State enforceability of noncompete agreements: Regulations that stifle productivity!

Noncompete agreements (also known as covenants not to compete [CNCs]) are frequently used by many businesses in an attempt to maintain their competitive advantage by safeguarding their human capital and the associated business secrets. Although the choice of whether to include CNCs in employment contracts is made by firms, the real extent of their restrictiveness is determined by the state laws. In this article, we explore the effect of state‐level CNC enforceability on firm productivity. We assert that an increase in state level CNC enforceability is detrimental to firm productivity, and this relationship becomes stronger as comparable job opportunities become more concentrated in a firm's home state. On the other hand, this negative relationship is weakened as employee compensation tends to become more long‐term oriented. Results based on hierarchical linear modeling analysis of 21,134 firm‐year observations for 3,027 unique firms supported all three hypotheses.     

Service innovation in the hotel industry: culture,behavior, performance

The aim of this study is to focus on the service innovation culture (SIC) in the formation of frontline employees’ (FLE) innovation performance based on two fit theories. More specifically, the research evaluates and examines the mediating role of challenge-oriented citizenship behavior (COCB) and charged behavior in the aforementioned relationship. To test the hypotheses, two-step structural equation modeling with bootstrapping estimation was conducted in AMOS, using data from 215 full-time frontline hotel employees over a one-month time period. This study establishes that the development of a SIC is positively related to the innovation performance of FLE. Likewise, the results indicate that there is a partially mediating role for the COCB and expanded charged behavior (encompassing vitality and creative self-efficacy) of FLE in the relationship between SIC and innovation performance. The findings of this study highlight the need for managers to incorporate a secure and trusting work environment so FLE will eagerly participate in the service innovation process by voicing their novel ideas. Managers can also consider the significance of the employee selection procedures and take advantage of employing university graduate for frontline service jobs.     

农户土地转出的影响因素研究*——基于土地流转补贴政策效用的视角

[目的]基于安徽省蚌埠市的调研数据,实证研究土地流转补贴政策对土地转出的影响,分析土地流转补贴政策效用。[方法]文章根据国内外相关研究成果,结合调研地区的具体环境因素,提出研究假设,选取农户的家庭人口特征、社会经济特征和土地资源禀赋等变量,构建回归模型,运用SPSS统计软件分析农户土地转出的影响因素及土地流转补贴政策的效用。[结果]直接影响农户土地转出的因素包括非农就业、非农收入、农民离乡进城务工条件和土地资源禀赋等,农民获得的土地流转补贴占家庭总收入的比重非常小,对农户转出土地的意愿起不到显著促进作用。[结论]因此,促进土地有序流转必须把土地流转补贴等财政扶持资金转移到基本生产设施的建设上,改善农业生产经营条件,增强新型农业经营主体的土地转入积极性;通过创造非农就业机会,增加非农收入,完善农村社会保障服务体系,促进农民工市民化等措施,弱化农民对土地的依赖,从而增强农民转出土地的积极性。     

产业转型、就业结构调整与收入分配

本文通过对比中国非农就业的行业分布和收入增长1995—2013年期间四个时间点上的情况，用布朗分解方法分析了收入增长的原因，重点考察了行业分布变化所代表的产业结构调整对收入增长的贡献作用。研究结果表明，中国劳动收入增长的主要原因是市场化改革所带来的收入机制的完善，低技能劳动力的大量供给使中国产业结构向低技能低收入的方向倾斜发展，这不利于整体收入的增长和分配。近年来产业转型对收入增长的贡献作用开始加强，这会成为新时期中国劳动收入的新增长点。     

Managing service recovery experience: Effects of the forgiveness for older consumers

The research studies empirically the role that fairness plays in shaping emotional and behavioral forgiveness among older U.S. consumers (55 years of age and older). A theoretical model is proposed and tested that proposes, consistent with theory on emotions, that perceptions of justice affect behavioral forgiveness through emotional forgiveness. An alternative theory questions whether the effects of justice are totally mediated by emotion. Comparative results support the latter model. The cognitive perceptions of justice display a stronger effect compared to the mediated effect through emotional forgiveness. Additionally, an examination of moderation by psychological age suggests that relatively old and young (psychologically) consumers react in the same manner. While clearly, service managers need to be sensitive to the emotions of senior customers, the results here suggest a stronger role for cognitive perceptions of justice. Thus, service providers need to provide senior consumers with clearly understandable explanations for any service failure and explain how the recovery efforts will compensate for the failure.     

