Search results

The message an investment company sends to shareholders in its annual report summarizes and explains the financial and economic performance which is presented. These companies are becoming aware that the annual report is an increasingly potent tool for marketing to potential clients as well as combining their statutory duty to report to shareholders. Uncovers the major themes of the Chairman's report from samples of companies in this sector. In particular, seeks to determine the differences in messages associated with the mission of the company; increasing share value, increasing dividends or both. Also aims to uncover differences in content resulting from positive and negative financial performance. Uses content analysis to uncover the major themes in these annual reports. Methods include word frequency counts, KWIK‐Key Word in Context and concordances which list words by type into construct categories. The smaller the unit of examination the more difficult it is to analyse, but the more conclusive the results. Compares the results of this content analysis with previous research in this area and on this construct Records and analyses them quantitatively using appropriate statistical analysis to determine the strength of association between the variables measured and the hypothetical constructs or categories considered.

Explores the perceptions of investment trust chairmen about the role of the annual statement in communications policy and management. A short survey of all investment trust chairmen was undertaken. The results identify two major themes in chairmen’s perceptions of the annual statements role. The statement communicates with individual shareholders and seeks to create good impressions and build confidence. It is primarily a one‐way exchange.

Within the traditional model of encoding, transmitting and decoding written communications, observant analysis can be made of the text to determine the underlying themes and emphases. The analysis of written documentation must be clearly embedded within the context in which it is written: successful inference is based on this premiss. There is also a requirement, where possible, to substantiate content analytical findings by reference to other research methodologies. Communications content has been subjected to content analysis for over 100 years. In that time the methodology has come a long way to making this research process rigorous and objective.

Outlines the imperative of higher education organizations to remain in the forefront of strategic planning thinking. They are the breeding ground for innovative approaches to competitive and co‐operative advantage in the commercial world. Draws attention to models of higher education organization which have been matched by similar strategic paradigms in business. Investigates the growing popularity of supply‐side methods of competitiveness in the context of the collegiate system of higher education. Core competences are now as important as customer focus in strategic planning. Core competences relate to all resources that a university has. Appropriability indices give a measure of how institutions can begin to measure some of their core competences from the ground up. Another method for understanding and assessing core competences is to apply system network mapping. System networks are complex webs of interrelationships between staff and other facilities which give the organization valuable competitive advantage and which are not easily imitated.

Digital systems for independent aging, support and care are not being adopted as hoped. The purpose of this paper is to examine the results of three studies to derive key factors during the development and engineering process of care and support systems for older people that can impact acceptance and uptake to provide support to future projects.

The paper analyzed the results of three qualitative studies, including two detailed case studies and a further study with 35 participants, to derive key factors. Methods for deriving factors are based on thematic analysis to identify common factors across cases and participants.

The findings point to a broad set of interconnected factors that give developers of these types of systems specific recommendations. These highlight what makes these projects complex and identify implications for the development process. Furthermore, they show way the needed user-centered and iterative methods may be in conflict with funding processes.

While others have reported on single projects or looked at acceptance, these studies were the first to explore aspects of the development process that may contribute to the lack of success to date of these types of systems. The results here support more successful outcomes in the future, both by helping people involved in the development of these systems to avoid some of the issues others face and providing input to improve the performance of the engineering process.

Much previous research has explored the impact of group work on the therapist. The purpose of this paper is to examine how group members tolerate the powerful material discussed in groups in a prison-based therapeutic community. The authors briefly describe the regime at HMP Grendon and previous research into the impact of group work on therapists.

A qualitative approach using a focus group was used to explore the impact of group work from the perspective of the group members. Themes emerging from the focus group were analysed using thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Participants included adult male violent and sexual offenders (n=10). The focus group was facilitated by two therapists, both based within HMP Grendon.

Overarching themes emerged from the data which included – the type of material that has an impact on residents; the impact of this material on group members; and how residents manage it. A series of subthemes within these were identified, with salient themes including: the difficulty in listening to others offence histories and past experiences, managing the feelings of guilt and shame which can be overwhelming, feeling vulnerable/exposed, experiencing positive feelings for the first time as well as the benefits of therapy in eliciting change.

Uniquely the current study explores the impact of group therapy from the perspective of the group members. This is a previously unexplored area of research. As the study was conducted on a prison sample, it is unclear how well the findings would generalise to other populations. As such it is recommended that further research be conducted to validate the findings here.

The present study indicates that group members process transference and counter-transference similar to therapists. It is suggested that therapists can use these findings to build resilience in group members.

Previous research has described the impact of group work on therapists, uniquely this paper goes on to describe how group members process the material they are exposed to and how they manage their heightened emotions rather than acting on them. This should help therapists consider how best to develop resilience in group members.

Examines the methodological issues that arise in generating standardised transaction data for use in analysing the determinants of retail rents. Looks at the issues raised by the use of comparative information and the existence of widely accepted conventions for adjusting comparative evidence to allow for the specific physical and legal characteristics of individual properties. Concludes by questioning the need to test valuation convention against market evidence and the notion of open market value is reassessed.

Cyberattacks have become a major threat to small and medium-sized enterprises. Their prevention efforts often prioritize technical solutions over human factors, despite humans posing the greatest risk. This article highlights the importance of developing tailored behavioral interventions. Through qualitative interviews, we identified three persona types with different psychological biases that increase the risk of cyberattacks. These psychological biases are a basis for creating behavioral interventions to strengthen the human factor and, thus, prevent cyberattacks.

We conducted structured, in-depth interviews with 44 employees, decision makers and IT service providers from small and medium-sized Swiss enterprises to understand insecure cyber behavior.

A thematic analysis revealed that, while knowledge about cyber risks is available, no one assumes responsibility for employees’ and decision makers’ behavior. The interview results suggest three personas for employees and decision makers: experts, deportees and repressors. We have derived corresponding biases from these three persona types that help explain the interviewees’ insecure cyber behavior.

This study provides evidence that employees differ in their cognitive biases. This implies that tailored interventions are more effective than one-size-fits7-all interventions. It is inherent in the idea of tailored interventions that they depend on multiple factors, such as cultural, organizational or individual factors. However, even if the segments change somewhat, it is still very likely that there are subgroups of employees that differ in terms of their misleading cognitive biases and risk behavior.

This article discusses behavior directed recommendations for tailored interventions in small and medium-sized enterprises to minimize cyber risks.

The contribution of this study is that it is the first to use personas and cognitive biases to understand insecure cyber behavior, and to explain why small and medium-sized enterprises do not implement behavior-based cybersecurity best practices. The personas and biases provide starting points for future research and interventions in practice.

The present study aims to analyse sport entrepreneurs' passions and motivations to start a sport business. It answers calls from the literature to investigate sector-specific entrepreneurship ventures and expand the scope of sport entrepreneurship to innovative sport business owners.

Twenty-six entrepreneurs based in Scotland who started a sport business have been surveyed and 8 entrepreneurs were interviewed.

Participants demonstrated a high inclination for self-employment mainly following pull factor reasons such as career change. Their passion for sport, inventing and work played an influential role in their decision to start and grow their business. Some sport entrepreneurs also aimed to pursue higher goals through their innovative sport product or service by contributing to a social cause, which closely aligns with social entrepreneurship.

This study theoretically contributes to the literature by illuminating the specificities of sport entrepreneurship and how passion – as both an antecedent and an outcome – affects the motivational state of sport entrepreneurs.