No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Business Incubator Capacities and Regional Innovation Performance: Evidence from China
Abstract
There is a considerable literature suggesting that business incubator is an important facilitator for innovation which provide office space, equipment and mentoring services. Should the emerging economies encourage the development of business incubators in order to promote the development of domestic innovation performance? This paper investigates the effects of business incubator capacities on the regional innovation performance, using a panel of 31 Chinese provinces. This study finds that the development of business incubators’ capabilities has a significant impact on the regional innovation performance. Moreover, this study also identifies that regional communication infrastructure is an important moderator of the relationship between the development of business incubators capacities on the regional innovation performance.
This study examined the mediating role of core Executive Functions (EF: working memory and inhibitory control) and moderating role of Perceived Academic Intent to Entrepreneurship (PAIE) in relationship between Dark Personality Traits (SDT) and Entrepreneurial Intentions (EI) of university students. A sample of 539 university students enrolled in various undergraduate and postgraduate programs completed the Short Dark Triad-3 (SD3), Adult Executive Functioning Inventory (ADEXI), and measures for assessing Entrepreneurial Intent and Perceived Academic Intent to Entrepreneurship. The results showed that of SDT, only Machiavellianism was significantly associated with EI. Both of the core executive functions and PAIE were also positively correlated with EI. Moreover, findings showed that EF positively mediated the relationship between Machiavellian disposition and entrepreneurial intention, while perceived academic intent to entrepreneurship moderated the relationship between executive functions and EI. A significant moderated mediation index was also reported. Findings offer useful insight to the interplay among above mentioned variables and guide educational and organizational psychologists to employ core cognitive strategies for promoting entrepreneurial thoughts and channelizing the productive energies of students with malevolent tendencies through academic coaching.
The changes that are constantly occurring in the labour sector have led organisations and companies to move towards digital transformation. This process was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and conducted to a massive recourse to the practice of remote working , which in this study is understood as the term for the way of performing work outside the usual workplace and with the support of ICT. Currently, there are no flexible scales in the literature that allow measuring the benefits and disadvantages of remote working with a single instrument. Thus, the distinction between the positive and negative consequences of working remotely, substantiated by a solid literature, provides a framework for a system-atical understanding of the issue. The aim of the present study is to develop and validate a scale on remote working benefits and disadvantages (RW-B&D scale). For this end, a preliminary Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with 304 participants, a tailored EFA with a sample of 301 workers and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) with 677 workers were conducted. Participants were all Italian employees who worked remotely during the period of the COVID-19 health emergency. Data were collected between October 2020 and April 2021. The psychometric robustness of the model was assessed through bootstrap validation (5000 resamples), fit indices testing and measurement of factorial invariance. The statistical analyses demonstrated the bifactorial nature of the scale, supporting the research hypothesis. The model showed good fit indices, bootstrap validation reported statistically significant saturations, good reliability indices, and convergent and discriminant validity. Measurement invariance was tested for gender and organisational sector. The results suggested that the novel scale facilitates the quantitative measurement of the benefits and disadvantages associated with remote working in empirical terms. For this reason, it could be a streamlined and psychometrically valid instrument to identify the potential difficulties arising from remote working and, at the same time, the positive aspects that can be implemented to improve organisational well-being.
As we start to move beyond or acclimatise to COVID-19, a rise in remote working looks set to be the change in work practices most likely to stick long term. Specifically, a long-term growth in hybrid working seems inevitable. Pre-pandemic, work technology had already advanced considerably to enable remote working, but the lockdowns demonstrated that it is eminently feasible in many more jobs than previously thought and the demand from employees appears to have strengthened substantially. As a fundamental shift in how we work, there are implications for core HRD topics, including learning and development, organisational productivity, workload, effective communications and relationships, and people management capability. This special edition contributes to an important growing research agenda on remote and hybrid working, investigating its relationships with employee wellbeing and work-life balance; leader-member exchange (LMX); knowledge exchange; workforce inclusion; learning effectiveness; sustainable career development; and employee voice and choice in informing work practices.
The global crisis caused by the outbreak of a novel coronavirus and the associated disease (COVID-19) has changed working conditions due to social-distancing policies. Many workers started to use new technologies at work, including social media applications. In this longitudinal study, we investigated the potential stress effects of social media communication (SMC) at work. Based on our integrative theoretical model, we expected that SMC at work would burden some workers, but those who were accustomed to SMC at work would be better off when the crisis started. We collected a nationally representative sample of Finnish workers before (N = 1,308) and during (N = 1,081) the COVID-19 crisis. Outcome measures included technostress and work exhaustion. Multilevel linear mixed-effects regression models investigated formal and informal SMC at work. Covariates included cyberbullying at work, social media usage, personality, occupational status, and sociodemographic factors. Results showed that formal SMC increased and predicted higher technostress. However, technostress and work exhaustion decreased among workers already accustomed to using SMC at work before the crisis. The results indicate a disparity in workers’ resilience during remote work and highlight a need for organizational level support.
This study examines how concepts, such as resilience to digital distractions, ICT self-efficacy, and motivation, relate to student teachers’ approaches to studying and time spent on individual studies during pre-service education. The sample comprised 219 first-year student teachers enrolled in Norwegian initial teacher education programs. Student teachers’ motivation, resilience to digital distractions, and gender (female) were positively correlated with students’ approach to studying and time devoted to individual study. Initial teacher education institutions can emphasise the importance of resilience to digital distraction and encourage student teachers to develop their own approaches to studying and setting aside time for individual studies.
