Search results

Many people think of vinegar as something that we buy in a bottle, sprinkle on our fish and chips, or use to make mint sauce or to pickle onions. Few may realise how complicated the production process is or how long it takes to get this popular household item to our tables. Alison Canning explains some of the background to

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to emerging theory about the role of authenticity in social media use through discussion of a not‐for‐profit organisation's experiences of using social networking to communicate with potential stakeholders during a recruitment campaign.

The paper uses critical discourse analysis of semi‐structured interviews with organisational spokespersons to examine the use of social media by this not‐for‐profit organisation.

The organisation attempted to re‐position its identity to appear “authentic” to potential young stakeholders, and to use social media to build a dialogue that would attract new recruits to the industry. The paper discusses the challenges and opportunities experienced by the not‐for‐profit organisation in this recruitment campaign.

Organisations contemplating the use of social networking sites to engage new audiences can reflect on the problems encountered in the implementation of this campaign, and plan to avoid similar pitfalls.

The study presents original empirical data in relation to social networking by a not‐for‐profit organisation. It demonstrates the importance of audience perceptions of authenticity and raises important questions about organisational “control”, and the expectations of employees carrying out “authenticity work”.

The purpose of the study is to report on an in‐depth exploration of service quality in an Information Technology service department in a Higher Education Institute (HEI) and to evaluate the instrument used.

The study surveys customers using the SERVQUAL instrument, which is one of the most widely used and applied scales for the measurement of perceived service quality.

A focused and rigorous examination of customers' views of the importance of the service elements is provided. The study confirmed previous research that the application of SERVQUAL in the public sector can produce different service quality dimensions from those found in private sector services. It was also found that the service quality gaps, and the relative importance of the five dimensions of service quality, were the same for students and staff, albeit with some specific differences. Reliability was the most important dimension for all customers and the greatest improvement in service quality would be achieved through improved service reliability.

The implications of these findings for the department are discussed, together with the value of SERVQUAL to the public sector, in general, and Higher Education, in particular, in assisting with improvement of services. Further research at the HEI which would benefit the department is identified as well as a broader project to survey service provision and approaches to quality measurement across HEIs.

In an increasingly consumerist environment, a serious approach to service quality can only enhance the reputation of HEIs which address the area in a coherent and consistent manner. This study details a useful approach.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the conditions that enabled the end of roaming charges in East Africa in 2006, achieving in weeks what European regulators had struggled with for nearly a decade. To do so it aims to explore the factors that drove marginalized operator Zain to seize the competitive advantage created by it having licenses in three adjoining markets.

The paper draws on the theory of disruptive competition and innovation pioneered by Clayton Christensen to explain the innovative and disruptive nature of the Zain business model. It is drawn on to explain why, despite Zain being unable ultimately to dominate its competitors, it had a sustained disruptive effect on the entire market. This provides a theoretical lens through which to view the empirical evidence acquired through in‐depth interviews and market analysis. This is used to develop a detailed case study on the dropping of roaming charges in East Africa.

The case study demonstrates the importance of an enabling policy and regulatory environment, which allowed operators to integrate historically separate national networks into cross‐border operations, undermining roaming markets in the region and ending roaming charges in East Africa forever. With the high price of communications in East Africa and the premium charges placed on international mobile roaming, the effect of this move was to compel other regional operators to follow suit, and further, to institute various other pricing strategies in an attempt to retain or recover their dominant positions. As a result, not only did roaming charges disappear across major networks, but the prices of various other mobile services also fell as subscriber numbers soared.

Research in this area is severely constrained by the inability to access pricing, traffic and revenue data from operators that is regarded as competitively sensitive. As a result it is often difficult to assess the immediate gains and losses of competitors and failure to get consistent data over time, the ability to assess lags and long‐term positions. A longer term review of the impact of these developments on pricing and the dynamics of the East African market in future would provide valuable insight into the longer term effects of these developments.

As policy makers and regulators elsewhere in Africa start to emulate European “best practice” regulation, despite the difficulties mature and resourced regulators in the European Union face in instituting legally binding maximum tariffs for roaming, a valuable alternative policy and regulatory strategy exists in the creation of enabling competitive environments in which incentives to reduce to eliminate roaming charge, rather than retain environments in which international call termination on roaming phones can be arbitraged.

Even though ultimately Zain was not successful as a disruptive competitor, it forced the dominant operators to reduce their roaming charges that resulted in sustained welfare gains.

