Introducing International Business Experience Through Virtual Teamwork

SUMMARY

The role of computer-mediated or virtual teamwork is increasing in modern organizations and the pressures of our increasingly global economy are unrelenting. Forces of technology and internationalization pose significant implications for business and management education. This paper describes the use of international virtual teamwork in the introductory management course at our university. The project is introduced along with the logistical and technological support required for their implementation. Student evaluations and faculty considerations are shared. The conclusion is offered that such projects can often be developed at minimum cost using available technologies and the international contacts of faculty. A call is made for giving more attention to international virtual teamwork opportunities in our business and management curricula.     

Employee emotional response toward healthcare organization’s service recovery efforts and its influences on service recovery performance

Previous studies on service recovery performance of frontline employees have focused primarily on the direct relationship with the organizational efforts for service recovery. However, based on the reformulation of attitude theory (appraisal-emotional response-behaviour), we believe that the emotional responses (work engagement and burnout) toward organizational efforts for service recovery of frontline employees mediate the relationship. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine how healthcare frontline employees show their emotional response toward the organizational efforts for service recovery and it influence on actual recovery performance. This study uses two conflicting emotional responses, burnout and work engagement, to examine how employees react toward organizational efforts, helping better understand employees?? evaluations of the efforts. Research model and hypothesis were tested using a sample of frontline employees who perform none-clinical activities in hospitals. The results showed that teamwork and empowerment have positive effects on work engagement. In addition, customer complaint management, empowerment, and teamwork influenced negatively on burnout. Lastly, work engagement and burnout showed statistically significant impact of service recovery performance of frontline employees. Among the organizational efforts for service recovery, teamwork was the most important factor in improving frontline employees?? work engagement and lessened their burnout, respectively. Interestingly, customer service training had a negative effect on burnout. Besides, by comparing our research model to two alternative models, we confirmed the validity of the research model.     

The World Wide Web as an Industrial Marketing Communication Tool: Models for the Identification and Assessment of Opportunities

This paper discusses the role of the Word Wide Web as communication tool for industrial marketers and its position in the business-to-business promotional mix. Using the well-known industrial marketing concepts of purchasing decision processes and hierarchy of effects models, it introduces a conceptual framework for measuring the efficiency of a Web site. Examples are given of both large and small industrial marketers who are currently using their Web sites to achieve these effects. Efficiency indexes are defined for five Web communication activities and an overall measure of Web site efficiency measure is presented.     

Team challenges: Is artificial intelligence the solution?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a potential growth area for facilitating the improvement and development of teams in the workplace. AI, as used in the team context, is currently underdeveloped and limited, thus reducing the wide-scale adoption and implementation of AI to improve team effectiveness. The use of AI to provide team diagnostics and improvements represents a significant shift in the approach organizations currently use to facilitate and strengthen effective teamwork. We describe the challenges involved in developing team effectiveness in organizations and the potential application of AI to improve teamwork. Further, we report on our experiences using AI in business school student project teams, the important advantages and disadvantages that emerged from this, and insights for future consideration when adopting and implementing AI in the workplace. Based on our use of AI and our experience training high-performing teams, we propose a multistep process for analyzing and improving teams in organizations.     

Information diffusion and new product consumption: A bass model application to tourism facility management

This article applies models to measure and to understand how information diffusion influences tourists' consumption patterns. The study uses administrative data on a new festival's attendance and advertising. Bass's [Bass FM. A new product growth for model consumer durables. Manage Sci 1969;15(5):215-227] model and a modified version [Horsky D, Simon LS. Advertising and the diffusion of new products. Mark Sci 1983;2(1):1-18] to allow for advertising's effect. Results imply effectiveness of front loaded advertising. This result is due to increasing purchases that result from word-of-mouth information diffusion. However, a model with an effect of advertising is accepted as well as a model with no consideration of advertising budget. Examination of consistency and conceptual issues with models raises the need for models that are more realistic for the tourism product. A specific concern is developing models appropriate to analysis of attendance at a limited-duration innovative event (e.g., new product) held at a host to impact longer-term attendance of the host.     

The Influences of Customer Relationship Metrics on Shareholder Value: What Should Be Done and What Has Been Done?

The contribution of customer relationship (CR) metrics to shareholder value is practically unknown in research and practice. Existing studies report rather ambiguous results. We develop a proposal to identify and measure the multidimensional influences in a valid and reliable way. By comparing existing studies to each other and to our framework, we can find possible reasons for their ambiguity: First, the studies are actually not compatible while using various CR metrics and performance measures. Second, several conceptual and methodological differences also place the comparability of their results in question. The application of our framework should explain the inconsistent outcomes of existing studies and indicate a consistent and general influence of CR metrics on shareholder value.     

