Luis Morales-Navarro, Deborah Fields, Yasmin B. Kafai and Deepali Barapatre
The purpose of this paper is to examine how a clinical interview protocol with failure artifact scenarios can capture changes in high school students’ explanations of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how a clinical interview protocol with failure artifact scenarios can capture changes in high school students’ explanations of troubleshooting processes in physical computing activities. The authors focus on physical computing, as finding and fixing hardware and software bugs is a highly contextual practice that involves multiple interconnected domains and skills.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper developed and piloted a “failure artifact scenarios” clinical interview protocol. Youth were presented with buggy physical computing projects over video calls and asked for suggestions on how to fix them without having access to the actual project or its code. Authors applied this clinical interview protocol before and after an eight-week-long physical computing (more specifically, electronic textiles) unit. They analyzed matching pre- and post-interviews from 18 students at four different schools.
Findings
The findings demonstrate how the protocol can capture change in students’ thinking about troubleshooting by eliciting students’ explanations of specificity of domain knowledge of problems, multimodality of physical computing, iterative testing of failure artifact scenarios and concreteness of troubleshooting and problem-solving processes.
Originality/value
Beyond tests and surveys used to assess debugging, which traditionally focus on correctness or student beliefs, the “failure artifact scenarios” clinical interview protocol reveals student troubleshooting-related thinking processes when encountering buggy projects. As an assessment tool, it may be useful to evaluate the change and development of students’ abilities over time.
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Keywords
Despite the plethora of scholarship outputs on masculinity showing it as a fertile research domain, there are noteworthy lacunae on the topic especially in relation to its…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the plethora of scholarship outputs on masculinity showing it as a fertile research domain, there are noteworthy lacunae on the topic especially in relation to its dynamics among ethnic minority groups. Accordingly, this paper aims to address masculinity and symbolic consumption among Black African consumers in the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is interpretive in nature with the use of in-depth interviews conducted with 20 participants in London and the data analysis follows the grounded theory orientation.
Findings
It shows masculinity-oriented categorisations of market offerings but with an incidence of cultural tension. It suggests the prevalence of symbolic consumption among participants as demonstrated in their quest for admiration and commendation about their consumption and how masculinity is communicated. A new masculinity typology emerged from the study which depicts men in this context as falling into four categories of gay, conservative, contemporary and men on acme.
Originality/value
The study unpacks issues around masculinity, and multiculturalism, and proposes a novel typology on the topic vis-à-vis the discourse on segmentation, targeting and positioning strategy.
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Simona Alfiero, Enrico Battisti, Niccolò Nirino and Armando Papa
This study aims to investigate how knowledge management (KM) influences the achievement of sustainable objectives in new ventures, considering the mediating roles of board…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how knowledge management (KM) influences the achievement of sustainable objectives in new ventures, considering the mediating roles of board composition and financial performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This study considers primary and secondary data from 177 Italian start-ups. Data collection involved a standardized questionnaire to assess KM processes and sustainable practices, supplemented with secondary data on financial performance and the gender composition of the board of directors (BoD). The analysis was conducted using partial least squares structural equation modeling to evaluate the relationships between KM practices, gender diversity, financial performance, and sustainable outcomes.
Findings
The results reveal a significant positive impact of KM on firms’ sustainable practices. Specifically, gender diversity within the BoD and higher financial performance were identified as mediators in start-ups’ sustainability programs. Our study supports the hypothesis that KM practices influence sustainability, highlighting the critical role of specific practices such as knowledge transfer.
Originality/value
This study highlights the significance of KM in improving the sustainability performance of start-ups, addressing a research gap in the intersection between KM and environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations in new ventures. Furthermore, it highlights the pivotal roles of gender diversity and financial performance as critical factors mediating the relationship between KM and ESG practices.