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(2011)Journal ArticleAlthough research into blood donor motivation abounds, most studies have typically focused on small sets of variables, used different terminology to label equivalent constructs, and have not attempted to generalize findings beyond their individual settings. The current study sought to synthesize past findings into a unified taxonomy of blood donation drivers and deterrents, and estimate the prevalence of each factor across the worldwide population of donors and eligible non-donors. Primary studies were collected and cross-validated categories of donation motivators and deterrents were developed. Proportions of first-time, repeat, lapsed, apheresis and eligible non-donors endorsing each category were calculated. In terms of motivators, first-time and repeat donors most frequently cited convenience, prosocial motivation and personal values; apheresis donors similarly cited the latter two motivators. Conversely, lapsed donors more often cited collection agency reputation, perceived need for donation, marketing communication and incentives as motivators. In terms of deterrents, both donors and non-donors most frequently referred to low self-efficacy to donate, low involvement, inconvenience, absence of marketing communication, ineffective incentives, lack of knowledge about donating, negative service experiences, and fear. The integration of past findings has yielded a comprehensive taxonomy of factors influencing blood donation, and has provided insight into the prevalence of each factor across multiple stages of donors’ careers. Implications for collection agencies are discussed.
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(2013)Conference Paper
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(2012)ThesisThis study examines how emerging market firms (EMFs) develop capabilities to leapfrog in the knowledge intensive global information technology (IT) industry. Academic literatures have thus far focused on globalization of large multinational companies (MNCs) from developed countries, mainly from the OECD. While firms from the OECD are well endowed in resources, firms from developing countries are generally resource poor and their establishment, development and international expansion have taken place within an institutional environment that is different from those found in western economies. Hence how resource poor EMFs learn to transform comparative advantages into dynamic firm-specific capabilities deserves attention. The study explores how Indian IT firms “moved up the value ladder,” moving out of the “low road” where the barriers to entry are low and competition is based mainly on price and squeezing wages, to the “high road” where competition is based on differentiation. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methodology is used. The qualitative part focused on inductive case study research, moving along observation, categorization and association, finally giving rise to constructs and models. The quantitative part entailed deductive econometric studies on 703 companies using panel data method, testing hypothesis to identify which factors contribute to globalization of EMFs. The findings reveal that globalization of EMFs is an evolutionary process and in each phase of evolution, the EMFs progressively learn from their linkages with MNCs and leverage them to globalise rapidly. Through linkages with MNCs, EMFs gained access to markets, technology, and reputation. The research identified the distinctive capabilities acquired by the EMFs in each phase of their capability lifecycle. Linkages with and learning from international and domestic innovation networks transformed EMFs’ business model and upgraded their capabilities. The study shows that dynamic capability in the form of powerful intellectual property enabled EMFs to evolve from service provider to a partner status. Findings of this study present a novel and contemporary insight on how EMFs evolve to develop dynamic capability, which enables them to leapfrog in a fast changing technology space. The results challenge the view that the Indian software industry presents the classic problem of locking-in a low road of the innovation trajectory.
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(2013)ThesisThis thesis was undertaken to examine hypotheses about the potential to apply the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to understand the transfer of training. Prior to developing the hypotheses, previous theories were discussed and empirical studies published over the past few decades were reviewed. Due to inconsistent findings, the thesis argues that the role of trainees, especially their intention (as envisaged in the TPB), should form a new direction for studying transfer behavior. For the thesis, two empirical studies were conducted. The first study tested an intention-based model to explain transfer of training behavior. Specifically, attitude toward the transfer behavior, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control were proposed as antecedents of transfer intention, while transfer intention and perceived behavior control predicted transfer behavior. Results from structural equation modeling (SEM) (n = 132 construction practitioners in Hong Kong) showed that the three antecedents positively affected transfer intention, which in turn affected transfer behavior positively. Perceived behavioral control did not affect transfer behavior significantly. Moreover, a post-hoc analysis supported the mediating role of transfer intention in the relationship between the antecedents and transfer behavior. The second study examined a similar model, but added two variables – transfer performance and gender. A survey was carried out of 168 working people in Hong Kong. Testing with SEM revealed the acceptance of the explanatory powers of the different structural equations. However, among the three antecedents, only attitude toward the transfer behavior was significantly related to transfer intention. Perceived behavioral control and transfer intention were significantly related to transfer behavior, which was in turn related to transfer performance. Also, the moderating role of gender was tested with hierarchical regression analysis, and only male respondents were found to be significant in moderating the relationship between perceived behavioral control and transfer intention. Overall, the findings of this thesis support the use of the TPB in explaining transfer of training. However, the varying findings from the two studies draw attention to the nature of work (teamwork and the control of resources) that may exert influence on the transfer process. This implication is useful to develop future research directions.
