Emotional intelligence and caring behaviour in nursing

The research reported in this paper relates six dimensions of nurses' emotional intelligence (EI) with two dimensions of their caring behaviours. One hundred and twenty nurses self-reported their EI, and three patients of each one described their caring behaviours. The main findings are: (a) nurses' EI explains a significant but low unique variance of caring behaviours; (b) self-encouragement and self-control against criticisms are the best predictors; (c) high empathy can have positive or negative impact on caring behaviours depending on the way it combines with other EI dimensions.     

Gracefully yours: Would snap judgments of one's subtle graceful movements lead to inferences about their emotional intelligence?

Subtle bodily movements such as gracefulness (defined as smoothness, control and elegance in movements) are readily legible by others and these movements might serve as important cues to other people's personal characteristics. The results of four studies contribute theoretically to research on the relationship between movements and emotional intelligence. In study 1, manipulating grace in movements using the Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) system, a person who moves gracefully was found to be judged as more emotionally intelligent (EI) than one who does not move gracefully. In Study 2, EI was shown to predict gracefulness, with EI self-reported by the participants and gracefulness rated by raters. Study 3 demonstrated that a person who moves gracefully (vs. non-gracefully) is judged as more suitable to be a salesperson/spokesperson for a company, mediated by perceived EI. Study 4 showed that a brand whose logo moves gracefully (vs. non-gracefully) is judged as more adaptable and as having higher service quality. Current research documents a consequential impact of such cues on consumption and have substantial practical implications for marketers.     

Export strategy,export intensity and learning: Integrating the resource perspective and institutional perspective

Export intensity (EI) has been widely examined as a performance outcome of exporting firms. To date, studies on the determinants of EI have generated mixed and even contradictory results. To reconcile such inconsistencies, this study dichotomizes export strategy in emerging economies into two distinctive types, expansion-oriented vs. escape-oriented, with the former inspired by exploiting firm-specific competencies as portrayed by the RBV and the latter motivated by avoiding the domestic institutional deficiencies as informed by the institutional perspective. Different from prior findings in the International Business literature, this research finds that a firm’s extremely high EI might not result from their superior competencies. Instead, high EI firms might focus on export mainly for the purpose of escaping from their home country’s deficient institutional environment that places extra burdens in terms of costs of doing business. Such escape-oriented exporters are more sensitive and responsive to changes in the environment while they do not enhance their learning as much as those expansion-oriented exporters. Furthermore, institutional environment has heterogeneous impacts on firms with different ownership types. Our study helps integrate the insights from both the RBV and the institutional perspective, and our dichotomization of export strategy adds precision and sophistication to the understanding of EI and export performance. Our hypotheses are supported by an empirical study based on a sample of exporting firms in China between 1998 and 2007.     

Developing meaningfulness at work through emotional intelligence training

To date, there remains a significant gap in the human resource development (HRD) literature in understanding how training and development contributes to meaningful work. In addition, little is known about how individuals proactively make their work more meaningful. This article shows how emotional intelligence (EI) training promotes learning about sources of meaningful work and documents managers’ experiences of independently applying to the workplace what they have learnt about meaningfulness from their EI training. Data is collected from participant observations and interviews with trainers and managers attending three externally provided, ‘popular’ EI training courses. Interpreting the data through Lips‐Wiersma and Morris's model of meaningful work enables a clear articulation of managers’ capacity to shape their work environments to create four, interconnected sources of meaningfulness: inner development, expressing one's full potential, unity with others and serving others. The findings also reveal structural and agential constraints when individuals attempt to create meaningful work. Practically, the study demonstrates the importance of training to enhance work of value and significance and offers recommendations for practitioners.     

Leveraging Big Data to Develop Supply Chain Management Theory: The Case of Panel Data

Increased data availability is poised to shape both business practice and supply chain management (SCM) research. This article addresses an issue that can arise when trying to use big data to answer academic research questions. This issue is that distilled data often have a panel structure whereby repeated measurements are available on one or more variables for a substantial number of subjects. Thus, to fully leverage the richness of big data for academic research, SCM scholars need an understanding regarding the different types of research questions answerable with panel data. In this article, we devise a framework detailing different types of research questions SCM scholars can answer with panel data. This framework provides a basis to categorize how SCM scholars have examined the services supply chain setting of health care with public data regarding hospital‐level patient satisfaction. We extend prior research by testing a series of three questions not yet examined in this area by fitting a series of structured latent curve models to seven years of hospital‐level patient satisfaction for nearly 4,000 hospitals. The discussion highlights theoretical and methodological challenges SCM scholars are likely to encounter as they use the panel data in their research.     

Hook vs. hope: How to enhance customer engagement through gamification

Many digital service providers have adopted gamification to promote customer engagement. Critical questions, however, remain about the most effective way to enhance customer engagement and increase sales by applying gamification. With a research design that combines qualitative and quantitative methods, including the use of objective sales data from a large field study and replication of the findings across different contexts, this study explores how gamification fosters customer engagement. Both field study results and a simulation study reveal gamification principles (i.e., social interaction, sense of control, goals, progress tracking, rewards, and prompts) that promote hope and consequently increase customer engagement and digital sales. Furthermore, we find that hope is more strongly associated with customer engagement than the psychological condition of compulsion, which even exerts a negative impact. This research thus explores how gamification creates value for customers and provides actionable insights for managers to foster hope through gamification as opposed to get customers hooked.     

