sigma identified incongruence between employee incentives and organizational goals and poor up-front evaluation of the ability to rehabilitate (put in good standing) an acquired student loan as the primary causes for poor loan portfolio performance. The company could improve performance through matching employee (customer representative) incentives with organizational goals and through comprehensive, more standardized, systematic review of loans considered for acquisition, rehabilitation and refinancing with SLMA. The six-sigma strategy is a customer driven quality program that uses focus groups and surveys to identify critical customer requirements and incorporate these into process selection and design. A successful six-sigma strategy will move an organization toward zero defects (Mikel and Schroeder 2000). The strategy originated with Motorola and was made popular by Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric. Six-sigma strategy focuses on the elimination of hidden costs generated as a result of producing defective products and services. These are costs are often difficult to measure, but their elimination can add 30 to 40 percent to a companies’ profits (Mikel and Schroeder 2000).

Cited by: 47

International Pharmaceuticals Industry: The New Marketing Paradigm in the United States

and Unresolved Issues of Public Policy

Dr. Lee Richardson, University of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD

Dr. Vince Luchsinger, University of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD

ABSTRACT

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the major industries in the world, and is increasingly owned by American companies. One of the major tools of marketing of the industry within the United States is direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising. Approved on an interim basis in 1997 by the industry’s regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, annual expenditures already approach $3 billion annually. The industry faces increasing resistance to many of its practices, including rising prices, and numerous criticisms of DTC have not been resolved. Future trends for DTC depend on a number of factors and it is unrealistic to make firm forecasts of the future. Some trends that have contributed to strong growth of the pharmaceutical industry are strong productivity of firms, robust and innovative research and development, demographic trends that result in a heavily prescribed older population, and a free market. Senior populations themselves are growing at an accelerated rate. Last and not least is the success of marketing strategies, especially traditional personal selling, but recently the addition of aggressive direct- to- consumer advertising programs (DTC), the core topic of this paper. DTC has broken the tradition of promotion aimed at physicians who prescribe the products, plus some lesser effort aimed at pharmacists who fill the prescriptions. DTC influences the consumers/patients who in turn may seek particular pharmaceuticals through their physicians among other purposes. DTC can be understood through first, analysis of the industry and then a look at how it tries to solve problems, especially with its milieu of tools of marketing.

Cited by: 9

U.S. Trade Deficits with China and Mexico: The Hecksher-Ohlin Theorem Revisited

Dr. Farhad F. Ghannadian, Mercer University, Atlanta, GA

ABSTRACT

The trade deficit of the U.S. and the reaction of the second Bush Administration has been criticized by the media and politicians who demand more restrictions on trade. A huge chunk of this deficit lies in two countries in which the U.S. is heavily involved in trading. These countries are China and Mexico. The two countries are different in every aspect one can imagine. Mexico is a close neighbor, and China is over five thousand miles away. Yet both of these countries and the United States exhibit the behavior predicted by two Swedish economists, Heckscher and Ohlin. The abundance of capital in the U.S. relative to China and Mexico and the abundance of labor in these countries relative to the U.S. will move these countries to produce those goods that are least expensive in terms of labor and capital. This article looks at the products that are traded between the U.S. and China and Mexico and recommends strategies that can be employed by the U.S. government to improve the trade balance with these countries rather than fight the natural economic transition in the respective economies by legislation or trade barriers. Recent trade talks between China and the U.S. with the new Chinese Premier’s visit to the U.S. in December of 2003 has created additional questions on trade. China’s trade surplus of over $120 billion and its holding of U.S. Treasury bonds in excess of $100 billion have made its economy clearly interconnected to the U.S. In addition, China’s monthly wages are only $120 a month in the more expensive urban areas, and there are another 500 million peasants living in the countryside waiting to enter the industrial labor force. Recently the Bush Administration lifted the U.S. steel tariffs after twenty months of threats by the European Union to impose sanctions if they were not removed. Most of the people living in the United States consume many goods which are manufactured overseas.

An Analysis of the Incentives to Licensing in U.S. Information Technology

Dr. YoungJun Kim, The George Washington University, Washington D.C.

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the validity of the potential factors that might affect the incentives of companies to license out their technology. Empirical analysis is provided with the help of a panel data set of observed licensing transactions worldwide involving information technology (IT) companies publicly traded in the United States. Our results show that transaction cost, market competition, and knowledge appropriability considerations weigh in heavily in explaining the licensing behavior. The important explanatory factors relate to the firm’s prior involvement in technology licensing, the industry concentration, the sales growth and the propensity to receive patents in the primary industry of the company. Company’s stock of technological knowledge (patent), the company size and R&D intensity also play a key role in determining manager’s licensing incentive. There is anecdotal evidence that market for technology is less developed than socially desirable and not well functioned. For example, a study by British Technology Group found that large companies in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan ignore a large amount of their patented technologies, which could be licensed or profitably sold (British Technology Group, 1998). The inefficiency of market for technology is caused by a number of impediments it faces. The best-known obstacle to the efficient market for technology is the “appropriability problem”. In his early paper, Arrow (1962) argues that once an idea is disclosed to a potential buyer, it is possible for that buyer to use the information without paying for it. Because of this concern, a potential licensor would be reluctant to disclose the core of technology, depriving a potential licensee of the chance to evaluate it. Then, without being able to evaluate technology, buyers would be unwilling to buy the product. Thus, this leads to a typical “market failure”.

Cited by: 9

The Impacts of Country-of-Origin on Brand Equity

Dr. Chien-Huang Lin, National Central University, Taiwan

Danny T. Kao, National Central University, Taiwan

ABSTRACT

In the era of global marketing, corporations have to keep an eye on the marketing environment to survive in the long run. Branding strategies, as the key role in the marketing mix, are increasingly viewed as a powerful tool to obtain sustainable competitive advantages, to fully utilize available resources and to avoid bleeding price competitions (Aaker and Keller, 1990). Brand equity is widely acknowledged as an index of measuring the effectiveness of branding strategies. However, while facing numerous unfamiliar brands, consumers may fall into the dilemma. Therefore, the country-of-origin (COO) becomes a critical external cue for consumers to depend on. Unfortunately, the country of brand-of-origin is not exactly identical to that of the brand-of-manufacture due to the international OEM businesses. It is interesting to observe that how this phenomenon will impact on the brand equity. The concept of brand equity was addressed by advertising agents several decades ago (Barwise, 1993). Brand equity is currently not an account in the financial statements in practical field, however, it is significantly influential on revenues. For example, Philip Morris, the manufacturer of Marlboro, had acquired Kraft Foods and Miller Beer. AOL and Times Warner is another story of merger. In the process of M &A, the assessment of brand value is absolutely indispensable, thus the importance of brand equity is even conspicuous. For the time being, almost every industry is suffered from enduring economic depression and tries to reduce operational costs, as well as to raise up the profits simultaneously. Brand equity is thus receiving more attentions. While brand equity is beneficial for consumers to screen out messages in chaos, to reinforce the confidence of purchase decisions, and to create greater satisfaction, it will also conducive for sellers to increase marketing effectiveness and efficiency, to establish brand loyalty, to improve the profitability, and to distinguish from competitors (Huang, 2001).

Cited by:

Making the Most of International Assignments: A Training Model for Non-resident Expatriates

Dr. Spero C. Peppas, Mercer University, Atlanta, GA

ABSTRACT

Studies indicate that, as a result of globalization, most firms expect the number of employees they send on international assignments to grow. However, with downsizing and an increased focus on the bottom line, the three to five year expatriate posting has all but disappeared, giving way to commuter, frequent flyer and virtual assignments. With the evolution of these alternatives comes the need for new paradigms to prepare employees to perform effectively in different environments. This paper sets forth a 3-step, time- and cost-effective model to provide non-resident expatriates with basic macro-environment information and to acculturate them to their international destinations. Given globalization trends, companies are realizing the importance of having employees who can function well in the international arena. A 2002 study by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that 75% percent of firms surveyed expected an increase in the number of employees on international assignments. At the same time, 82% of firms viewed cost reduction as a priority in international assignments (International assignments: key trends 2002, 2003). Despite high costs, companies use expatriates for a variety of reasons, for example, to establish a business presence quickly in response to market developments; to provide skills that are not available in a particular country; to transfer technical knowledge as well as company culture and policy after mergers and acquisitions; and to allow employees to gain international experience as part of company management development programs (van der Boon, 2001). However, long-term (three to five year) expatriate assignments, the corporate rule in the past, are giving way to new alternatives. Such long-term assignments are complex and cause disruption to employees as well as to their families. Employers must give consideration to housing, transportation, children’s education, taxation, health insurance, retirement plans, dual career implications, as well as to the possibility of failed assignments due to various factors, including adjustment problems for the trailing spouse and family (PricewaterhouseCoopers expatriate survey, 2000; Global relocation trends 2001 survey report, 2002).

Cited by: 28

Corporate Governance: Theory and Practice

Dr. Malek Lashgari, CFA, University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT

ABSTRACT

Various theories and philosophies have provided the foundation for the development of alternative forms of corporate governance systems around the world. Furthermore, as economies have evolved through time it appears that corporate executives have deviated from the sole objective of maximizing shareholders’ wealth. Owners of the capital have responded to these forces for the purpose of preserving their wealth and earning a reasonable return on their invested capital. Whereas internal corporate control, external financial market forces, and institutional investors’ responses have been effective in securing shareholders’ wealth, legal protection needs to be provided for them. As a legal entity, a corporation enters into contracts to produce goods and services and it has the right to own property. Furthermore, the firm can borrow from various lenders and raise cash by issuing shares of its ownership. Shareholders would not only benefit from the earnings generated by the corporation, but by electing members of the board of directors they could indirectly oversee actions undertaken by the managers. These managers, as agents of the shareholders, are expected to perform for the best interest of the owners of the corporation. Corporate managers can add value to common stockholders without decreasing the welfare of the other corporate stakeholders. For example, borrowing a portion of the capital that is needed for financing activities of the firm, would lead to a higher return to common stockholders. This is because borrowing is generally inexpensive for the firm in the face of taxation benefits available to business enterprises. Executive decisions may result in a transfer of wealth from one group of shareholders to the other. For example, by undertaking risky investment projects, greater rewards may be available to common stockholders without any such benefits to bondholders, except for suffering from excessive risk. Corporate managers can also destroy wealth.

Cited by:

A Review of Employee Motivation Theories and their Implications for Employee Retention within Organizations

Dr. Sunil Ramlall, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis, MN

ABSTRACT

The article provides a synthesis of employee motivation theories and offers an explanation of how employee motivation affects employee retention and other behaviors within organizations. In addition to explaining why it is important to retain critical employees, the author described the relevant motivation theories and explained the implications of employee motivation theories on developing and implementing employee retention practices. The final segment of the paper provides an illustration with explanation on how effective employee retention practices can be explained through motivation theories and how these efforts serve as a strategy to increasing organizational performance. In today’s highly competitive labor market, there is extensive evidence that organizations regardless of size, technological advances, market focus and other factors are facing retention challenges. Prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks, a report by the Bureau of National Affairs (1998) showed that turnover rates were soaring to their highest levels over the last decade at 1.3 % per month. There are indeed many employee retention practices within organizations, but they are seldom developed from sound theories. Swanson (2001) emphasized that theory is required to be both scholarly in itself and validated in practice, and can be the basis of significant advances. Given the large investments in employee retention efforts within organizations, it is rational to identify, analyze and critique the motivation theories underlying employee retention in organizations. Low unemployment levels can force many organizations to re-examine employee retention strategies as part of their efforts to maintain and increase their competitiveness but rarely develop these strategies from existing theories.

Cited by: 1187

Determining Success Indicators of E-Commerce Companies Using Rough Set Approach

Faudziah Ahmad, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

Dr. Abdul Razak Hamdan, Professor, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

Dr. Azuraliza Abu Bakar, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

The successfulness of E-Commerce companies (ECC) depends on a large number of indicators. To include all relevant indicators in measuring success would present a tremendous burden in terms of data collection, analysis, and cost. Evidence in the literature, indicates that there are a limited number of critical areas necessary to the successfulness functioning of organizations (Rockart, 1979). Globerson (1985) found that three indicators were commonly used. While there is no hard and fast rule as to the correct number of indicators to use, it was recommended that not more than seven indicators should be used in measuring performance (Globerson et. al, 1991). Rough set classification technique is proposed to identify the best set of ECC success indicators. The set of indicators are identified from the set of reduct that produce rules with highest classification accuracy. The indicators are ranked through computation of its frequencies of occurrences in reduct sets. The experiment conducted discovered important indicators ranked in the ten topmost orders and a set of reduced indicators was identified. The internet-based revolution is far from over and more and more companies have realized the opportunities it offers. A study on ECC conducted by UNCTAD revealed that the global E-Commerce market was worth around US$ 615.30 billion and expected to grow to US$ 4,600 billion by 2005. An estimate by Forrester Research indicated that global online sales accounted for approximately US$ 2,293.50 billion of world trade during 2002 (Nasscom, 2003). The study of organizational performance has long being conducted by many research groups. Growth, profit, net income, Earning per share are some indicators that are looked at when inquiring about a company's performance.

