bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The effectiveness of vocational versus general secondary education
Authors: Kuzmina Julia , Carnoy Martin
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative academic effectiveness of vocational education in three countries with early tracking systems: Austria, Croatia, and Hungary.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors use an instrumental variables approach to estimate vocational education’s relative academic effectiveness in terms of achievement on an international test, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Program of International Student Assessment (PISA), and two possible indicators of non-cognitive outcomes – self-efficacy in mathematics and intrinsic motivation in mathematics, both also available from the PISA student survey.

Findings

– The results show few, if any, differences in student gains from attending the vocational track in secondary school as opposed to the academic track. Specifically, the results show that attending the vocational or academic track results in similar achievement gains in the tenth grade and generally similar gains in self-efficacy and motivation in mathematics.

Originality/value

– The study is unique because in the three countries, the authors can use a fuzzy regression discontinuity approach based on school systems’ age entrance date rules to estimate the gain in test scores over an academic year and to compare the gain for students in the vocational and academic tracks. The results contradict almost all other studies by showing that in these countries student academic gains in vocational education are about the same as in the academic track.
Immigrant job satisfaction: the Australian experience
Authors: Kifle T. , Kler P. , Shankar S.
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to study the level of job satisfaction among Australian immigrants relative to the native-born over time as a measure of their labour market assimilation.

Design/methodology/approach

– Using the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia panel data set, six measures of job satisfaction are tested using the random effects Generalised Least Squares method with a Mundlak correction. Labour market assimilation is defined by “years since arrival” and also via cohort effects.

Findings

– The authors find statistical evidence of general job dissatisfaction amongst immigrants in Australia relative to the native-born, driven mainly by non-English Speaking Background (NESB) immigrants, though this dissipates for long-term immigrants, irrespective of English Speaking Background (ESB) or NESB status. Econometric results strengthen these results though improvements over time are only strongly evident for NESB immigrants, whilst results for ESB immigrants remain mixed, and is dependent on the definition of “assimilation”.

Originality/value

– This paper extends the immigrant labour market assimilation literature by introducing job satisfaction as a measure of assimilation.
Educational mismatch and job aspirations
Authors: Salinas-Jiménez Maria del Mar , Artés Joaquín , Salinas-Jiménez Javier
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between education, job aspirations and subjective well-being. This analysis is done across the entire well-being distribution and taking account of educational mismatches that could condition individuals’ satisfaction if education generates certain aspirations which are not met by the individuals.

Design/methodology/approach

– Using data from the European Social Survey, a quantile regression model is estimated. This approach allows one to assess the impact of the education variables at different points of the happiness conditional distribution.

Findings

– The results are consistent with the hypothesis that the impact of education on subjective well-being varies across the distribution, with education effects lower at the top of the happiness distribution. It is also found that education generates certain aspirations among individuals in regard to the job they expect to hold and that people suffer a psychological cost when those aspirations are not met. This “aspiration mechanism” seems however to weaken as one moves along the distribution.

Originality/value

– The central contribution of this paper lies in the treatment of job aspirations through different variables of educational mismatch. Although rising aspirations have often been highlighted as the main mechanism that could explain the weak relationship between education and subjective well-being, this mechanism has barely been analyzed empirically. Moreover, the effects of educational mismatch on individual satisfaction have only been analyzed at the mean of the conditional distribution. The value of this study is therefore twofold, focussing on the analysis across the entire well-being distribution of the aspiration mechanism generated by education in regard to the job an individual expects to hold.
The impact of project methodologies on project success in different project environments
Authors: Joslin Robert , Müller Ralf
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to qualitatively validate the constructs of a theoretically derived research model while gaining insights to steer the direction of a greater study on methodologies, their elements, and their impact on project success. In doing so, to investigate whether different project environments, notably project governance, impacts the relationship between methodologies and project success.

Design/methodology/approach

– A deductive approach was applied to validate a theoretically derived research model. In total, 19 interviews across 11 industrial sectors and four countries were used to collect data. Pattern-matching techniques were utilized in the analysis to deductively validate the research model.

Findings

– There is a positive relationship between project methodology elements and the characteristics of project success; however, environmental factors, notably project governance, influence the use and effectiveness of a project methodology and its elements with a resulting impact on the characteristics of project success.

