Uncertainty and Information Search Activities: A Study of Owner–Managers of Small High-Technology Manufacturing Firms

This study examines the relationship among perceived strategic uncertainty (PSU), environmental scanning, and the information sources used by owner–managers of a sample of 153 small high-technology manufacturing firms. The results suggest that increased scanning activities are associated with high levels of PSU. Perhaps most importantly, the results also suggest that owner–managers of younger firms respond to uncertainty differently than their counterparts in more mature firms. Specifically, owner–managers of younger firms appear to respond to higher PSU by relying more heavily on personal and external information sources. Owner–managers of older firms, on the other hand, rely more heavily on internal and impersonal information sources to address environmental uncertainty.     

CSR-Washing is Rare: A Conceptual Framework,Literature Review,and Critique

Growth in CSR-washing claims in recent decades has been dramatic in numerous academic and activist contexts. The discourse, however, has been fragmented, and still lacks an integrated framework of the conditions necessary for successful CSR-washing. Theorizing successful CSR-washing as the joint occurrence of five conditions, this paper undertakes a literature review of the empirical evidence for and against each condition. The literature review finds that many of the conditions are either highly contingent, rendering CSR-washing as a complex and fragile outcome. This finding runs counter to the dominant perception in the general public, among activists, and among a vocal contingent of academics that successful CSR-washing is rampant.     

Quality of Export Memory Content: A Conceptual Framework

Exporting is still one of the most common ways for organisations to reach foreign markets and its success is often key to sustaining and enhancing overall firm performance. In order to maximise the likelihood of developing sustainable competitive advantage in export markets, exporting organisations now need to learn better and faster than their competitors. This paper examines organisational learning in the context of exporting activities, and more specifically focuses on export memory. A framework of export memory is proposed, with key propositions concerning performance outcomes of export memory. Conclusions are made and future research directions are indicated.     

A Conceptual Framework for the Design of Geo-Collaborative Systems

Geo-collaborative systems address the computational support to situations where people are working in different locations, gathering geographically-related data in the field and sharing knowledge. We propose a conceptual framework identifying the design issues that fundamentally set the stage for eliciting the requirements of geo-collaborative systems. The conceptual framework has five elements: places, teams, tasks, artifacts and geo-referenced knowledge. We also highlight two important relationships between some of these elements: (1) a task-artifact relationship, related with the need to increase the organizational decision making abilities through concerted efforts; and (2) an artifact-knowledge relationship, related with the need to support mechanisms for jointly understanding geo-referenced data. The conceptual framework was applied to the development of a groupware tool aiming to increase the productivity of the geological mapping process followed by a national agency with competence in this area. The paper describes in detail how the conceptual framework influenced the groupware design. The obtained results indicate that the framework can focus the designers on the human aspects of geo-collaboration and guide them through the initial design stages.     

Interactive Technologies and Retailing Strategy: A Review,Conceptual Framework and Future Research Directions

During the past decade, a number of interactive technologies, including the Internet, have fundamentally transformed how retailers compete in the marketplace. In a similar vein, emerging interactive technologies can be expected to significantly alter the retailing landscape through their impact on retailing strategy and operations. Furthermore, it is conceivable that certain emerging interactive technologies will be perceived by some retailers as enablers (tools to more effectively compete in the marketplace) and by other retailers as disruptors of the present ways of doing business. Interactive technologies can either be generic, a technology that is readily available from an information technology (IT) vendor and is widely adopted by retailers, or proprietary. An interactive technology that is proprietary can enable a firm to generate economic rents from the innovation for an extended duration of time. Investing in a generic interactive technology, however, may be perceived as a cost of doing business for a retailer, and not a potential source of sustainable competitive advantage. However, a retailer's complementary resource endowments may enable the retailer to more effectively leverage a generic technology relative to its competitors and thereby achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. In this paper, we review the related literature, develop a process model delineating the mechanisms by which an interactive technology can affect and necessitate changes in retailers' strategies and identify directions for future research.     

