NGO Project Managers' Perception of the Sustainability of Development Projects: Empirical Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

ABSTRACT

Developmental organizations have increasingly focused on primary beneficiaries' participation and collaboration with stakeholders as critical factors to sustainability of project activities. Hypotheses that these factors affect project managers' estimates of probable sustainability of project activities have been tested in this study. The study used survey data from a sample of 126 Non-governmental organizations from Sub-Saharan Africa through e-mail and the internet. Five indicators of primary stakeholder's participation were tested and found reliable as a measure of overall participation. The ordered probit regression analysis was used to examine relationships between probable sustainability and independent variables. The five-item participation scale (beneficiary consultation, decision-making, volunteering work, project initiation and interactive participation) was the most significant variable affecting expected sustainability of project activities. No single indicator of participation was equally related. Government support and community projects variables were also significant predictors of expected sustainability.     

The Role of Brand Orientation in Church Participation: An Empirical Examination

Although a large amount of research has been undertaken into the application of marketing techniques in church organizations, few studies have provided empirical evidence on the effects of brand orientation on church participation. This empirical study sought to contribute to the body of literature via a survey of 344 church attendees of a particular church denomination in Australia. The conceptual model hypothesizes brand orientation as performing direct and indirect effects on church participation through perceived benefits as the mediating variables. A person's perception of the extent to which a church engages in brand-oriented activities and behavior is significantly related with his or her perception of the benefits associated with church activities, which then leads to a higher level of church participation. The results reveal that brand orientation is significantly related with perceived benefits and church participation.     

The Link Between Information Strategy and Electronic Commerce

The rapid growth of wide area networks in recent years has opened up a new avenue for companies to market products and services and disseminate information about them to potential customers. Two hundred and twelve companies that conduct business in such a way on an electronic shopping mall responded to an e-mail survey about the anticipated benefits that prompted them to do so. The survey also asked about three potential strategies that they may have been following for achieving business objectives: cost leadership, focus, and differentiation. Six benefits factors emerged from this study: information, cost savings, competitiveness, productivity, planning and control, and new applications. Competitiveness was the most important benefit, and it predicted a differentiation and focus strategy. Productivity and new applications also predicted a differentiation strategy. Cost savings predicted a cost leadership strategy. However, organizations followed differentiation and focus strategies significantly more than cost leadership. This assessment thus sheds light on the link between information strategy and electronic commerce.     

Competitive Strategy,Environmental Characteristics and Performance in African Emerging Economies: Lessons from Firms in Ghana

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the impact of the implementation of competitive strategy on organizational performance in response to economic liberalization policies using survey data from organizations in Ghana. We also examine how the perceived intensity of industry competition and industry sector moderate the relationship between competitive strategy and organizational performance. The results show that the implementation of the competitive strategies of low-cost, differentiation, and integrated low-cost and differentiation were all positively related to performance (return on assets and return on sales). We also find that both industry competition and industry sector moderate the relationship between differentiation strategy and return on assets. Moreover, industry competition moderates the relationships between both low-cost and differentiation strategies and return on sales. The results indicate that implementing a clearly defined competitive strategy is beneficial to organizations experiencing significant changes in the environment due to economic liberalization. The findings also suggest that while low-cost strategy is more beneficial to organizations in a highly competitive industry, differentiation strategy is more beneficial to firms in lowly competitive industry. At the same time, organizations in the manufacturing sector benefit more than those in the service sector when they implement the differentiation strategy. Managerial implications are presented.     

Investigating the impact of social media images’ value,consumer engagement,and involvement on eWOM of a tourism destination: A transmittal mediation approach

Tourism organizations use social media to promote their destinations and attract new customers. However, there is a challenge in how tourism organizations can choose or create social media images to successfully attract consumers' attention, induce their engagement with the destination, and motivate their eWOM behavior. This study aims to identify and test the direct and indirect factors related to social media images of tourism destinations that could predict eWOM. Using the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S–O-R) as an umbrella framework, we integrated Ducoffe's model and the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), to study the role of social media destination images' features (entertainment, informativeness, irritation, credibility, personalization, and incentives) on consumer's perceived value and eWOM through consumer engagement and involvement. Using a survey research method, we collected data from 307 individuals and tested the proposed structural model using the PLS-SEM-based transmittal mediation approach. The findings supported the proposed relationships providing valuable theoretical and practical implications.     