Research limitations/implications

– Project governance plays a major role in the moderating effect of a project methodology’s effectiveness. Contingency theory is applicable to a project’s methodology’s selection and its customization according to the project environment.

Practical implications

– Understand the impact of project methodologies and their elements on the characteristics of project success while being moderated by the project environment, for example, the risk of suboptimal project performance due to the effectiveness of methodology elements being negatively impacted by the project environment.

Originality/value

– The impact of a project methodology (collection of heterogeneous-related elements) on the characteristics of project success is identified while being moderated by the project environment, notably project governance.
Modern selection criteria for procurement methods in construction
Authors: Naoum Shamil George , Egbu Charles
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive literature review that seeks to address modern factors worldwide that are associated with the selection of current procurement methods. The aim is to develop an up-to-date multi-attribute procurement decision-making chart for selecting the appropriate method for the project.

Design/methodology/approach

– Stage 1 (literature review). The search engines, Emerald; Business Source Premier; Science Direct and Sage were selected to identify journals that have published the most procurement methods-related articles. The search covered the period 1980-2015. Stage 2 (Survey) – after analyzing and appraising the literature, an up-to-date utility decision-making chart for selecting the appropriate procurement method for the project was developed. The chart was based on findings from a survey that included 57 construction professionals and who have demonstrated sound experience about the various procurement options.

Findings

– There is no one best procurement method for all projects. The selection depends on the nature of the issues or problem at hand. Decision making is not a punctual act. It is often a complex process. Effective decision making also demands quality and timely information, and a careful consideration of alternatives. The multi-attribute decision-making chart presented in this paper has included modern criteria and the client would have end up with different recommendations and consequences should these criteria were not included in priority weightings.

Practical implications

– The literature review provides states-of-the art research in the field of procurement methods in construction and the multi-attribute chart is intended to offer decision makers an opportunity to broaden their horizon on the different alternatives procurement routs that could lead to different consequences.

Originality/value

– To the best of the authors’ knowledge, very few publications have discussed modern selection criteria for procurement methods in construction under one study. Therefore, this paper has established a platform for scholars and researchers to obtain more useful insights into procurement methods concerns. It has identified research trends in procurement methods which may allow industrial practitioners to appreciate the key concerns in their development of modern concepts and principles such as supply chain, lean construction, sustainability, innovation, value engineering, e-procurement and Building information modeling. The inclusion of these modern criteria will present and add value to procurement decision makers within the construction industry.
Design vs practice
Authors: Ellway Benjamin
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate how customer involvement in call routing affects the internal operations of the call centre service system by examining customer usability problems with the interactive voice response (IVR) system and the practices of agents used to redirect incorrectly routed calls.

Design/methodology/approach

– A qualitative case study combined direct observation of live calls through sit-bys with agents and semi-structured interviews conducted with coaches and managers within 13 separate teams across all four functional areas of a call centre operation.

Findings

– Customer use of the IVR system involved effort, capability, and arrival forms of customer-induced variability, which produced incorrect call inputs into the call centre. Shared norms and attitudes concerning knowledge, IT use, and responsibility for different call types within teams were associated with redirecting practices which lead to the problematic rerouting of calls. Problems with call routing and rerouting negatively affected operational efficiency and undermined customer satisfaction.

Research limitations/implications

– The paper is based upon a single case study so further research is required to examine how problems identified are manifest in call centre operations of different size and complexity. The qualitative approach develops rich insights but these findings would benefit from a quantitative focus in the future.

Practical implications

– The customer experience of IVR systems should be continually monitored to identify usability problems and ensure effective design, while call centre management should attempt to increase teams’ awareness of and ability to successfully redirect incorrectly routed calls.

Originality/value

– The paper conceptualises the mutual influence of macro-level service system design and the micro-level behaviour of customers and agents upon each other. In practice, formal design decisions such as input uncertainty, decoupling, and interdependence patterns are continually reproduced or modified. Shared attitudes and norms of teams and their behavioural influence upon agents’ call handling practices are identified as a cause of coordination problems in call centres service systems. Internal rerouting by agents is also identified as a crucial operational process and important area for future research.
The rise and fall of channel management
Authors: Gadde Lars-Erik
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse the shifting perspectives on the organising and the managing of “distribution”, characterised as channels, systems or networks.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper is based on a review of previous research, identifying three periods featuring diverse conceptualisations: the early distribution literature, the channel management perspective and today’s network approaches.

