Corporate reputation and B2B inter-firm partnerships

In our networked world today, business-to-business (B2B) inter-firm partnerships are increasingly a feature of the organisation. At the same time, corporate reputation has been strongly identified as a key factor in the success of organisations (Fombrun & Van Riel, 2004; Fryxell & Wang, 1994). However, reputation has most often been looked at from the perspective of a single organisation and how its stakeholders perceive it. By comparison, less attention has been paid to the importance of the reputations of organisations when they form a partnership. This is surprising given that partnerships are to be found in so many walks of life today including business, sport, the arts and the media. B2B partnerships are often the subject of significant investments and it is therefore important to understand the value that can be derived from them. An example of a successful B2B partnership is that of the Boeing Company with Rolls-Royce plc. The reputations of each are synergistic and together they are seen as pioneers in greener air travel with the new Trent 1000 range of multi-fuel (kerosene/biofuel mix), efficient and quiet jet engines used as part of the 787 Dreamliner product family of commercial aircraft. Successful partnerships are those in which close collaboration arises because of synergistic skills and complementary outlooks that result in positive outcomes. These partnerships have reputations, and in some cases create a strong advantage over competitors by broadcasting a jointly fostered sense of identity and culture with employees and a sense of community and loyalty that attracts other stakeholders. If the reputations of such partnerships are important to those within the dyadic exchange (Bennett & Gabriel, 2001; Arend, 2009), then there is merit in assessing the impact of partnership reputation more widely in a network setting. This report discusses the importance of corporate reputation and the characteristics and outcomes that result from such B2B partnership reputations. It is based upon work conducted jointly at Henley Business School and Albers School of Business and Economics at the University of Seattle, and which has been published in the Industrial Marketing Management journal (Money et al, 2010)

Folk teleology drives persistence judgments

Two separate research programs have revealed two different factors that feature in our judgments of whether some entity persists. One program—inspired by Knobe—has found that normative considerations affect persistence judgments. For instance, people are more inclined to view a thing as persisting when the changes it undergoes lead to improvements. The other program—inspired by Kelemen—has found that teleological considerations affect persistence judgments. For instance, people are more inclined to view a thing as persisting when it preserves its purpose. Our goal in this paper is to determine what causes persistence judgments. Across four studies, we pit normative considerations against teleological considerations. And using causal modeling procedures, we find a consistent, robust pattern with teleological and not normative considerations directly causing persistence judgments. Our findings put teleology in the driver’s seat, while at the same time shedding further light on our folk notion of an object

Real-time sampling-based motion planning with dynamic obstacles

Autonomous robots are increasingly becoming incorporated in everyday human activities, and this trend does not show any signs of slowing down. One task that autonomous robots will need to reliably perform among humans and other dynamic objects is motion planning. That is, to reliably navigate a robot to a desired pose as quickly as possible while minimizing the probability of colliding with other objects. This involves not only planning around the predicted future trajectories of dynamic obstacles, but doing so in a real-time manner so that the robot can remain reactive to its surroundings. Current methods do not directly address this problem. This thesis proposes a new real-time planning algorithm called real-time R* (RTR*). RTR* is based on the R* search algorithm that couples random sampling with heuristic search and has been shown to work well in several different robotics domains. Several modifications needed to transform R* into a real-time algorithm are described. Additional modifications that were developed specifically for this problem domain are also detailed. An empirical evaluation is given comparing RTR* with several state-of-the-art motion planning and real-time search algorithms. RTR* shows promising performance and improves on R*, however it underperforms the current state-of-the-art. Several enhancements are discussed that could improve the behavior of RTR*

Is there a need for a chest pain observation unit in St. Luke's Hospital and will it be cost effective?

Objectives: Studies from the USA suggest that using an A&E department based chest pain observation unit (CPOU) saves from $567 to$2030 per patient compared with hospital admission. In the UK cost effectiveness figures are lower at around £78 per patient. This study aims to review current practice for patients presenting with chest pain in St.Luke's Hospital (SLH), to determine the proportion of patients suitable for CPOU evaluation and consequently calculate any related cost effectiveness. Methods: 236 patients presenting with a primary complaint of chest pain to the A&E department at SLH between 1 st June and 12 th July 2003 were selected. The case histories of these patients were reviewed to ascertain how many of them would qualify for a CPOU management and specific data was collected. Results: Notes were retrieved for 217 patients. A total of 103 (47.5%) patients were suitable for a CPOU management. Mean length of in-hospital stay of these patients was 67.5 hours. Estimated mean cost saving per patient was LM220 and overall LM 19,800 per month. Conclusion: Potential exists for the setting up of CPOU care to reduce health service costs and improve health utility at St.Luke's Hospital.peer-reviewe