Cited by: 9

The Implementation of Total Quality Management Strategy in Australia: Some Empirical Observations

Dr. Richard Yu-Yuan Hung, Toko University, Chia-Yi, Taiwan

ABSTRACT

This paper reports a study designed to examine the key concepts of TQM implementation and their effects on organizational performance. Process Alignment and People Involvement are two key concepts for successful implementation of TQM. The purpose of this research is to discuss how these two constructs affect organizational performance. The research hypotheses were empirically tested using a cross-sectional mail survey. Based on 207 responses from Australia’s top 1000 companies and perception data from CEO’s and MD’s, this research confirms several existing research findings and presents some new results. This research provides useful insight into the organization that uses TQM as an organization development program. TQM strategies represent a paradigm shift from the earlier strategies of the 1980s in the approach to management science. Studies showed that TQM was positively associated with performance outcome, such as financial performance and profitability (Cummings & Worley, 2001; Lawler et al, 1995) as well as with human outcomes, such as employee satisfaction, employee relations, and customer satisfaction (Lawler et al, 1995). Although many TQM studies have been done to discuss the concept and principles, the key to successful TQM program is not fully understood (Weintraub, 1993). According to Rivers and Bae (1999), successful implementation of TQM require a transportation of organizational information system infrastructure and other management systems so that they are aligned with the new TQM environment. Powell (1995) suggested that tacit resources such as organizational culture, commitment, empowerment and business processes drive TQM success. Sahney (1991) pointed out key concepts to implementation TQM, which included: top management leadership, creating a corporate framework for quality, transforming corporate culture, a collaborate approach to process improvement, integration with the process etc.

Cited by:

Urban Land Pricing Under Uncertainty: An Introductory Model

Dr. Bruce Lindeman, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AR

ABSTRACT

In the downtown areas of smaller cities, large buildings are rarely built. However, when the pressures of rising rents become great enough, it becomes likely that at some time in the near future a developer will purchase a suitable plot of available land and construct a new building. As the likelihood of this event becomes greater, speculators will begin to show interest in available plots of land, hoping to reap a profit by buying one (or more) and ultimately selling to the developer. However, until the developer ultimately decides upon a single plot, uncertainty will prevail among speculators as to which it will be. This paper develops a simple model involving two acceptable plots of land and varying numbers of speculators. The analysis shows that when only two speculators are involved, it is possible for them to buy the available plots at “bargain” prices. However, when three or more speculators show interest, the plots will be either “fully” priced, or overpriced. Further, the more uncertainly that prevails among speculators, the greater is the likelihood of more significant overpricing. Speculation in land is a common practice. The objective is to buy land cheaply, when its immediate development prospects are poor, and to hold it for some time while it “ripens” into more valuable property suitable for development. This paper develops a simple model appropriate to the downtown areas of smaller cities where large buildings, such as high-rise office structures, are only occasionally built. From time to time, however, it becomes apparent that new construction will occur, and that in the near future a developer will seek a suitable plot of available land and construct a new building. The model focuses upon this interim speculative period. We define this period as the time during which it is certain that a new building soon will be built, but before a developer actually purchases a site.

Cited by:

Identifying Global Leadership Competencies: An Exploratory Study

Cristina Moro Bueno, Grupo Antolin, North America

Dr. Stewart L. Tubbs, Eastern Michigan University, Michigan

ABSTRACT

The influence of globalization and technology requires new business paradigms and new leadership competencies. The goal of this study was two-fold. First, to test the Global Leadership Competencies Model developed by Chin, Gu, and Tubbs (2001) and secondly to identify Global Leadership Competencies. The model consists of a pyramidal hierarchy that represents developmental phases analogous to Maslow’s need hierarchy. The phases are (1) ignorance, (2) awareness, (3) understanding, (4) appreciation, (5) acceptance/internalization, and (6) transformation as leaders mature as a result of their international experiences. For this qualitative study, 26 interviews were conducted with international leaders from several countries whose average international expatriate experience was 48 months. Results obtained demonstrated that the model was predictive. The results presented also indicate that leaders consider the following to be some of the most important global leadership competencies: (1) communication skills, (2) motivation to learn, (3) flexibility, (4) open-mindedness (5) respect for others, and (6) sensitivity. For the full text see; Cristina Bueno. Global Leadership Competencies (GLC) Model. MBA Thesis, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan, 2003. The research in leadership development has recently turned toward identifying leadership competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviors); Charan, Drotter and Noel, (2001); Fulmer and Goldsmith, (2001); Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee, (2002); Tubbs and Moss, (2003); Tubbs, (2004); Vicere and Fulmer, (1997). The logic is that once the competencies can be identified, the leadership development process can more effectively focus on improving the deficiencies identified in each individual. It is also known that all leadership occurs in some context.

Cited by: 201

Public Policy Failure in Health Care

Dr. W. Guy Scott, Massey University at Wellington, New Zealand

ABSTRACT

Most governments in developed countries have evolved a health policy to improve allocative efficiency and distributive equity in the delivery of health care. Many of these policies fail. This paper discusses policy formulation and analysis in health care, why policies fail, and suggests some solutions. A range of actions is necessary to minimise policy failures. Policy makers must take into account the multidimensional nature of health status and the complex web of both health status and health policy determinants. Appropriate perspectives must be adopted. Tradeoffs between social equity and economic efficiency objectives and between stakeholder interests must be addressed. All important costs and effects must be identified and taken into account. Policy initiators, implementers, evaluators and consumers must communicate with each other. Monitoring the effectiveness of a policy in achieving its equity and efficiency objectives should be an essential step in the policy cycle. The primary objective of public policies for health should be to improve the health status of a nation’s population in an equitable and cost-effective manner QUOTE "(Evans, 1977)" (Evans, 1977). Delivery of health care is regulated and predominantly funded by the state (1) in the majority of developed economies. Public policies for health have evolved because it is unlikely that health care will delivered both efficiently and equitably if resource allocation decisions are left entirely to the free market. Governments may impose regulations, introduce a national health insurance scheme, establish a national health service, or state fund or subsidise private providers of health care. Health care is but one of the many determinants (2) of the health status (3) of individuals and populations.

Cited by: 6

From Cultural Models to Cultural Categories: A Framework for Cultural Analysis

Dr. Nitish Singh, California State University, Chico, Chico, CA

ABSTRACT

In the marketing literature, culture has been predominantly measured by cultural values. But cultural values only measure the behavioral aspect of the culture. To understand and analyze culture in its totality we need to take into account not only cultural values, but also cultural forms, propositions, routines, customs, symbols and artifacts. The main objective of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework, which derives cultural categories by analyzing various stages of cultural formation, so as to provide a broader and more complete framework to analyze culture. In other words, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for cultural analysis that takes into account perceptual, behavioral and symbolic dimensions of culture and puts forth operational constructs to measure them. In an attempt to analyze cultural phenomenon, researchers have proposed cultural categories, which can in some way operationalize and measure culture. One of the earliest attempts towards proposing cultural categories for analyzing culture came from Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961). They proposed six cultural dimensions, namely (1) the nature of people (2) the persons relationship to nature (3) the person’s relationship to others (4) the modality of human activity (5) temporal focus of human activity and (6) conception of space. Similar attempts to categorize culture in terms of unique value orientations have come from Hall (1976), Hall & Hall (1990), Hofstede (1980), and Trompenaars (1994). The four cultural value dimensions of individualism-collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity-feminity, proposed by Hofstede (1980) have been extensively used in marketing and advertising literature to study cross-national differences.

Cited by: 93

Understanding the Location Strategies of the European Firms in Asian Countries

Dr. Rizwan Tahir, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

Dr. Jorma Larimo, University of Vaasa, Vaasa, Finland

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate how the location-specific variables and strategic motives have influenced the location strategies of the Finnish firms in ten South and Southeast Asian countries from 1980 to 2000. Despite the increased interest in FDIs, very few studies have been undertaken to empirically analyze the influential location-specific variables together with the strategic advantages in order to analyze the FDI choices of foreign investors. To the best of our knowledge, particularly the strategic motives have remained primarily anecdotal. This is apparently the first study to empirically analyze how the location-specific variables and strategic motives have influenced the location strategies of Finnish manufacturing firms in Asian countries. The research results indicate large market size of the host country low cultural distance between the host and home countries and low wage rates in the host country increase the probability of undertaking market-seeking and efficiency-seeking FDIs. Similarly, it has been found that low levels of inflation, low levels of risks and the high level of exchange rate fluctuations in the target country increase the probability of undertaking risk-reduction seeking FDIs. Foreign direct investment (FDI) has always played an important role in the development of global economy. In the early 1980s, world economy was weakened by the two oil shocks of the 1970s, which caused deterioration in the balance of payment and resulted in an increased external indebtedness and domestic inflation in many countries around the globe. One of the key strategies for the economic recovery in most of the countries was the promotion of foreign private investment and manufactured exports.

Cited by: 56

A Transaction Cost Perspective on Motives for R&D Alliances: Evidence from the Biotechnology Industry

Yongliang “Stanley” Han, California State University, Sacramento, CA

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we examine the motives for R&D alliances formed by large pharmaceutical companies (LPCs) with new biotechnology firms (NBFs). Using a sample of 638 R&D alliances formed by 15 global pharmaceutical firms between 1985 and 1998, we seek to interpret empirical evidence in the light of a transaction cost explanation for the motives behind R&D alliances. The results seem to be inconsistent with the transaction cost explanation. With the emergence of the “new biotechnology”, which differs from earlier biotechnology in its focus on engineering specific changes in the genetic structure of microorganisms, over a thousand “new biotechnology firms” (NBFs) have been founded in the United States since the 1970s (Kenny, 1986; Pisano, Shan and Teece, 1988). As drug research is switching from a chemical to a biological basis, biotechnology has been widely perceived as a destructive or “competence-destroying” innovation for the pharmaceutical industry (Tushman and Anderson, 1986; Powell, Koput and Smith-Doerr, 1996). Large pharmaceutical companies (LPCs) entered relatively late into the biotechnology industry. The emergence of biotechnology has changed to a great extent the way in which LPCs obtain critical R&D capabilities. Due to the complex nature of biotechnology, knowledge transfer in biotechnology R&D often entails severe problems such as uncertainty and weak appropriability (Pisano, 1990). Therefore, exchange of knowledge in biotechnology cannot be mediated by arm’s-length market transactions.

Cited by: 18

A Structural Equation Modeling of CEO Pay-Performance Relationships

Dr. Freddie Choo, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA

Dr. Kim B. Tan, California State University, Stanislaus, Turlock, CA

ABSTRACT

Previous CEO pay-performance research found a contemporaneous relationship between CEO pay and firm performance. We extended this contemporaneous relationship into its synchronous and lagged causal relationships by using structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze (1) the direction of causality between pay and performance, (2) the effect of prior pay on future pay, and (3) the effect of prior performance on future performance. We found (1) the direction of causality was from pay to performance, and not vice versa, (2) prior pay affected future pay, and (3) prior performance did not always affect future performance. Previous CEO pay-performance research (e.g., Murphy, 1985; Lambert and Larcker, 1985; Jensen and Murphy, 1990; Hall and Liebman, 1997) found a contemporaneous relationship between CEO pay and firm performance. We extended this contemporaneous relationship into its synchronous and lagged causal relationships by using structural equation modeling (hereafter SEM) to analyze the synchronous relationships regarding the direction of causality between pay and performance; specifically, did pay affect performance, or was it vice versa? We also used SEM to analyze the lagged relationships regarding whether prior pay affected future pay, and whether prior performance affected future performance. A contemporaneous pay-performance relationship is a correlational relationship measured at one point in time. Hall and Liebman (1997) argued that a significant contemporaneous pay-performance relationship does not imply an efficient relationship. They suggested that an efficient pay-performance relationship could be determined by the direction of causality within the contemporaneous relationship. This direction of causality can be determined by examining the synchronous (1) relationships (Felson and Bohrnstedt, 1979; Arbuckle, 1995; Finkel, 1995) of whether pay affects performance and/or performance affects pay.

Cited by: 15

Surveying the Topic of “Effective Leadership”

Dr. Xin-An Lu, Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, Shippensburg, PA

ABSTRACT

With our world becoming more and more complicated, scholars of organizational studies are realizing that management alone cannot solve our problems. More and more of their attention is turning to leadership, which, scholars believe, may promise a solution to the myriad of our problems. Many (e.g. Covey, 1996; Deming, 1993; and Senge, 1990) believe that management deals with the area of things, control, and efficiency, all of which only strike at the branches of the evil. Leadership, on the other hand, deals with the area of people, “release” (a tapping of the energy reservoir of the people, the opposite of the concept of “control”, see for example Covey, 1996) and effectiveness, all of which represent an effort to strike at the root of the evil. Although scholars have some agreement on leadership, there is not much congruence in their opinions on the question of what effective leadership is or what constitutes real leadership. After reading the prominent articles and books on this topic, I feel that four categories of ideas may emerge within the scholarly studies and opinions on leadership. Those that don’t quite fit neatly into a specific category are usually a combination of two or more of these categories. These categories may be designated as the following: (1) Leaders are people who know what to do with themselves; (2) Leaders are people who know what to do with their people; (3) Leaders are people who know what to do with the communication channels/environment within their organizations; and (4) Leaders are people who have a holistic picture of what is going on within their organization. Before elaborating on each category of ideas, I’d like to talk a bit about how these four categories fit with each other.

