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Managers Need (managers + need)
Selected AbstractsInformation Gathering and Changes in Threat and Opportunity Perceptions*JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 3 2007Marc H. Anderson abstract Managers need to make sense of emerging strategic issues that could significantly impact their businesses. While models of this sensemaking process suggest that information gathering affects interpretations (which affect action and performance), researchers have argued that our understanding of the role of information in changing interpretations is underdeveloped. This paper investigates the role of the time managers spend searching for information and the diversity of the information they find in changing managers' perceptions that an equivocal, strategic issue represents a threat and opportunity for their businesses. The methodology involves a longitudinal research design in which managers recorded multiple, process-oriented measures of their information gathering activity. Results suggest that time spent searching for information leads to changes towards seeing the issue as more of a threat, while the diversity of information found leads to changes towards seeing it as less of a threat. We found no effect of information gathering on opportunity perceptions. [source] Managing and leading the infection prevention initiativeJOURNAL OF NURSING MANAGEMENT, Issue 6 2007CAROL PELLOWE BA Hons Aim, To review the national response to health care-associated infection and that of nurses in particular. Background, Health care-associated infections have emerged as a significant threat to quality care and preventing it is now a national priority. Evaluation, This paper considers the key government initiatives to address health care-associated infection. Key issues, The government has adopted a multifaceted approach to tackle this problem, the most crucial of which was to develop the evidence base to support practice. Now that is established, education and training have become the next priority. Conclusion, While health care-associated infection remains a government priority, trusts will find it difficult to meet the demands of the Code of Practice and fulfil other government priorities. Implications for nursing management, Managers need to be aware of the extent of the problem, its causes and the initiatives both nationally and locally to address the situation so that they can maintain support for these initiatives. [source] Generational attitudes of rural mental health nursesAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 2 2009Andrew Crowther Abstract Objective:,To determine how attitudes of rural mental health nurses differ across generations. Design:,Survey. Setting:,Mental health services in rural New South Wales. Participants:,Practising mental health nurses. Main outcome measures:,Survey responses. Results:,Survey response rate 44%. A total of 89 mental health nurses, clustered in inpatient units and community health centres, responded. Of these nurses, 4 were veterans, 52 baby boomers, 17 Generation X and 5 Generation Y. Conclusions:,There are significant differences in how mental health nurses from different generations view their work, and in what is expected from managers. Managers need to modify traditional working styles, allowing greater flexibility of employment. They must also accept lower staff retention rates, and facilitate the development of younger staff. [source] Individual, Population, Community, and Ecosystem Consequences of a Fish Invader in New Zealand StreamsCONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 1 2003Colin R. Townsend But because invaders can have unexpected indirect effects in food webs, invasion ecologists need to integrate processes at the population level and other ecological levels. I describe a series of coordinated studies in New Zealand streams that address the effect of an exotic fish on individual behavior, population, community, and ecosystem patterns. Such case studies are important as an aid to the formulation of policy about invasions that are especially likely to become problematic. At the individual level, grazing invertebrates showed changes in behavior as a result of the introduction of brown trout ( Salmo trutta), a predator that exerts a very different selection pressure than do native fish. At the population level, trout have replaced nonmigratory galaxiid fish in some streams but not others, and have affected the distributions of crayfish and other large invertebrates. At the community level, trout have suppressed grazing pressure from invertebrates and are thus responsible for enhancing algal biomass and changing algal species composition. Finally, at the ecosystem level, essentially all annual production of invertebrates is consumed by trout ( but not by galaxiids), and algal primary productivity is six times higher in a trout stream. This leads, in turn, to an increased flux of nutrients from the water to the benthic community. The trout invasion has led to strong top-down control of community structure and ecosystem functioning via its effects on individual behavior and population distribution and abundance. Particular physiological, behavioral, and demographic traits of invaders can lead to profound ecosystem consequences that managers need to take into account. Resumen: Para desarrollar procedimientos y políticas de manejo efectivos a menudo será necesario conocer la biología de la población de especies invasoras. Sin embargo, debido a que los invasores pueden tener efectos indirectos inesperados en las redes alimenticias, ecólogos de invasión necesitan integrar procesos en la población y otros niveles ecológicos. Describo una serie de estudios coordinados en arroyos de Nueva Zelanda que enfocan el impacto de un pez exótico sobre los patrones de comportamiento individual, de la población, la comunidad y el ecosistema. Tales estudios de caso son importantes como un auxiliar para