Search results
1 – 10 of over 5000Many studies have investigated how the structure of the collaborative networks of researchers influences the nature of their work, and its outcome. Co-authorship networks (CANs…
Abstract
Purpose
Many studies have investigated how the structure of the collaborative networks of researchers influences the nature of their work, and its outcome. Co-authorship networks (CANs) have been widely looked at as proxies that can help bring understanding to the structure of research collaborative ties. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for describing what influences the formation of different research collaboration patterns.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use social network analysis (SNA) to analyze the co-authorship ego networks of the ten most central authors in 24 years of papers (703 papers and 1,118 authors) published in the Proceedings of CASCON, a computer science conference. In order to understand what lead to the formation of the different CANs the authors examined, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with these authors.
Findings
Based on this examination, the authors propose a typology that differentiates three styles of co-authorship: matchmaking, brokerage, and teamwork. The authors also provide quantitative SNA-based measures that can help place researchers’ CAN into one of these proposed categories. Given that many different network measures can describe the collaborative network structure of researchers, the authors believe it is important to identify specific network structures that would be meaningful when studying research collaboration. The proposed typology can offer guidance in choosing the appropriate measures for studying research collaboration.
Originality/value
The results presented in this paper highlight the value of combining SNA analysis with interviews when studying CAN. Moreover, the results show how co-authorship styles can be used to understand the mechanisms leading to the formation of collaborative ties among researchers. The authors discuss several potential implications of these findings for the study of research collaborations.
Details
Keywords
K. Arshak, E. Moore, G.M. Lyons, J. Harris and S. Clifford
This paper reviews the range of sensors used in electronic nose (e‐nose) systems to date. It outlines the operating principles and fabrication methods of each sensor type as well…
Abstract
This paper reviews the range of sensors used in electronic nose (e‐nose) systems to date. It outlines the operating principles and fabrication methods of each sensor type as well as the applications in which the different sensors have been utilised. It also outlines the advantages and disadvantages of each sensor for application in a cost‐effective low‐power handheld e‐nose system.
Michela Goffredo, Maurizio Schmid, Silvia Conforto, Filiberto Bilotti, Claudio Palma, Lucio Vegni and Tommaso D’Alessio
A novel model of the upper arm under transcutaneous electrical stimulation with multi-pad electrodes is presented and experimentally validated. The model aims at simulating and…
Abstract
Purpose
A novel model of the upper arm under transcutaneous electrical stimulation with multi-pad electrodes is presented and experimentally validated. The model aims at simulating and analysing the effects of surface electrical stimulation on biceps brachii. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Both the passive properties of tissues surrounding nerve bundles and the active characteristics of the nervous system are included. The output of the proposed model is nerve recruitment and muscle contraction.
Findings
Simulations and experimental tests on six healthy young adults have been conducted and results show that the proposed model gives information on electrically elicited muscle contraction in accordance with in-vivo tests and literature on motor unit recruitment order. Tests with different electrodes configurations show that the spatial distribution of active electrodes is a critical factor in electrically elicited muscle contractions, and that multi-pad electrodes can optimise the stimulation effectiveness and patient comfort with sequences of biphasic pulses of 350 μs at 30 pulses/s and threshold values of 2 mA.
Originality/value
Results encourage the use of the proposed model of the upper arm as a valid and viable solution for predicting the behaviour of the neuromuscular system when surface electrical stimulation is applied, thus optimising the design of neuroprosthetics.
Details
Keywords
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced not-for-profit organizations (NFPs) to look outside their organizational boundaries for collective impact. In this unprecedented and turbulent…
Abstract
Purpose
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced not-for-profit organizations (NFPs) to look outside their organizational boundaries for collective impact. In this unprecedented and turbulent situation, the need to understand and articulate the effectiveness and impact of collaborative efforts is paramount. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential nexus between nonprofit impact measurement and collaboration.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reviews key aspects of the NFP impact measurement and collaboration literature and discusses the potential nexus between these two concepts. NFP collaboration refers to the collaborative arrangements that involve NFPs with other NFPs and/or businesses and government.
Findings
Based on a literature review, this paper argues that NFPs must acknowledge the significance of impact measurement when engaging in collaborative efforts and the mutually reinforcing relationships between the NFP impact measurement and collaboration to make a collective impact.
Originality/value
Research on the nexus of NFP impact measurement and collaboration is scant, but it is urgently needed due to the COVID-19 crisis. This paper is timely to review the extant knowledge base of NFP impact measurement and collaboration and attempts to draw meaningful connections between the two concepts. The paper also has significant implications for practice as it responds to the calls for more collaboration in the New Zealand NFP sector and will be of interest to NFP leaders, managers, funders and policymakers.
Details
Keywords
K. Arshak, G.M. Lyons, C. Cunniffe, J. Harris and S. Clifford
This paper discusses the digital hardware and software that is required for data acquisition in a portable electronic nose (e‐nose) system. A review of current e‐nose systems is…
Abstract
This paper discusses the digital hardware and software that is required for data acquisition in a portable electronic nose (e‐nose) system. A review of current e‐nose systems is presented highlighting the methods employed by these systems to acquire the data from the sensor head.
Details
Keywords
Although recent years have seen heavy investment in management education programmes, relatively little effort has been made at evaluation. Kane, however, has noted that the time…
Abstract
Although recent years have seen heavy investment in management education programmes, relatively little effort has been made at evaluation. Kane, however, has noted that the time when training and development activities are no longer questioned “appears to be well on its way to passing from a reality to a memory”.
