Effects of perceptions on LMX and work performance: Effects of supervisors’ perception of subordinates’ emotional intelligence and subordinates’ perception of trust in the supervisor on LMX and, consequently, performance

There are few studies on how the perception of supervisors by their subordinates contributes to high-quality leader-member exchange (LMX). We thus propose that the trust perception of supervisors by their subordinates can help explain the development of high-quality LMX. Furthermore, the trust perception may interact with supervisor-rated emotional intelligence to influence the quality of LMX, and, consequently, work performance. Using a longitudinal study on a sample of 285 supervisor-subordinate dyads from a manufacturing firm in China, we found that (1) supervisor-rated emotional intelligence of subordinates (Time 1) positively predicts the quality of LMX (Time 2); (2) this relationship is stronger when subordinates highly trust their supervisors (Time 1); (3) LMX (Time 2) positively predicts work performance (Time 3); and (4) LMX (Time 2) fully mediates the interactive effect of emotional intelligence (Time 1) and trust in the supervisor (Time 1) on work performance (Time 3).     

Students’ attitudes toward technology: exploring the relationship among affective,cognitive and behavioral components of the attitude construct

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - When studying attitudes toward technology education, the affective attitudinal component has primarily been the focus. This study focuses...     

Will It Spread or Not? The Effects of Social Influences and Network Topology on Innovation Diffusion

Innovation diffusion theory suggests that consumers differ concerning the number of contacts they have and the degree and the direction to which social influences determine their choice to adopt. To test the impacts of these factors on innovation diffusion, in particular the occurrence of hits and flops, a new agent‐based model for innovation diffusion is introduced. This model departs from existing percolation models by using more realistic agents (both individual preferences and social influence) and more realistic networks (scale free with cost constraints). Furthermore, it allows consumers to weight the links they have, and it allows links to be directional. In this way this agent‐based model tests the effect of VIPs who can have a relatively large impact on many consumers. Results indicate that markets with high social influence are more uncertain concerning the final success of the innovation and that it is more difficult for the innovation to take off. As consumers affect each other to adopt or not at the beginning of the diffusion, the new product has more difficulties to reach the critical mass that is necessary for the product to take off. In addition, results of the simulation experiments show under which conditions highly connected agents (VIPs) determine the final diffusion of the innovation. Although hubs are present in almost any network of consumers, their roles and their effects in different markets can be very different. Using a scale‐free network with a cut‐off parameter for the maximum number of connections a hub can have, the simulation results show that when hubs have limits to the maximum number of connections the innovation diffusion is severely hampered, and it becomes much more uncertain. However, it is found that the effect of VIPs on the diffusion curve is often overestimated. In fact when the influence of VIPs on the decision making of the consumers is strengthened compared with the influence of normal friends, the diffusion of the innovation is not substantially facilitated. It can be concluded that the importance of VIPs resides in their capacity to inform many consumers and not in a stronger persuasive power.     

Influence of food safety training on grocery store employees’ performance of food handling practices

Food safety training is a method utilized by retail food stores to provide their managers with needed knowledge on how to prevent food borne illnesses, applying Hazard Control Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles, and help in understanding the requirements of the FDA Food Code as well as state and local food safety policies. For food safety training to be effective, employee behavior must be assessed following training in order to reduce the risks of foodborne illness. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of manager training and how this training impacted the grocery stores’ performance related to hot/cold self-serve bars. Three grocery store chains were recruited and each chain selected 15 stores to be observed pre- and post-training during set-up, lunch, and tear-down of the bars. After the pre-training observation, managers from eight stores per chain attended a food safety training course (training group), while managers from the remaining seven stores received no additional training (control group). Following the training, all stores were observed to collect post-training data. The information from the observations indicated that the training did not cause a significant change in store performance for a majority of the observed categories. Many state policies only call for training and certification of managers in retail food service establishments. This study showed that it may be time for these policies to be changed to include employee training and certification as well.     

Beyond ‘chalk and talk’: educator perspectives on design immersion programs for rural and regional schools

Twenty-first century education needs to be re-envisioned to equip citizens for a lifetime of rapid change and complexity. Design has been proposed as a pedagogical framework that develops the required foundational literacies, competencies and character qualities citizens need to thrive in this new creative knowledge economy. However, widespread adoption will require systemic transformation of practice, and recognition of the value of formal and informal ‘connected’ learning environments and experiences. This paper explores the potential of design immersion outreach efforts in fostering design capabilities and building educators’ pedagogical repertoires to support twenty-first century learning. It documents educators’ experiences of goDesign, the first three-day place-based travelling design immersion experience for regional and rural Australian high school students and teachers. Drawing on observational data, and in-depth interviews with participating principals (n?=?3) and teachers (n?=?14) from six regional schools, educators believed goDesign provided new ideas for their classroom practice. They felt it broadened horizons for both themselves and their students, through: personally inspiring experiences and career aspiration; engagement in design thinking process, skills and mindset; and providing a valuable opportunity for community building. As educators in regional and rural areas often experience geographical, social and professional isolation, this paper argues that place-based informal design immersion programs might be an innovative way to engage and educate both students and teachers with design, thus building the competencies required for successful twenty-first century futures.

