Transitional Ethics: Responsibilities of Supervisors for Supporting Employee Development

New employees face a variety of life and career transitions in early adulthood. This paper explores these transitions that shape personal and career identity. A supervisor can play a central role in facilitating employee development during these times but may be unwilling or ill-prepared to do so. At other times he/she may provide assistance that is unwanted and inappropriate to the employee's developmental needs. The paper develops a framework for examining the supervisor's ethical responsibility to facilitate employee development and provides guidelines for managing these transitions.     

Context effects in the evaluation of business-to-business brand alliances

Brand alliances in the business-to-business domain are becoming increasingly popular. This study investigates the impact of context-related effects on the formation of evaluation perceptions in B2B brand alliances. Assimilation and contrast effects represent the conceptual framework. Employing an experimental design we test the influence of two contextual factors on a range of product attributes: quality perceptions of the known brand ally (valence), and amount of information provided for the brand alliance. Using data collected from a cross section sample of large B2B UK companies we report assimilation effects across different product attributes of the alliance. Positive valence of the known brand ally results in higher evaluations of the brand alliance. In terms of provision of information, we find that, (a) unlike consumer markets, in the B2B domain higher evaluations are the result of detailed information, and (b) the impact of detailed information is significant only for tangible product attributes. Further, we find that valence of the known brand ally and amount of information provided are independent factors. The results add significantly to the knowledge on context effects in B2B brand alliances and lead to a number of managerial recommendations on partner selection and marketing communication of new brand alliances.     

Platform thinking for services: the case of human resources

This paper tests the utility of platform thinking, a design principle that has so far been applied to product development yet under-researched in service settings, for improving the value of services. A key principle of platform thinking is to balance the reuse of service components with the heterogeneity in user needs. Tuning services to specific user needs is valuable, but differentiating services when user needs are homogeneous may decrease service quality and increase cost. Using data from 676 human resource management services, this study finds that the service value is highest when the service provision is matched with the commonality potential of the services. The results indicate that using the wrong delivery channel decreases the service value which eventually could decrease the service value for an organization's external customers. These empirical findings demonstrate the relevance of platform thinking for service design and challenges conventional design criteria used for optimizing service delivery.     

A longitudinal examination of the effects of retailer–manufacturer brand alliances: The role of perceived fit

Abstract

One resource that has been identified as a valuable source of competitive advantage is the equity associated with an organisation's brands. Organisations devote considerable resources to developing strategies that allow them to build and/or maintain strong brand names. This study investigates brand alliances between retailers and manufacturers. The role of perceived fit between the partnering brands is explored. In addition, the study examines the influence that retailer–manufacturer brand alliances have on: retailer equity; manufacturer brand equity; the intention of consumers to frequent the stores of the retailer involved in the brand alliance (shopping intention); and the intention of consumers to purchase products from the manufacturer involved in the brand alliance (purchase intention).     

A Comparison of Consumers and Dieticians: Nutrition Focus,Food Choice,and Mental Accounting

Nutrition labels on processed foods are becoming more common throughout the world. How do experts and consumers compare at using this information? This study compares three different conceptualizations of expertise—a body of knowledge, better processing skills, and a greater facility for mental accounting. A survey was used to compare 237 consumers over age 40 with 131 dieticians. We examined the focuses, choices, and mental accounting of food selections. The results demonstrate similar focuses, food choices, predictability, and mental accounting by both groups on all three conceptualizations of expertise. This suggests that nutrition labels benefit both consumers and experts.     

THE EFFECT OF JOB MOBILITY ON ACADEMIC SALARIES

The hypothesis that individuals increase future earnings by investing in themselves through job change has considerable empirical support. To date, this hypothesis has not been tested on the academic labor market. Using a national faculty survey that includes respondents' complete work history, the authors estimate the impact of job mobility on faculty salaries. The rate of job mobility among faculty members appears low compared to that of other workers. Salaries overall are not significantly related to the number of academic jobs held until the number of jobs reaches four, and then the effect is negative. An examination by gender reveals that women incur a salary penalty of 8% in moving to the second job.     

Guilt appeals: The mediating effect of responsibility

This research was conducted to assess how guilt appeals operate in soliciting charitable donations. It was hypothesized that a sense of responsibility would enhance the effectiveness of charitable guilt appeals, thus leading to larger charitable donations. It was also hypothesized that the presence of others would make salient a prosocial norm, thus increasing a sense of responsibility to help. Two laboratory experiments were conducted to test these hypotheses. The effect of guilt on charitable‐donation intention and actual donations was mediated by a sense of responsibility. Additionally, the presence of others enhanced the sense of responsibility to behave prosocially. These findings have implications for the design of charitable‐donation campaigns. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

2006年:中国经济及其对世界经济的影响

虽然1992年我在中国做财政问题研究,到现在中国已经发生了很大的变化.我非常高兴能够再来到中国,世界银行是一个多边发展机构,在中国的业务很多,现在我们更加关注中国对世界经济的影响,所以我非常荣幸能够受到邀请来讨论中国的经济以及中国对于世界经济的影响.