bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Genomic Dissection of an Icelandic Epidemic of Equine Respiratory Disease
Authors: Björnsdóttir Sigríður , Harris Simon R. , Svansson Vilhjálmur , Gunnarsson Eggert , Sigurðardóttirr Ólöf G. , Gammeljord Kristina , Steward Karen F. , Newton J. Richard , Robinson Carl , Charbonneau Amelia R. L. , Parkhill Julian , Holden Matthew T.G. , Waller Andrew S.
Published: June 2016

The native horse population of Iceland has remained free of major infectious diseases. Between May and July 2010 an epidemic of respiratory disease swept through the population. Initial microbiological investigations ruled out known equine viral agents as the cause of the infections, but identified the opportunistic pathogenStreptococcus zooepidemicusas being frequently isolated from diseased animals. This diverse bacterial species has a broad host range and is usually regarded as a commensal of horses. By genome sequencingS. zooepidemicusrecovered from horses during the epidemic we show that although multiple clones ofS. zooepidemicuswere present in the population, one particular clone, ST209, was responsible for the epidemic. Concurrent with the epidemic, ST209 caused zoonotic infections, highlighting the pathogenic potential of this clone. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that the original ST209 strain entered Iceland in late 2008 or early 2009. Epidemiological investigation revealed that the incursion of this strain into a training yard that utilized a submerged treadmill between the 5thand 19thof February 2010 was a critical trigger for the ensuing epidemic of disease, provided a nidus for the infection of multiple horses, and subsequent distribution of these animals to multiple sites in Iceland.
Time scale and fractionality in financial time series
Authors: Sproul Thomas W.
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– Turvey (2007, Physica A) introduced a scaled variance ratio procedure for testing the random walk hypothesis (RWH) for financial time series by estimating Hurst coefficients for a fractional Brownian motion model of asset prices. The purpose of this paper is to extend his work by making the estimation procedure robust to heteroskedasticity and by addressing the multiple hypothesis testing problem.

Design/methodology/approach

– Unbiased, heteroskedasticity consistent, variance ratio estimates are calculated for end of day price data for eight time lags over 12 agricultural commodity futures (front month) and 40 US equities from 2000-2014. A bootstrapped stepdown procedure is used to obtain appropriate statistical confidence for the multiplicity of hypothesis tests. The variance ratio approach is compared against regression-based testing for fractionality.

Findings

– Failing to account for bias, heteroskedasticity, and multiplicity of testing can lead to large numbers of erroneous rejections of the null hypothesis of efficient markets following an independent random walk. Even with these adjustments, a few futures contracts significantly violate independence for short lags at the 99 percent level, and a number of equities/lags violate independence at the 95 percent level. When testing at the asset level, futures prices are found not to contain fractional properties, while some equities do.

Research limitations/implications

– Only a subsample of futures and equities, and only a limited number of lags, are evaluated. It is possible that multiplicity adjustments for larger numbers of tests would result in fewer rejections of independence.

Originality/value

– This paper provides empirical evidence that violations of the RWH for financial time series are likely to exist, but are perhaps less common than previously thought.
Quantitative finance for agricultural commodities: discussion and extension
Authors: Power Gabriel J.
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to review three papers in this issue and contribute new results on commodity futures prices and volume using wavelet analysis.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper uses time series econometrics including variance ratio tests, fractional integration estimators, and wavelet transforms.

Findings

– The role of time horizon is emphasized in the discussion of the three papers, and wavelet methods are shown to be a useful tool to better understand time horizon-specific risk. Moreover, changes in the time horizon of futures trading are documented and discussed.

Originality/value

– In addition to discussing three papers on quantitative finance for agricultural commodities, this paper also looks at how the analysis and management of short-term and long-term risk may differ. To this end, wavelet transform-based time series methods are reviewed and applied.
The US crop insurance program and WTO disciplines
Authors: Glauber Joseph William
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the US crop insurance programs in the context of domestic support disciplines under the World Trade Organization (WTO). Crop insurance has become an integral part of many domestic support programs, not just in developed countries, but in important emerging markets as well. An often-cited impetus for the growth in insurance program is the potential treatment of such programs as exempt from WTO reduction commitments.

