The Perceived Fairness of Layoffs in Germany: Participation,Compensation, or Avoidance?

This study analyses to what extend and under what circumstances layoffs are accepted in Germany. Principles of distributive justice and rules of procedural justice form the theoretical framework of the analysis. Based on this, hypotheses are generated, which are tested empirically in a telephone survey conducted between East and West Germans in 2004 (n = 3036). The empirical analysis accounts for the different points of views of implicated stakeholders and impartial spectators. Key findings are: (1) The management of a company can increase the acceptance of layoffs if the employees get some participation rights. (2) For impartial spectators generous compensation for those made redundant leads to a higher degree of perceived fairness. But job alliances are not even preferred to layoffs without measures to soften the blow of job loss. (3) Implicated stakeholders accept job alliances and perceive wage cuts as more fair than layoffs. However, compensation does not have the expected impact. Christian Pfeifer is resarch assistant at the Institute of Labour Economics, Leibniz University Hannover.     

供应商角色绩效与经销商感知公平：社会互动及合同的调节作用

文章探讨了由供应商—经销商构成的渠道关系中,供应商角色绩效对经销商感知公平（分配公平和程序公平）的影响及社会互动与合同对上述关系的调节作用,并进一步考察了经销商感知公平对其绩效的影响。实证研究结果显示：供应商角色绩效可以显著地提高经销商对分配公平的感知,但在提高经销商感知程序公平方面作用不显著;社会互动可以强化供应商角色绩效在提高经销商感知公平方面的作用;合同可以强化供应商角色绩效在提高经销商感知分配公平方面的作用,但无法强化供应商角色绩效对经销商感知程序公平的作用;经销商感知的分配公平可以显著地提高其绩效,但感知的程序公平对其绩效无显著影响。研究结论从渠道情境的角度解释了以往实证研究与理论观点不一致的原因,丰富了现有渠道公平的研究,也为供应商如何有效利用其角色绩效以提高经销商的感知公平提供指导意见。     

The Direct and Indirect Effects of Organizational Justice on the Human Factor through Mutual Commitment in Ghana and India: A Comparative Analysis

This study compares the influence of perceived procedural justice, interactional justice, and mutual commitment on the human factor in Ghana and India. The study further compares how mutual commitment mediates the relationship between procedural and interactional justice, and the human factor in the two countries. The findings indicate that the influence of both procedural and interactional justices on mutual commitment in Ghana and India are similar. However, the influence of procedural and interactional justices on the human factor, and the impact of mutual commitment on the human factor in Ghana and India are significantly different. While mutual commitment mediates the relationship between procedural and interactional justice in the two countries, the findings from Ghana is different from that from India. We discuss the implications of our findings.     

契约型农业中收购商管理控制与农户投机行为和绩效：农户感知公平的作用

文章以管理控制理论和渠道公平理论为基础,实证检验了收购商的三种管理控制方式（结果控制、过程控制和能力控制）对农户投机行为和农户绩效的影响,以及农户感知分配公平在此之间的调节作用。研究发现,过程控制和能力控制能抑制农户投机行为,但结果控制作用不显著。同时,三种控制方式都可以提升农户绩效,但作用大小不同。此外,农户感知分配公平削弱了三种管理控制方式对农户绩效的正向影响,也削弱了结果控制和过程控制对农户投机行为的抑制作用。     

江苏省服务业、服务贸易的特征及对策分析

服务业和服务贸易在国民经济中的比重不断上升,在国际经贸领域中日益引起人们的高度重视。江苏作为中国沿海经济大省,国际服务贸易发展速度虽快但总体水平较低,竞争优势不强。本文在对江苏省服务业和国际服务贸易发展现状进行分析的基础上,提出了江苏省发展服务业和国际服务贸易的对策措施。     

Accounting and Medicine: An Exploratory Investigation into Physicians’ Attitudes Toward the Use of Standard Cost-Accounting Methods in Medicine