Cited by: 27

Methodological Issues in Research on Business Casual Dress

Dr. Steven D. Norton, Indiana University South Bend, South Bend, Indiana

Dr. Timothy M. Franz, St. John Fisher College, Rochester, New York

ABSTRACT

Questions with different format regarding mode of dress at work were administered to 91 MBA students. The questions were based on an earlier factor analytic study by the authors. The predominant mode of dress was Business Casual. Mode of dress was correlated with a number of personal and job characteristics. Although the correlations among the various Mode of Dress questions were quite high, the format of these questions did have a substantial impact on correlations of dress with personal and job characteristics. The more formal the reported dress policy, the more likely employees are to report a higher level Conscientiousness. Employees who prefer a more formal dress policy report a higher level of Time Commitment, Conscientiousness, and Job Satisfaction. They are more likely to report having a Higher Level Job and to directly dupervise more Employees. Employees who prefer to wear more formal clothes themselves report a higher level of Time Commitment, Work Intensity, feeling of Fairness, Conscientiousness, and Job Satisfaction as well as lower Stress. They directly supervise more employees. We provide suggested items and approaches for further research on Mode of Dress at work.During the past decade, a majority of the workforce has shifted from traditional, formal business attire to business casual or casual dress. For example, a poll by the Society for Human Resources Management shows that 90% of U.S. office workers go to work in business casual clothes at least once per week (Walter, 1996).

Cited by: 10

A Study of Golf Courses Management: The In-depth Interview Approach

Tai-heng Chen, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD

ABSTRACT

With the increasing popularity of golf in Taiwan, many new golf courses are being developed, creating a need for knowledgeable people to manage these courses. Golf course managers are responsible for the entire golf course. They are responsible for golfers’ motivation, grounds management, pest control, and environmental protection. They are in charge of making the game fun for golfers. A professional golf course manager uses not only what he or she has learned from formal education but also what he or she has learned in the field, including matters of technology, planning, and the environment. The purpose of this study was to construct golf course management interview questions to examine the opinions of golf course managers on trends in golf and golf course management in Taiwan. With the increasing popularity of golf in Taiwan, many new golf courses are being developed, and this creates a need for knowledgeable people to manage these courses. This education is necessary for the people of Taiwan, especially for international students majoring in recreation. The hope is to raise the standards of these new golf courses in order to make the links internationally competitive. Even in the United States, golf managers are more educated than ever. According to Landscape Management, “Approximately 75 percent of GCSAA [Golf Course Superintendents Association of America] members have two or four-year degrees or have attended graduate school” (McGinnis, 1997, p. 6G). The degree of professionalism is increasing in this field, and golf course managers face new and post challenges.

Cited by: 6

A Structural Equation Modelling Analysis of Fairness Heuristic Theory

Douglas Flint, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB

Pablo Hernandez-Marrero, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.

ABSTRACT

Prior research on fairness heuristic theory of organizational justice has shown that procedural information is used when distributive information is lacking. This study extends consideration of fairness heuristic in two ways: By testing fairness heuristic effects across four different combinations of procedural and distributive justice; and by testing an ambiguous distributive outcome. Structural equation modeling is used to measure the directionality of procedural and distributive justice effects. Procedural justice is of interest to organizations because of its impact on important organizational outcomes. These include: performance (Ball, Trevino & Sims, 1995; Gilliland, 1994; Konovsky & Cropanzano, 1991; Welbourne Balkin & Gomez-Mejia, 1995), organizational commitment (Brockner, 1992; Konovsky & Cropanzano, 1991; Schaubroeck May & Brown 1994), job satisfaction (Schaubroeck et al, 1994), organizational citizenship behavior (Ball et al, 1995), commitment to organizational decisions (Greenberg, 1994; Korsgaard, Schweiger & Sapienza, 1995; Lind, Kulik, Ambrose & de Vera Park, 1993), turnover intentions (Schaubroeck et al, 1994, Olson-Buchanan, 1996), theft (Greenberg, 1990, 1993), and retaliation against organizations (Skarlicki & Folger, 1997). Organizational systems that have been linked to procedural justice include: Employee discipline (Cole & Latham, 1997), inter-group conflict (Huo, Smith, Tyler & Lind, 1996), institutional racism (Jeanquart-Barone, 1996), performance appraisal (Barclay & Harland, 1995), pay for performance (St. Onge, 2000), and employee benefits (Tremblay, Sire & Balkin, 2000). There are some conditions when procedural justice is more salient than others. Fairness heuristic theory provides an explanation for these conditions.

Decolonization and International Trade: The Ghana Case

Dr. Albert J. Milhomme, Texas State University at San Marcos, TX

ABSTRACT

Many countries, former colonies of some colonial powers like Great Britain, and France, have acceded in the second part of the twentieth century to their political independence. What about their economic independence? A measure of this economic independence could be reflected in the evolution of their international trade, exports as well as imports, and the room of this trade within their gross domestic product. This study, centered on Ghana, a former colony of Great Britain, might put some light on the rate of the evolution and the achievement or non-achievement of this economic independence of this country. In 1957, as a colony of Great Britain, Ghana did export 38% of its total exports to Great Britain and did import from Great Britain 45% of its total imports. The United Kingdom had then at that time a dominant position which was the result of more than a century of effort to create and protect trade, to pump in finished products and pump out raw materials. Has the United Kingdom kept an important position in Ghana today in 2003, 45 years after the independence? This is the type of question some people have definitely answered by “yes”. British companies are still very active in many formerly colonized countries and do a majority of their “International Business” in their old colonies. The reasons are basically to be found in the cultural ties and traditions established during colonial rule. Other people have different feelings. Because of historical events preceding independence, they believe that many formerly colonized countries would spurn companies from the former colonial powers. Ostracism was everywhere. If dependence may have existed for a short while, it did not last, a former colonizer losing very quickly its historically acquired economic advantages.

Cited by: 7

The Effects of Mentoring on Perceived Career Success, Commitment and Turnover Intentions

Dr. Therese A. Joiner, La Trobe University, Australia

Dr. Timothy Bartram, La Trobe University, Australia

Terese Garreffa, La Trobe University, Australia

ABSTRACT

Few studies have empirically examined the relationship between mentoring and protégé turnover intentions. This paper which is largely exploratory, examines the relationships among mentoring, perceived career success, organizational commitment and the effect on protégés’ turnover intentions. Empirical data is drawn from an Australian subsidiary of a large US multi-national firm. Results suggest that a successful mentoring program may be an important factor in positively influencing protégés’ perceptions of career success and organizational commitment, which inturn is likely to reduce their turnover intentions. Additional qualitative data also revealed that both career enhancement and psycho-social functions of the mentoring process were valued by the protégé. Implications for practitioners and future research are discussed. Mentoring in organizations can be viewed as a developmental relationship whereby managers provide assistance and support to particular subordinates (protégés) on an individual basis (Kram, 1985, Orpen, 1997; Higgins and Kram, 2001). The mentoring process can serve both career enhancement and psycho-social functions for the protégé. Career enhancement roles in mentoring include sponsorship, coaching, exposure, protection and provision of challenging assignments. The psycho-social functions include acceptance, counselling, emotional support and role modelling (Kram, 1985). Practitioners and academics alike have underscored the importance of mentoring because of the benefits that accrue to the protégé as well as the organization (Dansky, 1996; Broadbridge, 1999; MacGregor, 2000).

Cited by: 222

Internet Shopper Demographics and Buying Behaviour in Australia

Dr. Joshua Chang, Charles Sturt University, Australia

Dr. Nicholas Samuel, The University of Canberra, Australia

ABSTRACT

There has been a rapid growth of online shopping amongst Australian consumers. The development creates a need for a greater understanding of the association between the demographic characteristics of shoppers and their online shopping behaviour. This study suggests that gender, age, income and location are associated with different patterns of online purchasing frequency and expenditure. The findings enable a better understanding of online shoppers relevant to market segmentation variables. Businesses have developed strategies for consumer markets in order to gain leverage in rapidly expanding e-markets. Due to benchmarking processes, most companies are already interlocking business strategies and e-commerce, causing e-commerce to replace conventional and physical marketing channels for cutting edge solutions (Merrilees and Miller 1996). Many changes have occurred in the area of retailing, and these include changing retail structures, improving technological developments, changing market conditions, and the emergence of more affluent, mobile and time-scarce consumers (Shim and Eastlick 1998). Changing consumer lifestyles and lack of time may make it more difficult for consumers to shop at physical locations such as stores and shopping malls, making the option of online shopping a viable alternative to shopping at physical locations. The changing nature of consumer lifestyles at home and at work are altering where, how, and when consumers shop (Davies 1995). The Australian household structure has undergone dramatic change since the 1970s.

Cited by: 115

Internationalizing the Business Curriculum: Developing Intercultural Competence

Dr. A. G. Cant, Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA

ABSTRACT

American businesses are confronted with the need to operate outside the comfort of their own cultural environment. To be successful global managers requires the development of five key global cultural competencies; cultural self-awareness, cultural consciousness, ability to lead multicultural teams, ability to negotiate across cultures and a global mindset. Given U.S. business students very limited understanding of other societies and their cultures, business colleges face a major challenge to prepare students for global assignments. Of the three methods used by colleges to internationalize the business curriculum, only one approach provides the opportunity for students to develop the global cultural competencies necessary for them to succeed in a global career. The creation of an international business degree or major allows students to gain insight from humanities and language courses and from actual international experience. While business has always operated between communities and across national boundaries, the world now faces a new era of unprecedented global economic interactions. This highly competitive marketplace requires sophisticated management competencies necessary to work with staff, customers, suppliers, and government officials with fundamentally different values, assumptions, beliefs and traditions. Managers in domestically focused firms have had the relative comfort of working within their own culture, whereas in the international marketplace cross-cultural management is the norm.

Cited by: 131

Change-Adept Classroom

Mominka Fileva, Ph.D., Davenport University, Dearborn, Michigan

ABSTRACT

This paper reveals an experiential approach to teaching a graduate course in Organizational Behavior. Based on Kanter’s (1997) concepts of change-adept organizations in business, the whole course was designed as an experiment creating a change-adept organization in the classroom environment. The end result was a learning environment that was flexible, less structured, and flatter in hierarchy. The key elements included empowerment of students, learning contracts drafted by students, and a grading process involving a peer review system, designed by students. The role of the instructor in such a classroom naturally shifted to balancing, juggling contradictions, and providing guidance. Creating a classroom based on the key characteristics of Kanter’s (1997) concept of business change-adept organizations gave the students the opportunity to experience empowerment and the increased responsibilities that come with it, self-discipline and self-management, autonomous decision-making, peer review of performance, freedom and desire to innovate, decentralization, and learning in all directions. The change adept classroom provided students with better learning power to understand the nature of empowerment and decentralization and when, how, and to what level they would efficiently work in a business environment. There has been no doubt that the traditional way of teaching management classes – lectures, case analysis, role plays, research, etc. – gives the students adequate theoretical knowledge and practical insights of the real business world. However, they all remain secondary level information. In most cases, the learning process is most successful when students have first-hand knowledge or can experience the phenomenon being studied (Obach, 2000; Wedell and Wynd, 1994)).

Cited by: 5

Critical Success Factors of Transferring Nursing Knowledge in Hospital’s Clinical Practice

Dr. Ming-Tien Tsai, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Ling-Long Tsai, Meiho Institute of Technology & Ph.D. Candidate, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan

ABSTRACT

This paper aimed to explore the critical success factors of transferring nursing knowledge during the hospital’s clinical practice. The researchers conducted 3 focus group interviews and consulted with 17 clinical instructors, resulted in a 78-item questionnaire. 460 nursing students were selected as samples, 443 nursing students turn in questionnaires, the completed questionnaires were 422. The analysis of their responses was a combination of means and factor analysis. The results indicate three critical factors that make nursing knowledge transform successfully. The first factor motivation implies that efficient knowledge transfer is based on nursing students’ willingness to learn. The second factor link to practice explained that the techniques to connect the theory and practice is necessary. The third factor nursing skills expressed that practicing sufficient nursing skills before clinical practice is prerequisite for nursing students. It is wildly accepted that school’s primary function is education. In professional education, School offers students curriculums to gain knowledge, while apprenticeship system proffers the opportunity to utilize their knowledge on the target issue. In traditional learned professions, always include two dimensions: theory and practice. In nursing programs, schools teach nursing students about nursing theories and skills. However, they may not realize how to apply their knowledge until hospital’s clinical practice. Severinsson (1998) found there exists a gap between nursing theory and practice. In order to improve the integration of theory and practice, a high standard of clinical practice is necessary. Clinical supervision may assist nursing students to digest the nursing process.

