bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The NPM agenda in small developing countries
Authors: Uelese Amosa Desmond 
Published: August 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine claims that the removal of tenure in favour of fixed‐term employment contracts has led to some politicization of top‐level appointments in the Samoa public service. The intention is not only to shed light on how politicization is perceived in a small developing society, but also to determine whether such claims are well founded and if so, what the implications are for a small public service like that in Samoa.Design/methodology/approachData are gathered from government documents, literature review and the experience of the author as a former senior public servant in Samoa.FindingsWhile the claims cannot be fully endorsed at this stage, it is clear that there was some politicization of senior public service appointments and, importantly, the outcomes in most cases were unfavourable for Samoa's public service.Originality/valuePoliticization of the appointment of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in Samoa's public service since the shift to employment contracts in the early 1990s has not previously been reviewed. Apparently the ramifications of politicizing the appointment of CEOs have, in most cases, proved unproductive for the public service and its stakeholders. Hence the Public Service Commission, which is the main advisory body, urgently needs to recommend necessary changes to avert political appointments in the future.
Research management and policy: incentives and obstacles to a better public‐private interaction
Authors: Kalpazidou Schmidt Evanthia 
Published: August 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss the public‐private linkage within the Danish research and technological development (RTD) and innovation system, seen from the point of view of the private sector. The relationship between public and private research is an issue of growing interest to management and public policy.Design/methodology/approachBased on interviews with business managers, the article identifies obstacles that enterprises experience when cooperating with public research institutions and highlights conditions that influence the relationship.FindingsThe paper points to ways to strengthen linkages and provides information on how to further stimulate public‐private interaction and thus make better use of resources through synergy.Originality/valueThe analysis in the paper offers an insight that can serve as a reference for researchers, managers and policymakers in countries with conditions similar to those of the Danish.
Publishing on publishing: streams in the literature
Authors: Polonsky Michael Jay 
Published: August 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose and examine streams in the literature related to academic publishing, with a focus on works in marketing. The content of the works within each theme are then explored to identify what issues have been examined and their implications.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is a literature review, drawing on 30 years of research on academic publishing in marketing. The review is designed to cover the underlying issues examined, but is not designed to be comprehensive in terms of all the works exploring each stream of research.FindingsThere are five main streams in the literature focusing on: rankings; theory and knowledge development; how to publish;, criticisms of publishing; and other issues. Within each stream, a number of sub‐areas are explored. The works tend to be fragmented and there is generally limited in‐depth qualitative research within streams exploring the underlying assumptions on which publishing is based.Research limitations/implicationsThe focus of the research is on the streams of works, rather than the findings within each stream and future research could explore each of these streams and sub‐streams in more detail. Generally, the works appear to becoming increasingly sophisticated in terms of their analysis, which is only possible with the new technologies available. New metrics proposed in the literature that can be used to better understand publishing and additional qualitative research exploring some of the basic assumptions could also be explored.Practical implicationsThe research suggests that some streams with regard to academic publishing may have reached saturation and future publishing in these areas will need to be innovative in its approach and analysis, if these works are to be published.Originality/valueThis paper is the first attempt to develop streams within the literature on academic publishing in marketing and thus draws together a diverse cross‐section of works. It provides suggestions for directions for future research in the various streams.
How our schools can be more synergic: determining the obstacles of teamwork
Authors: Karakuş Mehmet , Töremen Fatih 
Published: August 2008

PurposeThe main purpose of this study is to find out the importance levels of obstacles to teamwork in the view of teachers and thus inspire school leaders to remove these obstacles and to make teamwork more effective.Design/methodology/approachA survey‐based descriptive scanning model was used. This study was performed in Elazig city centre during the 2006‐2007 academic year. A four‐dimensional and 32‐itemed “ordering questionnaire” was administered to 424 teachers working at primary schools.FindingsIn the light of related literature, the most significant factors for the effectiveness of teamwork have been classified in four dimensions. These are leadership actions, structural characteristics of work group, individual characteristics of members, and interrelationships among members. Administrators' inequitable applications, lack of a group climate in which each teacher is appreciated and valued, teachers' lack of motivation, competitive and not cooperative relationships were sorted by teachers as being the most important obstacles to teamwork. There were meaningful differences among teachers' views according to the gender and tenure variables.Research limitations/implicationsSince teamwork is a necessity for school effectiveness, it is very important to determine and to remove the obstacles on the way to effective teamwork.Practical implicationsThe study gives cues for school leaders on how teachers should be treated in general and in the aspects of their personal characteristics to attain effective teamwork in schools.Originality/valueWith an original classification of the components of effective teamwork, the study seeks to determine teachers' perceptions about the importance level of obstacles of effective teamwork through an ordering questionnaire in a different perspective.