Research studies demonstrate wide variation in how physicians diagnose and treat patients with similar medical conditions and suggest that at least some of the variation reflects inefficiencies and unnecessary medical costs. Health care researchers are actively examining ways to reduce variations in practice through standardization of medicine to reduce the cost of treatment and ensure the quality of outcomes. The most widely accepted form of this standardization is Evidence Based Best Practices (EBBP). Furthermore, financial health care providers such as hospitals and managed care organizations are investigating methods to tie resource usage to medical protocols in their efforts to monitor and control health care costs. Such proposals are contentious because they report on physicians’ medical practice behaviors (such as the number of tests ordered, use of specific therapies, etc.) and such reports could potentially be used to influence their clinical behaviors. The intent of this exploratory study was to examine physicians’ perceptions about linking a standard costing system to EBBP guidelines. The authors interviewed nine practicing physicians asking each physician to respond to the question, ‘As a physician working in a hospital environment, what are your reactions to and concerns with combining standard costing techniques with EBBP?’ The interviews were in-depth and free form in nature. The physicians’ responses were recorded and analyzed using Grounded Theory Methodology. Using this methodology the field data was categorized into two major themes. The most important theme centered on ethics and the second theme was concerned with the implementation and use of a standard cost system in regard to EBBP. If physicians’ worries about ethical dilemmas and implementation issues are not resolved, then it is likely that doctors would be unwilling to participate in any efforts to develop or use a standard cost-reporting system in medicine. While this study was exploratory in nature, it should provide future guidance to accountants, health care researchers and health care providers about physicians’ issues with the use of standard costing methods in medicine.     

Investigating the Effect of Employee Empathy on Service Loyalty: The Mediating Role of Trust in and Satisfaction with a Service Employee

Abstract

This study examines the indirect effect of employee empathy on service loyalty through the intervening effect of trust in and satisfaction with service employees during service interactions. Data were obtained through a self-administered questionnaire from university students. A total of 410 useable responses were used to perform data analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping for indirect effects were conducted to test the hypotheses. The results show a significant effect of employee empathy on trust in service employee and satisfaction with service employee during customer–employee interactions. Also, satisfaction with a service employee showed a significant effect on service loyalty during service interactions. The study enhances the understanding of empathy within banking services during interactions between service employees and customers. It also provides insights for service managers and frontline service employees on how empathy develops customer’s trust and satisfaction with service employee.     

Exploring Point of Sale Strategies for Improving Seafood Retailing: The Case of the Australian Oyster Industry

The commodification of many food products, combined with increasing market share of supermarkets, has increased the importance of point of sale (POS) strategies in specialty food retailers such as fishmongers. This study seeks to develop strategies to improve the retailing of seafood in fishmongers, specifically oysters, an underutilized species; although they are eaten by many consumers, purchase frequency is low. A literature review identifies the key drivers and barriers to oyster consumption and the information consumers want at POS. Based on these findings, a retailing strategy is developed and tested in two consumer focus groups with results informing revisions to the recommended retail strategy, importantly including a change in collateral from a production focus to a consumption focus. This study contributes to theory and practice by bringing together the existing literature on drivers and barriers and consumer information requirements about oysters to develop and to test practical retail strategy concepts.     

两岸三地服务业国际竞争力比较分析

国际上常用的服务业国际竞争力主要评价指标包括MS(国际市场占有率)、TC(净出口指数)、RCA(显示性比较优势指数)和CA(显示性竞争优势指数)。文章根据联合国贸发会议的基础数据,分别计算、比较了两岸三地服务业的MS、TC、RCA和CA四类指数,并且分行业计算了两岸三地的RCA指数,进而分析了两岸三地服务业各自存在的问题。结论认为:从四类指数的计算结果看,香港在两岸三地中国际竞争力最强;内地服务业尤其是生产性服务业相对比较落后。文章最后探讨了两岸三地服务业的未来合作前景。     

The Role of Private Label Brands in Enhancing Service Satisfaction in the Hotel Industry: Comparing Luxury and Boutique Hotels

ABSTRACT

This research proposes private label branding as a strategy that can have a positive effect on guest satisfaction and loyalty in hotels that cater to travelers seeking a special hotel experience. We test this using a sample of guests in two hotels: a five-star luxury hotel (N = 225) and a boutique hotel (N = 101). Findings show that in the luxury hotel but not the boutique hotel, perception of a private label had a direct impact on loyalty, and an indirect impact on loyalty through its effect on guest satisfaction. The theoretical implications and recommendations for hoteliers based on the findings are discussed.     

