Investigating the relationship between Lean Six Sigma's intangible impacts and organisational innovation climate factors

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (6) ◽  
pp. 1247-1270
Author(s):  
Mohamed Alblooshi ◽  
Mohammad Shamsuzzaman
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Lean Six Sigma ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Climate Factors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organisational Innovation ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Innovation Climate ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Depth Interviews

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the relationship between the intangible impacts of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and organisational innovation climate factors and proposes a conceptual model to link them. This paper ultimately aims to extend the range of LSS application by proposing LSS as a tool for fostering organisational innovation.Design/methodology/approachThe paper followed a qualitative research approach to identify, analyse and categorize the intangible impacts of LSS by reviewing previous literature on its application and conducting in-depth interviews with its experts. Then, a detailed description of organisational innovation climate was provided to highlight its main factors. Finally, a conceptual model was developed to illustrate the relationships among the collected information.FindingsLSS was found to have many intangible impacts categorized as organisational or individual related. Organisational innovation climate is determined by a number of factors that were found to be positively influenced by many of LSS's intangible impacts. Thus, a number of propositions between LSS's intangible impacts and organisational innovation climate factors were proposed, as illustrated by a conceptual model.Originality/valueStudying the relationship between LSS and innovation by considering LSS's intangible impacts and linking them to organisational innovation climate factors is a relatively new approach that makes the contribution of this research valuable and significant to academics and professionals.

Perceptions of culinary education and chef apprenticeships in Ireland

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Gray ◽  
Kathleen Geraldine Farrell
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Career Guidance ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Method Approach ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThe relationship between the shortage of chefs for the hospitality industry in Ireland and the lack of uptake for chef apprenticeship is an underexplored topic. This study investigates attitudes to chef training and chef apprenticeship among industry representatives and second-level students.Design/methodology/approachUsing a mixed method approach, the qualitative research comprised of in-depth interviews conducted with key experts in the industry and from the educational sector. The quantitative research approach comprised of questionnaires conducted with second-level students.FindingsThe research results found that there is a stigma attached to chef apprenticeships, and this is part of the reason that the apprenticeship has low uptake. However, it was also found that working conditions in the industry were a real concern.Research limitations/implicationsThis is an exploratory study with a small sample of interviewees and survey respondents. However, it is a first step towards understanding some of the key issues relating to low uptake for chef apprenticeship.Practical implicationsAccess for second-level students to information regarding the benefits of a chef apprenticeship is lacking. It is necessary to convince students that an apprenticeship is as beneficial as a degree. Training for career guidance councillors is needed.Originality/valueThere is a dearth of research on the low uptake to chef apprenticeship. Research is recommended into how to re-brand chef apprenticeship.

I’ll have the usual: how restaurant brand image, loyalty, and satisfaction keep customers coming back

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 599-614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Espinosa ◽  
David J. Ortinau ◽  
Nina Krey ◽  
Lisa Monahan
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Intentions ◽  
Brand Image ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Casual Dining ◽  
Casual Dining Restaurant ◽  
Revisit Intentions ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Depth Interviews

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study how repeat customers utilize their established overall restaurant brand image (ORBI), overall restaurant loyalty, satisfaction and behavioral intentions (revisit, recommend) to reengage with a casual-dining restaurant brand. Design/methodology/approach The study design consists of a mixed-methods, two-phase research approach that includes both qualitative and quantitative data. First, focus groups and in-depth interviews with adult customers reveal preliminary insights on restaurant dining patterns and familiarity with franchised casual dining restaurants. Second, an online self-administered survey tests the influence of ORBI on repeat customers’ overall restaurant loyalty, satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Findings For repeat customers, ORBI positively predicts loyalty and satisfaction. Loyalty and satisfaction mediate the relationship between ORBI and intentions to recommend, while loyalty alone mediates the relationship between ORBI and intentions to revisit a casual dining restaurant. Practical implications Managers looking to stimulate recommendation intentions can increase ORBI, loyalty or satisfaction among repeat customers; or choose some combination of these three predictors. To improve revisit intentions, managers should first increase loyalty, followed by ORBI. Importantly, management needs to tailor information given to repeat customers differently than other customers. Originality/value This paper provides a first conceptualization of how both loyalty and satisfaction jointly mediate the relationships between ORBI and two behavioral intentions (revisit, recommend). The results show that loyalty plays a significant role in these predictive relationships and is more important than satisfaction for enhancing intentions to revisit a restaurant.