la formulación de políticas sobre invasiones que pueden ser especialmente problemáticas. Al nivel individual, los invertebrados que pastorean mostraron cambios de conducta como resultado de la introducción de la trucha café ( Salmo trutta), un depredador que ejerce una presión de selección muy diferente a la de los peces nativos. En el nivel de población, las truchas han reemplazado a peces galaxídos no migratorios en algunos arroyos pero no en otros y han afectado las distribuciones de cangrejos de río y otros invertebrados mayores. Al nivel de comunidad, las truchas han suprimido la presión de pastoreo por invertebrados y por lo tanto son responsables del incremento de la biomasa de algas y del cambio en la composición de especies de algas. Finalmente, a nivel de ecosistema, la producción anual de invertebrados esencialmente es consumida por las truchas ( pero no por galaxídos), y la productividad primaria de algas es seis veces mayor en arroyos con truchas. A su vez, esto conduce a incrementos en el flujo de nutrientes del agua hacia la comunidad béntica. La invasión de truchas ha conducido a un fuerte control de arriba hacia abajo de la estructura de la comunidad y del funcionamiento del ecosistema por medio de sus efectos sobre la conducta individual y la distribución y abundancia de la población. Las características fisiológicas, de conducta y demográficas particulares de los invasores pueden llevar a consecuencias profundas en los ecosistemas que los administradores necesitan tomar en consideración. [source] The implications of meta-qualities for HR rolesHUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue 4 2004Finian Buckley A great deal has been written about the types of competencies that HR managers need. However, there is little known about how these might be acquired and which ones prove most valuable in carrying out HR tasks. This article provides insights into this issue from a study carried out in Ireland. The study examined HR managers' perceptions of the ways in which their competencies changed over the timespan of a management education process and the ways that they utilised these competencies within their work situations. The study suggests that the acquisition and development of ,meta-qualities'(Pedler et al, 1994) can be important to HR professionals in managing the complexity and ambiguity in their roles. [source] In difficult times: influences of attitudes and expectations on training and redeployment opportunities in a hospital contraction programmeINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2002Jeff Hyman This article explores reasons behind the low take,up of training and redeployment opportunities in a three,year downsizing programme in a National Health Service (NHS) mental health hospital. It examines these from an interpretive paradigm, identifying social,psychological effects on barriers and motivation to training and redeployment. In reporting factors that inhibit the movement of staff from the hospital the findings indicate that the direction of even a well,planned and positively intentioned programme can be confounded by the responses of employees faced with an uncertain future. When drawing up restructuring programmes involving retraining and redeployment, managers need to take into account the anticipated profound reactions of those affected. [source] Perceptions of internal marketing and organizational commitment by nursesJOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 1 2009Ching Sheng Chang Abstract Title.,Perceptions of internal marketing and organizational commitment by nurses. Aim., This paper is a report of a study to determine whether a favourable perception of internal marketing is associated with increased organizational commitment. Background., The role of nurses in healthcare treatment is expanding, and becoming more important as time progresses. Therefore, the primary concern of business of health care is to use internal marketing strategies effectively to enhance and develop nurses' organizational commitment and reduce turnover to promote competitive advantages for the organization. Methods., A cross-sectional design was used. Questionnaires were distributed in 2006 to a convenience sample of 450 Registered Nurses in two teaching hospitals in Taiwan, and 318 questionnaires were returned. Eighteen were excluded because of incomplete answers, which left 300 usable questionnaires (response rate 66·7%). Validity and reliability testing of the questionnaire proved satisfactory and Structural Equation Modeling was used to analyse the data. Results., A favourable perception of internal marketing was associated with increased organizational commitment. Communication management had the greatest influence on organizational commitment and external activity had the smallest impact. Conclusion., Hospital managers need to recognize the importance of internal marketing for staff retention and the survival of their organizations as competitive pressure increases. As a great deal of time and costs are involved in educating nurses, the best way to retain outstanding nurses and reduce turnover costs and personnel problems is for employers to understand the needs and expectations of their nursing staff. [source] The restoration of ecological interactions: plant,pollinator networks on ancient and restored heathlandsJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 3 2008Mikael Lytzau Forup Summary 1Attempts to restore damaged ecosystems usually emphasize structural aspects of biodiversity, such as species richness and abundance. An alternative is to emphasize functional aspects, such as patterns of interaction between species. Pollination is a ubiquitous interaction between plants and animals. Patterns in plant,pollinator interactions can be analysed with a food web or complex-systems approach and comparing pollination webs between restored and reference sites can be used to test whether ecological restoration has taken place. 