To examine and account for an innovative project bid and delivery partnership by a fire and rescue service in an area (Eastern European migrant integration) usually thought to be…
Abstract
Purpose
To examine and account for an innovative project bid and delivery partnership by a fire and rescue service in an area (Eastern European migrant integration) usually thought to be beyond its remit. An interpretation of the findings will be based on public value theory.
Methodology/approach
The study examines three sets of conditions: national and local political and economic environments facilitating the grant bid and its success; a history of safety and safeguarding work by a specific fire and rescue service that made the bid plausible and leadership of the FRS in constructing both bid (for funding) and turning that into a delivery partnership. Methods included a focused analysis of existing academic work and government reports, observation of partnership meetings, interviews and a focus group.
Findings
That the success of the funding bid and delivery of objectives can be explained in terms of national government funding decisions relating to migrant integration; the recognition both locally and nationally that the specific FRS had the capacity, because of previous innovative partnership work, to manage all aspects of a sub-regional partnership; the ability of the FRS to manage the delivery of partnership objectives over a two year period; that the project realised a range of public value outcomes. It generated a range of public value outcomes. Individual managers took risks and worked ‘beyond authority’ but the partnership that they built and maintained was the principal entrepreneurial agent.
Research implications
The findings may have implications for the reconfiguration of sub-regional public service delivery.
Originality/value
The chapter is a study of a successful innovative, fire and rescue service led public sector partnership creating public value outcomes.
Details
Keywords
Ericka Costa and Caterina Pesci
This paper aims to discuss the notion of social impact of social impact measurement in social enterprises by supporting the multiple-constituency theory as a contribution to this…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to discuss the notion of social impact of social impact measurement in social enterprises by supporting the multiple-constituency theory as a contribution to this under-theorised issue. Moreover, the paper proposes the stakeholder-based approach as the most appropriate solution for selection among metrics related to the growing number of social impact measurements.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper proposes a review of social impact measurement studies by considering contributions from both academia and practitioners, while providing a reassessment and conceptualisation of this issue in terms of the multiple-constituency theory.
Findings
The paper criticises the “golden standard approach” to social impact measurement according to which social enterprises have to find one standardised metric capable of determining an organisation’s real impact. The golden standard approach promotes a more “political view” of social enterprises, according to which multiple stakeholders set performance standards based on their viewpoints regarding the measurement’s purposes.
Research limitations/implications
The paper responds to the urgent call to define a theoretical framework that might guide social impact measurement, seeking to avoid the current lack of order and transparency in existing practices that could serve as a vehicle for camouflaging corporate social un-sustainability.
Originality/value
The multiple-constituency approach should discourage organisations from opportunistically selecting a social impact measurement with the sole purpose of proving a higher impact, as, within the proposed new perspective, social impact metrics are no longer managed independently by the social enterprises themselves. Instead, these metrics are defined and constructed with the stakeholders. As a result, social enterprises’ manipulative intentions should diminish.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this study is to empirically test a hypothesized model establishing job characteristics as an antecedent of work engagement leading to job satisfaction and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to empirically test a hypothesized model establishing job characteristics as an antecedent of work engagement leading to job satisfaction and organizational engagement of employees working with public sector banks (PSBs) in India.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on responses to a survey questionnaire by a sample of 622 Scale I employees of Indian PSBs, the hypothesized mediation model was tested with SPSS macro (Preacher and Hayes, 2004).
Findings
The testing of hypotheses established that job characteristics positively influence work engagement, organizational engagement and job satisfaction. The full mediation by work engagement between the relationships of job characteristics with job satisfaction and organizational engagement is established after the testing of mediation hypotheses.
Practical implications
Jobs of banks (especially in the public sector) are recommended to be enriched with more emphasis on offering employees with identifiable and significant tasks that have autonomy in decision-making and feedback. PSBs should also focus on developing a positive perception of employees toward job design, to increase their levels of job satisfaction and organizational engagement through engaging them with work.
Originality/value
The contribution of this study should be understood in many ways. First, the study has introduced work engagement as a mediator in the study model (between job characteristics and job satisfaction) replacing the three psychological conditions (i.e. experienced meaningfulness, experienced responsibility and knowledge of results) of job characteristics model. Further, the main contribution of this study is the exploration of the linkage between work engagement and organizational engagement. The relationship between these two forms of engagement (i.e. work and organization) has been very rarely investigated in the literature. Finally, this study has attempted to hypothesize a model proposing work engagement as a mediator between the job characteristics and organization engagement which does not seem to be studied so far.
Details
Keywords
Richard Ericson’s work taught us much about how institutional narratives reflect and promote social control. He demonstrated how institutional logics delineated the origin…
Abstract
Richard Ericson’s work taught us much about how institutional narratives reflect and promote social control. He demonstrated how institutional logics delineated the origin, nature, communicative forms and formats, and consequences of bureaucratic reasoning on a range of significant sociological topics, particularly power and social control. His contributions also illuminated how social institutions differ in social power, as well as the dominance of certain communication formats that, on the one hand, bind institutions to contemporary mass media forms that reached divergent audiences, while one the other hand, show that there is an institutional order and hierarchy that shape social policies and practices. This chapter examines some aspects of the organizational narrative about “terrorism” and highlights the reemergence of the “National Security University,” or a generic composite of direct relationships between the national security agencies and university administrations, academic programs, research support and agendas, as well as special academic lectures, colloquia, etc. Specifically, I wish to raise some issues surrounding the more recent pursuit of academic advice and legitimacy following the 9/11 “terror” attacks on the United States. Supported by the rhetoric of a never ending battle against terrorism, government and military “knowledge brokers” invited – and paid – academics to join in the fight, and they accepted it overwhelmingly.
Details