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(2013)Journal ArticleEmployees' participation in informal learning activities benefits their workplace performance, and ultimately their long-term career development. While research has identified several individual- and organizational-level factors that promote participation, to date, the role of human resource management (HRM) in facilitating informal learning activities is not well understood. We investigate the effects of perceptions of performance appraisal quality and HRM system strength on three informal learning activities: reflection on daily activities, knowledge sharing with colleagues, and innovative behavior. Using a sample of 238 employees from 54 work teams, we examine changes in levels of participation in the informal learning activities over a year. Performance appraisal quality was found to be positively associated with increased participation in each activity over time, and HRM system strength positively moderated these relationships. Implications of the findings for educational institutions and other organizations are discussed.
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(2011)ThesisTraditionally, research has focused on the consequences of human values and the determinants of values have been neglected. The central aim of this thesis was to investigate the mechanisms and motivational basis for values. To achieve this aim, I determined how biologically based approach and avoidance personality traits predicted values via the mediating roles of emotional management and executive function. I also used experimental conditions to further understand the determinants of values in predicting risk-taking behavior. This thesis contains five self-contained papers (chapters 2-6). Each chapter explores the literature and focuses on indirect and direct predictors of values. Together, the six studies revealed the potential mechanisms and a motivational basis for values. Chapter 1, supported the proposed model that Emotional Intelligence mediated the relationship between Cloninger et al.‟s (1993) approach and avoidance personality traits and the Values. In chapter 2, the proposed association between Emotional Intelligence, personality and Machiavellian moral reasoning was supported. Chapter 4 (Studies 2 and 3), provided general support for the proposed model; indirect pathways (via Emotional Intelligence) from approach and avoidance personality traits predicted Machiavellianism. In chapter 5, a laboratory based study suggested that approach personality traits (Carver and White, 1994; Goldberg, 1999; Jackson, 2005) predicted the values of Universalism, Benevolence, Hedonism, and Stimulation via Executive Functioning. Finally, in chapter 6, a laboratory study suggested that Approach personality traits and values directly influence risk-taking behavior. Overall, the findings suggest that personality traits predict values via managing emotions, and Executive Functioning. Personality traits, emotional management and Executive Functioning provided mechanisms and a motivational basis for human values. Further evidence points to personality traits providing mechanisms for values under laboratory conditions. Theoretical implications and limitations are discussed at the end of each chapter.
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(2012)ThesisResearch and famous near-miss innovations suggest that individuals are generally poor self and peer evaluators of new products. Industry and academia acknowledges the importance of accurate judgements for creative and innovative products yet within the creativity, brainstorming, new product development, and innovation literatures, the issue of accurate product evaluations remains under-examined. In lieu of focusing on the evaluation process, research in these areas have largely focused on the generative aspects of new ideas and products, leading Mueller, Melwani, and Goncalo (2012, p. 17) to argue that the field of creativity may need to shift its current focus from identifying how to generate more creative ideas to identifying how to help innovative institutions recognize and accept creativity . This neglect is further compounded in much of the existing research within creativity examining new product evaluation by the use of divergent thinking tests, rather than real-world creative products. The extent to which findings and research conclusions derived in this manner can inform our understanding of real-world new product evaluation is limited. As part of this drive towards the evaluative aspects of creativity and innovation, our research examined the new product evaluation process. We do so by firstly introducing a process model of creative and innovative product evaluation which integrates our extensive review of the literature on creativity, innovation, evaluation, and judgement accuracy. Using this model as a guiding framework, we conducted a series of four empirical studies involving new real-world products. We examined the effects of 1) different evaluator perspectives (e.g., whether a creator or a non-task-involved evaluator is rating the product), 2) differential use of judging standards (and whether it may account for differences in evaluation outcomes), 3) different evaluation instruments and methods (and whether it leads to differences in rating accuracy), 4) the role of creator and evaluator personal characteristics, and 5) environmental influences. Our experiments utilised a mixture of laboratory and quasi-field designs. They involved a variety of participants (e.g., target consumers, bank managers, and domain experts) who were tasked with creating new products (or evaluation targets) from different domains. We examined product evaluation from both an external, consumer perspective and an internal, organisational point of view, and utilised a variety of evaluation instruments and methods. Creator and evaluator personal characteristics studied here included the Big Five personality traits, divergent thinking abilities, adaptive flexibility, goal orientation, novelty seeking, thinking styles, psychological empowerment, and domain knowledge and expertise. Our findings reveal that product creators and peer evaluators (who were involved in the same task but not having created the specific product being evaluated, i.e., task-involved-evaluators ) consistently overestimated the significance (e.g., innovativeness and effectiveness) of new products relative to target consumers and the consensus judgements of experts. At the same time, we did not find consistent evidence for creator self bias (or overestimation) relative to peer evaluator ratings. Exploring the effectiveness and accuracy of teams, and consistent with the mixed findings in the literature, we found no significant advantage in terms of evaluative accuracy for team self evaluation, compared to averaged, nominal team self ratings. Increased domain knowledge was observed to lead to more accurate new product evaluations. Going beyond summary judgements, our study found that for task-involved evaluators (i.e., creators and peer evaluators), differences in the use of judging standards and criteria can account, at least partially, for differences in evaluation outcomes. Finally, our investigations into the effects of creator and evaluator personal characteristics on judgement accuracy, and our study of the implications of using different evaluation instruments and procedures yield inconclusive results. We end by noting the paucity of existing empirical investigations into the new product evaluation process and highlight avenues for future research with our model.
