Margy MacMillan and Allison MacKenzie
The article aims to describe challenges undergraduate students face in using scholarly articles and a workshop on reading designed to address those challenges. It seeks to present…
Abstract
Purpose
The article aims to describe challenges undergraduate students face in using scholarly articles and a workshop on reading designed to address those challenges. It seeks to present a study of senior public relations students' use, attitudes and confidence levels in using scholarly material.
Design/methodology/approach
Fourth‐year students who had participated in a reading workshop in their third year were surveyed before and after a workshop. The survey included qualitative questions on how students used scholarly articles, challenges they faced and strategies for using scholarly articles. A knowledge survey section assessed students' confidence levels in answering questions about a specific article. This section was re‐administered after the workshop.
Findings
Students use articles when they are required by assignments and/or to add authority to arguments. Students find jargon, length and mathematical aspects of articles challenging. They use a variety of strategies including summarizing, highlighting, and discussing articles with others. Some of these strategies correlated with higher knowledge survey scores.
Research limitations/implications
This was a relatively small study done on senior students in one course, but may be generalizable to students in other disciplines.
Practical implications
The study provides information on students' use of scholarly articles, and seems to indicate that instruction in techniques for reading has a beneficial effect on student attitudes and confidence levels.
Originality/value
The article provides direction for practice and research in information literacy instruction, expanding it beyond locating scholarly materials to interpreting and using them.
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To examine the trend of “witness tours” that travel to the North American Arctic to experience, document, and then advocate on behalf of environmental issues in the North. These…
Abstract
To examine the trend of “witness tours” that travel to the North American Arctic to experience, document, and then advocate on behalf of environmental issues in the North. These tours are presented as part of a colonial legacy that has long witnessed the North as a space of potential investment from the South. Especially in their reliance upon suffering as a narrative practice to justify their experience, these tours repeat patterns that reduce the agency of Northern communities and peoples to address changes they are facing. The chapter also provides best practices for such excursions and compares their approach to Northern-based expeditions that also advocate for environmental conservation and protection.
In the first part of the chapter, the history of colonialism and exploration sets the foundation for understanding the recent trend in witness tours. These tours are then examined through a discourse analysis of their narratives to highlight their connection with colonial approaches to the North. The final section of the chapter presents three necessary steps to reduce the reliance upon colonial legacies for these tours.
The witness tours examined are heavily dependent upon using their resilience of the travels to travel through harsh landscapes to make their case for caring about these landscapes. Far from being an innocent narrative strategy, this reliance upon suffering provides a level of elitism to these narratives at the same time as it reproduces colonial patterns. The chapter suggests three steps to avoid these problems: (1) Recognize the stories of people who live in the North; (2) Do not present the Arctic as a timeless wilderness landscape; and (3) Understand our limited perspective on the North as outsiders.
The chapter suggests that witness tours need to be understood within the context of a history of colonial exploration in the Arctic as well as the agency of Northern peoples to address both environmental change and colonialism.
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This paper investigates the substance of institutions in the context of business ethics. In particular, I test a theory of stakeholder attention to resource commitments by firms…
Abstract
This paper investigates the substance of institutions in the context of business ethics. In particular, I test a theory of stakeholder attention to resource commitments by firms that implement the Ethics and Compliance Officer (ECO) position, from 1990 to 2008. Results support the hypothesized curvilinear relationship between resource commitments and stakeholder attention – while both high and low levels of ECO implementation generate low levels of reported ethics transgressions (the former due to good firm behavior and the latter due to stakeholder disengagement), moderate ECO implementation produces elevated transgression reports (due to raised expectations and increased engagement). Contrary to extant theory, results are consistent across both internal and external firm stakeholder groups.
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Gillie Ruscombe-King, Laura Mackenzie, Steve Pearce and Kate Saunders
The mentalisation based therapeutic community (MBTC) is a group experience which promotes the acquisition of the capacity to mentalise. Members of the community gain greater…
Abstract
Purpose
The mentalisation based therapeutic community (MBTC) is a group experience which promotes the acquisition of the capacity to mentalise. Members of the community gain greater emotional stability and psychological robustness. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
MBTC works with three theoretical principles: the intrapsychic, interpersonal and social. It is a slow open group where each member completes a ten-week course. The approach is deliberately non-interpretive with an emphasis on personal responsibility and accountability in order to promote clarity of mind.