Customer Participation and Project Performance: The Mediating Role of Knowledge Sharing in the Chinese Telecommunication Service Industry

Purpose: Extant literature has devoted more attention to customer value co-creation and knowledge sharing, not only in business-to-customer (B2C) markets, but also in business-to-business (B2B) markets. This study explores and examines the antecedents and consequences of customer knowledge sharing in the context of B2B markets by applying the motivation-opportunity-ability (MOA) framework.

Methodology/Approach: This empirical study involves two structured surveys of project managers from both suppliers (n = 213) and customers (n = 312), which were conducted in the context of the Chinese telecommunication service industry. The conceptual model of this study was subsequently tested by developing Partial Least Squares (PLS) based structural equation models.

Findings: It was found that customer knowledge sharing is facilitated by four MOA factors: customer orientation, customer perceived benefits, customer socialization, and customer technological capability. It was determined that knowledge sharing has a direct and significant effect on project performance. Furthermore, the study revealed that such relationships vary across suppliers and customers.

Research Implications: This study extends the existing research stream of interfirm knowledge sharing by examining the antecedents and consequences of customer knowledge sharing from dual perspectives of customers and suppliers, and sheds light on the benefits of customer knowledge sharing. The dyadic perspective embodied in this design facilitates our understanding and management of knowledge sharing between organizations.

Originality/Value/Contribution: This article provides an important contribution to the existing literature of customer knowledge sharing by revealing how to effectively facilitate interorganizational knowledge sharing, particularly knowledge from customers to suppliers, and discovers conditions under which customers are more likely to exchange information, and share knowledge with their suppliers from the dyadic perspective.     

The impact of high-performance work systems in the health-care industry: employee reactions,service quality,customer satisfaction,and customer loyalty

The purpose of this study is to empirically test the effects of high-performance work systems (HPWS) on employee attitude, service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in health-care organisations. The proposed research model was tested using structural equation modelling for hypotheses, based on data collected from 196 pairs of employee–customer respondents in four selected hospitals with more than 500 beds. The results indicate that hospitals can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty through efficient operations, employee engagement, and service quality. One of the key findings of our study is that HPWS in health-care organisations influence employee reaction and service quality.     

The making of the modern retail market: economic theory,business interests and economic policy in the passage of the 1964 Resale Prices Act

This article makes a critical examination of the economic case made for the prohibition of individual resale price maintenance (IRPM) in 1964. The Resale Prices Act had major implications for the future structure of British retailing and was lobbied for by multiple grocery retailers. This article demonstrates how a government enquiry which preceded the legislation privileged one side of the debate and marginalised other – arguably more rigorous – analysis. The article endorses a central role for the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and is a case study of the role of economic theory in business–government relations and the development of economic policy.     

The Decomposition of the Corporate Body: What Kant Cannot Contribute to Business Ethics

Kant is gaining popularity in business ethics because the categorical imperative rules out actions such as deceptive advertising and exploitative working conditions, both of which treat people merely as means to an end. However, those who apply Kant in this way often hold businesses themselves morally accountable, and this conception of collective responsibility contradicts the kind of moral agency that underlies Kant’s ethics. A business has neither inclinations nor the capacity to reason, so it lacks the conditions necessary for constraint by the moral law. Instead, corporate policies ought to be understood as analogous to legal constraints. They may encourage or discourage certain actions, but they cannot determine a person’s maxim – which for Kant is the focus of moral judgment. Because there is no collective intention apart from any intentions of the individual agents who act as members of the corporation, an organization itself has no moral obligations. This poses a dilemma: either apply the categorical imperative to the actions of particular businesspeople and surrender the notion of collective responsibility, or apply a different moral theory to the actions of businesses themselves. Given the diffusion of responsibility in a bureaucracy, the explanatory usefulness of collective responsibility may force business ethicists to abandon Kant’s moral philosophy.     

