Business Commons^™

An Investigation Into Consumers' Repeated Attempts At Behavior Change, Courtney Droms

Courtney M. Droms

Recent research has shown that individuals make repeated attempts at behavior change prior to actually being successful. As consumer researchers, however, we do not have a clear understanding of how people interpret behavior change failures and persist post-failure. This research extends the theory of trying by assessing the impact of feedback from behavior change outcomes to future attitudes towards trying. In order to understand how individuals interpret and persist post-failure at behavior change, the conceptual model identifies three mediating factors in the feedback loop (i.e., attributions of behavior change failures, self-esteem, and hope) that are affected by a behavioral change …

Satisfaction With Airline Service Quality: Familiarity Breeds Contempt, Tamilla Curtis, Dawna Rhoades, Blaise Waguespack

Dr. Tamilla Curtis

The objective of this study is to investigate frequency-of-flight issues and the differences between frequent and non-frequent flyers’ levels of satisfaction and the importance attributed to overall airline service quality and select attributes. The results indicate that the level of satisfaction with overall airline quality and select attributes decrease the more passengers fly. Conversely, the level of importance attributed to airline amenities increased with flight frequency. Perceptions of airline quality may vary between different nationalities and different socioeconomic groups. Differences between the short- and long-haul flights, as well as domestic and international services could also exist. Airline managers need to …

Regional Jet Aircraft Competitiveness: Challenges And Opportunities, Tamilla Curtis, Dawna Rhoades, Blaise Waguespack

Dr. Tamilla Curtis

The regional jet aircraft is a unique market niche. Particularly suitable for providing capacity in the 30 to 90 seat range, these jets are often used to connect smaller airports to network carrier hubs, as well as to fill in during slow periods. The market is currently dominated by two manufacturers: Brazil's Embraer and Canada's Bombardier. Due to the nature of the global aircraft industry, Embraer and Bombardier are largely dependent on the international sale of their aircraft for steady revenue streams. Orders and deliveries of aircraft with fewer than 100 seats have grown rapidly over the past ten years. …

Corporate Brand Management In Higher Education: The Case Of Erau, Tamilla Curtis, Russell Abratt, William Minor

Dr. Tamilla Curtis

There is evidence in the literature that organizations struggle to formulate and implement their corporate branding strategies. This paper aims to provide an overview of the corporate brand building process in higher education. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative methodology was used in this study. A single case study of a private American university was used to gather information about their corporate brand building process. University administrators and documents were used to gain insights into their brand building process. Findings – The corporate brand building process addressed three key areas; web administration, program marketing and corporate brand positioning. The corporate brand building …

An Empirical Investigation Of Voluntary Non-Ifrs Earnings Reporting During The Recent Financial Crisis : Australian Evidence, Elisabeth Sinnewe

Dr Elisabeth Sinnewe

This study examines how the financial crisis affected the reporting choice of and market reaction to earnings that are different from the profit firms report on their income statement under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). These non-IFRS earnings reflect management’s subjective of view of earnings. By observing management’s reporting choices and investors’ reaction in Australia prior to, during, and after the financial crisis, this study shows a distinctive effect of the economic condition on reporting non-IFRS earnings. As such, this study contributes to the limited attention hypothesis suggesting that information-equivalent disclosure is perceived as value relevant by management and investors …

Narcissism In Organizational Contexts, W. Keith Campbell, Brian Hoffman, Stacy Campbell, Gaia Marchisio

Gaia Marchisio

The literature on narcissism in organizational contexts is reviewed. We begin by describing the context of narcissism and several relevant theoretical approaches to understanding it. We next describe research on narcissism in a range of organizational topics, from leadership to meta-organizational issues. We conclude by highlighting several reoccurring themes involving the role of narcissism in organizational contexts, with an emphasis on articulating directions for future research.

The Neighborhood Cancer Center, Gregory R. Harper Md, Phd, Debbie Salas-Lopez Md, Mph, Keith J. Weinhold Mha, Elliot J. Sussman Md, Mba

Debbie Salas-Lopez MD, MPH

No abstract provided.

Hotel Guest E-Questionnaires: Implications For Feedback And Relationships, Alfred Ogle, Nadine Henley, Michelle Rowe, Sybe Jongeling, Stephen Fanning

Alfred Ogle

This paper examines the reliability and efficacy of hotel guest e-mail questionnaire compared to the paper questionnaire in the Asian Pacific context. Conducted inPerth,SingaporeandPenang, cities with mature hospitality and tourism industries and a representation of chain and independent deluxe hotels, this exploratory qualitative study examines hotelier views of e-mail guest communication derived from content analysis of guest questionnaires format and content and in-depth interviews with senior hoteliers. The findings indicated that e-questionnaires manifested as e-mails, as a direct replacement of the paper questionnaire, appear to be premature given divergent hotelier views and shortcomings in e-mail response administration. If properly executed, …

How To Successfully Harness The Power Of Partners With The Ecosystem Advantage, Arnoud De Meyer

Arnoud De Meyer

In a recent research published by Professor Arnoud De Meyer, President and Professor at the Singapore Management University and Professor Peter Williamson, who is a Professor of International Management at Judge Business School at Cambridge, they described six keys to unlocking the ecosystem advantage. These are pinpointing where value is created; defining an architecture of differentiated partner roles; stimulating complementary partner investments, reducing the transaction costs, facilitating joint learning across the network; and engineering effective ways to capture profit.