Findings

– The study shows that the early literature relied on holistic framings. This perspective was replaced by the narrower channel management view, influenced by concepts from two evolving approaches: marketing management and behavioural/social schools-of-thought. Changing business conditions eroded the basis for channel management and paid the way for current arrangements, featuring network-like conditions.

Originality/value

– Several reviews of distribution have been published, primarily focusing on the specific features of the perspectives applied. This paper emphasises dynamic aspects by attempting to explain how and why new perspectives emerge and the reasons for their reduced significance over time.
Managerial implications of research on inter-organizational interfaces
Authors: Ivens Björn S. , PARDO Catherine
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to identify what managerial implications research related to inter-organizational interfaces has been produced in marketing. For this aim, the authors focus on a specific concept implemented in many firms that operate on business-to-business markets, which is key account management (KAM).

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors used the Ebsco Database entering “account management” as a key word in the title row. The search provided 51 papers to which the authors added four MSI reports written by Moriarty and Shapiro between 1980 and 1984. The authors then identified such keywords as “managers”, “practitioners”, “marketers”, “managerial”, “business”, and their variations as well as normative words such as “should”, “must”, etc. in order to identify managerial implications.

Findings

– Four main findings are provided: a clear managerial purpose is affirmed by KAM academic works whether as a central “purpose” of the works or as “implications”; these managerial implications may display different forms (dimensions to be considered, consequences to anticipate, advices); though the managerial scope of KAM works is clearly visible, the sophistication of managerial recommendations remains … limited; the identification of who is exactly “the manager” targeted by the implications remains vague.

Research limitations/implications

– The authors discuss the notion of managerial relevance of academic research.

Practical/implications

– The authors explore sources for practices (whether they are the ones of scholars or managers) that could help “spelling out more effectively the managerial implications.

Originality/value

– To the knowledge this is the first work that reviews so precisely how academic articles address to the managerial audience on a precise issue. Furthermore, the authors believe that KAM is an interesting and appropriate field for such a review because it is widely implemented on business markets.
CEO characteristics and SME foreign market entry mode choice
Authors: Laufs Katharina , Bembom Michael , Schwens Christian
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– Using arguments from the upper echelons perspective this paper aims to examine the impact of CEO characteristics on small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs’) equity foreign market entry mode choice and how these associations are jointly moderated by geographic experience of the firm and host-country political risk.

Design/methodology/approach

– The empirical analysis draws on data gathered from German SMEs testing triple-interaction effects between CEO’s age, firm tenure and international experience, geographic experience of the firm (organizational level), and host-country political risk (environmental level).

Findings

– Empirical findings validate that the influence of CEO’s age and firm tenure on SME foreign market entry mode choice varies by managers’ level of managerial discretion (i.e. latitude of action) as determined by the SME’s geographic experience and the level of political risks prevailing in the foreign market.

Practical implications

– Empirical findings help SME owners and managers to understand how CEO’s age and firm tenure are related with individual’s risk-taking behavior and information-processing demands and how these contingencies vary by the context in which the individual CEO is nested.

Originality/value

– This study contributes to the growing body of literature focussing on SME foreign market entry mode choice by emphasizing the important role of CEOs in the decision to internationalize. More specific, this study contributes by an examination of the interactive effect of CEO’s age, firm tenure and international experience, geographic experience of the firm and host-country political risk and, therefore, emphasizes the context and boundary conditions under which the association between CEO characteristics and foreign market entry mode choice is more or less pronounced.
Problem-solving dissension and international entry mode performance
Authors: Ji Junzhe , Dimitratos Pavlos , Huang Qingan
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine international decision making, information processing, and related performance implications. The authors aim to explore the relationship between international decision making and problem-solving dissensions related to entry mode decisions. In addition, they aim to investigate the effects of dissension on entry mode performance, and the moderating effect of the foreign direct investment (FDI) vs non-FDI decision as it relates to dissension-mode performance. Despite their significance from an information processing perspective, these issues have not been sufficiently explored in international entry mode research.

Design/methodology/approach

– This research presents data collected from 233 privately owned internationalized Chinese firms. The analysis in this investigation includes hierarchical ordinary least squares regression.

Findings

– The findings suggest an inverse U-shaped relationship between dissension and entry mode performance, as opposed to a linear one, and a moderating effect of FDI vs non-FDI decisions on this curvilinear dissension-performance association. These findings support and refine the rationale of the information processing perspective.

