Large Service Company Research Articles

Shaping brand attitudes through sustainability practices: a TSR approach

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the conditional relationships among sustainability implementation, brand awareness, brand attitude and brand loyalty through the lens of transformative service research (TSR). The research also aims to explain how brand loyalty moderates the mediated effect of brand awareness and attitude in the context of social and environmental sustainability initiatives.Design/methodology/approachUsing both primary and secondary data sources from 31 prominent service companies and their 6,891 customers, this paper investigates the impact of sustainability practices and brand awareness on customer attitude. The paper also examines the moderated mediation effect of brand loyalty, explaining how it alters brand attitudes in the context of sustainability implementation. Finally, the study conducts a comparative analysis of how environmental and social shape brand attitudes in loyal customers.FindingsSustainability implementation has a negative impact on both brand awareness and customer attitude. However, this negative influence is mitigated for highly brand-loyal customers, resulting in a positive brand attitude. Further, the comparative analysis reveals that social implementation positively influences brand attitude in high-loyalty contexts.Research limitations/implicationsThis research uses subjective judgments of researchers regarding companies’ sustainability practices, combining them with customer attitudes gathered through survey questionnaires. Additionally, the data set comprises data from 31 large service companies, potentially limiting the generalizability of findings to large service companies. Nevertheless, this paper extends TSR into the realm of sustainability and branding.Practical implicationsThe positive outcomes of sustainability implementation practices are most pronounced when customer loyalty toward a brand is strong. Social implementation has a more potent effect on brand attitude, particularly among loyal customers. Companies can tailor their sustainability efforts more effectively.Originality/valueWith the lens of TSR, this research deepens our understanding of how sustainability affects consumer psychology but also offers a methodological advancement by using advanced statistical models and a variety of data sources. The distinctiveness of this research is also highlighted in the examination of how environmental and social sustainability initiatives influence brand attitude, especially among customers who exhibit strong brand loyalty.

WORKING CAPITAL EFFICIENCY, LIQUIDITY, AND SOLVENCY ON PROFITABILITY OF INDONESIAN STATE-PRIVATE BANK

Banks are the largest service companies in Indonesia, based on data from the Financial Services Authority, which greatly influences market fluctuations in the services sector. The components used to determine the level of strength and capability of banking institutions include financial ratios related to profitability. This study aims to analyze the efficiency of working capital, liquidity, and solvency on the profitability of Indonesian BUMN (state-owned enterprise) banks. This study was conducted using a quantitative approach. This study employed data from all financial reports published on the website of the Indonesia Stock Exchange and the website of the research object banks. While the sample used was limited to 8 years of financial reports, from 2014 to 2021, the collected data was tested with multiple regression using SPSS v. 25. This study found that working capital efficiency and liquidity did not affect profitability, while solvency did. Furthermore, when analyzed simultaneously, operating capital efficiency, liquidity, and solvency influence profitability.

To share or not to share: How perceived institutional empowerment shapes employee perceived shared leadership.

The present study aims to expand the existing research by uncovering the overlooked role of situational factors in shaping employee perceived shared leadership. To further advance this field of research, our study introduces a novel situational phenomenon called perceived institutional empowerment. Based on social information processing theory and adaptive leadership theory, we assume that perceived institutional empowerment may have a positive impact on perceived shared leadership via a chain mediating mechanism of perceived organizational support (POS) and psychological safety. Using a sample of 302 participants from a large Chinese service company, the hypotheses were successfully validated. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in our study.

Assessing decision-making skills: preliminary proof-of-concept data for DAssDec - Mod1STY and Mod2STR

From a psychological and neuroscientific perspectives, decision-making can be defined as a skill, a function and/or a process we pervasively implement in our everyday life. Embracing a definition of decision-making that describes it as a multicomponential, pervasive, and instrumental ability, the Digitalized Assessment Tool for Decision-Making (DAssDec) – a novel digitalized assessment tool – has been devised with the specific purpose to capture the multifaceted nature of decision-making and to sketch an articulated profile of its many dispositional and situational manifestations. We here introduce preliminary outcomes from proof-of concept and feasibility study performed on the first two domains of the DAssDec Tool – Mod1STY and Mod2STR – dedicated to decisional styles and strategies. 35 professionals working in managerial departments of a large service company took part in the study. Findings pointed out the feasibility, usability, and practical value of the investigated sections of the DAssDec tool. Also, first quali-quantitative analyses of participants responses and performance at the tasks included in the tested domains have already highlighted the potential of the tool to detect interindividual differences, thus pairing the opportunity to outline a global profile of a work team with specific individual profiles of decision-making skills and their subjective determinants.

