Supporting Discussions for Decision Meetings

Decision meetings may be considered as composed of a divergent part and a convergent one. The divergent part has a discussion of the agenda items. This stage can be computer-supported and it can be done asynchronously during a short period of time. Aspects of the design of a software system intended for this purpose are presented. The discussion of the agenda items is organized in a structured manner, letting users make contributions for any item of the discussion structure. Using our developed tool, people can discuss in a distributed way. The system was tested with actual executives and professionals of a large organization. Results from their evaluation are discussed. These results are encouraging, since according to participants, the system use lets them improve the outcomes of the succeeding meetings.     

A New Methodological Approach for Studying Moral Reasoning Among Managers in Business Settings

The introduction and validation of a new instrument, The Moral Reasoning Inventory, designed to measure an individuals’ moral reasoning (MR) in response to two moral dilemmas within a business setting is the subject of this article. The instrument consists of two moral dilemma scenarios with eight MR statements. Two measurement scales were used for analyzing patterns of individual responses: the strength of belief in the reasons and the importance of those reasons for resolving the dilemma. Managers enrolled in a part-time MBA program were administered the new instrument. Data analysis clearly supported the effectiveness of the instrument to differentiate patterns of consistency in MR within decision groups.     

Modifiers for Quality Assurance in Group Facilitation

A key task of a professional facilitator is to assure the quality of the knowledge products created through collaborative effort. To manage the quality of the knowledge a group generates, facilitators attend to, judge, and question the quality of the contributions a group makes, the decisions it makes and the commitments its members make toward achieving the group’s goals. When facilitators or group members detect deficiencies in ideas, decisions, agreements, or artifacts, facilitators may need to intervene to support the group in improving the quality of their output, without disrupting the flow of the group process. In this paper we present a framework for quality assessment and a toolbox with flexible interventions that can be added to a collaborative process on the fly as soon as quality deficiencies are detected. The toolbox is a set of conditional adjustment interventions that a facilitator can add to other facilitation techniques so as to guard the quality of the group’s intellectual products. The toolbox can also be used as a starting point for designing intelligent agents that support the automatic detection of quality deficiencies.     

A Multi-Agent ODSS Architecture for Supporting Distributed Decision-Making

In this paper, we present an architecture of an ODSS that focuses on organizational learning to enhance the organization's memory and distribution of the organization's intelligence throughout the organization to the various units that need it in their decision-making process. Learning in this ODSS is done by multiple intelligent agents that are designed to gather, accumulate and classify information in order to assist the decision-maker.     

Ethical Reasoning in Action: Validity Evidence for the Ethical Reasoning Identification Test (ERIT)

In recent years, a growing number of small-to-medium-enterprises are embracing wind turbine projects not only as part of their cost reduction strategy but also to actively play their part in the global fight against climate change. However, it would appear there are currently limited empirical studies carried out in this emerging industry. This case study analyses the cost effectiveness of one such wind turbine initiative by a company in the Republic of Ireland, who invested in a 300 kW embedded wind turbine project at the end of 2013. The research methodology which is primarily a case study analysis included comparing historical electricity utility bills which allowed the 2013 quantity of electrical energy units imported, i.e. the year before the turbine was installed to be compared with the 2014 value, i.e. the year after the turbine was installed. Numerous site visits were undertaken over a four-year period, during which electric meter readings were recorded and stored. The findings of this piece of research indicate that the installation of the embedded wind turbine had minimal positive effect on the annual electricity costs for the company. Indeed the turbine appears to have significant negative effects such as a need for an increased maximum import capacity and also it appeared to contribute to a deteriorating utility power factor. While the aesthetic nature of the on-site turbine seemed to create a positive image of the company, it would appear that caution should be exercised when business owners select alternative energy providers who claim to be experts in the energy field but may have limited knowledge in this area of wind energy, which as of yet has minimal robust research into all aspects of its benefits/attributes.     

A Location Choice Approach for Professional Service Firms

This paper discusses the use of the factor rating method for service facility site selection. The method combines the results of objective mathematical location choice models with other qualitative criteria to obtain a single quantitative score upon which the location decision is based. The simplicity and ease of understanding of the method, added to its ability to incorporate both subjective and objective factors, make it a useful decision tool. The method is particularly suitable for small professional service firms which may not have the resources to uti- lize more sophisticated location choice models.     

