Editorial

Citation

Carraher, S. (2014), "Editorial", Journal of Technology Management in China, Vol. 9 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/JTMC-06-2014-0037

Technology, AACSB and research suggestions

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Technology Management in China, Volume 9, Issue 2

Welcome to Volume 9 Issue 2. We currently have moved from an h-index of 16 to an h-index of 18 and our g-index has increased from 23 to 24 with a total of 1,056 citations – an increase of 109 since the last issue – which should currently be in the process of being printed. Our Age Weighted Citation rate has increased from 174.95 to 200.25, so we have now broken the 1,000 citation mark as well as breaking the 200 age weighted citation rate (AWCR) barrier.

I just finished entering the grades from my latest semester and was proud to see an increase in the strategic potential of my students going from the 60th to the 99th percentile over the course of the semester based upon their measures of cognitive complexity. Research should also be performed, which would examine whether or not cognitive complexity can increase the prediction of expatriates. Another interesting area for research would examine what technical areas of education tend to pay off the best [highest return on investment (ROI), highest expected salaries, highest lifetime incomes, etc.] and what else influences this? I have also been doing some work looking at the value of AACSB accreditation and was glad to see that the annualized ROI for earning a degree from here was 33.5 per cent for local students when taking in to account financial aid. I mentioned in the last issue that the dean here had received the John Fernandes Distinguished Leadership Award, and I was able to figure out that the ROI for earning a business degree from the University of Texas at Dallas has increase over 60 per cent since he became dean. He has emphasized high-quality research and its importance for faculty. It is expected that for tenure that faculty shall have at least four top tier publications from the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD)-24 list of journals. It is then expected that faculty shall continue to be productive – which is important for increasing the value to students. In a study in which I have been doing since 1998, I have found that the higher the publication rate and citation rates for professors the higher the expected salaries of individual students as well as the higher general ROI for students earning a degree. In general, a large portion of the value of AACSB accreditation seems to be in terms of faculty being current and involved in research. I have heard from some professors that accreditation is not that important, but they have never taught at a non-AACSB accredited university. Believe it or not, I have found situations where faculty members who are not current in their field are teaching outdated – or in some cases factually incorrect – information. This seems to be especially important in accounting, but I have also found examples of this in economics, management, marketing and finance.

This semester one of my favorite comments is the following:

This was my second time to take this course with Dr Carraher after failing the first time. I have nobody to blame for failing but myself. I was supposed to take this class with a different professor when I retook it, but immediately dropped it when I learned that Dr Carraher had an opening in one of his classes. His class didn’t even fit my schedule but I was determined to make it work because I knew how great of a teacher he was. To Dr Carraher, if you show this evaluation to your future classes, I would like to give the students a little advice. Attend class and take it seriously but have fun with it as well. Try the foods and know that everything Dr Carraher teaches you is meant to help you succeed, whether you realize it or not. And I know, at times, it’s going to seem like what he’s saying has nothing to do with international business, but it really does. He doesn’t only teach the theory of international business; what he teaches you is how to be successful in the field of international business and life in general.

This was followed by:

This is by far the most unique professor that I have ever had in my college career. He has so much knowledge over many different things. I like his teaching style, and how he interacts with his students constantly. I like that he wants to get more students involved in research, which is an excellent plan. This is by far the most unique professor that I have ever had in my college career. He has some much knowledge over many different things. I like his teaching style, and how he interacts with his students constantly. I like that he wants to get more students involved in research, which is an excellent plan. If there are any other professors out there like Mr Carraher we need them at UTD!!!!!!

At the other extreme I have some students who say that learning about cultures and personalities have nothing to do with business.

