Consumption and communication perspectives of IT in a developing economy

Technological innovations are important sources of competitive advantage when there is a balanced rate of adoption that helps organisations maintain or improve performance levels. This paper synthesises and builds on efforts to conceptualise the adoption and implementation of technologically induced customer services in developing countries. Its point of departure is recent advances in computer-mediated marketing environments (CMMEs). It assesses relationships between customer services and evolving technologies in the provision of services in the banking sector. Using phenomenological hermeneutics and a case study approach, we iteratively engaged with data that emerged to identify core values and community-based values. These facets were further developed into seven main issues (core values: quality, education and reach, and community-based values: efficiency, usability, control and security). The paper offers practical steps by which companies and institutions may counter these issues and the theoretical implications for wider considerations are discussed.     

Opportunities to reduce road traffic injury: new insights from the study of urban areas

Abstract

Over the past four decades considerable efforts have been taken to mitigate the growing burden of road injury. With increasing urbanisation along with global mobility that demands not only safe but equitable, efficient and clean (reduced carbon footprint) transport, the responses to dealing with the burgeoning road traffic injury in low- and middle-income countries has become increasingly complex. In this paper, we apply unique methods to identify important strategies that could be implemented to reduce road traffic injury in the Asia-Pacific region; a region comprising large middle-income countries (China and India) that are currently in the throes of rapid motorisation. Using a convolutional neural network approach, we clustered countries containing a total of 1632 cities from around the world into groups based on urban characteristics related to road and public transport infrastructure. We then analysed 20 countries (containing 689 cities) from the Asia-Pacific region and assessed the global burden of disease attributed to road traffic injury and these various urban characteristics. This study demonstrates the utility of employing image recognition methods to discover new insights that afford urban and transport planning opportunities to mitigate road traffic injury at a regional and global scale.     

The Roles of Innovators and Labor in a Schumpeterian Factor Endowments Based Model of Intra‐industry Trade

This paper builds a model of Schumpeterian innovation and trade that emphasizes endowments of innovators and labor as a key factor in determining the pattern of trade. The model suggests a strong complementarity between intra‐industry and inter‐industry trade. The pattern of inter‐industry vs intra‐industry trade is analyzed using the Grubel–Lloyd index. The theoretical model predicts that the prominence of intra‐industry trade is a nonlinear function of the ratio of the proportion of world knowledge domestically generated to the domestic share of the world labor supply. Strong empirical evidence for this key result is presented and implications are discussed.     

Opportunities and Challenges in Engaging Citizens in the Co-Production of Infrastructure-Based Public Services in Australia

Research and practice have observed a shift towards service-oriented approaches that depend on input from citizens as co-producers of services. Yet in the delivery of public infrastructure the focus is still on managing assets rather than services. Using a Policy Delphi approach, we found that although experts advocate service-centric approaches guidelines and policies lack a service-centric perspective. Findings revealed a range of impediments to effective stakeholder involvement. The paper contributes to co-production and new public governance literature and offers directions for public infrastructure decision-makers to support and reconnect disengaged government–citizen relations, and determine ways of understanding optimal service outcomes.     

Coveted or Overlooked? The Psychology of Bidding for Comparable Listings in Digital Auctions

This article elaborates on, and provides evidence of the herd behavior bias -- the tendency to gravitate toward, and bid for, auction listings with one or more existing bids, ignoring comparable or even more attractive unbid-for listings available at the same time -- exhibited by buyers in digital auctions. Some listings attract many bidders and become coveted, the center of bidding attention, while other equivalent or even superior listings are overlooked, receiving no bids at all. Empirical analysis using data from digital auctions across different product categories shows that this herd behavior bias is attenuated with increasing bid price, but increases with the difficulty of evaluating quality. The practical implications of these findings, and promising research opportunities in this area are also discussed.     

Reexamination of attendee-based brand equity

The significance of brand concept has been increasingly recognized in the MICE industry due to its ability to create a compelling competitive edge. Complementing the major limitation of a study on attendee-based brand equity [Lee, J. S., & Back, K. J. (2008). Attendee-based brand equity. Tourism Management, 29(2), 331–344], this study reexamines attendee-based brand equity by additionally sampling regional CHRIE conferences (RCs) and comparing the data with I-CHRIE's annual conference (IC) in the context of our theoretical model. This research not only increases the theoretical validity of the previous model of attendee-based brand equity, but also explores brand equity as captured through the differential brand knowledge effect by comparing IC and RCs.     

Short Run Constraints and the Increasing Marginal Value of Time in Recreation

Leisure activities such as local recreation trips usually take place in discrete blocks of time that are surrounded by time devoted to other commitments. It can be costly to transfer time between blocks to allow for longer outings. These observations affect the value of time within those blocks and suggest that traditional methods for valuing time using labor markets miss important considerations. This paper presents a new model for time valuation that uses non-employment time commitments to infer the shadow value of time spent in recreation. A unique survey that elicited revealed and stated preference data on household time allocation is used to implement the model. The results support the conclusion that there is an increasing marginal value of time for recreation as the trip length increases.     

NONPROFIT EMPLOYEES' MACHIAVELLIAN PROPENSITIES

Nonprofit organizations are held to high ethical standards due to their charitable missions serving the common good. Incidents of fiscal mismanagement within the nonprofit sector make it relevant to assay the ethical principles of employees. This study examines the level of Machiavellian propensities of US nonprofit employees. Results indicate Machiavellian propensities do exist in certain nonprofit employees and these employees agree with questionable behavior. Policy makers and oversight agencies may find these results useful in developing corporate governance and accountability measures for nonprofit organizations. Furthermore, board of director members may use these results to monitor employee actions and address management training.