Providing a model for evaluating and selecting suppliers of three-phase self-sustaining cables using the interactive approach of analytical hierarchical process and goal programming

Limited resources in the current competitive world have motivated the companies to use from technological tools in order to increase their productivity and efficiency. In this context, identification and selection of suppliers of raw materials and consumer and capital goods in production processes and services are a long step in achieving the goal of survival and excellence. On the other hand, organizations regard as a network of different companies in the supply chain that work together in order to create more added value for the final customer or consumer. Increasing added value by enhancing quality and reduces costs. Suppliers dramatically affect corporate performance in terms of price, quality, technology, and delivery. Therefore, in this study, practical criteria for the selection of suppliers in an Electricity Distribution Company are prioritized using an Analytical Hierarchical Process. An integration of the Analytical Hierarchy Process and Goal Programming use to goal restrictions in allocating an optimal order quantity to each supplier. In following, an integration of AHP and GP use in the case study to supply 500,000 m low-voltage three-phase self-sustaining cable (3 *50 + 25 + 25) to allocate an optimal order quantity to each supplier. The results indicated that a better solution could achieve using an interactive model. Overall, this study provided an appropriate model for using limited financial resources to provide better services to achieve a strategic and comparative advantage. Research results are also applicable in the following areas: 1. Provide appropriate solutions to increase the company's profitability by reducing supply costs. 2. Planning for investment and exploitation in the company's marketing department and supply of consumer goods. 3. Identify barriers in purchasing consumer goods and equipment and their impact on the proper marketing of the company. 4. Application of research in the supply of consumer goods in the electricity distribution company of Khorasan Razavi province and other large service and production companies and future researchers whose information is not accurate and whose criteria are diverse and vague.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12597-021-00570-0.

Research Committee Update: The curmudgeon's column: High-tech low tech

When I posted to LinkedIn some time back to generate publicity for my Geophysical Society of Houston technical lunch talk on beam tomography, one of the interesting comments from a colleague at a large service company was that beam technology is “a technology with many benefits that unfortunately is commonly regarded as old school/low tech.” I loved receiving the comment because it gives me an opportunity to talk about one of my favorite business concepts that I always look to apply: high-tech low tech. “High tech” is a term for new technology that incorporates advanced features. “Low tech” is old-school technology. I'll start with an example: the story of the Nest thermostat.

The Relationship Between Telework, Job Performance, Work–Life Balance and Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviours in the Context of COVID-19

Telework has become a very popular arrangement that has grown rapidly worldwide, most recently due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to deepen our knowledge about the performance of companies and employees in the context of telework because the results of previous studies are contradictory. The present study examines the relationship among telework, job performance, work–life balance (WLB) and family supportive supervisor behaviour (FSSB) in the context of COVID-19. The data ( N = 519), which are collected from large private service companies in Colombia during the COVID-19 pandemic, are analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The results do not indicate a correlation between telework and job performance or WLB in the context of the pandemic. However, positive relationships are found between job performance and both FSSB and WLB, and between FSSB and WLB. The findings help us to understand both the importance of WLB and FSSB for teleworkers and the way these factors impact job performance. The present results could help companies design strategies for the implementation of telework after COVID-19.