In this issue, we once again have seven articles and one interview with a leading research in the field. We begin the issue with an interview of Mike Peng by Alyssa Neeley of Target. Professor Peng is from Shanghai and has written extensively about institutional-based view of the firm with his works having been cited 14,636 times in the past 21 years and has an h-index of 48 and a g-index of 120 as well as a an AWCR of 1,778.27. This is followed by “Ethics and Values: A Comparison between Four Countries (USA, Brazil, United Kingdom, and Canada)” by Jonelle Feikis, Avery McHugh and Samuel Lane of the University of Texas at Dallas and Lane Import. They examine the similarities and the differences in the ethics and values seen within the USA, Brazil, Canada and the United Kingdom in the hope that it should be possible to conclude the appropriate means in which to conduct business and research with any of the corresponding countries. This, in turn, will serve as a major asset to global business alike and prove to be monumental in the ways it breaks down cultural barriers to promote the sanctity of business worldwide. An earlier version of this paper was presented at Harvard University at the Medical Research Institute.

This paper is followed by “The Impact of Personality on Pay Satisfaction Among Small Business Managers in the USA and China” coauthored by Jonathan C. Shrader and Luke A. Singer who were previously affiliated with Indiana Wesleyan University. Jonathan is in the process of becoming a counselor, while Luke is a consultant in the Executive coaching and leadership fields in affiliation with the Zig Ziglar Corp. The purpose of their paper was to analyze the relationship between personality and pay satisfaction among small business managers involved in the technological fields related to hospitality management in China and the USA. This research is in attempt to further understanding and provide application of how companies can better incentivize talent through compensation and benefit programs. The goal is to extend and deepen the comprehension of how to encourage talent pools to increase intrinsic performance through compensation programs. The measures that were used in this study were the Big Five Personality Test and the Pay Satisfaction Questionnaire. Interestingly, they found similar results across the two countries. They too presented an earlier version of this paper at Harvard University. This paper is followed by a third paper presented at Harvard University “The Impact Ethics, Values, and Cross-Cultural Differences have on China, Mexico and the USA through an Analysis of Forsyth’s Ethics Position Questionnaire, Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions, and Rokeach Values Survey” by Jonny Villatoro of the University of Texas at Dallas, John Chang also of the University of Texas at Dallas and Samuel Lane, Lane Import. Sam was the founding Associate Editor for the International Journal of Family Business and is a regular reviewer for the Journal of Technology Management in China.

Villatoro et al. focus on the impact values, ethics and cultural differences have on the societies of the USA, Mexico or China. They find that culture can be a factor which heavily influences a region or nation’s ethics and values. When discussing culture, there are many factors such as values, religion, societal norms, customs, beliefs or deeply rooted faiths, which can impact a nation’s overall collective culture. As a result, cross-cultural differences among a variety of nations, countries, regions or sub-regions may vary when compared with one another. Through more empirical investigation, research or study of a nation’s cultural values may there be a more profound, detailed and legitimate basis for assessing a nation’s ethical constructs. Understanding the differences of ethics, values and culture of the USA, China or Mexico can impact an individual’s experience if serving as an expatriate in that particular location. Each nation has its own distinct and unique social, business and cultural environment. To successfully accomplish international business or to operate a multinational corporation in a global market, individuals need to have a prior understanding of varying cultures, ethical standards or values in a particular region whether one is involved in technological or non-technological businesses.

This is followed by “Barriers to lean implementation in the construction industry in China” by Gao Shang of the School of Architecture and the Built Environment, University of Newcastle (Singapore Campus), Singapore and Low Sui Pheng of the Department of Building, National University of Singapore, Singapore. Dr Gao Shang is a Lecturer in Construction Management at the University of Newcastle (UoN), Singapore Campus. He teaches various subjects for the Construction Management (Building) Programme jointly offered by UoN and the Building & Construction Authority, Singapore. He is also a faculty associate at the School of Science &Technology, SIM University (Singapore) since 2012. His research interests are in the area of lean construction, the Toyota Way and continuous improvement in construction. He holds a PhD degree from National University of Singapore and a MSc degree from Loughborough University in the UK. Dr Low Sui Pheng is presently Professor of Building in the School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore where he has previously served as Head and Vice-Dean. He teaches construction project management and has published, researched and consulted extensively both in Singapore and overseas. A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building, he holds a DSc degree from the University of Birmingham and a PhD degree from University College London. He currently serves as Director for the Centre for Project Management and Construction Law. In this article, they build on previous research into lean practices and the associated barriers reported in various contexts to empirically address the question of what possible barriers exist to hinder the implementation of lean practices in the construction industry in China. The results suggest that the most crucial barriers to implementation of lean practices, as perceived by Chinese building professionals, include “their lack of a long-term philosophy”, “the absence of a lean culture in their organizations” and “the use of multi-layer subcontracting”, and others. This is followed by “A Window Into Eve Online” by Adam Steinke and Phil Millage of Indiana Wesleyan University. Their study looks into the world of online video gaming and how they can be can be improved. They note that while many individuals use their computers to surf the Web, check e-mails, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or various other social networking sites that online gaming has only recently really started to grow rapidly. They focus on Massive Multilayer Online games which are fairly new to the gaming world. Dr Millage is one of the top Executive Coaches in the world with a focus on results-oriented performance enhancement through improved professional self-understanding.

