bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The practice turn within strategy: Competitive intelligence as integrating practice
Authors: Maritz Rachel , Du Toit Adeline 
Published: April 2018

Background and aim: This article investigated the positioning of competitive intelligence within the field of strategy. Methods: Publications on strategy and competitive intelligence were reviewed through thematic content analysis based on an extended literature review to determine their respective contents and how strategy as practice related to the crystallised competitive intelligence themes. Results: The research demonstrated that strategy and competitive intelligence are inextricably interwoven. Competitive intelligence was shown to be not merely an activity or sequence of activities within the broader strategic management process, but a significant strategic practice. Conclusion: We argued, based on a comprehensive literature review, that competitive intelligence is an integral practice within strategy that should be explored further for its contribution to emergent and deliberate strategies and the linkage between intra-organisational and extra-organisational activities. We proposed a framework to position competitive intelligence within strategy as practice and in relation to the process view of strategy. The conceptualised framework contributes to the corpus of strategy research as it formalised competitive intelligence as a critical part in the thinking about and the practice of strategy. It moved competitive intelligence from a position on the periphery of strategic management literature, where it was regarded as a mere activity, to an integral practice of strategy to be recognised by strategy scholars and worthy of further research.
Soil hydraulic material properties and layered architecture from time-lapse GPR
Authors: Jaumann Stefan , Roth Kurt 
Published: April 2018

Abstract. Quantitative knowledge of the subsurface material distribution and
its effective soil hydraulic material properties is essential to predict soil
water movement. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a noninvasive and
nondestructive geophysical measurement method that is suitable to monitor
hydraulic processes. Previous studies showed that the GPR signal from a
fluctuating groundwater table is sensitive to the soil water characteristic
and the hydraulic conductivity function. In this work, we show that the GPR
signal originating from both the subsurface architecture and the fluctuating
groundwater table is suitable to estimate the position of layers within the
subsurface architecture together with the associated effective soil hydraulic
material properties with inversion methods. To that end, we parameterize the
subsurface architecture, solve the Richards equation, convert the resulting
water content to relative permittivity with the complex
refractive index model (CRIM), and solve Maxwell's equations numerically.
In order to analyze the GPR signal, we implemented a new heuristic algorithm
that detects relevant signals in the radargram (events) and extracts the
corresponding signal travel time and amplitude. This algorithm is applied to
simulated as well as measured radargrams and the detected events are
associated automatically. Using events instead of the full wave regularizes
the inversion focussing on the relevant measurement signal. For optimization,
we use a global–local approach with preconditioning. Starting from an
ensemble of initial parameter sets drawn with a Latin hypercube algorithm, we
sequentially couple a simulated annealing algorithm with a
Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm. The method is applied to synthetic as well as
measured data from the ASSESS test site. We show that the
method yields reasonable estimates for the position of the layers as well as
for the soil hydraulic material properties by comparing the results to
references derived from ground truth data as well as from time domain
reflectometry (TDR).
Tropical Soil Labile Fractions of Copper in the Experimental Plots ±Ten Years after Application of Copper-Containing-Waste
Authors: Salam Abdul Kadir , Ginanjar Kiat 
Published: April 2018

Copper is reported to be retained in soils for a quite long time particularly in soil treated with some amendments. This research was intended to evaluate the soil labile fractions of Cu ±10 years after application of Cu-containing industrial waste, lime, and cassava-leaf compost. Soil samples were taken from topsoils and subsoils of ±10 years old experimental plots set up in 1998 and factorially treated with a metal-spoon industrial waste at 0, 15, and 60 Mg ha-1, lime at 0 and 5 Mg ha-1, and cassava-leaf compost at 0 and 5 Mg ha-1. The measured Cu labile fractions were compared to those in soils sampled at ±1.5 years and ±3 years after treatments. The results showed that the soil Cu labile fractions in waste treated soils were higher than those in the control treatments eventhough their concentrations decreased with the years of sampling. Lime showed a decreasing effect on soil labile Cu fractions, but the effect decreased with the years of sampling. The effect of cassava-leaf compost application on soil Cu labile fraction was in general not evidenced ±10 years after treatment.
Determination of Site-specific NPK Fertilizer Rates for Rice Grown on Tidal Lowland
Authors: Aksani Dila , Budianta Dedik , Hermawan Agus 
Published: April 2018