Design/methodology/approach

– A detailed examination of the so-called “green box provisions” of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture is presented with particular emphasis on eligibility criteria for crop yield and revenue insurance programs.

Findings

– While WTO rules potentially shield green box policies from reduction, few developed countries have notified agricultural insurance policies under Annex 2. Moreover, crop insurance programs have been challenged in recent WTO dispute settlement cases and domestic countervailing duty investigations.

Originality/value

– The paper presents a unique perspective on a program which has become the largest single farm program in the USA.
Big data and Ag-Analytics
Authors: Woodard Joshua
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief and necessarily partial overview of the design, motivation, and use of the Ag-Analytics platform (ag-analytics.org), focussing on integration and warehousing of publicly available research data for broad communities of researchers, including those in the area of agricultural finance.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper walks the reader through an overview of the layout and utilization of the Ag-Analytics platform, including a few example applications of some of the tools and web API’s.

Findings

– Much of the data researchers routinely use in agricultural and environmental finance and related fields are often – strictly speaking – publicly available; however the form in which they are distributed leads to great inefficiencies in data sourcing and processing which can be greatly improved. The goal of the Ag-Analytics open data/open source platform is to help researchers centralize and share in such efforts. Development of systems for disseminating, documenting, and automating the processing of such data can lead to more transparency in research, better routes for validation, and a more robust research community.

Practical implications

– Some of the tools and methods are discussed, as well as practical issues in data sourcing and automation for research. A few high level introductory examples and applications are illustrated.

Originality/value

– Development and adoption of such systems and data resources remains seriously lacking in social science research, particularly in the economics, natural resource, environmental, and agricultural finance spheres. This brief provides an overview of one such system which should be of value to researchers in this field and many others.
Hedging crop yield with exchange-traded weather derivatives
Authors: Zhou Rui , Li Johnny Siu-Hang , Pai Jeffrey
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The application of weather derivatives in hedging crop yield risk is gaining more interest. However, the further development of weather derivatives – particularly exchange-traded – in the agricultural sector has been impeded by concerns over their hedging performance. The purpose of this paper is to develop a new framework to derive the optimal hedging strategy and evaluate hedging effectiveness.

Design/methodology/approach

– This framework incorporates a stochastic temperature model, a crop yield model, a risk-neutral pricing method and a profit optimization procedure. Based on a large number of simulated scenarios, the authors study crop yield hedge for a future year. The authors allow the hedger to choose from different types of exchange-traded weather derivatives, and examine the impact of various factors on the optimal hedging strategy.

Findings

– The analysis shows that hedging objective, pricing method and geographical location of the hedged exposure all play important roles in choosing the best hedging strategy and assessing hedging effectiveness.

Originality/value

– This framework is forward-looking, because it focusses on the crop yield hedge for a future year rather than on the historical hedging effectiveness often studied in literature. It utilizes the most up-to-date information related to temperature and crop yield, and hence produces a hedging strategy which is more relevant to the year under consideration.
Financial engineering in pricing agricultural derivatives based on demand and volatility
Authors: Assa Hirbod
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the author proposes a financial engineering framework to model commodity prices based on market demand processes and demand functions. This framework explains the relation between demand, volatility and the leverage effect of commodities. It is also shown how the proposed framework can be used to price derivatives on commodity prices. Second, the author estimates the model parameters for agricultural commodities and discuss the implications of the results on derivative prices. In particular, the author see how leverage effect (or inverse leverage effect) is related to market demand.

Design/methodology/approach

– This paper uses a power demand function along with the Cox, Ingersoll and Ross mean-reverting process to find the price process of commodities. Then by using the Ito theorem the constant elastic volatility (CEV) model is derived for the market prices. The partial differential equation that the dynamics of derivative prices satisfy is found and, by the Feynman-Kac theorem, the market derivative prices are provided within a Monte-Carlo simulation framework. Finally, by using a maximum likelihood estimator, the parameters of the CEV model for the agricultural commodity prices are found.

Findings

– The results of this paper show that derivative prices on commodities are heavily affected by the elasticity of volatility and, consequently, by market demand elasticity. The empirical results show that different groups of agricultural commodities have different values of demand and volatility elasticity.