Findings
The authors’ experience is that the model engages group members with few drop outs.
Originality/value
The combination of mentalising and the use of therapeutic community principles within in MBTC has enhanced outcomes for group members.
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Allison Starks and Stephanie Michelle Reich
This study aims to explore children’s cognitions about data flows online and their understandings of algorithms, often referred to as algorithmic literacy or algorithmic folk…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore children’s cognitions about data flows online and their understandings of algorithms, often referred to as algorithmic literacy or algorithmic folk theories, in their everyday uses of social media and YouTube. The authors focused on children ages 8 to 11, as these are the ages when most youth acquire their own device and use social media and YouTube, despite platform age requirements.
Design/methodology/approach
Nine focus groups with 34 socioeconomically, racially and ethnically diverse children (8–11 years) were conducted in California. Groups discussed data flows online, digital privacy, algorithms and personalization across platforms.
Findings
Children had several misconceptions about privacy risks, privacy policies, what kinds of data are collected about them online and how algorithms work. Older children had more complex and partially accurate theories about how algorithms determine the content they see online, compared to younger children. All children were using YouTube and/or social media despite age gates and children used few strategies to manage the flow of their personal information online.
Practical implications
The paper includes implications for digital and algorithmic literacy efforts, improving the design of privacy consent practices and user controls, and regulation for protecting children’s privacy online.
Originality/value
Research has yet to explore what socioeconomically, racially and ethnically diverse children understand about datafication and algorithms online, especially in middle childhood.
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Kristin Stewart, Matt Kammer-Kerwick, Allison Auchter, Hyeseung Elizabeth Koh, Mary Elizabeth Dunn and Isabella Cunningham
Marketers are increasing their use of digital strategies and prioritizing digital tactics, although the effectiveness digital video advertising (DVA) has not been examined…
Abstract
Purpose
Marketers are increasing their use of digital strategies and prioritizing digital tactics, although the effectiveness digital video advertising (DVA) has not been examined empirically. The purpose of this research is to suggest that it is useful for advertisers to consider theories of the past to understand the link between product, advertising format and message processing.
Design/methodology/approach
To examine DVA effectiveness, this study utilized a 2-product type (utilitarian vs hedonic) × 2-product involvement (low vs high) x 2-platform (laptop vs mobile) mixed-design. Participants were recruited from a research company, who invited members of their panel to participate in an online experiment.
Findings
DVA for hedonic products resulted in stronger attitudes toward the ad and brand, and intentions to purchase. DVA for low involvement products resulted in stronger purchase intentions and likelihood to opt-in for more information. Moreover, there was an interaction between product category and involvement across all five measures of DVA effectiveness.
Research limitations/implications
Like TV commercials, DVA is more effective when used with low involvement, hedonic products than with high involvement, utilitarian products. Additionally, the device on which the advertisement is viewed impacts the effectiveness of DVA.
Practical implications
Companies promoting high-involvement utilitarian products may consider alternative advertising strategies (e.g. MDAs, apps, websites and advergames), as DVA may not be the most effective ad format.
Originality/value
As technology continues to develop and marketers continue to pursue growing numbers of consumers through digital means and on mobile devices, understanding how device type influences advertising effectiveness is important for media strategy, message placement and marketing metrics. This research takes one step in that direction.
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Robert VanWynsberghe and Caitlin Pentifallo
This chapter coins the term Development through Mega-Events (DME) in order to propose a next step for developing social legacies in accordance with the principle of social…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter coins the term Development through Mega-Events (DME) in order to propose a next step for developing social legacies in accordance with the principle of social development.
Design/methodology/approach
This chapter’s argument for DME is developed using quantitative, indicator-based data from the Olympic Games Impact (OGI) study as well as relevant literature from the sub-fields of Sport for Development and Peace and Sport Mega-Events.
