Search results

Though production rates for construction materials are generally available, potential capacity on a global scale is poorly understood. Commencement of infrastructure projects to address climate change, such as dikes and levees, could increase demand making critical resources scarce. Since increasing production capacity of scarce products can be a challenge, understanding current potential capacity is an imperative. The purpose of this paper is to develop a new method to assess capacity and to create one such global estimate for cement.

The proposed global hybrid method creates a global estimate of cement production capacity in four steps: collect capacity and production data from existing reports; select top regional capacity holders; compute regional utilisation; back‐calculate capacity from production.

The method overcomes shortfalls of other methods, but – like all estimating methods – is inherently limited by the amount of data available. It nonetheless provides economists, climate change scientists, government officials, investors, and other researchers a better understanding of current maximum global cement capacity.

Most studies only focus on industry demand and actual production, because these forces drive commodity pricing. Capacity is generally estimated either through surveying goods‐producing industries at the plant level or examining economic data. Methods that employ these types of analysis are useful for regional estimates of production, but are ineffective at the global scale.

The purpose of this article is to suggest that doctoral student socialization is a gendered process.

This article uses a qualitative case study methodology, studying engineering students in one university department.

The author considers how various norms and practices, including competition and hierarchy along with overt objectification of women, point to the masculine nature of the discipline.

Although stage models of socialization are helpful in that they provide an outline of students’ various tasks as they progress through their doctoral programs, they can account neither for the culture of disciplines nor for the identities of students who populate them. The author suggests that students in engineering are prepared to embrace competition and hierarchy, norms that point to a gendered disciplinary culture. Although, certainly, particular interests will lead students to pursue different majors, the discipline serves to reinforce culture.

The purpose of this study was to assess the suitability of micro-computed tomography as a non-destructive method to investigate the morphology of nylon 12 parts produced by high-speed sintering (HSS). The investigation of the effect of changes in the lamp power on the properties of the fabricated parts was another purpose of this study.

Nylon 12 parts were manufactured using HSS with various lamp powers. Morphological properties of the parts were measured using micro-computed tomography. Ultimate tensile strength, elongation at break and Young’s modulus of the prepared parts were determined and compared. The effect of lamp power on the properties of the parts was then studied.

This paper proposes micro-computed tomography as a suitable technique to study the 3D structure of the parts produced by HSS. The effects of lamp power on the properties of the produced parts were also discussed.

The findings could result in an improvement in customisation of the parts for various applications through varying the lamp power. The level of lamp power could be tailored to obtain suitable part properties for a target application.

This study strengthens the fact that HSS is a promising additive manufacturing technique to produce nylon 12 parts, and the properties of the parts could be maximised using a suitable level of lamp power. The results showed that micro-computed tomography could be used as an efficient technique to investigate the morphology of the sintered parts.

The debate on human resource (HR) outsourcing is polarised. HR outsourcing is seen as an opportunity for the HR function by some and as a threat by others. The first view suggests that HR outsourcing is an instrument creating time for HR to become a strategic partner. The second view considers HR outsourcing as a cost‐cutting instrument gradually reducing HR staff. The purpose of this study is to examine whether HR outsourcing is a manifestation of a strategic HR focus, a cost‐cutting HR focus or both.

The sample is obtained from an economy‐wide, cross‐sectional survey. The data cover 1,264 organisations with ten employees or more.

Results indicate that organisations with a strong focus on HR cost‐cutting do not outsource more than organisations with a weaker focus on HR cost‐cutting. The analyses show a positive relationship between a strong focus on strategic human resource management (HRM) and the level of HR outsourcing.

First, this study examines the breadth of HR outsourcing. Further research might consider the depth of HR outsourcing. Second, as results are based on cross‐sectional data we cannot draw causal inferences. Finally, future research might focus on the impact of HR outsourcing on the organisation of the HR function and internal HR customer satisfaction.

HR outsourcing empowers the HR department. It frees up HR professionals to focus on strategic HRM.

HR outsourcing has been heavily debated. Yet, empirical research into the impact on the HR function is extremely limited. This study helps to fill this gap.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the contribution offered by Wolff’s sociology of knowledge to organizational ethnography and to enrich the lexicon of practice-based studies with the concept of surrender-and-catch.

Drawing on Wolff’s writing, the surrender-and-catch perspective is introduced and how to be inspired by it is illustrated in relation to three working practices.

The centrality of the body and of sensible knowledge for doing ethnographies of working practices is affirmed and the surrender-and-catch perspective is interpreted as an art of seeing connections.

Surrender-to may be included in the methodology for studying knowing-in-practice and it may help students to get prepared to conduct an organizational ethnography.

A contribution to frame the legacy of a sociologist of knowledge little known in organization studies. Its contribution stresses the importance of a plurality of forms of knowing alongside the rational-analytic one. Therefore Kurt Wolff’s work becomes relevant within the practice-based studies.

Modelling has been a mainstay of conventional planning support tools (PSTs) since the 1960s and is instrumental in transport and land use planning decision-making. Numerous studies have been conducted to model the potential impacts of emerging vehicle automation and sharing technologies. A systematic review of recent modelling studies of autonomous and shared vehicles in the research literature examines the extent of their contribution to ‘smart’ mobility knowledge. The findings suggest a limited knowledge base from which to support future planning. PSTs that can offer more pluralistic, discursive, and transparent methods in order to understand and proactively shape a transition to a planned urban future are also needed.

This study aims to explore the construct validity and the sensitivity of a patient satisfaction questionnaire for the purpose of gaining a better understanding of the concept, and of issues surrounding its measurements.

Several statistical analyses were used to study the reliability, construct validity, and the sensitivity of a patient satisfaction questionnaire.

The study supported the construct validity, high internal consistency, and homogeneity of the instrument. Two factors were found; one consisted of negatively worded items and the other of positively worded items. The negatively worded items contributed more than the positively worded items to the sensitivity of the instrument. Items were identified that contribute little or nothing to the construct validity and/or the sensitivity of the questionnaire.

The effect of wording on the variability and sensitivity of the instrument can be explained both as a consequence of response set bias and with regard to the theories against which two phenomena were being measured – patient satisfaction and patient dissatisfaction. The development of two kinds of instruments is proposed: those that measure patient dissatisfaction and are sensitive to minute changes in nursing care and those that measure both concepts and capture what patients find important in their care.

The paper demonstrates how an analysis of the construct validity and the sensitivity of patient satisfaction instrument, can enhance understanding of the concept. It contributes to the debate about whether patient satisfaction and dissatisfaction are opposite ends of the same continuum or two different phenomena that require two different definitions.

Corporate-NGO partnerships are gaining increasing importance as part of a company's CSR effort. This study aims to understand which communication tactics (CSR motive, CSR message frame, CSR fit) lead to more positive consumer outcomes in the context of corporate-NGO partnerships, and whether consumer skepticism and consumer trust mediate the proposed relationships.

An online experiment was conducted (N = 298) to examine the theoretical predictions, involving a 2 (CSR motive: firm-serving/public-serving) x 2 (CSR message frame: narrative/expositive) x 2 (CSR fit: high/low) between-subjects design.

The results confirmed that consumer attitudes and electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) can be affected by CSR motives and CSR fit. Also, CSR skepticism and consumer trust both mediate the relationship of CSR motives and consumer outcomes.

The results of this study make a strong case for expressing public-serving CSR motives and refraining from firm-serving CSR motives when communicating about a corporate-NGO partnership to consumers.

Focusing on the communication tactics of corporate-NGO partnerships extends existing literature by uncovering whether and how the factors driving effective communication in other CSR activities can be applied to the context of corporate-NGO partnerships.