A Model for Ethical Decision Making in Business: Reasoning, Intuition, and Rational Moral Principles

How do business leaders make ethical decisions? Given the significant and wide-spread impact of business people??s decisions on multiple constituents (e.g., customers, employees, shareholders, competitors, and suppliers), how they make decisions matters. Unethical decisions harm the decision makers themselves as well as others, whereas ethical decisions have the opposite effect. Based on data from a study on strategic decision making by 16 effective chief executive officers (and three not-so-effective ones as contrast), I propose a model for ethical decision making in business in which reasoning (conscious processing) and intuition (subconscious processing) interact through forming, recalling, and applying moral principles necessary for long-term success in business. Following the CEOs in the study, I employ a relatively new theory, rational egoism, as the substantive content of the model and argue it to be consistent with the requirements of long-term business success. Besides explaining the processes of forming and applying principles (integration by essentials and spiraling), I briefly describe rational egoism and illustrate the model with a contemporary moral dilemma of downsizing. I conclude with implications for further research and ethical decision making in business.     

A Ten-Step Model for Academic Integrity: A Positive Approach for Business Schools

The problem of academic dishonesty in Business Schools has risen to the level of a crisis according to some authors, with the incidence of reports on student cheating rising to more than half of all the business students. In this article we introduce the problem of academic integrity as a holistic issue that requires creating a␣cultural change involving students, faculty, and administrators in an integrated process. Integrating the extensive literature from other scholars, we offer a ten-step model which can create a positive culture for academic integrity. The successful implementation of a well-crafted academic integrity program can have a positive impact on business schools and improve the reputation of tomorrow’s business leaders.     

贸易便利化背景下中小企业出口采用EXW的优势

当前的经济环境下,中小企业出口面临较大的困难。但是当前贸易便利化的进程客观上给中小企业出口提供了一定的有利条件,在业务操作过程中,适当选择贸易术语也是可行的措施之一。采用EXW术语出口具有卖方经营成本低、风险小、产品更具吸引力等优点,因此中小企业出口可酌情采取EXW术语,但同时应该注意谨慎选择交易伙伴,协调好出口通关工作,注意风险分割及货物的包装、检验等。     

Humility in Business: A Contextual Approach

The virtue of humility is often considered to be at odds with common business practice. In recent years, however, scholars within business ethics and leadership have shown an increasing interest in humility. Despite such attention, the argument for the relevance of humility in business could be expanded. Unlike extant research that focuses on humility as a character-building virtue or instrumentally useful leadership trait, this article argues that humility reflects the interdependent nature of business. Through such an approach, the article gives an extrinsic motivation of the relevance of humility in business, and, from a theoretical point of view, links the intra-personal and intra-organizational perspective on humility to an inter-organizational one. The article contextualizes the virtue of humility by relating it to the economic, cognitive, and moral aspects of business practice and managerial work. It claims that the assumption of self-sufficiency in business is a grave misrepresentation of what business is—a practice characterized by interdependency. Potential links between virtue ethics, leadership, and contextually oriented theories of business, such as stakeholder theory, network theories, and resource dependence theory, are also identified.     

A Bayesian Approach for Analyzing the Services of Banking Institutions

This study illustrates an adaptive Bayesian framework for examining consumers' perceptions of the services of banking institutions in a target market. The approach uses multiple-measures data to estimate the significant determinants of consumers' preferences for competing banks in the market. This is accomplished essentially by incorporating prior structural information into analyses, information that is used to obtain a stabilized version of the observed predictor-criterion covariance matrix. Bayesian structural regression estimates are shown to provide a banking institution with reliable information for use in positioning itself in its financial marketplace. The paper also provides a number of implications for the use of the methodology practical marketing response applications.     

基于正交设计的市场调查优化设计与其实用性探索

<正>一、问题提出首先我们必须承认传统的分离式问卷调查的确存在着一些优势,比如说问卷调查能够保证足够的样本量且信息的收集也能够比较齐全。但是,问卷调查最大的问题在于把一个项目或者商品割裂成了不同的部分,即仅仅考虑到了部分,而没有从     

A Fuzzy Stochastic Multi-Attribute Group Decision-Making Approach for Selection Problems

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the fuzzy and stochastic approaches as well as multi-attribute group decision-making techniques can be effectively utilized for selection problems in different kinds of uncertainty situations. A group of the decision makers describes a value for an alternative with respect to an attribute by the use of linguistic variables. The rating of each alternative is aggregated, which can be expressed as triangular fuzzy numbers. Then Monte Carlo simulation is applied to generate the performance distribution of alternatives with respect to different attributes in an uncertain environment. Finally, a stochastic compromise ranking technique, known as the VIKOR technique, is developed to evaluate probability distributions for each alternative on each attribute and to prioritize them. The proposed fuzzy stochastic approach is suitable to compromise a solution among the conflicting tangible and intangible attributes under the group decision-making process. In addition, an application of the proposed approach is provided to solve the important risk selection problem in a highway project. The results illustrate its real-life applicability and suitability in discrete group decision-making under uncertainty.     