Cited by: 8

An Investigation of Critical Success Factors in the Adoption of B2BEC by Taiwanese Companies

Dr. Hsiu-Yuan Tsao and Dr. Koong H.-C. Lin, Ming Hsin University of Science & Technology, Taiwan

Dr. Chad Lin, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia, Australia

ABSTRACT

This exploratory study examines what critical success factors are relevant to adopting business-to-business electronic commerce (B2BEC) in the small and medium-size enterprise (SME) sector in Taiwan. Well known for the vibrancy of this sector, Taiwan is embracing and aggressively promoting information technology and e-commerce (i.e., B2BEC) and this is particularly true among many of the leaders in the electronic manufacturing industry. Since the economy of Taiwan is so heavily dependant on the performance of small and medium-size electronic enterprises, enhancing their competitiveness is a major, pressing issue. We propose some critical factors and examine whether or not the SME sector uses them to leverage the Internet and realize the benefits of adopting B2BEC. Business-to-business e-commerce (B2BEC), in the form of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), serves as a cheaper alternative for small-medium enterprises (SME) to do business online and reach potential customers worldwide. Electronic commerce technology is particularly useful in allowing businesses in the SME sector to collaborate on providing better service to customers as well as to compete more effectively against major competitors (Loughlin, 1999). Many electronic markets have been set up to facilitate inter-organization transactions and to increase market access for both suppliers and buyers (Giaglis et al., 2002). However, despite the widespread use of B2BEC in the SME sector, few organizations have realized much of the benefit expected from its adoption (Hart and Estrin, 1991; Lee et al., 1999). Moreover, its progress has been particularly hampered in Asia by many unforeseen technical, organizational, legal and economic difficulties, which have diminished its value (Lynch and Beck, 2001).

Cited by: 114

A Model to Estimate the Default Risks for Callable Corporate Bonds: Evidence from the U.S. Market

Dr. David Wang, Golden Gate University, San Francisco, CA

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a model for estimating the default risks implicit in the prices of callable corporate bonds. The model considers three essential ingredients in the pricing of callable corporate bonds: stochastic interest rate, default risk, and call provision. The stochastic interest rate is modeled as a square-root diffusion process. The default risk is modeled as a constant spread, with the magnitude of this spread impacting the probability of a Poisson process governing the arrival of the default event. The call provision is modeled as a constraint on the value of the bond in the finite difference scheme. The empirical results are encouraging. First, the estimated default probabilities are consistent with Moody’s ratings. The estimated default probabilities rise with lower ratings and fall with higher ratings. Second, the relationship between the estimated default probabilities and other bond characteristics is consistent with the intuition. The estimated default probabilities are negatively correlated with maturity and positively correlated with coupon payment, age, and issue size. This paper can be used both as a benchmark for models for estimating the default risks associated with callable corporate bonds and as a direction for future research. Default risk has always been a major topic of concern for financial intermediaries and any agents committed to a financial contract. The standard theoretical paradigm for modeling default risks is the contingent claims approach pioneered by Black and Scholes (1973). Much of the literature follows Merton (1974) by explicitly linking the risk of a firm’s default to the variability in the firm’s asset value.

Cited by: 2

Purchasing Power Parity: Evidence from Asia Pacific Countries

Dr. Shyam Bhati, The University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia

Dr. Michael McCrae, The University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia

ABSTRACT

Long run purchasing power parity between countries of Asia pacific region is investigated using a cointegration approach. Quarterly data on exchange rates of Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand are used in this study. The result provides evidence of the existence of purchasing power parity between Australia and other countries in the Asia Pacific region. We have also compared the results using CPI and WPI of these countries for the existence of purchasing power parity. We are not able to confirm if wholesale price index is a better indicator of purchasing power parity as compared to consumer price index for the countries studied. The theory of purchasing power parity (PPP) plays an important role in the determination of exchange rates. PPP explains the relation between the price levels of any two countries and the exchange rates between their currencies. Although a number of studies have been conducted, there is no agreement among various authors [Diebold, Husted and Rush (1991); Cheung and Lai (1993); Liu and Burkett (1995); Veramini (1998) and Bahmani-Oskoee (1998)] on whether PPP holds in short term or in long term. One of the significant issues that emerges from some of the country specific studies, however, is that US dollar, Japanese Yen and German Mark do not comprise an optimum currency area for testing the theory of PPP. This view is supported by the study of Sarno (1997) for European Monetary System countries. Recently Bleaney (1998) has come to a similar conclusion that the Sterling–U.S. dollar–SF triangle tends to yields unfavourable results, with the evidence favouring PPP if not more than one of these currencies is used in any bilateral comparison.

Is Technology Preemption a Motive for R&D Alliances? Evidence from the Biotechnology Industry

Dr. Yongliang “Stanley” Han, California State University, Sacramento, CA

ABSTRACT

Using data on 638 R&D alliances formed by 15 large pharmaceutical companies (LPCs) with new biotechnology firms (NBFs), we conduct extensive demographic analyses of the nature, frequency and exclusivity of these alliances. We seek to examine the possibility of technology preemption as a motive for R&D alliances formed by LPCs with NBFs. We argue that equity investment in NBFs may enable LPCs to monitor the technological advancements made by the NBFs more closely, and possibly block access by competing LPCs to the same technologies. The empirical results presented in this study offer very weak support to the argument that LPCs' R&D alliances with NBFs are motivated by their desire to technologically preempt competitors. Strategic alliances have been an increasingly important mode of interorganizational collaboration for firms to gain competitive advantage in their current industries, or to explore fresh opportunities in new areas (Hagedoorn, 1993; Powell, Koput and Smith-Doerr, 1996). A number of motives for alliances have been identified. They include the need to share the costs and risks of innovation (Mowery, 1988; Mowery, Oxley and Silverman, 1997); obtaining access to new markets and technologies (Powell et al., 1996); combining complementary skills (Teece, 1986; Arora and Gambardella, 1990); and preserving prospective learning opportunities (Hamel, 1991). The biotechnology industry provides a dynamic and rich setting where we can examine what forces fundamentally drive the formation of R&D alliances between large pharmaceutical companies (LPCs) and new biotechnology firms (NBFs).

Cited by: 2

Enhancement of Customer Network Relationship via Governance Mechanism of Inter-Organizational

Core Resource and Core Knowledge Strategic Alliance

Tsai–Lung Liu, I-Shou University and Tajen Institute of Technology, Taiwan

ABSTRACT

With an attempt to review the nature of inter-organizational strategic alliance, resource-based perspective, knowledge management and customer network relationship, this paper tries to integrate five different formation factors of inter-organizational strategic alliance, namely degree of inter-industrial competition, market demand uncertainty, task knowledge ambiguity, resource complementarity and degree of marketing intensiveness. Furthermore, this paper endeavors to explore some research questions, such as: How do different formation factors of inter-organizational strategic alliance cause impact on core resource and core knowledge strategic alliance? How do different formation factors of inter-organizational strategic alliance cause impact on customer network relationship? How do enhance customer network relationship via governance mechanism of inter-organizational core resource and core knowledge strategic alliance? After employing the related variables from past literature, analysis and inference, this paper develops 14 propositions and builds up a conceptual model. Simultaneously, this paper finds out different formation factors of inter-organizational strategic alliance, which have significant positive and negative effects on core resource and core knowledge strategic alliance, and customer network relationship. Other important findings of this paper include the governance mechanism of inter-organizational core resource and core knowledge strategic alliance, which is mature intermediator effect enough and more helpful to enhance customer network relationship.

Cited by: 22

Determinants of Satisfaction with Pay Among: Nursing Home Administrators

Douglas Singh, Frank Fujita, Indiana University South Bend, South Bend, Indiana

Dr. Steven D. Norton, Indiana University South Bend, South Bend, Indiana

Satisfaction with pay, controlled for salary level, was studied in 258 non-owner nursing home administrators in Indiana and Michigan. Theories of satisfaction with pay are applied to nursing home administrators and the likely consequences of low satisfaction are discussed Significant differences in actual salaries or satisfaction with pay occurred when comparing the administrators of public sector, private, and not-for-profit nursing homes, and those in Michigan vs. Indiana. Significant differences were also associated with the administrators’ level of education, gender, and marital status. In a stepwise multiple regressions, satisfaction with pay, controlled for salary level was best predicted by professional development, commitment, bonus, skill compatibility, young age, small facility size, academic training not in nursing, opportunities for career advancement and lower hours worked. Although women and non-married administrators were paid less, factor s other than gender and marital status explain satisfaction with pay controlled for salary level. Implications of our findings for management practices regarding nursing home administrators are discussed. Employment represents an exchange relationship between the employer and the employee (Young 1997), in the context of this paper, nursing home owners and corporations being the employers, and employed nursing home administrators (NHAs) being the employees. At the center of this relationship are certain inputs and outcomes. The inputs include first the human capital an employee brings to a new job in the form of training, education, and prior experience, and secondly, personal factors such as age, gender, marital status, and race as well as certain personality traits and attitudes. Once on the job, the employee must provide additional inputs in the form of hours worked, performance, and tenure in the position.

Cited by: 20

Dynamics of Business Network Embeddedness

Dr. Chung-Jen Chen, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, R.O.C

Lien-Sheng Chang, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, R.O.C

ABSTRACT

This study explores the complex relationship between inter-firm characteristics and business network embeddedness. This study suggests that firms strive to increase resource value and reduce transaction costs through inter-firm specialization, relational capital and routines, and letting business network become gradually embedded in an evolutionary process, which facilitates incremental innovation but hinders radical innovation. Firms have been aggressively building business networks since 1980. Inter-firm collaboration has increased rapidly and shaped a tide of collective competition. These firms are aggressively engaged in innovation. Traditional businesses have striven to fight back and are often unable to maintain their leadership position (Moore, 1993). New questions are raised. Why can most incumbent business networks not rapidly respond to radical environmental change? Are business networks rigid like individual firms? Most scholars have concentrated on the advantages of business networks. Recently, some researchers have begun to emphasize their limitations and disadvantages (Gulati et al., 2000). Paradoxically, however, both the advantages and the disadvantages of business networks are related to their embeddedness. This study explores the complex relationship between inter-firm characteristics and business network embeddedness. Important factors that affect the embeddedness of a business network are identified. These include inter-firm specialization, relational capital and routines.

Cited by: 39

The Economic Impact of a One-Time Sporting Event: The Breeders’ Cup Thoroughbred Racing Championship Day

Dr. Ralph Haug, Roosevelt University, Schaumburg, IL

Dr. Alan Krabbenhoft, Roosevelt University, Schaumburg, IL

Dr. Steven Tippins, Roosevelt University, Schaumburg, IL

ABSTRACT

Using a large sporting event, the 2002 Breeders’ Cup, this paper reports the economic impact of such an event. The methodology provides a standard of comparison for other studies and begins a line of research that, over time, will develop into a body of research that will have academic importance as well as practical application when large events are considered under the criteria of economic justification. Large events have always taken place. In recent times those that fund these events have tried to determine the economic impact of these events. While not an exact science, methods have evolved to do just that. This paper explores the impact that a one time, annual event in horse racing, the Breeders’ Cup Thoroughbred Racing Championship (hereafter referred to as Breeders’ Cup), has on the host locations. In the early 1980s the image of thoroughbred racing was mixed and confusing. On the one hand, the American sportsperson could follow horse racing by watching the triple crown races over three Saturday afternoon on television (Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, Preakness), and if he or she lived near a major city which had a race track, attend local racing meets. As a result, the fan received a very narrow and limited view of the sport. The other side of racing’s image was one that was darker. Press coverage often included stories about the possible drugging of horses. In addition, it was perceived by some that those who attended the races had less than sterling images. The thoroughbred racing community felt that the image had to be changed. Led by John Gaines owner of Gainesway Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, and other major breeders, a vision was created where owners, trainers, and racetracks could work together to create a series of championship races all held on the same day at the same track.

Cited by: 7

Are Strategic Assets Contributions or Constraints for SMEs to Go International?

An Empirical Study of the US Manufacturing Sector

Dr. Chiung-Hui Tseng, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Dr. Patriya S. Tansuhaj and Dr. Jerman Rose, Washington State University, Pullman, WA

ABSTRACT

It is widely perceived that most small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) go international in a passive manner without any proactive plan. This study seeks to go beyond this conventional viewpoint by focusing on the strategic assets available to SMEs, which are closely tied to their international expansion, rather than on their resource limitations. Building on the international business and entrepreneurship literatures, we develop three hypotheses that relate technology capability, personal networks, and owner/manager experience, to multinationality of SMEs. Using a sample of 117 US SMEs to test these hypotheses, we found that the more technology capability the firm possesses, the more it has expanded internationally. The data also supports our hypothesis that the more firms concentrate on domestic networks, the lower their degree of international expansion. In addition, the hypothesis that owner/manager international experience leads to more multinationality is also supported. To be successful in international expansion in the long run, SME executives are urged to invest in technology capability and to gain more international experience while not being so locked to building domestic networks. The topic of international expansion has long been at the heart of international business and strategic management research. Due to the historical dominance of large, well-established firms in international markets, previous scholars have concentrated on the behavior of such firms (e.g., Contractor et al., 2003; Hitt et al., 1997; Kotabe et al., 2002; Tallman and Li, 1996).

Cited by: 46

3^n-pFractional Factorials with Blocking

Dr. C. P. Kartha, University Michigan –Flint, MI

ABSTRACT

A systematic method of construction of fractional factorial designs split into blocks when the factors are each at three levels is discussed in this paper. The method consists of first getting the independent treatment combinations in the ‘key’ block by adding columns to a unit matrix of appropriate order using Galois Field theory and then deriving from this the rest of the blocks. By this method designs can be constructed in which a minimum number of lower order interactions are confounded. When a factorial experiment involves several factors, each of which are tested at various levels, it is well known that economy of space and material may be attained by observing only a fraction of all possible combinations of the factor levels. This technique is known as fractional replication [8] of a factorial experiment. One essential assumption to make such designs useful is that the higher order interactions are negligible. Though several methods of constructing symmetrical fractional factorials are available in literature ([1], [2], [4], [8]) it appears that there has not been any attempt for obtaining such designs split into blocks following some systematic method of construction. Moreover, almost all the available methods are for two level factors and relatively very little work has been done for construction of designs with factors at three levels. In this paper a method is presented for constructing fractional factorial designs with blocking for experiments with factors each at three levels. These designs are optimum in the sense that a minimum number of lower order interactions are confounded. A convenient way to represent the treatment combinations of the general sⁿ factorial arrangement is by x₁, x₂, …, x_n where x_i is the level of the i^th factor and takes on values from 0 to (s-1). The sⁿ-1 degrees of freedom among the sⁿcombinations may be partitioned into (sⁿ-1)/(s-1) sets of (s-1) degrees of freedom.