The role of intermediate demand and technology for international competitiveness of the KIBS sector: evidence from European Union countries

In this paper, it is tested whether intermediate consumption of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) in the economy and technology advancement in the KIBS sector (measured by R&D expenditures) affect the international competitiveness of a country's KIBS sector. First, the definition of KIBS trade, in light of the available data from the balance of payments statistics, is presented. Then, using a panel data set from the EU countries over the period 2000–2009, a panel cointegration approach to estimating the model is adopted. The empirical study shows that among the old EU countries only those with high income are competitive in KIBS exports. Estimation results demonstrate that their competitiveness in KIBS exports is positively determined by domestic and imported KIBS intensity in the economy, as well as by the KIBS sector's technology advancement. The new EU countries usually were not competitive in KIBS exports, and those which were successful in this field seem to have derived their success mainly from international outsourcing rather than from building their own capacities. Their competitiveness in KIBS exports was positively determined by the KIBS sector's endowment in human capital, or via domestic KIBS intensity in the economy together with lower labour costs.     

The impact of service quality and marketing on financial performance in the hospital industry: an empirical examination

Service quality and service marketing have both been studied extensively in relation to service organizations. In this paper we examine these areas simultaneously in terms of their impact on financial performance in the hospital industry. Drawing from the literature in the quality and service marketing areas, the area of service quality is represented in terms of the constructs of quality context and quality outcomes. Quality context (QC) describes the environment related to quality practices within a hospital which generally encourages and enhances service quality while quality outcomes (QO) comprises of specific clinical and patient satisfaction outcomes of the hospital. The area of marketing is represented in terms of the constructs of marketing orientation and market/product development outcomes. Market orientation (MO) is a well accepted, albeit complex, construct within the marketing literature. Generally, market orientation can be thought of as the process of effectively collecting, disseminating, and responding to information in order to enhance the marketing function within the hospital. Such information generally relates to market trends, customers, and competitors. Market/product development outcomes (MPD) refer to specific outcomes in relation to product innovation and market segmentation that are general indicators of the marketing effectiveness of the hospital. Although the evidence in the literature suggests that both service quality and marketing are independently related to organizational performance, the precise nature of the relationships among the variables described above is not clearly understood.Based on theoretical considerations, we propose a framework linking the above-mentioned constructs to the financial performance (FP) of an organization. Since QC and MO are theorized to be multidimensional constructs we use the technique of structural equations modeling (SEM) to test the model. Data were collected for the study from hospitals in a five-state region in the US. The results show that the constructs related to both service quality and marketing impact on financial performance. However, the results do not support the proposed framework of relationships. Instead, the results support a sequential chain of relationships among the constructs where MO mediates the effect of QC on QO, and MPD mediates the effect of QO on FP. Implications of these results for the hospital industry as well as for future research in the area are offered.     

Strengthening the Leadership of Rites and Ceremonies for Reconciliation and Truth: The Case of Socorro Mosquera,Manager and Human Rights Defender in Colombia

This article proposes a tool to strengthen the leadership of rites and ceremonies for reconciliation and truth, using a multidisciplinary approach and bringing together political topics (reconciliation and truth), anthropological concepts (rites and ceremonies), and management sciences issues (leadership) in a special urban context that requires reconciliation and truth after a long, irregular war with multiple violations of human rights. After formulation of the research problem, we were able to relate reconciliation and truth with leadership, rites, and ceremonies. Once so related, we analyzed the historical evolution of rites and ceremonies, with special emphasis on the organizational context, to finally propose a tool to strengthen the leadership of rites and ceremonies for reconciliation and truth. The utility of this tool was confirmed in the case of Socorro Mosquera, a manager and human rights defender in Medellín, Colombia. The eclectic and integrative approach brings originality to the study, while the methodological application of mixed approaches increases its value.     

The contingent influence of organizational capabilities on proactive environmental strategy in the service sector: An analysis of North American and European ski resorts

Our study of 134 North American and European ski resorts examines the influence of externally focused organizational capabilities on the generation of proactive environmental strategies under contingent effects of uncertainty in the general business environment. We find that the capabilities of strategic proactivity and continuous innovation are associated with proactive environmental strategies. Managerial perceptions of uncertainty in the general business environment moderate the deployment of the capability of continuous innovation at all levels of uncertainty and stakeholder engagement at low and average levels of uncertainty. The study contributes to the resource‐based view (RBV) by illuminating an important contingency under which capabilities are likely to be deployed to generate a proactive corporate strategy. Copyright © 2007 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.