This article describes how and why University of Hertfordshire chose and implemented Endeavour's Voyager Library Management System.
Beth G. Clarkson, Ali Bowes, Lucy Lomax and Jessica Piasecki
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in early 2020 prompted widespread global lockdowns as the world looked to contain and reduce the impact of the virus, including a pause on most…
Abstract
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in early 2020 prompted widespread global lockdowns as the world looked to contain and reduce the impact of the virus, including a pause on most sporting competitions (Parnell et al., 2020). COVID-19 has greatly affected the world, exposing stark inequalities, especially across gendered lines, in areas of society such as the labour market, domestic responsibility and economic hardship (Alon et al., 2020). Sport is a crucial, interwoven aspect of society and like wider societal trends, elite women's sport has been adversely affected by the pandemic, facing an existential threat (Bowes et al., 2020; Clarkson et al., 2020; Rowe, 2020). The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of how the pandemic is negatively impacting a wide variety of elite women's sports. Specifically, we cover sports where women have traditionally existed on the margins of the sport and could be considered as male-dominated labour industries. Centring primarily on the United Kingdom, we present a brief chronology of the impact of the crisis on elite women's sport, across football, rugby, cricket and golf – in many ways different from the men's versions – spanning the eight months since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 until the time of writing in November 2020. Throughout, the chapter utilises qualitative data from elite sportswomen encouraged to share their experiences during the pandemic (see Bowes et al., 2020). Subsequently, this chapter concludes with a summary of the challenges for women operating in (semi-)professional sports environments.
Details
Keywords
Simon Knight, Isabella Bowdler, Heather Ford and Jianlong Zhou
Informational conflict and uncertainty are common features across a range of sources, topics and tasks. Search engines and their presentation of results via search engine results…
Abstract
Purpose
Informational conflict and uncertainty are common features across a range of sources, topics and tasks. Search engines and their presentation of results via search engine results pages (SERPs) often underpinned by knowledge graphs (KGs) are commonly used across tasks. Yet, it is not clear how search does, or could, represent the informational conflict that exists across and within returned results. The purpose of this paper is to review KG and SERP designs for representation of uncertainty or disagreement.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors address the aim through a systematic analysis of material regarding uncertainty and disagreement in KG and SERP contexts. Specifically, the authors focus on the material representation – user interface design features – that have been developed in the context of uncertainty and disagreement representation for KGs and SERPs.
Findings
Searches identified n = 136 items as relevant, with n = 4 sets of visual materials identified from these for analysis of their design features. Design elements were extracted against sets of design principles, highlighting tensions in the design of such features.
Originality/value
The authors conclude by highlighting two key challenges for interface design and recommending six design principles in representing uncertainty and conflict in SERPs. Given the important role technologies play in mediating information access and learning, addressing the representation of uncertainty and disagreement in the representation of information is crucial.
Details
Keywords
Zhuo Min Huang, Heather Cockayne and Jenna Mittelmeier
The study explores diverse and critical understandings of “international” in a higher education curriculum context, situated in a curriculum review of a postgraduate taught…
Abstract
Purpose
The study explores diverse and critical understandings of “international” in a higher education curriculum context, situated in a curriculum review of a postgraduate taught programme entitled “International Education” at a university located in England. Our study problematises and decentres some dominant, normalised notions of “international”, exploring critical possibilities of engaging with the term for higher education internationalisation.
Design/methodology/approach
We examined a set of programme curriculum documents and conducted a survey exploring teaching staff’s uses and interpretations of “international” in their design and delivery of course units. Through a thematic analysis of the dataset, we identify what “international” might mean or how it may be missing across the curriculum.
Findings
Our findings suggest a locally-developed conceptualisation of “international” beyond the normalised interpretation of “international” as the inclusion or comparison of multiple nations, and different, other countries around the global world. More diverse, critical understandings of the term have been considered, including international as intercultural, competences, ethics, languages and methods. The study provides an example approach to reflective scholarship that programmes can undergo in order to develop clarity, depth and purposefulness into internationalisation as enacted in a local curriculum context.