Marketing perspectives on digital business models: A framework and overview of the special issue

Strong digital developments are changing markets, and firms may adopt a digital business model to deal with these developments. This special issue focuses on such digital business models. In this editorial, we discuss the relevance of digital business models, propose a conceptual framework, and discuss how digital business models affect firms, firm performance, and markets. We introduce the papers in this issue and show how they each fit within the conceptual framework. We discuss four important areas for future research.     

Towards a model of destination innovation process: an integrative review

The goal of the present paper is to integrate five types of literature related to the innovation process (i.e. cluster theory, innovation systems, network relations, knowledge management, and innovation types) and apply them to the local tourism destination to build a destination innovation process model with macro and micro perspectives. The suggested models intend to broaden the thinking on destination innovation process for tourism-related agents at the local and national level. The paper undertakes a careful review of the relevant literature before creating the conceptual models. The paper’s novelty and uniqueness lies in suggesting a new conceptual model of addressing how innovation competence of tourism destinations can be developed, and offering insight for tourism-related agents at the local and national level into how to effectively create and manage innovations. Future research should undertake empirical studies to test the integrated models presented in this conceptual paper.     

Measures of aesthetic dimensions and reactions in advertising

Advertising increasingly uses discrepant imagery featuring unsettling portrayals rather than traditional imagery featuring aspirational models, products, and settings. Thus, the need for more valid and reliable measures has limited much research investigating advertising aesthetics to conceptual or qualitative approaches. To meet this need, the current research applies art and aesthetic theory in developing scales that measure aesthetic dimensions and reactions of advertising visuals. First, it develops and validates measures for the aesthetic dimensions of ideal beauty and the antithetical aesthetic as well as aesthetic reactions of transgression and artistic quality. Then, it demonstrates predictive validity by testing each dimension's influence on aesthetic reactions, attention, and attitudes toward the ad and brand.     

Designing a tool for service-dominant strategies using action design research

Both academic research and industrial practice recognize difficulties in translating the principles of service-dominant (S-D) business logic into actionable insights for practitioners, particularly when considering S-D logic at the strategic level. To address this problem, this paper focuses on the conceptualization, formulation, and communication of an S-D business strategy. From the theoretical standpoint, we conceptualize the elements of an S-D strategy by filtering the scattered literature about S-D strategy and business models through the lenses of traditional views of business strategy. From the practical standpoint, we develop a tool embedding our conceptual development to support practitioners in the formulation and communication of S-D strategy. While traditional strategy tools take a value chain perspective, our tool helps to position the focal organization at the center of a complex ecosystem of partners who are co-creating value. Following the principles of action design research, the tool is developed and evaluated in close collaboration with practice in a case study in the financial services industry. Consequently, this paper contributes both to the conceptual and the practical operationalization of S-D logic at the strategic level.     

A Framework for a Dynamic Organizational Memory Information System

Organizational memory information systems (OMIS) implement important aspects of organizational memory with the aim of enhancing organizational effectiveness. We propose a 3-layered framework for a dynamic OMIS. The framework consists of a pragmatic layer to support the actual activity, a conceptual layer to store the concepts inherent in that activity, and a process layer to store the experience of performing that activity. Both the conceptual and process layers represent organizational memory repositories in the form of respective models. The implementation of OMIS assumes that any activity is the instantiation of relevant conceptual and process models and includes the reuse of knowledge stored in association with those models. In this way, organizational memory is always mapped to current activity, and its adequacy is constantly evaluated. This provides the potential for the models to evolve as a direct result of the current activity. A partial implementation of this framework to support epidemiological research is illustrated.     

Communicating With Employees: Building on an Ethical Foundation

The paradigm of work and the formal organizations within which people work are changing. Trends in organizations include less hierarchy, integrated structures, empowered employees, teams and teamwork, labor-management partnerships, and myriad other changes. Underlying all these changes is a new emphasis on values regarding how organizations function. Among the critical organizational functions to which the values framework applies is communication.Most models of internal organizational communication are adaptations of the existing model for communicating externally. These models fall short of what is needed to impact today's employees.The model presented in this paper is based on seventeen years of work in the transformation of large, complex organizations. Comparing classic models and theories of organizations with the characteristics and needs of high performance systems led to the development of a values-based, employee-driven communication model. The model includes a comparison of communication in both kinds of systems in terms of purposes, principles (The Seven Cs), content, and techniques.     

