To understand the factors encouraging growth in two social enterprises involved in recycling based in London, UK, and how these can be interpreted and understood in terms of…
Abstract
Purpose
To understand the factors encouraging growth in two social enterprises involved in recycling based in London, UK, and how these can be interpreted and understood in terms of “managerialist” concepts.
Design/methodology/approach
The study aimed to understand how particular aspects of social enterprise literature relate to practice on the ground, and to gain a clearer picture of the diversity, complexity and contested ideas that coexist within the social enterprise sector. Focuses on the experience of two social enterprises based in London: ReBoot, a project set up by Bootstrap Enterprises, a social enterprise based in Hackney for the recycling of computers donated from individuals and organizations; and Green‐Works, a social enterprise for preventing large volumes of office furniture from going to landfill. Explains that the research comprised two parts: an extensive literature review to provide background theory and context; and the use of semi‐structured interviews with the selected organizations to gain qualitative data for comparison.
Findings
The results provided broad indications relating to the ideas and conflicts existing within and between social enterprises across such broad themes as “growth”, public and private origins, market orientation and long‐term sustainability. Concludes that the research highlights the diversity of social enterprises in terms of their objectives, structures, operations and long‐term visions, while demonstrating the great differences between the two enterprises despite their seeming similarity on the surface.
Originality/value
Challenges the frequently over‐simplified generalizations and assumptions that are applied to social enterprises.
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1972 saw the bicentenary of the only librarian to have been buried in Westminster Abbey. He lies close to Samuel Johnson in Poets' Corner, the words ‘Translator of Dante’ on his…
The offence of arson is examined within a very brief cultural and historical context; reference is made to the law and the size of the problem in the UK and elsewhere. Some…
Abstract
The offence of arson is examined within a very brief cultural and historical context; reference is made to the law and the size of the problem in the UK and elsewhere. Some typologies are put forward and proffered for improving understanding and management.
Kaisu Koivumäki and Clare Wilkinson
This paper reports on research exploring the intersections between researchers and communication professionals' perspectives on the objectives, funders and organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper reports on research exploring the intersections between researchers and communication professionals' perspectives on the objectives, funders and organizational influences on their science communication practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Examining one context, the inter-organizational BCDC Energy Research project based at five different research organizations in Finland, this paper presents data from semi-structured interviews with 17 researchers and 15 communication professionals.
Findings
The results suggest that performance-based funding policies that drive the proliferation of large-scale research projects can create challenges. In particular, a challenge arises in generating a shared sense of identity and purpose amongst researchers and communication professionals. This may have unintended negative impacts on the quality and cohesiveness of the science communication which occurs.
Research limitations/implications
The study was exploratory in nature and focuses on one organizational and institutional environment. Further research with a wider number of projects, as well as funders, would be conducive to a greater understanding of the issues involved.
Practical implications
On a practical level, this research suggests that the creation of clearer communications awareness and guidance may be helpful in some large-scale projects, particularly involving broad numbers of organizations, individual researchers and funders.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies examining the perspectives of both researchers and communication professionals working over one project, drawing together a range of different institutional and disciplinary perspectives. The results highlight the importance of the influences of funding on science communication aims, assumptions, cultures and structures. The article articulates the need for further research in this area.
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In 1984–85, Reference Services Review published a series of review articles on field guides for wildflowers (Potts), birds (Klaas), trees (Kinch), and insects (Chiang). A glance…
Abstract
In 1984–85, Reference Services Review published a series of review articles on field guides for wildflowers (Potts), birds (Klaas), trees (Kinch), and insects (Chiang). A glance at Books in Print indicates the number of new field guides appearing since that time. Rather than evaluate a new crop of highly focused field guides, the present essay examines a related kind of nature guide, the nature‐study manual. For the purposes of this essay, the nature‐study manual is defined as a guide that encourages investigation of the natural world, rather than offering facts and identifications. To be a nature‐study manual, a book must offer tools and techniques for identification (often through field guides), observation, recordkeeping, and often collection of specimens and experimentation. Books of narrative natural history and essays on a particular observer's experiences are thus excluded. The nature‐study manual's unique role is to instruct readers in how to observe and study nature for themselves, whether close to home or in far‐flung regions.