Originality/value

– These findings add realistic elements to the alleged “rational” international decision-making doctrine assumed in previous entry mode literature. The findings show the importance of the heterogeneity of information processing in entry mode strategic decision-making processes (SDMPs), and its effects on specific decision types. The authors believe that this is the first empirical study to use an information processing perspective to examine the effects of SDMPs on entry mode performance.
Consumer shopping orientation: identification and characterization of outshoppers
Authors: Patel Jayesh D. , Shukla Yupal S.
Published: March 2016

Purpose

Despite having strategic inflection, retail set-ups in India have been continuously raising a challenge for suppliers of retail products aiming to all to target the right consumers in accordance with their ever-changing preferences. This adds a complexity to retailers offering services who seek valued information to devise a retail strategy by segmenting markets on the basis of consumer shopping orientations. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop and validate the consumer profile of out shoppers based on the shopping orientations.

Design/methodology/approach

The study has used descriptive research design. A total of 298 consumers from urban and rural areas of North Gujarat, India, were selected through quota-based sampling method and contacted personally to fill the self-rated structured questionnaire.

Findings

Collected data were edited and processed for first exploratory factor analysis to exactly know the factor structure of consumer perceived shopping orientation. Thereafter, cluster analysis was performed to identify consumer groups which were validated through multiple discriminant analysis. Three groups, namely, outshoppers, community-oriented in-shoppers and time-effective in-shoppers were cross-tabulated with consumers’ socio-demographics to extract the profile through chi-square analysis. Results were fairly consistent with the past studies.

Practical implications

The results of this study indicate consumers’ profiles based on shopping orientation to provide an input to retail services markets to devise strategy for targeting and positioning emphasising on outshoppers segment. Marketers do not consider them as an identical segment. Henceforth, more specific approach can be used for consumers who are frequently reflected through their psychographic portrait.

Originality/value

At macro level, study reveals some opportunities to retailers for penetrating into other segments of outshoppers. Furthermore, segmenting for retail services marketers has been ignored in past literature; the study addresses this gap by proposing bases in outshopping context for Indian businesses.
Developing professional capital in teaching through initial teacher education
Authors: Zeichner Kenneth , Hollar Jesslyn
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to contrast the approaches to improve teacher quality through initial teacher education (ITE) in the Canadian province of Alberta, a consistently high-performing system on international comparisons, to the approach taken in the USA, which has consistently fared less well than the average country in these comparisons.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors draw on a case study of policies and practices related to teaching and teacher education in Alberta and on analyses of US teaching and teacher education policy to compare a business capital approach with a professional capital approach to ITE.

Findings

– The decision by philanthropists, business and corporate interests, and the federal government in the USA to invest in the business capital approach has led to the growing privatization of public education. The USA would do well to learn from Alberta’s investment in the professional capital of teachers. Alberta’s system truly is a system that has decided to invest in building “the whole teacher.” The province supports education, including ITE, pays its teachers competitive salaries, and provides access to high quality and teacher-driven professional development.

Originality/value

– While comparative analyses of education systems are not new, this comparative analysis of ITE in Alberta and the USA using a theoretical framework based on Hargreaves and Fullan’s (2012, 2013) discussion of business and professional capital should give pause to the current US trajectory of disinvesting from university and college-based initial teacher preparation in favor of early-entry programs.
Inspiring teaching: learning from exemplary practitioners
Authors: Sammons Pamela , Lindorff Ariel Mariah , Ortega Lorena , Kington Alison
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the concept of “inspiring teaching” based on case studies of exemplary practitioners in England to inform professional development and collaborative learning and support school improvement.

Design/methodology/approach

– The study adopted a mixed methods design involving multiple perspectives. Data sources included interviews with teachers, two systematic classroom observation schedules and qualitative field notes from classroom observations. Quantitative and qualitative findings were integrated to allow for triangulation and synthesis.

Findings

– The “inspiring” sample of teachers exhibited many strengths in terms of the characteristics of more effective teaching identified in previous literature. However, the integration and synthesis of evidence also reveals core features of inspiring practice and highlighted the strong emotional and reflective components that distinguish inspiring practice, including: positive relationships; good classroom/behaviour management; positive and supportive climate; formative feedback; high-quality learning experiences; enjoyment, and high levels of student engagement and motivation.