Findings
We discuss the absence of a baseline understanding of the properties of sport mega-events. Also absent are progressive efforts to achieve sustainability by means other than competition among prospective bidders. We recommend that hosts tie social legacies to public policy objectives that are concomitant with the properties of the sport mega-events. Retrospectively applied, OGI data from 2010 reveals social inclusion as one potential social legacy that reflects the nature of the Olympics and the policy realm in the host region.
Originality/value
This chapter is original work. It would be of interest to potential host communities, policymakers, and researchers.
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Katherine C. Cotter and Rebecca J. Reichard
The ability to effectively engage in cross-cultural interactions is imperative for leaders in our increasingly globalized world. Those who possess certain key psychological…
Abstract
The ability to effectively engage in cross-cultural interactions is imperative for leaders in our increasingly globalized world. Those who possess certain key psychological resources are more likely to engage in cross-cultural interactions successfully. Psychological resources include cross-cultural hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism, which together comprise cross-cultural psychological capital (CC PsyCap). Previous research has indicated that CC PsyCap predicts cultural competence, yet the pathways underlying this relationship remain unexplored. We examined the relationships among CC PsyCap, engagement in cross-cultural interactions, stress during cross-cultural interactions, and cultural competence. The hypothesized relationships were tested using a sample of 135 undergraduate students (76% female) participating in study abroad programs. Participants completed measures of cultural competence, CC PsyCap, engagement, and stress approximately one month into their study abroad. Structural equation modeling analyses indicate that CC PsyCap and stress influence cultural competence directly and indirectly through engagement level during cross-cultural interactions. Furthermore, the results suggest that CC PsyCap indirectly influences engagement through stress during cross-cultural interactions. We discuss the implications of these results for people preparing to enter cross-cultural environments.
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Karl Aschenbrücker and Tobias Kretschmer
The authors examine how firms can achieve organizational ambidexterity, that is, how they can successfully engage in concurrent exploitation of existing competencies and…
Abstract
The authors examine how firms can achieve organizational ambidexterity, that is, how they can successfully engage in concurrent exploitation of existing competencies and exploration of new competencies in their search for new products. Existing research has identified three enablers to manage these fundamentally different activities: temporal separation, structural separation, and the creation of context. Studying the strategic orientation, organization design, and performance of a unique sample of mid-sized German manufacturing firms, the authors find that the controlled interplay of decentralized decision making and formalized processes and goals is another effective means to manage the challenges of pursuing an innovation strategy balancing both exploitative and exploratory activities. The findings of this study suggest that this balanced control constitutes a fourth enabler of ambidexterity.
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William W. Stammerjohan, Maria A. Leach and Claire Allison Stammerjohan
This study extends the budgetary participation–performance/cultural effects literature by isolating and examining the moderating effect of one cultural dimension, power distance…
Abstract
Purpose
This study extends the budgetary participation–performance/cultural effects literature by isolating and examining the moderating effect of one cultural dimension, power distance, on the budgetary participation–performance relationship. Isolating the impact of power distance is important to this literature because of the fact that participative budgeting remains a possibly underutilized management tool in high power distance countries.
Methodology/approach
We regroup our multinational sample of managers by power distance level, and employ multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM) and a set of nonparametric bootstrap tests to triangulate our findings.
Findings
We find that the majority of our managers from three high power distance countries (Mexico, Korea, and China) score in the lower half of the power distance scale, that there is significant correlation between participation and performance in both the high and low power distance subsamples, but that the mechanisms connecting participation to performance are quite different. While job satisfaction plays a role in connecting budgetary participation and performance among low power distance managers, job relevant information alone connects budgetary participation and performance among their high power distance counterparts.
Originality/value
The primary contribution of our work is that we not only demonstrate that budget participation can improve the performance of subordinate managers in high power distance cultures, but also provide evidence of how and why this is plausible. First managers may not share the same high power distance tendencies of their countrymen, and second, the communication aspect of budget participation appears to be more important for increased performance among those with high power distance tendencies.