Vinh Sum Chau

The youth market for internet banking services: perceptions, attitude and behaviour

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the perceptions, attitudes and behaviour of the youth market for internet banking services (IBS).Design/methodology/approach – A survey was carried out to acquire data from 164 respondents. The respondents were competent computer users and studying for a degree at a university. Three additional in‐depth interviews were subsequently carried out on interesting cases.Findings – The authors find that young people (age 16‐29) have more positive attitudes and behavioural intentions towards using IBS than other user‐groups. It has also confirmed that there is a positive impact of IBS quality on satisfaction and loyalty.Research limitations/implications – The study focused on an isolated convenience sample of university students in the UK. The findings might not therefore have worldwide significance despite a large proportion of the students were international and from a good representation of minority ethic groups.Originality/value – The research focused on a specific seg...

BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER OR LONG AND WINDING ROAD? GAP-5 IN AIRLINE SERVICE QUALITY PERFORMANCE MEASURES

Purpose – This paper seeks to apply the SERVQUAL model to identify critical performance measures in the airline industry, exploring differences between Eastern and Western expectations of airline service quality and delivery.Design/methodology/approach – Data from 263 effective questionnaire responses were collected from two locations – Taipei (Taiwan) and London (UK) – to compare differences between the well‐documented gap‐5 (between perceived and expected levels of service quality) values of respondents from these places of origin.Findings – The paper generally finds that: there is a statistically significant difference between the perceived and expected levels of service quality in the airline industry; these are affected by such demographic factors as education, occupation and income levels (but not all that were examined); the SERVQUAL models dimensions represent appropriately the airline industry; and the gap‐5 sizes of these quality dimensions have a significant impact on customer satisfaction and...

Balanced scorecard and hoshin kanri: dynamic capabilities for managing strategic fit

Purpose – The paper seeks to combine the uses of the balanced scorecard and hoshin kanri as integrative dynamic capabilities for the entire strategic management process. It aims to posit a model for the combination of these long‐ and short‐term organisational activities as a framework for a senior level to manage a firms strategic fit as an integrated organisation‐wide system that links top management goals to daily management.Design/methodology/approach – The resource‐based view of strategy is explored for its relevance to how a combined balanced scorecard and hoshin kanri approach serves as a high‐order dynamic capability. Examples are given from Canon, Toyota and Nissan, of how core capabilities are managed to show how strategy is executed cross‐functionally across a firms functional hierarchy.Findings – The study finds that strategic management of the organisation should consider the long‐term strategy as well as the short‐term capability. Important to this are core capabilities and core competences...

Dynamic Capabilities: Top Executive Audits and Hoshin Kanri at Nissan South Africa

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of top executive audits (TEAs) as part of hoshin kanri (policy management) at Nissan South Africa (NSA). It relates these to the emerging importance of core competencies in the resource‐based view of strategy to discuss “nested” sets of dynamic capabilities and superior performance.Design/methodology/approach – The case study of NSA is considered in terms of how the firm defines its core areas, evaluates its business methodologies and management philosophies, and conducts its diagnosis of management. This was through real time internal company observation during an intensive phase of organizational change and documentation supplied by a senior manager.Findings – The style of TEAs at Nissan is related to the concepts of “core competency” and “dynamic capability.” The core business areas of NSA are organization‐wide competencies necessary for competitive success, and the management of these is shown to be most effective in the form of a TEA, which in...

The relationship of strategic performance management to team strategy, company performance and organizational effectiveness

Purpose – The purpose of this editorial is to introduce the special issue on the relationship of strategic performance management to team strategy, company performance and organizational effectiveness.Design/methodology/approach – The paper explains each of the components in this relationship before introducing the problematic issues regarding this relationship and where the gaps are missing in the extant literature; hence the need for the special issue is justified.Findings – The paper finds that the concluding remarks are offered to suggest that strategic performance management can take place at top management, middle management, or strategic operations levels, and the their impact on team strategy, company performance and organizational effectiveness can be regarded as a special phenomenon, termed “strategic team performance management”.Originality/value – This editorial provides an overview of this compilation which comprises five original papers that are examples of latest developments in this resear...