Ethical Sourcing: An Analysis of the Literature and Implications for Future Research

The purpose of this study is to present a rigorous, focused review on how this field of ethical sourcing research has grown and evolved over the decades, providing implications for future research. We combine two research methodologies in this study: a systematic literature review and a citation network analysis. The former is used as a scientific tool to select the most relevant ethical sourcing articles, while the latter is then applied as a research technique to analyse these selected articles. Such a combined approach allows for a rigorous investigation into this field of research in a more scientific and objective way. Based on this approach, we identify (1) distinctive features of ethical sourcing studies such as growth trends and content issues; (2) important articles that have played a significant role in developing this field; (3) evolutionary paths that show how its knowledge has been created and transferred; (4) emerging trends that have received growing attention in the recent literature; (5) main research areas that underlie the entire ethical sourcing studies; and (6) major implications that need to be pursued in future research. The results of this study provide not only the current status of the literature but also the patterns of evolution in this field of research, thus contributing to the existing literature.     

Interfirm collaboration and exchange relationships: An agenda for future research

Interfirm collaboration and exchange relationships are fundamental to how value is created, managed, and exchanged between firms. In this paper we first identify three major research themes (nature, governance, and outcomes) that existing research has focused on and then propose three structural shifts (technology, platforms, and globalization) that might influence nature, governance, and outcomes associated with interfirm collaboration. We also synthesize a research agenda for the future and develop multiple research propositions that might become the foundation to integrate the structural shifts into research on interfirm collaboration. We provide guidance on how existing theories can help scholars address new research questions arising due to the structural shifts. Finally, we provide insights to managers on the type of data that they need to access to make more effective decisions related to interfirm collaboration in a dynamic business environment.     

Exploring the Role of Productivity Propensity in Frontline Employee Performance: Its Relationship with Customer Orientation and Important Outcomes

Numerous studies have investigated the performance of frontline employees (FLEs) and how these employees influence organizational success. Because customer‐perceived outcomes are important, much attention has been devoted to the customer orientation (CO) construct. The weak influence of CO on external measures, however, has led to numerous research questions. The current work addresses these questions by introducing a new construct, “productivity propensity,” while examining its relationship with CO and multiple outcome measures. Results from two distinct samples suggest that the construct is a valuable addition to the FLE literature.     

Reducing uninformed responses: The effects of product‐class familiarity and measuring brand knowledge on surveys

Consumers often give answers to survey questions about which they are uninformed. Although research has documented this phenomenon and examined the conditions under which it occurs, the current research project is the first to examine how survey researchers might reduce uninformed response bias through the use of additional questions added to surveys that measure knowledge of brands for which consumers might be uninformed. In the current study, adding brand knowledge questions pertaining to an unknown (fictitious) brand reduced the likelihood of respondents providing uninformed responses when later asked to evaluate that brand. However, the effects of asking for brand familiarity on uninformed response rates differed by consumers' level of product‐class familiarity and the relative placement of the brand knowledge and brand attitude questions on the survey. Brand knowledge questions can suggest the existence of brands, placing them within a knowledge schema, thus leading to more uninformed responses from consumers low in product‐class familiarity. These results, coupled with recent other research findings suggest that researchers must consider the effects of related knowledge on what have been previously considered completely uninformed responses. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A Finnish study of self‐regulation discourses in the chemical industry's Responsible Care programme

The aim of the study was to explore the effects of the Responsible Care (RC) programme and how it is applied in practice. The present research questions include the following focus: how should we assess the performance of an organization's RC activity and what are the different criteria for assessing RC practices? The results indicate that the RC programme provides practical tools for developing health, environmental and safety operations. RC companies are committed to developing their products and processes, and continuously strive to minimize emission levels and improve the efficiency of their use of raw materials and energy. The RC partnership between the chemical industry and its customers is executed in the form of responsibility for the product and its safe use. The product stewardship approach provides companies with tools that help secure safe usage throughout the product life cycle.     

Peeking Under the Curtain and Over the Horizon: The Reflections of Another Former Editor

Being an editor of the Journal of Advertising (JA) provides a unique perspective into the publishing process and the field of advertising. In this article I have tried to offer a glimpse of what I learned from this experience. It reveals what I learned (mostly from mistakes I made) about the review process. It also provides some thoughts about how to be a good reviewer. The second part of the article takes a broader view of how the field of advertising research has developed, what might be missing, and how we can expand its development in the future.     