This research aimed to determine site specific NPK fertilizer rates combined with rice straw compost application for rice grown on the tidal lowland. This research was conducted in a greenhouse in Indralaya, Ogan Ilir, South Sumatera in February until September 2017 using a factorial completely randomized design with two factors and three replications. The first factor was NPK fertilizer rate calculated based on the results of soil chemical analysis, consisting of five levels, namely 50% (D1), 75% (D2), 100% (D3), 125% (D4) and 150% (D5) of the site-specific fertilizer rate. The second factor was rice straw compost rate consisting of two levels, namely 5 Mg ha-1 (J1) and 10 Mg ha-1 (J2). The results showed that the application of 150% NPK rate and 10 Mg ha-1 rice straw compost resulted in the best effects on the rice growth grown on the tidal lowland. The application of those fertilizer doses produced the highest maximum number of tillers and productive tillers. In this regard the doses of NPK fertilizers that should be applied are 315 kg urea ha-1, 135 kg SP-36 ha-1 and 90 kg KCl ha-1.
Writing a Publishable Paper – Principles, Questions, Realities, and Stumbling Blocks
Authors: Caldwell Cam 
Published: April 2018

Purpose: This paper identifies what business faculty, new PhDs, graduate students, practitioners, and other scholars can do to improve the likelihood of publishing their research in academic journals.Design/methodology/approach: Despite the fact that well educated scholars are generally well informed about management principles and theories, the success rate for obtaining acceptance of papers submitted to academic journals is typically well below 50% -- with some journals rejecting up to 95% of papers submitted.Findings: This paper identifies principles important to writing an academic paper, questions to address to ensure that those papers achieve a high standard, realities that impact the publishing process, and stumbling blocks to overcome to get a publication accepted.Originality/value: This article highlights the overlooked concept of flair factors in the selection process, identifies six factors that are vital for successful employee selection, suggests three tools to improve selection processes, and presents five propositions for practitioners and scholars.
Reviewer Acknowledgements for International Business Research, Vol. 11, No. 5
Authors: Duran Kevin 
Published: April 2018

International Business Research wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal are greatly appreciated.International Business Research is recruiting reviewers for the journal. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, we welcome you to join us. Please find the application form and details at http://recruitment.ccsenet.org and e-mail the completed application form to ibr@ccsenet.org.Reviewers for Volume 11, Number 5 Abderrazek Hassen Elkhaldi, University of Sousse, TunisiaAnna Paola Micheli, Univrtsity of Cassino and Southern Lazio, ItalyAurelija Burinskiene, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, LithuaniaCelina Maria Olszak, University of Economics in Katowice, PolandFawzieh Mohammed Masad, Jadara University, JordanFederica De Santis, University of Pisa , ItalyFevzi Esen, Istanbul Medeniyet University, TurkeyFilomena Izzo, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, ItalyFlorin Ionita, The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, RomaniaFrancesco Ciampi, Florence University, ItalyFrancesco Scalera, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", ItalyGrzegorz Zasuwa, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, PolandHanna Trojanowska, Warsaw University of Technology, PolandHung-Che Wu, Nanfang College of Sun Yat-sen University, ChinaImran Riaz Malik, IQRA University, PakistanJorge Mongay-Hurtado, ESIC Business and Marketing School, SpainKaren Gulliver, Argosy University, Twin Cities, USAM. Muzamil Naqshbandi, University of Dubai, UAEMaria do Céu Gaspar Alves, University of Beira Interior, PortugalMaurizio Rija, University of Calabria, ItalyMihaela Simionescu, Institute for Economic Forecasting of the Romanian Academy, RomaniaModar Abdullatif, Middle East University, JordanMohamed Abdel Rahman Salih, Taibah University, Saudi ArabiaMohamed Rochdi Keffala, University of Kairouan, TunisiaMuath Eleswed, American University of Kuwait, USAMurat Akin, Omer Halisdemir University FEAS – NIGDE, TurkeyÖzcan IŞIK, Cumhuriyet University, TurkeyPascal Stiefenhofer, University of Brighton, UKProsper Senyo Koto, Dalhousie University, CanadaRadoslav Jankal, University of Zilina, SlovakiaRiccardo Cimini, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, ItalyRoberto Campos da Rocha Miranda, University Center Iesb, BrazilShun Mun Helen Wong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong KongValeria Stefanelli, University of Salento, ItalyVincent Grèzes, University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (HES-SO Valais-Wallis), SwitzerlandWanmo Koo, Western Illinois University, USAWing-Keung Wong, Asia University, Taiwan, China
Selected Aspects of Professional
Functioning of Employees with Varied
Levels of Hope
Authors: Wołpiuk‑Ochocińska Anna 
Published: April 2018