This paper provides both novel theoretical insight and empirical evidence to explain the end of roaming charges in East Africa. It nuances perceptions in the popular and technical press that this was purely a market strategy that could be emulated anywhere else. It highlights the necessary enabling policy and regulatory environment that needed to be created and provides empirical evidence of the impact on competition in the market and analyses the outcomes of Zain's short term business strategy, against the longer term disruptive effect on the market.

This paper seeks to outline the nature of early intervention (EI) services in psychosis and to discuss substance use in clients in this setting. It considers ways of working with EI clients where substance use is an issue.

The paper begins by outlining the nature of EI services and early psychosis, then goes on to discuss the impact and management of substance use in this setting.

The authors argue that the El approach may be very appropriate for this subset of clients.

This paper focuses on the issues of treatment of dual diagnosis within a specialised area of mental service provision. EI services for psychosis aim to provide early detection and treatment of psychosis, particularly through increased emphasis on psychosocial interventions.

This article examines why diversity is becoming more important within organisations and introduces a tool designed to help executives to understand their organisations' demographics.

The article presents the views of the director of diversity at Academee.

Describes an online diagnostic tool that brings together data across small and large organisations to identify workforce demographics, employee perceptions and realities, understanding and, most importantly, to highlight “hot‐spot” areas that may need immediate attention.

Helps organisations to identify areas of good practice, so that this can be replicated elsewhere in the organisation.

Describes how the tool generates reports that instantly create a diversity and inclusion action plan for the organisation.

This paper aims to demonstrate how fundamental social and psychological drivers can affect the language used by people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and their carers.

A theoretical model is used to predict four ways in which communicative priorities in a given context will generate formulaic linguistic responses in interaction. Evidence from the language of both people with AD and their carers illustrates each point. Moreover, the model offers an explanation for several effective approaches for improving interaction.

The paper explains the dynamics of a downward spiral in interaction that features more and more “formulaic” language, and indicates how carers can help create a context for greater empowerment of people with AD.

Since people with AD need the stimulation of meaningful and targeted interaction, the downward spiral arising from carers' formulaic responses is potentially damaging. To improve the quality of communication between people with AD and their carers, the negative impact of formulaic language in interaction needs to be transformed into something more positive and productive. Indications are offered for how this can be achieved.

The paper offers significant new insights into the causes of the well‐recognised patterns of repetitive language in people with AD, and explains how they can trigger unhelpful responses in carers. The theoretical underpinning offers opportunities for understanding how best to support carers in engaging more positively with people with AD, resulting in a richer type of communication for the latter and reduced stress levels for the former.

Virtually any personal computer user who uses contemporary software probably needs a huge hard disk storage drive that holds 6, or 10 or more gigabytes (remember, a gigabyte is 1000 million bytes). For example, if you store the popular Microsoft Office ‘97 software package in your computer, you'll need about 100 megabytes for that package alone. If you want a computer that uses Windows '98, you will have to provide over 500 megabytes just for the Windows software. By the time you have installed a few standard packages, plus some software for applications like library operations and database access, the first gigabyte of hard disk space has probably been filled. If the computer is used for Internet access, additional large blocks of storage will soon be filled with pages downloaded from the World Wide Web. A huge disk drive can be a wonderful asset if you use your computer to manipulate very large database files, or large graphics/picture files, or if you want to store historical files that can be expected to continue to grow in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to identify how key external and internal policies can impact on the internal policies of a University in the UK. It explains how the internal structures can be changed to meet the policy demands and how the need to meet those demands can lead to the development of an innovative pedagogy to broaden engagement with the business community, to offer work‐based learning to employees within small to medium‐sized enterprises.

The objectives of the case study are to review the key external policies and drivers for change and how these led to internal policy and structure changes. The paper reviews past practice in the university around employer engagement, how this is affected by the external changes and identifies opportunities for change offered through the availability of external project funding. The key requirements for the new pedagogical approach are outlined, along with its primary concepts and how an e‐portfolio has been designed to meet the needs of the target group.

The paper shows how imperatives arising from policies and drivers outside the university can be contextualised by that university to develop a cost‐effective, sustainable and scaleable pedagogy to widen access to cohorts of learners that would otherwise not be able to access higher education.

The paper showcases an innovative pedagogic approach to enable access to higher education for work‐based learners in small to medium‐sized enterprises.