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1 – 10 of 240In the past years, the importance of the cultural economy has led urbanism to a new perspective. Simultaneously, the main international institutions have pointed out the need to…
Abstract
Purpose
In the past years, the importance of the cultural economy has led urbanism to a new perspective. Simultaneously, the main international institutions have pointed out the need to shift the urban economy into a sustainable one, green and energy efficient. The confluence of both flows explains why the imaginaries of the urban future are related to the concept of creative cities. Hence, the new economic engine of the cities should be founded on art, creativity and culture, all of them understood as clean energies. This study aims to show the crucial role of cultural heritage as a propeller of a new kind of urban development, more flexible and democratic, based on the construction of the city as a communicational, collective and open effort. Therefore, the city is conceived as a cultural heritage platform where tangible and intangible, social and creative interactions happen. Within this context, urban narratives appear as a dynamic material drawn on the possibilities offered by the heritage received from the past as a resource to be used for re-thinking and re-shaping the future.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach of this paper is based on a profound analysis of historical cities, mainly in the European context, supported by the work carried out within the H2020 ROCK project. The cities within the project are: Athens, Bologna, Cluj-Napoca, Eindhoven, Lisbon, Liverpool, Lyon, Torino, Skopje and Vilnius. A wide variety of case studies coming mainly from these cities have been considered to understand better the theoretical point of view on the role of heritage, urban development and city branding. The information about cultural heritage projects used as case studies has been collected and selected coming from the direct work made on the field and the communication open with institutions and cultural stakeholders in every city. Even more, parallel seminars on cultural heritage and city branding organized within the project have allowed the authors to gather very valuable, updated and fresh information on these issues in every particular case.
Findings
The study proves that cultural heritage has been traditionally underrated as a mechanism for developing the future of the city and its communicative strategy. Cultural heritage appears as a practical tool for constructing more cohesive urban communities based on the use of public space and shared memories as storytelling platforms. The capacity of resiliency and sustainability revealed by cultural heritage through the time is, as well, a clear reference to construct a potential sustainable city, socially, culturally and environmentally.
Social implications
Cultural heritage projects are shown as a perfect way to build stronger communities. Through the engagement and participation of citizens, urban storytelling reinforces a more open, real and sustainable city able to face the challenges of contemporary life (gentrification, pollution, mobility, etc.). Like that, heritage appears as a feasible tool for including citizens coming from all ages and backgrounds in the construction of a collective narrative of the city, based on the past and looking at the foreseen.
Originality/value
This study tries to relate fields that traditionally have remained not well connected: urban development, city branding and cultural heritage. The study demonstrates that cultural heritage is crucial as an urban narrative tool and consequently, as a planning/branding mechanism. Moreover, cultural institutions and cultural projects are very relevant platforms for social interaction, inviting citizens to have a more active role in the construction of the city as a collective communicational effort based on a network of social and cultural relations. Storytelling turns up as a new key element for communicating the city from grassroots, in a sustainable, democratic and inclusive manner, far away from the traditional top-down official perspective. Crowdsourcing methods are very powerful for establishing a shared and cohesive city brand, now rooted in its cultural and social foundations and not the marketing campaign clichés. Finally, storytelling emerges as a creative resource that enhances the social, cultural and economic layout of the city, forcing urbanists to include a greener, fairer and more democratic perspective in the future of cities.
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Digital language has meant a revolution in the methods of production, distribution and conservation of contemporary art. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the new status…
Abstract
Purpose
Digital language has meant a revolution in the methods of production, distribution and conservation of contemporary art. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the new status of museums within the digital age. Works using new media must be understood as spaces of non-hierarchical communication where an artist’s role is diluted and the public becomes a user that completes an open process. Therefore, the function of the museum is challenged, being no longer a moral authority or a place of storing physical works. Because of its instability and obsolescence, the only valid method for the conservation of digital art is permanence through change.
Design/methodology/approach
This research contrasts the theoretical material emerged in the past years related to the characteristic of new media to the practical work of conservation of digital pieces made by the new generation of museums and cultural centres. In addition, the fresh material offered by the Web itself allows analyzing the virtual activity of the museums themselves and the new platforms (online labs, databases, websites and blogs) arisen in the past decades. The latter are perfect examples of the new paths opened by the digital contemporary technology offering collective sites of communication in real time.
Findings
The preservation of digital and intangible heritage is understood as a form of development of a collective memory that can help in the understanding of our age in the future. In this way, the goals and the responsibilities are common; citizens are required to keep an active culture that is no more a culture of the accumulation and concentration by a minority. In present context, there is a new possibility, maybe for the first time in history, of achieving a new narrative really democratized and decentralized through the new ways of interacting and sharing information offers by digital media.
Social implications
The urgency of getting an open and free access to information and technology is part of the idiosyncratic of digital art. There is a real aim of generating alternative spaces of knowledge serving public interest, being apart from the economic and political interests of large corporations. In this respect, the role of the museum will be controversial. First of all, as an institution originally created to impose power and moral authority by the governments.