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(2013)ThesisThis thesis presents a study of the micro dynamics of labour market segmentation, through an exploration of occupational variations in the differentiated patterns of mothers employment mobility. The study seeks an answer to the question: How do Australian mothers retain occupational access within a segmented labour market? While Australia has comparatively high rates of part-time employment internationally, not all Australian mothers access part-time work as a means of maintaining labour force attachment during periods of care responsibility. One third of employed mothers, with responsibility for a child under 16 years of age, work full-time. In contrast, for mothers who do access part-time work, the interlinking patterns of working hours, employment mode and occupational mobility often make altering working hours alone difficult. This study draws on a theoretical framework examining the interplay between choice and constraint at the individual level, exploring the occupational variations in enablements and barriers that mothers navigate in order to maintain both employment and occupational access. The thesis presents a longitudinal analysis of 5 waves of data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia (HILDA) Survey (2001 2005), presenting two integrated studies. The first study examines the shape of employment, that is the pattern of norms relating to the terms and conditions of employment, including hours and location of work and contract mode; and how that shape varies both in appearance and strength for 64 occupations in the Australian labour market. The second study explores variations across 64 occupations in the patterns of navigation of Australian mothers between 2001 and 2005. This study explores the micro dynamics of employment mobility at the individual level, illustrating the impact of the shape of employment in both constraining and enabling the avenues of choice available to mothers attempting to combine work and care. Based on the empirical evidence in these studies, I argue that how a mother navigates her employment access is enabled and constrained by the shape of employment accessibility - the pattern and strength of occupational norms defining the available forms and modes of employment allowing occupational engagement.
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(2012)ThesisThis thesis investigates the effects of the introduction of the Australian Stock Exchange s Principles of Good Corporate Governance and Best Practice Recommendations (ASX Code) in 2004. The ASX Code introduced a comply or explain reporting mechanism for the disclosure of corporate governance practices in Australia for the first time. This form of regulation has been widely adopted around the World as a form of best practice regulation. Unlike previous research on the introduction of similar comply or explain corporate governance codes, this thesis takes a longitudinal perspective examining the reporting practices of corporations listed on the Australian Stock Exchange before and after the introduction of the new reporting requirements. The thesis applies institutional change theory and incorporates an institutional work approach to examine changes to corporate governance regulatory systems. The analysis adopts both quantitative and qualitative research methods to best understand the phenomena of regulatory change. The results show that the introduction of the ASX Code was a modification to the existing archetype rather than a change of archetype. Hence the introduction of the ASX Code is considered an example of institutional maintenance rather than change. This finding has significant implications for both theory and practice. This thesis provides a theoretically informed understanding of the reasons why and the effects of the introduction of the ASX Code in 2004 and how the ASX was able to restore trust in the existing institutional framework, and the enduring power of the institutional logic of regulatory capitalism.
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(2013)ThesisThis dissertation inquires how late entrants in emerging economies build up their capabilities to compete in technologically mature industries at the global level by examining the rise to global leadership of new Chinese synthetic dye enterprises since 1978 as example. 59 interviews were conducted and a large amount of archival data was collected, both of which were coded and analyzed using NVIVO 8. Overall, this dissertation contributes to evolutionary, institutionalist, and social network literature by providing a nuanced interpretation of industry migration and start-up growth by combining the above three views together. To provide a background for later chapters, the first chapter investigates the post-1978 changes in four Chinese institutions and differences in their speed of change at national and regional levels. In the second chapter, I examine the role of four institutional arrangements in shaping the ownership-based competitiveness of local dye enterprises and the migration of dye manufacturing in China. It documents for the first time that the migration of leadership from state-owned enterprises to collectively-owned enterprises and then to private enterprises was accompanied by a concurrent leadership migration from one region to another. To explain the two simultaneous leadership migrations, an institution-based evolutionary model has been proposed in the study. The model is likely to apply to all the Chinese manufacturing industries, which existed prior to 1978, but subsequently, neither experienced significant technological changes nor were highly protected by the government. In my third chapter, I focus on six cases of private dye start-ups in Zhejiang after 1978, to explore the two understudied questions: (i) what knowledge is acquired by new venture start-ups through their founders' network relationships with employees of incumbent firms? and (ii) what knowledge acquired through this mechanism, during foundation, underlies the long-term success of such start-ups? From the focal context, I find that eight types of knowledge that fall into two categories (functional and strategic knowledge) were acquired by new venture start-ups in this way during their founding. Strikingly, the reception of strategic knowledge, rather than functional knowledge that includes the conventionally emphasized technical knowledge, was the most decisive factor for start-ups' long-term success.