Managers face the challenge of identifying positive factors that form employees’ attitu‑
des and consequently play a decisive role in achieving a higher level of efficiency in the
form of employees’ work engagement and more effective realization of organizational
goals. The study involved 295 people employed in the Podkarpackie Province, surveyed
with the Snyder’s Adult Hope Questionnaire developed by M. Łaguna, J. Trzebiński and
M. Zięba, W.B. Schaufeli and A.B. Bakker’s UWES Questionnaire, and the Functioning at
Work Questionnaire developed for the purposes of the study. Employees with a high level
of hope declare better relations at work, higher efficiency and openness to change. The
results suggest that the impact of hope on job performance is in great part mediated by
work engagement, therefore personality traits related to hope should be considered in the
management of employees’ work engagement.
Various Features of Organizational Structures and Employability in Selected Public Organizations
Authors: Strużyna Janusz , Marzec Izabela 
Published: April 2018

The relation of human resource management to the structural dimension of an organisation has aroused interest of researchers for a long time. The organisational structure creates conditions for HRM, it describes allocation of tasks and responsibilities, determines the applied HRM tools, and as a result, it also decides about possibilities of employability enhancement in an organisation. This paper attempts to answer the question: what is the relationship between certain features of organisational structures and employability of public organisations’ employees. This aim will be achieved by presenting the results of empirical research concerning features of organisational structures and their ties with employability of employees carried out in labour offices, social welfare centres and municipal offices.
Did Subsidy Depend on the Performance of Higher Education Institutions in Poland? Comparative study
Authors: Kalinowski Sławomir 
Published: April 2018

Since early 1990s the system of financing higher education institutions in Poland is based on the algorithm which binds the value of subsidy also with the performance. It is basically depended on the number and the structure of the students and scientific staff, but within the past years new factors have been introduced: grants acquisition and internationalization. The goal of the article is to verify to what extent the value of the subsidy depended on the performance of the universities. The test produced the positive outcome for the universities of life sciences and universities of economics, which were outstanding for the statistically significant change of the index.
“Medium is the message” – Creating a University Image in the Time of Web 2.0
Authors: Koszembar‑Wiklik Małgorzata 
Published: April 2018

The starting point of the article is McLuhan’s statement that “medium is the message”. The way universities promote themselves in media is causing specific associations with recipients. The university idea is changing, the requirement for entrepreneurship, the change in the way of the public universities funding, and the corporate approach to university force them to take action that will enable them to operate in a highly competitive market. The universities promote and build their image using mass media characteristic for business marketing, and at the same time, the media that reach young people – the social media.
From Reducing Uncertainty to Dealing with Uncertainty. Change of Function of Organizational Culture
Authors: Sikorski Czesław 
Published: April 2018

