An application of health-portals to improve electronic listening

Electronic listening (eListening) is an innovation that potentially provides patients and other users with the right answer in the right place at the right time. Thus, eListening can potentially improve service flexibility, adaptability and quality. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which new web-based service delivery channels, which we refer to as health-portals (he-portals), facilitate eListening in the Spanish public healthcare sector. In this paper, we investigate the relative importance and significance of hospital size and three different types of information and communications technologies (Internet, groupware and collective systems) on the use of eListening through an empirical investigation of 300 Spanish public he-portals. Our main conclusion is that the implementation of Internet systems alone does not guarantee the development of effective eListening. In addition, we demonstrate that hospital size does not affect the level of eListening achieved by hospitals.     

Modeling Job Pursuit Intention: Moderating Mechanisms of Socio-Environmental Consciousness

Many scholars have suggested the relationship between corporate social performance and its ability to attract a large number of high-quality job applicants, because previous literature indicates that employees with strong social awareness help create a high-performance organization. For that reason, an important issue for successful business recruitment is how to boost the pursuit intention of job seekers. This study discusses such issue by proposing a model based on signaling theory and cognitive dissonance theory. In the proposed model of this study, the positive relationships between four dimensions of corporate social performance and job pursuit intention are hypothetically moderated by socio-environmental consciousness. The proposed hypotheses of this research were empirically tested using the data from graduating students seeking a job. The empirical findings of this study complement previous literature by discussing how corporate social performance benefits business firms from a perspective of strengthened human resources and recruitment. Finally, managerial implications for business managers based on the findings herein are provided.     

Modeling Corporate Social Performance and Job Pursuit Intention: Mediating Mechanisms of Corporate Reputation and Job Advancement Prospects

An important issue for successful recruitment is to increase the pursuit intention of job seekers. This study discusses such issue by proposing a research model based on the signaling theory and the expectancy theory. In the model, this study hypothesizes that the perceived corporate social performance of job seekers positively affects their job pursuit intention and recommendation intention indirectly via the mediation of corporate reputation and job advancement prospects. The proposed hypotheses of this research are empirically tested using the data from people seeking a job. The empirical findings of this study complement previous literature by discussing how corporate social performance benefits business organizations from a perspective of human resources and recruitment. Last, managerial implications for business leaders and managers are provided.     

Internal marketing,organisational culture,job satisfaction,and organisational performance in non-life insurance

The concept of internal marketing employed in the service sector is crucial to excellent service provision and successful external marketing. This study conducts an empirical investigation into the non-life insurance industry in Taiwan, exploring the correlation between internal marketing, organisational culture, job satisfaction, and organisational performance in Taiwan. Results show significant correlations among internal marketing, organisational culture, job satisfaction, and performance of non-life insurers. These findings can provide a basis for future studies of related topics as well as a solid reference for business owners and managers in the non-life insurance sector.     

Business Survival and Success of Young Small Business Owners

Little empirical evidence provides insight in person-oriented drivers of business survival and success of small business owners. In this paper I perform a duration analysis of business survival amongst young white (self-employed) small business owners in the U.S. Compulsory exits are distinguished from voluntary exits. This enables an alternative definition of business success: the longer one can survive and prevent inLvoluntary exit, the more successful one is. Potential drivers of survival are derived from recent empirical evidence in related studies. The potential drivers of success are also derived from historical economic thinkers such as Marshall and Schumpeter. The estimated hazard rates are affected by characteristics of the small business owner and business conditions.     

Management education in Ibero-America: An exploratory analysis and perspective

Considering the importance of management education for society and the pedagogical inadequacies that pose a threat to academic institutions, this article develops an exploratory approach for evaluating and monitoring the quality of management education within an Ibero-American context. Latin American countries and Spain tend to think of themselves as an Ibero-American region, so the overview of key issues in management education in this article is pertinent to the entire region. The data is important to policymakers who wish to enhance the quality of higher education, since well-trained managers contribute to successful business strategies and superior organizational performance. Unfortunately, there is almost no empirical work available on the performance and effectiveness of higher education in Ibero-American countries. Our study helps bridge that gap by providing useful data for evaluating and reflecting upon some of the variables associated with management education in a sample of Ibero-American universities.     

Market Orientation in the Chilean Small Business Context

Abstract

Market orientation has been considered a key factor in successful business operations across different markets. To test this assertion, the authors examine the influence of a firm's market orientation on small business performance in the Chilean retail environment. They go on to report empirical information about the characteristics of the market-oriented retailers in Chile. The Kohli, Jaworski, and Kumar (1993) MARKOR scale is used in the study to assess the market orientation in the context of a developing country environment. Data for the study were collected from small retailers in Chile through self-administered questionnaires using a drop-off/pick-up method. The results show a significant correlation between market orientation and small business performance. Path analyses found that the best structure among the Market Orientation dimensions is: Intelligence Generation→ Intelligence Dissemination → Responsiveness. Moreover, these performance measures differed significantly among the three different partitions obtained using a k-means cluster analysis. The findings indicate that the MARKOR scale is both valid and reliable in a diverse Chilean small business environment.     