Money Laundering: A Global Challenge

Dr. Philip S. Russel, Philadelphia University, Philadelphia, PA

ABSTRACT

Money laundering poses a growing threat to the global financial and economic system. Recent terrorist incidents (such as the September 11 tragedy) and international financial scandals (such as the BCCI collapse in 1991, Bank of New York Scandal, laundering of millions of dollars by former Nigerian dictator) have exposed the fragility of our financial structure. Today money laundering has expanded its reach to include drugs and non-drug crimes, banks and non-banking institutions, physical transfer and cyber transfer. In this paper, we examine the money laundering process and review some of the global initiatives that have been taken to combat the problem. Money laundering experts estimate that perhaps US $1 trillion is laundered globally (a significant portion of it through the United States) every year, making it one of the largest industry. The dollar value of money laundered demands that it be controlled as otherwise it could seriously distort domestic and international macro economic policies and optimum allocation of resources. Lack of effective measures to combat this menace pose a threat to the economic, moral and social fiber of our society. The fight against money laundering has now attained global status and cuts across different drug and law enforcement agencies around the world, who have called for the cooperation of not only banks but also accountants, lawyers, and other professionals. These steps have had a noticeable impact but there are still many loopholes and money laundering continues to flourish (almost) unhindered. As the international narcotics control strategy report (1997) cynically observed “the race between criminals seeking new venues and oversight bodies seeking more widespread compliance still goes to the crooks”.

Cited by: 8

Research on Impacts of Team Leadership on Team Effectiveness

Chia-Chen Kuo, Graduate School of Management, I-Shou University, Taiwan

ABSTRACT

From a leadership perspective, this research categorizes leadership as transactional, transformational and paternalistic leadership style to examine how different kinds of leadership behavior cause impact on team effectiveness. This research employs the variables of team social capital and team diversity as the moderators to examine how they cause impact on team effectiveness. Basically, this research has four purposes: 1. Research on how transactional, transformational and paternalistic leadership styles cause impact on the forecast effect of team effectiveness. 2. Research on how these three leadership behaviors forecast team effectiveness and what the most significant factor of team effectiveness is. 3. Research on whether team social capital has moderator effect towards team effectiveness? 4. Research on whether team diversity has moderator effect towards team effectiveness. Having made the related literature review, analysis and integration, this research develops a total of seven propositions and their related propositions, and also builds up a conceptual research model. Some research results are made as follows: 1. Among transactional, transformational and paternalistic leadership styles which all have positive forecast effect towards team effectiveness, transformational leadership causes the most significant impact on team effectiveness. 2. Team social capital has moderator impact on team effectiveness. Its communication frequency, degree of informal interaction, total feeling of trust and perspective of value sharing positively raise the team effectiveness. 3.

Cited by: 168

Making Appropriate Decision on Organizational Boundary and Creating Organizational

Value of Foreign Investment of Multinational Enterprise (MNE)

Chia–Chen Kuo, I-Shou University, Taiwan

ABSTRACT

This research paper aims at exploring the formation factors for the motivation of multinational enterprise’s (MNE’s) engaging in internationalization, and the influential factors for MNE’s strategic choice of foreign market entry mode. Furthermore, this research develops for MNE three foreign market entry modes, including export, contractual cooperation and direct investment. Meanwhile, by means of literature review and analysis, this paper studies the problems of transaction cost and agency cost which are especially found in foreign investment activity of MNE. After inference of the related variables, this paper proposes that the problems of transaction cost and agency cost have significant impact on MNE’s strategic choices of foreign market entry mode, organizational boundary and value creation. Finally, it proposes a conceptual inter-organizational model and shows its implications for academic research and business practices. The model concludes that when there is a great numerical difference in subtracting firm governance cost (FGC) from market governance cost (MGC), i.e. (MGC - FGC), and when there is a great numerical difference in subtracting firm agency cost (FAC) from market agency cost (MAC), i.e. (MAC - FAC), then the foreign operation mechanism of MNE tends to develop internalization process, enjoy minimum transaction cost and agency cost, fix appropriate organizational boundary, and create organizational value. The business activity of foreign investment is a complicated decision-making process. Since domestic business is unfamiliar with the environment of foreign market, foreign investment always encounters cross-cultural, economic and political problems, and also some trading obstacles, industrial competition, etc. These problems cause impact on making inter-organizational strategic decision.

Cited by: 8

The Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges: Returns Distribution, Volatilities and Performance (1)

Dr. Francisca M. Beer, California State University, San Bernardino, CA

Dr. Mo Vaziri, California State University, San Bernardino, CA

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the returns distribution, volatility and performance of eleven of the twelve (12) founding members of the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchange (FEAS). The performance of the FEAS exchanges is captured using the traditional measures of performance of Treynor (1965), Sharpe (1996, 1994) and Jensen (1968). Using monthly data from January 1995 until December 200, results show only one of the FEAS exchange, Teheran outperformed the S&P500. Results, however, also show than when domestic securities are combined with FEAS securities, the combined portfolios significantly outperformed a portfolio including solely domestic securities. This study focuses on a new and still under-research group of emerging markets. Specifically, this study investigates the returns distribution, volatility and performance of eleven (11) of the twelve (12) founding members of the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchange (FEAS). The FEAS was established May 16, 1995 with 12 founding members and has grown to 24 members in 22 countries. Membership in the Federation is open to emerging stock exchanges in Europe and Asia (2). The literature on emerging stock exchanges can be divided into three categories. The first category studies return distributions of emerging equity. The second category examines the adequacy of the standard global asset pricing models when using emerging markets data. The third and last category tries to explain why stock markets are interdependent, by either decomposing or modeling stock market correlations.

Cited by: 3

Relationship Marketing in the Export Sector: Empirical Evidence from Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone

Dr. Ali Hammoutene, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Abstract

Despite the recent growth in the volume of exports to and from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), scant evidence exists as to individual export company relationships with overseas customers. Based on a sample of selected Dubai Jebel Ali FTZ exporters, this paper draws a comparison between pure and hybrid types of export activities. The findings seem to suggest that, as opposed to hybrid-type exporters, companies engaged in pure exporting are more experienced, employ more people, and exhibit more active behavior toward conducting their foreign business. Such firms sell to a greater number of export markets, deal with more foreign customers, and obtain more foreign orders. The paper also shows that pure exporters are distinguished by greater dependence, trust, understanding, commitment, communication, and cooperation but less distance, uncertainty, and conflict between the parties. Finally this paper provides implications for future research. Exporting represents one of the most common means of entering the global arena. Its advantages over other market entry strategies are based on reduced financial risk, lower commitment of resources and a high degree of flexibility (Stottinger and Schlegelmilch, 1998). Exporting and export behavior- mostly from the view point of small- and medium- sized firms – have been the focus of a large body of literature (Aaby and Slater, 1989; Bilky, 1978; Cavusgil and Nevin, 1981; Douglas and Graig, 1992; Ggemunden, 1991; Leonidou, 1995a, 1995b; Leonidou and Katsikeas, 1996; Li and Cavusgil, 1991; Miesenbock, 1988). Existing export marketing literature has mainly focused on western countries’ firms i.e. US, UK, Japan and Europe.

Cited by: 8

Technostress in the Workplace: Managing Stress in the Electronic Workplace

Peter E. Brillhart, California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, CA

ABSTRACT

Computer and technology related stressors have become a mainstay in our electronic age. While stress will be defined in general, primarily this paper will discuss a subset called technostress. Symptoms and types of technostress will be discussed along with the overall stress cycle. Personal and organizational strategies to deal with both stress itself and the subset technostress will be discussed. Statistics will be shown on how stress ties into organizational costs. You are late for work, your cell phone is ringing off the hook, and your pager is going off every five seconds. It’s 7:30 am and you are virtually already at work although you are stuck in traffic trying to talk on the cell phone and drive your vehicle. You worked half the night from home on a key project that is due this morning. The company has provided you a laptop to allow you to work from anywhere as needed. A virtual private network that you can access from anywhere provides access into the company network if you have an Internet connection. In essence, your workday from yesterday never really ended. Does this scenario sound familiar? If so, welcome to the world of technostress, a world where you can work from anywhere, be called upon at any time and have virtually no down time from the stress and rigors of the job. Do you think computers and advanced communications have made your job easier or just allowed you to work harder and longer by the multitasking capabilities they help you perform? If you can perform three tasks at once, you are working efficiently for your employer, right?

Cited by: 208

Compounded Agency Problem: An Empirical Examination of Public-Private Partnerships

Dr. Jeff W. Trailer, The California State University, Chico, CA

Dr. Paula L. Rechner, The California State University, Chico, CA

Dr. Robert C. Hill, The California State University, Chico, CA

ABSTRACT

A compounded agency view is proposed in this study intended to add a new dimension to the agency theory of the firm by addressing the complexity of multiple, simultaneous conflicting interests associated with the multiple constituency view of the firm. This view is applied to public-private partnerships. Public-private partnerships have been in existence throughout the history of the U.S. (Olasky, 1986). A significant increase in the use of these hybrid organizational forms appears to have started during the 1980's. Several authors have argued that increasing global competition during the 1980's, and the corresponding perception that national technological competitiveness was declining, motivated greater government intervention in the market (Brown 1993; Scott, 1993; Spencer and Grindley, 1993). Partnerships between public and private firms offered a means of addressing national competitiveness issues without direct, highly visible manipulation of the market by government. Further reinforcing this trend was the apparent overwhelming success of Japanese international firms which employed these hybrid, public-private organizational forms. Thus, it has been argued that to remain competitive nationally, the U.S. government has to "cooperate" with business, not just standby and enforce "fair play" (MacDonald, C. 1994). Until recently, partnerships have been avoided in the U.S. based on the argument that cooperation between producers of demand-side substitutes results naturally in price fixing. Cooperation between firms, which allows the partners to appropriate consumer surplus, is not socially desirable, is labeled "conspiracy," and is a criminal offense in the U.S. (U.S. Code, 2004).

Cited by: 37

Teaching Workloads of Marketing Program Leaders and Faculty and Criteria for Granting Load Relief

Dr. Ron Colley, State University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA

Dr. Ara Volkan, Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers, FL

ABSTRACT

This study first examines the distributions for teaching loads and number of course preparations of marketing program leaders and faculty in two categories of marketing programs, based on degree-level and AACSBI accreditation. In addition, official maximum loads and the extent to which faculty and program leaders in given institutions teach different levels of loads are presented. Second, the reasons for granting teaching workload reductions to marketing faculty are examined. Where appropriate, statistical tests are performed to report differences among the means of the results observed in the two categories, for both faculty and program leaders and public and private institutions. The overall results show that there are no statistical differences between the responses of program leaders and faculty and between the private and public institution outcomes. While the former indicates good communications among marketing educators, the latter shows that free market competition operates as an equalizing force. When specified, the official maximum load is usually 24 semester hours (eight courses) per year, but few faculty members teach the maximum load. Also, there are significant differences between the average common teaching loads and common number of course preparations in the two categories. While there are some notable differences among the reasons cited for load relief in the two categories of programs analyzed, overall results indicate that publication activities are the main factors underlying load relief, followed by editing a journal and institutional service (e.g., directing programs). Thus, advocates of rewarding the scholarship of teaching and professional development activities at levels at least equal to research activities have not achieved their goal.

Cited by: 2

Conflict Management Styles: A Comparative Study of University Academics and High School Teachers

Dr. Munevver Olcum Cetin, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey

Ozge Hacıfazlıoglu, University of Bahcesehir, Istanbul, Turkey

ABSTRACT

“Conflict” is inevitable when there is a human factor. Channeling it in a positive or negative way may affect the nature of the conflict whether beneficial or destructive. It is for this reason that managing conflict is more important than reducing it. The term “conflict” became one of the most important tools in the development of organizations when it is carefully managed. The purpose of this study is to determine to what extend and how conflict management styles differ in educational atmosphere by investigating academics’ and high school teachers’ conflict management styles. A series of works have been undertaken in order to collect data for the research. Related literature and different types of questionnaires on conflict developed by researchers (Rahim, 1983 ; Thomas, 1977, Olcum, Hacıfazlıoglu, 2004) have been analyzed and a draft questionnaire was prepared. “Academics’ conflict management questionnaire” previously developed by Olcum and Hacıfazlıoglu (2004) was revised and adopted for high school teachers. The questionnaire was given its final shape after having high school teachers’ and academics’ comments on the topic. The sample has been chosen randomly. 10 high schools and 4 universities in Istanbul, Turkey constitute the scope of this study. SPSS 10.0 package programme was used in the analysis of the data. Non Parametric Tests (Kruskal Wallis and Mann Whitney U) have been used to determine the significant findings related to different variables. This study is believed to give insights to administrators in terms of channeling conflict in a positive way. Conflict has been defined as a “process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party” (Wall & Callister, 1995) (Bowling, Leslie, Marks, 2001). Rahim (1992) identifies conflict as an “interactive process manifested in incompatibility, disagreement or dissonance within or between social entities (Rahim, 1992) (Antonioni, 1998).

