The relationship between resources,entrepreneurial orientation and performance in farm-based ventures

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how firm-specific resources and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of the firm may influence performance in small farm-based ventures. It builds upon theoretical strands from the resource-based and entrepreneurship perspectives. Research within these fields indicates that these relationships might be dependent on the context within which the firm operates. Hypotheses are developed to test the possible effect of entrepreneurial efforts and resources (financial position, farm size, location, network and unique competence) on short- and long-term performance. Data gathered in 2003 and 2006 from farms engaged in innovative ventures were used to test the hypotheses. The results show that financial capacity, unique competence and entrepreneurial efforts influence performance in the investigated firms. This suggests that firms do get paid back in the long run for engaging in entrepreneurial efforts. Thus, entrepreneurial activities and attitudes represent an important factor enabling firms to create, reconsider and apply their resources in more efficient ways.     

Supplier satisfaction and commitment: The role of influence strategies and supplier development

Although considerable research is dedicated to influence strategies and supplier development, a lack of empirical support exists of their effects on supplier satisfaction and commitment. This exploratory study aims to fill this gap by investigating first-tier suppliers in the German automotive industry. Supplier reactions to three different influence strategies and two types of supplier development efforts are examined. Results indicate that supplier commitment is affected by the use of promises and both human- and capital-specific supplier development, while supplier satisfaction is affected by indirect, other direct influence strategies and capital-specific supplier development.     

Does direct experience matter? Examining the consequences of current entrepreneurial behavior on entrepreneurial intention

Entrepreneurial behavior research has used intention models to explain how an individual’s beliefs shape the attitudes and motivations that influence entrepreneurial intention. Nevertheless, as entrepreneurship promotion initiatives become global, it becomes relevant to explore the consequences of being engaged in entrepreneurial behavior on entrepreneurial intention. We aim to shed light on whether the direct experience reinforces an individual’s entrepreneurial intention or reduces it. Building on an extended version of the planned behavior theory, we use the behavioral reasoning theory to propose a research design to study the influence of being currently engaged in entrepreneurial behavior on entrepreneurial intention. We introduce individual’s age as an additional moderator of the effects of directly experiencing entrepreneurial behavior. We use PLS-MGA to complete a multi-group SEM analysis for different groups of individuals (from a sample of 430), comparing groups based on their entrepreneurial activity and age group. Results of this research work evidence that current engagement in entrepreneurship activities produces significant differences in the intention to start a new venture between older and younger participants. The results suggest that engagement in entrepreneurial activity modifies entrepreneurial intention and that these effects are contingent to the individual’s age. This research work contributes to the extant call to explore reverse causality between actual behavior and an individual’s intention by introducing behavioral reasoning theory. These results provide support to initiatives to adapt entrepreneurship promotion efforts to the specific characteristics of the participants.     

Expatriate management and national culture: a bibliometric study of prolific,productive, and most cited authors and institutions

Abstract

This is a bibliometric study of reference literature related to the influence of national culture issues on expatriate management. It is based on publications in elite Management, International Business, and Human Resource academic journals between 2000 and 2012. The database comprises 222 articles involving 368 authors and 223 academic institutions. The analysis uses a broad scoring procedure that includes: (I) scholars and institutions’ productivity in terms of number of publications (both, total and adjusted), (II) authors and institutions’ productivity in terms of potential impact based on journals’ performance (a wide spectrum of different metrics is used in order to allow for alternative perspectives), and (III) a citation analysis. The use of multiple and diverse scores provides a comprehensive understanding of the ranking of academic institutions and scholars within this particular subfield of research. In addition, the article analyzes collaborative research patterns, expected institutional influence in the near future, and main issues to be included in the field’s research agenda.     

Project management improvement efforts—creating project management value by uniqueness or mainstream thinking?

This paper presents a research study that is part of the large international Project Management Institute (PMI)–sponsored research project the “Value of Project Management.” Three case studies have been conducted on Norwegian enterprises. This article focuses on how enterprises improve project management and presents the improvement efforts and the stated reasons behind them. There are striking similarities as to the prioritized ways the enterprises have chosen to make improvements: use of a rather standardized model for project work and internal schooling activities. The enterprises all explain their efforts as internally driven, even if some consultancy assistance was used. This article discusses three drivers behind the improvement efforts: an economic perspective, a new institutionalism perspective, and an innovation perspective. This article identifies indicators pointing to all drivers and helps us understand why and how enterprises are improving project management. The importance of research on the practice of the most capable enterprises within the project management field is acknowledged.     

