Frontline employees׳ attitudes towards self-service technologies: Threats or opportunity for job performance?

Increasing diffusion of self-service technologies (SSTs) on the points of sale impacts on traditional retailing from several perspectives. For instance, SSTs have direct effect on front-line employees. Indeed, they may cause a potential reduction in personal contacts with clients, reduction of workers, modifying the job conditions and so on. To date, the effect of SSTs on the points of sale has been mainly investigated from a consumers׳ perspective, by mainly focusing on consumers׳ acceptance and usage of these systems. The aim of this paper is to make employees׳ point of view clearly emerge, through a qualitative approach focusing on the investigation of employees׳ perception of the consequences of these technologies on job performance. The content analysis based on exploratory in-depth interviews involves 250 frontline employees. Authors examine the success of technology from employee׳s standpoint by evaluating their attitude and considering the impact on their job performance perception. In this way, the analysis allows defining new variables which are not previously investigated, such as the perception of speed for task completion, which emerged as the most important factor for employees׳ self-evaluation. Hence, this study offers support for evaluating job performance considering the specific case of SSTs in the frontline employees as initial insights rather than definitive understandings.     

Fostering rural and agricultural tourism: exploring the potential of geocaching

Geocaching is a modern-day version of “hide and seek” where participants use geographical longitude and latitude coordinates to locate a “geocache” using a GPS device or mobile app. An agriculturally focused geocache program could foster tourism, interest and educational opportunities about rural and agricultural areas, and could facilitate additional patronage of businesses that operate in these areas. As a prerequisite to such a program, however, organizations must commit to establishing and maintaining a geocache. This study explores the perceived benefits and constraints to an organization's participation in a rural or agriculturally focused geocache program. A case example of an agriculturally focused geocaching program, AgCache, is used as a starting point. In-depth interviews of program Founders and current participants explored the program's background and goals, and experiences of participating sites. Complimenting this, a survey collected information from potential host sites, and probit model analyses were used to assess influences on an organization's interest in hosting a geocache. While many organizations indicated that they would be interested in such a program, several indicated (addressable) concerns. Characteristics of the organization and respondent were found to significantly influence their interest. Findings are instructive for targeting and recruiting organizations into an agricultural or rural geocaching program.     

When the target may know better: Effects of experience and information asymmetries on value from mergers and acquisitions

Research summary : Extending research on the effect of experience on acquisition outcomes, we examine how the differential in previous M&A experience between the target and the acquirer affects the value they, respectively, obtain when the acquirer takes over the target. Drawing on literature about organizational learning, negotiation, and information economics, we theorize that the party with greater experience will be able to obtain more value. Furthermore, we theorize that the effect of differential M&A experience on value obtained is contingent on the level of information asymmetry the acquirer faces with respect to the target, specifically as a function of the target's product‐market scope and whether the deal is friendly. We test and find support for these predictions in a sample of 1,241 M&As over a 30‐year period. Managerial summary : Corporate strategy is about a firm's scope and development decisions and outcomes, but corporate strategizing is incomplete unless managers anticipate the moves of other economic actors. We demonstrate the importance of these points when it comes to learning to make acquisitions. Using an innovative research design and theory that enables comparison between acquirer and target gains, we show that whatever their firm's acquisition history and capabilities, acquisitive managers should mind the negotiation and other pitfalls that arise when target firms possess ample acquisition experience of their own. We also demonstrate that the effect of experience advantage, whereby the more experienced party benefits, depends on the target firm's scope and whether the deal is friendly—two dimensions that acquirers can and should take into account. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Customer satisfaction and service quality in the Chinese airline industry

This paper focuses on studying the relationship between customer satisfaction, measured by customer complaints, and the service quality of Chinese carriers. By using a quarterly unbalanced panel data set covering twelve large and small carriers, our fixed effect Tobit analysis shows that customer complaints rise with increases in the number of damaged bags, but at a declining rate. By contrast, the on-time performance of scheduled flights has no significant effect on customer complaints. Furthermore, non-state or privately owned carriers receive significantly more customer complaints compared with state-owned carriers, and the largest number of complaints are made in the third quarter, which covers the high season of the summer holidays.     

高绩效工作系统、工作倦怠对员工离职倾向的影响研究

本文基于员工感知的视角，以工作倦怠作为中介变量，探索员工感知的高绩效工作系统对离职倾向的影响机制。通过来自企业256 个有效样本的实证研究发现，员工感知的高绩效工作系统与离职倾向显著负相关；工作倦怠及其子维度情感耗竭、玩世不恭与离职倾向显著正相关，而子维度成就感低落与离职倾向相关性不显著；工作倦怠在员工感知的高绩效工作系统与离职倾向之间起部分中介作用；员工感知的高绩效工作系统可通过影响员工的情感耗竭、玩世不恭情绪，间接对离职倾向产生影响，而成就感低落的中介效应不显著。     

油田社区服务“三精”质量控制模式的实践与思考

介绍了油田社区服务单位的现状与特点，联系实际论述了精准定位、精确作业、精细管理质量控制模式的概念与架构，探讨了该模式运行的关键控制点、控制措施及其推行该模式产生的效果。     

资本结构与绩效的相关性研究——基于上市公司年报的实证分析

现代公司财务理论是现代金融理论中最基础最重要的内容之一,而资本结构理论又在整个公司财务理论中举足轻重,本文从资本结构的基本理论入手,研究了我国上市公司资本结构的现状,并利用2009年上市公司披露的年报数据对资本结构和经营绩效的相关性进行了实证分析,以期能够对公司治理提供借鉴。     

城市化进程中的社区建设模式探索——以长沙市咸嘉新村为例

城市化进程中的社区建设问题是当前一大热点问题，其模式选择也备受学术界关注。本文在分析国内外社区建设模式优劣的基础上，以长沙市咸嘉新村为实证研究，围绕社区建设主体之间的利益分配和相互作用展开研究，通过构建社区建设的三方“博弈模型”，探索出了“G—D—P联合建设”的新模式，以期为我国城市化进程中的新型社区的建设与完善，旧有社区和城中村的改造提供可行性方案。     

Employee performance outcomes and burnout following the presentation-of-self in customer-service contexts

This study examines how emotional intelligence and occupational commitment have a moderating effect on the relationship between emotional labour and its potential outcomes. Two acting strategies reflect emotional labour, namely surface and deep acting, with burnout and performance as the prospective outcomes. Burnout is operationalized into emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and diminished personal achievement; whereas performance is operationalized into task performance and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). The study investigates employee responses from several tourism and hospitality organizations in Florida, USA. The results show that emotional labour relates most positively to task performance and to burnout in the case of surface acting. Tests of moderation show that occupational commitment enhances performance outcomes by facilitating emotional labour strategies, and the prevalence of higher emotional intelligence amongst employees reduces burnout. These findings contribute to the literature on emotional labour by incorporating emotional intelligence and occupational commitment as moderators and by incorporating OCBs within performance analyses.     

物业管理专业人才需求研究

在未来几年，物业管理服务行业将迎来迅猛发展，物业管理服务行业对人才的需求将越来越大，特别是对实用性强、操作能力强的人才的需求更旺盛。文章认为中职院校所培养的物业管理专业学生更适合物业行业的特点，并在物业行业对于初、中级人才的需求上进行了分析和研究。