An Assessment of Selected Psychometric Properties of a Service Quality Scale:

No abstract available for this article.     

Culture' Effects on Job Satisfaction and Performance in a Bicultural Context

Abstract

This study looks at culture' influence on employee job satisfaction and performance as it pertains to competitiveness. The researcher investigated whether INDSALES (a job satisfaction scale) is compatible with a Hispanic salesperson sample, focusing on automobile sales situations. The methodology relied heavily on field research and on an experimental design that applied different employee/manager combinations. Two hypotheses were proposed and subsequently tested. Results demonstrate that Hispanics and Anglo-Americans view job satisfaction somewhat differently. The study also found that there are significant differences in the levels of job satisfaction between mono-cultural and bicultural relationships. Managerial implications for better competitiveness are incorporated. Future research could investigate a different geographical region with Hispanic and Anglo automobile salespersons or other nations where different cultures work together     

Psychometric Properties of the Reidenbach–Robin Multidimensional Ethics Scale

The factor structure of the Multidimensional Ethics Scale (MES; Reidenbach and Robin: 1988, Journal of Business Ethics 7, 871–879; 1990, Journal of Business Ethics 9, 639–653) was examined for the 8-item short form (N = 328) and the original 30-item pool (N = 260). The objectives of the study were: to verify the dimensionality of the MES; to increase the amount of true cross-scenario variance through the use of 18 scenarios varying in moral intensity (Jones: 1991, Academy of Management Review 16, 366–395); and, to examine the items for measurement precision using item-response theory (IRT) methods. Results of confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis failed to conclusively support the hypothesized 3- (short form) or 5-factor (long form) structure; both instruments were instead dominated by a general factor. Item response theory analyses using Samejima’s (1969, Psychometrika Monograph Supplement 34, (4, Pt. 2)) graded response model revealed that many items in the 30-item pool performed very well, and suggested that a different collection of items be used to form a short-form version of the MES. Our proposed 10-item instrument includes more discriminating items than the 8-item version, and has the added advantage of including two items from each of the five ethical philosophies represented in the original 30-item pool. Joan M. McMahon is an Assistant Professor of Management in the School of Business at Christopher Newport University, teaching courses in Organizational Behavior, Leadership, and Human Resources. She has a B.A. in Speech from the State University of New York, College at Oneonta; an M.Ed. In Early Childhood Education from James Madison University; and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Robert J. Harvey is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He has a B.A. in Psychology and an M.A. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Missouri at Kansas City, and a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Ohio State University. Dr. Harvey has authored a number of articles in the Journal of Applied Psychology, the Journal of Personality Assessment, Personnel Psychology, and others. He is the author of the chapter on job analysis in the Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology.     

中国城市商业信用环境指数研制与分析

城市商业信用环境指数(CEI)是一个综合性的信用经济指数,可以用来测度一个城市市场信用交易环境优劣。广义而论,CEI可以反映一个城市的信用体系完善程度和运行效果。CEI的理论依据主要是社会信用体系理论和企业信用管理理论,它是多层次指标体系。在进行综合评价时,本文采用了层次分析法(AHP)对各级指标进行加权,最后利用线性加权和方法得到各城市一级指标。2010年的城市商业信用环境指数的覆盖范围为284个城市,除了10个信息不完整的城市之外,计算出34个大城市和240个地级城市的指数值。根据CEI的输出结果,课题组对一些经济现象进行了分析。     

民族地区金融生态环境评价指标体系研究

近年来,金融生态环境研究已成为金融领域的关注焦点之一,但是对民族地区金融生态环境的研究却较少。通过定性和定量评价两个层面构建民族地区金融生态环境评价指标体系,旨在为民族地区金融生态环境的评价研究及发展优化进行尝试性的探讨。     

大数据环境下的信息安全保障评估指标研究

大数据的发展与应用为社会各行业带来了巨大价值,同时也使得信息安全成为人们关注的焦点。本文结合大数据背景下暴露出的信息安全问题以及信息安全的新特征,尝试从组织层面、管理层面、技术层面和运维层面提出信息安全保障评估指标,以保障大数据安全。     

Signaling Quality in an E-Commerce Environment

Abstract

“Quality” is a unique concern in food marketing with powerful strategic connotations and consumer emotion. Consequently, retailers, with the help of food processors, have built their industry around communications with consumers which compare the value of one product over another using key quality attributes as carriers of that value. This involves both simple and complex signaling techniques that consumers have grown accustom to. With the onset of online food sales, many of these signaling techniques are less effective. This research evaluates food quality communication signals, presenting findings from three related E-Grocery studies, linked through a meta analysis.     