Managerial research on the pharmaceutical supply chain – A critical review and some insights for future directions

This paper presents a systematic review of research on management in the pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC). Recent PSC literature, published in peer-reviewed academic journals, was collated for content analysis. Research efforts depict a traditional focus on efficiency-improvement, with an emerging interest in process-analysis and technology implementation in the PSC. PSC research is also highly context-specific and focuses on developed economies. Accompanied with a transition towards network-centric approaches, studies depict distinct focus on three levels of industrial interaction, which influence the final value delivered. Research focus is rapidly moving from value addition within the pharmaceutical manufacturing and distribution environment to the interface with healthcare services, facilitated by the healthcare procurement and supply function. The review broadly outlines the scope for integrating research efforts from R&D to final healthcare delivery and for more studies in emerging economies.     

A semantic annotation framework for scientific publications

Considering the growing volume of scientific literature, techniques that enable automatic detection of informational entities existing in scientific research articles may contribute to the extension of scientific knowledge and practical usages. Although there have been several efforts to extract informative entities from patent and biomedical research articles, there are few attempts in other scientific literatures. In this paper, we introduce an automatic semantic annotation framework for research articles based on entity recognition techniques. Our approach includes tag set modeling for semantic annotation, semi-automatic annotation tool, manual annotation for training data preparation, and supervised machine learning to develop entity type recognition module. For experiments, we choose two different domains, such as information and communication technology and chemical engineering due to their high usages. In addition, we provide three application scenarios of how our annotation framework can be used and extended further. It is to guide potential researchers who are willing to link their own contents with external data.     

Internet service cognition and use,and their promotion in the lives of adolescents and youngsters in Taiwan

The usage rate of the Internet for adolescents and youngsters is very high. Nearly 95% of adolescents and youngsters have used the Internet in 2008. Such a high rate implies that Internet services must be greatly influencing the daily lives of adolescents and youngsters. Against this backdrop, this research aims to explore the cognition and use of Internet services among adolescents and youngsters and determine its promotion effect in their lives. Results show that there are significant differences in the Internet service cognition and use among different demographic groups. By stepwise regression, this research found that the Internet services indeed influence adolescents’ and youngsters’ quality of life. Digital amusement, cultural resource reservation, network communication, and e-Business positively enhance the quality of life of adolescents and youngsters. On the other hand, the degree of cognition and use of online learning have a negative correlation on life promotion.     

“校企合作”教学研究前期准备工作的实践

教学研究的前期准备阶段,课题组成员进行社会调查、考察相关院校和走访相关部门,搜集大量信息,完成了基础资料的整理工作,形成完整的文字资料汇编,为课题研究打下坚实的基础。本文针对课程体系改革研究前期工作中如何采用校企合作方式,以及前期准备阶段中的研究手段进行了探讨。     

The entrepreneur's role stressors and proclivity for a venture withdrawal

We test a causal model of entrepreneurs’ role stressors—role conflict, role ambiguity, and role overload—and their relationships with exhaustion and reduced perceptions of compensation for one's efforts which over time lead to the development of a proclivity for venture withdrawal. Using structural equation modelling and a 2-year longitudinal data set, we find empirical support for the proposed causal model. Overall, the empirical results support the indirect influence of role stressors and highlight the direct effects of enhanced exhaustion and reduced perceptions of compensation for one's efforts on a proclivity for a new venture withdrawal. The paper concludes by proposing implications for theory and further research.     

Management Accounting Practices in the U.S. and Japan: Comparative Survey Findings and Research Implications*

In recent years, the success of Japanese firms in the global market has prompted efforts to understand the sources of their competitive advantage. It has been suggested that one such source is the Japanese firms' management accounting systems, and a number of articles have claimed that important differences do exist between U.S. and Japanese firms in this area. However, these claims have tended to be supported by anecdotal, rather than systematic, evidence. The objective of this article is to contribute further insights into similarities and differences between U.S. and Japanese firms' management accounting practices. Exhaustive searches of published surveys in the U.S. and Japanese literatures (much of which is in Japanese) provided the basis for U.S.-Japan comparisons on six aspects of management accounting practices. In turn, these comparisons were used for deriving implications for future research. Two major limitations of extant research and, thus, directions for future research are identified. First, future research needs to go beyond the simple use or non-use of techniques to investigate more detailed aspects of technique use. Second, since management accounting is only one component of a firm's total management system, attention also needs to be devoted to the organizational context, process, and goals of a firm's management accounting practices.     

