The definition, theoretical modelling and empirical research of front-line service employee corporate identity within a UK national grocery retailer:determining the FLE corporate brand identification construct

Over the past forty years the corporate identity literature has developed to a point of maturity where it currently contains many definitions and models of the corporate identity construct at the organisational level. The literature has evolved by developing models of corporate identity or in considering corporate identity in relation to new and developing themes, e.g. corporate social responsibility. It has evolved into a multidisciplinary domain recently incorporating constructs from other literature to further its development. However, the literature has a number of limitations. It remains that an overarching and universally accepted definition of corporate identity is elusive, potentially leaving the construct with a lack of clear definition. Only a few corporate identity definitions and models, at the corporate level, have been empirically tested. The corporate identity construct is overwhelmingly defined and theoretically constructed at the corporate level, leaving the literature without a detailed understanding of its influence at an individual stakeholder level. Front-line service employees (FLEs), form a component in a number of corporate identity models developed at the organisational level. FLEs deliver the services of an organisation to its customers, as well as represent the organisation by communicating and transporting its core defining characteristics to customers through continual customer contact and interaction. This person-to-person contact between an FLE and the customer is termed a service encounter, where service encounters influence a customer’s perception of both the service delivered and the associated level of service quality. Therefore this study for the first time defines, theoretically models and empirically tests corporate identity at the individual FLE level, termed FLE corporate identity. The study uses the services marketing literature to characterise an FLE’s operating environment, arriving at five potential dimensions to the FLE corporate identity construct. These are scrutinised against existing corporate identity definitions and models to arrive at a definition for the construct. In reviewing the corporate identity, services marketing, branding and organisational psychology literature, a theoretical model is developed for FLE corporate identity, which is empirically and quantitatively tested, with FLEs in seven stores of a major national retailer. Following rigorous construct reliability and validity testing, the 601 usable responses are used to estimate a confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation model for the study. The results for the individual hypotheses and the structural model are very encouraging, as they fit the data well and support a definition of FLE corporate identity. This study makes contributions to the branding, services marketing and organisational psychology literature, but its principal contribution is to extend the corporate identity literature into a new area of discourse and research, that of FLE corporate identity

Individual spirit at work and its outcomes:an empirical examination in corporate Thailand

The purpose of the present study was to conduct empirical research in corporate Thailand in order to (1) investigate the relationships between individual spirit at work and three employee work attitudinal variables (organisational identification, job satisfaction and psychological well-being) and three organisational outcomes (in-role performance, organisational citizenship behaviours (OCB), and turnover intentions) (2) further examine causal relations among these organisational behaviour variables with a longitudinal design (3) examine three employee work attitudes as mediator variables between individual spirit at work and three organisational outcomes and (4) explore the potential antecedents of organisational conditions that foster employee experienced individual spirit at work. The 715 completed questionnaires were received from the first wave of data collection during July 2008 and the second wave was conducted again within the same organisations and 501 completed questionnaires were received during April 2009. Data were obtained through 52 organisations which were from three types of organisations within Thailand: public organisations (N=237,185), for-profit organisations (N=244,155), and not-for-profit organisations (N=234,161). Confirmatory factor analysis of all measures used in the study and hypothesized model were tested with structural equation modeling techniques. Results were strongly supportive. In addition, although the model was invariant across rater of performance and OCB, there were differences across self report and supervisor rating. Additionally, the antecedents of organisational conditions that fostered employees experienced individual spirit at work and the implications of these findings for practice and research are discussed.

Promoter effects in the polymerisation of a mixed hydrocarbon feed with silica-supported BF3

The activity of a silica-supported BF3–methanol solid acid catalyst in the cationic polymerisation of an industrial aromatic C9 feedstock has been investigated. Reuse has been achieved under continuous conditions. Titration of the catalyst acid sites with triethylphosphine oxide (TEPO) in conjunction with 31P MAS NMR shows the catalyst to have two types of acid sites. Further analysis with 2,6 di-tert-butyl-4-methylpyridine (DBMP) has revealed the majority of these acid sites to be Brønsted in nature. The role of α-methylstyrene in promoting resin polymerisation via chain transfer is proposed.

Efficient HIV-1 inhibition by a 16 nt-long RNA aptamer designed by combining in vitro selection and in silico optimisation strategies

The human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) genome contains multiple, highly conserved structural RNA domains that play key roles in essential viral processes. Interference with the function of these RNA domains either by disrupting their structures or by blocking their interaction with viral or cellular factors may seriously compromise HIV-1 viability. RNA aptamers are amongst the most promising synthetic molecules able to interact with structural domains of viral genomes. However, aptamer shortening up to their minimal active domain is usually necessary for scaling up production, what requires very time-consuming, trial-and-error approaches. Here we report on the in vitro selection of 64 nt-long specific aptamers against the complete 5' -untranslated region of HIV-1 genome, which inhibit more than 75% of HIV-1 production in a human cell line. The analysis of the selected sequences and structures allowed for the identification of a highly conserved 16 nt-long stem-loop motif containing a common 8 nt-long apical loop. Based on this result, an in silico designed 16 nt-long RNA aptamer, termed RNApt16, was synthesized, with sequence 5'-CCCCGGCAAGGAGGGG-3-'. The HIV-1 inhibition efficiency of such an aptamer was close to 85%, thus constituting the shortest RNA molecule so far described that efficiently interferes with HIV-1 replication.

Impact of severity and type of depression on quality of life in cases identified in the community

BACKGROUND: The impact of different levels of depression severity on quality of life (QoL) is not well studied, particularly regarding ICD-10 criteria. The ICD classification of depressive episodes in three levels of severity is also controversial and the less severe category, mild, has been considered as unnecessary and not clearly distinguishable from non-clinical states. The present work aimed to test the relationship between depression severity according to ICD-10 criteria and several dimensions of functioning as assessed by Medical Outcome Study (MOS) 36-item Short Form general health survey (SF-36) at the population level. METHOD: A sample of 551 participants from the second phase of the Outcome of Depression International Network (ODIN) study (228 controls without depression and 313 persons fulfilling ICD criteria for depressive episode) was selected for a further assessment of several variables, including QoL related to physical and mental health as measured with the SF-36. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences between controls and the depression group were found in both physical and mental markers of health, regardless of the level of depression severity; however, there were very few differences in QoL between levels of depression as defined by ICD-10. Regardless of the presence of depression, disability, widowed status, being a woman and older age were associated with worse QoL in a structural equation analysis with covariates. Likewise, there were no differences according to the type of depression (single-episode versus recurrent). CONCLUSIONS: These results cast doubt on the adequacy of the current ICD classification of depression in three levels of severity.

Control of pattern formation by time-delay feedback with global and local contributions

We consider the suppression of spatiotemporal chaos in the complex GinzburgLandau equation by a combined global and local time-delay feedback. Feedback terms are implemented as a control scheme, i.e., they are proportional to the difference between the time-delayed state of the system and its current state. We perform a linear stability analysis of uniform oscillations with respect to space-dependent perturbations and compare with numerical simulations. Similarly, for the fixed-point solution that corresponds to amplitude death in the spatially extended system, a linear stability analysis with respect to space-dependent perturbations is performed and complemented by numerical simulations. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.