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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Jillian Alderman, Joetta Forsyth, Charla Griffy-Brown and Richard Walton
This study explores the relationship between US public firms’ dividend policies and CEO selection. Specifically, we examine the association between successor CEOs’ prior…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the relationship between US public firms’ dividend policies and CEO selection. Specifically, we examine the association between successor CEOs’ prior employment and firms’ payout policies around CEO turnover events.
Design/methodology/approach
Using Execucomp, we identify a sample of 1,021 S&P 1500 firms with CEO turnover events occurring from 2010 to 2016. We categorize successor CEOs by their prior position as a public insider (hired internally from the public firm), public outsider (hired from a different public firm) or private outsider (hired from a private firm). We investigate dividend policies around CEO turnovers using differences-in-means and probit analyses.
Findings
Firms that hired private CEOs were 11.0% less likely to have paid a dividend in the year prior to the CEO turnover. However, those firms that had paid a dividend in the prior year were 5.4% more likely to subsequently drop their dividend. This finding supports a distinct effect that is related to the successor CEOs’ prior experience managing private firms, rather than an “outsider” effect: payout policies of firms that hired public outsiders were no different from those that hired public insiders.
Originality/value
We show that public firms that hire private CEOs tend to have dividend policies similar to those of private firms. This evidence suggests that human capital developed at private firms is applied when CEOs transfer to public firms. We show that outsiders from public firms behave differently from outsiders from private firms, and we are the first to measure the frequency of each kind of CEO successor: public insiders, public outsiders and private outsiders. These findings suggest a method to indirectly study private firms using more readily available data from public firms led by private CEOs.
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Charla Chebl and Maroun El Rayess
This research paper aims to present a specific outline of the library decision makers’ perceptions and the hiring patterns and acceptability of online library science degree…
Abstract
Purpose
This research paper aims to present a specific outline of the library decision makers’ perceptions and the hiring patterns and acceptability of online library science degree holders in academic libraries across the Arab world. It also investigates whether such degrees compare favorably with traditional degrees or not.
Design/methodology/approach
This study data were collected using an online questionnaire, which was sent out to 74 library managers in academic libraries across the Arab world. The libraries were selected from the QS stars Worldwide University Ranking for the Arab Region 2015, which ranks the Arab world’s top 100 universities.
Findings
The findings reveal no significant relationship between the hiring decision of library managers and the degree type, whether earned through traditional education or online. The analysis notes different factors influencing the hiring practices and acceptability of online library science degree holders, the most influential factors being candidate skills, accreditation of programs and candidate experiences.
Originality/value
To date, no study has investigated whether employers in academic libraries across the Arab world perceive online library science graduate degrees “less than” or “equal to” those obtained through traditional education. This study will contribute to the literature on the acceptance of online degrees in general and in the library science field in particular. The study is a significant contribution to knowledge for students, job seekers and employers alike.
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Maroun El Rayess, Charla Chebl, Joseph Mhanna and Re-Mi Hage
The purpose of this paper is to provide library professionals with insights into students’ fake news judgment and the importance of teaching media and information literacy, not as…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide library professionals with insights into students’ fake news judgment and the importance of teaching media and information literacy, not as an option but as a core educational requirement.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualtrics was used to collect the study data. Students completed a set of tasks designed in the form of a survey that entailed verifying whether news, stories, images and news sources were real, fake, dubious or trustworthy. Statistical tests were used to asses whether their responses depended on criteria, such as faculty and gender.
Findings
No significant relationship exists between the students’ responses and variables, such as gender, student category, fact-checking and source of information. The findings reveal that students’ ability to identify the authoritativeness of information is dependent on the faculty in which they are enrolled.
Originality/value
This paper reports the first known attempt in Lebanon to measure students’ ability in distinguishing fake from real news. The results of this paper can be used by library professionals, particularly in Lebanon, to convey the importance of teaching and embedding media and information literacy into their curriculum.