旅游不文明行为归因分析——中西文化比较视角

文化因素与游客旅游不文明行为的发生有着密切联系,中西文化的差异也是这些现象产生的根本原因。西方文化注重探索自然,中国文化更加注重道德的研究;西方文化是恶感文化,中国文化是乐感文化;西方文化认为个人至上,中国文化是集体至上;西方社会的人际关系结构是火柴盒式结构,中国社会的人际关系结构是马铃薯式的;中西方生活方式和习惯的差异等等,从各个方面造成了旅游行为方式的差异。     

The Potential Secondary Effects of Consumer Legislation: A Conceptual Framework

In recent years, numerous pieces of consumer-oriented legislation have been passed at both the federal and state levels. Although such laws are usually assumed to have a beneficial impact on consumers, situations may occur when either (a) the law fails to accomplish its primary objectives because of poor design and implementation, weak enforcement, and/or illegal action on the part of business firms that allow them to circum vent the law, or (b) the law leads to unforeseen strategy change by business firms that tend to minimize or nullify the expected benefits of the legislation. These unforeseen reactions or secondary effects frequently serve to weaken the law's potential benefit for the consumer. This paper focuses on the secondary effects problem by examining the kinds of strategy changes that business firms might make in response to consumer legislation and the factors affecting these changes. An analytical framework is developed for evaluating the potential costs to the consumer of these secondary effects and comparing these costs with the expected benefits to be derived from consumer protection laws.     

国际贸易的全成本论:一个概念性理论框架

无论古典、新古典贸易理论,还是新贸易理论,所讨论的形成比较优势的成本主要为生产成本.贸易理论和现实的新进展表明,比较优势理论的成本观有日益广义化、多元化的趋势,进而需要在生产成本的基础上,分别纳入交易成本、环境成本和代际成本."全成本"是以国际贸易中的生产成本、交易成本、环境成本和代际成本等机会成本为子系统的动态开放系统,四者有机耦合,构成了一国参与国际分工的比较优势的基础.     

Managerial Work and Lying: A Conceptual Framework and an Explorative Case Study

In the last few years there has been a lot of fuzzy talk, scientific discourses and comments of business life about the values, ethics and social responsibility of companies. Companies are expected to have also some other tasks besides that of gaining profit. A part of the tasks which management has, except for thinking of the benefits of their own organization, are things which work for the well-being of the whole society. Issues like this are, among others, working for employment, taking care of the environment, and promoting consumer security.While making decisions of their own action in the company, the management often has to face ethical solutions. The benefit of the company may be different from that of other business stakeholders. In this case, the manager has to decide for which part he should act, for the company or for the stakeholders. The ethical problems in deciding may appear also inside the company. In our study, we are very interested in the decision-making processes which are connected with the honesty of the manager and his/her being honest with the stakeholders both inside and outside the company.In our research, we have tried to create a framework which helps us to find out in what kind of situations a manager faces the problem whether he/she should tell the truth to the stakeholders or not. We have also studied the means which the managers use in their potential dishonesty. Further, we have tried to find out how the managers see themselves in situations where they cannot tell the truth or have to cover it.     

The Effects of Ethical Leadership and Abusive Supervision on Job Search Behaviors in the Turnover Process

Drawing upon the unfolding model of turnover and the dual-process theory of information processing, we examined the roles which ethical leadership and abusive supervision play in the turnover process. The central conclusion of this study is that ethical leadership influences job satisfaction, which then influences intentions to quit, which then impacts job search behaviors. Conversely, abusive supervision, which is the conceptual opposite of ethical leadership, has a negative influence on job satisfaction with corresponding impacts on intentions to quit and job search behavior. But, unlike ethical leadership, which does not directly lead to job search behavior, abusive supervision can also directly make people so upset that they initiate job search behaviors. Moreover, findings indicate that even low levels of abusive supervision can neutralize high levels of ethical leadership. Implications for research and practice in human resource management are discussed.     

Sustainability Issues in Transnational Education Service: A Conceptual Framework and Empirical Insights

ABSTRACT

Many transnational education (TNE) services have been operating successfully to export education. However, many other TNE programs and partnerships have also been terminated. TNEs' sustainability is under-researched; specifically, its sustainability from the contexts of strategic partnership considerations, all recognized TNE activities, and its sustainability indicators. This conceptual article analyzes literature on TNE partnership issues, the standardization-adaptation (StandAdapt) concept of international business strategy and sustainability issues, with an aim to establish an initial route to develop TNE services that would sustain business viability, centered on transnational market-specific conditions. The analysis suggests that there is a consistent interrelationship between different sustainability indicators and market orientation, which has implications for incorporating sustainability issues into TNE services and transnational strategies. An initial framework is proposed to develop TNE services in order to sustain TNE businesses. Some empirical insights are developed in support of this conceptual framework. Further research areas are discussed.     

Managing the Brand in a Corporate Advertising Environment: A Decision-Making Framework for Brand Managers

Abstract

Corporate advertising has become a significant business activity. That fact is important for brand managers because consumers' knowledge formed from corporate advertising may influence the way they think about brands the company markets. Brand managers must understand how such potential influence may occur and manage it to their advantage. The authors explore four key questions brand managers should consider in that context. In presenting answers, they integrate several literatures and propose a conceptual framework with a set of research propositions. Finally, they describe general directions for future research.     

