The purpose of this paper is to describe how and why Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) has developed a system aiming to effectively place students in freshman and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe how and why Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) has developed a system aiming to effectively place students in freshman and developmental English programs. The placement system includes: triangulating data from external test scores, with scores from a panel‐marked hand‐written essay (HWE), written at the University under proctored conditions, and also data from a range of computer based tests, including a computer assessed essay. This is discussed within the broader context of placement testing in general.
Design/methodology/approach
Notes on the evolving process have been kept for the last three years, and this case study is written by a “placement evaluator”, using these notes as a starting point.
Findings
TAMUQ has found an integrated approach to placement testing to be effective.
Originality/value
The number of institutions integrating internal and external testing for placement is growing. TAMUQ's perspective may be of value to many academic institutions. The paper outlines the types of assessments used at TAMUQ in order to appropriately place students in classes. It describes the strengths and shortcomings of both external test data and placement software, and argues that relying on either alone (or in conjunction) to decide starting points for students in English programs is a flawed approach. The need for integrating authentic HWE samples and opinion from English faculty is discussed.
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Clifford P. McCue, Eric Prier and Ryan J. Lofaro
The purpose of this study is to analyze year-end spending practices in the European Economic Area (EEA) to baseline the pervasiveness of year-end spending spikes across countries…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to analyze year-end spending practices in the European Economic Area (EEA) to baseline the pervasiveness of year-end spending spikes across countries in Europe.
Design/methodology/approach
The Tenders Electronic Daily dataset is used to descriptively analyze above-threshold procurement contracts by country, year and contract type from 2009 to 2018. Proportional distributions are employed to compare percentages of spend across quarters. Analyses are run within each country on the number of years displaying a fourth quarter spike, as well as within each country and contract type.
Findings
The results show that while spending spikes for above-threshold contracts in the final fiscal quarter are not consistent across all countries, patterns emerge when the data are disaggregated by country. The most populous nations in the EEA are more likely to have years with the highest proportion of fiscal spend occurring in the fourth quarter. Further, the type of contract makes a difference – services and supplies contracts are more likely to display fourth quarter spikes than works contracts.
Originality/value
This article provides the first analysis of the year-end spending spike across countries in Europe using procurement data, as well as the first to disaggregate by year and contract type. Findings support the literature on the presence of year-end spikes; such spikes exist even for above-threshold public procurement contracts.
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Candice R. Hollenbeck and Vanessa M. Patrick
The health industry is rapidly adopting digital services and face-to-face offerings are being replaced by e-services. One example is peer-to-peer survivor networks for cancer…
Abstract
Purpose
The health industry is rapidly adopting digital services and face-to-face offerings are being replaced by e-services. One example is peer-to-peer survivor networks for cancer patients. This study investigates the virtual exchanges in survivor networks and whether these exchanges are valued for economic, symbolic, or expressive worth. The research seeks to address whether the alleviation of loneliness is possible.
Methodology/approach
The qualitative work in this study utilizes netnographic explorations and in-depth interviews with cancer survivors, average age 62, to investigate the social exchange continuum in peer-to-peer online patient survivor networks.
Findings
This study shows that technological innovations can aid survivorship when the exchanges are meaningful. Meaningful interactions within gift systems are valued for expressive worth and are established upon the notion of selfless gifts where the giver expects nothing in return. For networks to operate via expressiveness, informants must be open and vulnerable to others. Findings show that biographical narratives are useful tools for creating an expressive environment and givers become more giving after engaging in selfless acts. The intangibility and immaterial nature of virtual gifts creates a collective identity and fosters an aggregate extended self.
Social implications
Implications emphasize the need among survivors of trauma to connect with others. Digital technologies allow connections on a global scale, so survivors can find others with similar needs. Peer-to-peer networks provide a way for survivors to meet, interact with, and extend their aggregate selves through other survivors, while experiencing a transcendent sense that they are part of something bigger than self alone.