The next article “The Rise of Taiwan in the TFT-LCD Industry” is by Mayumi Tabata of the Department of Sociology at National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan. She is a Japanese scholar from Tokyo who did her master’s degree from the School of Sociology in National Taiwan University from 1996-2000 and was awarded her PhD in 2007. She is continuing her research in the Department of Sociology of National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan. Her research interests are learning networks among Taiwan high-tech industry, brain drain from Japan to Taiwan in high-tech industry, technological knowledge introduction mechanism of Taiwanese TFT-LCD industry. In this paper, she refocuses the analysis of global political economies using concepts from studies on Varieties of Capitalism to track Taiwan’s rise in the TFT-LCD industry. She found that stable organizational structure and less talent mobility in the Japanese TFT-LCD firms may well have been an advantage initially in the transformation process from USA firms’ experimental technologies to tacit mass production technologies, but proved to be a disadvantage in the subsequent competition with more mobile talent in Taiwanese firms eager to standardize mass production techniques. The final article, is “Emerging Technology Sustainability” by Charles E. Carraher, Jr, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Associate Director of the Florida Center for Environmental Studies at Florida Atlantic University. His area of expertise is Polymer Chemistry, and he is a Fellow of both the American Institute of Chemists, and the American Chemical Society as well as having received the Lifetime achievement award from the American Chemical Society and was the longest serving member of the accreditation committee for the ACS. In 1974 the Royal Academy of Science named him as the top expert in the world in metal containing polymers, and in 1998, he received an official nomination for the Nobel Prize but unfortunately he did not win it that year. He jointly holds the patent for the first fully synthetic synthesis of a nucleic acid [the underlying basis of DNA testing] and has materials he invented on both the Moon and Mars as well as stealth aircraft, in microcomputers and within numerous anti-fungal, anti-viral and anti-cancer agents. He has over 1,000 publications and taught some of the top materials scientists in China. In this article, he examines that for the prior century, technology alone was the driving force for invention and application of that invention. Today new terms are associated with technology and whether they will be adopted or accepted. One of these is sustainability. Terms related to sustainability include renewable materials and energy and “green” products, materials, processes, etc. In addition, another important, relatively new entity is the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). ISO is a critical factor in any discussion related to emerging technology because before a new material/technology can become internationally accepted in our marketplaces the procedure/company/process must be ISO approved. ISO has procedures related to the environment, customer, production, etc. He discusses how the future of sustainability shall likely influence future innovation and research.

I trust that you will enjoy these articles and that they will provide you with excellent ideas for future research. Just as the student in my evaluations said if “there are any other professors out there like Mr Carraher we need them at UTD”. here at the JTMC, we want more individuals submitting their work to the journal. With this issue, we include three articles presented at Harvard University, and with the next issue, we plan to have several papers presented at the Cambridge Business & Economics Conference, but it would be nice to have more papers submitted from a wide variety of sources. In the next issue, we also shall include an interview with Anne Tsui Past President of the Academy of Management to be followed by Michael Hitt also Past President of the Academy of Management and past Editor of the Academy of Management Journal.

Shawn M. Carraher