Cited by: 64

A Comparison Between Financial Reporting in Health Care Versus Other Industries

Dr. Nerissa M. Robert, Telica, Inc., Marlborough, MA

Dr. Saeed Mohaghegh, Assumption College, Worcester, MA

ABSTRACT

Sound financial reporting is essential in any organization particularly now that organizations are subject to increased scrutiny by regulatory agencies. Fraud and financial misconduct by some high profile organizations has resulted in the need for accurate financial reporting. This paper will first address general financial reporting requirements and analysis unique to the health care industry. It will then look specifically at one health maintenance organization (HMO) serving central Massachusetts, and compare it to a high-tech start-up company located in the same region with sales offices in various parts of the country. The results of this study shows that although there are some similarities between financial reporting of health care and non-health care organizations, there are also significant differences between them. Health care is one of the most rapidly expanding industries. By 2005, it is projected health care expenditures will make up 15.6% of the gross domestic product, as opposed to 13.1% in 1998 (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, released January 2002). As with any other industry, the need for financial analysis within health care organizations is great. There are, however, some notable differences between the financial reporting and analysis that is required by health care versus other industries, with the most significant one being the reporting health care organizations must do to regulatory agencies. While there is a lack of previous research on the comparison between accounting practices and financial reporting conventions of these organizations, adequate research has been conducted on the financial reporting of HMOs, IPAs (a corporate entity that contracts with physician groups and with HMOs), group practices (a group of two or more physicians in one or more specialties in one or several locations that enters into a contract with an IPA or an HMO), and government healthcare entities.

A Field Research about Implications of Organizational Downsizing on Employees

Working for Turkish Public Banks

Dr. Cemal Zehir, Gebze Institute of Technology, Turkey

Dr. Fatma Zehra Savi, Kastamonu College, Ankara University, Turkey

ABSTRACT

The strategy of organizational downsizing has been one of the most applied strategies since 1990’s. Layouts emerge due to the implementation of this strategy. These developments have some negative effects on not only the employees still working in the organization but also employees who left the organization. In this study, we investigated the restructured public banks after the economic crisis of February 2001. Organizational downsizing was applied during the restructuring process. We investigated the impact of downsizing on the emotional and behavioral commitment of current employees working at the Turkish Public Banks. A fast technological change has been experienced in 1990 due to increasing industrial and commercial competition in national and international environment. Companies prefer new strategic alternatives in order to allocate their sources rationally according to internal and external conditions. Until 1990s, growth, for a company, had been considered as a sign of health and downsizing had been considered as a precaution of recovery for an ‘ill’ company (Koçel, 2001,p..349) However; while company managers were regarding growth like this in the beginning of 1980s, downsizing has begun to be used more commonly in management and organization field in the beginning of 1990s, as too many new concepts and applications in that field.

Living in Dilbert's World: A Cubicle Eye's View of Job Dissatisfaction

Dr. William Burmeister, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA

ABSTRACT

"Living in Dilbert's World: A Cubicle Eye's View of Job Dissatisfaction" takes a "man in the trenches" approach to examine how organizations managed by individuals who do not understand, appreciate, or foster the employees needs for fair and equitable treatment are actually creating an atmosphere of resentment and hostility; thereby contributing to a variety of negative organizational outcomes. Anyone familiar with Scott Adams business oriented "Dilbert" comic strip, and Dilbert's pointy haired boss, is intimately familiar with the pandemic affliction now ravaging the workplace - job dissatisfaction. More than half of the employees in the United States have negative feelings about their work, according to a study by global personnel consultant Towers Perrin and its research partner, Gang and Gang of Salem, Massachusetts. Understanding job dissatisfaction is not necessarily the exercise in logic and rational analysis you might imagine. Individual perspectives and personal biases make it all but impossible to specifically identify precisely what we are talking about. Job dissatisfaction, in general, is the degree to which individuals feel negatively about their jobs. It is an emotional response to the tasks, as well as to the physical and social conditions associated with the workplace (Smith, Kendall, and Hulin, 1969). It is often the latter half of this accepted definition that is misunderstood or greatly underestimated by management, and painfully felt by the employee. It is critical that "the powers that be" clearly understand that the issue at hand is the emotional response of the employee to not only the tasks to be performed, but to all of the physical, psychological, and social conditions that are involved in the execution of those tasks.

Cited by: 12

Teaching the Job Satisfaction Audit Project to Business School Students

Dr. Gene Milbourn, Jr. University of Baltimore, Maryland

Dr. Tim Haight, California State University, Los Angeles

ABSTRACT

This paper will provide an outline on structuring a consulting project for business school students on the topic of the job satisfaction audit. It will suggest a step-by-step program to improve the job satisfaction in a company. Specially, the paper will assist students in (1) selecting an appropriate measurement instrument; (2) stratifying employees for analysis, (3) selecting useful statistical analyses, and (4) detailing how to profile and structure the feedback of attitudinal data for organizational development purposes. The models of Patricia Cain Smith on job satisfaction and David Bowers on survey feedback is featured. Robbins (2003, p. 72) says that job satisfaction refers “to an individual’s general attitude toward his or her job. A person with a high level of job satisfaction holds a positive attitude about the job, while a person who is dissatisfied with his or her job holds negative attitudes about the job. Smith et al. (1969), in their groundbreaking book, define job satisfaction as a feeling (approach or avoidance ernotion) an employee has about his work, pay, promotional opportunities, supervisor, and co-workers. More specifically, it is the "pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job as achieving or facilitating the achievement of one's job values." Robbins (2003) reviewed the literature on job satisfaction and found that (1) it is better to measure facets of satisfaction rather than a global measure; (2) satisfaction has been declining over the last 15 years; (3) job dissatisfaction is related to higher levels of absenteeism and turnover in American companies; and (4) while job satisfaction is related to overall company productivity is not generally related to individual performance.

Cited by: 5

WIP Management Model for Semiconductor Back-end Manufacturing

Fan-Yun Pai, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, R.O.C.

ABSTRACT

The agreement of due dates is the need for customer satisfaction, which is a critical factor to survive in today’s highly competitive market for Semiconductor industry. However, undesirable and inevitable production variations make it difficult to maintain and improve factory’s performance on due dates, especially for those back-end factories closer to customers. We, therefore, propose a WIP management model to help production managers effectively manage WIP levels to compensate the impact of unexpected production variations and to achieve better due-date performance. The WIP management model can be divided into two parts: an AWDL (Available WIP Deviation Level) determination model is designed to gather proper AWDLs for monitored workstations and a WIP correction action is proposed to make abnormal WIP levels back to normal levels as soon as possible. Simulation experiments are conducted to evaluate the proposed WIP management model. Results show that WIP management model provides back-end factories better performances on average on time delivery percentage (AOTDP). IC (Integrated Circuit) manufacturing is a complicated multistage process, transferring silicon in the form of thin, polished disk into integrated circuit. The entire process basically includes four main steps: wafer processing or wafer fabrication (Fab), wafer probe, IC packaging, and functional testing and burn-in (Chen, 1988). Facing stiff and worldwide competitions, semiconductor manufacturers are apt to provide a cost-effective and time-to-market solution services for their customers. Wafer fabrication is generally referred to as the “front-end” operation and the following stages, wafer probing, IC packaging and final testing, are referred to the “back-end” in the turkey service. Figure 1 shows typical semiconductor backend manufacturing flow. Although wafer fabrication is the most technologically complex and the most capital intensive of all four stages, the back-end operations are much closer to the customers.

Cited by: 2

Total Quality Management: Context and Performance

Dr. Esin Sadikoglu, Gebze Institute of Technology, Turkey

ABSTRACT

There are insufficient and mixed empirical results of the relationship between total quality management (TQM) implementation and performance with respect to contextual factors. The objective of this study was to figure out relationships among TQM implementation, its acceptance, and operational performance of companies considering contextual factors of company size and existence of union, and industry type. Questionnaires were mailed to 437 companies in different industries located in the Midwest, U.S. The study found most of the companies implemented TQM with a high degree of its acceptance. Also, company size, existence of union, and industry type did not significantly affect acceptance of TQM and TQM performance. Quality-oriented companies should improve their internal efficiency as well in order to improve their productivity, profit, and competitiveness. Total quality management (TQM) is a management philosophy and has been applied by many quality-oriented organizations in order to achieve such benefits as enhanced customer satisfaction, improved quality of goods and services, productivity and profits, and reduced waste and cost among other benefits (Evans et al., 1993; Choi et al., 1998; Elmuti et al., 1994; Schuler et al., 1991). Although TQM emerged from manufacturing industry, customer focus and the use of traditional quality control techniques outside the production area have enabled TQM to be used in service industry, government agencies, private industries, health-care organizations, and education (Harris, 1995; Saylor, 1996). There are mixed results of TQM effect on performance. Some authors found that effectively implementation of TQM improved financial performance (Hendricks et al., 2001), operational performance (Shah et al., 2003), customer satisfaction and plant performance (Choi et al., 1998), market share and productivity while reducing cost, employee turnover, and employee complaints (Schuler et al., 1991), perceptions of quality-of work life, employee productivity, and quality of products (Elmuti et al., 1994), and various performance levels (Kaynak, 2003).

Strategic Perspectives Associated With the Golf Industry

Dr. Alan D. Smith, Robert Morris University, Pittsburgh, PA

Dr. Gayle Marco, Robert Morris University, Pittsburgh, PA

ABSTRACT

Companies who own strategic assets achieve superior profits because they control valuable resources that are hard to replicate. The golf industry must deal with a myriad of strategic issues if they are to remain competitive. In 1986, the average number of golfers per course was estimated at 1,900. This figure grew to a high of 2,250 in 1990, and has declined back into the 1,950 range today. Since the peak of participation in the early 1990s, additions to supply have been outpacing the growth in demand. The industry is facing a potentially difficult problem from this growth of supply and flattening of demand. Strategically, golf courses must increase utilization levels at existing golf courses in order to impact profitability. There is a very large opportunity for golf at this time. There are over 40 million people in the US alone that that either want to golf or want to golf more. Awareness of golf is at an all time high. Unfortunately, without creating a better golfing experience for more people, the golf industry will be hard pressed to convert interest into commitment. The basic purpose of this paper is to review the pertinent business academic and practitioner literatures and to outline managerial processes as to what action it will take to secure the future of golf as a mature industry. Michalisin, Kline, and Smith (1997, 2000) demonstrated the ideas relative to the Resource-Based View of the Firm by showing how intangible assets can create a sustainable competitive advantage and superior profits. Intangibles, such as employee know-how, reputation, and organizational culture are considered strategic assets because they are rare, immutable, and valuable. Companies who own strategic assets achieve superior profits because they control valuable resources that are hard to replicate.

Cited by: 5

Strategic Disintermediation Within the Context of E-Commerce: The Effect on Distributors and Re-Sellers

Dr. Alan D. Smith, Robert Morris University, Pittsburg, PA

Dr. Dean R. Manna, Robert Morris University, Pittsburg, PA

ABSTRACT

As larger companies raced to enter the world of e-commerce, they have been confronted with a wide variety of problems. Companies have had to deal with issues such as e-mail viruses, credit card theft and fraud, and slow and confusing web pages, coupled with dead-links, to name a few. The Internet Tax Freedom Act provides a three-year moratorium on any new Internet taxes. This Act also bars state or local governments from imposing new taxes on Internet access, as well as prohibiting any new e-commerce taxes. However, this “hands-off” attitude does not seem to be shared by the local governments, who are also being hit hard by out of state mail order business and the Internet. With the amount of controversy the Internet has caused in this area already it can be assumed that when the moratorium ends, the tax structure will change. The fact that these problems have been so widespread may have been enough to deter distributors from diving into the e-commerce water headfirst. These distributors have a different mindset. They have worked long and hard to build and maintain customer relationships and they will not risk losing them to a technology that is largely beyond their control. It is still their belief that customers are people first and that it is the efforts of people – not a great web page that is going to keep these people satisfied and coming back. As the Internet continues to grow exponentially in size and popularity, an increasing number of companies are beginning to enter the world of e-commerce. Manufacturers are finding that doing business over the Internet allows them to essentially eliminate the middleman -- a phenomenon commonly described in the literature by the term disintermediation -- which allows manufacturers and retailers to cut costs and increase profit margins (Seminario, 1999: Seminario, 2000).