中国非公有制企业劳资关系与企业绩效的关联性分析

劳资关系与企业绩效的关联性问题,理论上的争议由来已久。但大多数国外学者的实证研究显示,劳资关系状况的改善对企业绩效具有积极的正面影响。在中国的非公有制企业中,通过对劳资关系和企业绩效分层聚类结果的对比分析,可以发现,劳资关系和企业绩效的各个层次上,类成员分布具有明显的一致性特征,表明劳资关系与企业绩效在区域上存在一定程度的关联关系:劳资关系状况较"优"的地区,往往伴随着较高水平的企业绩效,劳资关系状况较"差"的地区,企业绩效水平也较"低"。     

Should entrepreneurs plan or just storm the castle? A meta-analysis on contextual factors impacting the business planning–performance relationship in small firms

Entrepreneurship research engages in an intense debate about the value of business planning. Prior empirical findings have been fragmented and contradictory. This study contributes insights to the business planning discussion by following an evidence-based research approach. We conduct a meta-analysis on the business planning–performance relationship and specifically focus on contextual factors moderating the relationship. Results indicate that planning is beneficial, yet contextual factors such as newness of the firms and the cultural environment of firms significantly impact the relationship. Based on this evidence, we propose a concomitant and dynamic approach that combines planning and learning.     

Does ownership type matter for innovation? Evidence from China

According to the institution-based view, ownership type is a key variable affecting environment-strategy configurations. This study configures the mechanism in which ownership types (as an institutional factor) moderate the effect of innovation strategies on firms' innovation performance. An empirical analysis was conducted on Chinese hi-tech manufacturing firms, using information related to the innovation activities of 303 firms. The empirical results suggest that ownership type affects the positive relationship between three sources of innovation (internal R&D activities, partnering with alliance partners, and partnering with universities) and innovation performance, as well as the negative relationship between external contracting and innovation performance (product or process innovation). The results imply that organizations doing business in China must be aware of the business environment that they intend to enter, especially if the intention is to develop new products or innovate current business processes.     

进入模式、区域产业环境以及经营特性对中小企业跨区域经营绩效影响——基于浙商的实证研究

文章以238家总部设在浙江赴异地投资的中小企业为实证对象,通过多变量变异数分析、以及GLM回归分析等方法进行实证研究,探讨进入模式、区域产业环境以及经营特性对浙商在国内异地市场经营绩效的影响。研究结果显示：中小企业进入异地市场时,在综合绩效上以多数股权表现最好、独资次之、等额股权第三、少数股权最差;区域产业环境对异地经营绩效存在显著性影响。在具有供应链优势、成本优势或营销密集度优势的产业环境中,企业容易获得更佳的绩效表现,而在高研发密集度的区域,则呈现无差异表现;企业经营特性对其异地经营绩效存在显著性影响。具有良好控制能力和营销能力的企业容易获得更好的绩效。     

The Service Industries and Input-Output Analysis

This paper makes an empirical investigation into the influence of service innovativeness on the relationship between market orientation and innovative performance, first as a moderator with specified interaction effects, and secondly as a mediator in the path from market orientation to innovative performance. A sample of 169 new service development (NSD) projects in Chinese knowledge-intensive business service firms provides the data for an empirical test of these issues. The results indicate that service innovativeness does not play a moderating role in the relationship between market orientation and innovative performance, but a mediating role in this relationship. For NSD, project, innovativeness is only a temporary trait. The impact of market orientation is to spur innovativeness, which, in turn, affects innovative performance.     

企业腐败动机与“最优”腐败程度实证研究

对于企业向官员行贿动机的解释主要有两种相反的观点,一是企业为了获取政府帮助而主动行贿,二是企业在威胁逼迫条件下的被动行贿。文章从企业在应对政府和应对市场两项事务间的权衡出发,构建企业绩效与腐败强度间的二项式回归模型,通过与传统线性回归模型的比较,发现企业腐败是一种主动行为,腐败的目的是为了构建政治关系以获取相应回报。运用世界银行企业调查数据,二次项回归模型显示出绩效与腐败强度间显著的倒U型曲线关系,文章得出了企业的“最优”腐败程度并对其政策含义进行了解释。     

Investigating a neglected part of Schumpeter’s creative army: what drives new-to-the-market innovation in micro-enterprises?

This paper tests a theoretical model to evaluate e-business capability and value in the fast growth small-to-medium enterprise (SME) context. We propose that e-business value depends on how fast growth SMEs deploy IT resources, strategic planning, culture, and business partnerships to develop e-business capability and business process competence which help these companies to achieve outstanding business performance. Structural equation modelling is employed to test our theoretical conceptualization on a cohort of 310 Australian fast growth SMEs across different industrial sectors. The results show that IT resources, strategic IT alignment, market orientation, and business partnerships do contribute significantly and indirectly to SME performance through the development of e-business capability and business process competence. Our study provides an initial empirical evidence to understand the relationship between IT and entrepreneurial SME performance. These findings have important implications for research and business practices.     