     

The behavioral additionality effects of a tax incentive program on firms’ composition of R&D investment

This paper investigates the behavioral additionality effects of a unique high- and new- technology enterprise (HNTE) program in China. The program provides a reduced corporate income tax to certificated HNTEs. By distinguishing research expenses from development costs, we examine if the tax incentive program affects firms’ composition of R&D investment, based on a sample of Chinese listed firms. The results indicate that the tax incentive program encourages firms to focus more on development than on research. The effects are also found to be heterogeneous among the first-time, repeated, and one-time certification users. The results imply that tax incentives prompt firms to invest in short-term development opportunities with promising private returns. Conversely, they are less likely to stimulate risky research projects with potential high rates of social and long-term economic returns. Our study highlights the importance of understanding the behavioral additionality effects for innovation policy evaluations and better policy designs.     

When work and family collide: ‘Resource Caravans’ of personal and contextual resources in remote work

Research on remote work remains without consensus as to its benefits, with continued questions about which factors may enable it to be more beneficial to employees working remotely. Applying Conservation of Resources theory, we explore the impact of ‘resource caravans’ on ‘work–family balance’ and subsequent ‘well-being’ in a sample of 446 remote workers. Our findings contribute to ongoing sociological debates by showing exactly how flexibility and control play a role in the remote workplace. Specifically, our model revealed that ‘sense of control’ over home was most beneficial for ‘work–family balance’ among experienced remote workers who had high levels of ‘schedule flexibility’, whereas ‘work–family balance’ benefited from lower levels of ‘schedule flexibility’ among new remote workers. Resources from the home domain were most critical for ‘work–family balance’, which mediated the effects of the ‘resource caravan’ from the home domain on overall employee ‘well-being’.     

The distinctive effects of dual-level leadership behaviors on employees’ trust in leadership: An empirical study from China

The loss of trust within and between organizations has become serious worldwide, especially in China. In this study, we seek to explain why as well as how leaders at two different levels (i.e., the top management and the supervisory levels) affect employees?? trust in leadership at the two levels distinctively, especially in the context of China as an emerging economy. Adopting the perspective of multi-level social exchanges within organizations, we develop a dual-level model with perceived organizational support and leader?Cmember exchange as two major mediating mechanisms for the distinctive effects of transformational leadership behaviors on employees?? trust in leadership at both top management and supervisory levels, respectively. The empirical evidence based on a sample of 357 Chinese employees and their supervisors supports the proposed model. Both theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.     

Estimation of the Effects of New Brands on Incumbents’ Profits and Consumer Welfare: The U.S. Processed Cheese Market Case

I estimate the effects of new brands on market competition and consumer welfare in the U.S. processed cheese market. I find that an observed increase in consumer welfare was attributable mainly to an increase in the number of brands in the sample market, while the price effect, which measures welfare change caused by adding new brands to existing brands, decreased welfare as the prices of the existing brands increased in a large portion of sample markets. The price increase was most pronounced among the introducers existing brands. I also find that the data used in the paper identify a significant enhancement of consumer welfare as a result of the change in product characteristics provided by new brands even if a large portion of welfare gain is explained by the assumption on the error term in the utility function.JEL classification: D40, D60, L13, L66, H20     

Effect of agglomeration on firms’ research and development investment: a U-shaped relationship

Extant research on how agglomeration affects firms’ R&D investment reveals conflicting views. Some studies suggest that, owing to free riding arising from knowledge spillovers, agglomeration reduces firms’ R&D investment, whereas others find that it creates additional incentives for innovation through intensifying local competition, thereby increasing firms’ R&D investment. Thus, this study attempts to reconcile these two conflicting views. We propose a U-shaped relationship between agglomeration and firms’ R&D investment; that is, when the extent of agglomeration is low, knowledge spillover effects are important, while local competition is negligible. The free riding effects dominate local competition effects. Therefore, firms’ R&D investment decreases with the extent of agglomeration at a decreasing rate. By contrast, when the extent of agglomeration is high, local competition becomes the dominant force. Consequently, firms’ R&D investment increases with the extent of agglomeration at an increasing rate. Using data from 299,256 manufacturing firms in China, we find that firms’ R&D investment first decreases with the extent of agglomeration to reach a minimum, then increases as the extent of agglomeration continues to rise. These results indicate that there is a robust U-shaped relationship between agglomeration and firms’ R&D investment.     

