Search results

VR games like VRChat offer players the opportunity to construct avatars mirroring their real-world identity, encompassing various facets including makeup, fashion style, body proportions and skin tone. This chapter explores how the real-life identity of players and the persona crafted within VRChat are related to one another and to what extent the avatar relates to self-perception. Avatar appearance can significantly affect how individuals interact with others in virtual environments. Appearance can also affect the degree to which the player can use the digital space for self-expression. Expressing self-identity through avatar design is therefore critical in establishing embodiment and presence in VR environments. Avatar design influences how individuals form social connections, build relationships and collaborate online, increasingly important in VR games like VRChat. Utilising Goffman's theory of self-presentation, this chapter draws on interview data from 20 VRChat users to understand the motivations and influences affecting avatar design. These choices are assessed in the context of creating an embodied actor in VR. The interview findings emphasise the role of avatar customisation in manifesting users' ideas of their authentic selves in the virtual realm. Supported by survey data, the insights highlight users' motivations based on personality traits, interests, social and personal identities, and cultural aesthetics derived from real-life experiences. This chapter underscores the complex interplay between real and virtual identities, highlighting the significant influence of cultural and social foundations on identity manifestation within VR environments.

The purpose of this study is to revisit the conventional wisdom about a key contribution [i.e. strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis] in the field of strategic management. The societal context and the role of academics, consultants and executives is taken into account in the emergence of SWOT analysis during the 1960–1980 period as a pivotal development within the broader context of the satisfactory, opportunities, faults, threats (SOFT) approach. The authors report on both the content and the approach, so that other scholars seeking to invigorate indigenous theories and/or underreported strategy practices will thrive.

Applying a historiographic approach, the authors introduce an evidence-based methodology for interpreting historical sources. This methodology incorporates source criticism, triangulation and hermeneutical interpretation, drawing upon insights from robust evidence through three iterative stages.

The underreporting of the SOFT approach/SWOT analysis can be attributed to several factors, including strategy tools being integrated into planning frameworks rather than being published as standalone materials; restricted circulation of crucial long-range planning service/theory and practice of planning reports due to copyright limitations; restricted access to the Stanford Research Institute Planning Library in California; and the enduring popularity of SOFT and SWOT variations, driven in part by their memorable acronyms.

In the spirit of a renaissance in strategic planning research, the authors unveil novel theoretical and social connections in the emergence of SWOT analysis by combining evidence from both theory and practice and delving into previously unexplored areas.

Caution is advised for scholars who examine the discrete time frame of 1960–1980 through mere bibliometric techniques. This study underscores the risks associated with gathering incomplete and/or inaccurate data, emphasizing the importance of triangulating evidence beyond scholarly databases. The paradigm shift of strategic management research due to the advent of large language models poses new challenges and the risk of conserving and perpetuating academic urban legends, myths and lies if training data is not adequately curated.

This study aims to assess the social network and perceived social support among community corrections offenders in China and compare the relationship between different sub-dimensions of social support and offenders’ social adaptation.

A descriptive design combined with self-administered questionnaires was used. A total of 54 valid responses were analysed, with participants displaying the following demographic characteristics: male offenders outnumbered female offenders, probationers constituted the highest proportion among all community corrections offenders and educational levels were generally low. Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were conducted. The Lubben Social Network Scale, Interpersonal Support Evaluation List Scale and Person at Re-education-centre Social Adaptation Scale were used to measure the variables.

Participants exhibited generally good levels of social support, with moderately extensive social networks and perceived support. All sub-dimensions showed significant positive correlations with social adaptation, with the highest correlation for appraisal support (r = 0.743, p < 0.01), followed by instrumental support (r = 0.714, p < 0.01), emotional support (r = 0.687, p < 0.01), informational support (r = 0.685, P < 0.01) and social networks (r = 0.426, p < 0.01).

This study expands the understanding of community corrections offenders in China by focusing on the underexplored Sichuan Province, using empirical methods for data collection. It addresses a gap in previous research by examining both structural and functional support for offenders rather than focusing solely on one aspect. The study uses two scales, rarely used in Chinese research, to measure structural and functional support, thereby enhancing research on social support for offenders. Practically, it explores the correlation between social support and re-entry, offering valuable insights for improving offenders’ reintegration into society.