Marketing planning: Operationalising the market orientation strategy

Abstract

Despite strong empirical validation of the relationship between market orientation and business performance, the literature is inconclusive on the implementation of the strategy. This paper reviews the implementation of market orientation, and investigates the associations between market orientation and marketing planning and their associations with business performance. A survey of 216 Australian larger business organisations was conducted to find evidence of these relationships. The results highlight a close association between market orientation and marketing planning, with virtually the same level of association between them, and the business performance measures used. This evidence suggests that they arguably represent the same domain. The results suggest that marketing practitioners may use the marketing planning technique as an intangible productive resource to operationalise the market orientation strategy, and use it to design a specific style and magnitude of market orientation suitable for an organisation.     

Are Group-Affiliated Firms Really More Profitable than Nonaffiliated?

The role of corporate center in influencing the economic performance of business units has been a central research topic in the industrial organization and strategic management literature. A common finding is the limited corporate and business group effects. Recently, an emerging line of studies argues that the market inefficiencies and institutional voids in emerging markets can be overcome more efficiently by large diversified business groups than by non-group small firms. Some empirical evidence also shows that non-group small firms are significantly less profitable than group-affiliated firms. This paper raises this issue by empirically investigating the influence of group affiliation on the return on assets and Tobin's q of 340 group-affiliated firms versus 423 non-group firms in Taiwan, during the period of 1997–1999. The statistical results show that group affiliation can not always create value for member firms. The size of the business group matters. When affiliated with the largest business groups, member firms indeed show improved stock market performance, but when firms are affiliated with small- and medium-sized groups, their accounting performance suffers. Findings of this paper suggest a threshold effect and a U-shape relationship between group affiliation and profitability in emerging economies.     

Independent financial advisors: open innovation and business performance

The purpose of this paper is to examine the behaviour of small independent financial advisors (IFAs) in terms of their involvement in networks and open innovation. A mail survey of small IFAs was undertaken utilising previously validated scales to assess business performance in relation to networking and open innovation. Results indicate that IFAs involvement in networks and open innovation can assist business performance. The managerial implications are that IFAs and other financial services organisation sector firms may be able to achieve higher sales growth by participating in networks and engaging in open innovation. This paper provides an original empirical assessment of possible strategies to enhance sales growth in small financial service sector firms facing volatile market conditions.     

Illegal entrepreneurship experience: Does it make a difference for business performance and motivation?

Existing studies show a positive relationship between entrepreneurs' business performance and their conventional human capital as measured by previous business experience and formal education. In this paper, we explore whether illegal entrepreneurship experience (IEE), an unconventional form of human capital, is related to the performance and motivation of entrepreneurs operating legal businesses in a transition context. Using regression techniques on a sample of 399 private business owners in Lithuania, we find that, in general, IEE is significantly and positively associated with subjective measures of business motivation. Moreover, younger entrepreneurs benefit from their IEE in terms of business performance, indicating that they have been more successful than older entrepreneurs in transferring their IEE to a market oriented setting. In addition, IEE and business performance are positively related for entrepreneurs who started completely new legal businesses. Thus, our research partially supports the notion that prior experience in the black or gray market may signal and provide valuable human capital for legal enterprising.     

Barriers to Increased Market-Oriented Activity: What the Literature Suggests

Most research on market orientation has dealt with assessing how market orientation behaviour is related to business performance. This work has established an intense market-oriented activity as significantly and positively related to business performance under most circumstances. In a maturing field of research and practice the question on how to design programs for building market orientation is about to be answered. This branch looks deeper into the nature of market orientation and into designing and managing the increase of market orientation. However, the question on why marketing and related activities still seem to attract relatively few resources is not answered by supplying another checklist or package of facilitators. Based on published conceptual writings and empirical studies this article makes an account of what the intra-organizational barriers may be to increased market-oriented activity. A framework of six generic domains is suggested: Organizational structure, human resource management, market-oriented activity competence, psychological climate, managers' personality characteristics, and individually held beliefs. A model is suggested interrelating the domains.     

Measuring Electronic Commerce Technology–Enabled Business Value: An Empirical Investigation

This research investigates whether firms using e-commerce technologies are successful in generating business value and, if so, which e-commerce drivers determine this success and how firms should use these drivers. There is no systematic empirical evidence in the IT productivity and business value literature regarding the payoffs a business receives from its e-business initiatives. The current research contributes to the literature in the e-commerce area by identifying a set of e-business value constructs, incorporating these constructs in a model in a manner not done before, and empirically validating the model using an Analysis of MOment Structures (AMOS)/?Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis. The present research also contributes to the e-business value literature by providing insights into causal relationships among Rogers' innovation and diffusion theory (IDT) factors. This is the first time a research study has empirically established comprehensive causal relationships among these factors. The SEM analysis of the model indicates that the proposed model is able to explain e-commerce success utilizing the constructs identified and grounded using IT business value literature and Rogers' IDT. We conclude by summarizing its contributions to the IT literature, in general, and the e-business literature, in particular, and by providing insights for practice and suggestions for future research.