Practical implications

– The results of this paper can be used by practitioners to price derivatives on commodity prices and by insurance companies to better price insurance contracts. As in many countries agricultural insurances are subsidised by the government, the results of this paper are useful for setting more efficient policies.

Originality/value

– Approaches that use the methodology of financial engineering to model agricultural prices and compute the derivative prices are rather new within the literature and still need to be developed for further applications.
Electronic Arts: gambling on the future of video games
Authors: Gupta Atul , Nicovich Stef , Garrison Taylor
Published: June 2016

Subject area

CSS 11: Strategy

Study level/applicability

Undergraduate or Graduate Capstone Course in Management or Marketing.

Case overview

Electronic Arts is one of the premiere video game software developers in the world. With the changing video game industry, evolving tastes and preferences, the introduction of next generation platforms and supporting various mobile platforms, Electronics Arts has important decisions to make as it charts its future.

Expected learning outcomes

The analysis seeks to fulfil several objectives relevant to management and marketing strategy courses, where analysis of the external environment of a firm is important. Students should be able to do the following: identify the relevant content to include in an industry analysis. Understand the key concepts of strategic analysis and how to apply them. Use the analytical tools of strategy to synthesize information from multiple sources into a comprehensive picture of an industry. Provide an overview of the dynamics and near-term future of this industry. Use industry analysis to explore emerging markets, billing options and where to target company resources.

Supplementary materials

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.
An examination of oral and literal teaching traditions through a comparative analysis of mathematics lessons in Iran and Japan
Authors: Sarkar Arani Mohammad Reza
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine a seventh grade mathematics lesson in Iran and Japan through a comparative analysis for illuminating what actually goes on in the classroom in different cultural contexts. Emphasis is here placed on Iranian oral and Japanese literal teaching traditions.

Design/methodology/approach

– Qualitative research methods were employed for data collection, including cross-cultural lesson analysis meetings in Iran and Japan and semi-structured interviews with the participants of the meetings. In doing this, the study plans to make apparent the structure of meaning hidden in lesson practice – a so-called cultural script of teaching – by comparing this practice in cultural context, through the eyes of educators from different socio-cultural perspectives.

Findings

– The findings are intended to clarify the mathematical communication approach used in Iran and Japan. Mathematical communication proceeds through speaking rather than writing in Iran, discussing before summarizing and taking notes (speaking/listening), while in Japan, it proceeds through writing before telling and speaking (writing/reading).

Research limitations/implications

– This study delivers a transnational learning opportunity for educators to learn how to provide evidence-based analysis of a lesson for professional learning to raise the quality of teaching. However, as this is a case study, it opens up the possibility for comparative lesson analysis of more sample lessons, and how active learning and dialogic teaching can be designed in different educational contexts. In addition, it may be interesting for educators to see how this comparative lesson analysis helps practitioners to revise their teaching. These are very important research questions which the researcher hopes to cover in his next manuscript.

Practical implications

– Comparative lesson analysis has the potential to expand more “research in practice” for designing mathematics lessons from the perspective of the students – so-called “customized teaching.” In addition, how the silent process of each individual student in the lesson has impacted on their learning and understanding – so-called “personalized learning” – is one of the issues arising from the case studies.

Social implications

– The value of comparative lesson analysis as a lens is in its ability to reveal to educators their own unconscious teaching script. It provides an opportunity for evidence-based critiques of our own teaching traditions that we accept culturally, share tacitly and may not even be aware of in the construction process.

Originality/value

– This study combines careful measurement with “insider” and “outsider” perspectives to provide a deeper understanding of the real world of the classroom and the cultural context of teaching.
Developing mathematics teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in lesson study
Authors: Ni Shuilleabhain Aoibhinn
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the development of mathematics teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) over successive cycles of lesson study. Utilising the framework of mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) (Ballet al., 2008), this research classifies features of PCK as utilised by post-primary mathematics teachers in their planning and reflection conversations in lesson study. The development of these features of PCK is then traced over successive cycles.

Design/methodology/approach

– In total, 12 teachers in two Irish post-primary schools participated in this research. Over the course of one academic year, these two groups of teachers completed a number of cycles of lesson study and qualitative data were generated through audio recordings of all lesson study meetings and through individual interviews with participants.