Research limitations/implications

– This small-scale study was based on a purposive sample of 17 teachers in England therefore results cannot necessarily be generalised to other contexts.

Practical implications

– The research findings and approaches can be used to support teachers’ professional development and provide resources to promote collaboration in developing professional learning communities.

Originality/value

– The investigation provides new evidence on the characteristics, practices and views of inspiring teachers. The use of multiple perspectives and integration of findings provides new evidence to inform and support the development of professional learning communities.
Credit expansion, state ownership and capital structure of Chinese real estate companies
Authors: Shen Jianfu , Yin Xianting
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of the credit expansion in 2009 and 2010 in China on the capital structure of listed real estate companies.

Design/methodology/approach

– Chinese listed real estate companies are divided into two groups, state-owned and non-state-owned, because their access to credit markets have different priority to state-owned banks that dominate bank lending. The difference-in-differences approach is employed to test the impact of changes in leverage ratios and loan ratios before and after the credit expansion period in state-owned firms and non-state-owned firms.

Findings

– Using quarterly panel regressions, the authors find that during the credit expansion period, state-owned companies exhibit a relatively greater increase in leverage ratios than non-state-owned firms. State-owned firms have greater increases in book leverage ratios, market leverage ratios and long-term debt ratios by 5.2, 4.9 and 1.1 per cent, respectively. It is also shown that loan ratios have increased more in state-owned firms than non-state-owned firms during the credit expansion period.

Research limitations/implications

– The paper explores only the impacts of credit expansion on capital structure of listed real estate firms in China. Further studies can be conducted to investigate the impact of credit supply on corporate investment decisions of real estate firms and on real estate markets.

Practical implications

– The findings can help explain the surge in land and housing prices after 2008 in China. Denget al.(2015) find that state-owned real estate firms paid more for land price than non-state-owned firms, which contributed to upward pressure on housing prices. This paper shows that such “over-investment” may be due to the increase of debt financing and availability of bank loans to real estate firms. Thus the credit market can affect real estate markets through debt financing at company level.

Originality/value

– This paper is the first to investigate the impact of credit supply on capital structure of real estate companies, and presents evidence of the importance of credit supply as a determinant of capital structure.
Proposed metrics for data accessibility in the context of linked open data
Authors: Zahedi Nooghabi Mahdi , Fathian Dastgerdi Akram
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– One of the most important categories in linked open data (LOD) quality models is “data accessibility.” The purpose of this paper is to propose some metrics and indicators for assessing data accessibility in LOD and the semantic web context.

Design/methodology/approach

– In this paper, at first the authors consider some data quality and LOD quality models to review proposed subcategories for data accessibility dimension in related texts. Then, based on goal question metric (GQM) approach, the authors specify the project goals, main issues and some questions. Finally, the authors propose some metrics for assessing the data accessibility in the context of the semantic web.

Findings

– Based on GQM approach, the authors determined three main issues for data accessibility, including data availability, data performance, and data security policy. Then the authors created four main questions related to these issues. As a conclusion, the authors proposed 27 metrics for measuring these questions.

Originality/value

– Nowadays, one of the main challenges regarding data quality is the lack of agreement on widespread quality metrics and practical instruments for evaluating quality. Accessibility is an important aspect of data quality. However, few researches have been done to provide metrics and indicators for assessing data accessibility in the context of the semantic web. So, in this research, the authors consider the data accessibility dimension and propose a comparatively comprehensive set of metrics.
De-duplicating a large crowd-sourced catalogue of bibliographic records
Authors: Subasic Ilija , Gvozdenovic Nebojsa , Jack Kris
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to describe a large-scale algorithm for generating a catalogue of scientific publication records (citations) from a crowd-sourced data, demonstrate how to learn an optimal combination of distance metrics for duplicate detection and introduce a parallel duplicate clustering algorithm.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors developed the algorithm and compared it with state-of-the art systems tackling the same problem. The authors used benchmark data sets (3k data points) to test the effectiveness of our algorithm and a real-life data ( > 90 million) to test the efficiency and scalability of our algorithm.

Findings

– The authors show that duplicate detection can be improved by an additional step we call duplicate clustering. The authors also show how to improve the efficiency of map/reduce similarity calculation algorithm by introducing a sampling step. Finally, the authors find that the system is comparable to the state-of-the art systems for duplicate detection, and that it can scale to deal with hundreds of million data points.

