Management and Marketing - Research Publications
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ItemWhen One Size Does Not Fit All: A Problem of Fit Rather than Failure for Voluntary Management Standards(SPRINGER, 2012-09)Voluntary management standards for social and environmental performance ideally help to define and improve firms’ related capabilities. These standards, however, have largely failed to improve such performance as intended. Over-emphasis on institutional factors leading to adoption of these standards has neglected the role of firms’ existing capabilities. External pressures can drive firms to adopt standards more than their technical capacity to employ them. This can lead to problems of “fit” between institutional requirements and a firm’s existing capabilities. We describe a conceptual model that considers the impact of an interaction between a firm’s institutional requirements and its existing capabilities on standards failure. We suggest solutions that align institutional requirements to appropriate governance forms as a means to improve standards success. We contribute to theory by describing the role of firms’ internal capabilities to the success of voluntary management standards and the reliability of self-regulation generally.
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ItemIgnored Faces Produce Figural Face Aftereffects(PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE, 2012-09-21)Following adaptation to faces with contracted (or expanded) internal features, faces previously perceived as normal appear distorted in the opposite direction. This figural face aftereffect suggests face-coding mechanisms adapt to changes in the spatial relations of features and/or the global structure of faces. Here, we investigated whether the figural aftereffect requires spatial attention. Participants ignored a distorted adapting face and performed a highly demanding letter-count task. Before and after adaptation, participants rated the normality of morphed distorted faces ranging from 50% contracted through undistorted to 50% expanded. A robust aftereffect was observed. These results suggest that the figural face aftereffect can occur in the absence of spatial attention, even when the attentional demands of the relevant task are high.
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ItemLed into Temptation? Rewarding Brand Logos Bias the Neural Encoding of Incidental Economic Decisions(PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE, 2012-03-30)Human decision-making is driven by subjective values assigned to alternative choice options. These valuations are based on reward cues. It is unknown, however, whether complex reward cues, such as brand logos, may bias the neural encoding of subjective value in unrelated decisions. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we subliminally presented brand logos preceding intertemporal choices. We demonstrated that priming biased participants' preferences towards more immediate rewards in the subsequent temporal discounting task. This was associated with modulations of the neural encoding of subjective values of choice options in a network of brain regions, including but not restricted to medial prefrontal cortex. Our findings demonstrate the general susceptibility of the human decision making system to apparently incidental contextual information. We conclude that the brain incorporates seemingly unrelated value information that modifies decision making outside the decision-maker's awareness.
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ItemValidación preliminar del IIESS-R. Una nueva medida de la inteligencia emocional [Preliminary Validation of the IIESS-R. A new measurement of emotional intelligence](Federación Española de Asociaciones de Psicología, 2006)El presente trabajo reporta la revisión y validación del IIESS, inventario construido para medir la Inteligencia Emocional (Sojo y Steinkopf, 2002), basado en el modelo de Mayer, Caruso y Salovey (1999). La validación del contenido de los items se realizó con jueces expertos. El análisis factorial de la versión preliminar de 103 items, con una muestra de 109 participantes, mostró la presencia de tres factores. Considerando la gran cantidad de items redactados negativamente cargados en un mismo factor, se hicieron nuevos análisis con la misma muestra, derivando una escala de 36 items. Un análisis factorial posterior, con una muestra independiente de 292 personas, reveló que el IIESS-R está conformado por tres dimensiones: Percepción de Emociones de Otras Personas, Percepción de las Propias Emociones y Manejo Emocional. Para la validación concurrente de esta versión se emplearon cuestionarios de personalidad, con resultados acordes a lo esperado, reflejando la validez de este instrumento.
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ItemPacientes oncológicos con diagnostico reciente: Valoración e intervención sobre la depresión, ansiedad y calidad de vida a través de un programa preventivo de intervención(Sociedad Venezolana de Psiquiatria, 2006)La presente investigación tiene como objetivos: 1. Medir niveles de ansiedad, depresión y calidad de vida en pacientes con diagnóstico reciente de cáncer. 2. Aplicar y valorar la efectividad de un programa de prevención psicológica secundaria, sobre los niveles de ansiedad, depresión y calidad de vida en los pacientes participantes. Método: Se trabajó con una muestra de 28 pacientes con diagnóstico reciente de cáncer, 11 pacientes no culminaron el estudio, los 17 pacientes restantes fueron divididos en forma accidental en dos grupos: experimental y contról, con edades comprendidas entre los 20 y 75 años, de ambos sexos y provenientes del Hospital Militar "Dr. Carlos Arvelo". El diseño empleado fué experimental, de tipo ensayo terapéutico controlado, pre-test y pos-test en dos grupos independientes, y a través de la ejecución de un programa de intervención secundario para obtener consecuencias en los niveles de depresión, ansiedad y calidad de vida en los pacientes del grupo experimental, y compararlos con los del grupo control, evaluados a través de la escala HAD y Karnofsky. Resultados: indican que el programa de intervención secundaria es efectivo al lograr disminuir los niveles de depresión, ansiedad y mejorar la calidad de vida en pacientes con diagnóstico reciente de cáncer. Con hallazgos estadísticamente significativos entre el pre-test y pos-test del grupo experimental, post intervención. Present investigation has three objectives. 1. To measure levels of anxiety, depression and quality of life in patients with recent diagnosis of cancer. 2. To apply and value effectivity of a secondary programme of psychological prevention, upon levels of anxiety, depression and quality of life on study subjects. Method: a sample of 28 subjects with recent diagnosis of cancer, 11 subjects did not finish the study, 17 remaining subjects were divided in an accidental fashion in one experimental group and one control group with ages between 20 and 75 years, both sexes attending the Military Hospital "Dr. Carlos Arvelo" at Caracas, Venezuela. It is an experimental study design, of the controlled therapeutic essay, pre-test and pos-test on two independent groups, by means of the execution of a secondary intervention programme in order to obtain consequences on levels of depression, anxiety and quality of life on subjects in the experimental group compared with the control group, evaluated through HAM-D and Karnofsky Quality of Life Scale.