Benchmarking service quality in UK electricity distribution networks

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the evolution and development of customer service performance measures in the electricity sector since privatization in 1989, and then examine the impact of a specific recent energy regulatory requirement (known as information and incentives project (IIP)) on the organizational management of an exemplar electricity distribution company. Also discussed is how the sector has tried to learn from benchmarks from a number of such literary disciplines as economics, marketing service quality, and total quality management.Design/methodology/approach – The research first presents a survey of the historical development of performance standards based on archival documentation. It is then augmented by the employment of a longitudinal “tracer study”, involving the isolation and firsthand real time qualitative observations of a companys key strategic and operational activities, to understand how they related to the other organizational phenomena at large. This process s...

Varieties of Capitalism and Strategic Management: Managing Performance in Multinationals after the Global Financial Crisis

This paper examines the varieties of capitalism thesis for its implications for strategy and strategic management. It considers the grounds for an integrated approach to strategic management, which will make firms less susceptible to sudden economic change in global markets. The paper is structured into four parts. In the first, the nature of the varieties of capitalism thesis is examined (Hall P. A. and Soskice D. (2001). ‘An introduction to varieties of capitalism’. In P. A. Hall and D. (eds), Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage, pp. 1‐68. Oxford: Oxford University Press). In the second part, two distinct strands of theory and research in strategic management (the outside-in and inside-out views of strategy) are considered, and how these might condition thinking about strategy, management and organizational learning. The third part explores convergence in strategic management, and explicates a model from research at Nissan, which brings core competencies and dynamic capabilities to the strategic management of the large multinational firm. The fourth part concludes with a critical assessment of the varieties of capitalism and the likelihood of a convergent strategic management after the global financial crisis.

Dynamic Capabilities for Strategic Team Performance Management: The Case of Nissan

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explain how hoshin kanri (policy management) is used as a higher order dynamic capability at Nissan. The paper also seeks to examine the role of top executive audits as part of the FAIR strategy execution process to develop core competences as part of team management.Design/methodology/approach – The research used semi‐retrospective ethnographic case summaries recorded by an active manager involved in the implementation process of the researched organizational phenomenon. These documented observations were triangulated against internally published company reports and those made public, and any externally published documentation about Nissan.Findings – The paper finds that the use of a top executive audit (TEA) as a part of hoshin kanri, works as a high‐order dynamic capability according to Teece et al. . Hoshin kanri is premised on a strong reliance on teamwork, and the effectiveness of teams is a major contributory factor to organizational performance. It works w...

Top executive audits: strategic reviews of operational activities

Purpose ‐ The paper explores the involvement of top management in strategic reviews of the organization’s operational activities (known as top executive audits or TEAs). These are discussed in relation to strategy process and business excellence. Design/methodology/approach ‐ The case of Nissan South Africa (NSA) is used to illustrate their importance and their relation to hoshin kanri (policy deployment) practice. Findings ‐ The paper argues that TEAs are a very important and integrative aspect of the holistic management of the organization. TEAs are also crucial to hoshin kanri and facilitate operational

Back to the future of women in technology: insights from understanding the shortage of women in innovation sectors for managing corporate foresight

ABSTRACT This paper investigates why there is a shortage of women in innovation, such as science, particularly technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) sectors and offers insights for managing corporate foresight. It acknowledges that traditional corporate foresight methodologies have their own inherent problems, but argues that greater inclusion of women brings in new dimensions not previously recognised within the predominantly male-dominated technology sector. While extant feminist research may look at the general disadvantages women have in the workplace, few have examined the genesis and constitution of femininity to understand what new input can be brought innovation management, and how these different views can change the conduct of corporate foresight in the technology sector. Interviews from five senior personnel in the technology sector were conducted, and responses to a concise questionnaire involving 365 participants were obtained. Three case-rich narratives are presented as a summary on the future of women in technology.