Originality/value
Museums remains as the main artistic institution nowadays. However, they are in a difficult position as a traditional space for preserving and exhibiting art. That is why, they are adapting themselves to the new digital context helped by offering practical databases and updated information on their collections via websites and social networks.
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Pedro Victor Núñez-Cacho Utrilla, Felix A. Grande-Torraleja, Antonio Luis Moreno Albarracín and Cristina Ortega-Rodríguez
The search for competitiveness by family-owned companies has led us to research topics that may help these companies succeed. The management of human capital is undoubtedly one of…
Abstract
Purpose
The search for competitiveness by family-owned companies has led us to research topics that may help these companies succeed. The management of human capital is undoubtedly one of the keys to success, and the practices of employee development (training, promotion, succession, career planning, mentoring and coaching) help improve the performance of these companies.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on studying a sample of 560 family companies and analyzing the relationship between performance of the family businesses and the use of employee development practices. The techniques used were confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results show that employee development has a direct effect on the indicators of performance in family companies. The authors have developed a series of practical implications for companies that justify investments in and efforts with regard to employee career development.
Research limitations/implications
Family businesses need to understand the development needs of their employees. In addition, the very processes and tasks performed. The authors have developed a number of practical implications for companies that justify the investments and efforts made in employee career development. This work validates the usefulness of the use of certain practices for the development of employees in family businesses, allowing the company to generate human capital to build a competitive position in the market.
Practical implications
The results of this study suggest that family businesses should understand the development needs of their employees and that various practices are available to help detect these needs. Family businesses should see individual development processes as an opportunity to improve the performance of employees, which could avoid conflicts in such businesses (Qiu and Freel, 2020). Companies should develop career and succession plans that enable these changes to be faced throughout the company, ensuring that when handover occurs, the candidates are sufficiently qualified in accordance with their career paths. The present research study shows that coaching is a powerful tool for improving performance. Moreover, mentoring appears to be an important part of employee development. For this reason, mentoring programs should be formally planned with designated objectives. In addition, family businesses should provide employees with real opportunities for promotion and the development of their skills and abilities, which is a way to retain nonfamily professionals (Ramankutty and Pujar, 2017).
Social implications
Family businesses are a very important part of the productive activity of a country and their continuity is necessary to maintain employment and income. The management of people in family businesses is a key aspect for their success, therefore knowing the key aspects for the development of human capital will have a positive influence on maintaining employment and income.
Originality/value
This paper addresses the study of people development processes in family businesses and proves its usefulness to improve performance, considering the formal planning of succession processes and professional careers, providing qualifications to candidates and ensuring that they are show satisfaction with their professional evolution in the company. Likewise, it is positive for family businesses to use coaching relationships, formally scheduled and employing a coach from abroad. The other tool that will favor the development of employees is mentoring, formally programmed, establishing objectives and properly studying the mentor's profile. For this tool to be applied successfully, it is necessary to get the participants to commit to the mentoring process. Finally, the organization must provide its employees with real opportunities to promote, training them and developing their skills.
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The purpose of this paper is to reflect on those “meeting points” and “encountering places” where the action of individuals, families, corporations, NGOs and public policies can…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reflect on those “meeting points” and “encountering places” where the action of individuals, families, corporations, NGOs and public policies can optimize the advancement of social citizenship within the European context.
Design/methodology/approach
An analysis of the worlds of welfare capitalism is contrasted with a corporate social responsibility (CSR) typology of policy governance. It serves the purpose of highlighting not only institutional arrangements and operational welfare rationales, but also value‐systems and cultural tenets shaping commonalities and diversities in public policy governance in the European Union.
Findings
Considerations are made on the impacts that both the global order and the “new social risks” (NSR) have for the promotion of CSR and the advancement of social citizenship. The case of the reconciliation of work and family life illustrates how CSR might induce a greater role for businesses in welfare development.
Research limitations/implications
Further research is needed to establish the linkages between the welfare regime approach and the models of public policy supports for CSR.
Originality/value
The paper is original in its theoretical linking of welfare mix, CSR and social citizenship with regard to the improvement of citizens’ living conditions.
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Mónica Izquierdo Alonso and Luis Miguel Moreno Fernández
The aim of this paper is to systemize and improve the scientific status of studies on document abstracting. This is a diachronic, systematic study of document abstracting studies…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to systemize and improve the scientific status of studies on document abstracting. This is a diachronic, systematic study of document abstracting studies carried out from different perspectives and models (textual, psycholinguistic, social and communicative).
Design/methodology/approach
A review of the perspectives and analysis proposals which are of interest to the various theoreticians of abstracting is carried out using a variety of techniques and approaches (cognitive, linguistic, communicative‐social, didactic, etc.), each with different levels of theoretical and methodological abstraction and degrees of application. The most significant contributions of each are reviewed and highlighted, along with their limitations.