The number of people working from home (WFH) increased radically during the corona-virus (COVID-19) pandemic. The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate people's experiences of WFH during the pandemic and to identify the main factors of advantages and disadvantages of WFH. Data from 29 European countries on the experiences of knowledge workers (N = 5748) WFH during the early stages of lockdown (11 March to 8 May 2020) were collected. A factor analysis showed the overall distribution of people's experiences and how the advantages and disadvantages of WFH during the early weeks of the pandemic can be grouped into six key factors. The results indicated that most people had a more positive rather than negative experience of WFH during lockdown. Three factors represent the main advantages of WFH: (i) work-life balance, (ii) improved work efficiency and (iii) greater work control. The main disadvantages were (iv) home office constraints, (v) work uncertainties and (vi) inadequate tools. Comparing gender, number of children at home, age and managers versus employees in relation to these factors provided insights into the differential impact of WFH on people's lives. The factors help organisations understand where action is most needed to safeguard both performance and well-being. As the data were collected amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, we recommend further studies to validate the six factors and investigate their importance for well-being and performance in knowledge work.
Being a grand challenge of global scale, the COVID‐19 pandemic requires collective and collaborative efforts from a variety of actors to enable the expected scientific advancement and technological progress. To achieve such an open innovation approach, several initiatives have been launched in order to leverage potential distributed knowledge sources that go beyond those available to any single organization. A particular tool that has gained some momentum during COVID‐19 times is hackathons, which have been used to unleash the innovation potential of individuals who voluntarily came together, for a relatively short period of time, with the aim to solve specific problems. In this paper, we describe and analyze the case of the hackathon EUvsVirus, led by the European Innovation Council. EUvs Virus was a 3‐day online hackathon to connect civil society, innovators, partners, and investors across Europe and beyond in order to develop innovative solutions to coronavirus‐related challenges. We have identified four dimensions to explore hackathons as a crowdsourcing tool for practicing effective open innovation in the face of COVID‐19: broad scope, participatory architecture, online setting, and community creation. We discuss how these four elements can play a strategic role in the face of grand challenges, which require, as in the case of the COVID‐19 pandemic, both urgent action and long‐term thinking. Our case analysis also suggests the need to look beyond the ‘usual suspects’, through knowledge recombination with atypical resources (e.g., retired experts, graduate students, and the general public). On this basis, we call for a broader perspective on open innovation, to be extended beyond openness across organizational boundaries, and to explore the role of openness at societal level.
In times of physical distancing, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, people are likely to turn to digital communication to replace in-person interactions. Yet persisting digital inequality suggests that not everyone will be equally able or disposed to increasing digital communication during a public health crisis. Using survey data from a national sample of US participants (N = 2,925) collected during the early months of the pandemic, we analyzed how sociodemographics, living arrangements, and Internet experiences and skills relate to increases and decreases in various digital communication methods. We find that people privileged in their socioeconomic status, their Internet skills and online experiences are more likely to increase and less likely to decrease digital communication during the pandemic. The findings illustrate how digital inequalities can put already disadvantaged groups at greater risk of diminished social contact during a public health crisis. We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings for digital inequality research, the practical implications for inclusive crisis responses, and directions for future research.
The activities in which internet users engage and their individual empowerment are an expression of what we call their internet competence. That is, the level of internet knowledge, internet skills, and internet attitudes. However, studying the implications of internet competence for internet use is not straightforward as measuring access to the internet. Even recognizing the key role of knowledge, skills and attitudes in this context, limited research focus on the potential relationship among them. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated to what extent internet competence predicted internet use. We conducted a survey with high school and college students. We collected data from subject's sociodemographic background and validated and checked the reliability of the scales applied in our context. We performed an ordinary least square regression model, which revealed that internet knowledge, internet skills, and internet attitudes predicted internet use. Only information skills coefficient was not statistically significant. We could add to the debate that internet knowledge is not the same as internet skills. It must be addressed separately and included as a predictor of internet use. Our findings still support that technical-related internet skills have an important role to use the internet. However, content-related internet skills, internet knowledge, and internet attitudes are less device dependent. As the internet evolves, they must be addressed together in education efforts as they are critical in a scenario where information and communication are mediated through this technology.
As the COVID-19 pandemic causes a record number of people to work from home, this disruptive event will likely have a long-lasting impact on work arrangements. Given existing research on the effects of working from home on hours worked and wages, an increased availability of working from home may provide a chance for women to catch up with their male counterparts. Yet, the need to simultaneously care for children during the COVID-19 lockdown may also revive traditional gender roles, potentially counteracting such gains. We discuss the likely effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender gaps in the labour market and at home in light of recent empirical findings and novel statistics on the heterogeneous structure of work arrangements among couples. We construct a novel teleworkability index that differentiates between fully teleworkable, partly teleworkable and on-site jobs and find that in about a third of households the COVID-19 shock is likely to induce shifts in the intra-household allocation of tasks from mothers to fathers.
Given that existing knowledge on remote working can be questioned in an extraordinary pandemic context, we conducted a mixed-methods investigation to explore the challenges remote workers at this time are struggling with, as well as what virtual work characteristics and individual differences affect these challenges. In Study 1, from semi-structured interviews with Chinese employees working from home in the early days of the pandemic, we identified four key remote work challenges (i.e., work-home interference, ineffective communication, procrastination, and loneliness), as well as four virtual work characteristics that affected the experience of these challenges (i.e., social support, job autonomy, monitoring, and workload) and one key individual difference factor (i.e., workers’ self-discipline). In Study 2, using survey data from 522 employees working at home during the pandemic, we tested the associations amongst these factors and found a powerful role of virtual work characteristics in influencing worker’s performance and well-being via shaping the extent of these experienced challenges. Specially, social support was conducive for alleviating all remote working challenges, while job autonomy only negatively related to loneliness. Workload and monitoring both led to work-home interference, but workload also can reduce procrastination. We discuss the implications of our research for the pandemic and beyond.