Beekeeping as a family artisan entrepreneurship business

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 717-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veland Ramadani ◽  
Robert D. Hisrich ◽  
Leo-Paul Dana ◽  
Ramo Palalic ◽  
Laxman Panthi
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Transition Economy ◽  
Rural Families ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Depth Interviews

Purpose Throughout Macedonia, beekeeping is becoming popular regardless of ethnicity. Studying ethnicity, the purpose of this paper is to determine what beekeepers in Macedonia thought in their own words about their beekeeping entrepreneurship. The objective is to identify whether motivations of ethnic Albanian beekeepers in Macedonia were the same or different compared to those of ethnic Macedonians in the same country, and if different, how. Design/methodology/approach To accomplish this objective, in-depth interviews were conducted with 40 beekeepers in Macedonia. A total of 29 interviews were conducted face-to-face and the other 11 by phone. The first set of interviews took place between December 2016 and February 2017, followed by more interviews in June 2017. In total, 27 respondents said they were ethnic Albanians, and 13 identified themselves as ethnic Macedonians. Also, ten respondents were women. While eight were full-time beekeepers, 32 were part-time beekeepers. Findings The results indicated that beekeeping businesses play a significant role in the transition economy of Macedonia. Beekeeping provides additional earnings that support rural families and keeps them financially stable. The majority of both Albanians and Macedonians understood that beekeeping on a part-time job basis provided a needed supplement to their income. Some part-time beekeepers are also working as auto-mechanics, locksmiths, medical doctors, restaurant/cafeteria owners, and tailors. A few in the sample were retired from their jobs or full-time beekeepers. An important difference between ethnic Albanian beekeepers and ethnic Macedonians in Macedonia is that the majority of ethnic Albanian participants see beekeeping as following in “my father’s footsteps”, while most Macedonians were motivated by the perceived opportunity of having a good business. Research limitations/implications Limitations of the research are twofold. First, financial data of family beekeeping are not available, which would be useful in determining the contribution made to economic development. It is common, especially in transition economies such as the western Balkans, that financial results are very sensitive to their owners. Second, unavailable databases for beekeepers make any quantitative approach difficult, if not impossible, resulting in most research using the qualitative research approach. Originality/value This paper is one of the first to treat beekeeping as a form of artisan entrepreneurship, which also contributes to the understanding of family business. As in other countries, the important and operation of the family business among family members in Macedonia is passed from generation to generation. The results of this research revealed the value of networking, which was found to be very important to income. For beekeepers to develop, grow, and be branded in the community, networking is an important ingredient.

The relationship between MNCs’ strategies and executive staffing

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sangeetha Lakshman ◽  
C. Lakshman ◽  
Christophe Estay
Keyword(s):  
International Business ◽  
Business Strategy ◽  
Global Strategy ◽  
Business Strategies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Global Integration ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of business strategies with executive staffing of multinational companies (MNCs). Design/methodology/approach Based on in-depth interviews conducted with top executives of 22 MNCs’, the authors identify important connections between international business strategies and staffing orientation. The authors used the qualitative research approach of building theory from interviews; thus, creating theoretical propositions from empirical evidence. Findings The authors find that when the pressure for global integration is high, MNCs use more parent-country national (PCNs) (ethnocentric staffing) as against the use of host-country managers (HCNs) (polycentric staffing) when this pressure is low. Additionally, MNCs using a global strategy are more likely to use an ethnocentric staffing approach, those using a multi-domestic strategy use a polycentric approach and firms using transnational strategy adopt a mix of ethnocentric and polycentric approaches. Research limitations/implications Although the authors derive theoretical patterns based on rich qualitative data, their sample is relatively small and comprises mostly of French MNCs. Generalizability to a broader context is limited. However, the authors’ findings have critical implications for future research. Practical implications The authors’ findings provide critical managerial implications for MNCs in matching their HR strategies with business strategies. These are important for effective strategy implementation. Originality/value Although MNC staffing orientations have been studied for a long time, their relationship to international business strategies is still not clearly understood. The authors contribute to the literature by investigating the relationship between MNCs’ business strategy types with staffing orientations.