Defining the Content of Sustainability Reports in Nonprofit Organizations: Do Stakeholders Really Matter?

The aim of the article is to investigate the role of stakeholder engagement and participation in nonprofit organizations’ sustainability reporting, according to the literature on third sector and stakeholder theory. To verify the levels of involvement, the authors conducted an empirical survey, using content analysis, on a sample of 54 sustainability reports of nonprofit organizations included in the Global Reporting Initiative database as of September 1, 2012. In order to strengthen the results obtained from the content analysis, the authors shared their findings with the organizations of the sample. The survey showed that there were some criticisms regarding stakeholder participation in the targeted research field. These are considered in the conclusions. Questions for the future included whether stakeholder engagement is moving from being simply a way to consult and influence stakeholders to being an effective instrument for involving them in nonprofit organizations’ reporting and decision-making processes, through mutual commitment.     

Interactive effects of consumers’ ethical beliefs and authenticity on ethical consumption and pro-environmental behaviors

The current study examined the relationships of ethical beliefs (i.e., idealism and relativism) with pro-environmental behaviors (direct and indirect) and ethical consumption behavior. The study further examined the moderating role of consumer authenticity in these relationships. Data were collected from individuals (N = 302) using field surveys within three major metropolitan cities of Pakistan. The findings revealed that idealism had a positive relationship with ethical consumption behavior and pro-environmental direct behavior. However, it was not related to pro-environmental indirect behavior. Relativism was positively related to ethical consumption behavior but it was not related to both types of pro-environmental behaviors. Furthermore, consumer authenticity significantly moderated the relationships of idealism with all ethical outcomes. Finally, implications for organizations, marketers and policy makers are discussed.     

Growth versus retrenchment strategies in marketing. The Australian experience

This study is based on a cross-sectional survey of 211 top level managers whose organizations have operations in Western Australia. Utilizing a custom model of competitive strategy developed from the organizational theory and policy, regression analysis is used to evaluate the influence of the external business environment upon growth/expansion and retrenchment strategies as well as corporate performance. Significant relationships are discussed along with their implications for the analysis of competitive and marketing strategy. Directions for future research efforts are also provided.     

Implementing Marketing Strategy Through a Market Orientation

The adoption of specific marketing strategies is related to several factors in an organization including the organization's mission, objectives, resources, and market orientation. We report an exploratory study in which we define relationships between market orientation and marketing strategy in a high technology environment - the telecommunications industry in the United States. Market orientation is defined as a culture that influences how employees think and act. Our results indicate that a market orientation provides a context for the implementation of specific marketing strategies by serving as a moderator of operational marketing strategy. For example, those organizations who possess a strong market-oriented culture (high-spirited cultures) engage in value creation strategies such as market segmentation, developing new products/services for new markets, and product or service customisation. Those organizations possessing low market orientations (ineffectual cultures) generally practice less aggressive and internally focused strategies such as charging lower prices, providing limited customer service, product/service standardization, and undertake limited market research.     

Formal Development Opportunities and Withdrawal Behaviors by Employees in Small and Medium‐Sized Enterprises

This study explores direct and indirect relationships between involvement in formal training and development events, employee attitudes and withdrawal responses including turnover intentions and neglectful behavior for those employed in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Questionnaire data were obtained from 185 staff employed in a diverse range of SMEs. Our results suggest that employees that participate in more training and development events are less likely to be considering leaving their employer and less likely to engage in neglectful behavior. However, the analysis revealed that the effects of participation in formal training and development are fully mediated by perceptions of organizational support and job satisfaction. In contrast to results from studies in large organizations, affective commitment was not found to be an influential determinant of employee exit intentions or neglect.     