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Ahmed Abdelnaby Ahmed Diab and Abdelmoneim Bahyeldin Mohamed Metwally
The purpose of this study is to investigate in depth how an organisation is able to achieve its economic objectives in a situation of institutional complexity through being…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate in depth how an organisation is able to achieve its economic objectives in a situation of institutional complexity through being institutionally dexterous. The study also investigates how this is done through overriding formal controls and concentrating on socio-political and communal-based controls.
Design/methodology/approach
Theoretically, the study draws on the perspectives of institutional complexity and ambidexterity to link higher-order institutions with mundane labour control practices observed at the micro level of the case company. Methodologically, the study adopts an interpretive – case study – approach. Empirical data were solicited in an Egyptian village community, where sugar beet farming and processing constitutes the main economic activity underlying its livelihood. Data were collected through a triangulation of interviews, documents and observations.
Findings
The study concludes that, especially in socio-political contexts such as Egypt, the organisational environment can better be understood and perceived as institutionally complex situation. To manage such complexity and to effectively meet its economic objectives, the organisation needs to be institutionally dextrous. Thereby, this study presents an inclusive view of management control (MC) which is based not only on rational economic practices, but also on social, religious and political aspects that are central to this institutional environment.
Originality/value
The study contributes to MC and logics literature in a number of respects. It extends the institutional logics debate by illustrating that logics get re-institutionalised by the “place” through its cultural, political and communal identities that filter logics’ complexities to different ends. Further, it extends the cultural political economy of MC by illustrating that MC in socio-political settings is also an operational manifestation of the logics prevailing in the context. These logics produced an informal MC system that dominated the formal known MCs.
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The purpose of this study is to make strategic recommendations that benefit under-represented entrepreneurship (UE).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to make strategic recommendations that benefit under-represented entrepreneurship (UE).
Design/methodology/approach
The approach toward suggesting the proposed strategic recommendations is conceptual in nature. Blumberg’s theory of nested level of resource structure and McPherson’s theory of homophily will be invoked.
Findings
Under-represented entrepreneurship would benefit from initiating key resource identification and acquisition at a meso-level, i.e. within one’s own community in the first place and engaging in community-based collaborative and collective entrepreneurship.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed strategies have not been validated empirically.
Originality/value
The beneficial effects of implementing these strategies for UE will be felt in stages. First, communities will emerge as entrepreneurial as a whole. Subsequently, societal-level attribution of these communities as “entrepreneurial communities” will occur providing the necessary visibility and acceptance they would need to participate, contribute and get blended with more traditional entrepreneurship without distinction or prejudice.
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Institutions are built upon language. Although we have a number of linguistic perspectives already in our arsenal, this chapter seeks to convince you of our need for just one…
Abstract
Institutions are built upon language. Although we have a number of linguistic perspectives already in our arsenal, this chapter seeks to convince you of our need for just one more. The primary claim is that because the structure of arguments uniquely maps onto the latent structure of institutions, the use of arguments in institutional analysis may help us gain more traction on three important topics – the nature taken-for-grantedness, the macro-micro divide, and the political dynamics of institutions. This chapter thus offers a starting point for how to use an argumentation perspective when studying institutions.
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Darren C. Treadway, Emily D. Campion and Lisa V. Williams
In a world that glorifies power, the lives of the powerless serve as context for testimonies of salvation that in their pretentiousness more often reinforce the reputation and…
Abstract
In a world that glorifies power, the lives of the powerless serve as context for testimonies of salvation that in their pretentiousness more often reinforce the reputation and self-esteem of the powerful hero than transform the lives of the oppressed. Whereas these types of popular human-interest stories may raise awareness of the conditions surrounding the powerless, they do little more than advance the notion that these individuals are without hope and must rely solely on the generosity, resources, and leadership of the powerful populations by which they are exploited. We seek to offer a contrasting perspective in this chapter. That is, we present a framework that challenges messianic notions of leaders of ineffectual populations and presses forth with the idea that powerlessness is a more common condition than feeling powerful and that only the powerless can alter their destiny.