Mapping the urban environment using real-time physiological monitoring

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitra Dritsa ◽  
Nimish Biloria
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Urban Environment ◽  
Physiological Responses ◽  
Physiological Data ◽  
Contextual Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City ◽  
Urban Stress

PurposeThis paper presents a critical review of studies which map the urban environment using continuous physiological data collection. A conceptual model is consequently presented for mitigating urban stress at the city and the user level.Design/methodology/approachThe study reviews relevant publications, examining the tools used for data collection and the methods used for data analysis and data fusion. The relationship between urban features and physiological responses is also examined.FindingsThe review showed that the continuous monitoring of physiological data in the urban environment can be used for location-aware stress detection and urban emotion mapping. The combination of physiological and contextual data helps researchers understand how the urban environment affects the human body. The review indicated a relationship between some urban features (green, land use, traffic, isovist parameters) and physiological responses, though more research is needed to solidify the existence of the identified links. The review also identified many theoretical, methodological and practical issues which hinder further research in this area.Originality/valueWhile there is large potential in this field, there has been no review of studies which map continuously physiological data in the urban environment. This study covers this gap and introduces a novel conceptual model for mitigating urban stress.

scholarly journals Transformative service research: a conceptual framework based on consumer's perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronica Ungaro ◽  
Laura Di Pietro ◽  
Maria Francesca Renzi ◽  
Roberta Guglielmetti Mugion ◽  
Maria Giovina Pasca
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Service Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Consumer Perspective ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Depth Interviews

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the consumer's perspective regarding the relationship between services and well-being, contributing to the knowledge base in transformative service research (TSR). More specifically the aim was to understand consumers' perceptions of the relationship between services and well-being and their views about how companies can contribute (directly and/or indirectly) to achieve the well-being.Design/methodology/approachTo reach the research aim, the study adopts an explorative inductive design, carried out through a qualitative approach and grounded in 30 in-depth interviews with consumers.FindingsService sustainability represents the fundamental characteristic that determines the service ability to be transformative, requiring the implementation of the triple bottom line dimensions: social, environmental and economic. It emerged that, in the consumer's mind, the service categories that present a stronger relationship between service and well-being are as follows: healthcare, financial and transport.Originality/valueThe paper proposes a conceptual framework to describe the consumer perspective of the services' transformative role in promoting well-being, providing a theoretical lens for conducting future research and continuing to expand transformative service research (TSR).

scholarly journals The relationship between favorable conditions for innovation in technology parks, the innovation produced, and companies’ performance

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas Bonacina Roldan ◽  
Peter Bent Hansen ◽  
Domingo Garcia-Perez-de-Lema
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Analysis Model ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Practical Support ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Technology Parks ◽  
Effective Development ◽  
Favorable Conditions ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Depth Interviews

PurposeInnovation is today considered a competitive differential for improving the performance of companies, and technology parks are seen as environments with favorable conditions for such innovation. The purpose of this study is to develop a framework for analyzing favorable conditions for innovation in technology parks, the innovations produced and organizational performance.Design/methodology/approachTo this end, the authors conducted bibliographic research and in-depth interviews with managers of companies based at the Tecnopuc Science and Technology Park, and managers of the park itself, to establish practical support for previous theoretical findings.FindingsAs a result, a framework was developed to link the favorable conditions for innovation, and organizational performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe analysis model proposed here synthesizes the contributions made by several scholars on the theme, allowing for a more detailed and integrated interpretation of the phenomenon, namely, the ways through which the effective development of innovation takes place in companies residing in technology parks and the contribution of innovation to the specific performance of companies.Practical implicationsThe use of the proposed framework can help direct park managers’ action towards those relationships or activities that prove to be ineffective in achieving desired goals.Originality/valueThe use of the proposed model in empirical surveys will allow for better understanding of the phenomenon involving the features of technology parks and their effects on innovation and the performance of companies installed there, considering that such parks allow them to access resources with lower transaction costs.