Theme of this article is change of organizational culture functions as result exchange epoch civilization from industrial to informatics. The change of understanding integration, perception and adaptation culture functions means that main cultural function in informatics epoch isn’t reduction of uncertainty but the help to manage of uncertainty. The need of high tolerance of uncertainty cause that organizational leaders should force to developing competence of subordinates to managing of uncertainty buy special educational events. In the article to this competences counted: emotional intelligence, extended perception and skills of dialog conducting.
Attenuation of earmuffs used simultaneously with safety spectacles in exposure to impulse noise
Authors: Kozłowski Emil , Młyński Rafał 
Published: April 2018

Impulse noise is particularly hazardous to the hearing of exposed individuals. In many real-life scenarios, the only protective measure used to reduce the level of impulse noise is hearing protectors. These scenarios include firing ranges. Aside from hearing protectors, shooters use personal safety spectacles. The purpose of this paper was to determine the effect of the simultaneous use of earmuffs and safety spectacles on the sound attenuation of earmuffs during exposure to impact noise. The research was completed with the MIRE method and included the determination of sound attenuation changes in five different models of earmuffs, used simultaneously with three different models of safety spectacles and prescription glasses. The impulse noise source used was a starting pistol, which generated C-weighted peak sound pressure level at a mean of 136.7 dB. The tests demonstrated that the simultaneous use of safety spectacles and earmuffs reduces the impulse noise attenuation of the earmuffs by up to 9 dB. Such sound attenuation changes occurred during simultaneous use of earmuffs with safety spectacles, which feature temples with a rectangular cross-section. The tests also demonstrated that the effect of prescription glasses on sound attenuation was unusually high; prescription glasses reduced the impulse sound attenuation of earmuffs by as much as 18 dB. Keywords: acoustics, noise protection, impulse noise, hearing protectors, earmuffs, noise attenuation
Theoretical predictions on the influence of moisture on movements of wooden construction elements
Authors: Grobelny Piotr , Dornowski Wojciech 
Published: April 2018

The paper presents a method for determining the creep function of wood. A key feature of this method is a constitutive relation which includes the continuous effect of wood moisture on creep. The method can be applied to improve the precision of design of wooden structures as well to assess the safety of biodegraded (biologically corroded) structural elements fabricated from wood. Keywords: construction, wooden constructions, rheology, constitutive relation, creep function
Antimicrobial Potential of Endophytes from Datura metel Linn.
Authors: M. Madhu Priya , Simiyon Theoder P. Agastian 
Published: April 2018

Endophytes are a suite of microorganisms that grow in the tissues of higher plants. Endophytes constitute a valuable source of secondary metabolites for the discovery of new potential therapeutic drugs. Endophytes can have many effects on their host such as enhancement of stress, insect and disease resistance, and herbicide activities when in association with their host plant. The present study was to examine the antimicrobial activity of ethyl acetate extracts of endophytic fungi (both extra and intracellular) and actinomycete from the stem and root of Datura metel L. The crude extract of these endophytic isolates were screened for their antimicrobial potential. Among the endophytes, the extracellular fungal extract showed the highest antimicrobial activity when compared to intracellular fungi and actinomycetes. The studies and isolation of these compounds can be used as a good approach to search of novel products.
Which Cultural Aspects do The Textbooks of Teaching Turkish to Foreigners Transfer?
Authors: BASKIN Sami 
Published: April 2018