Corporate Contributions As Managerial Masques: Reframing Corporate Contributions As Strategies to Influence Society*

Researchers have argued that corporate contributions serve as necessitated investments, social currency, or social responsibility efforts. This article integrates and extends these perspectives to develop a view of corporate contributions as managerial masques. It argues that managers use corporate contributions to influence various stakeholders including stockholders, consumers, employees, investors, publics and societal institutions. A strategic framework is used to explore how managers promote managerial and corporate interests through corporate contributions. the societal implications of managers' discretionary uses of corporate contributions are also discussed.     

Packaging,business, and society

The objective of this paper is to present the impact of packaging material on sustainability. The article analyzes the size of the problem that arises from the use of packaging and the effect of various types of packaging material on waste management. The data on solid waste from the United States and the European Union reinforce that the problem is not only huge but also requires immediate attention. The research found that paying attention to packaging has the potential to improve economic, environmental, and social sustainability. Reducing packaging in supply chains improves profitability for organizations, reduces environmental impact, and helps societies in lowering the cost of disposal. The cost of packaging materials and the costs of disposal and landfill, are borne by the end consumers. Suggested approaches to minimizing the generation of packaging waste include concerted efforts for reducing packaging throughout supply chains where elimination of packaging is not feasible, the formation of a global policy on the use and disposal of packaging materials, and educating consumers.     

The relationships of organizational justice,social exchange,psychological contract,and expatriate adjustment: an example of Taiwanese business expatriates

In the field of international human resource management, studies have seldom examined organizational justice, social exchange, and psychological contract together as important factors in influencing the expatriate adjustment process. The purpose of this research is to fill the research gap by examining these factors and their relationships with expatriate adjustment. The researcher conducted a survey of Taiwanese business expatriates during the first quarter of 2007, collecting 219 valid samples for analysis. A hierarchical regression model was used to test the research framework hypotheses, which showed that expatriates' perception of organizational justice has a positive influence both on their perceptions of social exchange and on their psychological contract fulfillment. Expatriates' perceived that social exchange has a positive influence on their perceptions of psychological contract fulfillment and foreign adjustment. Finally, research implications are discussed and future study suggestions are recommended.     

浅析高炉矿渣的综合利用

高炉矿渣是炼钢过程中产生的固体废弃物,具有很高的利用价值。主要应用于建筑工程中,其中在矿渣水泥、矿渣混凝土、矿渣耐火砖及道路、铁道工程中比较常见。但目前,对矿渣的研究不够深入,建议加大研究力度,使其能更好的应用于更多领域。     

A theory of HR co-creation

We introduce HR co-creation as a continuous process in which HR and stakeholders optimize value through collaborative efforts to innovate in the design and use of HR practices to better satisfy multiple stakeholder needs. This positions stakeholders as users of HR practices who co-create value in partnership with HR, and highlights that value only arises through the use of practices. We outline the conditions for HR co-creation, and argue that HR co-creation generates greater value than practices designed by HR and used by stakeholders independently by maximizing value at the level of the business system. HR co-creation is inspired by the service-dominant logic, and builds on existing multi-stakeholder perspectives of HR, HR process research, and research on employee participation and involvement. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this perspective on value creation.     

Distinctive research patterns on public sector performance measurement of public administration and accounting disciplines

Abstract

This article explores distinctive research patterns of public administration and accounting disciplines concerning public sector performance measurement (PSPM). Our review shows that accounting researchers from Europe investigate reasons for limited PM use and factors explaining a rational or symbolic PM use, inspired by organization theory and institutional theory and conducting case/field studies. Public administration researchers from Europe and the USA prefer to study PM design and PM impact respectively, mainly using surveys in combination with various theories, like political theory. Public administration research from the USA examines the types of performance indicators in PM systems and contingent factors for PM design. Public administration research from Europe shows an interest in evaluating public sector reforms like Best Value and explaining learning processes for improvement. We argue that PSPM research could benefit from interdisciplinary efforts and intensified mutual communication between public administration and accounting.     

Conjunctural causation in comparative case-oriented research

This article highlights one of the major benefits of qualitative comparative methodology as applied within a “small-N” research design, namely its potential use for specifying the scope conditions of (theoretically competing) causal mechanisms. It is argued that the identification of set-theoretic relationships, multiple paths, and analytic efforts in typological mapping can make valuable contributions to the elaboration and further development of middle-range theory.     

浅谈化学镀铜

非导体材料的金属化处理经常会用到化学镀铜,化学镀铜无论是在塑料制品还是在电子工业的印制电路板中均得到了广泛的应用。本文主要介绍了化学镀铜溶液的组成及工艺条件,化学镀铜溶液中各组分的作用和影响,化学镀铜溶液的配制、使用和维护等。