Mark Fuller
Fuller, M.; Hardin, A. and Davison, R. “Efficacy in Technology-Mediated Distributed Teams,” Journal of Management Information Systems (forthcoming - Winter 2006 2007).
Virtual teams are composed of members that are work from distributed locations and are connected via technology. While there are many factors that influence the performance of such teams, our research specifically focuses on the concept of efficacy. Efficacy is defined as the confidence a person or group has regarding their ability to complete various tasks in specific situations. Efficacy has been shown to be a critical aspect of performance in a variety of settings. Our research investigates how efficacy related to working in distributed technology-mediated environments influences virtual team performance, and how such performance can be enhanced. Field study data collected over a two year period of time from global information systems project teams with members from the United States, Great Britain, and Hong Kong revealed that virtual team efficacy does indeed influence performance by increasing factors like team effort, goal setting, motivation, and communication frequency.
Dogan Gursoy
Gursoy, D.; McCleary, K. W. and Lepsito, L. R., “Propensity to complain: affects of personality and behavioral factors,” Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research (forthcoming, 2007).
Literature suggests that the antecedents of complaining involve more than dissatisfaction alone; several other factors affect consumers’ propensity to complain. This study examined the affects of personality and behavioral factors on consumers’ propensity to complain. Findings suggest that consumers’ locus of control and their price consciousness have a significant impact on their propensity to complain. Theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed in detail.
Dogan Gursoy and Nancy Swanger
Gursoy, D. and Swanger, N., “Performance-Enhancing Internal Strategic Factors: Impacts on Financial Success,” International Journal of Hospitality Management (forthcoming, 2007).
The purpose of this study was to examine the internal strategic factors likely to influence company financial performance for service organizations from managers’ perspectives. It provides empirical evidence of the links between the internal strategic factors examined and financial performance of service organizations. Data for this study were collected from middle and upper managers of service companies using a self-administered survey questionnaire. The results of the study suggested that four of the seven critical internal strategic success factors examined had a significant impact on company financial performance. Those factors are sales, R&D and distribution, information technology, and human resources. Implications of the findings are discussed.
Dogan Gursoy and Nancy Swanger
O’Fallon, M. J.; Gursoy, D. and Swanger, N., “To buy or not to buy: Impact of labeling on purchasing intentions of genetically modified foods,” International Journal of Hospitality Management (forthcoming, 2007).
This study conducted a partial test of the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1985, 1989, 1991) by assessing an individual’s attitude toward labeling of genetically modified foods on the individual’s purchasing intentions. Data collected from 16,078 participants across 15 European Union member countries from the EUROBAROMETER 53 were examined. Using Univariate ANOVA, the results indicate that: (1) many (roughly 73% of the sample) of the individuals residing in the fifteen European countries are less likely to purchase a food product with a label indicating the existence of a genetically modified ingredient; (2) women were less likely to purchase the genetically modified (GM) product than men; and, (3) those individuals who are more likely to purchase a GM food believed it is unnecessary to include complete information pertaining to the use of GM organisms in the production of food products. Specifically, individuals were significantly more likely to purchase the product if they stated that (a) it is unnecessary to show information on a label pertaining to the use of GM organisms in the production of the food product, even if those GM organisms are present in some of the ingredients; (b) it is unnecessary to include information regarding the use of GM organisms in the product on a label if the GM organisms are present in the end product; and (c) the information regarding the use of a GM organism does not have to be clear. Future directions regarding research on genetically modified foods are presented.
Jenny Kim and Terry Umbreit
Kim, H. J.; Shin, K.; and Umbreit, T., “Hotel Job Burnout: the Role of Personality Characteristics,” International Journal of Hospitality Management (in press, 2007).
In hospitality and tourism academia, most research focuses on the work domain as a major source of hospitality job stress, with little attention given to employee characteristics. This study examines the effect of the Big Five personality dimensions (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience) on hotel employees' job burnout. After controlling for two commonly known job burnout antecedents (autonomy and quantitative workload), study results indicate that personality attributes explain significant proportions of three job burnout factors. The most noteworthy finding is the predictability of the agreeableness trait in hotel employees' job burnout. Because of the mixed results reported on the relationship between this trait and job stress in other disciplines, more vigorous future research is recommended to validate the value of this personality to the hospitality industry.
Gene Lai and Michael McNamara
Jeng, V.; Lai, G. and McNamara, M., “Efficiency, and Demutualizations: Evidence from the U.S. Life Insurance Industry in the 1980s and 1990s,” Journal of Risk and Insurance (forthcoming, 2007).
This paper examines the efficiency changes of U.S. life insurers before and after demutualization in the 1980s and 1990s. We use two frontier approaches (the value added approach and the financial intermediary approach) to measure the efficiency changes. In addition, we use Malmquist indices to investigate the efficiency and productivity change of converted life insurers over time. The results using the value added approach indicate demutualized life insurers improve their efficiency before demutualization. On the other hand, the evidence using the financial intermediary approach shows the efficiency of the demutualized life insurers relative to mutual control insurers deteriorates before demutualization and improves after conversion. The difference in the results between the two approaches is due to the fact that the financial intermediary approach considers financial conditions. The results of both approaches suggest that there is no efficiency improvement after demutualization relative to stock control insurers. There is, however, efficiency improvement relative to mutual control insurers when the financial intermediary approach is used.