But what does all this mean to companies especially since customers today are increasingly demanding complex, integrated solutions rather than standardised …

‘Campus Connect’: An Infosys Program To Develop India’S Information Technology Ecosystem, Arnoud De Meyer, Peter Williamson, Havovi Joshi, Christopher Dula

Arnoud De Meyer

This case is set in April 2013, and discusses the key elements that have contributed to the success of Infosys Ltd’s Campus Connect Program (CC) in developing India’s IT talent over the past eight years. The CC programme had been developed by Infosys in response to a growing belief among India’s IT industry majors that the large number of fresh graduates they were looking to recruit from engineering colleges were neither readily employable nor sufficiently industry-ready. The programme was envisaged to address this problem through an industry-academia initiative that would architect the education experience of engineering students. The goal was …

Rolls-Royce In Singapore: Harnessing The Power Of The Ecosystem To Drive Growth, Arnoud De Meyer, Peter Williamson, Havovi Joshi, Christopher Dula

Arnoud De Meyer

This case is set in April 2013, and discusses the key elements that have contributed to the successful operations of the Rolls-Royce Singapore Seletar Campus. The new facility has clearly succeeded in its objective to develop a talent ecosystem of engineering excellence, which would be a key factor in enabling the Group to significantly increase in size as the decade progresses. In 2006, Rolls-Royce had decided to expand its production capacity and set up operations outside the UK to meet growing customer demands and future growth. Asia was the Group’s largest and fastest growing market, with almost half of their …

Developing Soft Skills To Manage User Expectations In It Projects: Knowledge Reuse Among It Project Managers, Stacie Petter, Adriane Randolph

Adriane B. Randolph

This research explores information technology (IT) project managers' reuse of knowledge associated with soft skills when managing user expectations. Through interviews with IT project managers, several themes emerged: novelty of problems, conditions within the organization, types of available knowledge, and methods for reusing knowledge. Within this study, we discovered the need for additional research on how social norms and organizational conditions encourage or inhibit knowledge reuse. Furthermore, we identified a difference in the usefulness of knowledge captured in formal repositories according to levels of project management experience. The findings confirm, extend, and illuminate the current research associated with knowledge reuse …

Effective Corporate Monitoring: Independence, Motivation And Means, Lyndal Drennan, Simone Kelly, Ray Mcnamara, Michelle Martin

Ray McNamara

A feature of the literature on the role of Boards of Directors is the mixed and contradictory findings. This research used continuous listing compliance as a measure of Board performance. A matched pairs design was employed, using governance data on 30 board attributes for firms listed on the Australian Stock Exchange from 1992 to 2000. Factor analysis was used to identify constructs associated with Board composition and firm performance. Discriminant analysis confirmed that the resultant model of performance was a significant predictor of firms’ ability to maintain continuous listing compliance. Neither the independence nor assembled knowledge variables were separately significant. …

An Exploratory Study Of The Performance Of Microfinancing Institutions Using The Balanced Scorecard Approach, Gemunu Nanayakkara, Errol Iselin

Errol Iselin

More than 3,000 microfinancing institutions (MFIs) in developing countries provide financial assistance to the needy poor who are denied access to institutional credit from other sources. This study’s motivation comes from the importance of MFIs and the lack of knowledge about them. Adopting the balanced scorecard (BSC) model, this exploratory study investigates the critical performance measures that MFIs need to emphasize in their performance reporting to drive high performance. The study first argues that four dimensions (sustainability, increasing the outreach, depth of outreach, and portfolio at risk) are needed to measure the performance of MFIs, and then analyzes the impact …

Effective Corporate Monitoring: Independence, Motivation And Means, Lyndal Drennan, Simone Kelly, Ray Mcnamara, Michelle Martin

Simone Kelly

A feature of the literature on the role of Boards of Directors is the mixed and contradictory findings. This research used continuous listing compliance as a measure of Board performance. A matched pairs design was employed, using governance data on 30 board attributes for firms listed on the Australian Stock Exchange from 1992 to 2000. Factor analysis was used to identify constructs associated with Board composition and firm performance. Discriminant analysis confirmed that the resultant model of performance was a significant predictor of firms’ ability to maintain continuous listing compliance. Neither the independence nor assembled knowledge variables were separately significant. …

