A contemporary justice perspective on dual ladders for R&D professionals

Research and development (R&D) professionals play a key role in companies' innovation performance. Whereas prior research has indicated the potential benefits of dual ladder career systems to retain and motivate R&D professionals, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the design properties of dual ladders that facilitate such positive effects. The purpose of this study is to address this research gap by exploring how organizations can design dual ladders to enhance R&D professionals' organizational commitment and career satisfaction. Drawing on contemporary justice theory, we point to two factors integral for the successful application of dual ladders: the perceived equality of the technical ladder and the transparency of the dual ladder. These factors are related to R&D professionals' organizational commitment and career satisfaction. Furthermore, this study investigates whether these relationships are moderated by R&D professionals' age and self‐directedness in career management as well as firm size. The hypotheses are tested in a cross‐level study with 9 heads of R&D departments, 32 human resource managers, and 382 R&D professionals from 32 organizations. Based on the analyses, this study finds positive relationships between the perceived equality and the transparency of the dual ladder with R&D professionals' organizational commitment and career satisfaction. In addition, the findings show that the effects of the perceived equality of the technical ladder on R&D professionals' career satisfaction are weaker at high levels of self‐directed career management. The study contributes by developing theory on the consequences of dual ladders' design properties and moderating influences thereon. Thus, this research has implications for the literature on innovation management by expanding the knowledge on the interplay between career management and the human side of innovation.     

The Effect of Personal and Virtual Word‐of‐Mouth on Technology Acceptance

This paper extends the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to incorporate the impact of personal and virtual word‐of‐mouth (pWOM and vWOM). The authors hypothesize that both types of word‐of‐mouth will be positively related with consumer perceptions of innovation usefulness and perceived ease of use. In addition, the authors examine two competing hypotheses regarding the relative impact of pWOM and vWOM on perceptions of innovation attributes. One hypothesis argues that potential adopters place more weight on pWOM sources because they perceive relatively more similarity between themselves and pWOM sources. The alternative hypothesis argues that potential adopters place more weight on vWOM sources because those sources (relative to pWOM sources) expose potential adopters to a wider variety of information and a larger number of experts. Finally, the authors argue that symbolic product usage will enhance the relationship between word‐of‐mouth and consumer perceptions of innovation attributes. These hypotheses are tested using data collected in Japan from over 600 potential adopters of Blu‐ray DVD recorders and smart phones. Findings indicate that, in both product categories, pWOM and vWOM are positively and significantly related with perceived ease of use. Moreover, in both samples pWOM is positively and significantly related with perceived usefulness, while vWOM is significantly related with perceived usefulness only in the smart phone sample. With regard to the relative impact of pWOM and vWOM on perceptions of innovation attributes, results indicate that vWOM has a larger impact on potential adopter perceptions of ease of use. Finally, the estimated model provides support for the hypothesis that symbolic consumption increases the impact of word‐of‐mouth on perceptions of innovation attributes. In particular, findings indicate that the impact of pWOM on perceptions of innovation usefulness is higher among potential adopters of smart phones than among potential adopters of Blu‐ray DVD recorders. Similarly, the impact of vWOM on perceptions of ease of use is higher among potential smart phone adopters than among potential adopters of Blu‐ray DVD recorders.     

Real Estate Investment Perception: A Multidimensional Analysis

Investor perceptions are critical to the selection of investment media. It is the perceived level of those attributes the investor considers important that determines the similarity or dissimilarity of alternative investment media. This study investigates investment perception by developing a geometrical representation of the perceptual space of a subject group for alternative investment media using multidimensional scaling techniques. The dimensions most salient to differences in perception are then analyzed. A four dimensional configuration is considered the best. Risk and return are important, but not simple, dimensions. Risk requires two dimensions, corresponding to different concepts of risk, to be adequately explained. Return occupies only one dimension, but the concept incorporates both monetary and non-monetary returns. Real estate is perceived as possessing high returns and moderate risk.     

How to become a top business-to-business marketing scholar

Leading academics in business-to-business marketing were asked to reflect on their careers and to provide advice for doctoral students and early-career academics. Contributors responded to four broad, open-ended questions on this subject: what worked for them in their careers, what did not work, what were the dilemmas they encountered, and what overall advice would they give to junior researchers starting their academic career. This editorial distills the comments and reflections of the contributors into a collective wisdom, organized around the four interview questions, which combine to form a rich set of guidelines for early-career academics.     