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ItemNominal wage rigidity prior to compulsory arbitration: Evidence from the Victorian Railways, 1902-1921(Springer, 2011)Studies across a wide range of countries have shown that relatively few workers have received year-to-year wage cuts since the Second World War. However, there is very little micro-level evidence from earlier years, when lower inflation rates and a less regulated labour market may have led to stronger downwards pressure on wages. This paper examines wage adjustment at the Victorian Railways, Australia, between 1902 and 1921. It is shown that, despite strong downwards pressure on wages, nominal wages were rigid downwards and a high proportion of triennial wage changes were exactly zero. Even for workers with very long tenure and in years when the national price level declined, wage cuts were rare. We also show that the characteristics of workers whose wages were unchanged were very similar to those receiving wage cuts. Finally, we show that unlike the wages of incumbent staff, entry wages for new junior staff frequently declined from year to year.
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ItemFlexible Footprints: Reconfiguring MNCs for New Value Opportunities(Sage, 2012)Powerful technological, regulatory, and economic forces compel the senior executives of multinational corporations (MNCs) to repeatedly re-evaluate and reconfigure value chains in the search for ongoing competitive advantage. However, releasing assets from existing activities and redeploying them to new opportunities is a challenging and poorly understood task. In particular, the standard strategic management concepts of use- and firm-flexibility overlook the crucial international dimension of location. Utilizing examples from GM, Qantas, and a mining MNC, this article argues that strategic flexibility should be consciously measured along all three dimensions. By using the decision tool set out in this article, MNC executives can map their worldwide footprint of strategic roadblocks and opportunities to expand into new markets, divest redundant businesses, and build flexibility to adapt to future challenges.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableA genetic algorithm for the generalised transportation problem(Inderscience, 2005-07-11)The generalised transportation problem (GTP) is an extension of the linear Hitchcock transportation problem. However, it does not have the unimodularity property, which means the linear programming solution (like the simplex method) cannot guarantee to be integer. This is a major difference between the GTP and the Hitchcock transportation problem. Although some special algorithms, such as the generalised stepping-stone method, have been developed, but they are based on the linear programming model and the integer solution requirement of the GTP is relaxed. This paper proposes a genetic algorithm (GA) to solve the GTP and a numerical example is presented to show the algorithm and its efficiency. Copyright © 2005 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableA multi-depot travelling salesman problem and its iterative and integrated approaches(Inderscience, 2006)Resource allocation is one of the major decision problems arising in higher education. Resources This paper formulates a logistics distribution problem as the multi-depot travelling salesman problem (MDTSP). The decision makers not only have to determine the travelling sequence of the salesman for delivering finished products from a warehouse or depot to a customer, but also need to determine which depot stores which type of products so that the total travelling distance is minimised. The MDTSP is similar to the combination of the travelling salesman and quadratic assignment problems. In this paper, the two individual hard problems or models are formulated first. Then, the problems are integrated together, that is, the MDTSP. The MDTSP is constructed as both integer nonlinear and linear programming models. After formulating the models, we verify the integrated models using commercial packages, and most importantly, investigate whether an iterative approach, that is, solving the individual models repeatedly, can generate an optimal solution to the MDTSP.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableAn integrated multiple criteria decision making approach for resource allocation in higher education(Inderscience, 2007)Resource allocation is one of the major decision problems arising in higher education. Resources must be allocated optimally in such a way that the performance of universities can be improved. This paper applies an integrated multiple criteria decision making approach to the resource allocation problem. In the approach, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is first used to determine the priority or relative importance of proposed projects with respect to the goals of the universities. Then, the Goal Programming (GP) model incorporating the constraints of AHP priority, system, and resource is formulated for selecting the best set of projects without exceeding the limited available resources. The projects include 'hardware' (tangible university's infrastructures), and 'software' (intangible effects that can be beneficial to the university, its members, and its students). In this paper, two commercial packages are used: Expert Choice for determining the AHP priority ranking of the projects, and LINDO for solving the GP model