Many studies have examined the negative effects of work-family conflict on society, organizations, and individuals. Nonetheless, alleviating employee work-family conflict is a topic worthy of further investigation. Few studies examine the antecedent variables of work-family conflict from personal skill and Guanxi perspectives. Studies that test the moderating role of family-friendly practices at the organization level are also rare. Accordingly, we collected data from 404 employees of 51 organizations. The research data are time-lagged and multileveled. The results of hierarchical linear model (HLM) show: (1) Employee political skill negatively affects employee perceived work-family conflict; (2) Employee political skill positively affects supervisor-subordinate Guanxi; (3) Supervisor-subordinate Guanxi partially mediates the relationship between employee political skill and employee work-family conflict (that is, employees can use their political skill to build high-quality supervisor-subordinate Guanxi, further reducing their perceived work-family conflict); (4) Organization family-friendly practices negatively moderate the relationship between supervisor-subordinate Guanxi and work-family conflict (that is, in organizations with high level family-friendly practices, the negative relationship between supervisor-subordinate Guanxi and work-family conflict becomes weak); Furthermore, by coding with Mplus software (Muthen & Muthen, Los Angeles, CA, USA), we also find: (5) Organization family-friendly practices moderate the indirect effect of employee political skill on employee work-family conflict. The results have both theoretical and empirical implications. Further research directions are addressed at the end.
The implications of digital technologies for the transformation of gender relations and identities have been discussed since the early days of the internet. Although gender studies have identified clear gender gaps in terms of digital inclusion as well as potentialities for the transformation of women’s subjectivity, there is a lack of empirical evidence of the impact of digitalization in terms of time use from a gender perspective. Public policies have begun to address the digital gender gap, but the incorporation of a gender perspective in digital inclusion programmes which promotes women’s emancipation by challenging the gender division of time through use of the internet has been not incorporated in the digital policies agenda. This article aims to provide empirical evidence of the mutual interrelation between the time allocation and digital inclusion from a gender perspective. It considers how gender inequalities in time use shape women’s experience of digital inclusion and, at the same time, how digital inclusion promotes the reconfiguration of time in women’s everyday lives. Qualitative analysis based on episodic interviews explored the representations and practices of internet use by women in their everyday lives. The sample was made up of 32 women who were digitally included through a lifelong learning programme in Spain and had experienced the effects of the Spanish economic crisis. The article argues that digital inclusion does not automatically lead to a more egalitarian allocation of time use for women, but rather places greater value on women’s free time.
Purpose
Within a very short period of time, the worldwide pandemic triggered by the novel coronavirus has not only claimed numerous lives but also caused severe limitations to daily private as well as business life. Just about every company has been affected in one way or another. This first empirical study on the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on family firms allows initial conclusions to be drawn about family firm crisis management.
Design/methodology/approach
Exploratory qualitative research design based on 27 semi-structured interviews with key informants of family firms of all sizes in five Western European countries that are in different stages of the crisis.
Findings
The COVID-19 crisis represents a new type and quality of challenge for companies. These companies are applying measures that can be assigned to three different strategies to adapt to the crisis in the short term and emerge from it stronger in the long run. Our findings show how companies in all industries and of all sizes adapt their business models to changing environmental conditions within a short period of time. Finally, the findings also show that the crisis is bringing about a significant yet unintended cultural change. On the one hand, a stronger solidarity and cohesion within the company was observed, while on the other hand, the crisis has led to a tentative digitalization.
Originality/value
To the knowledge of the authors, this is the first empirical study in the management realm on the impacts of COVID-19 on (family) firms. It provides cross-national evidence of family firms' current reactions to the crisis.
With the expansion of high-speed internet during the recent decades, a growing number of people are working from home. Yet there is no consensus on how working from home affects workers’ well-being in the literature. Using data from the 2010, 2012, and 2013 American Time Use Survey Well-Being Modules, this paper examines how subjective well-being varies among wage/salary workers between working at home and working in the workplace using individual fixed-effects models. We find that compared to working in the workplace, bringing work home on weekdays is associated with less happiness, and telework on weekdays or weekends/holidays is associated with more stress. The effect of working at home on subjective well-being also varies by parental status and gender. Parents, especially fathers, report a lower level of subjective well-being when working at home on weekdays but a higher level of subjective well-being when working at home on weekends/holidays. Non-parents’ subjective well-being does not vary much by where they work on weekdays, but on weekends/holidays childless males feel less painful whereas childless females feel more stressed when teleworking instead of working in the workplace. This paper provides new evidence on the impact of working at home and sheds lights for policy makers and employers to re-evaluate the benefits of telework.
In the mobile era, more and more financial institutions are beginning to cooperate with financial technology companies to enhance services and attract customers. The emergence of 5G technology has provided new choices for financial institutions, and the impact of the 5G ecosystem on financial companies and mobile banking is self-evident. With its strong security and speed, 5G technology will greatly shorten the trading cycle and transaction delay, and the capital market will also usher in a revolution. 5G technology will bring more customers and market share to financial institutions and financial technology. In terms of financial technology innovation and application services, 5G will increase productivity and customer satisfaction. The financial services industry hopes that 5G will improve real-time mobile trading and high-frequency trading. Safety is the most critical of the financial sector, 84 percent of financial services executives pay more attention to the potential of 5G provides a more secure transactions. This paper studies financial technology to promote business innovation, reduce risks in the financial sector, and promote high-quality economic development. Relying on high-speed, large-bandwidth, low-latency mobile 5G networks, it is carried out in the backbone network technology evolution, computer room drone inspection, and cash box transportation path monitoring.
