Adaptive Performance: A New Scale to Measure Individual Performance in Organizations

As a component of overall employee performance, adaptive performance refers to the ability of an individual to change his or her behaviour to meet the demands of a new environment. The concept is relevant to firms that face especially complex and volatile business conditions. Research and practice have been hampered by a general lack of a widely available, psychometrically sound, multidimensional scale of adaptive performance that is applicable across a wide range of job contexts. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, we develop and evaluate a 19‐item scale measuring five dimensions of adaptive performance. Copyright © 2012 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Firm Resources and Corporate Venturing Investment

Corporate venturing (CV) in which established firms invest in new entrepreneurial businesses involves identifying opportunities and creating new combinations of resources to seize opportunities. Moving beyond literature that has focused predominantly on the consequences of CV, we adopt a resource‐based view to examine how knowledge‐based and organizational‐slack resources relate to the level of firm CV. The implications of the findings for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2011 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Job Classification for the Purpose of Making Optimal Decisions Concerning Management Control

The job classification literature has been dominated by a micro‐level orientation reflective of the needs of specialists in human resources. In contrast, we take a multidisciplinary approach involving both micro‐ and macro‐level variables to propose a relatively simple system comprised of four job classes. Our model isintended to inform management as to the type and mix of controls (e.g., centralization, formalization, and various human resources policies) that could be applied to different job types to optimally promote the overall goals of the organization. Fuzzy numbers analysis is employed to illustrate the application of the system using four jobs in a car dealership in Spain. Copyright © 2012 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relinking Cross‐functional Collaboration,Knowledge Integration Mechanisms,and Product Innovation Performance: a Moderated Mediation Model

Previous research shows that knowledge integration mechanisms (KIMs) mediate the cross‐functional collaboration‐product innovation performance relationship; however, this mediating effect seems to be rather weak. This study, in contrast, develops a moderated mediation (MOME) model to argue that such a mediating effect is moderated by product innovativeness. A sample comprised of 106 manufacturing firms is utilized in the analyses. A moderated‐mediation approach shows that the mediating effect of KIMs in the linkage between cross‐functional collaboration and product innovation performance varies by different perspectives of product innovativeness. From an industry (macro‐level) perspective, product innovativeness positively moderates the mediating effect of KIMs on product innovation performance; in contrast, such a moderating effect is not significant under a firm (micro‐level) perspective. Copyright © 2011 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Poverty and unemployment: A cultural approach

For years, policymakers, business leaders, human resources professionals, and economists have attempted to explain the existence of unemployment. Unemployment inhibits the economic growth of a nation and contributes to the problem of ongoing poverty, which cannot be lessened without that growth. Understanding the causes of unemployment and developing policies and programs to decrease it are vitally important for nations around the world, but one key variable in the study of unemployment has been overlooked. That variable is culture. This article will show that culture can significantly explain cross‐national differences in unemployment rates and offers a link to understanding the global problem of poverty that plagues nations today. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The relationship between cultural values and learning preference: the impact of acculturation experiences upon East Asians

Globalization and technology advancement are creating more biculturalism at workplaces and learning settings. However, little is known about acculturation experience and its influence on a person's cultural values and learning preference. The research reported in this study investigates the impact of acculturation experiences upon the relationship between cultural values and learning preference of 292 Far East Asians (from Confucian‐influenced societies) and Asian Americans. Different preferences for learning methods and different levels of traditional cultural values were found between these two groups of adult learners. Acculturation experience was identified as the influential factor for the differences. However, they all still retain their traditional cultural values in various degrees regardless of the length of time the individual had been exposed to the acculturation experience. The impact of cultural values on an adult's learning preference is an area of concern in cross‐cultural training and development.     

Adolescents' body‐tanning behaviours: influences of gender,body mass index,sociocultural attitudes towards appearance and body satisfaction

The goal of this study was to identify and examine the various factors affecting adolescents' body‐tanning behaviours. Gender, body mass index (BMI), sociocultural attitudes towards appearance (SATA) and body satisfaction were examined in order to determine how these variables influence both outdoor sun‐tanning and indoor tanning‐bed use. Self‐administered survey data were collected from 155 adolescent boys and 202 adolescent girls with an average age of 14.3. Multivariate analysis of variance and multiple regression methods were used to analyse the data. Adolescent girls tended to engage in both outdoor and indoor tanning. Overall, adolescents' SATA significantly affected their body‐tanning behaviours. However, BMI and body satisfaction revealed a significant effect only on indoor tanning behaviour. Implications for the design of interventions and overall health promotion towards adolescents are discussed with suggestions for future research.     

The individual dual needs for assimilation and distinctiveness as a segmentation mechanism: developing the concept among students

The present study proposes that the individual's needs for assimilation and distinctiveness serve as a valuable mechanism for consumer segmentation and suggests that augmenting the List of Values with these dual needs enriches the understanding of consumer responses to marketing strategies. Results of a study using a sample of 536 students in an Israeli university identified five segments with significantly different needs for assimilation and differentiation. These segments showed different preferences for marketing communications and distribution channels in their purchasing decision of a cell phone. Mass media and website usage influenced segments marked by high assimilation, while word of mouth influenced segments characterized by high distinctiveness. Augmenting the List of Values with dual needs based segmentation moderated students’ tendencies to favour/dislike marketing communications and distribution channels.     

An overview of Asian equity markets

This study overviews the development of 11 Asian equity markets, namely, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. Prior to the onset of the global financial crisis, the Asian stock exchanges were generally bullish, underpinned particularly by China's robust economic performance. Innovations in financial products and services have been growing in importance, as stock exchanges in these countries have been making a concerted effort to introduce new features and best practices, with the objectives of raising market efficiency, enhancing service quality, and generally bringing operations up to par with international standards. But the potential to realize or support market efficiency can only be possible within an adequate legal framework, a sound market infrastructure, and appropriate corporate governance mechanisms. Thus, many challenges are still to be overcome in the region.