Findings

– Analysis of teacher dialogue reveals distinct features of knowledge of content and students (KCS) and knowledge of content and teaching (KCT) incorporated by these teachers in their planning and reflection conversations, providing empirical evidence of MKT in lesson study. The occurrence of these features of KCS and KCT in lesson study conversations increased over successive cycles, demonstrating teacher learning.

Originality/value

– This research contributes to the literature in expanding the theoretical underpinnings of teacher learning in lesson study. It also provides further empirical evidence of MKT (Ballet al., 2008) in teacher practice, specifically related to post-primary mathematics teachers.
Consumption, unemployment and the Great Recession
Authors: Alegre Joaquín , Pou Llorenç
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to test whether households with members that experience job loss shocks are able to protect their previous level of consumption. The paper also tests whether consumption protection is affected when spells persist through time.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper estimates an intertemporal consumption model, where households try to smooth their marginal utility over time. For that purpose it analyses Spanish household budget surveys that span a long period, 1999-2012, including the Great Recession. Unlike most consumption datasets, this microdata is designed as a panel and provides detailed information for all consumption categories as well as household members’ labour status.

Findings

– The paper finds that consumption smoothing is dependent on the household member facing the unemployment transition. In particular, only main breadwinner’s unemployment transitions affects consumption smoothing. It also shows that the consumption drop persists beyond the period of the job loss for ongoing spells, although it follows a decreasing pattern. Finally, the estimation results are stable over the business cycle.

Practical implications

– The results suggest that Spanish households are not capable of fully insuring against main breadwinner’s unemployment shocks. Further, the results show that this effect remains up to two years for ongoing unemployment spells. Thus these results highlight a welfare loss by Spanish households with unemployed members.

Originality/value

– The paper extends the usual analysis of job loss shocks by the main breadwinner to include the cases of both the spouse and the rest of household members, who tend to account for most unemployment. Further, it tests for unemployment persistence. Finally, it checks the sensitivity of the results to the business cycle, including the Great Recession.
Portraying an employee performance management system based on multi-criteria decision analysis and visual techniques
Authors: Ishizaka Alessio , Pereira Vijay Edward
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– Performance appraisal is one of the most critical and indispensable human resource practices for organisations. However, it generates dissatisfaction among employees as it is often viewed as complex and ineffective. The purpose of this paper is to present a new performance management system that integrates multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods – the analytic network process (ANP) and PROMETHEE – with the visual techniques of the GAIA plane and the stacked bar chart. MCDA methods allow a structured and consistent evaluation integrating qualitative and quantitative criteria.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors developed a structured and transparent performance management system. It is based on the MCDA methods PROMETHEE and ANP. It also incorporates the visual techniques: GAIA and stacked bar chart. Feedback for trainings and developments can precisely be formulated.

Findings

– Visual techniques permit clear identification and quantification, for each employee, of the areas that need improvement through training and development, which contributes to the resource-based view of organisations. A real case study has been portrayed to show the added value of the MCDA methods and the visual techniques in employee performance management.

Originality/value

– The paper describes a new employee performance system adopted in an organisation. The multi-criteria analysis transparently combines qualitative and quantitative decision criteria into a holistic and transparent evaluation. The visual techniques permit us to gain a deep insight into the employees’ skills profile and capture fine details where individuals perform or underperform.
Recruiting abroad: an empirical analysis
Authors: Bossler Mario
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– In many European countries labor markets became more and more demand oriented. However, the average use of recruiting abroad is still low. From a firm perspective, recruiting abroad comes at substantial costs and risks. The purpose of this paper is to identify mechanisms leading to the use of recruiting from abroad.

Design/methodology/approach

– Effects are retrieved from simple OLS regressions as well as from demand-sided instrumental variable specifications applied to a large German establishment-level dataset.

Findings

– The share of foreign workers in the contemporary work force enhances recruiting abroad, which is in line with theoretical considerations that foreigners indicate of successful international assignments. The results also indicate that internationally operating businesses more likely recruit from abroad. Furthermore, the author finds that market forces are relevant for the strategy to recruit abroad. Both, the regional scarcity of labor and a high demand for skilled labor affect the employer’s decision to recruit abroad.