These results underscore the critical role of social networks and perceived social support in reintegrating Chinese community corrections offenders. Distinct from prior research, this study used a more comprehensive scale, less commonly used by Chinese scholars, to enable detailed measurement and analysis, highlighting the significance of both structural and functional support in informing practice in related fields.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This study aims to enhance our understanding of customer expectations and experiences in grocery shopping within the metaverse. It investigates factors influencing customer satisfaction and driving continued engagement with metaverse platforms, offering insights into the drivers of customer adoption and barriers to usage.

Adopting a qualitative netnographic approach, this study analysed customer reactions to Walmart’s virtual store demonstration. Data were collected from user comments on YouTube, TikTok, Twitter and Reddit. Thematic analysis was employed to identify key factors contributing to satisfaction and dissatisfaction with metaverse grocery shopping experiences.

The study reveals three major drivers shaping customer satisfaction and subsequent positive intentions toward grocery shopping in the metaverse: social, functional and hedonic stimuli. Eight critical barriers affecting the metaverse shopping experience are identified: functional, hedonic, social, financial, privacy, safety, ownership and store atmospherics concerns, including tactile, acoustic and visual elements.

The findings are derived from a qualitative analysis of customer comments on social media platforms, which may limit generalisability. Future studies could adopt a mixed-methods approach to validate these findings across broader datasets.

This work is the first research to examine customer satisfaction with grocery shopping in the metaverse. It offers valuable insights into customer expectations, adoption drivers and critical barriers, laying the groundwork for further exploration of metaverse applications in retail.

This study aims to explore experiences of the Framework for Integrated Care's team formulation process within a secure children’s home in northern England, from the perspective of care and education staff.

Four focus groups were facilitated, with a total of 25 participants. The focus groups discussed a number of key areas, including: staff experiences of team formulation; the usefulness of the process; the wider impact of the process; and ways the formulation process could be developed. The data set was analysed using Rapid Qualitative Analysis (Hamilton, 2013).

Six overarching themes and a number of accompanying subthemes were developed. The six themes were: (i) new ways of understanding; (ii) enabling communication; (iii) young person should be at the centre; (iv) practical considerations; (v) developing accessibility: a systemic lens; and (vi) developing the focus.

Ten implications for practice within secure children’s homes and wider establishments are outlined. These relate to various aspects of the formulation process, including the preparatory work, meeting attendance, the focus of the formulation and dissemination.

Research within the context of secure children’s homes is expanding and has included the direct involvement of young people. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study utilising a qualitative, focus group method to consider the experiences of team formulation from the perspective of the wider care and education staff team in a secure children’s home.

The present study examines the features and services of four research data repositories (RDRs): Dataverse, Dryad, Zenodo and Figshare. The study explores whether these RDRs adhere to the FAIR principles and suggests the features and services that need to be added to enhance their functionality.

An online survey was conducted to identify the features of four popular RDRs. The study evaluates the features of four popular RDRs using the specially designed checklist method based on FAIR principles. The checklist is based on 11 construct progressions used to evaluate the features and services of four popular RDRs. The final checklist contains 11 constructs with 199 check spots.

Figshare has attained the highest features for findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability. It is identified that Figshare, with 116 (58.3%) scored the highest points and ranked no 1. It has also been found that Figshare recorded the highest features in 6 constructs out of the 11. Dataverse, with 90 (45.2%) features, ranked 2nd; Zenodo, with 86 (43.2%), ranked 3rd. The lowest features are found in Dryad, with 85 (42.7%). Furthermore, the study found that all four popular RDRs have poor features relating to “research data access metrics” features 23.3%, “output, data license and other advanced features” 22.6%. The very less features recorded in the category “services in RDRs” are 15.9%. Therefore, the features of these three constructs framed under FAIR need to be upgraded to improve the functionalities of the four popular RDRs.

The findings of the study are useful for researchers in choosing the appropriate RDR for accessing and sharing data and can be used by data scientists, librarians and policymakers in starting the research data management services in academic and research institutions. Furthermore, the study can also help impart research data literacy instructions to researchers and faculty members.

This study has prepared a special checklist based on FAIR principles to evaluate the features and services of RDRs. No prior study has been conducted to explore the features of popular RDRs and their compliance with FAIR principles based on the checklist method.