Findings
It is found that the great challenge in abstracting is the systemization of models and conceptual apparatus, which open up this type of research to semiotic and socio‐interactional perspectives. It is necessary to carry out suitable empirical research with operative designs and ad hoc measuring instruments which can measure the efficiency of the abstracting and the efficiency of a good abstract, while at the same time feeding back into the theoretical baggage of this type of study. Such research will have to explain and provide answers to all the elements and variables, which affect the realization and the reception of a quality abstract.
Originality/value
The paper provides a small map of the studies on document abstracting. This shows how the conceptual and methodological framework has extended at the same time as the Science of Documentation has been evolving. All the models analysed – the communicative and interactional approach – are integrated in a new systematic framework.
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Daniela Diaz-Alonso, Mario Moreno-Moreno, Carlos Zuñiga, Joel Molina, Wilfrido Calleja, Juan Carlos Cisneros, Luis Niño de Rivera, Volodymir Ponomaryov, Felix Gil, Angel Guillen and Efrain Rubio
This paper aims to purpose the new design and fabrication scheme of Touch Mode Capacitive Pressure Sensor (TMCPS), which can be used in a wireless integrated resistor, inductor…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to purpose the new design and fabrication scheme of Touch Mode Capacitive Pressure Sensor (TMCPS), which can be used in a wireless integrated resistor, inductor and capacitor circuit for monitoring pressure in biomedical applications.
Design/methodology/approach
This study focuses on the design, simulation and fabrication of dynamic capacitors, based on surface micromachining using polysilicon or aluminum films as the top electrode, both structural materials are capped with a 1.5 μm-thick polyimide film.
Findings
The design of microstructures using a composite model fits perfectly the preset mechanical behavior. After the full fabrication, the dynamic capacitors show complete mechanical flexibility and stability.
Originality/value
The novelty of the method presented in this study includes two important aspects: first, the capacitors are designed as a planar cavity within a rigid frame, where two walls contain channels which allow for the etching of the sacrificial material. Second, the electromechanical structures are designed using a composite model that includes a polyimide film capping for a precise pressure sensing, which also protects the internal cavity and, at the same time, provides full biocompatibility.
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Jorge Moreno-Gómez, Diana Escandón-Charris, Ana Moreno-Charris and Luis Zapata-Upegui
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of the process innovation on export propensity in knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) firms and non-KIBS firms in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of the process innovation on export propensity in knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) firms and non-KIBS firms in Colombia.
Design/methodology/approach
For the empirical application, the authors use a unique primary data set drawn from the Global Competitiveness Project (GCP: www.gcp.org) that includes information for 57 Colombian KIBS for 2019. The authors use a binary choice model to test the proposed hypotheses on the relevance of KIBS and process innovation in explaining export propensity.
Findings
The results showed a positive relationship between KIBS and business size with an export propensity, but this relationship is non-meaningful. Also, the findings showed a negative and non-significant relationship between a process innovation and business age with the probability to export. On the other hand, the evidence state that KIBS firms encourage the relationship between propensity to export and process innovation, which is to say that they are highly effective to increase the propensity to export. Finally, the industry increases the probability of export propensity.
Originality/value
This study offers a new insight relating to KIBS, process innovation and their contribution to increasing export propensity. The findings of this paper offer relevant information to government policymakers to design strategies that promote export activity in Colombia.
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Mohammadreza Akbari and Robert McClelland
The purpose of this research is to provide a systematic insight into corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate citizenship (CC) in supply chain development, by analyzing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to provide a systematic insight into corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate citizenship (CC) in supply chain development, by analyzing the current literature, contemporary concepts, data and gaps for future discipline research.
Design/methodology/approach
This research identifies information from existing academic journals and investigates research designs and methods, data analysis techniques, industry involvement and geographic locations. Information regarding university affiliation, publishers, authors, year of publication is also documented. A collection of online databases from 2001 to 2018 were explored, using the keywords “corporate social responsibility”, “corporate citizenship” and “supply chain” in their title and abstract, to deliver an inclusive listing of journal articles in this discipline area. Based on this approach, a total of 164 articles were found, and information on a chain of variables was collected.
Findings
There has been visible growth in published articles over the last 18 years regarding supply chain sustainability, CSR and CC. Analysis of the data collected shows that only five literature reviews have been published in this area. Further, key findings include 41% of publications were narrowly focused on four sectors of industry, leaving gaps in the research. 85% centered on the survey and conceptual model, leaving an additional gap for future research. Finally, developing and developed nation status should be delineated, researched and analyzed based on further segmentation of the industry by region.
Research limitations/implications
This research is limited to reviewing only academic and professional articles available from Emerald, Elsevier, Wiley, Sage, Taylor and Francis, Springer, Scopus, JSTOR and EBSCO containing the words “corporate social responsibility”, “corporate citizenship” and “supply chain” in the title and abstract.
Originality/value
This assessment provides an enhanced appreciation of the current practices of current research and offers further directions within the CSR and CC in supply chain sustainable development.
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