An analysis of small business in Chile: a correlational study
Authors: Lussier Robert N. , Halabí Claudia E. 
Published: August 2008

PurposeThis paper sets out to investigate small business success factors in Chile.Design/methodology/approachThe research on which this paper is based involves a survey correlational study involving a sample of 145 small business owners in Chile that replicates Lussier's success variables validated in the USA.FindingsThe results of this research study show that there were 26 significant correlations between the success variables. A major finding shows that business owners tend not to make much use of professional advisors, yet this factor was correlated with six other variables.Research limitations/implicationsThere were no other small business success factor studies of Chile found in the specialist literature, thus the results could not be compared with findings of similar studies.Practical implicationsThe findings indicate that small business owners and managers may benefit from using more professional advisors. Public policy makers should consider providing more professional help to small business, such as offering services similar to that of the US Small Business Administration.Originality/valueThis is the first major small business success factor study conducted in Chile. Researchers have a foundation for further research and comparisons.
Factors impacting participation of Hispanic small businesses in government contracting in the USA
Authors: Temponi Cecilia , Cui Wen 
Published: August 2008

PurposeThis study aims to examine the relationship among three main constructs of financial status, e‐commerce components, and Hispanic small businesses' (HSBs') perceptions regarding the contracting process of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as they pertain to HSBs and their current capacity to gain access to government procurement.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs descriptive statistics and association analysis conducted on survey data from a random sample of 206 HSBs.FindingsThe analysis indicates that the HSBs' financial status has no impact on HSBs pursuing contracts with the USDA; instead, it impacts HSBs' ability to secure contracts. E‐commerce components seem to have no impact on HSBs' ability to pursue and/or secure contracts. The perceptions of services provided by the USDA to HSBs were found to be different depending on whether an HSB has secured a USDA contract.Research limitations/implicationsFindings on HSBs in government contracting with the USDA might also be relevant to small businesses, regardless of ethnicity. This study was conducted for the USDA procurement process, but the process may vary due to the types of services contracted or the function of the agency/business itself. Non‐response biases were tested and found not significant.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature in two complimentary ways. One contribution supports some of the earlier research on barriers for engagement of small business in government procurement. The second contribution offers specifics on Hispanic small businesses.
Small business performance in MNC suppliers' networks
Authors: María Cubillo‐Pinilla José 
Published: August 2008

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to analyse the influence of a multinational company (MNC) on its local supplier's network. In particular, how the MNC influences the performance of supplier as well as non‐supplier local companies.Design/methodology/approachThe paper studies a local productive system involved in the manufacturing of lighting systems for automobiles, and made up of small and medium sized companies and led by a single multinational corporation which contracts out to the local industry. The analysis includes both suppliers to the multinational as well as non‐suppliers.FindingsThe study shows how the existence of knowledge transfer influences productivity through the productive linkage established with local suppliers and their hiring of MNC former managers. Direct local suppliers experience higher productivity than do local suppliers from lower levels of the supply chain. Similarly, local suppliers hiring MNC former managers show higher productivity than those who have hired only local managers.Research limitations/implicationsOne of the limitations of this paper is the size of the population studied. This paper focuses on one local supplier's network, and it only shows a very local experience. Another limitation is the difficulty in measuring the intensity of every channel of knowledge transfer. Thus, in the case of direct suppliers, it is very difficult to separate the effects of the knowledge transfer derived from the productive link and the effects derived from workers' mobility.Originality/valueThis paper identifies the key factors that influence the performance of the knowledge transfer into multinational corporation suppliers' networks related with the productitivy of local companies.