Sustainable Recovery: The Multiple Benefits of Collaboration

The oil and gas industry is recovering along with the health situation and the world’s economy following one of the largest downturns in its 160-year history caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. What comes ahead brings its own challenges. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Working Group 1 contribution to the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, published in August, highlighted the “widespread and rapid acceleration of climate change,” with the 1.5°C threshold reached as early as the end of this decade. The dramatic weather events around the globe this summer (in the Northern Hemisphere) with historical temperature records on the North American Pacific Coast and in the central and eastern Mediterranean regions, and huge fires impacting those regions and others such as Siberia, were a reminder that the transformation is occurring now. In this context, the energy mix that the world uses today needs to evolve to a more rational use through energy efficiency and with a lower carbon content, starting from the use of coal. The oil and gas industry has been pioneering the development of technologies such as carbon capture and underground storage and blue hydrogen. International oil companies and national oil companies rank amongst the largest technology investors in renewables and energy storage. Renewables also have a strong potential in applications such as steam injection. Collaboration among the industry and with other peripheral sectors will be an essential ingredient to accelerate the transformation of the energy sector. I personally started in the oil and gas industry more than 4 decades ago in research and development (R&D) with a large oilfield service company, where I led a team of scientists investigating hydraulic fracturing. One of the projects was related to acid fracturing, which required the injection of a viscous non-Newtonian pad to fracture the formation and keep the fracture open, followed by acid which had a much lower viscosity. The two-fluid displacement inside the fracture led to an instability called viscous fingering. In order to understand the phenomenon, we put together a very diverse team, comprising a mathematician, an astrophysicist, a physicochemist, and a geologist. The team was unable to initially work well together and collaborate. The breakthrough came when a high-level scientist from Boston University, a specialist in critical phenomena, was added as a catalyst to the team. Within a few months, the team managed to develop and validate a model for viscous fingering using diffusion-limited aggregation and fractal theory, and its work was published in Nature and the American Physical Society’s Physical Reviews Journals. The team then developed a new set of models for wormholes created by the injection of acid through matrix acidizing and fracture acidizing which were used to create the required chemistry to ensure effectiveness of the treatments. I remain convinced that if we had not included the diversity of the skills and used a catalyst for collaboration, we would not have cracked the research code so rapidly.

Influencia del capital intelectual en la innovación: una perspectiva al nivel del individuo

Introducción: La influencia del capital intelectual en la innovación frecuentemente se ha estudiado a nivel organizacional con las percepciones que tienen los individuos hacia su empleadora; sin embargo, poca atención ha recibido el nivel del individuo con las percepciones que tienen los empleados de sí mismos. Por lo anterior, este trabajo se fija como objetivo medir la influencia que tiene el capital intelectual en la intención de innovación al nivel del individuo con un instrumento de recolección de datos basado en autopercepciones.Método: Mediante un estudio de caso se aplicaron 97 cuestionarios a empleados de una empresa grande de servicios en la ciudad de Tampico en el mes de diciembre de 2019 para posteriormente ser tratadas las observaciones con un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales basado en el análisis de la varianza con el software Smartpls. La presente investigación eligió la población objeto de estudio en base a un censo.Resultados: El capital intelectual influye de forma positiva y significativa mediante 2 de sus componentes (capitales estructural y relacional) en la intención de innovación al nivel del individuo.Discusión o Conclusión: El componente principal del capital intelectual (capital humano) no influyó en la intención de innovación al nivel del individuo, pudiendo explicarse en base a aproximaciones previas a nivel organizacional y por las características de la empresa. Por otro lado, quedó demostrado que la perspectiva del individuo basada en autopercepciones puede ser válida para medir la relación entre capital intelectual e innovación.

