The main objective of the present study is to identify the extent of corporate internet reporting practices in an emerging economy through the extent of disclosing mandatory and voluntary information on the internet. It also addresses the determinants of such reporting practices. It uses sample from Bangladesh, an emerging capital market with few disclosure studies regarding corporate internet reporting. To measure the extent of mandatory and voluntary disclosure two self constructed checklists were used. The results of the checklist are analysed in total and by different categories. By using a sample size of 234 companies, both bivariate and multivariate analysis is performed to identify the determinants of mandatory and voluntary disclosure on the internet. The result indicates that about 90.70% companies have websites and all of them disclose a small amount of corporate information. While the extent of mandatory reporting is 66.24%, the extent of voluntary reporting is 35.46%. The telecommunication sector discloses the highest amount of mandatory information and the banking sector discloses the highest amount of voluntary information on the internet. The tannery sector discloses the lowest amount of mandatory and voluntary information. The result also reveals that audit firm’s international link, independent directors in the board and dual leadership structure have significant positive association and profitability measured by ROE has significant negative association with the level of disclosing of mandatory and voluntary information by the Bangladeshi companies. Although firm size, multinational parent, and industry type have significant positive association with the level of disclosing voluntary information, they are non-significant in mandatory disclosure. In addition, board size, ownership structure and company age has non- significant association with the level of both mandatory and voluntary disclosure. By providing the current status of disclosing mandatory and voluntary information on the internet, this study contributes to reduce the existing gap in the literature relating to emerging economies and helps to identify the need for international standards for this type of reporting.

<p> Expatriates of U.S.-based MNCs (Americans) on overseas assignment face unique adjustment and job-performance issues that have affected employer operations, resulting in financial loss and low morale. The specific problem was the poor adjustment of Americans in Russia, due to type of job, type of position, and prior-international experience. The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to examine whether differences existed in the process of adjustment of Americans in Russia based on job-specific attributes. The quantitative study featured a causal-comparative design. The sampling frame included the estimated 4,000 Americans working for US-based MNCs, members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia (ACCR). ACCR&rsquo;s membership-list was used to gather a simple random sample of 197 through an anonymous online survey, a pre-validated 5-point Likert scale based on the Peltokorpi-Cultural Adjustment (2008) scale. Results for a one-way ANOVA showed no significant difference for employee adjustment based on type of job or position, and a significant difference was found for prior-international experience (p&lt;.05). Recommendations for practice included (a) encouragement of U.S.-based MNCs that do business in Russia to incorporate the finding of this study, and (b) for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to create programs to assist member firms to develop a knowledge base and recruitment practices for better adjustment of Americans in Russia. Recommendations for future research included (a) a causal-comparative study to evaluate pre-assignment training as a moderating factor to explain differences in adjustment for employees with different types of job and positions, and (b) a quasi-experimental study to further assess interactions among the current study variables as to the influence on Americans' adjustment.</p>

This dissertation reports on a case study investigation of the organisational setting of the Kaohsiung Harbour Bureau (KHB) in Taiwan. It reports on my methodological contribution in doing my study in a particular way, namely, by making use of my position in the Harbour to help develop multi-views in relation to the future. I tried not to abuse my working position as a former manager of warehousing and my current position as a researcher to make definite recommendations for action~ but I wanted to create some options for thinking about future plans for privatisation of port activities through involving less power distance than is normally associated with planning in the Harbour. My study was not carried out by trying to operate in a neutral fashion. For instance, I clearly had an own involvement in raising questions in the interviews (individual and group) with participants and in the way I developed further questions during interviews and also carried information across interviews. I also tried to create some discussion on important issues that created high emotional responses for participants. I call my case study research, which was organised to be active in the hope to be of some benefit to participants, a special kind of case study. I reflect on the roles I played in the special case study in the dissertation. The dissertation also reports on the theoretical contribution that I think I have made in relation to some themes arising from the case study (cross-cultural learning, politics and development, and the relevance of systems thinking). It gives details on how these themes could be explored with reference to the case. I discuss the themes in relation to wider literature on the topics and I add my ideas.

This thesis explores how HRD is conducted in the under-researched context of the Arab Middle East, specifically in Saudi Arabian public organisations. Four research questions are addressed: how HRD is conceptualized by practitioners; what systems, processes and approaches are currently prevalent in these organisations, to what extent the HRD function in these organisations is strategic and what are the main challenges facing HRD now and in the future in Saudi public organisations. A mixed – methods approach was adopted, grounded on a pragmatic rationale. Quantitative data were collected from a questionnaire survey of HRD managers in all 158 public organisations; 115 usable responses were returned. Issues emerging from the survey were then explored in depth via semi – structured interviews with a non- random sample of 23 managers. Findings revealed a conceptualization of HRD similar that in the West, reflecting notions of human capital, whole – person development, improved productivity and keeping pace with environmental change. However, participants were caught in competing dynamics of tradition versus modernization and centralizations versus decentralization, which undermined their efforts and left them frustrated. With regard to the strategic role of HRD, again, reality did not match the rhetoric. HRD was often relegated to an administrative role and practitioners excluded from decision-making. Long-term benefits were commonly sacrificed to short – term cost concerns. It is concluded that the main challenges facing HRD now and in the future in Saudi Arabia are the need for practitioners to be creative and proactive in asserting their influence and developing the professional status of HRD; the struggle to balance competing cultural assumptions and to develop a culturally appropriate model of HRD; and the need for greater clarity in the governmental HRD strategy by which the public organisations‟ HRD efforts are both encouraged and constrained.