Family Business Wealth And Knowledge Transfer, Justin Craig, Keith Duncan, Frank Barbera, Manuel Eberhard, Marina Skinner

Justin B. Craig

“Knowledge transfer is the key to successful wealth transfer” After years of creating the building blocks to understand family businesses within the greater community, BDO has partnered with The Australian Centre for Family Business (ACFB) and Bond University to undertake an Australian-first report to understand the dynamics of wealth and knowledge transfer, and identify the key trends and issues that will enhance successful transitions within private businesses. This report examines the wealth and knowledge transfer intentions of 320 respondent businesses, the majority of which classified themselves as family businesses. This report will provide an insight into issues such as family-first …

A Diagnosis Of Inherent Problems In Implementing Internal Marketing In Macau And Singapore Casino Companies, Sudhir Kale, Sangita De, Mark Spence

Mark Spence

With spectacular growth in demand since opening the market to foreign competition, executives within the Macau casino industry seem to have focused their attention to enhancing capacity and opening new casino properties. Meanwhile, the Singapore casino market is expected to overshadow that of Las Vegas in the very near future. Despite such optimistic prognosis, the long-term scenario for the casino industry in both jurisdictions could spell trouble. It seems most casino operations in major Asian markets have not devoted adequate thought to their service culture and internal marketing strategy. With overall capacity in Asia slated to increase significantly in the …

Trade Liberalisation, Economic Crises And Growth, Rodney Falvey, Neil Foster, David Greenaway

Rodney Falvey

Many economic reforms are undertaken at a time of economic crisis. But is this a good time for a country to undertake trade reform? In this paper we investigate whether an economic crisis at the time of trade liberalisation affects a country’s subsequent growth performance. We employ threshold regression techniques on five crisis indicators commonly used in the literature, to identify the relevant “crisis values” and to estimate the differential postliberalisation growth effects in the crisis and non-crisis regimes. We find that the magnitude of the acceleration in postliberalisation growth depends on the characteristics of the crisis. Although trade liberalisation …

Determinants Of Voluntary Board Remuneration Committee Formation And Composition, Pamela Kent, Kim Kercher, James Routledge

James Routledge

This study provides evidence on factors that determine the voluntary adoption of corporate governance recommendations regarding remuneration committees in 2008. The findings indicate that remuneration committee existence is significantly associated with insider share ownership, institutional shareholding and change in CEO. Composition of the committee is significantly explained by independent directors and complexity measured by geographical segments (marginally). Other variables controlled for are growth opportunities, free cash flow, asset turnover, size, governance quality, debt levels, age and the presence of a big four auditor.

Sentosa (B): Creating A Platform For Integrated Customer Engagement, Jason Woodard, Kevin Sproule

C. Jason Woodard

This case is the second part of a three-part series on the Sentosa Leisure Group based in Singapore. The three cases focus on: Case (A) – Marketing / Analytics Case (B) – IT solution design Case (C) – Long-term strategy Sentosa (B): After helping Sentosa define their business model in the A case, the focus shifts to developing an integrated information technology system to enable business growth while working with existing the constraints of existing infrastructure. The goal is to have an IT platform that would provide a total customer experience ranging from tickets to personalised offers. The second case …

Sentosa (A): Asia’S Favourite Playground, Jason Woodard, Kevin Sproule

C. Jason Woodard

This case is the first part of a three-part series on the Sentosa Leisure Group based in Singapore. The three cases focus on: Case (A) – Marketing / Analytics Case (B) – IT solution design Case (C) – Long-term strategy Sentosa (A): This case starts as Esther Wong, deputy director of solutions technology is tasked with boosting local attendance to Sentosa, the resort island near the heart of Singapore. The island had done well in attracting foreign visitors, and management saw the next challenge to be attracting locals to the island, who often saw it as expensive and difficult to …

Sentosa (C): Advancing Sentosa’S Strategy Through Integrated Customer Engagement, Jason Woodard, Kevin Sproule

C. Jason Woodard

This case is the third part of a three-part series on the Sentosa Leisure Group based in Singapore. The three cases focus on: Case (A) – Marketing / Analytics Case (B) – IT solution design Case (C) – Long-term strategy Sentosa (C): After successfully answering the ‘big’ questions like how to drive Sentosa’s core revenue and designing a new IT platform, students are asked to tie it all together. How can their learning be used to chart a strategy for the Sentosa Leisure Group? How can they realise the aggressive revenue and profit goals set forward by the board? In …

Innova Technology (B): Growing The Business For Anti-Loss Devices, Desai Narasimhalu, Sarita Mathur