2Using an ecological network approach, we compared plant,pollinator interactions on four pairs of restored and ancient heathlands 11 and 14 years following initiation of restoration management. We used the network data to test whether visitation by pollinators had been restored and we calculated pollinator importance indices for each insect species on the eight sites. Finally, we compared the robustness of the restored and ancient networks to species loss. 3Plant and pollinator communities were established successfully on the restored sites. There was little evidence of movement of pollinators from ancient sites onto adjacent restored sites, although paired sites correlated in pollinator species richness in both years. There was little insect species overlap within each heathland between 2001 and 2004. 4A few widespread insect species dominated the communities and were the main pollinators. The most important pollinators were typically honeybees (Apis mellifera), species of bumblebee (Bombus spp.) and one hoverfly species (Episyrphus balteatus). The interaction networks were significantly less complex on restored heathlands, in terms of connectance values, although in 2004 the low values might reflect the negative relationship between connectance and species richness. Finally, there was a trend of restored networks being more susceptible to perturbation than ancient networks, although this needs to be interpreted with caution. 5Synthesis and applications. Ecological networks provide a powerful tool for assessing the outcome of restoration programmes. Our results indicate that heathland restoration does not have to occur immediately adjacent to ancient heathland for functional pollinator communities to be established. Moreover, in terms of restoring pollinator interactions, heathland managers need only be concerned with the most common insect species. Our focus on pollination demonstrates how a key ecological service can serve as a yardstick for judging restoration success. [source] Can management compensate for atmospheric nutrient deposition in heathland ecosystems?JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2006WERNER HÄRDTLE Summary 1Atmospheric nutrient deposition has contributed to widespread changes in heathlands throughout Europe. As a consequence, management is now being considered as a potential tool with which to compensate for increased nutrient loads. Currently, only limited information is available on the extent to which management measures could compensate for atmospheric nutrient deposition. We hypothesized that low-intensity management measures are not sufficient to counterbalance current nutrient inputs, particularly of nitrogen (N). 2In order to improve heathland management schemes, we evaluated the effectiveness of different management measures in reducing the impact of ongoing atmospheric nutrient loads. We compared the effects of mowing, prescribed burning (low-intensity management) and sod-cutting (high-intensity management) on heathland nutrient budgets [N, calcium (Ca), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg) and phosphorus (P)] in the Lueneburg Heath nature reserve (north-west Germany). Nutrient balances were calculated by analysing the present-day input, the output as a result of the removal of biomass/humus horizons, and changes in leaching rates. 3Nutrient losses by increased leaching following management measures were negligible compared with nutrient losses caused by the removal of above-ground biomass or humus horizons. The total quantities of nutrients removed by sod-cutting were equivalent to between 37 and 176 years of atmospheric input (for N, 89 years). 4In contrast, the quantities of N removed by mowing and prescribed burning were equivalent to only 5 years of atmospheric input. Thus, heathlands subjected to such treatments will accumulate N in the long term. In addition, output,input ratios for phosphorus (P) exceeded those for N in the mowing and sod-cutting experiments. It is therefore likely that heathlands currently (co-) limited by N will shift to being more P-limited in the long term. This will promote species that are well adapted to P-limited sites (e.g. Molinia caerulea). 5Synthesis and applications. This study shows that low-intensity management cannot compensate for atmospheric N loads in the long term. Consequently, high-intensity management measures are an indispensable tool in preserving a long-term balanced N budget in heathlands. In order to maintain a diverse structure, managers need to combine low- and high-intensity management measures. Prescribed burning proved to be the best means of avoiding an increasing P shortage, because this measure causes very low P outputs. [source] Protecting your firm from FX riskJOURNAL OF CORPORATE ACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 6 2008Michael Ehrlich Recent oil-price hikes are hurting U.S. businesses. But Europe seems protected,perhaps by the rising value of the euro against the U.S. dollar. So U.S.-based managers need to compensate for the falling value of the dollar when planning their business strategies. How can U.S. managers protect their companies from rising foreign exchange (FX) risks? The authors offer some vital tools and strategies,and discuss what perils the future may hold. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Understanding the essential elements of work-based learning and its relevance to everyday clinical practiceJOURNAL OF NURSING MANAGEMENT, Issue 6 2010BSc (Hons) Nurse Practitioner, CAROLINE WILLIAMS RN, Dip N, MSc (Nursing), PGCE (FE), PGCert (Facilitation & life-long learning) williams c. (2010) Journal of Nursing Management 18, 624,632 Understanding the essential elements of work-based learning and its relevance to everyday clinical practice Aim, To critically review the work-based learning literature and explore the implications of the findings for the development of work-based learning programmes. Background, With NHS budgets under increasing pressure, and challenges to the impact of classroom-based learning on patient outcomes, work-based learning is likely to come under increased scrutiny as a potential solution. Evidence from higher education institutions suggests that work-based learning can improve practice, but in many cases it is perceived as little more than on-the-job training to perform tasks. Evaluation, The CINAHL database was searched using the keywords work-based learning, work-place learning and practice-based learning. Those articles that had a focus on post-registration nursing were selected and critically reviewed. Key issues, Using the review of the literature, three key issues were explored. Work-based learning has the potential to change practice. Learning how to learn and critical reflection are key features. For effective work-based learning nurses need to take control of their own learning, receive support to critically reflect on their practice and be empowered to make changes to that practice. Conclusions, A critical review of the literature has identified essential considerations for the implementation of work-based learning. A change in culture from classroom to work-based learning requires careful planning and consideration of learning cultures. Implications for nursing management, To enable effective work-based learning, nurse managers need to develop a learning culture in their workplace. They should ensure that skilled facilitation is provided to support staff with critical reflection and effecting changes in practice. Contribution to New Knowledge, This paper has identified three key issues that need to be considered in the development of work-based learning programmes. [source] Improving patient safety: an economic perspective on the role of nursesJOURNAL OF NURSING MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2009REBECCA N. WARBURTON PhD Aims, This paper synthesises patient safety research and insights from economic theory to generate guidance for nurse managers. The paper describes the key roles nurses and nurse managers can play in improving patient safety, and explains how insights from health economics can help inform and enhance this role, helping nurse managers to set priorities for improvement and for future research. Background, Awareness of the need to improve patient safety is high, but insufficient attention has been paid to the cost-effectiveness of safety improvements, leading to difficulty in setting priorities. This paper suggests specific methods that nurses can and should use to prioritize and evaluate safety improvements. Evaluation, This is a review article, synthesising the results of research on patient safety. Key issues, Because of their close connection to patients, nurses (and nurse managers in particular) have key roles to play in improving patient safety. Improving patient safety will also benefit nurses and other practitioners directly, because caregivers suffer lasting distress from being involved in incidents that harm patients. Reducing harmful incidents should also reduce attrition and alleviate chronic staffing shortages. Insights from health economics can help nurse managers to set priorities for improvement and to more effectively evaluate the changes made. Conclusions, Evidence on the costs and effects of most safety improvements is still lacking. Nurses can and should take a leadership role in implementing changes and evaluating their costs and effects. Implications for nursing management, To lead improvements in patient safety, nurse managers need to learn to use the Plan-Do-Study-Act Improvement Cycle, and need to develop an awareness of and ability to measure the costs and effects of changes. These changes would allow nurse managers to better make the business case for patient safety. [source] Nursing Best Practice Guidelines: reflecting on the obscene rise of the voidJOURNAL OF NURSING MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2008DAVE HOLMES PhD Aim(s), Drawing on the work of Jean Baudrillard and Michel Foucault, the purpose of this article is to critique the evidence-based movement [and its derivatives , Nursing Best Practice Guidelines (NBPGs)] in vogue in all spheres of nursing. Background, NBPGs and their correlate institutions, such as the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) and ,spotlight' hospitals, impede critical thinking on the part of nurses, and ultimately evacuate the social, political and ethical responsibilities that ought to distinguish the nursing profession. Evaluation, We contend that the entire NBPG movement is based on the illusion of scientific truth and a promise of ethical care that cannot be delivered in reality. We took as a case study the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO), in the province of Ontario, Canada. Key issues, NBPGs, along with the evidence-based movement upon which they are based, are a dangerous technology by which healthcare organizations seek to discipline, govern and regulate nursing work. Conclusion(s), Despite the remarkable institutional promotion of ,ready-made' and ,ready-to-use' guidelines, we demonstrate how the RNAO deploys BPGs as part of an ideological agenda that is scientifically, socially, politically and ethically unsound. Implications for nursing management, Collaborations between health care organizations and professional organizations can become problematic when the latter dictate nursing conduct in such a way that critical thinking is impeded. We believe that nurse managers need to understand that the evidence-based movement is the target of well-deserved critiques. These critiques should also be considered before implementing so-called ,Nursing Best Practice Guidelines' in health care milieux. [source] Negative affectivity as a moderator of the form and magnitude of the relationship between felt accountability and job tensionJOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, Issue 5 2005Wayne A. Hochwarter The present research examined the