Moral Climate in Business Firms: A Conceptual Framework for Analysis and Change

This paper introduces a new conceptual framework for studying moral climate in business firms, offering an alternative to other theoretical models currently in the literature. The framework integrates recent advances in organizational climate theory into a new conceptualization of the moral climate construct that explains how moral climates evolve in organizations and suggests moral climate change.     

会计信息、共同知识与资产定价:一个会计信息传导的理论分析框架

通过将会计信息作用于"企业"这种资产的定价过程概括为会计信息传导,本文分析会计信息与资产定价的本质关联、会计信息传导制度安排的因应及影响会计信息传导效率的因素。会计信息与资产定价的内在关联体现为会计信息对"企业现场知识"的传导过程,会计信息传导的相关制度安排是为了尽可能形成市场参与者对企业的共同知识,以增强资产价格形成的"集体理性",而会计信息的传导效率则应从其时效、精度、受众广度及市场参与者对之的信任等四个方面进行界定。     

The Impact of Environmental Uncertainty Perceptions,Decision-Maker Characteristics and Work Environment Characteristics on the Perceived Usefulness of Marketing Information Systems (MkIS): A Conceptual Framework

This paper discusses potential relationships between contextual factors and Marketing Information Systems (MkIS) design. MkIS design is defined in terms of the perceived usefulness of several information characteristics, which may be associated with a marketing information system. The paper suggests that MkIS design research should consider a range of contextual variables drawn from the organisational behaviour, behavioural decision-making and personality/cognitive psychology literatures. Drawing on empirical results from three sets of literature and from studies of information systems design (particularly management and accounting information systems design), the authors present a framework for exploring the design of a MkIS.     

The Internationalisation of Small to Medium-Sized Retail Companies: Towards A Conceptual Framework

The internationalisation of large multinational retailers is well documented and much research attention has been given to their processes, motives and strategies for expansion. However, a successful international retailer does not necessarily have to be a large retailer. Dynamic smallerretailers with strong concepts, formats and products have shown themselves capable of rapid international growth. To date there has been a distinct lack of research on the internationalisation of small to medium-sized companies (SMEs) operating in the retail sector. Any discussion of SME internationalisationwithin the retail industry should recognise that research on large multinational corporations is not directly transferable to small and medium-sized firms who by their very nature and characteristics embrace a very different set of opportunities in the international market. To address thisgap in research, this paper draws upon broader established international SME and entrepreneurship literatures to provide a framework for examining some of the key aspects of the internationalisation of retail SMEs.     

The Impact of Eco-Design Packaging on Food Waste Avoidance: A Conceptual Framework

Abstract

Eco-design packaging is a potential tool to reduce food waste. However, the absence of a theoretical basis regarding the relationships between eco-design packaging and consumer food waste behavior obscures the social impact of this packaging. This study assesses research linking eco-design packaging and food waste avoidance from a consumer perspective. The authors analyze 22 articles in top-tier journals, and conclude that consumer perceptions of eco-design packaging could reduce food waste. Results lead to a conceptual model of the mechanism whereby consumer perceptions of eco-design packaging influence food waste avoidance intentions.     

从概念框架的制度属性看政府会计的模式变革

20世纪80年代以来,政府会计基础的选择问题因其对政府财务报告的深刻影响而成为世界各国政府会计变革的焦点.新西兰、澳大利亚、美国、英国、西班牙等西方国家的政府会计在不同程度上导入和推行应计制.然而,不少国家的调查发现,多数国家的政府主体并不确信应计制财务报告能够带来的效益.在政府部门领域,对于企业会计与财务报告模式的适用性和有效性尚且存在普遍的质疑.本文试图从政府会计的概念框架及其制度属性出发,对国际政府会计变革的主要模式及其存在的问题给予解释,并由此得到启示.     

The Antecedents and Moderators of Offline Information Search: A Meta-Analysis

An examination of consumer information search literature reveals that the effects of several antecedents (cost, price dispersion, knowledge, prior experience) on offline information search vary greatly in terms of the directions and magnitudes of the determinants’ effect sizes, particularly indicating the possibility of inverted-U shaped relationships. Also, despite a wide range of studies undertaken, there remains a need for identifying an overarching framework for consumer information search. This article synthesizes previous empirical studies on offline information search literature, and attempts to provide and test a framework that advances our understanding of the current state of this literature. The review identifies significant antecedents to offline information search, and also tests the moderating effects of demographic variables and study conditions on the direct effects. In the context of the main effects, findings suggest that the nature of relationships of several antecedents with the central construct is indeed inverted-U shaped. Further, moderator analyses identify the boundary conditions under which specific theories hold. The closing section provides future research directions.