“Social food”: Food literacy co-construction and distortion on social media

Social media encourage the rapid spreading of food-related information and potentially act as a policy measure to improve food literacy, healthy eating and well-being. However, some authors warn about the lack of control over the quality of the shared information and the risks of knowledge distortion. The aim of this research is to understand how food literacy is co-constructed on social media and to identify the potential sources of bias, which lead to knowledge distortion. We use a netnographic approach (i.e. analysis of behavioral secondary data from social media and semi-structured interviews) to study both phenomena. Findings indicate that food literacy can be positively or negatively co-constructed in a social environment. Consumers can contribute to the construction of food literacy directly or indirectly on three levels (i.e. evaluation, adaptation suggestions and procedural critiques), which vary in depth and breadth of contribution. We further identify four types of biases, which risk affecting the quality of the co-constructed food literacy online, namely vividness, mindset, socio-cultural and cognitive dissonance bias. Findings help food policy makers to better understand how food literacy is developed outside of their control, and to identify the potential sources of knowledge distortion and how they can reduce these biases.     

The Effects of Homeownership on Children's Outcomes: Real Effects or Self‐Selection?

This article examines whether there is a “homeownership effect” for lower‐income racial and ethnic groups who have been the target of public policies to expand homeownership. We use two different methods to account for selection, statistical matching and instrumental variable analysis; test direct and indirect (mediator) effects of homeownership on children's cognitive achievement, behavior problems and health using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and its Child Development Supplement; and replicate the main effects tests using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. We find little evidence of beneficial homeownership effects and suggest that previous analyses may have mistaken selection differences for the effect of homeownership itself.     

Cognitive radio systems specific for IMT systems: Operator’s view and perspectives

Cognitive radio (CR) is still an emerging and disruptive communication technology which is expected to improve the overall efficiency of the spectrum use. It is envisaged that cognitive radio systems (CRS) could impact many aspects of communications and in particular could facilitate accommodation of the increasing amount of services and applications in wireless networks. Intensive research on CR aims at maximising the utilisation of the limited radio spectrum resource. There have been many advances in CR regarding the technology development aspects; however supplementary research on regulation, policy and market structure reforms in relation with application specific deployment is still required before any CR-based spectrum access could be implemented for specific broadband mobile applications. Indeed, mobile community is still at an early stage of understanding and development of CR capabilities and it is premature to envisage wide deployment of CRS without careful consideration of regulatory and business issues. Therefore, this paper gives a classification of CR-based network and application scenarios, and investigates the feasibility of them from a regulatory perspective at a global level (ITU-R). Main part of this paper presents the wireless network operator’s approach to CRS specific for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) systems and proposes the radio environment map (REM) concept as a cognitive tool that increases environmental awareness in wireless network operator’s networks. Studies, which the authors performed internally and within the framework of a collaborative European project as well as within ITU-R yield the conclusion that, at shorter term, only intra-operator based CRS maximises the possibility for CR capabilities to be implemented.     

Display rule perceptions and job performance in a Chinese retail firm: The moderating role of employees’ affect at work

This study investigates the relationship between emotional display rule perceptions and job performance. Building on theories of emotional labor and ego-depletion, we cast employees’ positive and negative affective states at work as crucial moderators. Results obtained in a sample of 245 frontline service employees and their 63 immediate supervisors from a retail firm in China demonstrate that display rule perceptions were positively related with task and contextual performance among employees experiencing little positive affective states at work, but not among employees experiencing highly positive affect. Moreover, display rule perceptions were positively associated with one aspect of contextual performance (voluntary learning) among employees with little negative affect, whereas highly negative affect buffered this linkage. Taken together, this study highlights performance consequences of employees’ display rule perceptions and uncovers key boundary conditions for these relationships.     

Policy Implications of the Effects of Concentration and Multimarket Contact in China’s Airline Market

Unlike many other mergers in developed countries, which might have been assessed and their effects estimated by antitrust authorities before being granted antitrust immunity, the airline mergers that swept China’s airline industry in 2002 occurred with no antitrust challenge. These mergers provide the opportunity to study important market power issues in China’s airline markets. Given that increased concentration and multimarket contact are the main legacies of an airline merger, the effects of mergers on these variables can raise the potential for the exercise of market power. However, an examination of the period 2002–2004 during which the Chinese airline mergers occurred shows that the resulting increased concentration and enhanced multimarket contact did not have important consequences for airfares in Chinese city-pair markets. The presence of Hainan Airlines appears to have played an important role in suppressing the airfares charged by China Eastern and China Southern.     

