Fathers' involvement in household activities

This paper reports a study which examined the extent of the father's involvement in child rearing and traditionally female household work. The quality of life perceived by the husband, wife and oldest child in each family in the sample was assessed.     

Worker participation in German enterprises

Worker participation is to be introduced by law in all major German enterprises in 1975 according to Federal Government plans. The new legislation which is to put the principle of the effective equality of labour and capital into practice has encountered fierce criticism, among employers in particular.     

Consumer participation in sustainable technology development

The article discussed consumer participation in the assessment and development of sustainable innovations, i.e. new technologies and services that have the potential to radically reduce natural resource use. Needs and contexts for consumer involvement were identified, and three case studies that each adopted a different approach to consumer participation were presented. The discussion included lessons learned from these case studies, and it identified priorities for future research and development.     

Explaining participation in the self-service economy

To explain participation in the self-service economy, competing theorisations have variously depicted participants as rational economic actors, dupes, seekers of self-identity, or simply doing so out of economic necessity or choice. To evaluate motives for self-servicing in the home improvement and maintenance sector, a survey of 120 households in an English locality is reported. This will reveal that all theorisations are valid to differing degrees, and through a process of induction, will offer a typology that combines the existing theorisations by differentiating between ‘willing’ (rational economic actors, choice, identity seeking) and ‘reluctant’ (economic and market necessity, dupes) participants in self-servicing. The outcome is a call to evaluate the broader applicability of this typology when explaining the wider self-service economy.     

When common sense becomes uncommon: participation and empowerment in Russian companies with Western participation

This article starts by mapping the growing (Western based) literature that deals with participation and empowerment by outlining two clusters of writings—those that glorify these phenomena and those that problematize them. The article then examines why participation and empowerment, as introduced in the Western literature, do not work in Russian organizations. Explanations are found in one-man authority, anti-individualism and dependence, tightly coupled hierarchies, lack of knowledge sharing, and double-bind situations. The arguments are illustrated by examples from two case studies of Russian companies with Western participation.     

“Urban dreams” to come alive

The United States on July 2 confirmed its participation in next year＇s World Expo in Shanghai, saying it wanted to showcase US technology and values in a bid to boost ties with the Asian giant.     

Encouraging male participation in cancer resource centers

ABSTRACT

This research investigates reasons why male cancer patients may refrain from patronizing cancer resource centers. By drawing upon a wide range of research from the social sciences and visual design literatures, the authors put forth original propositions that suggest how cancer resource center managers can manipulate a center's servicescape, or built environment, as well as its service offerings, website design, and printed communications to attract more male cancer patients. Despite the inherent challenges of discussing gender in cancer care and limitations to its generalizability in all settings, this research reveals that differences exist regarding the way men and women respond to cancer resource center marketing initiatives. Given the profound benefits that cancer resource centers often assume in a cancer patient's life, including a decreased mortality rate, we encourage service marketing and public health researchers, as well as cancer resource center directors, to consider the propositions put forth in this paper.     

Firm heterogeneity and lobby participation

The structure of protection across sectors has been interpreted as the result of competition among lobbies to influence politicians, but lobbies have been treated as unitary decision makers and little attention has been devoted to the importance of individual firms in this process. This paper builds a model where individual firms determine the amount of resources to allocate to political contributions and shows that, in the presence of a fixed cost of channeling political contributions, it is efficient for a lobby to be formed by the largest firms in a sector. Therefore the size distribution of firms plays an important role: sectors with a higher share of firms above a given size exhibit higher intensity of political activity. This prediction is borne out by the data: industries characterized by higher firm size dispersion obtain a higher level of protection. The model is also tested against the leading ‘Protection for Sale’ paradigm, employing a newly matched data set on firm-level political contributions. The empirical evidence shows that, accounting for individual firm behavior, the model explains a larger fraction of the variation of protection across sectors.     

Measuring platform return on participation

While industry platforms can transform industries and drive the digital economy, little guidance exists to help managers decide which industry platform to join. Derived from industry research, we propose a six-step return-on-participation (ROP) method that enables managers to clearly and logically review how their firms are affected by a platform, what the benefits are, how current and future variable and fixed costs vary, as well as the often-hidden joining costs. We suggest this technique could also be used by managers to compare competing platforms and by platform owners to evaluate the attractiveness of their offerings.     

Customer participation in service recovery: a meta-analysis

Research on customer participation in service recovery is surging, yet empirical examinations provide mixed results. A meta-analysis of 30 independent samples reported in 21 studies (N?=?7872) shows that the effect sizes for the relationships between customer participation in service recovery and customer outcomes are rather weak. We also find that customer participation in service recovery has an indirect effect on satisfaction with service recovery via distributive justice and procedural justice, but not via interactional justice. Conversely, customer participation in service recovery has an indirect effect on overall satisfaction via distributive justice and interactional justice, but not via procedural justice. Finally, the effectiveness of customer participation in service recovery is stronger when customers participate in the outcome of the recovery and for customers with an Eastern cultural background, but weaker when additional compensation is offered and in online settings.     