Corporate environmentalism pursuit by foreign firms competing in China

This study examines the relationships among environmental orientation, environmental strategy, firm performance, and regulatory stakeholder influence. Survey data collected from foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) in China show that while internal environmental orientation positively influences environmental corporate (but not marketing) strategies, external environmental orientation positively influences both. These two types of environmental strategy are, in turn, found to positively affect firm performance. Regulatory stakeholder influence is found to exert a direct effect on external environmental orientation. Moreover, it is found to positively moderate the relationship between environmental orientation and environmental strategy. These findings provide FIE executives with useful insights into enhancing firm performance through the pursuit of corporate environmentalism.     

Relationships among Perceived Organizational Core Values, Corporate Social Responsibility, Ethics, and Organizational Performance Outcomes: An Empirical Study of Information Technology Professionals

This study is an extension of our recent ethics research in direct marketing (2003) and information technology (2007). In this study, we investigated the relationships among core organizational values, organizational ethics, corporate social responsibility, and organizational performance outcome. Our analysis of online survey responses from a sample of IT professionals in the United States indicated that managers from organizations with organic core values reported a higher level of social responsibility relative to managers in organizations with mechanistic values; that managers in both mechanistic and organic organizations which were perceived as more socially responsible were also perceived as more ethical; and that perceived ethical attitudes and social responsibility were significantly associated with organizational performance outcome measures. Our article discusses research premises, conceptual framework, hypotheses, research methodology, data analysis, recommendations for further research, and conclusions.     

Value co-creation and social media: Investigating antecedents and influencing factors in the U.S. retail banking industry

This study seeks to examine and unearth antecedents to co-creation behaviours within a U.S. retail banking context. A critical aspect for marketing managers and academics alike, co-creation has a strong influence on tangible factors such as profit and intangible factors such as referrals, satisfaction and feedback. Antecedents were identified as trust, customer engagement and participation attitude whilst social media usage was a consumer characteristic identified as influencing co-creation. Data was collected from 489 U.S. retail banking customers via an online survey. The data was analysed via structural equation modelling. The findings indicate that customer engagement influences trust, co-creation and participation attitude. Participation attitude was found to influence trust and co-creation but trust had no direct effect on co-creation. The study further found that social media usage intensity influenced co-creation behaviours. The findings contribute in three ways. First, this is one of the first studies to scrutinise participation attitude in an attempt to explain co-creation behaviours for U.S. banks over social media. Second, identification of precursors to value co-creation has been ascertained in a U.S. retail banking social media context. Third, the study additionally contributes to the findings that social media usage has a moderating effect in value co-creation and offers a potential segmentation strategy.     

Religiosity,Relationships and Consumption: A Study of Church Going in Ireland

Business‐to‐consumer relationships have been over‐conceptualised, but poorly understood in terms of the social factors that motivate or inhibit the development of such relationships. This paper seeks to integrate three streams of literature, buyer‐seller relationships, social relationships, and religiosity and develops a framework in which declining levels of participation in organised religion may be conceptualised as a failing relationship, which has been partially superseded by commercial relationships. This study uses an existential phenomenological approach to explore the complementarity or substitutability of individuals' relationships based on religion with those based on consumption. A survey of a sample of active and lapsed churchgoers in Ireland found mixed evidence of commercial relationships acting as a substitute for traditional religious‐based relationships.     

What Sells in Romania: Performance or Relationships?

ABSTRACT

The norm for sales organizations is the pursuit of long-term profitability through positive relationships with key accounts. Sales professionals begin and end their activities with the customer in mind, aiming to maximize their relationships over a long period of time. This article examines the association between buyer and seller relationships and customer satisfaction as well as the association between customer service orientation and customer relationships. Findings suggest that the ability to meet customer sales service expectations as well as the existence of positive relationships between buyers and sellers is associated with customer satisfaction. Implications for managers are explored.     

