Revealing the effect of acculturation process on e-commerce acceptance: The case of intra-European acculturation

The popularity of e-commerce has increased significantly over recent years. However, this growth is not shared by all European Union states. One reason for this discrepancy is culture which impacts on e-commerce acceptance. The purpose of this research is to reveal the effect of acculturation process on e-commerce acceptance. Structural equation modelling is employed to test three research models: Technology Acceptance Model, Theory of Planned Behaviour Model and Motivational Model. The findings show that attitudes towards e-commerce change in relation to the perception of control and the influence of subjective norms, which impact intentions to use e-commerce before movement to a host country’s culture. However, its effect diminishes after the exposure to the influence of a host culture. This is the first study to demonstrate the existence of the effect of acculturation process on mingling and migrating consumers and their changing attitudes towards e-commerce acceptance

Identifying risk and its impact on contracting through a benefit based-model framework in business to business contracting: case of the defence industry

Paper presented at CIRP Design Conference 2009, Cranfield, UK, 30-31 Mar 2009; also available on Cranfield repositoryTwo defence contracts for availability are studied in the attempt to better understanding the provision of service in a maintenance, repair and overhaul environment that is contracted on the performance of the equipment, rather than merely providing equipment. The nature of the contract changes the dynamics of the delivery, bringing behavioural issues into the forefront, with both customer and firm focused on value cocreation, rather than each party’s contractual obligation. Our study provides a customer focused approach that exposes gaps in the way organizations approach their service provision in MRO. We argue that customer involvement and behavioural issues in the co-creation process has to be factored into the design and delivery of traditional MRO delivery systems. This paper uncovers four areas that pose risks to performance based contracts and are crucial in the design of services under such a contractual environment and provides a research agenda for future studies in this area.This research was made possible through the joint funding of the Engineering & Physical Science Research Council and BAE Systems on the Support Service Solutions: Strategy & Transition (S4T) project consortium led by the University of Cambridg

Theoretical foundations in the pricing of intermediating services: the case of mobile phone payments

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management is available online at:Intermediating services are relatively new in research. This study explores how consumers may determine the value of intermediating services and the extent on willingness to pay. We investigate a mobile payment technology that intermediates payments facilitated by a telecommunication company and a bank. We show that a derived effect may persuade consumers to pay higher for the intermediating service when the items purchased has higher surplus to ustify the consumption of the service. Our study also shows that money has polarity, in that money that is ‘owned’ by the individual is viewed differently from money ‘not owned’

Towards a benefit-based framework for understanding B2B services and its impact on contract and capability

Proceedings of the 10th International Research Seminar in Services Management, 27-30 May 2008, La Londe, Franc

Comparing service quality in public vs private distance education institutions:Evidence based on Malaysia

Assessment of the quality of distance education institutions has become an important issue that needs to be addressed to ensure program survival. This study uses SERVPERF model to identify the differences that exists in students' perception of service quality in public and private universities in Malaysia that offer distance education. Our study confirms that this model is valid and reliable. We find that the students' overall perception of service quality is lower in all five dimensions of service quality for the private universities. The dimensions that influence overall service quality are noticeably different for public and private universities. This suggests that private universities need to improve their service provision in order to remain competitive. Managerial implications of the major findings are discussed

Effect of green innovation strategy on firm-idiosyncratic risk: A competitive action perspective

Despite increasing concern for corporate environmental responsibility in numerous industries, the relationship between green innovation strategy (GIS) and idiosyncratic risk is a rarely scrutinised topic, particularly in the automotive domain. In this study, we empirically explore the association between GIS and idiosyncratic risk and analyse the moderating role played by the firm's competitive action. We rely on the secondary information sourced for 132 top automotive firms, in the period ranging from 2011 to 2017 by applying the system generalised methods of moments estimator to the dynamic panel data model. Our findings indicate that GIS significantly reduces the idiosyncratic risk of all firms, and this relationship strengthens with the increase in the competitive action of the firms. Our evidence supports “it pays to be green” firm heterogeneity argument. This study highlights the academic and managerial implications and focuses on the environmental issues published in environmental management literature

Corporate debt policy of Malaysian SMEs: empirical evidence from firm dynamic panel data

Financing has been identified as a dominant constraint to Malaysian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Yet, limited attention has been given to the challenges faced by the SMEs in financing their operations. This paper investigates the determinants of capital structure and use of financing for Malaysian SMEs in manufacturing sector and examines hypotheses by utilising a static trade-off choice or pecking order framework by employing a series of firm characteristics including: size, age, asset structure, profitability, growth, taxation and risk. The system Generalised Method of Moment (GMM) approach has been used for the estimation. The findings suggest that most of the determinants of capital structure presented by the theory of finance appear to be relevant for the Malaysian SMEs. Firm size and asset structure have a significantly positive effect on the leverage ratio in SMEs, while age and taxation have a negative effect. Though, growth has an impact on the total debt of the firms, profitability and risk does not have any significant effect on the decision of debt decision making in Malaysian SMEs. Furthermore, the findings of the study show that Malaysian SMEs in the manufacturing sector generally operate based on a combination of the pecking order and the trade-off theory while borrowing in the long-term and short-term

Topical Beta-Blockers and Cardiovascular Mortality: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis with Data from the EPIC-Norfolk Cohort Study.