Research limitations/implications

– Academic researchers can use this paper to understand some of the issues of transitivity in duplicate detection, and its effects on digital catalogue generations.

Practical implications

– Industry practitioners can use this paper as a use case study for generating a large-scale real-life catalogue generation system that deals with millions of records in a scalable and efficient way.

Originality/value

– In contrast to other similarity calculation algorithms developed for m/r frameworks the authors present a specific variant of similarity calculation that is optimized for duplicate detection of bibliographic records by extending previously proposed e-algorithm based on inverted index creation. In addition, the authors are concerned with more than duplicate detection, and investigate how to group detected duplicates. The authors develop distinct algorithms for duplicate detection and duplicate clustering and use the canopy clustering idea for multi-pass clustering. The work extends the current state-of-the-art by including the duplicate clustering step and demonstrate new strategies for speeding up m/r similarity calculations.
Measuring service quality in higher education
Authors: Teeroovengadum Viraiyan , Kamalanabhan T.J. , Seebaluck Ashley Keshwar
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– This paper aims to develop and empirically test a hierarchical model for measuring service quality in higher education.

Design/methodology/approach

– The first phase of the study consisted of qualitative research methods and a comprehensive literature review, which allowed the development of a conceptual model comprising 53 service quality attributes. Quantitative methods were used for the second phase so as to test the dimensionality of the measurement instrument and assess its validity and reliability. A sample of 207 students was surveyed, and data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach’s alpha test.

Findings

– The results of the factor analysis revealed the presence of sub-dimensions. A hierarchical model was therefore considered most appropriate. The final model consisted of five primary dimensions, which are administrative quality, physical environment quality, core educational quality, support facilities quality and transformative quality. The instrument contained a total of 48 items. Each scale was satisfactorily tested for validity and reliability.

Research limitations/implications

– This empirical study made use of data collected in Mauritius only, a developing country.

Practical implications

– This study provides a framework and an instrument that can be used by higher education institutions in view of continuously improving educational quality.

Originality/value

– The study adopted a holistic approach by considering both the functional and technical aspect of service quality in higher education. Moreover, technical quality was operationalised by considering the notion of transformative quality.
The useless therapist: music therapy and dramatherapy with traumatised children
Authors: Cropper Kate , Godsal Jo
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to discuss the use of music therapy and dramatherapy with traumatised children in a residential school through examining the therapists’ experience of feeling useless.

Design/methodology/approach

– Using clinical examples, the paper explores the therapists’ feelings of uselessness and how this experience informs and enables the progression of the work.

Findings

– The paper suggests that feelings of uselessness are a necessary and useful part of the clinical process when working with traumatised children.

Originality/value

– This paper offers an insight into application of music therapy and dramatherapy in this environment, and also into the therapists experience of working with highly traumatised children.
Learning from action: a description and evaluation of an experiential learning programme
Authors: Rawlings Barbara
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to describe the learning from action (LfA) workshop held in Italy in October 2014 and to evaluate how well the workshop achieved its aims.

Design/methodology/approach

– The researcher joined the workshop as a member, and data were collected through participant observation. Evaluation was carried out using relevant audit standards and a follow-up questionnaire.

Findings

– The evaluation found that an authentic transient therapeutic community was created, which provided an effective learning experience for participants.

Research limitations/implications

– The description is a single study based on the findings of a single researcher, as is usual with ethnographic work of this kind. Only a few participants completed the questionnaire.

Originality/value

– This is the first detailed research description of the LfA programme for training mental health practitioners who work in therapeutic communities. It provides a description of events, comments on how some of these impacted on the researcher-participant and an evaluation of the workshop.
Transforming armed forces through military transparency
Authors: Klaus L.C.O.
Published: March 2016

Purpose

After discussing recent academic attempts to assess the status of worldwide military transparency and accountability in nations which adopted open governance paradigms, this paper tries to show that such countries allegedly committed to democracy and open data should coherently fight for military transparency and citizen inclusion in the governance process, avoiding the prevalence of military secrecy over military transparency. The most important contribution of the paper is discussing the lack of military transparency, until now taken for granted as a traditional armed forces ’informal right, and proposing concrete definitions of military transparency and secrecy within the context of the open government partnership. In addition to the definitions, an exploratory model of how military accountability can affect military transparency has been suggested.