Effects of company visits on Dutch primary school children’s attitudes toward technical professions

Technology-oriented company visits could potentially provide children with a stimulating ‘real-world’ setting to develop more broad and positive images of and attitudes toward technology and technical professions. The present study was the first to explore whether children’s images of and attitudes toward technology, technical competencies and technical professions could be affected by technology-oriented company visits, as they are presently carried out in the Netherlands. A previously validated measurement instrument was used to measure children’s images and attitudes prior to and after the visits and results were compared to similar measurements among children who did not take part in the visits. In addition, based on recent review studies about school visits to science centers, we derived several key theoretical guidelines for organizing effective school visits. Based on these guidelines, structured interviews were carried out with all teachers prior to the company visits. Results indicated that children’s images and attitudes remained mostly unaffected by the company visits, a finding that could be explained by the fact that the level of in-school preparation, follow-up activities and teachers’ level of involvement during the visits was generally low. In addition, observations during the visits showed that the activities at the technical companies were mostly ‘hands-on’ and stereotypical (e.g., working with machines). Based on these findings, we formulate a set of new guidelines for technology-oriented company visits that could improve the desired attitudinal effects.     

Adoption of food safety measures on milk production in Nepal: Impact on smallholders’ farm-gate prices and profitability

One way to ensure food safety is by enhancing compliance at the farm level. This study investigates the status, estimates the cost, identifies the determinants, and assesses the impact of compliance with food safety measures (FSM) in milk production in Nepal. The study is based on primary data collected from six high milk producing districts that captures the geographical and institutional diversity of milk production. Results show that the status of farm level compliance with FSM is not very encouraging. Also, the intensity of adoption of FSM exhibits significant inter- and intra-district variations. It varies positively with herd size but the additional cost of compliance with FSM varies negatively with herd size. Among other determinants, access to information, and incidence of inspection for conformity with safety and quality standards are also associated with higher adoption of FSM. Finally, we also estimate the impact of FSM on farm-gate prices and farmers’ profits and conduct several robustness checks.     

Does agricultural trade liberalization increase risks of supply-side uncertainty?: Effects of productivity shocks and export restrictions on welfare and food supply in Japan

Agriculture is the focus of much contention in free trade negotiations. The Japanese government is against liberalizing the rice trade on the grounds that it would threaten “national food security” in the events of such shocks as crop failure and embargoes. Trade liberalization is expected to make the Japanese economy more dependent upon food imports and, thus, more susceptible to these risks. Using a computable general equilibrium model with a Monte Carlo simulation, we quantify the welfare impacts of productivity shocks and export quotas by major rice exporters to Japan and found little evidence of Japan suffering from such shocks.     

Who Cares about Skills? The Impact and Limits of Statutory Regulation on Qualifications and Skills in Social Care

This article examines the impact of statutory regulation on qualifications and skills in the social care sector in the UK. It draws on various sources and a set of case studies, first carried out in 2003 and replicated in 2008. The analysis shows that the advent of the statutory regime has had a positive effect on the volume of training and qualifications in the sector. However, few organizations have combined training with a broader set of human resource management practices of the kind required for the establishment of a high‐performance work system. This constitutes one of the continuing limits to further skill development. Changes in the regulatory regime risk losing benefits that have been gained.     

A behavioral theory of governments’ ability to make credible commitments to firms: The case of the East Asian paradox

An expansive literature exists linking institutional constraints, credible commitments, and economic growth. Yet, this literature runs into difficulty when it tries to explain the East Asian “paradox:” rapid economic growth achieved by countries with low levels of formal constraints on government discretion. We use a behavioral theory of commitment to argue that the characteristics of the salient actors (governments) and their actions (policies) affect the credibility of their behaviors in ways independent of the structural underpinnings of a country’s political institutions. This behavioral theory of commitment provides a distinct but complementary lens through which to view the apparent paradox presented by these East Asian countries, and more generally provides an alternative theoretical mechanism to explain and predict governments’ ability to credibly signal their commitment to a course of action to investing firms. The success of East Asian countries in encouraging investment from both domestic and foreign firms implies that firms interpret governments’ actions as credible signals of their intention to honor their commitments to firms, consistent with the behavioral theory of commitment.