CAPM‐based capital budgeting and nonadditivity
Authors: Magni Carlo Alberto 
Published: August 2008

PurposeIn investment decision making, the net present value (NPV) rule is often used alongside the well‐known capital asset pricing model (CAPM). In particular, the use of disequilibrium NPV is endorsed in corporate finance for both valuation and decision. The purpose of this paper is to test the reliability of this approach to capital budgeting valuations and decisions.Design/methodology/approachThe use of disequilibrium values for computing a project's NPV is considered, and the consistency with the CAPM is checked. The resulting valuation and decision are contrasted with the no‐arbitrage principle, which is universally considered a benchmark for rationality.FindingsThe paper finds that the disequilibrium NPV is logically deducted from the CAPM for decision‐making purposes. However, this NPV provides nonadditive values, which makes it inconsistent with the no‐arbitrage principle.Practical implicationsThe use of the CAPM+NPV procedure for valuing projects is invalid if disequilibrium values are used. Its use for decision making is logically valid but practically unsafe, because decision makers may frame equivalent courses of action in different ways, resulting in different decisions, which implies that they may incur arbitrage losses.Originality/valueThe literature does not distinguish between equilibrium and disequilibrium NPV nor between valuation and decision. This paper explicitly makes this distinction and the resulting consequences are highlighted.
The specific risk of the UK real estate securities market
Authors: Kovac Vladimir , Lee Stephen 
Published: August 2008

PurposeEvaluation of risk/return relationship in public real estate market in the UK is vital for investors. In particular sector risk is being assessed, which is increasingly important due to expansion of index linked investments. The aim of this paper is to assess the risk inherent in public real estate securities.Design/methodology/approachTo extract the specific/systematic risk from UK FTSE Real Estate Index (FTSERLT), the single index model (SIM) is employed over the period 1986‐2003. Four benchmark indices are used for this purpose in line with previous studies. The main part of the analyses is to find the index which best distinguishes between the systematic and specific factors affecting the real estate index. Monthly data are collected and grouped into one‐, three‐ and five‐year periods so that short‐ and long‐term trends are better observed and identified.FindingsThe findings show that the link between FTSERLT and all four indices has been declining over the observed period. In addition, it is noticed that the high and irregular specific risk levels in the sector over the last 15‐year period have created some form or “risk cycle”. In case of downturn on the market, it is identified that public real estate is more vulnerable than private market due to its high liquidity. This is identified as a major threat to its long‐term sustainability.Originality/valueA unique breakdown of specific and systematic risk has been given based on three different duration periods and four benchmark indices. A particular attention has been given to the periods characterized with greater specific risk element. The paper has supported the existence of the “common real estate risk element” between public and private markets by establishing a strong correlation between public and private markets by establishing a strong correlation between the performance of direct real estate monthly market index (IPDMI) and abnormal performance (Alpha) of the public real estate sector.
Extreme returns and value at risk in international securitized real estate markets
Authors: Hiang Liow Kim 
Published: August 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate and compare the extreme behavior of securitized real estate and stock market returns as well as their value‐at‐risk (VaR) dynamics in international investing. Extreme value theory using the block maxima method is applied to ten securitized real estate and equity market indices representing Asian, European and North American markets.Design/methodology/approachThe paper models the maxima and minima of all return series within the extreme value theory (EVT) framework and derive the VaR estimates. It then compares the VaR estimates derived from the EVT and the normal distribution and investigates the impact of clustered returns on the VaR estimates. Finally, both the conventional standard deviation measure and VaR method are conducted to evaluate and compare the impact of the Asian financial turmoil on the real estate and stock market risk profiles.FindingsEvidence shows that Asian real estate and equity maxima and minima return series are characterized by a fat‐tailed Fréchet distribution. The frequency and severity of extreme Asian real estate returns are greater than their European and North American counterparts. Securitized real estate markets are riskier than the broader stock markets before and during the Asian financial turmoil. In contrast, many stock markets become riskier after the financial crisis with their VaRs higher than the equivalent VaR estimates for the real estate series.Research limitations/implicationsKnowledge about real estate market returns exhibit extreme behavior can help investors and fund managers understand the distribution of real estate market returns better and obtain potentially more accurate real estate return forecasts.Practical implicationsInternational real estate portfolio risk management should include both extreme risks and standard deviations. Accordingly, global investors should be even more cautious in formulating their diversification strategies since gains from diversification can be reduced significantly by the severity of extreme return levels.Originality/valueThe paper characterizes the distribution of extreme returns for a broad spectrum of international securitized real estate markets from three continents. The extreme value investigation is also conducted for broader stock markets corresponding to the individual real estate markets. The July 1997 turmoil that occurred in Asian financial markets provides interesting exploratory opportunities within which this paper estimates and compares the extreme market risk with the conventional standard deviation measure.