influence of negative affectivity (NA) on the form of the felt accountability,job tension relationship. It was hypothesized that the nonlinear relationship between felt accountability and job tension would surface only for individuals low in NA, whereas the association between these constructs would be positive and linear for individuals high in NA. Data from two studies (N,=,198; N,=,118) provided support for the hypothesis. These results have important implications for science and practice. Conceptually, this study contributes to the stress, accountability, and personality literatures by demonstrating that accountability can positively or negatively predict tension, and that this association is dependent upon affective disposition. Practically, managers need to be cognizant of the fact that increases in accountability are not always associated with favorable attitudes when managing employees. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] MARSH DEVELOPMENT AT RESTORATION SITES ON THE WHITE MOUNTAIN APACHE RESERVATION, ARIZONA,JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION, Issue 6 2003Jonathan W. Long ABSTRACT: To prioritize sites for riparian restoration, resource managers need to understand how recovery processes vary within landscapes. Complex relationships between watershed conditions and riparian development make it difficult to predict the outcomes of restoration treatments in the semiarid Southwest. Large floods in 1993 scoured riparian areas in the Carrizo watershed on the White Mountain Apache Reservation in east-central Arizona. We evaluated recovery at three of these sites using repeated photographs and measurements of channel cross sections and stream-side vegetation along permanent transects. The sites were mapped as lying on the same soil type, had similar streamside vegetative communities, and were similarly treated through livestock exclusion and supplemental seeding. However, the sites and individual reaches within the sites followed strikingly different development paths. Dramatic recovery occurred at a perennial reach where cover of emergent wetland plants increased from 4.7 percent (standard error = 0.8 percent) in October 1995 to 55.5 percent (standard error = 2.7 percent) in September 2001. At several other reaches, geologic and hydro geomorphic characteristics of the sites limited inputs of fine sediment or surface water, resulting in modest or negligible increases in emergent cover. Recovery efforts for highly valued marshlands in this region should prioritize perennial reaches in low gradient valleys where salty sediments are abundant. [source] Using faecal DNA sampling and GIS to monitor hybridization between red wolves (Canis rufus) and coyotes (Canis latrans)MOLECULAR ECOLOGY, Issue 8 2003J. R. Adams Abstract The US Fish and Wildlife Service's (USFWS) Red Wolf Recovery Program recognizes hybridization with coyotes as the primary threat to red wolf recovery. Efforts to curb or stop hybridization are hampered in two ways. First, hybrid individuals are difficult to identify based solely on morphology. Second, managers need to effectively search 6000 km2 for the presence of coyotes and hybrids. We develop a noninvasive method to screen large geographical areas for coyotes and hybrids with maternal coyote ancestry by combining mitochondrial DNA sequence analysis of faeces (scat) and geographic information system (GIS) technology. This method was implemented on the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge (1000 km2) in northeastern North Carolina. A total of 956 scats were collected in the spring of 2000 and 2001 and global positioning system (GPS) coordinates were recorded. Seventy-five percent of the scats were assigned to species and five coyote/hybrid scats were detected. Placement of scat location coordinates on a map of the experimental population area revealed that four of the coyote/hybrid scats were detected within the home ranges of sterilized hybrids. The other coyote/hybrid scat indicated the presence of a previously unknown individual. We suggest this method be expanded to include more of the experimental population area and be optimized for use with nuclear markers to improve detection of hybrid and back-crossed individuals. [source] Predicting the Number of Defects Remaining In Operational SoftwareNAVAL ENGINEERS JOURNAL, Issue 1 2001P. J. Hartman Ph.D ABSTRACT Software is becoming increasingly critical to the Fleet as more and more commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) programs are being introduced in operating systems and applications. Program managers need to specify, contract, and manage the development and integration of software for warfare systems, condition based monitoring, propulsion control, parts requisitions, and shipboard administration. The intention here is to describe the state-of-the-art in Software Reliability Engineering (SRE) and defect prediction for commercial and military programs. The information presented here is based on data from the commercial software industry and shipboard program development. The strengths and weaknesses of four failure models are compared using these cases. The Logarithmic Poisson Execution Time (LPET) model best fits the data and satisfied the fundamental principles of reliability theory. The paper presents the procedures for defining software failures, tracking defects, and making spreadsheet predictions of the defects still remaining in the software after it has been deployed. Rules-of-thumb for the number of defects in commercial software and the relative expense required to fix these errors are provided for perspective. [source] Radio frequency identification (RFID) performance: the effect of tag orientation and package contentsPACKAGING TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, Issue 1 2006Robert H. Clarke Abstract The objective of this research was to determine the relationship between different product types and tag orientations on the