The purpose of this paper is two‐fold. First, a case study is presented that examines a model of agricultural development created by Healing Hands International (HHI) as one…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is two‐fold. First, a case study is presented that examines a model of agricultural development created by Healing Hands International (HHI) as one answer to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization call to reduce world hunger in half by 2015. Second, the study of HHI's agricultural model is used to identify some of the variables that might predict success in achieving sustainable agricultural systems in developing communities around the world. Specifically, training and establishing trust through social networks are explored as potential indicators in which HHI and other non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) can better determine whether they are meeting the goal of making trade work for the poor.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study of HHI's agricultural program is conducted as a means to identify success criteria for similar programs designed to establish economic viability in developing countries.
Findings
HHI has received global attention for its success in establishing long‐term economic viability in impoverished communities. Through the examination of their four‐step approach to agricultural development, two variables were identified as potential indicators of success that may generalize to similar programs: training and establishing trust through social networks.
Originality/value
There are currently over 40,000 NGOs operating to develop sustained economic viability for developing countries; however, a state of crisis continues to exist. As such, identifying predictors of success is essential for ensuring the successful implementation of similar programs and providing evidence that can result in greater financial support.
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Milorad Novicevic, Hugh Sloan, Allison Duke, Erin Holmes and Jacob Breland
The purpose of this paper is to delve into Barnard's works to construct foundations of customer relationship management (CRM).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to delve into Barnard's works to construct foundations of customer relationship management (CRM).
Design/methodology/approach
The paper identifies Barnard's insights on customer participation using a post‐analytic method and uses them as inputs to the analysis of current CRM practices.
Findings
As an outcome of the analysis, the paper identifies the practices that are likely to lead to more effective participatory behavior of customers.
Research limitations/implications
Examining CRM from a historical perspective can open promising avenues for future research.
Practical implications
CRM programs should incorporate the practice of customer relations management in order to provide managers with the knowledge base required for appropriate decision making.
Originality/value
By placing contemporary discussions of CRM in its seminal historical context, scholars can draw upon a wealth of historical inputs to advance the study of how collaborations with customers can be nurtured effectively.
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On Inauguration Day 2017, Milo Yiannopoulos gave a talk sponsored by the University of Washington College Republicans entitled “Cyberbullying Isn’t Real.” This chapter is based on…
Abstract
On Inauguration Day 2017, Milo Yiannopoulos gave a talk sponsored by the University of Washington College Republicans entitled “Cyberbullying Isn’t Real.” This chapter is based on participant-observation conducted in the crowd outside the venue that night and analyzes the violence that occurs when the blurring of the boundaries between “free” and “hate” speech is enacted on the ground. This ethnographic examination rethinks relationships between law, bodies, and infrastructure as it considers debates over free speech on college campuses from the perspectives of legal and public policy, as well as those who supported and protested Yiannopoulos’s right to speak at the University of Washington. First, this analysis uses ethnographic research to critique the absolutist free speech argument presented by the legal scholars Erwin Chemerinsky and Howard Gillman. Second, this essay uses the theoretical work of Judith Butler and Sara Ahmed to make claims concerning relationships between speech, vulnerability, and violence. In so doing, this chapter argues that debates over free speech rights on college campuses need to be situated by processes of neoliberalization in higher education and reconsidered in light of the ways in which an absolutist position disproportionately protects certain people at the expense of certain others.
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Allison K. Wisecup, Dennis Grady, Richard A. Roth and Julio Stephens
The purpose of this study was to determine whether, and how, electricity consumption by students in university residence halls were impacted through three intervention strategies.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to determine whether, and how, electricity consumption by students in university residence halls were impacted through three intervention strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
The current investigation uses a quasi-experimental design by exposing freshman students in four matched residence halls and the use of three different interventions designed to encourage energy conservation, specifically electricity conservation. A control residence hall received no intervention. One residence hall had an energy dashboard prominently displayed. Another received various communications and programming designed to raise awareness of the need for energy conservation. A fourth residence hall had an energy dashboard and received programming. Electricity consumption among the residence halls was compared using multivariate analysis.
Findings
Students in all residence halls receiving interventions demonstrated significantly lower electricity consumption compared to the control residence hall. Across two years with different student populations, results were consistent: the residence hall receiving only the communications and programming, but not the dashboard, had the lowest electricity use. The residence hall with only the dashboard also demonstrated a significant but smaller decline in electricity use. Curiously, the residence hall wherein both interventions were used demonstrated the smallest decline in electricity use.
Practical implications
While total costs for the communications and programming are difficult to accurately assess, the results suggest that this approach is cost-effective when compared to the avoided cost of electricity and is superior in terms of electricity cost savings to both the dashboards and to the combined intervention. Results also suggest that any intervention is likely to induce a large enough electricity reduction to be cost-effective and there may be non-economic benefits as well.