Gene Lai and Michael McNamara
Lai, G.; McNamara, M. and Yu, T., “The Wealth Effect of Demutualization: Evidence from the U.S. Property-Liability and Life Insurance Industries,” Journal of Risk and Insurance (forthcoming, 2007).
This study examines the wealth effect of demutualization IPOs by investigating underpricing and post-conversion long-run stock performance. Our results suggest that there is more “money left on the table” for demutualized insurers than for non-demutualized insurers. We show that higher underpricing for demutualized firms can be explained by greater market demand, market sentiment, and the size of the offering. Further, contrary to previous research reporting an average underperformance of industrial IPOs, we show that demutualized IPOs outperform non-IPO firms with comparable size and book-to-market ratios and non-demutualized insurers. We present evidence that the outperformance in stock returns is mainly attributable to improvement in post-demutualization operating performance and demand at the time of the IPOs. The combined results of underpricing and long-term performance suggest that the wealth of policyholders who choose stock rather than cash or policy credits is not harmed by demutualization. Stockholders who purchase demutualized company shares either during or after the IPO have earned superior returns. Our findings are consistent with the efficiency improvement argument.
Dennis Reynolds
Reynolds, D., & Biel, D., “Incorporating satisfaction measures into a restaurant productivity index,” International Journal of Hospitality Management (in press, 2007).
The increasing stature of the foodservice industry in the global service economy suggests that productivity analyses—similar to those performed in non-service-based settings—would benefit multiunit operators by maximizing their desirable operational outcomes while minimizing expenses and other detrimental conditions such as low job satisfaction. This paper suggests that such analyses might be possible through the application of a holistic productivity metric—one that includes traditional operational variables such as revenue, profit, food cost, and labor cost, and previously ignored variables such as guest and employee satisfaction as well as retention equity. Through data gathered from a single chain’s 36 corporate-owned, same-brand casual-theme restaurants located in metropolitan centers across the United States, we found that factors leading to maximum outputs such as controllable profit and retention equity include employee satisfaction in addition to expected variables such as cost of goods sold and number of seats. Most notably, employee satisfaction as an input proved to be the most volatile variable in maximizing operational outputs.
Dennis Reynolds
Reynolds, D., & Thompson, G., “Multiunit restaurant productivity analysis using three-phase data envelopment analysis,” International Journal of Hospitality Management (in press).
This paper focuses on uncontrollable variables’ effects on multi-unit restaurant productivity using data envelopment analysis (DEA). We argue the importance of first considering managerially uncontrollable (nondiscretionary) variables as inputs in the actual DEA model, with managerially controllable variables considered post hoc for their relationship to the efficiency scores. We illustrate the merits of this approach using data from a chain of 62 full-service restaurants. From a large number of candidate inputs, we arrive at a short list of uncontrollable inputs: hourly server wage, restaurant seats, and a coding variable representing whether the restaurant is a stand-alone facility. Output variables in our model were daily sales and tip percentage. We find that just under 12% of the restaurants operate efficiently and that the average efficiency for the chain is 82%.
Jae Shin Shung
Shin, S. J.; Morgeson, F. P. and Campion, M. A., “What you do depends on where you are: Understanding how domestic and expatriate work requirements depend upon the cultural context,” Journal of International Business Studies. (In press).
To empirically address the importance of the cultural context for successful assignments, we conducted two studies using a large sample of public-sector U.S. professionals working in comparable jobs in 156 different countries. The results provided direct evidence that social and perceptual skill, reasoning ability, and adjustment- and achievement-orientation personality requirements are higher in expatriate assignments, which have implications for pre-departure selection. Also, the results partly supported the hypothesis that expatriates are required to adjust their behavior to be consistent with the local cultural values, which has implications for post-arrival behavioral training.
Richard Sias
Sias, R.; Starks, L. T. and Titman, S., “Changes in Institutional Ownership and Stock Returns: Assessment and Methodology,” Journal of Business, forthcoming.
Recent studies document strong positive correlation between quarterly and annual changes in institutional ownership and returns measured over the same period. This positive correlation could arise from institutional investors’ intra-period momentum trading, institutions forecasting intra-period price changes, or from the contemporaneous effect of institutional demand on prices. By exploiting the linear nature of covariances, we estimate the contributions of each of these sources to the quarterly correlation. Our results suggest that contemporaneous effects drive the correlation between quarterly changes in the number of institutions holding a stock and same quarter returns, and these contemporaneous effects arise because aggregate institutional trading conveys information.
Bernard Wong-On-Wing
Wong-On-Wing, B.; Guo, L.; Li, W. andYang, D., “Reducing Conflict in Balanced Scorecard Evaluations,” Accounting, Organizations and Society (in press).
Recent studies provide evidence of companies’ tendency to overlook the validity of the causal links between driver and outcome measures of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), and to ignore the underlying strategically linked causal business models. It is posited that this propensity leads to conflict between top management and divisional managers because of the failure of the former to evaluate and consider strategy effectiveness in performance evaluation. The present study hypothesizes that individuals in the top-manager role do not assess strategy effectiveness unless they are explicitly required to do so. In contrast, individuals in the store-manager role automatically consider the quality of strategy without being prompted to do so. The study results provide support for the hypotheses. The findings have implications for the study of evaluation biases in BSC as well as in other performance measurement systems, and for devising means to mitigate them.