Ethical leadership,intrapreneurship, service innovation performance and work engagement in chambers of commerce and industry

ABSTRACT

The main purpose of this study which examines how it can be more effective in terms of organizational and managerial aspects with chambers of commerce and industry affiliated to The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey is to analyze the relationships between ethical leadership, work engagement, intrapreneurship, and service innovation behavior. In addition, it is to determine the role of mediation of work engagement effecting on intrapreneurship and service innovation behavior. For this purpose, quantitative analysis methods have been adopted. The data collected from 568 employees who were employed in chambers of commerce and industry operating in Turkey were analyzed. For the validity and reliability of the measurement tools, confirmatory factor analysis, the model’s good fit values and the AMOS Structural Equation Model were used. It was found that ethical leadership had statistically significant effect on employee engagement, intrapreneurship and the subscales of service innovation behavior (employee service innovation behavior and new service development). The results showed that work engagement partially mediated with ethical leadership effecting on intrapreneurship, ethical leadership effecting on the subscales of service innovation behavior. It is thought that the study is important in terms of providing empirical contributions to the ethical leadership, service innovation, intrapreneurship and work engagement literature. Finally, there are some limitations of the study and some suggestions are offered for future studies.     

On recursive solutions to simple allocation problems

We propose and axiomatically analyze a class of rational solutions to simple allocation problems where a policy-maker allocates an endowment $E$ among $n$ agents described by a characteristic vector c. We propose a class of recursive rules which mimic a decision process where the policy-maker initially starts with a reference allocation of $E$ in mind and then uses the data of the problem to recursively adjust his previous allocation decisions. We show that recursive rules uniquely satisfy rationality, c-continuity, and other-c monotonicity. We also show that a well-known member of this class, the Equal Gains rule, uniquely satisfies rationality, c-continuity, and equal treatment of equals.     

Quantile estimation and comparing two independent groups with an approach based on percentile bootstrap

Although the most common approach for comparing two independent groups is on the basis of some measure of location, determination of the differences in the tails of the groups is often of interest. In this study, Harrell–Davis estimator, Sfakianakis–Verginis estimators and default quantile estimator of R are used in conjunction with a percentile bootstrap method with the aim of comparing two independent groups via the quantiles, and the relative efficiencies of Harrell–Davis and Sfakianakis–Verginis estimators are compared. General performance of Sfakianakis–Verginis estimators was much better than Harrell–Davis estimator in terms of both saving actual type I error and relative efficiency.     

Supply chain relationship quality and its impact on firm performance

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of supply chain relationship quality (SCRQ) on firm performance (FP) through the mediators of supply chain management processes (SCMP) and supply chain performance (SCP). In the literature, these linkages have been examined separately; in contrast, this study takes a holistic perspective on the antecedents of FP. The model was tested using survey data from manufacturing companies. Variance-based structural equation modelling revealed that both SCMP and SCP lead to FP, unlike SCRQ. On the other hand, SCRQ affects SCMP. Drawing on the resource-based view, consistency in SCRQ can lead to not only efficient and effective supply chain management but also improvements in FP and SCP. This research has practical implications, providing supply chain decision makers with insights on enhancing FP. Supply chain decision makers will be able to benefit from the findings of our study by improving supply chain relationships with supply chain members and ensuring FP. This research also highlights how effective management of SCRQ, SCMP and SCP can provide better FP and a competitive advantage.     

Separating trend and cyclical dynamics in state space models with exogenous inputs

In the present study we compare three state rotation methods in modelling the impact of the US economy on the Finnish economy, i.e. Schur decomposition, eigenvalue analysis and singular value decomposition. Singular value decomposition is seen to provide a robust approximation of the state rotation in most cases studied, irrespective of whether the characteristic roots of the state transition matrix are complex. Thus, singular value decomposition seems to be a viable computational device not only in estimating the system matrices of the state space model, but also in state rotation, as compared to the more involved techniques based on eigenvalue analysis or Schur decomposition.     

Restricted ridge estimator in generalized linear models: Monte Carlo simulation studies on Poisson and binomial distributed responses

It is known that collinearity among the explanatory variables in generalized linear models (GLMs) inflates the variance of maximum likelihood estimators. To overcome multicollinearity in GLMs, ordinary ridge estimator and restricted estimator were proposed. In this study, a restricted ridge estimator is introduced by unifying the ordinary ridge estimator and the restricted estimator in GLMs and its mean squared error (MSE) properties are discussed. The MSE comparisons are done in the context of first-order approximated estimators. The results are illustrated by a numerical example and two simulation studies are conducted with Poisson and binomial responses.     

Psychological stress and muscle activity during data entry at visual display units

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether psychological stress causes increased muscle activity, especially static muscle activity, in the trapezius muscles of the neck and shoulder. A pilot and a main study were carried out with 10 males and 20 females, respectively. The subjects performed a VDU data entry task under psychologically stressful and non-stressful conditions. Stress reactions were measured by different methods: heart rate and heart rate variability, hormonal excretion, and subjective ratings of mood and body symptoms. The stress condition caused an increase in heart rate. The low-frequency variability increased and the high-frequency variability decreased. Ratings of motivation and relaxation decreased, and subjects felt more activated. Pain and discomfort from the stomach increased. Adrenaline and noradrenaline in urine were unaffected. The majority of the subjects showed moderately increased static and median EMG levels during the stress condition. The interindividual variation in muscular reactions was large. Statistically significant increases were obtained for the myoelectric activity of the left (resting) trapezius muscle when pooling the two groups. It appears that the increase in muscle activity due to this type of mental stress is small, and factors other than ‘attention-related’ load may be more important. The results indicate that some individuals may be more prone to general muscle tension, making them more likely to develop symptoms and musculoskeletal pain.     

Bringing “A Different Femininity”: Immigrant Women from Bulgaria and Local Co-workers on a Factory Floor in Turkey

Qualitative Sociology - This article draws on life-course interviews with a group of Turkish immigrant women from socialist Bulgaria and locals who shared the same factory floor for approximately...