This paper explores gendered impact of home-based work (HBW) on the capability to balance work with non-work in double-earner families with dependent children in two countries with distinct models of division of labour: Poland and Sweden. At first, I critically engage with the WLB conceptualization in HBW studies and try to address identified gaps. Driving from the theoretical concept of ‘burden of responsibilities’ and setting it in the capability approach, I propose to operationalize the capability to balance work with non-work as a latent construct, observed through two indicators of the burden of unpaid work responsibilities related to one’s engagement in paid work. To simultaneously measure this capability as a latent construct and the impact of HBW on this capability, I estimate a simple structural equation model for each country. The results show that men in both countries have higher capabilities to balance work with non-work than women, but the difference between genders is smaller in Sweden. I also find that HBW is related to lower capability to balance work with non-work for mothers in both countries and for fathers in Sweden only. The results of this study show that in a relatively gender equal society (Sweden) the negative impact of home based work on the capability to balance work with non-work affects both genders. On the contrary—in a more traditional society (Poland), men are able to ‘escape’ the trap of double burden of paid and unpaid work when working from home while women do not.
This chapter provides an introduction into current strands of citizen science and introduces the sections of the book "Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy".
This study utilized the setting of a technology incubator to analyze how nascent entrepreneurs develop and leverage networks to secure resources as part of the venture creation process. Through rigorous qualitative methods, we examined how six medical device entrepreneurs used networks to obtain needed resources, the types of resources pursued and differences among entrepreneurs based on their level of network skill. Our findings illustrate the importance of the incubator in providing both tangible resources (funding, space, equipment) and less tangible but equally important resources (credibility, relationships, access to networks). Initial findings suggest that differences in the level of an entrepreneurs’ network skill relate to the development, but not necessarily the success, of the venture.
It is generally found that workers are more inclined to accept a job that is located farther away from home if they have the ability to work from home one day a week or more (telecommuting). Such findings inform us about the effectiveness of telecommuting policies that try to alleviate congestion and transport-related emissions, but they also stress that the geography of labour markets is changing due to information technology. We argue that estimates of the effect of working from home on commuting time may be biased because of sorting based on residential- and commuting preferences. In this paper we investigate the relationship between telecommuting and commuting time, controlling for preference-based sorting. We use 7 waves of data from the Dutch Labour Supply Panel and show that on average telecommuters have higher marginal cost of one-way commuting time, compared to non-telecommuters. We estimate the effect of telecommuting on commuting time using a fixed effects approach, and we show that preference-based sorting biases cross-sectional results upwards. This suggests that the bias due to sorting based on residential preferences is strongest. Working from home allows people to accept 5% longer commuting times on average, and every additional 8 h of working from home are associated with 3.5% longer commuting times.
Although much research examines the factors that affect technology adoption and use, less is known about how older adults as a group differ in their ability to use the Internet. The theory of digital inequality suggests that even once people have gone online, differences among them will persist in important ways such as their online skills. We analyze survey data about older American adults’ Internet skills to examine whether skills differ in this group and if they do, what explains differential online abilities. We find that there is considerable variation in Internet know-how and this relates to both socioeconomic status and autonomy of use. The results suggest that attempts to achieve a knowledgeable older adult population regarding Internet use must take into account these users’ socioeconomic background and available access points.
Although prior research conceptualizes how knowledge-seeking motivates the internationalization of emerging-market enterprises (EMEs), whether outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) indeed leads to enhanced innovation performance has received limited attention. We address this subject by conceptualizing how Chinese EMEs’ OFDI enhances their subsidiaries’ organizational learning and innovation performance and whether geographic location choices influence this relationship. Our panel data analysis of Chinese EMEs shows that OFDI has a positive effect on innovation performance of Chinese EMEs’ subsidiaries and that this effect is stronger when the OFDI is directed towards developed rather than emerging countries. These findings advance the notion that EMEs can use OFDI as a strategy to globalize R&D and enhance their innovation performance and demonstrate that certain established assumptions regarding organizational learning are not valid for EMEs.
Our goal in this study was to investigate antecedents to formation of leadership self-efficacy (LSE) for men versus women. We used a relative importance analysis, which allows more precise identification of important predictors without concern of multicollinearity effects on R². Using a sample of 325 business students, we found that extraversion, conscientiousness and openness to experience each explained significant variance in LSE. Conscientiousness and openness to experience were stronger predictors of LSE for women than men, whereas extraversion was a stronger predictor of LSE for men than women. We provide a literature review with hypotheses, methods and analysis. We discuss the results with respect to the role congruency and leadership self-perceptions and provide implications for future research and practice of leadership development.
This paper examines the extent to which both the support services of technological business incubators (TBIs) and exogenous local factors facilitate the innovation activity of incubated new ventures. Using data on all 215 surviving Chinese incubators and their incubated firms from government surveys conducted over five consecutive years from 2009 until 2013, combined with information from nine case studies, we examine the effects of four incubator services on three levels of innovation in incubated firms, whilst also taking account of key exogenous factors. Technical service support from an incubator was found to have had a positive influence on all levels of innovation activity across all regions whilst incubator financial support had a positive effect on the making of more advanced innovations. The availability of venture capital had a significant impact on making lower order innovations whereas the availability of scientific knowledge resources influenced more advanced innovation activity. Whereas TBI support services in the more developed Eastern region are mainly concerned with leveraging external resources, those in the less developed Central and Western regions are more concerned with compensating for the lack of external resources to support innovation.
