Understanding Personal Web Usage in Organizations

Personal web usage, that is, non-work-related use of the Internet for personal purposes during work hours, is a pervasive behavior observed in the daily work environment. U.S. companies have implemented several countermeasures to cope with personal Web usage, but those measures have not successfully mitigated this behavior. Considering the significance of personal Web usage, we need to understand why personal Web usage is not alleviated in current organizations. The goal of this study is to present an empirical investigation of why employees continue personal Web usage based on an extended theory of planned behavior. We are particularly interested in how people's perceptions of moral dimensions contribute to personal Web usage, recognizing that our work environment becomes more Web-embedded. We conducted a field survey of 426 U.S. business professionals and analyzed the data by using partial least squares. As a result, we demonstrate that an individual's attitude, subjective norm, denial of responsibility, self-efficacy, personal computer availability, seclusion of office, and workload are significant factors affecting personal Web usage. Interestingly, current organizational preventive efforts (e.g., Web-based activity monitoring and filtering systems and policies) and moral obligation are not as significant as we originally expected. Key implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Reputation and product tampering in service industries

This theoretical paper aims to identify the role of trust and reputation between consumers and firms when there is product tampering or other types of product liability. When product tampering occurs, trust implicitly built towards brand or corporation by consumers or customers can be dissipated. This article assesses the impact of quality uncertainty and measurement costs on the trust relationship between consumers and corporations. The ideas are also applied to the case of bank runs. Preliminary findings indicate that in cases where the trust between consumer and firms is strong, and there are high measurement costs and uncertainty, the reputational relationship between customers and firms can experience strong repercussions.     

Some Reflections on U.S. Treaty Commitments

Abstract

The world oil price has risen significantly since the late 1990s and reached a record high in 2008. The recent oil price hike raises concerns regarding the possible negative effects of the rising oil price on the economy as in the 1970s. We investigate the effects of the oil price hike on the Korean economy using a Bayesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DGSE) model. We explicitly model the small open economy nature of the Korean economy and its oil usage and estimate the constructed model within a unified Bayesian framework. We also examine possible changes in the effects of world oil shocks on the Korean economy using counterfactual simulations. We find the adverse effects of world oil shocks as well as their importance in Korean business cycles have diminished due to reductions in the relative usage of crude oil in the economy, while world oil shocks themselves have changed relatively little over time.     

Employee emotional response toward healthcare organization’s service recovery efforts and its influences on service recovery performance

Previous studies on service recovery performance of frontline employees have focused primarily on the direct relationship with the organizational efforts for service recovery. However, based on the reformulation of attitude theory (appraisal-emotional response-behaviour), we believe that the emotional responses (work engagement and burnout) toward organizational efforts for service recovery of frontline employees mediate the relationship. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine how healthcare frontline employees show their emotional response toward the organizational efforts for service recovery and it influence on actual recovery performance. This study uses two conflicting emotional responses, burnout and work engagement, to examine how employees react toward organizational efforts, helping better understand employees?? evaluations of the efforts. Research model and hypothesis were tested using a sample of frontline employees who perform none-clinical activities in hospitals. The results showed that teamwork and empowerment have positive effects on work engagement. In addition, customer complaint management, empowerment, and teamwork influenced negatively on burnout. Lastly, work engagement and burnout showed statistically significant impact of service recovery performance of frontline employees. Among the organizational efforts for service recovery, teamwork was the most important factor in improving frontline employees?? work engagement and lessened their burnout, respectively. Interestingly, customer service training had a negative effect on burnout. Besides, by comparing our research model to two alternative models, we confirmed the validity of the research model.     