Originality/value
The study provides a first step towards establishing clearer guidelines on internationalising the curriculum by higher education institutions and individual programmes in order to challenge a superficial engagement of “international” within internationalisation. It exemplifies a starting point for making purposeful steps away from normalised notions and assumptions of international education and facilitates development towards its critical, ethically-grounded opportunities.
Details
Keywords
Christian van Nieuwerburgh, Margaret Barr, Chris Munro, Heather Noon and Daniel Arifin
This paper adds depth to our understanding of how coaching works by exploring the experiences of 14 aspiring school principals who received one-to-one leadership coaching as part…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper adds depth to our understanding of how coaching works by exploring the experiences of 14 aspiring school principals who received one-to-one leadership coaching as part of a leadership development programme.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a phenomenological approach. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants. Thematic analysis was used to code the data and identify themes.
Findings
This paper reports on four themes based on the experiences of the participants: having time to reflect, feeling safe to explore, focussing on what's important for me and experiencing positive emotions.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are unique to the participants who volunteered to take part in this study and therefore not representative of a general population of aspiring educational leaders. Further research is needed into the possible benefits of coaching to support educators undergoing leadership training.
Practical implications
The findings raise a potential dilemma within the teaching profession about the use of educators' time; while they need to give time and attention to multiple stakeholders, they also need to protect time for their own development and self-reflection. Based on the reported experiences of the participants in this study, it is recommended that coaching be considered a component of professional development for educational leaders.
Originality/value
This paper adds to the growing research base for coaching in education, providing a unique insight into the experiences of aspiring school principals who received one-to-one leadership coaching as part of a leadership development programme.
Details
Keywords
Mohammad Fahim Ansari, Gautam Sarkhel, Dipendra Nath Goswami and Bangali Baboo
– The purpose of this paper is to improve the properties of shellac by blending with epoxidised novolac resin for its use as coating material for metal surfaces.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to improve the properties of shellac by blending with epoxidised novolac resin for its use as coating material for metal surfaces.
Design/methodology/approach
Epoxidised-novolac resin was synthesised by epoxidation of novolac resin, which in turn was synthesised by reaction of phenol with formaldehyde. The epoxidised-novolac resin was blended with different weight ratios of shellac ranging 10-50 weight per cent with an interval of 10 weight per cent. Films of the blends were studied for different coating properties using standard procedure.
Findings
Significant improvement in coating properties of shellac such as gloss, scratch hardness and impact resistance was observed on blending with epoxidised novolac resin. Resistance towards water and alkali increased, while acid resistance decreased, with the increase in concentration of epoxidised novolac resin in the blends. Contact angle measurement revealed that blends showed more resistance towards polar solvent than non-polar ones.
Research limitations/implications
Epoxidised-novolac resin used in the study was synthesised of epoxy equivalent of 187. Epoxidised-novolac resin of different epoxy equivalent can also be synthesised and used for blending and studying the properties.
Practical implications
Blending of shellac with epoxidised-novolac resin improved the coating properties of shellac, which was further enhanced with the treatment of butylated melamine formaldehyde resin. The formulation can be used as coating material for metal surfaces.
Originality/value
Blending of shellac with epoxidised-novolac resin was done for the first time. The formulation can be utilised for developing coating material for metal surfaces.
Details
Keywords
Samuel Roscoe, Heather Skipworth, Emel Aktas and Farooq Habib
This paper examines how firms of different sizes formulate and implement strategies to achieve fit with an external environment disrupted by a geopolitical event. The context of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines how firms of different sizes formulate and implement strategies to achieve fit with an external environment disrupted by a geopolitical event. The context of the study is the pharmaceutical industry and how it managed the supply chain uncertainty created by the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union, or Brexit.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected longitudinally from the pro-Brexit vote on 23 June 2016, until the UK’s departure from the EU on 31 January 2020. Twenty-seven interviews were conducted in the pharmaceutical sector, including nineteen interviews with senior managers at eight case companies and eight interviews with experts working for trade associations and standards institutes. The interview findings were triangulated with Brexit policy and strategy documentation.