Benefits of participating in 4-H judging activities as perceived by former Giles County 4-H members

The purpose of this study was to determine the benefit of agricultural related judging teams on former 4-H members in Giles County. The objectives of the study included: 1) to identify selected demographic characteristics of the judging team participants, 2) to determine if judging team participation influenced respondents\u27 decision to attend college and major area of study, 3) to determine if judging participation influenced respondents\u27 choice of a career, 4) to measure perceptions of the influence judging team participation had on the respondents\u27 development of life skills, 5) to determine if life skills developed aided respondents in acquiring a job, and 6) to determine if a relationship existed between independent variables and the dependent variables in the study. A questionnaire was developed and mailed to 115 former Giles County 4-H members that participated on agricultural judging teams with 56 returned. Descriptive statistics including measures of central tendency were used to report the Findings. The respondents tended to agree that judging team participation influenced their knowledge of possible areas of study. Those who agreed that this was true indicated that the subject matter area of the teams and the opportunity to work with a 4-H agent had moderate influence on their knowledge of possible areas of study. The respondents who agreed that judging team participation influenced their decision to attend college indicated that the opportunity to visit a university had considerable influence on their decision. Those respondents who agreed that judging team participation influenced their major area of study indicated that the subject matter of the teams and the opportunity to visit a university had considerable influence on their major area of study. Respondents indicated that judging team participation only moderately influenced their knowledge of possible careers. However, the respondents agreed that judging team participation influenced the development of life skills. They also indicated that life skills developed through judging team participation had moderate influence on their ability to acquire a job. The independent variable, years of judging team participation, was analyzed with relation to the dependent variables, decision to attend college and major area of study, choice of a career, development of life skills and ability to acquire a job. As the number of years participating increased, so did the respondents\u27 perception that judging team participation influenced their development of the dependent variables listed above. Gender was also analyzed in relation to these dependent variables. Males tended to agree that judging team participation influenced their knowledge of possible areas of study where females did not. Both males and females indicated that judging team participation only moderately influenced their knowledge of possible careers. Both males and females agreed that judging team participation influenced their development of life skills. Males indicated that life skills developed through judging team participation had considerable influence on their ability to acquire a job. Females, however, indicated that life skills developed through judging team participation had only moderate influence on their ability to acquire a job. Judging team participation had the greatest influence on the development of life skills according to the study\u27s respondents. It also had a positive influence on their knowledge of possible areas of study in college. In addition, the longer former 4-H members participated on judging teams the more influence judging team participation had on the respondents\u27 decision to attend college and their major area of study, choice of a career, development of life skills and the life skills developed on their ability to acquire a job. In addition to these conclusions, recommendations for program improvement and future study were also included in the study

Organizational Citizenship Behaviors in Higher Education: Examining the Relationships Between Behaviors and Performance Outcomes for Individuals and Institutions

Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) have been described as employee behaviors that are not required by job descriptions, are not formally rewarded, and contribute positively to the organization. Previous research has shown that OCBs are related to both individual and organizational performance. Given the importance of OCBs to individual and organizational effectiveness, the purpose for conducting the study was to describe OCBs in the higher education context, describe the relationships between OCBs and various aspects of faculty and staff performance, and explore the extent to which institutional leaders should be concerned with the OCBs of both faculty and professional staff. The study utilized a survey research design to gather information about OCBs in higher education. Both faculty and staff were selected from eight institutions according to the institution\u27s performance in research funding and graduation rates. The findings suggested that staff may exhibit higher levels of OCB than faculty, that faculty OCBs were correlated with the number of presentations given, student contact hours, and service on committees, and that staff OCBs were correlated with satisfaction, loyalty, and productivity. Further, differences in OCB levels existed between high-performing staff and low-performing faculty as well as staff in low-performing institutions when compared with staff in high-performing institutions and faculty in low-performing institutions. The results are important for institutional leaders for understanding the employment relationship for both faculty and staff as well as the relationship between OCBs and performance of both individuals and institutions