Conceptual and mathematical model for quality improvement in health care

Numerous studies have shown that implemented models for quality assurance or improvement in healthcare facilities differ, even those models that are based on the same guidelines, i.e. standards, regulations or concepts. The cause of diversity in implemented quality models could be found in the process of translating guidelines into the implemented model for quality assurance or improvements in healthcare facilities, while neglecting processes of healthcare facilities that are not clinical processes, but still responsible for the quality of healthcare services. Therefore, this research recommends a conceptual model that should be a link between guidelines, implemented models and mathematical models derived from the conceptual model, which could provide a means of evaluating quality values of any part of the healthcare organization.     

Religion and ratio analysis: Towards an Islamic corporate liquidity measure

This paper contributes to the emerging literature on the effect of religion on corporate decision making and financial reporting. Financial statement analytical tools could violate several commands of Islamic law. Specifically, traditional liquidity ratios imply undervaluation, uncertainty, and interest bearing aspects that are strictly prohibited in Islamic law. We propose an Islamic-compliant measure of corporate liquidity. In order to validate our proposed ratio as a measure of corporate liquidity, we incorporate it in the traditional corporate bankruptcy prediction models. Our measure significantly improves the accuracy of the corporate bankruptcy prediction models of Altman (1968) Z-score and Ohlson (1980).     

基于团队的绩效评价指标体系的建立思路及应用

从团队的概念及特征谈起,论述基于团队的绩效评价指标体系应该是组织绩效、团队绩效和员工绩效三者的整合,指标体系的设计不能割裂团队与员工之间固有的关系,既要考核团队,又要兼顾员工。     

Simultaneous measurement of quality in different online services

The purpose of our study is to propose a measurement model, based on two separate scales, to simultaneously test the quality of three services: online travel reservations, accommodation reservations and online ticketing. A scale to measure electronic service quality consists of four dimensions: design, functionality, privacy and information/reliability. The second scale used to measure recovery electronic service quality consists of two dimensions: access/contact and responsiveness. The findings indicate that our scales are reliable, valid and consistent among different contexts. To complete the validity assessment of the proposed scales, we test the nomological validity comparing different competing models.     

Addressing skills mismatch: Utilizing talent supply chain management to enhance collaboration between companies and talent suppliers

Talent management continues to be a topic of interest for employers who face significant challenges dealing with the uncertainty of the supply and demand of talent in organizations. In particular, employers often speak of a talent gap that exists between the skills possessed by applicants and the skills needed in organizations. Supply chain management (SCM), a field that focuses on matching product supply with consumer demand, offers several concepts and models that could apply to and help resolve issues related to the skills mismatch. In order to address this issue, we base our conceptual development on a theoretical framework used in SCM called the collaborative, planning, forecasting, and replenishment (CPFR) approach. We use this approach to develop a comprehensive model of talent supply chain management (TSCM) that applies concepts related to the field of SCM to managing the development and flow of talent. We further go on to describe how organizations can utilize TSCM to enhance connections with talent suppliers to get their labor demands fulfilled with individuals who have the necessary skills for success.     

THE AFFINE LIBOR MODELS

We provide a general and flexible approach to LIBOR modeling based on the class of affine factor processes. Our approach respects the basic economic requirement that LIBOR rates are nonnegative, and the basic requirement from mathematical finance that LIBOR rates are analytically tractable martingales with respect to their own forward measure. Additionally, and most importantly, our approach also leads to analytically tractable expressions of multi‐LIBOR payoffs. This approach unifies therefore the advantages of well‐known forward price models with those of classical LIBOR rate models. Several examples are added and prototypical volatility smiles are shown. We believe that the CIR process‐based LIBOR model might be of particular interest for applications, since closed form valuation formulas for caps and swaptions are derived.     

Job satisfaction and commitment in the entrepreneurial SME

In the current global corporate climate that surrounds us, firms would do well to encourage the talent and creativity of their employees to achieve success. This is achieved, not by giving priority to individual talent, but by optimizing the collective as a whole and with the firm’s activities based on teamwork and joint effort. Heads of organizations might benefit from creating a favorable context for the birth and growth of collective internal cooperation, which is understood to be the collective ability to create and innovate on the part of the team, the firm or the organization. Having contrasted our hypotheses through research on Spanish firms, we have concluded that job satisfaction and commitment to the team are factors that have a direct and positive effect on Internal Entrepreneurship.