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

This case is the second part of a two-part series on Innova Technology, a technology start-up company based in Singapore. The two cases focus on: Case (A) – Developing, producing and marketing a product innovation Case (B) – Growth strategies and its related challenges for a young technology company The case is set in November 2012, two months after the launch of PROTAG, a new anti-loss device developed by Rick Tan and his partner, Jonathan Lim. Tan is the chief executive officer of Innova Technology Private Limited, the company that manufactures and sells PROTAG. After a highly successful product launch, …

Innova Technology (A): Seeking A Market For Anti-Loss Devices, Desai Narasimhalu, Sarita Mathur, Adina Wanjun Wong

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

This case is the first part of a two-part series on Innova Technology, a technology start-up company based in Singapore. The two cases focus on: Case (A) – Developing, producing and marketing a product innovation Case (B) – Growth strategies for a young technology company The case is set in May 2012, and begins with the protagonist, Rick Tan, chief executive officer of Innova Technology Private Limited, contemplating what his company’s go-to-market strategy should be. Tan and his business partner, Jonathan Lim, who is also the Chief Technology Officer for Innova Technology, developed PROTAG, a new anti-loss device, using Bluetooth …

Quantine: Virtualising The Interview Process, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu, Adina Wong

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

The case is set in January 2012, and begins with Kenneth Yap, the founder of Quantine Pte Ltd, strategising on an effective growth plan for his company. Quantine was a job candidate pre-screening service provider, which specialised in asynchronous video interviews. In the three years since its inception, market forces and internal factors had necessitated a change in its original corporate strategy. The business had started out in 2009, focusing on competency assessments for testing technical skills for the information technology industry. It also provided aptitude tests for companies to assess candidate qualities such as numerical skills and the ability …

Americans Can Learn To Live With A Sky Full Of Drones, Koray Özpolat, Resit Sendag

Koray Özpolat

Skynet, the evil super-computer of the Terminator movies, becomes self-aware, computes an existential threat from humanity and launches a nuclear attack on the enemy. To eradicate humans, Skynet builds terminator robots and hunter-killer drones.

While Terminator fans are looking forward to seeing the next stage of the war against machines (due to be released next year), many Americans are concerned that actual attacks on their privacy and safety will soon be coming from the sky — through unmanned aerial vehicles, a.k.a. “drones.”

Popular coverage of drones tends to play into this theme, whether it’s a politician shooting down a drone …

Transformational Leadership In China: The Role Of Trust And Harmony, Wai Kwan (Elaine) Lau

Wai Kwan (Elaine) Lau

Transformational leadership attracted a significant amount of scholarly attention in the past few decades. This study is designed to develop an effective transformational leadership model that works in the Chinese context. A model is proposed to clarify the mediating effects of trust and harmony on the relationship between transformational leadership and its effectiveness. The model provides a new perspective on leadership in the Chinese context that is ignored in the Western leadership literature. It also offers a clearer understanding of how best transformational leadership practice combines with traditional Chinese wisdom to do a better job in accounting for the leader-follower …

The Role Of Organizational Learning Capabilities In Strategic Alliances, Wai Lau

Wai Kwan (Elaine) Lau

Recent studies on strategic alliance show great interest on how firms develop alliance capabilities to achieve alliance success. This study examines the relationship between organizational learning capabilities and alliance performance. The concept of organizational learning capabilities in this study is developed comprising training availability, technical expertise, and alliance experience. It proposes that a greater alliance learning capability is positively related to alliance goal achievement. The research further investigates how the inter- and intra-firm mechanism, the average level of technical expertise and alliance experience, and the gap of technical expertise and alliance experience between the partners impact alliance objectives.

The Reality Of Management Development In Smes, Alan Coetzer, Martina Battisti, Tanya Jurado, Claire Massey

Alan Coetzer

The literature suggests that improving the management skills of owner-managers of SMEs contributes to their survival and growth and that there is considerable scope for further improvement in skills. However, evidence suggests that current support for management development (MD) does not meet the needs of SMEs. Nevertheless, there have been few changes on the supply side with policy makers continuously being concerned about low take-up of training.This study contributes to an understanding of how existing MD activities in SMEs can be better supported. Using Mumford's (1987) typology of MD activities to classify our interview data, findings from interviews with 25 …

Employee Learning Processes In New Zealand Small Manufacturing Firms, Alan Coetzer, Raja Peter, Vasanthi Peter

Alan Coetzer

We investigate differences between the ways novices and experienced specialists perceive their workplaces as learning environments and also examine differences between the learning processes of these two groups of employees. The study’s research questions are explored by applying discriminant analysis to survey data collected from 218 employees in 31 New Zealand small manufacturing firms. We found that novices and experienced specialists do differ significantly in their perceptions of (1) work-environment conditions that either help or hinder learning, (2) supervisors’ proximate support for learning, and (3) satisfaction with workplace learning. We also found that novices and experienced specialists do differ significantly …