区域物流软环境评价指标体系构建研究

随着区域经济的发展,物流基础设施等硬环境的建设和发展日臻完善,软环境从过去被忽视转化为被关注的焦点。本文分析了区域物流软环境理论基础与实证研究文献,完成了物流软环境评价指标的理论遴选,构建了区域物流软环境递阶层次模型指标体系,并阐述了关键要素指标的含义,旨在为建立区域物流软环境的衡量与评价模型奠定基础。     

沪深两市股指时间序列突变点贝叶斯检测模型研究

股指时间序列突变点的检测是股指波动规律研究领域中的一个重要问题。依据贝叶斯原理提出的突变点检测分析模型,用Matlab工具软件对该模型进行了仿真,并且在实证分析中应用该模型分别对上证综合指数和深证成份指数月度时间序列数据进行了突变点检测分析,准确地确定了两市的突变点,和相应的后验概率分布,并解释了突变点形成的经济和政策背景。     

Business Environment Index for Developing Countries: The Case of Latin America

This article develops a new business environment index with indicators that are appropriate, broadly available for developing regions, and, most importantly, are not double-edged. We used the index to analyze the business environment in Latin America, and it suggests the main role of basic economic principles, institutional economics approach and historical context. We propose the identification of an interdisciplinary variable as well as interpretation of the index, based on 10 factors divided into three dimensions (economic, institutional, and social). The novelty is in the consideration of past values; it is neither based on popularity votes, and nor does it favor large economies.     

企业选址的经济环境测评——基于AHP方法合成的指数

影响企业选址的因素很多,要对其进行充分的定性分析后再进行定量分析,再通过定性和定量相结合的方法得出满意的方案。虽然区位理论为企业选址提供了理论依据,但由于影响因子较多,通常的比选方法则难以很好的解决问题。系统分析法在系统调查和可行性研究基础上,从技术、经济、环境和社会等方面,就各种系统涉及的方案能够满足的程度与为之消耗和占用的各种资源进行评审,并选出技术先进、经济合理、实施可行的最优或最满意方案。层次分析法（AHP）就是一种把定性问题定量化分析,定性与定量相结合的分析方法。企业在选址时运用AHP方法对相关因素进行系统评价,可以得到科学的选址依据。     

Managing Customer Relations in a Modern Business Environment: Towards an Ecosystem-Based Sustainable CRM Model

The adoption of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has witnessed tremendous growth across sectors, geographies, and management cultures in the last several decades. The perception of CRM as an IT-based tool has undergone a paradigm shift and is now treated as a strategic indulgence by modern-day businesses where IT is an indispensable enabler. CRM has garnered the interest of both academicians and practitioners over the years. In this article, the authors establish the value of sustainability in CRM and make an attempt at proposing a conceptual framework for modern businesses through its integration with various social networking sites that produces volumes of real-time data. The article also explores the importance of Customer Experience Management (CEM). The authors provide a thorough investigation of CRM models in the period of 1990 to 2016 through a survey of the literature explaining the need for managing experiences and engagement around existing CRM processes. In addition to exploring the intricate relationship between CRM and CEM, the authors also provide an interactive ecosystem-based framework for the creation of a sustainable CRM framework.     

全面小康社会居民生活质量评估指标体系的构建

提高居民生活质量,是人类历史发展的客观要求,也是人类消费发展的必然规律。全面小康社会居民生活的最显著特征就是消费由以数量扩张为主逐渐向以提高生活质量为主转变。也就是在基本生存资料得到满足和初步达到小康之后,人民生活继续改善和提升的方向将是拓宽消费领域,优化消费结构,改善消费环境,满足多样化的物质和精神文化生活需求,提高生活质量。所以,21世纪我国全面建设小康社会的出发点和最终落脚点,就是提高国民的生活水平和生活质量(尤其是生活质量)。为此,从定量分析的视角看,当前亟需构建一套可资评估全面小康社会居民生活质量的…     

Retail Employment Research: Scarce Evidence in an Environment of Change

National trends in retail employment show that considerable structural change has already taken place within a now stable workforce; future change may be no less radical. As a byproduct of research designed to reveal the detailed characteristics of change, this article aims to review the extremely variable quality and usefulness of both official and alternative sources of information on retail employment and to present a summarised analysis of the most significant components of this change both nationally and regionally. The conclusions are that considerable problems both in terms of data availability and definition will make it increasingly difficult to recognise the effects of forthcoming medium-and long-term employment impacts.     