Social implications

– The results indicate that internationally oriented businesses more likely recruit abroad. Furthermore, labor market mechanisms, such as scarcities, are functional and foster the use of foreign labor markets.

Originality/value

– This study adds to the literature by providing first empirical evidence on recruiting abroad, which is the use of foreign labor markets.
Cyber-communic@tion etiquette
Authors: Mehrabi Boshrabadi Abbas , Bataghva Sarabi Sepideh
Published: June 2016

Purpose

Research has shown that the discursive patterns students use in their email interactions with their teachers are not linguistically and socio-culturally appropriate. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to try to explore how socio-cultural conventions influence the Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ choices of discourse strategies in their email communications within an academic context. The study, then, investigates the impact of social distance and gender on the stylistic features of students’ email texts.

Design/methodology/approach

The email texts written by 180 university students majoring in Applied Linguistics were systematically analyzed based on such patterns as opening and closing moves, reduced forms, text connectives, symbolization and emoticons. Alternatively, three semi-structured interviews were conducted to gauge the participants’ motives underlying the selection of particular discourse features.

Findings

The findings revealed that students, despite many statements to the contrary, were aware of the socio-cultural conventions governing email writing style and could write status-appropriate email messages, which rightly reflected the etiquette of email communication within an academic context.

Practical implications

The findings may offer certain benefits to EFL teachers and students.

Originality/value

The paper highlights understanding of a specific social group in relation to their interaction with different status social groups in the context of a specific communication technology and to some extent the perceived effectiveness of such approaches by those invoking them.
An investigation into risks awareness and e-safety needs of children on the internet
Authors: Annansingh Fenio , Veli Thomas
Published: June 2016

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate children interaction in cyberspace and their use of Web 2.0 technologies. It sought their perception of internet risks as well as their knowledge and experience with electronic safety (e-safety) measures. It also considered parents’, teachers’ and other stakeholders’ perception of internet risks, e-safety procedures and children’s practices while online.

Design/methodology/approach

The research adopted a mixed method approach which involved the use of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The results were presented and analysed using descriptive statistics, while the interviews utilised coding and data structuring.

Findings

This research highlighted that e-safety policies and procedures have not kept up to date with technological advances. Children were also developing an online presence, and because it was considered normative behaviour, they were not always cautious. Consequently, society was reactive when dealing with the internet risk issues. Hence, more resources were needed to educate parents and children on safe practices on the internet.

Research limitations/implications

This is an exploratory study and further research should be conducted for broader generalisations.

Practical implications

The paper makes a number of practical recommendations for education providers and parents to raise awareness of internet risks and e-safety initiatives.

Originality/value

This paper further extends the body of theory on e-safety and provides new insights into the risks exposure of children on the internet. It also highlights the limitations of e-safety initiatives.
Learning with LinkedIn
Authors: Galan Nataliya , Khodabandehloo Akbar
Published: June 2016

Purpose

This paper aims to report the results of implementation of blogging within a LinkedIn discussion group in an international marketing course for a multicultural group of students focusing on the students’ perceptions of the subject-related blogging.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopts a qualitative approach; data have been collected through online observations of the students’ activity in a LinkedIn discussion group and structured interviews with volunteers after the completion of the course.

Findings

The results indicate the students’ positive attitudes towards blogging in LinkedIn. Blogging perceptibly contributed to the students’ acquisition of knowledge in the subject area, development of multicultural awareness and writing skills and improvement of critical thinking. In most cases, this type of activity had an impact on the development of the students’ creativity and personal expression. Some patterns are only identified for subgroups of students with a certain cultural background (Chinese, Asian, German-speaking and European students).

Research limitations/implications

The results of this qualitative study are specific for a particular setting (a small international class of students) and a certain type of assignment (in terms of its structure and instructor involvement).

Originality/value

This study contributes to the growing body of literature on using social media-based assignments in business education by generating a better understanding of how participants in a multicultural group perceive the process of experiential learning while blogging in a LinkedIn discussion group.
Constructing a postcolonial feminist ethnography
Authors: Manning Jennifer
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The paper details the construction of a postcolonial feminist approach to ethnography; providing insight into how the researcher developed her ethnographic approach based on her theoretical framework and demonstrating how she undertook this research. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to outline how the researcher identified positionality and representation as the primary challenges of undertaking a postcolonial feminist ethnography with marginalised Maya women in Guatemala, and how she addressed these complexities in the field.