Background
As for all individuals, the Internet is important in the everyday life of older adults. Research on older adults’ use of the Internet has merely focused on users versus nonusers and consequences of Internet use and nonuse. Older adults are a heterogeneous group, which may implicate that their use of the Internet is diverse as well. Older adults can use the Internet for different activities, and this usage can be of influence on benefits the Internet can have for them.
Objective
The aim of this paper was to describe the diversity or heterogeneity in the activities for which older adults use the Internet and determine whether diversity is related to social or health-related variables.
Methods
We used data of a national representative Internet panel in the Netherlands. Panel members aged 65 years and older and who have access to and use the Internet were selected (N=1418). We conducted a latent class analysis based on the Internet activities that panel members reported to spend time on. Second, we described the identified clusters with descriptive statistics and compared the clusters using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and chi-square tests.
Results
Four clusters were distinguished. Cluster 1 was labeled as the “practical users” (36.88%, n=523). These respondents mainly used the Internet for practical and financial purposes such as searching for information, comparing products, and banking. Respondents in Cluster 2, the “minimizers” (32.23%, n=457), reported lowest frequency on most Internet activities, are older (mean age 73 years), and spent the smallest time on the Internet. Cluster 3 was labeled as the “maximizers” (17.77%, n=252); these respondents used the Internet for various activities, spent most time on the Internet, and were relatively younger (mean age below 70 years). Respondents in Cluster 4, the “social users,” mainly used the Internet for social and leisure-related activities such as gaming and social network sites. The identified clusters significantly differed in age (P<.001, ω²=0.07), time spent on the Internet (P<.001, ω²=0.12), and frequency of downloading apps (P<.001, ω²=0.14), with medium to large effect sizes. Social and health-related variables were significantly different between the clusters, except social and emotional loneliness. However, effect sizes were small. The minimizers scored significantly lower on psychological well-being, instrumental activities of daily living (iADL), and experienced health compared with the practical users and maximizers.
Conclusions
Older adults are a diverse group in terms of their activities on the Internet. This underlines the importance to look beyond use versus nonuse when studying older adults’ Internet use. The clusters we have identified in this study can help tailor the development and deployment of eHealth intervention to specific segments of the older population.
Telecommuting has not permeated the American workplace, and where it has become commonly used, it is not helpful in reducing work-family conflicts; telecommuting appears, instead, to have become instrumental in the general expansion of work hours, facilitating workers' needs for additional worktime beyond the standard workweek and/or the ability of employers to increase or intensify work demands among their salaried employees
Working from home (WfH) has been widely adopted since the Covid-19 pandemic. Pre-pandemic evidence on how hybrid work arrangements relate to labour market outcomes is a scarce and valuable benchmark. We exploit the German Socio-Economic Panel between 1997 and 2014 to investigate how such a work arrangement relates to working hours, wages and job satisfaction for different demographic groups. We find that childless employees work an extra hour of unpaid overtime per week and report higher job satisfaction after taking up WfH. Among parents, gender differences in working hours and monthly earnings are lower after WfH take-up. However, hourly wage increases with WfH take-up are limited to fathers, unless mothers change employers. We discuss the role of career changes, commuting and working-time flexibility in explaining these findings.
This research aimed to study queen bee syndrome in China. Results from a nationwide survey (Chinese General Social Survey) revealed that female managers are less likely to defend the existing gender hierarchy. We also found that female managers are analogous to men in many other aspects, such as hobbies and values. Female managers adopt a mixed strategy to deal with social identity threats. Individual characteristics, such as educational attainments and the speed of career development, are significant predictors of queen bee traits. The results refute the claim that queen bees syndrome is common in the workplace. It is also important to note that different dimensions of queen bee syndrome are not always interrelated.
Previous studies have shown that societal norms around gender roles can shape gender-based outcomes of working from home. This paper extends these findings to see how individuals’ gender role attitudes can moderate the relationship between working from home and work–family conflict, but again with varying outcomes for men and women. We use data from around 3150 employees who participated in wave 10 (2017–2018) of the German Family Panel Survey (pairfam). Results suggest that compared to employees with fixed work locations, those who work from home report higher levels of family-to-work conflict, but not higher work-to-family conflict. Positive associations between working from home and both types of work – family conflict are found only for women, not for men. Specifically, the positive association between working from home and family-to-work conflict is mainly present among women with traditional gender role attitudes, while the positive association between working from home and work-to-family conflict is mainly present among women with egalitarian gender role attitudes. No such variation, however, was found for men. This study highlights the importance of taking gender and gender role attitudes into account when examining the consequences of working from home.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between work–life balance (WLB) and job stress, job commitment and job satisfaction. Further, the role of work environment and training and development as moderators in the relationship between WLB and its consequences is investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a structured survey instrument, this paper gathered data from 331 respondents working in a transportation company in southern part of India. After checking the psychometric properties of the structured survey instrument, the authors analyzed data using hierarchical regression and structural equation modeling.
Findings
The hierarchical regression results indicated that WLB is (1) negatively related to job stress, (2) positively related to job satisfaction and (3) positively related to job commitment. The results also indicated that (1) job stress is negatively related to job satisfaction, and (2) job commitment is positively related to job satisfaction. The results also support that work environment is a moderator in the relationship between (1) WLB and job stress, and (2) WLB and job satisfaction. Results also documented that training and development is a moderator in the relationship between (1) job stress and job satisfaction, and (2) job commitment and job satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
Since the present research is based on self-report measures, the limitations of common method bias and social desirability are inherent. However, the authors have taken sufficient care to minimize these limitations. The research has implications for managers in work organizations.