The evolution of multinational participation in Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe needs investment, access to world-wide distribution networks, and managerial/marketing/technical expertise. To fulfill these needs, it offers firms major incentives to establish presence in the region. Interviews with the senior representatives of six multinational firms in Hungary, the leading country in the transition to a market economy, revealed an evolutionary pattern of the firms' involvement and investment in the Hungarian economy. This article describes the evolutionary pattern, provides firms with strategic insight, and makes recommendations to accelerate the entrance of global firms into the region. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Motivation triggers for customer participation in value co-creation

Service Business - Innovative new ideas are no longer bound by internal R&D efforts of the organisation. Many successful innovation ideas stem from external sources, especially engaged...     

旅游购物中的顾客参与研究

目前我国旅游购物收入占旅游总收入的比重较低。本文从顾客参与的角度来分析旅游购物,在介绍了旅游购物中的顾客参与的基础上,阐述了旅游购物中顾客参与的形式,指出当前旅游购物中顾客参与存在的问题,最后提出了提高旅游购物中顾客参与水平的措施。     

Workers’ participation in management in the EC countries

In the last few years the whole area of workers’ participation in management has been much discussed in the countries of the European Community (EC). There are, essentially, two ways of participation, i.e. at shop-floor level where works councils are widespread — though in a variety of types — and at the company board level by representative systems involving workers’ participation in management decisions of a policy nature. The latter will be the main subject of this survey.     

Micro and small enterprise participation in tourism in coastal Kenya

Small business participation in tourism can help diversify income and contribute to poverty reduction in some circumstances. We examined micro and small enterprise (MSE) participation in tourism and the linkages between tourism businesses and MSEs in the coastal region of Kenya, using data from two surveys involving 449 MSEs and 49 hotels. Tobit regression was used to estimate the determinants of MSE participation in tourism, as well as the proportion of products purchased by hotels from MSEs. The results indicated that older, larger MSEs and those that were members of associations were more likely to participate in tourism. The determinants of hotel procurement from MSEs included age of the hotel, bed capacity, and management characteristics. The results highlight the opportunities and barriers for MSE participation in tourism and have implications for policies related to sustainable tourism development, regional economic development, and enhancement of rural livelihoods.     

Promoting moral growth through intra-group participation

Currently, an emphasis is being placed on the integration of ethical issues into the business curriculum. This paper investigates the viability of using student group interaction to induce an upward movement in the stages of moral development as advanced by Kohlberg. The results of a classroom experiment using graduate business law students suggest that formulating groups that mix stages of moral development can provide a robust environment for upward movement. In addition, the results suggest strategies for formulating effective groups, based upon entry levels as measured by the Defining Issues Test.The ultimate goal of moral education is to produce people who can reason in philosophically adequate ways; who can formulate plans of action even under stress, or when experiencing conflicting values and situational pressures; and who will actually follow through behaviorally on such plans.Donald R. Nelson, J. D., is Associate Dean, The College of Business Administration at The University of Denver, where he also serves as course coordinator and teaches Business Ethics and Social Responsibility in the MBA program. He has authored articles on ethics and moral education and currently serves as Chair of the Business Ethics Section of the American Business Law Association.Dr. Tom Obremski is currently Associate Professor of Statistics and Operations Research at The University of Denver. He is the author of several articles and books in the area of applied statistical methodology. Dr. Obremski has been very active in integrating ethics throughout the MBA curriculum at Denver University.     

Factors influencing suppliers’ participation in private electronic markets

This study is intended to identify factors, which influence suppliers’ participation in the private electronic market (PEM). The results of this study show that many suppliers do not recognize the potential benefits that PEM could offer and they do not believe their off-line relationships with a buyer could be transferred to on-line. Thus, buyers need to convince their suppliers that PEM is not just a price based marketplace but instead a business model where mutual benefits can be achieved based on existing trust relationships between a buyer and limited number of qualified suppliers.     

An evaluation of consumer participation in hospital breast services

Community expectations and research demonstrate that consumers play an important role in shaping services for women with breast cancer. Consumer contribution has been mandated recently in Victoria, Australia, to ensure the inclusion of consumer involvement in the planning and decision‐making processes within health organizations. As part of the redevelopment of breast services in Victoria, Southern Health has been funded to plan local improvements to care co‐ordination for women diagnosed with breast cancer in the southern metropolitan area of Melbourne. The establishment of effective consumer participation in breast services is an integral aspect of this project and a range of initiatives has been undertaken to achieve meaningful consumer involvement including the appointment of a consumer advisor; appointment of staff with extensive knowledge in women's health and community development to the project; establishment of a consumer reference group; and plans made to improve the receptivity of health service systems to consumer input. A preliminary evaluation of this ongoing project has indicated that a productive role for consumers in service practice review and policy and planning activities has been established and some change and engagement of staff has occurred. There is still work to be done to promote the involvement of a wider range of health professionals and to increase the level of trust between consumers and staff.