readability of RFID tags on shipping containers in a palletload that is driven through a portal type reader. This research finds that the content of packages can dramatically reduce the read rate. Only 25% of the tags on shipping containers containing water-filled bottles could be read. Rice-filled jars had a higher read rate (80.6%). Even empty boxes did not have a 100% read rate. For the variables without appreciable package contents, only 74,79% of loads had all of their tags read. The orientation of the tag does make a difference, especially when coupled with a filled package between it and the reader antennae. Tags facing outwards, towards the reader antennae, had the highest likelihood of a successful read. When tags for the boxes of water-filled bottles were all facing downwards, no tags were read. Supply chain managers need to understand these limitations of the technology and find ways to overcome them before RFID can be successfully implemented in supply chains. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The Role of Resource Access, Market Considerations, and the Nature of Innovation in Pursuit of Standards in the New Product Development ProcessTHE JOURNAL OF PRODUCT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 5 2003Arvind Sahay Standards influence new product development (NPD) in high-technology markets. However, existing work on standards has focused exclusively on one aspect of standards,compatibility standards. This article has the following goals. First, we delineate the concept of customer interface standards as distinct from compatibility standards. This distinction is important from a product development and technology adoption perspective. Second, we propose and show that antecedent factors may motivate a firm differently about the emphasis that the firm should put on a type of standard (compatibility or customer interface) that it follows. For example, we propose that appropriability regime affects pursuit of customer interface standards and compatibility standards differently. Finally, we illustrate how resource access and the nature of the innovation also influence a firm's decision to pursue a standard type. Finally, we propose that pursuit of different standards (customer interface or compatibility) affects the NPD process in terms of (1) sourcing and dissemination of technology and (2) the customer utility for the product, which influences adoption. We collected perceptual data from a sample of marketing and technology managers in high-tech industries in the UK using both formative and reflective scales to measure the constructs. Analysis of the data using LISREL supports our contention that compatibility standards and customer interface standards are distinct constructs and that appropriability regime influences compatibility standards and customer interface standards differently. We also find that pursuit of compatibility standards helps a firm to create direct externalities pursuit of customer interface standards helps firms to develop indirect network externalities and technological advantage in the market. Our findings have the following implications. First, managers need to account explicitly for the difference between compatibility and customer interface standards, as resource allocation decisions during the NPD process will determine where a firm puts more focus. The choices made by the firm,as to whether it pursues compatibility standards or customer interface standards,will determine the type of advantage that it can gain in the market. Given a firm's situation at a point in time, a greater focus on one standard type rather than the other may be the right approach. Such choices will influence resource allocation in the product development process. [source] Corporate social responsibility communication: stakeholder information, response and involvement strategiesBUSINESS ETHICS: A EUROPEAN REVIEW, Issue 4 2006Mette Morsing While it is generally agreed that companies need to manage their relationships with their stakeholders, the way in which they choose to do so varies considerably. In this paper, it is argued that when companies want to communicate with stakeholders about their CSR initiatives, they need to involve those stakeholders in a two-way communication process, defined as an ongoing iterative sense-giving and sense-making process. The paper also argues that companies need to communicate through carefully crafted and increasingly sophisticated processes. Three CSR communication strategies are developed. Based on empirical illustrations and prior research, the authors argue that managers need to move from ,informing' and ,responding' to ,involving' stakeholders in CSR communication itself. They conclude that managers need to expand the role of stakeholders in corporate CSR communication processes if they want to improve their efforts to build legitimacy, a positive reputation and lasting stakeholder relationships. [source] Does Relationship Marketing Age Well?BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW, Issue 4 2001Jonathan D. Hibbard Most managers agree that close co-operative relationships between business partners yield benefits to all parties. However, some question whether these benefits continue as the relationship ages. This article reports on a study designed to answer this question. The study suggests that, however long the relationship, building trust, commitment and the other components of Relationship Marketing (RM) continue to have a positive effect on the performance of business partners. However, it also shows that, over time, the positive effect diminishes. The authors suggest that managers need to recognize this, and to identify the true costs of building relationships so as to judge whether the diminishing returns justify the effort. Ultimately, managers need to vary their handling of each relationship because standardized RM practices are unlikely to be effective. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||