The impact of firm strategy and foreign ownership on executive bonus compensation in Japanese firms

Building on information-processing perspectives and the Japanese contextual factors, this study investigates the relationships between firm strategy and executive bonus pay as well as the moderating role of foreign ownership on the strategy-compensation relationship in Japanese firms. We focus on R&D investment and product diversification as strategy variables and investigate their direct effects on executive bonus pay. Further, we examine the moderating effects of foreign ownership on the strategy-pay sensitivity. The results, based on a sample of the 148 largest industrial firms in Japan for the 1990-1997 period, show that both R&D investment and product diversification are positively related to executive bonus pay. Our findings also indicate that foreign ownership negatively moderates the relationships between the strategy variables and executive compensation, suggesting that foreign investors play an active monitoring role, reducing cash bonus payments when their invested firms choose to increase R&D or pursue diversification strategy.     

Three Criteria That Separate the Top Sellers from the Cellar Dwellers

Abstract

In the past, studies of the causes and consequences of service failures were generally conducted from the perspective of the consumers. Only a few of the studies were conducted through the perspective of management involvement. Furthermore, qualitative analysis tends to be extensively used in such studies, as well as CIT, case study or multivariate analysis. Therefore, this study is an attempt to use a non-linear fuzzy neural model as the method for empirical study. A survey has been conducted in the chain stores of Starbucks, La New and one vegetarian food store chain. They are industries with a high level of interaction with customers. A total of 104 respondents were samples. The results of this survey indicate that if we are to trace the unanimous reasoning of service defects, the factor of management involvement tends to be higher for employees exhibiting personality characteristics of external control rather than internal control. If the level of service defects becomes seriously high, a higher level of management involvement is necessary for employees exhibiting personality characteristics of external control rather than internal control. For employees exhibiting internal control in personality characteristics, a higher level of management involvement is required to make voluntary moves in pursuing remedial recovery strategy. For employees exhibiting external control in personality characteristics, a lower level of management involvement is required to make voluntary moves in pursuing remedial measures for compensational strategy. The pursuit of remedial recovery strategy may vary according to the situation of service defects. The level of management involvement positively correlates with customer relation strengths. The customer relation strengths positively correlate with the pursuit of remedial recovery strategy.     

Discerning competitive strategy through an assessment of competitive methods

This cross-sectional study of Portuguese service organizations seeks to determine the level of alignment of competitive methods with strategy typologies covered in the business literature. Surveyed firms were asked to indicate their level of utilization of several competitive methods. The results of factor analysis of the survey data indicate that 30 of the 33 competitive methods covered in this study represent seven underlying strategy dimensions. Further analysis revealed that there is some congruence between the derived strategy dimensions and established strategy typologies in the literature. Cluster analysis revealed that each of the responding firms could be classified into one of four hybrid or mixed strategy orientations. However, differences in strategy orientation were not statistically significant in explaining differences in the financial performance of these organizations. These findings are discussed in the light of their implications for strategy development, strategy choices and performance evaluation in the Portuguese service sector.     

Job Satisfaction: Linking Perceived Organizational Support,Organizational Justice with Work Outcomes in China

This study develops and tests a full mediation model that examines the mediating role of job satisfaction in the Chinese context, based on a survey of 424 employees in three small and medium sized enterprises. Data analysis shows a good fit with the full mediation and all four classes of antecedents (i.e., perceived organizational support, procedural, distributive, and interactional justice). Particularly, procedural justice contributes to the prediction of satisfaction. Job satisfaction is also shown to mediate most antecedentconsequence relationships, except the two between perceived organizational support (POS)—turnover and procedural justice—consequences. Furthermore, there are only four direct links, including POS to citizenship behaviors directed at individuals, distributive justice to turnover intention, interactional justice to citizenship behaviors directed at organizations and turnover. These direct links suggest that job satisfaction does not fully mediate the relationships.