Incorporating Network Externalities into the Technology Acceptance Model*

Research on network externalities has identified a number of product categories in which the market performance of an innovation (e.g., unit sales and revenues) is an increasing function of that innovation's installed base and the availability of complementary products. Innovation scholars have attributed these findings to the positive impact of network externality variables on consumer perceptions of innovation attributes. This paper provides the first empirical examination of these perceptual linkages by extending the Technology Acceptance Model to include consumer perceptions of network externality variables. The authors hypothesize that, when direct and indirect network externalities exist, consumer purchase intentions and consumer perceptions of an innovation's usefulness and ease of use will positively reflect perceptions of installed base size and the availability of complementary products. To test this reasoning, the authors developed new measures of consumer perceptions of network externality variables. These measures were incorporated into a survey that explored the attitudes in Japan of potential adopters toward digital music (DM) players at an early stage in the product life cycle. Findings reveal a direct positive relationship between ease of use and the perceived availability of digital music. The authors also find positive and significant relationships between both purchase intention and perceived usefulness and (1) the perceived size of the DM player installed base and (2) the perceived availability of digital music. An application of the Baron‐Kenny test for mediating variables reveals that (1) ease of use partially mediates the relationship between the perceived availability of digital music and perceived usefulness and (2) perceived usefulness partially mediates the relationship between the perceived availability of digital music and purchase intention. The research has important implications for future research on new product adoption and for the management of innovations that involve network externalities. The conceptual model provides a framework for testing alternative explanations of observed variations in the impact of network externalities within and across product categories. The empirical analysis provides guidance for managers who wish to manage the impact of network externalities on adoption. In addition to stimulating the size of the installed base and the variety of complementary products, executives must also manage consumer awareness of network externality variables and consumer understanding of the relationship between those variables and innovation attributes. Finally, traditional adoption models link consumer adoption decisions to perceptions of innovation attributes. The findings provided here imply that predictive accuracy of these models can be improved by including consumer perceptions of network externality variables.     

Mobility norms,risk aversion,and career satisfaction of Chinese employees

Drawing on Turner’s (American Sociological Review, 25:855–867, 1960) framework of contest and sponsored mobility norms, this study investigated factors that affect employees’ career satisfaction in the Chinese setting. Using two organization-referenced variables, procedural justice and perceived organizational support (POS), to represent contest mobility norm and sponsored mobility norm, we evaluated their effects on career satisfaction. We also explored the moderating role of risk aversion on these relationships. Several hypotheses were developed and tested on a sample of 239 employees working in a foreign-invested enterprise in China. The results of regression analysis showed that procedural justice and POS contributed to career satisfaction in a cumulative manner. Further, among the risk-averse employees, the relationship between POS and career satisfaction was stronger.     

Career orientation of secondary school students (m/f) in the Netherlands

In this paper, a new perspective is developed to promote a positive relationship between young people and technology. An in-depth study of the values young Dutch secondary school students feel are essential in their future profession was made. Following organisational psychologist Edgar Schein, we distinguish career anchors, each with their own core value. These core values show that differences between young people are considerable and explain why it is often so difficult to get grip on the decisive factors in the choice of a career. Although all girls have to deal with the masculine image of technology, they are not a homogenuous group as they pursue different values. Many of the anchors can be fullfilled by following study and career path in technology. However, current careers in technology are insufficiently associated with values such as creativity, service, autonomy and entrepeneurial. The educational system has been emphasizing the functional, expert anchor, but is gradually changing and preparing for the rise of the creative society that has been described by the economist Richard Florida. In contrast with Schein, we show that career anchors can already be indentified in secondary school students and added a new anchor identity.     

Marketing executives' perceptions of equitable salary increases

Employees' perceptions of fair and equitable salary increases is the subject of this article. Factors hypothesized to be the major determinants of the “perceived amount of pay that should be received” in Lawler's model of pay satisfaction are employed as predictor variables in a multiple regression equation context to explain the observed variation in executives' perceptions of fair and equitable salary increases. A national sample of industrial marketing executives were surveyed. A significant relationship was observed between employees perceptions of fair and equitable salary increases and a number of perceived personal job input and job demands related variables, current salary and wage history, and perceived non-monetary outcomes which are theorized in Lawler's model to be among the major determinants of the perceived amount of pay that should be received.     

The Impact of Innovative Culture on Individual Employees: The Moderating Role of Market Information Sharing