Cited by: 14

IT Project Management: A Conceptual View

Dr. Sharlett Gillard, University of Southern Indiana, IN

ABSTRACT

The development of a large-scale information system involves some unique features that are particularly difficult to manage. It involves large project management teams; it is challenging to measure progress or quality short of completion; if not done right the first time, costs increase exponentially; it has historically been plagued with high turnover of personnel; and it requires careful stewardship of enormous organizational resources. This paper highlights organizational structures and presents a tri-dimensional view of the IT project management environment typically found in major information systems initiatives. Organization structures evolve to adapt to changing business environments. Many structural changes have taken place during the last century, primarily moving from centralized to decentralized organizations. Large-scale information systems are typically developed within a matrix organization. According to the most recent Chaos report from industry analyst Standish Group, only one-third of all IT projects can be deemed successes. The report also shows time overruns in projects have increased significantly – from a low of 63 percent in 2000 to 82 percent in 2003. According to industry research firm Gartner, poor project manager competency accounts for the bulk – 60 percent – of project failures (MacInnis 2003), due in part to the complexity of the management role in product development. Management within a matrix structure involves large project management teams, historically plagued with high turnover of personnel; it involves team members who have two supervisors—the functional manager and the project manager—creating conflicting loyalties; and it requires careful stewardship of enormous organizational resources.

Cited by: 19

The Milieu of the IASB

Dr. Alistair M. Brown, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia

ABSTRACT

This paper considers the milieu of the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) and the role it plays in providing accounting service to the wider public. Substantially funded by large multinational corporations and elite accounting firms, the IASB is dominated by what Brown, Tower and Taplin (2004) describe as core-financial interest-based stakeholder groups. This milieu may offer a cosy arrangement for a narrow band of stakeholders, but it does little to include other member groups of the global community that it purports to serve. Business communities rely on sound financial information, yet many countries do not have the capacity to generate accounting standards acceptable to these communities (Hopper and Hoque, 2004). As a consequence, many transnational agencies such as, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction, the International Monetary Fund, USAID and the World Bank have formulated accounting practices and policies in emerging countries which do not always meet the acclaim of the developing accounting literature (Sucher and Alexander, 2004; Mserembo and Hopper, 2004). Indeed, this criticism of accounting standard setters is not confined to the developing world. The radical accounting literature is highly critical of mainstream accounting in the developed capitalist world (Neu, Cooper and Everett, 2001). It asserts that the market is over-emphasised as a mechanism for allocating resources, its alleged market efficiency only benefiting a part of society (Lehman, 2001) and, in a global sense, an acknowledgement of this position has been made by transnational agencies of the IMF and World Bank (see Rogoff, 2002). The radical position also asserts that corporations are owned, organised and operated to establish and exploit power relationships (Cooper and Sherer, 1984), a theme emphasised and well-documented in a global context by Monbiot (2002), Pilger (2002) and Stiglitz (2002).

Cited by: 37

The Role of Trust and Collaboration in the Internet-enabled Supply Chain

Dr. Martin Grossman, American Intercontinental University, Weston, FL

ABSTRACT

Collaborative computer-based information systems have become a major trend in today’s business environment. Such systems are being used to link companies with suppliers, distributors, and/or customers, thus enabling the flow of information across the supply chain. The trend has accelerated with the emergence of the Internet and the wide scale adoption of e-business. While there are many potential benefits to such collaborative information systems, there are also a number of obstacles which make them difficult to implement. This paper traces the history of interorganizational systems and examines the critical role trust plays in their successful implementation. Several current-day collaborative technologies, specifically pertaining to supply chain management, are examined. It is difficult to pick up a trade magazine today without encountering the words 'trust' or 'collaboration' in relation to current business practices, particularly in the context of information sharing via the Internet. A collaborative approach to business, we are told, allows for much greater efficiencies along the supply chain and therefore greater customer satisfaction. As counterintuitive as this may seem to our competitive and independent sensibilities, we are further instructed that unless businesses quickly embrace this new paradigm they will not be able to compete in the emerging digital economy. Today’s business transactions have become increasingly dependent on the exchange of information between the various links along the supply chain, which may include suppliers, customers, and even outright competitors.

Cited by: 111

Intent to Leave Among Geographically Isolated Branch Office Employees: An Empirical Study

Dr. Philip W. Morris, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX

Dr. N. Ross Quarles, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX

Dr. Colbert Rhodes, University of Texas--Permian Basin, Odessa, TX

ABSTRACT

The Price-Mueller Job Satisfaction/Intent to Leave model has been used on a number of different populations. The Price-Mueller Model is a causal process in which an estimation of the indirect effects of the job determinants and pay on job satisfaction and their direct effects on intent to leave are made. The job determinants include Participation, Distributive Justice, Instrumental Communication, Promotional Opportunities, Integration, and Routinization. In order to test the robustness of the model, this study has applied this model to a new population and geographic region. White-collar, clerical, semi‑professional and professional employees in West Texas were surveyed. The results, for the most part, conform to and support the usefulness of the Price-Mueller Model. However, Participation had a direct effect on Intent to Leave rather than an indirect effect through Job Satisfaction. This suggests that the role of Participation on Intent to Leave in the Price-Mueller Model needs to be studied further. This study represents a further test of the Price‑Mueller job satisfaction/intent to leave model on a population and region of the United States not previously examined. The model emerged out of Price and Mueller's years of empirical and theoretical research (Price, 1977; Price and Bluedorn, 1979; Price and Mueller, 1981, 1986; Mueller and Price, 1990; Mueller, 1994).

Cited by: 4

Integration of TAM Based Electronic Commerce Models for Trust

Teoh Kung Keat, Multimedia University, Malaysia

Dr. Avvari Mohan, Multimedia University, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

There have been many studies (Gefen et al., 2003; Pavlou, 2003, Egger, 2003) on user trust in electronic commerce. The relationship between electronic commerce and trust crosses the disciplinary lines, by drawing from psychology, marketing, interface design, security, social studies, and information technology. Researchers have often approached this topic from a disciplinary perspective. However, due to the nature of electronic commerce and trust, there is a need for these studies to converge in a singular effort to understand how user trust can enhance the acceptance of electronic commerce. This interdisciplinary convergence must be built upon a strong foundation to facilitate efforts to benchmark effectiveness accurately. We propose to use the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) proposed by Davis (1989) as the foundation of this study of users’ acceptance of electronic commerce. We then review the key research models using TAM for electronic commerce trust from different perspectives and integrate them into a single model. Electronic commerce has long intrigued researchers. The exciting growth of internet use over the years signals the possibilities of reengineering old business models. Yet the secret to the success of any electronic commerce venture can be summed up in one word: trust. In order to explain the factors that persuade consumers to trust electronic commerce sites, researchers have introduced many trust models. These models identify key determinants to building trust in electronic commerce. The basic building blocks to testing user acceptance of these models, however, centered on the Technology Acceptance Model introduced by Davis (1989).

The Requisite Holism of Information in a Virtual Business Organization's Management (1)

Dr. Vojko Potocan, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia

Dr. Matjaz Mulej, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia

ABSTRACT

Any successful organization (such as a business) is based on (informal) systems thinking. This kind of thinking may therefore be required by several very influential international organizations, but these organizations do not at present define what they actually mean by systems thinking. We are providing an overview of possible versions of systems thinking and our suggestion of a definition. In the second half we suggest that the requisite holism should be the criterion of the practical application of systems thinking. We describe and give examples of preconditions for the requisite holism of information in the management of a virtual business organization. Since a virtual business organization is complex it requires holistic, rather than a one-sided, narrowly specialized, thinking in order to be managed well enough. So also does the provision of information to and by its managers and their coworkers. The term holistic thinking is mostly linked quite closely with the science called systems theory as a basis for systemic thinking. Holistic thinking is required by numerous national and important international organizations and nations such as the United Nations (e.g. for thinking about and managing nuclear weapons, world peace, sustainable development), the International Standards Organization (e.g. in ISO 9000:2000 which requires business quality to be seen as a system of nine - interdependent! - groups of criteria based on learning and innovation), the European Union (e.g. requiring explicit systems thinking for documents about promotion of innovation), the US (requiring consideration of interdependence in the talk given by President Clinton in UN General Assembly in Sept., 2000), etc. (Ecimovic et al., 2002; Potocan, 2002).

Cited by: 9

Teacher as Leader and Student as Follower: The Implementation of Expectancy

Theory in the English Classes of Taiwanese College

Dr. Ping-Yu Wang, Kuang Wu Institute of Technology, Taiwan, R.O.C.

ABSTRACT

In Taiwan, most college teachers and students still play their traditional roles, which include teaching for academic excellence and driving students toward passing grades. In this study, the relationship between college teachers’ and students’ teaching and learning motivations will be investigated, and their traditional roles through the implementation of principles associated with famous expectancy theory (Vroom, 1964) will also be challenged. In order to ensure success in the implementation of the expectancy theory, teachers need to become the leaders of the students. When the teachers become leaders, and students become followers, a highly enthusiastic and active learning atmosphere will be developed among the class. Furthermore, based on the author’s previous study, abounding information from a survey results will be utilized herein to help Taiwanese teachers to apply the expectancy theory to their teaching. One of the traditions in Taiwanese society is that scholars have the highest status, higher than farmers, engineers, and businessmen. This tradition has affected Taiwanese parents’ valuing their children’s education. They believe that their children can succeed in the future only if they receive a good education. Thus, a college and a higher education are highly valued in Taiwanese society.

Cited by: 10

Incorporating Value Judgments into Data Envelopment Analysis to Improve Decision Quality for Organization

Chun-Chu Liu, National Cheng-Kung University and Chang Jung Christian University, Taiwan, R. O. C.

Chia-Yon Chen, Professor, National Cheng-Kung University, Taiwan, R. O. C.

ABSTRACT

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a method that uses a mathematical programming model to obtain the relative efficiency of the decision making unit (DMUs), and gives us an optimal weight of a set of input factors and output factors. Boussofiane, Dyson, and Thanassoulis (1991) believe that the weight computed in the DEA model has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that the weight generated will be fair and equitable, and not affected by subjective factors. The disadvantage is that if the weight is selected intentionally, then it may make the DMUs relatively efficient, and its efficiency does not necessarily come from the inherent efficiency, but from the selection of weight. Is the value of the relative efficiency obtained by placing such a congenital weight fair, reasonable, and acceptable? We addresses this question to integrate the subjective and objective weights restriction method, so that the evaluation result can be more realistic, and finally takes the garbage disposal teams in the districts of Kaohsiung city in Taiwan as an example for the illustration. The Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method has been commonly used in the efficiency evaluation of multiple inputs and outputs, particularly the efficiency evaluation for non-profit organizations or governmental departments since Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes proposed the mathematical programming model in 1978.

An Investigation of the Relationship of Organizational Structure, Employee’s

Personality and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

Min-Huei. Chien, The Overseas Chinese Institute of Technology, Taiwan, R.O.C.

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to explain how to improve organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and how to develop a plan to obtain continual OCB through a formal system and an informal environmental setting in the work place. OCBs describe actions in which employees are willing to go above and beyond their prescribed role requirements. Some studies have shown that OCBs are positively related to indicators of individual, unit, and organizational performance. This paper focuses on clearly defining the relationship between organizational effectiveness and OCB. It will also discuss the implications of the OCB and try to find ways to improve OCB. Results indicate that positive work climate, organization resources, employee’s personality, organizational culture, and so on are all related to OCB. This research is important for any businesses that want to improve competence and organizational effectiveness. Improving OCB is the lowest cost and best way for businesses to reach organizational effectiveness. The world is looking forward to high performance organizations that would provide high job satisfaction to their employees and would also cherish excellence and effectiveness. This could be achieved if we could develop organizational citizenship. Research of organizational citizenship behaviors has been extensive since its introduction around twenty years ago (Bateman & Organ, 1983).

Cited by: 93

Examining the Effect of Organization Culture and Leadership Behaviors on Organizational

Commitment, Job Satisfaction, and Job Performance at Small and Middle-sized Firms of Taiwan

Dr. Li Yueh Chen, Chungchou Institute of Technology, Taiwan

ABSTRACT

Organization culture has a significant effect on how employees view their organizational responsibilities and their commitment. Leaders affect their subordinates both directly through their interactions and also through the organization’s culture. A case can be made that the combination of these influences can create effective organizations with a conscience or organizations where employees have limited commitment and share fewer values leading to reduced success. With increasing globalization, greater knowledge of the interaction of these factors in non-western cultures can be beneficial for assessing the effectiveness of current theory as well as benefiting practicing leaders and decision makers. This study examines specific employee behaviors associated with transformational and transactional leadership and how they both moderate and mediate effects of organizational culture and commitment. Surveys were distributed to 84 Taiwanese manufacturing and service organizations with a total of 1,451 employees. Significant findings are: (1) idealized influence leadership with innovative culture is positively related to organizational commitment, (2) the mediating effort of organizational commitment in the relationship between transformational leadership behaviors and job satisfaction is not influenced by the organizational culture, and (3) the organizational commitment mediates the relationship between transformational leadership behaviors and job performance in supportive and bureaucratic culture. A survey of most admired companies conducted by Fortune has indicated that the CEO respondents believed that corporate culture was their most important lever in enhancing this key capability (Anonymous, 1998).