Sentiment classification of Chinese cosmetic reviews based on integration of collocations and concepts

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-169
Author(s):  
Chihli Hung ◽  
You-Xin Cao
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Classification Performance ◽  
Sentiment Classification ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Modelling Approach

Purpose This paper aims to propose a novel approach which integrates collocations and domain concepts for Chinese cosmetic word of mouth (WOM) sentiment classification. Most sentiment analysis works by collecting sentiment scores from each unigram or bigram. However, not every unigram or bigram in a WOM document contains sentiments. Chinese collocations consist of the main sentiments of WOM. This paper reduces the complexity of the document dimensionality and makes an improvement for sentiment classification. Design/methodology/approach This paper builds two contextual lexicons for feature words and sentiment words, respectively. Based on these contextual lexicons, this paper uses the techniques of associated rules and mutual information to build possible Chinese collocation sets. This paper applies preference vector modelling as the vector representation approach to catch the relationship between Chinese collocations and their associated concepts. Findings This paper compares the proposed preference vector models with benchmarks, using three classification techniques (i.e. support vector machine, J48 decision tree and multilayer perceptron). According to the experimental results, the proposed models outperform all benchmarks evaluated by the criterion of accuracy. Originality/value This paper focuses on Chinese collocations and proposes a novel research approach for sentiment classification. The Chinese collocations used in this paper are adaptable to the content and domains. Finally, this paper integrates collocations with the preference vector modelling approach, which not only achieves a better sentiment classification performance for Chinese WOM documents but also avoids the curse of dimensionality.

Relationship between governance mechanisms and contract performance

2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dayashankar Maurya ◽  
Amit Kumar Srivastava
Keyword(s):  
Field Research ◽  
Incomplete Contracts ◽  
Critical Dimension ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
Governance Mechanisms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Contract Performance ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explain the variation in the relationship between governance mechanisms and the effect of the relationship on contract performance, especially in controlling partner opportunism. Design/methodology/approach This study conducts a comparative case analysis of contract governance of “National Health Insurance Program” in India. The data are collected using field research through in-depth interviews and direct observation across three states in India. Findings The authors find that the governance mechanisms continue to complement and substitute, both in a dynamic manner, but until aligned with the nature of transaction, they are ineffective to mitigate opportunism, a critical dimension of contract performance. Inappropriate governance mechanisms inflate the gaps in incomplete contracts, resulting in partner opportunism. Research limitations/implications The study draws findings from healthcare context and service-based contracting; therefore, the applicability of this study may vary in other contexts. Practical implications The paper highlights the need for building flexibility in the governance structure while designing contracts. Further, managers need to combine both governance mechanisms dynamically to align with the nature of the transaction to control partner opportunism. Originality/value The authors contribute to the existing debate on the conundrum of the relationship between governance mechanisms and provide a new explanation. The authors propose that it is not the specific governance mechanisms but the alignment of the governance mix with the nature of the transaction that determines the contract performance, especially control of partner opportunism.

Lean Six Sigma implementation and organizational culture

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (8) ◽  
pp. 855-863 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Knapp
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
Six Sigma ◽  
Hospital Staff ◽  
Lean Six Sigma ◽  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Management Support ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between four organizational cultural types defined by the Competing Values Framework and three Lean Six Sigma implementation components – management involvement, use of Lean Six Sigma methods and Lean Six Sigma infrastructure. Design/methodology/approach – The study involved surveying 446 human resource and quality managers from 223 hospitals located in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Rhode Island using the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument. Findings – In total, 104 completed responses were received and analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance. Follow-up analysis of variances showed management support was significant, F(3, 100)=4.89, p < 0.01, η2=1.28; infrastructure was not significant, F(3, 100)=1.55, p=0.21, η2=0.05; and using Lean Six Sigma methods was also not significant, F(3, 100)=1.34, p=0.26, η2=0.04. Post hoc analysis identified group and development cultures having significant interactions with management support. Practical implications – The relationship between organizational culture and Lean Six Sigma in hospitals provides information on how specific cultural characteristics impact the Lean Six Sigma initiative key components. This information assists hospital staff who are considering implementing quality initiatives by providing an understanding of what cultural values correspond to effective Lean Six Sigma implementation. Originality/value – Managers understanding the quality initiative cultural underpinnings, are attentive to the culture-shared values and norm’s influence can utilize strategies to better implement Lean Six Sigma.

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