Design/methodology/approach

– This postcolonial feminist ethnography was conducted over a three-month period in the rural highlands of Sololá, Guatemala. This approach bridges the intersections of postcolonial, feminist, critical and reflexive research.

Findings

– The account presented in this paper offers insight into the theoretical development of a postcolonial feminist ethnography and its implementation in practice. The researcher demonstrates the importance of addressing the issues of positionality and representation to overcome differences in position, privilege and power when building relationships with participants, and to ensure the participants and their knowledge are accurately represented.

Originality/value

– This paper contributes to the growing interest in postcolonial research and proposes a postcolonial feminist ethnography as an alternative approach for engaging in research with the marginalised Other.
Labour arbitrage: the lifecycle of a global production node
Authors: Miszczynski Milosz
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to address the geographic mobility of organisations by focusing on an instance of a rural community hosting a mobile phone plant in Romania. The paper depicts the process of changes in the community and outlines the effects during the lifecycle of the investment: starting from the plant’s re-location from Germany to Romania until its closure and re-location to Southern China.

Design/methodology/approach

– This study emerged from a 16 month ethnography in the community conducted between 2011 and 2013. The quotes and observations come from recorded interviews and field notes taken during this time.

Findings

– The outcome of this work is to show how firms generate relationships not only with each other, but also with local communities, their labour markets and economies. As the author argue in this work, those relationships, despite their intensity and transformative power, are unstable and contrary to expectations might prove to be fragile and temporary.

Originality/value

– A number of approaches, such as world-system theory, political economy or the global value chain theory, try to describe the ongoing re-location of manufacturing industry by employing a top-down perspective. In this work, the author goes beyond this view and instead focus on the cultural meanings of this process. The author’s bottom-up perspective focuses on the particular geographic location of a production node, an important part of the global value chain of a major producer of consumer electronics. The unique value of this work is also that it shows the local outcomes of the investment and the way that workers understand their participation in global production at different stages of organisational life.
Everyday interaction at the front-line
Authors: Lundberg Kjetil G. , Syltevik Liv Johanne
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to provide a sociological analysis of everyday interaction on the physical front line of the Norwegian welfare state.

Design/methodology/approach

– The data are from a short-term ethnographic study in the reception/waiting rooms of three local welfare offices. These are important sites for access to benefits and services. The focus is on the situational and interactional aspects: how do people behave and interact with fellow visitors as well as with front line staff in this institutional context? For the analysis, Goffman’s conceptual framework on behaviour in public places is combined with concepts from a theory of access to welfare benefits.

Findings

– The analysis shows how people fill these spaces with different activities, and how they are characterized by a particular type of welfare “officialdom”, boundary work and the handling of welfare stigma. Everyday interaction on the front line gives insights into the tensions in an all-in-one welfare bureaucracy and into the implementation of digitalization. The paper concludes that “old” and “new” tensions are expressed and managed at the front line, and suggests that more attention be paid to the new barriers that are developing.

Originality/value

– The study contributes an ethnographic approach to a seldom studied part of welfare administration. The waiting rooms in the Norwegian welfare organization are actualized as a social arena influenced by new trends in public administration: one-stop shops, a new heterogeneity, activation policies and digitalization processes.
All about that tweet: student perceptions of professors’ social media use in the classroom
Authors: Merle Patrick , Freberg Karen
Published: June 2016

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore whether public relations professors’ presence on social media and the inclusion of a social media assignment influence students’ perceptions of a course.

Design/methodology/approach

The experimental portion of this investigation consisted of a 2 (the presence or absence of a professor’s social media accounts) × 2 (the presence or absence of a social media assignment) factorial design resulting in four conditions.

Findings

The presence of a social media assignment positively influences students’ intent to register for a public relations course.

Research limitations/implications

The manipulation of a professor’s social media use and the inclusion of a social media assignment might have been too subtle. A more explicit scenario might elicit more reactions from the participants.

Practical implications

This study discussed key findings and best practices for professors who may want to use social media and the use of social media assignments in the classroom.