Practical implications
This study contributes to both literature on human resource management and practicing managers. The study suggests that employers need to be aware of the importance of WLB and invest moneys into training and development programs. Results also suggest maintaining congenial work environment to help employees maintain balance between work and life.
Social implications
The study is expected to contribute to the welfare of the society in terms of identifying the consequences of WLB.
Originality/value
This study provides new insights about the consequences of WLB through moderating role of training and development and work environment. To the authors’ knowledge, this is a conceptual model developed and tested and first of its kind in India.
Since early 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has led to numerous businesses around the world making use of information and communication technologies (ICT) more frequently than ever to help transition operations to remote e-working. As a result, using multiple technologies on a daily basis has become the norm for many employees across the world. While it is evident that working remotely may trigger higher ICT demands and reduced face-to-face interaction, less is known about how this exposure may influence employees’ subjective mental experiences related to concentration and satisfaction at work (i.e., flow). The aim of this present study is to gain insights and to explore the relationship between remote e-working and employee flow experiences by introducing two key stressors; technostress and loneliness. Data were collected from a survey of 202 employees from the financial services sector in Turkey. The results revealed that remote e-working experience had a significant and positive effect on the flow levels of employees. Technostress and loneliness serially mediated the relationship between remote e-working and flow. The findings contribute to remote e-working research by exploring the consequences of such experiences and introducing two important key stressors, which result in lower levels of flow at work. Practical implications are provided for improving remote e-working conditions and employee well-being.
Purpose
This aim of this paper is to examine the existing gender digital inclusion evaluation guidance and proposes future research recommendations for their evaluation. Despite modern progress in towards gender equality and women’s empowerment movements, women’s access to, use of and benefits from digital technologies remain limited owing to economic, social and cultural obstacles. Addressing the existing gender digital divide is critical in the global efforts towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In recent years, there has been a global increase of gender digital inclusion programmes for girls and women; these programmes serve as a mechanism to learn about gender-specific digital needs and inform future digital inclusion efforts. Evaluation reports of gender digital inclusion programmes can produce critical insights into girls’ and women’s learning needs and aspirations, including what works and what does not when engaging girls and women in information and communications technologies. While there are many accounts highlighting the importance of why gender digital inclusion programmes are important, there is limited knowledge on how to evaluate their impact.
Design/methodology/approach
The thematic analysis suggests three points to consider for the gender digital inclusion programmes evaluation: context-specific understanding of gender digital inclusion programmes; transparency and accountability of the evaluation process and its results; and tensions between evaluation targets and empowerment of evaluation participants.
Findings
The thematic analysis suggests three points of future focus for this evaluation process: context-specific understanding of gender digital inclusion programmes; transparency and accountability of the evaluation process and its results; and tensions between evaluation targets and empowerment of evaluation participants.
Originality/value
The authors propose recommendations for gender digital inclusion evaluation practice and areas for future research.
There is a general opinion that extraverted people suffer more than introverted people in home-office arrangement and the social distancing regulation imposed by the government during the Corona Virus Disease 2019 pandemic (COVID-19). However, scarce research exists concerning how extraversion is associated with satisfaction with home-office arrangement, to what extent individuals miss their colleagues, level of stress, and whether they meet colleagues outside work during lockdown.
An online survey was distributed in six police districts in Norway during late May and beginning of June, right before the most stringent measures for constraining risk of COVID-infection was lifted. 1133 out of 1472 reported that their work-situation was home-office, or combined home-office and physical attendance at work. Contrary to what expected, extraversion was not related to satisfaction with home-office arrangement when controlling for other relevant variables (i.e. stress, home-office only, living alone, age, gender and civilian employment). As hypothesized, those with a higher score on extraversion missed their colleagues more than those with low scores. There was a marginal, although significant, negative association between extraversion and stress, and a significant positive relationship between stress and the extent the respondents missed their colleagues during lockdown, independent of extraversion. The results showed a dose-response relationship between extraversion and meeting colleagues outside the work during lockdown.
We study how the random assignment of new students to introductory-week groups shapes subsequent friendship networks. Both women and men report being much more likely to be friends with same-gender students with whom they were (randomly) assigned in a group during their first week on campus, and the effect is much stronger for women. When students from the same cohort play a repeated trust game in the experimental laboratory, their behavior helps explain what we observed in the field. Women display more stability and less flexibility than men in their interactions with individuals with whom they had previously played. This difference is enough to generate homophily in the observational data even though subjects show no intrinsic preference for same-gender interaction.
We use worker-level data on the task content of jobs to measure the ability to work-from-home (WFH) in developing countries. We show that the ability to WFH is low in developing countries and document significant heterogeneity across and within occupations, and across worker characteristics. Our measure suggests that educated workers, wage employees and women have a higher ability to WFH. Using data from Brazil, Costa Rica and Peru, we show that our measure is predictive of actual WFH both in terms of overall levels and variation with occupation and individual characteristics, as well as employment outcomes. Our measure can thus be used to predict WFH outcomes in developing countries.
Objectives
Technostress is an emergent phenomenon related to the pervasive use of technology and is associated with the increased computerisation and digitalisation seen over recent decades. This cross-sectional observational study aims to investigate the impact that stress from the use of technologies (i.e. technostress) has on the productivity and life of an individual.
Study design
Cross-sectional study.
Methods
Data were collected using a previously proposed and validated questionnaire. The questionnaire was translated into Italian and transformed into an online format with a Google Docs form. The questionnaire was then associated with a link and QR code (also available in paper format) and disseminated manually and through the use of e-mail and social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter.