Corporate Ethics and Compliance Programs: A Report, Analysis and Critique

This research reports on the current state of ethics and compliance programs among business organizations in the United States. Members of the Ethics and Compliance Officers Association (ECOA), the premier professional association for managers working in this field, were asked to provide in-depth responses to a series of questions covering various elements of their corporate ethics and compliance programs. The findings from this analysis indicate that ethics and compliance programs have multiple components that are implemented developmentally, are influenced by regulatory and legal efforts and have evolved into more sophisticated approaches that include risk assessment and employee performance appraisal. However, these programs remain vulnerable to sufficient resource allocation by the organization to be fully effective.     

The effect of pre-flight attendants’ emotional intelligence,emotional labor,and emotional exhaustion on commitment to customer service

Previous studies have shown that the success of airlines depends heavily on the quality of in-flight services provided by flight attendants. The performance of flight attendants is primarily based on their emotional intelligence (EI). Thus, airlines endeavor to recruit flight attendants with high EI and also conduct continuous EI training even after their recruitment. To meet the demand of excellent flight attendants, a number of universities and colleges have established airline service programs. This study examines the relationships among EI, emotional labor (EL), emotional exhaustion (EE), and commitment to customer service (CCS) among pre-flight attendants in the undergraduate airline service programs. The results of the study revealed that the better pre-flight attendants understand their emotions and use them appropriately, the more they display their true emotions and modify their bad feelings to desirable emotions required for effective in-flight customer services. Also, the more pre-flight attendants employ EL, the more exhausted they are emotionally. As the first study on pre-flight attendants’ EI, this study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on EI, EL, EE, and CCS. The findings of the study also provide practical implications that effective assessment and education of EI by university-based airline service programs can contribute to service excellence of airlines.     

Entrepreneurship and innovation networks

In this paper, we give a general introduction to the notion of entrepreneurship and how it has many complex meanings. Entrepreneurs in new firms but also in incumbent firms have a key role in local, regional and national economic development by taking risks to get things done by developing new combinations of ideas and/or doing things differently. In view of this, two of the main questions that are dealt with are: (1) which features make structural differences in institutions and innovation networks remain invariant between decades, and (2) how knowledge about such features can be employed in policy at the national and the regional level. The research questions highlighted in this special issue relate to many pertinent national and regional policy issues. The most apparent concerns conditions conducive for entrepreneurship in the form of new firms and firm growth. In this paper, we also introduce the different contributors to this special issue.     

Twenty-five years of business systems research and lessons for international business studies

Since 1992, the national business systems (NBS) approach has been increasingly used to analyse not only firm characteristics, structures and strategies within NBS, but also the nature of international business and its interactions with both national and transnational institutions. In reviewing 25 years of NBS literature, we heed calls in IB journals urging researchers to use NBS notions and findings in IB research. Our systematic review of 96 articles analyses the patterns and contributions of NBS literature, revealing four thematic junctures: (1) comparative business systems, (2) firm internationalisation and the management/organisation inside MNCs, (3) the role of internationalisation in the development of organisational capabilities and innovation and (4) the emergence of transnational communities in and across firms and societies. Themes are described in terms of (a) the research questions (RQ) they focus on, (b) how NBS approach investigates the RQ and what are the major findings, (c) how IB frames and approaches the same RQ, (d) how does the NBS approach extend the perspectives of IB and (e) what are the problems faced by NBS in terms of developing further insights into the RQ. Our review contributes to the recent endeavour of IB research to institutionalism, encouraging a productive dialogue between IB and NBS research.     

The quest for consumer engagement via cause-related marketing: A mixed method study in an emerging economy

The present study attempts to understand the concept of consumer engagement (CE) in Cause-related Marketing (CRM) context. Utilizing a simultaneous qual + qual mixed method research approach; the authors have attempted to consider two research questions: (1) how online retail organizations operating in India are framing CRM campaigns for enhancing consumer engagement, and (2) what are the factors that motivate consumers to engage with CRM initiatives of online retailers. Integrating the findings of the study with the ‘Hierarchy of Engagement Model’ provided by Grewal et al. (2017b), the authors have proposed a conceptual model of CE in CRM context. Further, the study provides implications for both academics and marketing practitioners.     

So what or so everything? Bringing behavior genetics to entrepreneurship research

Nicolaou and Shane (this issue) have written a nice introduction to the concepts and methods of classical behavior genetics, suggesting that entrepreneurship may show genetic influence. If this idea is new to the field, researchers should make ready to incorporate it. It is almost certain that genetic influences will be found, as will genetic covariance between entrepreneurship and other psychological traits. The questions, though, are what to make of these genetic influences and how might they clarify outstanding definitional issues.     

Explaining technological innovation in Chinese enterprises: Insights from technological entrepreneurship

The transformation of China into an innovation-oriented nation is now topping the agenda of Chinese government. Technological innovation is seen at the heart of this transformation, and enterprises have been called the key driving force of the innovation process. However, what are the key ingredients for such a transformation to occur? And are Chinese enterprises ready to fulfil this new responsibility? Drawing on the concept of technological entrepreneurship, this paper intends to explain technological innovation in Chinese enterprises, and attempts to develop an integrative view for research in this field, especially as related to the questions asked above.