Listen to their heart: Why does active listening enhance customer satisfaction after a service failure?

A service employee’s active listening plays a crucial role in restoring a damaged customer relationship. However, previous studies reveal little about how listening to customer complaints operates in recovering a service failure. The purpose of this research is to explore when and why the employee’s active listening has a positive influence on customer response. We define active listening as (1) listening to customers’ concerns before apologizing and (2) verbally acknowledging them. Using scenario-based experiments, we demonstrate that active listening improves customer satisfaction, which in turn increases tip size (Study 1). Moreover, we find that active listening fosters customers’ perceptions of preferential treatment, which lead to greater customer satisfaction (Study 2). Yet, such positive effects of active listening diminish when customers are unexpectedly offered a complimentary service such as a room upgrade. The implications for academic researchers and marketing managers are discussed.     

Emotional labor in a non-isolated service encounter - The impact of customer observation on perceived authenticity and perceived fairness

Emotional labor is a frequently discussed topic in the service literature because of its varying effects on customers' evaluation processes. Previous research has primarily investigated the effects of emotional labor from an employee-customer perspective. This article considers customer copresence and argues that the observed interaction between an employee and another customer affects the focal customer's evaluation process. An extended customer-employee-customer model is presented and empirically tested in a pharmacy setting. The findings show that distinctive emotional labor affects customers' perceptions of authenticity and fairness. This study presents a more nuanced account of the effectiveness of emotional labor and provides managers with advice to enhance point-of-sale interactions.     

制造企业组织柔性、动态服务创新能力与服务创新绩效

随着制造业服务化转型的逐渐深入，服务成为价值交换的核心要素，企业研发工作的重心从产品创新延伸到服务创新。在服务创新背景下，市场需求、关键资源和创新模式的内涵都发生了根本改变，促使企业不断提高自身适应性以应对挑战。然而，目前关于该主题的研究尚不充分。分析并验证了制造企业组织柔性对动态服务创新能力和服务创新绩效的影响。从支撑服务创新的角度出发，将组织柔性划分为组织文化柔性、组织结构柔性和人力资源柔性，分析了组织柔性通过增强企业动态服务创新能力（服务需求感知能力、服务方案开发能力和服务系统重构能力）提升服务创新绩效的作用机制，构建了反映上述概念之间关系的理论模型。以组织市场（B2B）作为研究背景，面向制造企业管理者收集数据，通过实证分析对理论模型进行检验。研究结果表明：组织柔性对服务创新绩效具有积极影响，动态服务创新能力和市场动态性分别在二者间关系中起中介作用和调节作用。最后，就企业如何提高组织柔性，增强动态服务创新能力，进而改善服务创新绩效提出若干建议和对策。     

How do customers meet their needs in in-store and online fashion shopping? A comparative study based on the jobs-to-be-done theory

Understanding customer needs is key for fashion retailers to stay competitive and innovative. Surprisingly, however, extant literature mainly explores customer needs in terms of a garment and its attributes rather than viewing shopping as a problem-solving process to meet customer needs. Moreover, these studies fail to address how customers meet their needs in-store (ISFR) and online fashion retailing (OFR). To fill this research gap, we empirically investigate customers' personal and social needs and how they can be met through the jobs-to-be-done theory. Findings reveal that, beyond the purchase of a garment, customer needs can be fulfilled through different ways, such as smart technology or a person's high interaction with social others in ISFR and the online shop experience or a social linkage without social interaction in OFR. Additionally, our findings offer potential service innovations for fashion retailing managers.     

减排与增长:服务业如何实现绿色均衡发展?

服务业是中国经济转型和产业结构升级的重要抓手,在资源与环境"双重"约束日益趋紧的背景下,有必要研究服务业绿色发展问题。能否在减排成本最小的前提下提高服务业增长率,走出一条绿色发展路径?为此,文章创新性地将排放权交易市场引入服务业部门,采用方向性距离函数、非线性规划等实证研究方法测算2004-2012年中国服务业14个细分行业的绿色效率和碳排放影子价格。研究表明:中国服务业发展方式并非"绿色",服务业减排成本和碳排放量逐年增长,减排面临巨大的经济压力;在文章设计的排放权交易模型下,服务业细分行业能够形成一个统一的影子价格,从而实现一条绿色发展路径,该路径满足帕累托有效和投入产出技术有效;在均衡路径上,流通服务业应出售排放权,而其他减排成本较高的服务业购买排放权。