Modelling Management Consulting in India: towards Management Consulting Theory

This point-in-time, management consulting firm (MCF), empirical, global literature-supported quantitative study, engages a small but acceptable dataset. It builds a significant MCF-to-client-firm sustainable business positioning model to assist the client-firm (CF). The model's total effects highlight where MCF-to-CF improvements can likely produce greatest impact pathways onto CF outcomes. A new Management-Consulting-Theory is presented. Management Consulting Theory enlists current MCF competencies, and uses these to help create a collaborative suite of optimizable MCF-to-CF values and competitive intelligences capabilities. When suitably focused, this engaged system of MCF competencies, and its CF-absorbed MCF-to-CF capabilities enhancements, can jointly influence the enhancement of a CF sustainable business positioning - ideally one that remains adaptive, and also promotes an ongoing CF sustainable (competitive) business positioning

Real Money Trading in Virtual Worlds

Significant real money is traded into and out of virtual world currencies. Virtual world participating users buy and sell virtual products, virtual goods, virtual properties, virtual services, and other virtual items of interest. As gamers, some trade real money to: buy assets including characters, currencies and other auctioned items. Others buy at virtual auctions, purchase virtual currencies, purchase virtual land, build virtual properties and use virtual facilities. The Theory of Planned Behavior maps a structural equation modelling approach for real money trading (RMT) - suggesting RMT can be behaviorally promoted to participant users in virtual worlds

Channel relationships from the perspectives of manufacturers and their connecting distributors in Indonesia

Purpose – Paired channel relationship constructs are used to conjointly compare the perspectives of Indonesian manufacturers and their connecting distributors when engaging and relating across each shared marketing channel. The purpose of this paper is to hypothesize long-term orientation (LTO) and role-performance as joint drivers that positively influence dependence, satisfaction, and trust constructs for each manufacturer and distributor domain. Design/methodology/approach – A structural equation modelling-comparative model is developed, tested, and validated for the Indonesian manufacturing sector. The sample size is 140 pairs of mediumto- large-sized manufacturers and their connecting distributors. The respondent is individual who is responsible and knowledgeable in dealing with his/her company’s manufacturer or distributor. Findings – Both the manufacturer-distributor LTO and their role-performance jointly drive the outcomes of the shared marketing channel relationship, and both parties’ behaving similarly (except for the influence of their role-performance onto their partner’s satisfaction). Research limitations/implications – This study have not investigated possible two-way interactions between constructs across the channel. Combined, paired, manufacturer and distributor dataset questions can expose the connectivities relationships between the partners. The insignificant influence of role-performance on economic satisfaction within the manufacturer domain requires further research on the possible presence of mediating construct(s) between those constructs, and on the broadening of the definition of satisfaction. Past channel research revealed that trust interacts with satisfaction, yet this study does not find significant interactions between the outcomes constructs. Practical implications – In Indonesia each marketing channel’s manufacturer and distributor management team should jointly enhance both their shared long-term relationship, and their respective role-performance. This long-term view is implementable through long-term marketing channel contracts. Originality/value – This study contributes to marketing channel theory with the LTO and the role-performance of a channel partner jointly driving the other partner’s economic satisfaction, trust, and their dependence specifically within the Indonesian context. The benchmarking of a marketing channel’s performance within a trusting and satisfying channel relationship sets the framework for the development of future optimization studies (of at least the five connectivities constructs used herein)

Analysing Big Data Projects Using Github and JavaScript Repositories

GitHub open source software developers remain in short supply. Successful GitHub projects offer multiple pathways for developers to contribute into their repositories. This study’s GitHub JavaScript big data is path modelled to provide understanding of the different significant developer contribution pathways towards raising the project’s activity level. Its significant pathways offer the project’s creator benchmark decision making capabilities that can be used to trigger faster project software development through to its next completion point. This approach has behavioural consumptive value connotations that may provide a future pathway towards tapping big data sources and to also delivering real business values

Modelling the mitigation of the negative effects on human resource management

Human resource professionals are often overlooked in the study of frontline workers and the negative effects of burnout, compassion fatigue, stress and vicarious trauma even though exposure to these negative workplace conditions is intrinsic to their job description. Understanding how these negative workplace conditions affect human resources professionals will lead to reduced employee absenteeism and higher staff turnover and mitigate the effects of presenteeism, such as reduced productivity and loss of general work satisfaction. In this paper, the literature is explored to examine the impact of negative workplace conditions on an organisation\u27s operations in the context of workplace programmes and compassion satisfaction. A model is presented to explain how individual and organisational interventions mitigate the negative workplace conditions of burnout, compassion fatigue, stress and vicarious trauma on workplace performance and compassion satisfaction. This model will form the basis for further research into the negative effects of employment conditions impacting human resource managers

GitHub: Factors Influencing Project Activity Levels

Open source software projects typically extend the capabilities of their software by incorporating code contributions from a diverse cross-section of developers. This GitHub structural path modelling study captures the current top 100 JavaScript projects in operation for at least one year or more. It draws on three theories (information integration, planned behavior, and social translucence) to help frame its comparative path approach, and to show ways to speed the collaborative development of GitHub OSS projects. It shows a project’s activity level increases with: (1) greater responder-group collaborative efforts, (2) increased numbers of major critical project version releases, and (3) the generation of further commits. However, the generation of additional forks negatively impacts overall project activity levels

Fur babies, governance, and ability: Finding meaning in survey response rates

We demonstrate that the use of visual cues in reminder emails can elicit increased response rates. Survey demographics and response rates were drawn from an ongoing survey being conducted within a not-for-profit organisation in Australia. The use of animals (“fur babies”) has an impact on the younger and older demographics and those without a university education. These ages and educationally limited cohorts are often seen as problematic to motivate to engage with surveys. For this study, the optimal time to elicit most responses was 12 weeks

Presenting SEM models: journal and conference considerations

SEM is a versatile statistical technique for research across disciplines. The materials presented in SEM studies offer differing degrees of detail. This creates difficulties in assessing the validity and the applications of such SEM studies. This paper provides a working checklist of SEM required quality indicators. This checklist and five additional fixes are designed to assist SEM researchers and to help the reviewing of SEM studies offered for publication