The Development of a Measure of Auditors’ Virtue

Auditors’ virtue comprises those qualities of character that manifest the ideals of the audit community (c.f., Maclntyre, 1984, After Virtue. (University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame)), and are instrumental in ensuring that auditors’ professional judgment is exercised according to a high moral standard (Thorne, 1998, Research on Accounting Ethics. (JAI Press, Greenwich, CT)). Nevertheless, the lack of valid and reliable quantitative measures of auditors’ virtue impedes research that furthers our understanding of how best to promote virtue in the audit community. To address this gap, we develop two measures of auditors’ virtue. We report the results of the validity and reliability of the scales. In addition, we use the findings from the administration of these scales to professional accountants to refine and validate the theoretical characterization of virtues developed by Pincoffs (1986, Quandaries and Virtues. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS) and Libby and Thorne (2004, Business Ethics Quarterly). In so doing, this study provides a foundation by which future audit research can study ways to ensure that auditors’ virtue is promoted throughout the audit community. Theresa Libby, Ph.D. (University of Waterloo) is an Associate Professor of Accounting at Wilfrid Laurier University. She has published mainly in the areas of accounting ethics, managers' use of accounting information for decision-making, procedural justice and innovation in management accounting systems. Linda Thorne, Ph.D. (McGill University) is an Associate Professor of Accounting at York University. She has various publications that consider factors that influence auditors and others’ ethical decision process.     

Towards an Instrument to Measure Participants' Perceptions on Facilitation in Group Support Systems Meetings

Facilitation is often considered to be one of the key factors in the successful application of GSS. Research on GSS facilitation has revealed insight into the types of tasks performed by facilitators and the potential positive effects of facilitation on group consensus and satisfaction. However, earlier research has rarely approached GSS facilitation from the participants' point of view. In this study a questionnaire was developed and distributed to 369 participants of facilitated GSS meetings in order to measure their perceptions of various facilitation tasks. The results suggested three categories of facilitation tasks that are perceived as important by participants. Each of these categories strongly correlated with participants' meeting satisfaction. Further research is needed to refine these categories so that the instrument may be used to evaluate a facilitator's performance.     

网络环境下企业集团财务管理模式探究

网络环境下集团企业财务管理模式发生重大变化,财务结算速度提高、控制变得更加有力,但同时也带来了新的财务风险。针对集团企业管理链条长、监督环节不当、信息共享性差、资金周转不畅、母子公司目标不一等问题,网络环境下的集团企业对资金和会计人员都应实行统一管理;要加强预算管理,对企业经济活动实施实时控制;要加强投资管理,使投资带给企业利润最大化;要努力提高财务人员网络环境下的实际操作能力。     

Assessing Customer Satisfaction in a V-commerce Environment

This article describes the design and implementation of a non-intrusive method of assessing customer satisfaction in a voice-enabled electronic commerce environment. After recording a customer's speech voice during his or her interaction with a voice-enabled Web system (VWS), a subsequent questionnaire survey was immediately administered to identify the satisfaction level of the customer. Afterward, a collection of recorded customer voice files and the corresponding values of customer satisfaction were used to construct an artificial neural network-based expert system, the satisfaction level assessment system (SLAS), which was thereafter integrated into VWS for automatically detecting the satisfaction level of VWS users. Experiments were performed to test the feasibility and applicability of the proposed method, and good preliminary results were derived. Instead of using the conventional questionnaire-based approach, SLAS is non-intrusive because it does not require users to fill out any questionnaire. The proposed method can be used by various voice-based business applications, such as call centers and customer relationship management, to achieve the business objective of improving customer satisfaction, enforcing customer loyalty, increasing re-purchase rate, and enhancing enterprise's benefits. The proposed SLAS (including method and system) that was filed for patent application was recently approved by the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office under Patent No. I268478.