Talent Management (TM) is still a new research field in China’s context. TM like other management disciplines is often embedded in a certain institutional context and influenced by certain social norms, cultural factors and government policies. TM is therefore closely related to research context. The Chinese cultural context is influential in shaping TM concepts and practices. However, how TM practices are used to retain talents in the context of Chinese private-owned enterprises (POEs) is still a research gap. TM is a holistic strategy for an organisation. It is therefore necessary to explore Chinese POEs’ TM practices through a holistic lens, which covers the processes of defining talents, attracting talents, developing talents and retaining talents. Previous TM studies mainly focused on exploring TM concepts and there is a lack of empirical investigations on TM practices, especially in the context of Chinese POEs. Linked to the characteristics of Chinese POEs and Chinese cultural context, this study explores talent retention from a holistic perspective of TM. This research adopted an interpretivist perspective and inductive approach. Based on a case study research method, primary and secondary data were collected from three case companies, and analysed qualitatively. The theoretical framework used in this research is largely based on TM literature. Talent attraction, talent development, and talent retention are used as a lens to view the case companies and to explore what TM activities drive talent retention in the context of Chinese POEs. Organisational commitment is the main theory employed by this research to explore talented individuals’ turnover intention. Findings show that Chinese guanxi is an important perspective to define talented employees in the context of Chinese POEs. Competence, position, and guanxi are holistically considered to define a talented employee. It was found that guanxi is an important factor influencing the entire TM process, including attracting talents, developing talents and retaining talents. Career development, rewards, and guanxi were significant factors in retaining talented employees in the context of Chinese POEs. Guanxi as a new TM perspective not only makes a theoretical contribution to talent definition but also contributes to talent development and talent retention theories. The research offers practical talent retention suggestions to TM practitioners. A significant practical contribution may be adopting TM practices to develop talented employees’ guanxi ties to increase their organisational commitment and to reduce turnover intention.

The “fuzzy front-end” (FFE) of innovation begins when an opportunity is first considered worthy of further ideation, exploration, and assessment and ends when a firm decides to invest in or to terminate the idea (Khurana & Rosenthal, 1998). Since such an early phase is often characterised as being highly uncertain and unstructured, scholars have suggested that uncertainty must be reduced as much as possible during the FFE to achieve success in innovation (Frishammar et al., 2011; Moenaert et al., 1995; Verworn, 2009; Verworn et al., 2008). Although openness has been proposed as crucial to innovation success (Chesbrough, 2003; Chesbrough et al., 2006), little effort has been put into studying its role in reducing uncertainty in the FFE of service innovation. To address this gap, the current study aims to examine the effect of “openness competence” within the FFE – i.e., the ability of a FFE team to explore, gather and assimilate operant resources from external sources by means of external searches and inter-organisational partnerships – on the success of service innovation. It will also identify the key dimensions of openness competence. This mixed methods study is comprised of two main phases. In the first phase, we interviewed 12 informants who participated in the FFE of 6 distinctive online service innovations. The data were analysed through a services-dominant (S-D) logic analytical lens. The case findings together with the extant literature were used to develop a formative second-order construct of openness competence, and to form a series of hypotheses concerning an “open service innovation” (OSI) model. In the second phase, a total of 122 valid survey responses were collected and analysed using a partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique with the aim of validating the proposed OSI model. The key findings of this study include the four dimensions of openness competence within the FFE, namely: searching capability, coordination capability, collective mind and absorptive capacity. A FFE team’s IT capability was identified as an antecedent of openness competence. Further, we found that openness competence is positively associated with the amount of market and technical uncertainty being reduced during the FFE. Contrary to our expectations, the impact of openness competence on service innovation success is direct, rather than being mediated by the degree of uncertainty reduction. These findings offer several implications for research on open innovation and on the FFE. Additionally, by identifying the key dimensions of openness competence, the current study provides guidance to front-end managers as well as presenting new areas for future research.

No description available.

<p>The current quantitative correlational study used statistical analysis to determine if a significant relationship existed between accountability and commitment (predictor variables) and flight crew performance (criterion variable). A random sample of 205 flight crew personnel were selected from the targeted population of 371 personnel. Descriptive statistics were conducted on the sample and variables of interest. Cronbach?s alpha reliability statistics were also presented for the scales. Multiple linear regression tests were conducted to address the research questions. Accountability composite scores ranged from 3.25 to 5.00. Composite scores for commitment ranged from 2.63 to 4.43, and composite scores for team performance ranged from 3.72 to 4.28. Simple linear regression tests were used in the study to test two hypotheses that involved the influence of accountability and commitment on flight crew teams? performance. Findings for the study indicated that the assumptions were met and that a significant relationship existed between the influence of accountability and commitment on airline flight crew teams? performance. In addition, results from the linear regression tests determined that there were significant positive correlations between accountability and commitment (independent) and flight crews? team performance (dependent) variables.

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

<p> The craft beer industry has experienced significant growth over the past several years, especially in the Commonwealth of Virginia. While the effects of winery operation on the tourism industry have been widely researched, a dearth of similar knowledge exists for the craft brewery. Moreover, there lacks an understanding of who these visitors to craft breweries aree, how similar they are to their winery counterparts, and if the same individuals are visitors to both. </p><p> This study of Virginia wineries and breweries sought to begin the process of satisfying this need for information through an exploratory study using a questionnaire through intercept interviews. Respondent demographics, cursory visitation patterns, and general expenditure patterns comprise the three main components of research undertaken. The information discovered is of particular value to brewery and winery marketers, advertisers, festival coordinators, policy makers, DMOs, DMCs, and any industry that serves in the tourism industry. </p><p> Through analysis of the survey results, conclusions on who brewery and winery visitors are and whether or not they are the same, as well as recommendations to continue the growth of beverage tourism in the Commonwealth of Virginia are explored. Lastly, areas of future research are delineated to foster future research in this tourism niche.</p>