从制度建设入手构建农民增收的长效机制

影响农民增收的因素是多方面的,本文主要从制度性因素分析入手,剖析目前影响农民增收的主要因素,在此基础上提出构建促进农民增收长效机制的总体思路和对策措施.     

Positioning Strategies for Animal-Friendly Products: A Social Dilemma Approach

Many consumers express concerns about the welfare of animals in agriculture, but often refrain from purchasing animal-friendly alternatives that address their concerns. To support consumers in making choices in line with their values and attitudes, this study approaches consumer animal-friendly product choice as a dilemma between maximizing the buyer's self-interest and maximizing societal interest. To address this social dilemma, we developed and tested positioning strategies that reinforce the animal welfare label with complementary consumption values (functional, emotional, social, and epistemic). The results from a choice experiment with Dutch chicken meat shoppers showed that two strategies—emotional and epistemic—effectively increase consumer value perceptions. These insights imply that animal-friendly products positioned to invoke emotion or curiosity drive consumers towards animal-friendly product choices, and that these strategies are most effective for consumers who base their choice solely on maximizing either self-interest or societal interest.     

Testing for Wage Overpayment in UK Financial Services: A Stochastic Frontier Approach

The past ten years have witnessed a sharp rise in competition in UK financial services. This has been due to factors such as liberalisation, increases in technology and advancing globalisation. As a result of these pressures there has been an increasing emphasis placed on cost management and overall efficiency in the financial services firm. This article examines the impact of these developments on the degree of wage overpayment in the UK financial services sector between 1991 and 1999. By utilising stochastic frontier methodology, we surprisingly find that overpayment levels are large at around 30 per cent and that there is no evidence of a decline in overpayment levels over the testable period.     

Supporting the Evolution of Teams With Transactions: A Design Architecture for Organizational Memory Systems

In this article, we present a general-purpose architecture and design metaphor for supporting the evolution of teams. The architecture is based on the premise that the role of organizational memory involves active support for accessing the relations and content of past, present, and future information-based artifacts of collaborative work. The evolutionary work support role and structure of memory are outlined and contrasted with existing research. A set of design requirements for supporting memory are presented and the concept of a collaborative transaction is introduced. The collaborative transaction concept is the basis for the TeamBox architecture and prototype, which shows that it is possible to generically support the evolutionary needs of collaborative work. The article ends with a discussion of limitations and future research issues.     

A Strategic Approach to Segmentation in University Foodservice

Abstract

This paper first presents a methodology for understanding the dining needs and wants of a university population. This paper presents the results of two market segmentation studies undertaken at two major universities: one on the east coast and one on the west coast. The cluster analysis results suggest that the campus population is not a homogeneous group in terms of their wants and needs when selecting a place to get a meal or a snack. The analysis also reveals that the campus community cannot be just divided by student and non-student. To do so would miss multiple opportunities to satisfy the wants and needs of the total campus community.     

Spiritual Development in Organizations: A Religious-based Approach

Both the spirituality in organizations and managerial issues have been addressed through different religion-based beliefs. In this article, one intends to enlarge it through the perspective of the Spiritist Doctrine (SD). Thus, it reviews the SD literature, as well as spirituality in organizations theory to find common views. In addition, it (1) argued that SD tenets, codified by Allan Kardec, also bring helpful contributions to work settings that differ from the traditional religion approaches and (2) discussed its implications to managers’ spiritual development. It is posited that the SD tenets, while building on and expanding Jesus Christ’s teachings, disclose us some severe implications related to our future. In a broader view, SD tenets provide important warnings that encompass people work lives as well. Finally, we depict a framework that embraces corporate life coupled with some factors that may likely build and enhances one’s spiritual progress, the potential spiritual rewards derived from these factors, and the loci where the rewards are enjoyed.