Findings
When formulating strategy, multi-national enterprises (MNEs) used worst case assumptions, while large firms, and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) gathered knowledge as part of a “wait-and-see” strategy, allowing them to reduce perceptions of heightened supply chain uncertainty. Firms then implemented reactive and/or proactive strategies to mitigate supply chain risks.
Originality/value
The study elaborates on strategic contingency theory by identifying two important conditions for achieving strategic fit: first, companies deploy intangible resources, such as management time, to gather information and reduce perceptions of heightened supply chain uncertainty. Second, companies deploy tangible resources (supply chain redundancies, new supply chain assets) to lessen the negative outcomes of supply chain risks. Managers are provided with an empirical framework for mitigating supply chain uncertainty and risk originating from geopolitical disruptions.
Details
Keywords
Lydia Bals, Heather Berry, Evi Hartmann and Gordian Raettich
In this chapter, we embrace the recent phenomenon of early internationalizing firms with the goal of understanding these firms in light of decades of research on multinational…
Abstract
In this chapter, we embrace the recent phenomenon of early internationalizing firms with the goal of understanding these firms in light of decades of research on multinational firms, which has long stressed liabilities of foreignness. It is often implicitly assumed that the only way to reduce liabilities of foreignness is by doing business in foreign markets and learning about the local business environment. However, in this chapter, we focus on several distinctive antecedent firm characteristics that have been shown to facilitate early international expansion by firms, but which are not commonly considered in the international business literature. We perform a systematic review of the literature on early internationalizing firms (following David & Han, 2004), based on the seminal work of Oviatt and McDougall (1994) to guide our analysis of early internationalizing firms and to identify important ways in which these firms differ from multinational firms. We argue that long-standing arguments about the impact of liabilities of foreignness on firm foreign expansion apply to newly internationalizing firms, but that these liabilities are reduced by the experiences and knowledge of the founders and top managers in these firms acquired prior to the inception of these firms.
Heather J. Forbes, Jenee Vickers Johnson and Jason C. Travers
The innovations in this volume instill a sense of optimism about how special education professionals might improve outcomes for students with disabilities. Although many…
Abstract
The innovations in this volume instill a sense of optimism about how special education professionals might improve outcomes for students with disabilities. Although many interventions illustrate scientific progress toward an evidence-based profession, many special educators may find it challenging to discriminate between scientifically validated innovation and various fads. While innovation reflects the gradual progress of science, fads usually arise suddenly and lack an evidentiary foundation. Some fads may persist over time but without supportive evidence. We present several reasons why we believe special educators adopt fad interventions during an era when scientifically validated special educational practices are readily available. We propose that fads and similar unsubstantiated practices likely will be a persistent problem for special educators. A conservative and judicious approach to adopting “the next big thing” therefore seems important to an evidence-based special education.
Heather R. Parola, Kimberly M. Ellis and Peggy Golden
The purpose of this paper is to uncover the performance effects of top management team (TMT) gender diversity in the merger and acquisition (M&A) process. To do so, an integration…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to uncover the performance effects of top management team (TMT) gender diversity in the merger and acquisition (M&A) process. To do so, an integration of the upper echelons perspective and the M&A process literature is offered to consider the “double-edge sword” of gender diversity on both pre- and post-integration performance. Additionally, the boundary effects of acquirer experience on the TMT gender diversity-performance relationship is examined.
Design/methodology/approach
The hypotheses are tested in a sample of 310 acquisitions by Fortune 1,000 companies. Multiple regression analysis is utilized to test the effects on the two different performance variables.
Findings
The findings reveal that TMT gender diversity is beneficial to pre-integration performance, but hinders post-integration performance. Additionally, the findings provide evidence that acquirer experience can overcome the negative effects of gender diversity in post-integration performance.
Originality/value
This study contributes to a better understanding of the double-edge sword of TMT gender diversity by providing evidence that performance implications depend on the performance variable of interest. Specifically in the M&A context, gender diversity has differing effects on pre- and post-integration performance.