Although increasing emphasis is placed on the provision of research training for doctoral students, much of the support currently available is generic in nature, rather than…
Abstract
Although increasing emphasis is placed on the provision of research training for doctoral students, much of the support currently available is generic in nature, rather than tailored to the student’s particular field(s) of study. In this paper, I briefly review UK graduate education for arts and humanities research students, and some of the ways in which the distinctive demands of their discipline(s) shape the research student experience and hence their development needs. I describe the design and delivery of a pilot programme of discipline‐specific research skills development, co‐ordinated by the Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies, which aims to address such needs; and I evaluate its success. I conclude with some recommendations for future practice; in particular, I argue that doctoral training provision is more effective when it involves a subject‐specific approach in which practising academics from the discipline(s) play a significant role – both in terms of fostering an improved level of student engagement with the programme, and of delivering training and development opportunities which are tailored to the student’s particular context and needs.
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The main purpose of this paper is to examine the empirical status of corporate universities (CUs) in China. An a priori CU framework was employed in an attempt to describe the key…
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of this paper is to examine the empirical status of corporate universities (CUs) in China. An a priori CU framework was employed in an attempt to describe the key functions that an ideal type of CU in China should perform.
Design/methodology/approach
Three case studies were conducted to test the relevance of this framework across the three major forms of ownership in China: a Sino‐foreign joint venture (JV); a wholly owned foreign subsidiary corporation (WOFE); and a state‐owned enterprise (SOE).
Findings
It was found that both of the CU case organizations with foreign investment fulfilled the functions outlined in the a priori CU framework. However, certain sub‐processes were either missing or nebulous in the case of the SOE. Certain pre‐conditions must be present before the framework could be fully applied.
Practical implications
A successful CU requires continuous learning and self‐reflection. With greater understanding of the CU practices and development in China, it will help both organizational decision makers and educational providers to evaluate their responses towards what is clearly a growing phenomenon.
Originality/value
The a priori CU framework encompassed the unique characteristics of CUs in China, providing the direction upon which subsequent research efforts could be expended.
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The recent development of the European debt sovereign crisis showed that sovereign debt is not “risk free.” The traditional index bond management used during the last two decades…
Abstract
Introduction
The recent development of the European debt sovereign crisis showed that sovereign debt is not “risk free.” The traditional index bond management used during the last two decades such as the market-capitalization weighting scheme has been severely called into question. In order to overcome these drawbacks, alternative weighting schemes have recently prompted attention, both from academic researchers and from market practitioners. One of the key developments was the introduction of passive funds using economic fundamental indicators.
Purpose
In this chapter, the authors introduced models with economic drivers with an aim of investigating whether the fundamental approaches outperformed the other models on risk-adjusted returns and on other terms.
Methodology
The authors did this by constructing five portfolios composed of the Eurozone sovereigns bonds. The models are the Market-Capitalization RP, GDP model RP, Ratings RP model, Fundamental-Ranking RP, and Fundamental-Weighted RP models. These models were created exclusively for this chapter. Both Fundamental models are using a range of 10 country fundamentals. A variation from other studies is that this dissertation applied the risk parity concept which is an allocation technique that aims to equalize risk across different assets. This concept has been applied by assuming the credit default swap as proxy for sovereign credit risk. The models were run using the Generalized Reduced Gradient (GRG) method as the optimization model, together with the Lagrange Multipliers as techniques and the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions. This led to the comparison of all the models mentioned above in terms of performance, risk-adjusted returns, concentration, and weighted average ratings.
Findings
By analyzing the whole period between 2006 and 2014, it was found that both the fundamental models gave very appealing results in terms of risk-adjusted returns. The best results were returned by the Fundamental-Ranking RP model followed by the Fundamental-Weighting RP model. However, better results for the mixed performance and risk-adjusted returns were achieved on a yearly basis and when sub-dividing the whole period in three equal periods. Moreover, the authors concluded that over the long term, the fundamental bond indexing triumphed over the other approaches by offering superior return and risk characteristics. Thus, one can use the fundamental indexation as an alternative to other traditional models.
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Abstract
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A strong definition of aboutness and a theory of its role in information retrieval systems have not been developed. Such a definition and theory may be extracted from the work of…
Abstract
A strong definition of aboutness and a theory of its role in information retrieval systems have not been developed. Such a definition and theory may be extracted from the work of T. A. van Dijk. This paper discusses some of the implications of van Dijk's work for bibliographic classification theory. Two kinds of intertextuality are identified: that between documents classified in the same class of the same classification system; and that between the classification system as a text in its own right and the documents that are classified by it. Consideration of the two kinds of intertextuality leads to an investigation of the linguistic/cognitive processes that have been called the ‘translation’ of a document topic into a classificatory language. A descriptive model of the cognitive process of classifying documents is presented. The general design of an empirical study to test this model is suggested, and some problems of implementing such a study are briefly identified. It is concluded that further investigation of the relationships between text linguistics and classification theory and practice might reveal other fruitful intersections between the two fields.