ANALYSIS OF THE BALANCE SHEET FROM THE ASPECT OF BUILT-IN ESTIMATES

The balance sheet should present the financial position of the company truthfully and objectively. The presentation of the balance sheet requires the use of the best possible estimates and reasonable assumptions that are reflected in the value of the balance sheet items. Estimates are based on historical and other available information at date of the balance sheet. Each estimate carries a risk with an outcome in materially significant adjustments to the present value of assets, liabilities, incomes and expenses in the next financial year. In the absence of a precise method of measurement, an assessment of the financial statement items is made. The use of adequate estimates does not compromise the reliability of the balance sheet. However, due to the uncertainty of business activities and a certain distinctiveness in the understanding of accounting and economic value, balance sheet items may take different values. There are numerous examples of misuse of creative accounting in accounting practice, and when implemented untrue and biased information is published. The motives for such actions are different, ranging from the need of avoiding paying taxes, more profitable business sales, gaining better creditors position and creditors, to the realization of bonuses and management privileges. In addition to management, competent external experts are hired for appraisal work, whose work does not always have to be reliable because an alternative appraiser can be selected or manipulative data can be provided as a basis for assessment. The aim of this paper is to point out the balance sheet items that carry the greatest risks of objective reporting, and to assess the validity of the applied concept (basis) for measurement. The paper also points to possible ways of manipulating the balance sheet: if you want to show a financial result lower than the real one, then the value of assets is shown lower than it really is, and income statement expenses increase, while the situation is reversed if the company wants to show better financial results of the existing ones: then the estimated value of the assets in the balance sheet increases, and the value of the expenses in the income statement decreases. The paper starts from the basic hypothesis that the value assets assessment affects the presentation of the financial position of the company. An important item in the estimates is the assessment of the useful life of fixed assets. These estimates are reviewed annually and changed in accordance with the expected changes and the dynamics of spending the future economic benefits of fixed assets. The hypothesis proof was performed on the example of the analysis of the property position of a large service company for the period from 2004 to 2019. The results indicate that estimates can significantly correct the financial position of the company, and that the analysis of the company should focus on positions that are subject to assessments and that can significantly change the value of the company, instead of cash and liquidity positions that are considered priority in most analysis.

With Frenemies Like These: Social Networks Ties and Interpersonal Citizenship Behaviors

This study examines the relationship between the type of social network tie shared between two individuals—positive, negative, or ambivalent multiplex (both positive and negative tie components)—and the performance of interpersonal citizenship behavior (ICB), a form of individually-targeted organizational citizenship behavior. Drawing from ego depletion theory, social exchange theory, and the social functions of emotions perspective, we argue that dyadic relational qualities influence the individual’s decision to perform ICBs. Further, based on social categorization theory and social information processing theory, we posit that the number of positive alters a dyad shares increases the probability of ICB. We test the theoretical model in a study including 48 employees of a supplier organization for large retailers and food service companies using exponential random graph models (ERGMs). Results offer support for the hypothesized relationships, and the practical implications, as well as future research questions, are addressed.

Do stressors stifle or facilitate employees' innovative use of enterprise systems: the moderating role of IT mindfulness

PurposeInnovative use of enterprise systems (ES) by employees is essential for organisations to benefit from huge investments in such systems. Drawing on job demands-resources (JDR) theory, this study explores how stressors (i.e. challenge and hindrance stressors) influence employees' innovative use of ES, as well as considering the moderating effects of IT mindfulness.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from a longitudinal survey of 152 employees in a large financial service company in China. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to test the research model.FindingsResults showed that challenge stressors exerted a positive effect and hindrance stressors had no significant effect on innovative use of ES. Furthermore, we found that IT mindfulness weakened the positive effect of challenge stressors and the negative effect of hindrance stressors on innovative use of ES.Originality/valueThis study is among the first to extend the research of innovative use of ES by considering two types of stressors based on the JDR theory. Besides, new insights are provided on how to promote employees' innovative use of ES in the post-acceptance stage according to the different levels of IT mindfulness of employees.

Abusive supervision and employee engagement and satisfaction: the mediating role of employee silence

PurposePrevious studies have found that abusive supervision undermines employees' work motivation and attitudes, namely work engagement and job satisfaction. However, less is known about the mechanisms by which abusive supervision negatively relates to employees' work engagement and job satisfaction. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study examines employee silence as a mediating mechanism linking abusive supervision to employees' work engagement and job satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were collected from a sample of 233 full-time employees of a large hotel service company in Taiwan. Structural equation modeling analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results showed that abusive supervision has a positive association with employee silence. Moreover, the results showed that employee silence mediates the negative associations of abusive supervision with employees' work engagement and job satisfaction.Practical implicationsThe results suggest that organizational managers should provide supervisors with leadership interventions to prevent the occurrence of abusive supervision. Furthermore, organizational managers should provide employees with opportunities to voice their concerns through the use of organizational communication and participation, which can reduce employee silence and subsequently foster employee engagement and satisfaction at work.Originality/valueThis study advances our understanding of how abusive supervision results in poor work motivation and attitudes among employees. This contributes to the literature by identifying employee silence as a suitable mediating mechanism linking the negative associations of abusive supervision with employees' work engagement and job satisfaction.