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Collette Mak, Margaret Ellingson and Charla Lancaster
This paper aims to describe how data were used to design and evaluate new services at Notre Dame and how data were used to evaluate changes in user behavior at Emory University…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe how data were used to design and evaluate new services at Notre Dame and how data were used to evaluate changes in user behavior at Emory University.
Design/methodology/approach
Each library (Emory, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Notre Dame) describe sources, methods and applications of data, gathered through a variety of sources to plan and evaluate new services and user satisfaction.
Findings
There is no one perfect approach to data-informed decision making; every approach has advantages, costs and disadvantages. What is important is that resource sharing practitioners become comfortable with a variety of assessment tools.
Originality/value
The user experience is increasingly recognized as a critical part of any service or library product but most resource sharing practitioners have little to no background in assessment and statistics. This article provides an introduction to methods, sources and applications of data specifically applied to interlibrary loans.
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Abstract
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Jill Mosteller and Charla Mathwick
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of a retailer-managed ranking system on product reviewers’ well-being and its relationship to customer engagement.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of a retailer-managed ranking system on product reviewers’ well-being and its relationship to customer engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
Content analysis of reviewers’ posts, generated over a six-month period following a critical incident involving a change in the reviewer ranking system, informs findings.
Findings
Fulfilling needs for social relatedness, competency and autonomy may be critical aspects that underlie reviewer engagement. Findings explain how organic and hierarchical reviewing platform design elements may support or thwart psychological need fulfillment. Reviewers expressed positive well-being when system elements facilitated organic interactions between consumers and reviewers, fulfilling social relatedness and competency needs. Hierarchical design elements elicited mixed well-being sentiments. When reviewers used rank as a feedback mechanism to signal competency development, positive well-being emerged, whereas ranking features perceived as lacking in integrity or reducing one’s autonomy, evoked negative sentiments. A stimulus-organism-response framework, grounded in environmental psychology, provides the basis for the online reviewer engagement model. This study deepens understanding of online customer engagement by illustrating how a ranking system and social elements influence well-being and motive fulfilment, key psychological processes associated with engagement.
Research limitations/implications
Highly engaged reviewers on one community platform inform findings, so results are not representative of all reviewers, but are relevant for conceptual purposes concerning critical incidents.
Practical implications
Findings have implications for the design of recognition platforms created to support customer engagement in online reviewing communities.
Social implications
Public ranking systems designed to recognize and reward reviewers can enhance as well as degrade consumer well-being within an online service environment.
Originality/value
First empirical work to examine the value of consumer well-being as it relates to engagement within an online reviewing service context.
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The paper provides a speculative reflection on the power of modern science, technology and innovation systems (STI) for revealing some distinctive style of modernity in Africa…
Abstract
The paper provides a speculative reflection on the power of modern science, technology and innovation systems (STI) for revealing some distinctive style of modernity in Africa. The modernization of these systems, as the backbones of any mode of modernity, also requires the modernization of our mental or intellectual costumes. This process is essentially the passage from closed, selfconfirming, faith‐based, customary, totalizing or terrorizing knowledge systems to essentially falsifiable, evidence‐based, scientifically‐established and technicallyproven innovative knowledge systems. In these systems scientific knowledge can be construed as a theory of the real and as a technology of truth and understood as the epistemological foundation of any form of Afro‐modernity. It is also the passage from the ‘Book of Scripture’ to the ‘Book of Nature’ or from the submission to the white man’s colonizing gods to the more authentic and genuine African identities, beliefs and values, such as those embodied in the concept of ubuntu. The paper discusses a possible way forward in terms of capacity development in STI in Africa with an emphasis on some observed weaknesses regarding fundamental long term neglected issues. It provides some ideas for filling gaps in the context of the call by a number of African thinkers, including the Executive Secretary of UNECA, for initiating a ‘scientific revolution’ on the African continent.
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FOR SOME YEARS there has been a tendency for the number of industrial workers to decline and that of clerical staffs to increase.