Current innovation literature provides a very limited understanding of the potential impacts of innovative culture on employees. Building on resource‐based view theory, the authors investigate theoretically and empirically how a perceived innovative culture can be a building block for a firm's competitive resource and advantage by creating superior employee‐level outcomes and how a market information‐sharing process may moderate these effects. The authors identify three distinct types of individual‐level outcomes stemming from an innovative culture. The three outcome variables—job satisfaction, organizational dynamism perception, and firm performance perception—reflect employees’ psychological and cognitive reactions to the process of creating organizational innovation and innovative culture. The authors collect survey data from 3960 individual employees in China. Their findings first show that a perceived innovative culture significantly and positively affects employees’ job satisfaction and perceptions of organizational dynamism and firm performance. Moreover, organizational dynamism perception plays an important mediating role among three employee‐level outcomes by converting job satisfaction into firm performance perception. The authors also find support for the direct, positive effect of a perceived market information‐sharing process on job satisfaction but not on perceptions of organizational dynamism and firm performance. Most importantly, their findings on the significant moderating role of a market information‐sharing system contribute to innovation theory by emphasizing the importance of the innovation/marketing interface: bundling market information sharing and innovative culture together enhances employees’ positive attitudes and perceptions. This result also suggests that examining only the direct effects of innovative culture and market information sharing may lead to incorrect conclusions as to how to manage the cultural infusion process: the market information‐sharing process shows only a weak effect on job satisfaction and no effect on perceptions of organizational dynamism or firm performance. Organizational designs should ensure simultaneous consideration of both variables in the cultural transformation process to enhance employees’ derived benefits in the process of creating an innovative culture. We offer a new insight: a perceived market information‐sharing process may strengthen the effect of an innovative culture on employees’ job satisfaction and organizational dynamism perception, while it may weaken the effect of an innovative culture on firm performance perception. This more nuanced view of market information sharing in the cultural infusion process presents new wisdom and calls for further studies in entrepreneurial innovation.     

Hellenic women managers in the telecommunications sector: living in transition

This paper reports a research study into the career experiences and perspectives of a sample of women managers in the telecommunications industry in Greece. The study was conducted from a social constructionist perspective, seeking to explore how social and cultural factors affect the managers' perceptions. Tensions are explored between the research participants' relative satisfaction with their career progress and their limited representation at the senior management levels. The strength of cultural expectations on Hellenic women to marry is noted.
(The authors are the primary researcher and her research supervisor, respectively.)     

Effects of team inputs and intrateam processes on perceptions of team viability and member satisfaction in nascent ventures

A new venture team is a particular type of top management team neglected by the literature. This study investigated the effects of team inputs and processes on team members' perceptions of team viability and satisfaction in nascent ventures. These outcomes are important as they may be antecedents of team perseverance. The study of 51 new venture teams showed that the presence of a distinct leader was positively related to team satisfaction, while member diversity in educational backgrounds was positively related to perceived team viability. Intrateam processes of social integration and open communication were positively related to both perceived team viability and member satisfaction. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing industrial buyers' perceptions of quality and their effects on satisfaction

Identifying and measuring the dimensions of perceived quality and their influence on customer satisfaction are important aspects of a firm's quality management efforts. In this study, we develop and test a framework for assessing the perceptions held by industrial buyers from different functional areas (e.g., engineering, purchasing) and the link between those perceptions and customer satisfaction. A procedure for identifying the dimensions of quality and using them to target the industrial marketer's quality improvements is discussed, and the results of testing this methodology are presented. The results suggest that a potentially unique set of quality factors can be used to assess each vendor and that these factors vary across functional area.     

More communication is not always better? The interplay between effective communication and interpersonal conflict in influencing satisfaction

Effective communication on a personal level plays an important role in developing a long-term buyer–seller relationship, but the process of interpersonal communication may be conflictual. Drawing on the interaction approach, the present study investigates the interplay between effective communication and interpersonal conflict in influencing satisfaction and argues that a high level of effective communication not only diminishes the negative impact of relationship conflict on satisfaction, but also suppresses the positive impact of task conflict on satisfaction. Surveying data from 298 procurement professionals revealed that as the level of effective communication increases, the negative impacts of relationship conflict on satisfaction decrease, but the positive impacts of task conflict on satisfaction also decrease. Therefore, effective communication is found to be beneficial for improving purchasers' perceived satisfaction, but the timing of the task conflict, along with the low levels of relationship conflict, is a critical factor to affect the efficiency of effective communication.     

Engineering and technology students’ perceptions of courses

As cultural, social, political and economic changes take place, the secondary or high school curriculum should reflect and respond to changing needs and aspirations of students. Technology Education has been proactive in this arena as it has transformed over the decades to meet ever-changing societal needs. The most recent change to the discipline has been to add engineering and, as a result, adopting a new name and curriculum-Engineering and Technology Education. The added component and name change in Technology Education is causing discussions about what the new direction means, what professional preparation changes will be incurred, and what work graduating students will be prepared to do. In light of these changes, this study investigated perceptions of high school students in the United States of America about engineering and technology courses they take. To investigate whether students’ perceptions are in accord with current changes in Engineering and Technology Education, 316 students enrolled in engineering and technology courses in Georgia schools that have an affiliation with the Georgia Engineering and Technology Education Association (GETEA) were surveyed. According to data analyses, students’ perceptions can be divided into two factors. Educational Value of Course (factor 1) was extracted from statements measuring the degree to which the courses prepare students for employment and provide them with information regarding future employment. Personal Relevance of Course (factor 2) was derived from statements measuring students’ perceptions about links between engineering and technology education and their personal lives. Such findings suggest these students valued their engineering and technology courses, planned to continue their education, made good grades, and had varied types of career expectations for jobs such as design engineers and architects.     