Design/methodology/approach

For the proposed endeavour, first a description on the context of open governance where the involved public defence sector is inserted is given. Second, notions of military transparency and secrecy are proposed. Finally, the paper discusses when military secrecy could be granted and what it means for military information to be unjustifiably kept secret. At the end, the urge of the citizen involvement to open the still insulated military governance systems is highlighted.

Findings

This paper proposes notions of military secrecy and military transparency and suggests the second term as a broader notion which includes the first. This paper also indirectly identifies the conditions for the inadmissibility of military secrecy and calls attention to the bad externalities of unjustifiably holding public information back.

Research limitations/implications

The consideration of the proposed notions of military secrecy and military transparency could minimize the traditional excuse of military confidentiality that armed forces worldwide tend to not to convey public information to the public while making military accountability perfectly possible without overexposing its strategies regarding national defence.

Practical implications

Providing armed forces and citizens with concrete definitions of military secrecy and military transparency could not only help military institutions to develop a sincere transparency policy based on open government terms, but it could also guide interested media and citizens with their control and oversight tasks by establishing clear limits for alleged secrecy while releasing the borders for military transparency.

Social implications

The suggested approach for military transparency and secrecy is not only adequate to the globalized strategy of open governance but also mainly a way to finally reward citizens’ often misused and manipulated trust.

Originality/value

It is the first attempt of an academic definition for military secrecy and military transparency taking into consideration the open government terms and aiming at improving military accountability.
Challenges of introducing a professional eID card within health care
Authors: Hedström Karin , Karlsson Fredrik , Söderström Fredrik
Published: March 2016

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges that arise when introducing an electronic identification (eID) card for professional use in a health-care setting.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a case study of an eID implementation project in healthcare. Data were collected through interviews with key actors in a project team and with eID end users. The authors viewed the eID card as a boundary object intersecting social worlds. For this analysis, the authors combined this with an electronic government initiative challenge framework.

Findings

The findings of this paper illustrate the interpretative flexibility of eID cards and how eID cards as boundary objects intersect social worlds. The main challenges of implementing and using eID cards in healthcare are usability, user behaviour and privacy. However, the way in which these challenges are interpreted varies between different social worlds.

Practical implications

One of the implications for future practice is to increase our understanding of the eID card as a socio-technical artefact, where the social and technical is intertwined, at the same time as the eID card affects the social as well as the technical. By using a socio-technical perspective, it is possible to minimise the potential problems related to the implementation and use of eID.

Originality/value

Previous research has highlighted the need for more empirical research on identity management. The authors contextualise and analyse the implementation and use of eID cards within healthcare. By viewing the eID card as a boundary object, the authors have unveiled its interpretative flexibility and how it is translated across different social worlds.
Missed opportunities for introducing transformational government
Authors: Mawela Tendani , Ochara Nixon Muganda , Twinomurinzi Hossana
Published: March 2016

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to trace the trajectory of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, an electronic tolling (e-tolling) programme based in South Africa, to argue for the importance of taking advantage of similar public project opportunities to introduce the concept of Transformational Government (t-government).

Design/methodology/approach

The research uses an interpretive perspective and utilizes actor–network theory (ANT) to identify the roles and interests of the various stakeholders within the project and assess how each stakeholder could have better influenced the project’s sustainability using a t-government approach.

Findings

The findings suggest that in the midst of waning global actor interest, and strong local displeasure about specific public projects, public participation offers an ideal opportunity to introduce the notion of t-government, the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to transform government for citizen benefits. The research allowed the authors to posit that public participation projects are solid and indispensable avenues for introducing t-government. Part of this claim is hinged on the view that the specific e-toll project carries a visible ICT artefact, which has embodied its own patterns of use characterized by various viewpoints, values, opinions and rhetoric.

Practical implications

The paper elevates the importance of t-government as a means to bring about practical transformation in government using public projects. The paper suggests how governments can use public participatory approaches to assimilate a new way of working in government.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to research on the emerging discourse on t-government. The paper also highlights the utility of ANT as a tool for understanding the dynamic public sector ICT programmes, their associated complexities and unintended consequences.
Gestational weight gain, prepregnancy body mass index and offspring attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms and behaviour at age 10
Authors: Pugh SJ , Hutcheon JA , Richardson GA , Brooks MM , Himes KP , Day NL , Bodnar LM
Published: March 2016

Objective

To assess offspring attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and emotional/behavioural impairments at age 10 years in relation to maternal gestational weight gain (GWG) and prepregnancy body mass index (BMI).