Imparting negative news to salespeople

Sales managers often are required to give negative information to their sales personnel. Perhaps the salespeople's territories will be reduced, their compensation or expense program decreased, or their positions realigned or eliminated. Although extensive research has examined delivering negative news to sales personnel, no empirical work has yet explored how that inimical information should be disseminated to sales subordinates. Scholars in organizational psychology argue that providing adverse news to employees using interpersonal sensitivity is advantageous for both the individual and the organization. To date, though, this issue has not been investigated in a selling context. Therefore, this article reports the results of an exploratory study that investigated factors that influence whether sales managers provide negative communication to salespeople in an interpersonally sensitive fashion. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A Taxonomy of Industries Based on Knowledge Flow Structure

With the advent of the knowledge-based economy, the inter-industrial flow of technological knowledge is reckoned as the principal determinant of national competitiveness. The mode of knowledge flows, however, is intractably complex. Taking it as a network, this paper aims at providing an inductive taxonomy of industries based on the knowledge flow structure and thus identifying the user-supplier relationship among industries in terms of knowledge diffusion. Some proxy indexes are developed first to measure the knowledge flows, then the interactive mechanism among industries is investigated by the network analysis and eventually a taxonomy of industries is presented according to the characteristics of respective industries. The taxonomic approach highlights the importance of inter-industrial knowledge management system that facilitates knowledge flows across industries based on the idiosyncratic features of respective industries.     

Astroturfing Global Warming: It Isn’t Always Greener on the Other Side of the Fence

Astroturf organizations are fake grassroots organizations usually sponsored by large corporations to support any arguments or claims in their favor, or to challenge and deny those against them. They constitute the corporate version of grassroots social movements. Serious ethical and societal concerns underline this astroturfing practice, especially if corporations are successful in influencing public opinion by undertaking a social movement approach. This study is motivated by this particular issue and examines the effectiveness of astroturf organizations in the global warming context, wherein large corporate polluters have an incentive to set up astroturf organizations to undermine the importance of human activities in climate change. We conduct an experiment to determine whether astroturf organizations have an impact on the level of user certainty about the causes of global warming. Results show that people who used astroturf websites became more uncertain about the causes of global warming and humans’ role in the phenomenon than people who used grassroots websites. Astroturf organizations are hence successful in promoting business interests over environmental protection. In addition to the multiple business ethics issues it raises, astroturfing poses a significant threat to the legitimacy of the grassroots movement.     

Mature consumers’ patronage motives and the importance of attributes regarding HMR based on the food-related lifestyles of the upper middle class

The objectives of this study are to explore the food-related lifestyle segments of the mature market, to identify its socio-demographic characteristics, and to investigate the differences in their attitudes toward Home Meal Replacement (HMR). A survey was conducted of adults 55 years of age and older living in Seoul, South Korea. Out of the 600 distributed questionnaires, 361 were retained for final analysis, which is a response rate of 60%. Cluster analysis identified five consumer segments. Significant differences were found among the five segments in terms of socio-demographic characteristics and attitudes toward HMR. This study shows operators of HMR the patronage motives and attributes that each segment values when considering HMR.     

Unequal effects of elders’ health problems on wealth depletion across race and ethnicity

We investigate the impact of health on wealth depletion of African American, Hispanic, and non‐Hispanic white elders. Using the data from 4,464 elderly households that participated in both the 1993 Asset and Health Dynamics of the Oldest Old and the 1998 Health and Retirement Study, we find that health problems contribute to wealth depletion differently across elders in different racial and ethnic groups. We draw policy implications from the findings regarding ways to help consumers protect their financial security from health shocks in later life.     

Hotel Employees' Perception of Green Practices

This study examined how hotel employees perceive green practices. Data was collected from 220 employees working in eight green certified hotels in Orlando, Florida. Study results from an importance–performance analysis revealed that the surveyed employees rated their hotels' performance in green practices lower than the importance levels. A positive correlation was found between the employees' organizational commitment and their perception on the company's green practices. The relationship between the respondents' key demographic characteristics and their perception of green practices was also investigated. Lastly, implications for hotels are discussed to assist the companies to promote and train green practices among their employees.