PURPOSE: To determine if topical beta-blocker use is associated with increased cardiovascular mortality, particularly among people with self-reported glaucoma. METHODS: All participants who participated in the first health check (N = 25,639) of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC) Norfolk cohort (1993-2013) were included in this prospective cohort study, with a median follow-up of 17.0 years. We determined use of topical beta-blockers at baseline through a self-reported questionnaire and prescription check at the first clinical visit. Cardiovascular mortality was ascertained through data linkage with the Office for National Statistics mortality database. Hazard ratios (HRs) were estimated using multivariable Cox regression models. Meta-analysis of the present study's results together with other identified literature was performed using a random effects model. RESULTS: We did not find an association between the use of topical beta-blockers and cardiovascular mortality (HR 0.93, 95% confidence interval, CI, 0.67-1.30). In the 514 participants with self-reported glaucoma, no association was found between the use of topical beta-blockers and cardiovascular mortality (HR 0.89, 95% CI 0.56-1.40). In the primary meta-analysis of four publications, there was no evidence of an association between the use of topical beta-blockers and cardiovascular mortality (pooled HR estimate 1.10, 95% CI 0.84-1.36). CONCLUSION: Topical beta-blockers do not appear to be associated with excess cardiovascular mortality. This evidence does not indicate that a change in current practice is warranted, although clinicians should continue to assess individual patients and their cardiovascular risk prior to commencing topical beta-blockers.EPIC-Norfolk infrastructure and core functions are supported by grants from the Medical Research Council (G1000143) and Cancer Research UK (C864/A14136). The clinic for the third health examination was funded by Age UK Research into Ageing (262). Mr Khawaja is a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Fellow. Mr Foster has received additional support from the Richard Desmond Charitable Trust (via Fight for Sight) and the Department for Health through the award made by the National Institute for Health Research to Moorfields Eye Hospital and the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology for a specialist Biomedical Research Centre for Ophthalmology.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Taylor & Francis via http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09286586.2016.1213301

Does firm size matter? evidence on the impact of the green innovation strategy on corporate financial performance in the automotive sector

In the past few years, there has been increasing awareness regarding the significance of the Green Innovation Strategy (GIS) in the academic and practical fields. Hence, it becomes important to determine the correlation between the GIS and the Corporate Financial Performance (CFP). This study attempted to determine the dynamic correlation between the GIS and the CFP, with regards to the firm size. For this purpose, this study has collected data for 163 international automotive firms, from the CSRHub database, for the period ranging between 2011 and 2017. Furthermore, we also used the dynamic panel data system, i.e., the Generalised Method of Moment (GMM) method, for estimating this relationship. The empirical results indicated that the GIS positively affected the CFP. Interestingly, we also uncovered that the firm size moderated the negative correlation between the GIS and the CFP. The small-sized firms showed higher green innovation investments return than the larger-sized firms, which indicated that these smaller firms were more prone to seek variation and visibility, for accessing better resources. Furthermore, due to the extensive scrutiny of the stakeholders, these small firms could generate higher profits. The implications for managers and the theories in this regard are then discussed

TCSPC camera for real time video rate FLIM acquisition based on CMOS technology

The use of fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) is appealing for the study of biomolecular interactions. Traditionally FLIM has made use of scanning techniques to image a sample with a “single-pixel” detector, while widefield approaches have mainly related to intensity-based imaging. The latter is is advantageous to study mobile samples or kinetics, usually not achievable with FLIM. Rapid fluorescence lifetime imaging is especially important in the monitoring of biological samples, eg. because of cell movement. Recent advances in CMOS technology has led to the development of imaging sensors, based on arrays of pixels, with each pixel containing a single-photon avalanche photodiode (SPAD) and its associated timing electronics, based on a time to digital converter (TDC). This enables rapid (video rate) fluorescence lifetime determination based on the time-correlated single-photon counting technique (TCSPC) to be realised independently in each pixel. Here, we incorporate a 192 x 128 pixel image sensor1, implemented in STMicroelectronics 40nm CMOS technology, in a widefield epifluorescence microscope set-up. The sensor exhibits a 13% fill-factor and each 18.4 x 9.2 μm pixel contains a TDC with a resolution 30 fps) rate. This capability is demonstrated using standard samples and FUN-1 labelled yeast2