Design and setting

Longitudinal birth cohort from Magee‐Womens Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (enrolled 1983–86).

Population

Mother–infant dyads (n = 511) were followed through pregnancy to 10 years.

Methods

Self‐reported total GWG was converted to gestational‐age‐standardised z‐scores. Multivariable linear and negative binomial regressions were used to estimate effects of GWG and BMI on outcomes.

Main outcome measures

Child ADHD symptoms were assessed with the Conners’ Continuous Performance Test. Child behaviour was assessed by parent and teacher ratings on the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) and Teacher Report Form, respectively.

Results

The mean (SD) total GWG (kg) was 14.5 (5.9), and 10% of women had a pregravid BMI ≥30 kg/m2. Prepregnancy obesity (BMI of 30 kg/m2) was associated with increased offspring problem behaviours including internalising behaviours (adjusted β 3.3 points, 95% CI 1.7–4.9), externalising behaviours (adjusted β 2.9 points, 95% CI 1.4–4.6), and attention problems (adjusted β 2.3 points, 95% CI 1.1–3.4) on the CBCL, compared with normal weight mothers (BMI of 22 kg/m2). There were nonsignificant trends towards increased offspring impulsivity with low GWG among lean mothers (adjusted incidence rate ratio 1.2, 95% CI 0.9–1.5) and high GWG among overweight mothers (adjusted incidence rate ratio 1.7, 95% CI 0.9–2.8), but additional outcomes did not differ by GWG z‐score. Results were not meaningfully different after excluding high‐substance users.

Conclusions

In a low‐income and high‐risk sample, we observed a small increase in child behaviour problems among children of obese mothers, which could have an impact on child behaviour in the population.

Tweetable abstract

Maternal obesity is associated with a small increase in child behaviour problems.
Impact of State Public Health Spending on Disease Incidence in the United States from 1980 to 2009
Authors: Verma Reetu , Clark Samantha , Leider Jonathon , Bishai David
Published: March 2016

Objective

To understand the relationship between state‐level spending by public health departments and the incidence of three vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs): mumps, pertussis, and rubella in the United States from 1980 to 2009.

Data Sources

This study uses state‐level public health spending data from The Census Bureau and annual mumps, pertussis, and rubella incidence counts from the University of Pittsburgh's project Tycho.

Study Design

Ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effects, and random effects regression models were tested, with results indicating that a fixed effects model would be most appropriate model for this analysis.

Principal Findings

Model output suggests a statistically significant, negative relationship between public health spending and mumps and rubella incidence. Lagging outcome variables indicate that public health spending actually has the greatest impact on VPD incidence in subsequent years, rather than the year in which the spending occurred. Results were robust to models with lagged spending variables, national time trends, and state time trends, as well as models with and without Medicaid and hospital spending.

Conclusion

Our analysis indicates that there is evidence of a significant, negative relationship between a state's public health spending and the incidence of two VPDs, mumps and rubella, in the United States.
Cost Variation in Diabetes Care across Dutch Care Groups?
Authors: Mohnen Sigrid M. , Molema Claudia C. , Steenbeek Wouter , van den Berg Michael J. , de Bruin Simone R. , Baan Caroline A. , Struijs Jeroen N.
Published: March 2016

Objective

The introduction of bundled payment for diabetes care in the Netherlands led to the origination of care groups. This study explored to what extent variation in health care costs per patient can be attributed to the performance of care groups. Furthermore, the commonly applied simple mean aggregation was compared with the more advanced generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) to benchmark health care costs per patient between care groups.

Data Source

Dutch 2009 nationwide insurance claims data of diabetes type 2 patients (104,544 patients, 50 care groups).

Study Design

Both a simple mean aggregation and a GLMM approach was applied to rank care groups, using two different health care costs variables: total treatment health care costs and diabetes‐specific specialist care costs per diabetes patient.

Principal Findings

Care groups varied slightly in the first and mainly in the second indicator. Care group variation was not explained by composition. Although the ranking methods were correlated, some care groups’ rank positions differed, with consequences on the top‐10 and the low‐10 positions.

Conclusions

Differences between care groups exist when an appropriate indicator and a sophisticated aggregation technique is used. Currently applied benchmarking may have unfair consequences for some care groups.