Towards an architecture for open archive networks in agricultural sciences and technology
Authors: Subirats Imma , Onyancha Irene , Salokhe Gauri , Kaloyanova Stefka , Anibaldi Stefano , Keizer Johannes 
Published: August 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore addressing the accessibility, availability and interoperability issues of exchanging agricultural research output by means of the AGRIS application profile – an exchange metadata standard – and controlled vocabularies or subject‐specific knowledge organisation systems.Design/methodology/approachBased on an analysis of the open access (OA) publishing model and the open archives initiative (OAI), the authors share their proposal for the architecture for open archive networks in agricultural sciences and technology.FindingsThe lack of adequate information exchange possibilities between researchers in food and agricultural sciences represents a significant weakness, limiting the research system to properly help address the issues of agricultural development. The OA publishing model promotes the availability of content online, including grey literature, which is not available through commercial distribution channels but which significantly contributes to agricultural research and development. The new architecture proposed in this paper is based on these OA and OAI paradigms and has three components: the creation of content with agreed content description standards, the harvesting of the content using common exchange standards and the value‐added services provided to the users using the exchanged standard content.Originality/valueThe paper presents how the agricultural sciences and technology community can adopt the OA model and OAI tools. The paper will be useful to information professionals who are planning to improve the accessibility and interoperability of the agricultural research produced in their institution by the creation of institutional repositories.
ScienceTreks: an autonomous digital library system
Authors: Ivanyukovich Alexander , Marchese Maurizio , Giunchiglia Fausto 
Published: August 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide support for automation of the annotation process of large corpora of digital content.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents and discusses an information extraction pipeline from digital document acquisition to information extraction, processing and management. An overall architecture that supports such an extraction pipeline is detailed and discussed.FindingsThe proposed pipeline is implemented in a working prototype of an autonomous digital library (A‐DL) system called ScienceTreks that: supports a broad range of methods for document acquisition; does not rely on any external information sources and is solely based on the existing information in the document itself and in the overall set in a given digital archive; and provides application programming interfaces (API) to support easy integration of external systems and tools in the existing pipeline.Practical implicationsThe proposed A‐DL system can be used in automating end‐to‐end information retrieval and processing, supporting the control and elimination of error‐prone human intervention in the process.Originality/valueHigh quality automatic metadata extraction is a crucial step in the move from linguistic entities to logical entities, relation information and logical relations, and therefore to the semantic level of digital library usability. This in turn creates the opportunity for value‐added services within existing and future semantic‐enabled digital library systems.
Concept naming vs concept categorisation: a faceted approach to semantic annotation
Authors: Prasad A.R.D. , Guha Nabonita 
Published: August 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show that concept naming alone in document annotation is not sufficient to convey the thought content of the information resource. The paper presents an outline of semantic document annotation which combines two major processes: facet analysis and concept categorisation. This is also an effort to show how RDF schema can be designed and implemented so that the properties of the schema are able to express the basic structure of the subject matter of the resource.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents a methodology for representing the subject matter of a document in terms of RDF. For the purposes of faceted subject annotation, it has developed an extended RDF schema for simple knowledge organisation system (SKOS). The facets and relationships of the faceted subject indexing language postulate‐based permuted subject indexing system (POPSI) have been transformed into RDFS classes. The elementary categories of POPSI form the property classes in the POPSI/RDF Schema. These property classes have been used to formulate the subject description of a document.FindingsThe subject annotation of a document using this schema expresses all the components of the thought content of an information resource.Practical implicationsThe examples given in this paper show the applicability of this schema in describing resources in web directories and annotating scholarly documents in digital libraries. In a broader perspective, this provides a methodology for formulating the subject metadata of web resources. This schema helps in formulating the subject string(s) for a resource outlining the skeleton structure of its thought content.Originality/valueSKOS has been developed as an RDF schema representation of the traditional knowledge organisation systems. But the schema has limited room to accommodate subject indexing languages. The present schema extends the SKOS schema to accommodate the representation of faceted subject indexing languages. The faceted subject annotation system has been adopted for the very reason that it has precedence over the enumerated classification systems, controlled vocabulary lists, etc. The potential to describe the specific subject of the document with more accuracy and representation of context gives the faceted subject indexing languages strength to make the subject description explicit and machine processible.