Connections between organisational culture and financial performance in Estonian service and production companies

PurposeThis paper elaborates on connections between organisational culture (OC) and financial performance in production and service companies in Estonia.Design/methodology/approachThis cross-sectional study analyses the organisational culture of 19 SMEs and large service and production companies with 2,256 respondents. The questionnaire based on the Competing Values Framework (CVF) was used to map organisational culture. Six different performance indicators from annual reports in the Estonian Business Register database were used over a four-year period. A confirmatory factor analysis and non-parametric Spearman rank correlation were applied in the study.FindingsThe authors found that OC types are connected to each other and theoretical opposites in the CVF are not mutually exclusive. Strong correlations exit between Clan and Adhocracy cultures, also confirmed by previous studies. Surprisingly, Market and Hierarchy types correlated more strongly in our sample compared to previous studies. As expected, Clan–Adhocracy and Market types exhibited a strong positive correlation with financial indicators, but contrary to the authors’ hypothesis, the Hierarchy type also had positive connections to performance indicators. The Market culture was only significantly related to performance in years when the Hierarchy type was also positively correlated with performance. Correlations that were positive in some years under investigation became insignificant in other years.Originality/valueFirst, The authors use multiple objective financial performance indicators to reveal relationships between OC and performance. Second, this study did not only rely on the managers' opinion of OC, but the sample also consists of respondents from all levels of the organisational hierarchy. Third, the authors expand on existing research into the link between OC and performance by exploring a country from the former Soviet Union (FSU), where the number of similar studies is low, but where the specific context has an impact on connections between OC and financial performance of the firms.

An empirical study into the limitations and emerging trends of Six Sigma in manufacturing and service organisations

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to carry out an empirical study of the limitations and emerging trends of Six Sigma in manufacturing and service companies.Design/methodology/approachThe authors developed an online survey instrument based on the existing literature addressing the current limitations and emerging trends of Six Sigma in manufacturing and service companies. In this study, 75 Six Sigma Master Black Belts, 39 Black Belts and 12 Green Belts from large manufacturing and service companies participated; each of whom is familiar with the Six Sigma topics.FindingsThis study reports the top 5 limitations and emerging trends of Six Sigma from the viewpoints of subject matter experts from large manufacturing and service companies from over 20 countries. The main finding is that the top 4 limitations were identical for both manufacturing and service companies. These limitations include: the integration of Six Sigma with Big Data, the use of Six Sigma in small medium and micro-enterprises, an over emphasis of Six Sigma on variability reduction and the poor implementation of Six Sigma and its resultant negative impact on employee satisfaction.Practical implicationsIn order to sustain Six Sigma initiatives in organisations, the authors argue that the limitations and emerging trends of this powerful business strategy should be understood and appropriate remedial strategies developed to address said limitations.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study to examine the limitations and emerging trends of Six Sigma in both manufacturing and service organisations. Moreover, the findings of the study can be very beneficial to many organisations.

It's not me, it's you: Testing a moderated mediation model of subordinate deviance and abusive supervision through the self‐regulatory perspective

AbstractSynthesizing self‐regulatory theories, we provide new insights into the antecedents of abusive supervision. We, from the perspective of supervisor's self‐regulatory resources depletion or impairment, introduce supervisor hindrance stress as an underlying mechanism of the subordinate deviance–abusive supervision relationship: this mediated relationship will be intensified at the level of high subordinate job performance. In addition, we develop a complex contingency model and propose a three‐way interaction (i.e., subordinate deviance, job performance, supervisor outcome dependence) to obtain the complete understanding of the subordinate deviance–abusive supervision relationship facilitated through the supervisors’ hindrance stress. To test our moderated moderated mediation model, we gathered time‐lagged and multisource data from a large food service company located in southern China. We collected data at two different points (i.e., Time 1 and Time 2) from supervisors and their direct reports (N = 298 responses from 68 supervisors and 298 direct reports), and findings provide support for the hypothesized moderated moderated mediation model of our study. We highlight the implications of our study for theory, research, and practice.