Cited by: 554

An Investigation of the Diffusion of Online Games in Taiwan: An Application of Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation Theory

Dr. Julian M. S. Cheng and Leticia L. Y. Kao, National Central University, Chung-Li City, Taiwan

Julia Ying-Chao Lin, Tainan Woman’s College of Arts and Technology, Tainan County, Taiwan

ABSTRACT

Online games have shown the potential to grow from a small to a major portion of the global entertainment sector. The increasing maturity of broadband technology and infrastructure development will facilitate this growth. In these circumstances, an investigation of the diffusion of online games in a social system will provide some insight into gamer behaviors and further the development of online games in the near future. Nevertheless, a robust review on the literature has revealed a lack of research in the subject matter. Therefore, in this paper, an investigation of the diffusion of online games in Taiwan is therefore conducted. Rogers’ (2003) Diffusion of Innovation model (DOI) is applied in the investigation. Cluster analysis is utilized to divide the current diffusion stages of online games into: innovators, early adopters and the early majority categories. The differences in attributes/characteristics among the three categories are assessed. Implications based on the research findings are discussed, and future research suggestions are also provided. Online games, a form of interactive electronic games rooted in the Internet, have shown the potential to grow from a small to a major portion of the global entertainment sector. The global sales revenue was estimated to increase to second place in the total game market in 2003 (IDC, 2003). As well, uncountable breakthroughs in technology and broadband infrastructure development will further facilitate this future growth (Fu, 2003). Hence, studies on the diffusion of online games within a social system providing better insight into online gamer profiles has become essential.

Cited by: 116

Reflections on Academic Misconduct: An Investigating Officer’s Experiences and Ethics Supplements

Dr. Ceil Pillsbury, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI

ABSTRACT

One of the inherent core elements of our American system of higher education is the community of trust which exists between professors and students. Professors trust that students will honestly complete the assigned work and rely strictly on their own ability when taking examinations. The unfortunately reality is that research indicates academic misconduct has become a persistent and growing problem in the American system of higher education. This, of course, destroys the trust that plays such an important role in fostering the educational process and allowing learning to flourish. This paper discusses my experiences as the academic misconduct investigating officer of a large Midwestern state university. I include lessons that I have learned in this capacity and offer teaching aids that I have developed to enhance students’ awareness of the problem and to enhance their ethical development. These aids have been used by myself and others and appear to be effective in reducing the occurrence of academic misconduct and in encouraging students to focus on ethical values. The New York Times calls it a “plague”. Campus administrators across the country call it out of control. Many say it will lead to the downfall of academe. (Warning 2003; Howard 2001; Mullins 2001). What I am referring to, unfortunately, is the title wave of academic misconduct that is sweeping the country. And just like an epidemic, an insidious presence of cheating is undermining one of the basic tenets of the American higher education system--that learning occurs in an environment of trust between professor and student.

Cited by: 24

Deregulation and Globalisation: Process, Effects and Future Challenges to Air Transport Markets

Dr. Zhi H. Wang, Charles Sturt University, Australia

ABSTRACT

Through a sequence of examinations, the research identifies that there is a difference in the liberalisation process of different regions’ air transport markets. This has impacted on the configuration of strategic airlines alliances. Deregulation and strategic alliances that have contributed to the air transport market globalisation to benefit air travellers’ welfare, carriers and economic development of each country should be pursued simultaneously in reducing the current existing barriers to entry into the regulated air transport market. However, increased complexity in the international business environments stem from a number of sources that pose long term issues. This challenges both globalisation process and approaches. The future air transport market consolidation or fragmentation will therefore have implications for the airline operations, as well as, State of governance. As the cold war is still going on, the impact of Sep. 11^th is difficult to discern at this stage. After Sep 11^th, some economists indicated that the world had indeed changed, and in significant ways. The airline industry’s case shows that it overall has sustained a massive impact from the September 11^th Events. On that day, both American Airlines (AA) and United Airlines (UA) aircrafts were hijacked and used in the terrorist attacks. That caused a dramatic decrease in passenger numbers and flight frequency of airline services. The immediate problems posed to the airline companies after the Sep 11^th events in general, include the higher costs associated with new airline security directives, the companies’ ability to raise additional financing, the cost of such financing and the price and availability of jet fuel.

Cited by: 10

Assessing the Health Insurance Literature 1999- 2003: A Citation Analysis

Shih-Chieh Chuang, M.D., Military Pintung Hospital, Graduate School of Management, I-Shou University, Taiwan

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to use citation analysis to identify major themes and contributors to health insurance literature over the past 5 years. Looking for data about health insurance over the whole world may be the first step to resolve the problem. A citation analysis was performed on a database of 326 articles in the interrelated literature and more than 10,000 articles were cited from January 1999 through January 2003. A list of search terms was applied to the database of approximately 340 journals. Therefore, the 20 articles and 20 authors with the most citations were then evaluated by checking each of the most-cited articles and authors for their applicability to health insurance. Author’s study is an attempt to characterize the health insurance related literatures in recent five years for seeking the newest information and the tendency about health insurance. Author also note the citation analysis is a useful tool in identifying important contributions to the interrelated literature and detecting longitudinal trends of topics present in a body of science or social science literature. No previous attempt at an exhaustive citation analysis of the field of health insurance has been published. Analogous to systematic reviews of the literature for a specific question, citation analyses have been used to describe the trends, direction, and general literature of other literature, although not extensively.

Cited by: 3

A Two-Dimensional Model for Allocating Resources to R&D Programs

Chun-Chu Liu, National Cheng-Kung University, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Dr. Chang Jung Christian University, Taiwan, R. O. C.

Professor Chia-Yon Chen, National Cheng-Kung University, Taiwan, R.O.C.

ABSTRACT

A decision model is developed to help managers select the most appropriate sequences of plans for product research and development (R&D) projects under strict constraints on budget and resources. In recent years, many organizations have changed from discipline-oriented to focusing on integrated programs and related outcomes. For a decision-maker of these high-profile R&D programs, it is critical to understand which activities are the most important, considering both investment feasibility and cost-effectiveness. This paper proposes a two-dimensional decision model that integrates analytic hierarchy process and data envelopment analysis to perform this essential task. Using the information from these two decision science tools, the model develops a two-axis evaluation space for research alternatives. By locating particular activities in this decision space, a program manager can compare and prioritize alternative research investments. A large corporation often has to make decisions on the scope of product research and development (R&D) projects. The main criteria for project evaluation are budget and resources constraints. Therefore, the selection of a balanced R&D portfolio, combining corporation goals, resources, and constraints, is an important but venturesome task (Islei, 1991). Research portfolio analysis and decision models can be effective tools in promoting organizational participation in complex decision-making. This involvement develops a consensus for and understanding of organizational goals and the associated performance metrics.

Cited by: 6

Organisational Change: from Public to Private Sector A UK based reflective Case Study

Dr. David Cooper, University of Salford, Manchester, England

ABSTRACT

Informed by the UK Government led context of ‘Rethinking Construction’ and ‘Commitment to People’, this paper provides dialogue as to how Public sector organisation’s can be supported toward making the transition to managing and behaving commercially while continuing to focus on the provision and continuous improvement of an effective service. Key issues discussed examine UK Political and social responsibility, potential sector differences as to internal organisational culture, the role of HEI’s in assisting change, the assessment and specificity of training needs, implications for systems and procedural change and the need for ongoing cultural and climatic development. A work in progress case study is used to aid illustration, explanation, and allow scope for reflective commentary. The case describes the factors affecting a UK Metropolitan Borough (Local Government) Council Housing division as it attempts to move toward adopting a private sector capital structure and private sector management techniques. Findings will be of interest to managers of public services, regardless of the country of origin. In essence, the case chosen is one of four key medium- to long-term interventions that the University of Salford, Manchester, UK is currently involved. It provides an insight as to the process of change that is leveraged by the decision to transfer housing stock from Council to private sector Housing Trust ownership. A change that entails restructuring of the new organisation’s financing arrangements and work practices.

Cited by: 29

Enhancing Competitive Advantage of Hospitals through Linguistics Evaluation on Customer Perceived Value

Feng-Chuan Pan, Tajen Institute of Technology & I-Shou University, Taiwan

Chi-Shan Chen, Shih Chien University, Kaohsiung Campus, Taiwan

ABSTRACT

Due to strict competition for retention of customer loyalty in extremely a competitive market, hospitals that offer a full line of healthcare services are striving to gain sufficient revenue for survival. As loyal customers, patients contribute above-average return with lower cost and lower service. In order to combat this, hospitals must develop and deliver valuable services consistent with customers’ needs. Using linguistics other than traditional statistical analysis, as this paper proposes, would more precisely exploit the value attributes perceived by customers. This research would be pioneer in a value perception study for healthcare services; it would contribute to the industry by providing clear insight to accurately identify target customers who are most valuable in the long-term. Findings of this research indicate patients/customers perceive more value from quality delivered by physician competence versus updated facilities. Personal care and a comfortable atmosphere are more important value attributes than a gorgeous, modern building; price is surprisingly a significant value similar to the reputation of a hospital. Hospitals in this research are characterized by diverse value attributes (in terms of five individual value factors studied). Nevertheless, quality remains the strongest value driver. Physician’s competence, along with correctness and speediness of emergency services are the most valuable criteria customers seek for healthcare service as this research revealed. Therefore it can be concluded that top rate emergency rooms filled with expert medical teams is of utmost importance in making a particular hospital a standout in this industry. Vast environmental changes have brought massive challenges to healthcare service industries over the past decade. Increasing global integration made cross-border expansion possible, and this has stiffened the competition.

Cited by: 36

The Effects of Web Operational Factors on Marketing Performance

Yuan-shuh Lii, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan

Dr. Hyung J. Lim, Lizard Tech, Inc.

L. P. Douglas Tseng, Portland State University, Portland, OR

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the results of empirical research examining the impact of several Web operational factors on marketing performance. Using structural equation modeling, this model reveals that there are three key factors that have a significant effect on Web operational effectiveness: reliability, accessibility, and feature enhancement. Of these three factors, reliability had the strongest effect on the Web operational effectiveness. The accessibility factor had a small, negative effect on online marketing performance and marketing productivity. The feature enhancement factor, which is defined by the entertainment and multimedia experiences, had a strong positive effect on Web operational effectiveness and a modest positive effect on online marketing performance. The size and growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web are phenomenal; still, only a small fraction of the power of the Internet has been harnessed. In order to maximize from its true potential, companies must formulate a sound Internet strategy and incorporate it into their long-range plan (Basch, 2000; Hoffman, Novak, & Chatterjee, 1995). Despite the enormous business potential presented by the Web, companies connected through the Internet are seeing only limited success (Preston, 1999). Many experts in the industry attribute this shortcoming to the inability of firms to understand the medium correctly and therefore do not have the right strategy for using it most effectively (Preston, 1999; Stuck, 1996; Fortune, 1996). The Web has transformed the buyer-seller relationship by tipping the balance of power in favor of consumers. Interactive technology gives marketers a cost-effective way of attracting consumers into one-to-one relationships fueled by two-way communication. The interactive feature of the technology puts the consumer in control (Korgaonkar & Wolin, 1999).

Cited by: 51

Globalization Effects, Co-Marketing Alliances, and Performance

Dr. Amonrat Thoumrungroje, Assumption University, Thailand

Dr. Patriya Tansuhaj, Washington State University

ABSTRACT

Drawing from marketing, international business, and strategic management literature, our paper proposes a conceptual framework to investigate the relationships among globalization effects, degree of cooperation in co-marketing alliances, and international marketing performance. This paper explores how global market opportunities and threats, the two major effects of globalization, influence the degree of cooperation in international marketing activities among firms participating in co-marketing alliances. It also emphasizes how firms can enhance their performance in the global marketplace through increased cooperation in such alliances. Globalization refers to the process of increasing social and cultural inter-connectedness, political interdependence, and economic, financial and market integrations (Eden and Lenway, 2001; Giddens, 1990; Molle, 2002; Orozco, 2002). During the past two decades, globalization has caused dramatic changes to business around the world. Limited studies have been conducted to investigate how globalization actually affects firms and how firms respond to such effects. Thus, this paper aims to examine such effects by focusing on how globalization influences the degree of a firm’s international marketing cooperation, which ultimately affects its international marketing performance. Due to the emergence of global market opportunities and global market threats, firms have been forced to respond quickly to these effects. Unlike other environmental changes, the effects of globalization are far more pervasive—affecting every individual, business, industry, and country (Garrette, 2000). The environment surrounding business today is characterized as a “hypercompetitive” environment—a faster and more aggressive competitive environment (D’Aveni, 1994).

Cited by: 43

The Store Loyalty of the UK’s Retail Consumers

Dr. Sudaporn Sawmong, South Bank University, London, UK

Dr. Ogenyi Omar, South Bank University, London, UK

ABSTRACT

The multinational grocery retailers are expanding retail businesses into UK such as America, Netherlands, Japan and etc. While some retailers are very successful, others are however unsuccessful in their business. In order to increase the possibility of success, retailers must understand the consumer behavioural process that could affect the performance and competitive position of most retail. Most retailers would like to have a hard core of loyalty customers who continue to frequent their outlets. Generally this is achieved but whether there are enough of these customers, and whether they are the right customers (Sullivan and Dennish, 2002). There are too many retailers in today’s marketplace. It is necessary to create, evaluate and retain the loyalty of their customers. This paper aims to measure the store loyalty of the UK food retail consumer from the grocery store in UK by taking into consideration the difference in store loyalty of the retail consumers where theoretical based on Oliver’s’ four stage loyalty model (cognitive, affective, conative and action). This measurement has applied the twenty-eight questionnaires to identify its stages. The mean average technique has applied for the measurement in this paper. The beginning of a behavioural perspective on loyalty appeared in the 1970s, after a period when the majority of researchers measured loyalty as a pattern of repeat purchasing (Oliver, 1997).

Cited by: 84

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