Teaching a foreign language aims at not only teaching the language and language skills, but transferring the culture of the target language. The main reason for that is people learn the target language as a standby in addition to learning the language. It is important that the more individuals learn the cultural features of the country the more they understand the language better. It is an undeniable fact that language and culture are inseparable parts, so culture should be learned simultaneously while learning that language. Because of that relationship between language and culture, language teaching also means teaching culture. Foreign language textbooks reflect the characteristics of the language-speaking community and make it a cultural product of that language. This study is to identify the place and importance of the textbooks used in teaching Turkish to foreigners in the target language teaching and to research which cultural items these books convey. Thus, A1-A2 level textbooks of the Turkish teaching set for Gazi Foreigners were selected as a sample and done document analysis to identify what these sources include in terms of "daily life, interpersonal relations, values and education, literature-arts and music, traditions and folklore, social life, geography and space, foreign (universal) cultural elements". It was observed that the elements of Turkish culture concentrated on the relation between daily life and interpersonal relations, and there was no balanced distribution among other cultural elements. Therefore, these books need to be reviewed so that they can raise cultural awareness of the students.
Semiconductive Single Molecular Bilayers Realized Using Geometrical Frustration
Authors: Arai Shunto , Inoue Satoru , Hamai Takamasa , Kumai Reiji , Hasegawa Tatsuo 
Published: April 2018

AbstractA unique solution‐based technology to manufacture self‐assembled ultrathin organic‐semiconductor layers with ultrauniform single‐molecular‐bilayer thickness over an area as large as wafer scale is developed. A novel concept is adopted in this technique, based upon the idea of geometrical frustration, which can effectively suppress the interlayer stacking (or multilayer crystallization) while maintaining the assembly of the intralayer, which originates from the strong intermolecular interactions between π‐conjugated molecules. For this purpose, a mixed solution of extended π‐conjugated frameworks substituted asymmetrically by alkyl chains of variable lengths (i.e., (πCore)‐Cn's) is utilized for the solution process. A simple blade‐coating with a solution containing two (πCore)‐Cn's with different alkyl chain lengths is effective to provide single molecular bilayers (SMBs) composed of a pair of polar monomolecular layers, which is analogical to the cell membranes of living organisms. It is demonstrated that the chain‐length disorder does not perturb the in‐plane crystalline order, but acts effectively as a geometrical frustration to inhibit multilayer crystallization. The uniformity, stability, and size scale are unprecedented, as produced by other conventional self‐assembly processes. The obtained SMBs also exhibit efficient 2D carrier transport as organic thin‐film transistors. This finding should open a new route to SMB‐based ultrathin superflexible electronics.
Flow behavior of PP‐polymer nanocomposites in injection molding hyperbolical dies
Authors: Mitsoulis Evan , Battisti Markus , Neunhäuserer Andreas , Perko Leonhard , Friesenbichler Walter 
Published: April 2018

AbstractNanocomposites based on layered silicates offer a remarkable potential in improving mechanical properties with filler loadings lower than 5%. For such polymer nanocomposites, it is important to improve intercalation and exfoliation of the silicate layers by finding the right balance between these effects. Previous works showed that intercalation and exfoliation can be influenced by the use of an additional, extensional flow which can be generated by hyperbolical dies used in the injection molding process. Since such hyperbolical dies account for high shear rates, additional pressure drop, and viscous dissipation, it is of high practical relevance to correctly predict the injection pressure needed. Besides conical geometries, hyperbolical die geometries are of importance due to their uniform elongational rate. Using hyperbolical dies having different diameters,D, and length‐to‐diameterL/Dratios, a full rheological characterization has been carried out for a polypropylene‐filled nanocomposite, and the experimental data have been fitted both with a viscous model (Cross) and a viscoelastic one (the Kaye—Bernstein, Kearsley, Zapas/Papanastasiou, Scriven, Macosko or K‐BKZ/PSM model). Four injection molding dies have been also used to reach apparent shear rates up to 500,000 s−1. Particular emphasis has been given on the pressure dependence of viscosity. It was found that only the viscoelastic simulations were capable of reproducing the experimental data well, while any viscous modeling always underestimates the pressures, especially at the higher apparent shear rates andL/Dratios.