Results
The study sample included 313 individuals, 54.6% of whom were women. The mean age of the sample participants was 34.7 years. The dependent variables were technstressors (i.e. techno-overload, techno-invasion, techno-complexity, techno-insecurity and techno-uncertainty), role stressors (i.e. role overload and role conflict) and productivity. In the multivariate analysis, techno-overload was significantly associated with female gender (β = 0.128; P = 0.018) and unemployment (β = −0.303; P < 0.001); techno-invasion was significantly associated with female gender (β = 0.098; P = 0.081) and degree-level education (β = 0.149; P = 0.008); techno-complexity was significantly associated with female gender (β = 0.107; P = 0.057) and being married (β = 0.113; P = 0.046); techno-uncertainty was significantly associated with unemployment (β = 0.337; P < 0.001); role overload was significantly associated with female gender (β = 0.160; P = 0.014) and productivity was significantly associated with degree-level education (β = 0.125; P = 0.057).
Conclusions
This observational study evaluated the phenomenon of both work-related and non–work-related technostress of 313 individuals aged between 16 and 65 years. The present study investigated the impact of five techno-stressors, two role stressors and productivity. The results indicate that different techno-stressors are significantly associated with female gender, degree-level education and unemployment. Further research in this field is required to better understand and clarify the epidemiology, clinical presentation and determinants of technostress.
Exposure to technostress operationalised as ICT demands is more prevalent in higher socioeconomic groups, but little is known about the exposure in different occupational groups considering industry and position. The aim of the present study was to explore the exposure to ICT demands in managers and other occupational groups. Cross-sectional self-reported data from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH), collected in 2016 was used, including 13 572 respondents (1 241 ‘managers’, 12 331 ‘non-managers’). ICT demands based on a six-item Likert scale were analysed as the main measure. ‘Managers’ (varying industries and positions) in comparison with ‘non-managers’, including nine occupational groups separated by industry and education level, showed the highest prevalence (74.7%) of ICT demands. ‘Managers in health care, other community services and education’ showed the highest odds ratio (OR) with 95% Confidence Intervals (CI) of ICT demands, in comparison with ‘non-managers’ (OR 4.64 [CI 3.26–6.61], and with ‘all other managers’ (OR 1.55 [CI 1.01–2.38]), after adjustment for sex, age, job strain, and social support. In conclusion, managers have increased odds of exposure to ICT demands, especially managers in health care, other community services and education. Targeted actions to improve the digitalised work environment among managers are warranted.
Amid rapid population ageing and the high-speed progress of information and communications technology, use of smart electronics can improve older people's quality of life by helping them to stay connected, active and independent, which may, in turn, increase their overall happiness and sense of social belonging. Taking a gender perspective, this paper aims to understand variations in digital exclusion among older people. Using data from the 2016 China Longitudinal Ageing Social Survey, it finds that digital exclusion seems to vary by gender, with rural female older people being most excluded, possibly because they have the lowest capital endowment. The gender difference in the digital divide is even more salient with all other things being equal. Digital exclusion in the information era may further exacerbate gender inequality, particularly for those who are already most vulnerable. Since digital inclusion is somewhat inherent in the concept of intelligent old-age support, it should be considered an urgent necessity to help older people, especially rural women, become familiar with smart electronic products.
In this study, we use the open innovation paradigm to analyze the development of an entrepreneurial support ecosystem. We argue that business accelerators play a critical role within an emerging entrepreneurial ecosystem. Our analysis draws on qualitative data from a business accelerator in such a context. We suggest that, in environments that have underdeveloped entrepreneurial support ecosystems, public policy should endorse the open innovation activities of key actors in entrepreneurial ecosystems. By harnessing open innovation, an accelerator forges a broader network of relationships with actors outside of the system, which in turn increases the capacity within the system and embeds it within a global innovation system.
Research on incubators show that size is important in achieving efficiency and networking benefits for clients. However, little research has focused on what factors influence incubator size. We theorize and show partial support for size benefits to incubator specialization. Analyses of the relationship between size and four distinct specialization strategies in a sample of 96 European incubators show that incubator size is positively related to a strategic focus on universities and research institutes as recruitment channels and to a focus on sustainability, but unrelated to industry focus. Incubator size was found to be negatively related to a regional focus. While sustainability focused incubators tended to not find recruitment challenging, paradoxically, among those who did, the most frequently reported challenges were related to finding tenants that focus on sustainability. Post-hoc analyses revealed that tenants with a focus other than sustainability often dominate sustainability-oriented incubators , suggesting that sustainability may be more of a legitimating strategy than an explicit selection criterion .
Over the past 350 years, Merck has developed science and technology especially in health care, life sciences, and performance materials. To celebrate so many productive years, Merck conducted a special expanded anniversary edition of the Innovation Cup in combination with the scientific conference Curious2018 - Future Insight in Darmstadt, Germany.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the time-allocation decisions of individuals who work from home (i.e. teleworkers), and compare them with their commuter counterparts.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data from the American Time Use Survey for the years 2003–2015, the authors analyze the time spent working, and the timing of work, of both commuters and teleworkers.
Findings
Results show that teleworkers devote 40 percent less time to market work activities than do commuters, and less than 60 percent of teleworkers work at “regular hours,” vs around 80 percent of their commuter counterparts. Using information from the Well-being Module for the years 2012 and 2013, the authors find that male teleworkers experience lower levels of negative feelings while working than do commuters.
Originality/value
This paper addresses the timing of work of workers working from home; and the instant well-being experienced, exploiting information at diary level.