Improving Working Conditions to Promote Worker Safety, Health, and Wellbeing for Low-Wage Workers: The Workplace Organizational Health Study.

This paper addresses a significant gap in the literature by describing a study that tests the feasibility and efficacy of an organizational intervention to improve working conditions, safety, and wellbeing for low-wage food service workers. The Workplace Organizational Health Study tests the hypothesis that an intervention targeting the work organization and environment will result in improvements in workers’ musculoskeletal disorders and wellbeing. This ongoing study is being conducted in collaboration with a large food service company. Formative evaluation was used to prioritize outcomes, assess working conditions, and define essential intervention elements. The theory-driven intervention is being evaluated in a proof-of-concept trial, conducted to demonstrate feasibility and potential efficacy using a cluster randomized design. Ten worksites were randomly assigned to intervention or control conditions. The 13-month intervention uses a comprehensive systems approach to improve workplace policies and practices. Using principles of participatory engagement, the intervention targets safety and ergonomics; work intensity; and job enrichment. The evaluation will provide a preliminary assessment of estimates of the intervention effect on targeted outcomes and inform understanding of the intervention implementation across worksites. This study is expected to provide insights on methods to improve working conditions in support of the safety and wellbeing of low-wage workers.

THE ORGANIZATION OF R&D ACTIVITIES IN LARGE KNOWLEDGE INTENSIVE BUSINESS SERVICES: THE CASE OF A “BIG FOUR” CONSULTANCY

The belief that services are a laggard in innovation is over. But what do we know about how large service companies organize their R&D and innovation capabilities? This paper draws from the organizational aspects hidden behind the literature on service innovation to help fill this research gap. The paper tests these organizational insights in a “big four” consultancy company, archetypal of KIBS, to compare its infrastructure with the main organizational debates coming from R&D literature in technology-intensive manufacturing. Interestingly, the highly dynamic R&D organization found in the case study company and its recent developments and dynamic character reveal the relevance of a topic that has been so far overlooked in the literature.

WIZUALIZACJA SIECI SPOŁECZNYCH W IDENTYFIKACJI LIDERÓW ZMIAN

Every organizational change is considered a big challenge. Therefore, selecting right people who would be able to drive any kind of change successfully is very important. This paper aims to analyse the impact of the change leaders selection on different change contexts. Analysis is performed with the usage of various networks visualizations methods. Article is a case study of a large service company. Change leaders characterizations was followed by the analysis of their positions in different informal networks, in various change contexts.

Kaizen, a continuous improvement practice in organizations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare the practices of continuous improvement that are applied in medium and large manufacturing and service companies in two Latin American countries. At the same time, benefits and barriers experienced by these companies with regard to sustainability of continuous improvement are explored. Design/methodology/approach In order to generate a comparative study between two Latin American countries, interviews were conducted with managers linked to continuous improvement in medium and large companies in the State of Puebla and the Metropolitan District of Quito, which are important areas in Mexico and Ecuador, respectively. Data were collected by means of document analysis, semi-structured interviews, and direct observation. Findings Companies in both countries identify the use of various techniques and/or tools for continuous improvement. The results of the empirical evidence show how the impact of the application of the techniques has been beneficial in economic and human terms. Thus, the exploratory study has permitted the identification of the drivers and inhibitors in the maintenance of continuous improvement. Research limitations/implications The research is based on only two areas of the Latin American countries: Mexico and Ecuador. Their results can therefore not be generalized. The approach is applied in a specific environment, namely, the State of Puebla and the Metropolitan District of Quito. This study incorporates the perception of managers, directors, and/or supervisors involved in continuous improvement processes. Practical implications This paper seeks to provide analytical input. The study is of great interest to researchers, managers, consultants, and professionals linked to projects of continuous improvement who wish to incorporate continuous improvement practices which are sustainable over time. A new managerial behavior is the basis of continuous improvement, where the training and development of the human resource increases the commitment to achieve organizational changes. Originality/value This research makes an empirical contribution to the literature through the understanding of practices of continuous improvement in a Latin American context, highlighting the factors that improve or impede the process of continuous improvement. Particularly in Mexico and Ecuador, the empirical evidence on this subject is still scarce despite the existence of theoretical academic literature.