A rolling stone gathers no moss: the effect of customers' perceived business model innovativeness on customer value co‐creation behavior and customer satisfaction in the service sector

Both researchers and practitioners have been focusing extensively on business model innovation, as it has shown to positively influence business performance. Although the effect of business model innovativeness on customer behavior might be an important mediator between business model innovation and business performance, it has not yet been analyzed. In line with recent calls to consider the customer side in business model innovation research, our paper addresses this problem by studying the influence of customers' perceived business model innovativeness (CPBMI) on customer satisfaction and customer value co‐creation behavior in the service sector. We, therefore, emphasize customers' perceptions and reactions to business model changes. Relying on data from a large‐scale survey of restaurant customers, we find that perceived value creation innovativeness and value proposition innovativeness positively affect customer satisfaction and customer value co‐creation behavior. In addition, we identify a significant indirect effect of CPBMI on customer satisfaction via customer value co‐creation behavior. Our findings allow deriving concrete implications for both researchers and practitioners.     

Sales management control and job performance

A national firm's salespeoples' perceptions of their management control system were related to their performance and satisfaction. Salespeople who perceived job goal clarity, control over their work, and job rewards as being based upon performance were found to be relatively higher performers and better satisfied with their job.     

Demand for ecolabeled seafood in the Japanese market: A conjoint analysis of the impact of information and interaction with other labels

The use of seafood ecolabels is expanding in the world marketplace, but so are labels indicating other product attributes, such as country of origin and wild vs. farmed. The interactive effects of these labels and attributes in evaluating consumers’ preferences for ecolabeled seafood are relatively unexplored. In this paper we investigate (1) the direct and interactive effects of seafood ecolabels with other common fish labels, and (2) how consumers’ perceptions about the state of marine stocks and the valuation of ecolabels may be affected by different information. We find moderate interactive effects between ecolabels and country of origin labels, whereas the valuation for seafood ecolabels is fairly high. In terms of information, we find that consumers’ perceptions about fish stock levels changed (negatively) after receiving information on declining stock levels, and more sensationalized information led to increased change. However, valuation for a seafood ecolabel increases only when the information was perceived positively (credible/interesting); whereas exaggerated information (which was also perceived less credible) had insignificant effects on WTP.     

Perceptions of organizational context and job attitudes: The mediating effect of organizational identification

Informed by social exchange theory and social identity theory, we developed a conceptual model that examines the mediating role of organizational identification in the relationship between employees’ perceptions of organizational context and their job attitudes. In our model, the antecedents include perceived organizational support (POS), procedural justice, and perceived job insecurity. The outcome variables consist of affective organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and intentions to leave. Our respondents were 591 workers employed in three different firms in China. The results of regression analyses showed that employees’ job attitudes are affected by their perceptions of organizational context and organizational identification. Further, organizational identification was found to mediate the effects of POS on the outcome variables.     

员工留职意愿研究——职业及工作满意度视角

本文通过实证研究探讨员工留职意愿的影响因素,具体分析了职业满意度、工作满意度及留职意愿之间的关系。研究采用问卷调查方式获得数据并进行分析,结果表明:员工的职业满意度和工作满意度是不同的两个变量,二者之间存在显著的正相关关系。职业满意度及工作满意度均和留职意愿存在显著的正相关关系,工作满意度对留职意愿具有正向预测作用。     

The Impact of Word of Mouth Sources on the Perceived Usefulness of an Innovation

This paper examines the role of three indirect mechanisms linking word‐of‐mouth communication with one of the most important innovation attributes influencing the adoption decision: perceived usefulness. The authors hypothesize that word‐of‐mouth (WOM) communication impacts perceived usefulness by influencing potential adopter perceptions of the credibility of innovation information, the size of the adopter population, and the availability of complementary products. To test these hypotheses, the authors analyze the survey responses of over 550 potential adopters of e‐readers and smartphones. In both product samples, the perceived credibility of WOM information is positively related with perceived usefulness, which is positively related with purchase intent. Consistent with theoretical arguments regarding the importance of access to expert information sources, findings indicate that, relative to personal WOM, written and virtual WOM have stronger relationships with consumer perceptions of the credibility of innovation information. In addition, in both samples, perceived usefulness is positively related with the perceived availability of complementary products, which is positively related with both personal and written word‐of‐mouth. Finally, perceived usefulness has (1) a direct relationship with the perceived size of the local adopter population in the e‐reader sample and (2) an indirect relationship with the same variable that is mediated by the perceived availability of complementary products in both samples. In turn, the perceived size of the local adopter population is positively related with exposure to personal word‐of‐mouth.