Originality/value
This study takes advantage of the availability of four “matched” residence halls to approximate the rigor of a controlled quasi-experimental design to compare different strategies for inducing electricity consumption among freshman residents.
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The purpose of this chapter is to explore the phenomenon of innovation in a particular setting in Japan, and more specifically to trace a local initiative toward the creation of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this chapter is to explore the phenomenon of innovation in a particular setting in Japan, and more specifically to trace a local initiative toward the creation of an “innovation ecosystem” in a large city and its surrounding region in Western Japan, with the aim of fostering entrepreneurship and economic revitalization.
Methodology/approach
The analysis in this chapter is based on ethnographic fieldwork, including participant-observation in meetings and events held to promote entrepreneurship and collaboration in the region, as well as interviews with city officials, managers, and entrepreneurs related to the activities of the creation of the “innovation ecosystem.”
Findings
In the chapter, I show how the emergence of the ecosystem metaphor for business innovation informs practices and imaginaries in which relations, co-creation, and natural growth become central as models of and for innovation processes in a context of crisis, in ways that generate not only innovation but the ecosystem itself.
Originality/value
The chapter provides historical and social context to the metaphor of the innovation ecosystem that is receiving increasing interest globally, and provides insights into how innovation activities and the enacting of the “innovation ecosystem” take place in practice.
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This study concerned aspiring educational leaders’ problem-solving skill development, specifically through classroom instruction with real-world scenarios. Professional educators…
Abstract
This study concerned aspiring educational leaders’ problem-solving skill development, specifically through classroom instruction with real-world scenarios. Professional educators obtaining an advanced degree in educational administration at a public university were surveyed in the fall and spring about their problem-solving abilities. Participants were also asked to respond to real-world principal scenarios. Focus group interviews were conducted in the spring. Results indicated that participants’ confidence in their problem-solving abilities did improve, though their ability to address the real-world problems did not improve significantly. Participants identified the value of learning from real-world scenarios and professors who had experience as administrators, and they also recognized the importance of learning from one another during discussions of the scenarios. Participants indicated that they still needed experience working in actual administrative contexts.
Leon C. Prieto, Simone Trixie Allison Phipps and Babita Mathur-Helm
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to knowledge in the field of business by recognizing two historic entrepreneurs who played an important role in the African-American…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to knowledge in the field of business by recognizing two historic entrepreneurs who played an important role in the African-American community, and by viewing their contributions through the lens of servant leadership.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is conducted by reviewing and synthesizing a number of writings from sources, such as history journals, newspapers and other resources.
Findings
The main finding is that two former slaves (Merrick and Herndon) practiced servant leadership in the early twentieth century as a way to create jobs and transform communities.
Originality/value
The contributions made by African-Americans have not been adequately covered in the literature. This paper begins to fill a noticeable void by highlighting the contributions of two former slaves who managed to become successful servant leaders within their communities.
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Victim narratives consistent with anti-trafficking and anti-prostitution rhetoric leave little room for understanding agential labor in the sex industry, which profoundly impacts…
Abstract
Victim narratives consistent with anti-trafficking and anti-prostitution rhetoric leave little room for understanding agential labor in the sex industry, which profoundly impacts sex workers’ experiences in other domains. One such domain – academia – is often understood as antithetical to the “body work” of sex work. It is, after all, the domain of the mind. Drawing from my experiences as an undergraduate and graduate student as well as from my work as a sex worker, I use auto-ethnography to demonstrate the lasting impact of (1) mind/body dualisms, (2) the virgin/whore dichotomy, and (3) narratives of sexual danger on perceptions of legitimation and status for sex workers in academia. I also discuss implications for broader social concerns like legal policy.
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Stacey Leavitt and Carly Adams
In recent decades, significant advances have been made at both the grassroots and professional levels of women's ice hockey in North America. Yet, despite recent achievements…
Abstract
In recent decades, significant advances have been made at both the grassroots and professional levels of women's ice hockey in North America. Yet, despite recent achievements, such as the establishment of ‘professional’ leagues, and compelling narratives of progress, athletes and league organisers still face significant challenges. The barriers women face, such as reduced access to resources and opportunity, lack of legitimacy, and league instability, and a continued reliance on relationships with men's sporting leagues, such as the National Hockey League, suggest that women's ice hockey is accommodated into the game in ways that reinforce and perpetuate systems of gender, reproducing a neoliberal notion of failure. Using Halberstam's (2011) notion of failure as the place from which reform and transformation can take place, we offer a critical reading of the (re)formation of the National Women's Hockey League and the developments in women's (semi)professional ice hockey in North America.