Innovative start-ups are often considered to be a key source of innovation and job creation. As such they are the subject of several types of supportive public policies. This study examines the short-term and long-term effects of business incubators on the performance of innovative start-ups in terms of sales revenues and job creation. A large sample of N = 2544 innovative Italian start-ups, of which 606 were incubated, was followed over a period of up to six years. Tobit and Poisson regressions and propensity-score matching analyses point towards a significant negative effect of incubator tenancy on sales revenues and no significant effect of incubation on job creation. Findings also suggest that the initially negative effect of incubation on sales revenues turns into a positive effect in the long term. The effects of incubator characteristics, in terms of ownership, certification, and size on the growth of tenant start-ups were further analysed, but these effects were found to be negligible. The study contributes to the literature on the evidence-based evaluation of business incubation performance. It suggests that public policy makers should lower their expectations regarding the numbers of new jobs created by business incubation support.
Objectives
In recent years, the origins and sources of social networks and social capital have been extensively studied. Previous studies have primarily focused on social demographic factors. To enrich our understanding of the determinants of social networks, this article explores the role of mobility in rural China.
Methods
Drawing upon a data set from the Chinese General Social Survey, this article first uses clustered effect logit models and then adopts a propensity score matching (PSM) model for a robustness check.
Results
The results demonstrate that citizens who have access to more advanced transportation modes and spend less time on traveling are more likely to establish weak ties, especially with nonagricultural citizens in prestigious job positions. The results also indicate that strong family ties are not the consequence of mobility. By disaggregating the full sample, this article further reveals that the young, rich, and female citizens reap more benefit from mobility.
Conclusions
Given the great importance of automobiles for strengthening social networks, this article suggests that car sharing/pooling/lifting programs might be a viable solution to social network deficits in rural areas.
Purpose
Universities play a central role in scientific development and progress in societies, so, the need for supporting new businesses in universities becomes very important that science and technology park-based incubators can meet it. The purpose of this paper is to prioritize the factors influencing strategic management of university business incubators (UBIs).
Design/methodology/approach
Present research prioritizes the factors influencing strategic management of incubators using analytic network process (ANP). The authors gathered data from UBIs affiliated with science and technology park of Guilan, located in city of Rasht (Iran) using the ANP questionnaire during year 2017.
Findings
Factors influencing strategic management of incubators comprised of four main criteria and 14 sub-criteria. The criteria and sub-criteria were ranked based on their importance. Results show that “talented managers” has the highest importance for strategic management of UBIs.
Originality/value
This study offers a novel analysis and contribution to the knowledge of ranking UBIs with a multi-criteria decision-making technique. Results of this research show the relative importance of criteria and sub-criteria, which contributes to further improvement of incubator management. University managers and incubator directors can utilize the findings for better resource allocation and aligning the strategies of incubators with macro strategies of the country.
Purpose
This study aimed to investigate what factors influence employees’ job satisfaction and whether they differ across age groups.
Methods
The secondary data came from the 2014 China Labor-force Dynamics Survey, which included 6,249 employees in three age groups: 634 aged 55 and older, 2,569 aged 40–54, 3,046 aged 18–39. In this paper, job satisfaction was measured as the total subjective feeling that an employee feels about his/her work. After reviewing descriptive statistics, multiple regression models of job satisfaction were estimated by three age groups.
Results
Among the three age-groups, the older employees had the highest evaluations of income, job safety, working environment, working time, job fun and total job satisfaction. The middle-aged employees had the highest evaluations of others’ respect for their jobs. The younger group had the highest evaluations of promotion opportunity, job fun, relationship with coworkers, ability and skills use, others’ respect, and opportunities to express opinions. Additionally, older group did not value job safety, relationship with coworkers, ability and skills use for their job satisfaction, however, younger and middle-aged employees did so.
Discussion
The findings highlight the importance to examine employees’ needs across life span. To promote job satisfaction, age-related challenges and psychological needs should be considered in work places.
While more educators are increasingly using multimedia technology for online and blended learning, there has not been much research on whether and how multimedia technology is accepted and used by learners. In this study, we examine the adoption of multimedia technology for online and blended learning. In order to better understand its adoption mechanism, we propose an integrated model, which extends the technology acceptance model with task technology fit theories. Furthermore, this study investigates gender difference as a moderator in the integrated model. The proposed research model has been assessed with the data collected from three online and blended classes where multimedia technology has been used for learning. The results obtained from the partial least squares analysis show that multimedia technology positively affects the user's perception of fit in learning, which in turn positively affects the adoption of multimedia technology for learning. In addition, the integrated model increases the explanatory power of the final dependent variable, actual adoption of multimedia technology. We also found the moderating effect of gender difference in the adoption of multimedia technology for learning.
Strategic human capital research sits at the intersection of strategy and employee mobility research. Employee entrepreneurship research sits at the intersection of entrepreneurship and employee mobility research. We demonstrate how a shared focus on labor market frictions connects these two complementary but largely disparate literatures through their mutual emphasis on employee mobility. Our examination of the impact of various labor market frictions on employee mobility to competitor firms and employee transitions to entrepreneurship suggests that the outcomes of some frictions are divergent across the two literatures, the outcomes of some are aligned, and the outcomes of some are ambiguous. The complex interplay of labor market frictions provides opportunities for future research specifically exploring the intersection of the strategic human capital and employee entrepreneurship literatures. Our research suggests that some factors that prevent employees from leaving their employers to join competitor companies may also keep those employees from leaving to start new companies. Other factors that prevent employees from leaving their employers, however, may actually encourage employees to leave to start new companies. We identify areas for future research to better help us understand when companies' efforts to hold on to their workers are effective at preventing both movement to competitor companies as well as to entrepreneurship.