Originality/value

This experimental investigation emerged from a distinct need to understand whether university students expect their professors to engage in social media activities.
Teaching and learning disrupted: isomorphic change
Authors: Crittenden Victoria , Crittenden William F.
Published: June 2016

Purpose

The marketplace demands a technological skillset among our college graduates, and scholars acknowledge the educational underpinnings (or lack thereof) regarding technology and its place in marketing education. The current research, therefore, aims to explore how academic institutions and programs have responded to coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphic pressures in reshaping the experiences of current marketing students.

Design/methodology/approach

To understand this pressure and its implications with regards to the marketing curriculum, this research explores the integration of technology into the marketing classroom via the three forces of institutional isomorphic change: coercive forces, mimetic processes and normative pressures. The current research uses both primary and secondary data to examine how isomorphism is occurring in digital marketing education.

Findings

We find that the integration of technology into the classroom comes from the forces of institutional isomorphic change. Although these forces are pressuring business schools to include technology in their marketing curriculum, a widespread adoption of this necessary media is yet to follow.

Research limitations/implications

From a research perspective, this paper portrays the forces that are acting to disrupt teaching and learning in the current global marketplace. Previous research tends to focus on how educators can teach a particular subject area. This paper brings together forces of change as related to educators, students and managers.

Practical implications

Educators and their educational institutions have to continue to learn to teach digital marketing. Students have a role to play in that they have to be agents of change for a stronger and newer marketing curriculum. Finally, managers need to partner with educators and students to create a stronger environment for learning practical tools.

Originality/value

Weber (2013) utilized this theoretical foundation for understanding how such pressures impacted the coverage and offering of courses addressing ethical, social and sustainability issues in graduate marketing curricula. This research within the digital marketing educational arena is the first to attempt to understand technology integration into marketing education.
The role of firm characteristics on the relationship between gender diversity and firm performance
Authors: Solakoglu Mehmet Nihat , Demir Nazmi
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to understand the effect of gender diversity on firm performance and evaluate how that relationship is influenced by some firm-specific factors for firms in an emerging market.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors collected firm level financial data and firm level characteristics for the firms listed in BIST100 index of Borsa Istanbul for the period between 2002 and 2006. Due to endogeneity of gender diversity and firm performance, the authors utilize unbalanced panel data with 2SLS specification. To observe the sensitivity of results across measures of performance, three measures of performance, two accounting-based and one market-based, are utilized.

Findings

– Overall, the authors find some weak evidence that gender diversity impacts firm performance. In particular, the findings imply significant association between gender diversity and firm performance for firms that are targeting local markets, for firms in the financial sector and for firms that are family or block-owned. Moreover, findings are fragile with respect to the measures of diversity and performance selected.

Originality/value

– Although the relationship between gender diversity and firm performance are investigated several times in the past, there are not many studies that examines the role of firm-specific factors on that relationship. By revealing the factors that are important, this study provides an explanation why the existing literature leads to mixed results.
How knowledge collecting fosters organizational creativity
Authors: Giustiniano Luca , Lombardi Sara , Cavaliere Vincenzo
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– Based on the interactionist perspective proposed by Woodmanet al.(1993), this paper conceives organizational creativity as a complex concept whose investigation requires the understanding of the process, the product, the person, and the situation. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to enrich the understanding of how organizational creativity can be fostered by offering a framework which combines (inter-)individual-level learning (collecting knowledge from others), information sharing (through information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructures), and contextual factors (perceived top management support).

Design/methodology/approach

– The empirical analysis draws on a sample of 362 employees from five subsidiaries of multinational corporations. The analysis is based on multivariate regression models considering organizational creativity as dependent variable.

Findings

– The paper shows that individuals’ orientation toward learning from others significantly enhances organizational creativity. However, heavy ICT use negatively moderates the relationship between knowledge collecting and organizational creativity, while top management support does not show a significant moderating effect on the association between knowledge collecting and organizational creativity.

Research limitations/implications

– Although based on a geographically bounded perimeter, the analysis allows some generalizations.

Originality/value

– Based on these results, the paper contributes to the literature on organizational creativity by confirming the importance of providing a holistic view of the phenomenon, consistent with its inherent complexity. In so doing, it suggests organizations and their managers should simultaneously pay attention to individual and contextual factors when planning how to foster their firms’ creativity, as both of them are found to play a critical role in firms’ success and competitiveness.
Strategic revenue analysis
Authors: Albrecht Chad , Holland Daniel , Peters Michael
Published: June 2016

Purpose

Strategic revenue analysis is something that the authors have used in our consulting and classroom teaching for many years, yet has never been formally developed nor written about by researchers and practitioners.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors outline the seven-step process behind strategic revenue analysis and provide numerous examples.

Findings

Organizations that discipline themselves and perform strategic revenue analysis almost always grow quicker than the competition, focus on high margin products and develop other types of discipline that make them more successful.

Practical implications

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations.

Originality/value

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.
Commentary on “Causing trouble: the language of learning disability and challenging behaviour”
Authors: Marks Bob
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to consider the findings of the research studies on referral to a community learning disability team presented in “Causing trouble: the language of learning disability and challenging behaviour”.

Design/methodology/approach

– The commentary is based on a review of the article and associated literature.

Findings

– The studies were undertaken from a social constructionist perspective. It is argued that the use of language in referral texts and the way they represent people with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour is influenced by wider social and historical ideas of what is accepted knowledge. The analysis of these texts contributes to the understanding of how outmoded responses to challenging behaviour are maintained and has potential benefits when used in the context of positive behaviour support.

Originality/value

– The commentary considers the studies presented from a practitioner perspective.
Commentary: assessing children’s swallowing – parent and professional perceptions
Authors: Rose Steve M
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on “Assessing children’s swallowing: parent and professional perceptions”.

Design/methodology/approach

– The commentary is a narrative review of the paper from a community-based SLT practitioner perspective looking at related, published practices.

Findings

– A number of important themes are identified, illustrating the complexity of swallowing assessment procedures.

Originality/value

– The paper and this commentary highlight the importance of partnership working in managing dysphagia in children, engaging parents and practitioners and providing empowerment for decision making.
Employment for all: United States disability policy
Authors: Monteleone Rebecca
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of policy regarding employment for individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) in the USA. Drawing from recent data, it assesses the impact of policy on current employment services and rates of employment.

Design/methodology/approach

– An introduction provides details regarding the benefits of employment for individuals with disabilities, current demographic information in the USA and salient definitions. Next, ten key national laws and one state law relating to employment for individuals with disabilities are outlined briefly. Finally, current outcomes for adults with disabilities are presented in order to assess the implementation and effectiveness of the legislation presented.

Findings

– Whilst this paper is a policy review, and therefore no novel findings have been produced, it is clear by juxtaposing the mandates enacted by the US Government with practical outcomes that there is a need to assess implementation and effectiveness of such legislation.

Originality/value

– It is imperative to scrutinize policy in the context of practical outcomes in order to assess its viability and relevance. Additionally, it is crucial that practitioners and academics be aware of the legislation that impacts the populations with whom they interact. Finally, in the context of this publication, it is important that researchers and practitioners in the UK understand US policy, and likewise US professionals understand UK policies in order to facilitate greater cross-cultural communication and collaboration for the mutual benefit of both nations.
Supporting people with complex communication needs through community capacity building: the Communication Access Network
Authors: Johnson Hilary , Solarsh Barbara , Bloomberg Karen , West Denise
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to describe specific features of a Victorian (Australia) state-wide hub and spoke model of speech pathology provision established for adults with complex communication needs (CCN). Two case studies highlighting successful examples of services developed to enhance community inclusion will be described and the challenges discussed.

Design/methodology/approach

– The route to community inclusion is described through a case study illustration of one communication accessible community site and one disability service study. The disability service research involved focus groups, survey and interview data and demonstrated the efficacy and sustainability of a support worker training model.

Findings

– Sustainable change in the community and in disability services can occur through partnerships, training, and long-term commitment. Support workers who can facilitate interactions for people who have cognitive and communicative disabilities are an essential component of building the capacity of communities to include people with CCN. Collaboration between community members, specialised supports and people with disabilities enhances active community participation.

Originality/value

– This innovative, state-wide model has the capacity to be replicated elsewhere. On-going speech pathology services are integral to support adults with CCN providing both short-term individualised services, sustainable staff training and community engagement.