James Whelan and James D. Sisson
Strategic planning is an important part of every company's management process. Its sole purpose is to improve the performance of the organization. This would appear to be common…
Abstract
Strategic planning is an important part of every company's management process. Its sole purpose is to improve the performance of the organization. This would appear to be common sense, yet very few companies realize the promise of sound strategic planning to consistently improve the organization's results.
Until recently, most North Americans thought of Central America as the land of bananas and exotic vacations. Today, government, media, and public concern are focused on the…
Abstract
Until recently, most North Americans thought of Central America as the land of bananas and exotic vacations. Today, government, media, and public concern are focused on the region's instability and the United States' role in it. This “crisis” in Central America has generated a barrage of publications. Perhaps an appropriate title for this article would have been “Central America: Crisis in the Library.” The growing number of publications on Central America is matched by growing demand for them in both public and academic libraries. This bibliography will help librarians build an adequate and balanced collection on Central America without having to locate and examine each book.
When a small schoolboy I became acquainted with the proverb Fames optimum condimentum. Nevertheless, millions of human beings, perhaps because they have little experience of…
Abstract
When a small schoolboy I became acquainted with the proverb Fames optimum condimentum. Nevertheless, millions of human beings, perhaps because they have little experience of famishment, persist in taking other condimenta with their food two or three times a day. Some of them, having satisfied their hunger, slake their thirst with products of a brewery—most of the commoner condiments not being even remotely associated with brewing. I have spent many years in efforts to secure that foods are called by their proper names. Egg powder, Devonshire hake, tonic cocktails, queer liquors containing isopropyl alcohol or even methyl alcohol, phoney blended whiskey—how would food lawyers have lived if these and other wrongly described goods had never come on the market ? Though a rose by any other name may smell as sweet, a dandelion called a rose does not. And those who administer the food laws have come across many examples of articles labelled on the principle of lucus a non lucendo. How these old tags stick in one's memory.
Eoin Whelan and Trevor Clohessy
While the positive health benefits of fitness apps, which motivate and track physical exercise, are widely acknowledged, the adverse connection between these technologies and…
Abstract
Purpose
While the positive health benefits of fitness apps, which motivate and track physical exercise, are widely acknowledged, the adverse connection between these technologies and wellbeing has received little attention. The purpose of this paper is to determine how the social dimensions of fitness apps predict the type of passion (harmonious and obsessive) one has for physical exercise, and what the resulting positive and negative implications are for wellbeing.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing from the theoretical frameworks of social influence and the dual model of passion (DMP), this study develops a model depicting how fitness apps relate to the causes and consequences of harmonious and obsessive passion for exercise. Survey data were collected from 272 fitness app using cyclists and analysed with partial least squares structural equation modelling techniques.
Findings
Different social influence aspects of fitness apps appeal to different types of exercisers. A harmonious passion for physical exercise is predicted by the positive reciprocal benefits attained from one’s fitness app community, while an obsessive passion is predicted by positive recognition. In turn, a harmonious passion for exercise is negatively associated with life burnout, while an obsessive passion strongly affirms that relationship. In addition, the relationship between social influence and life burnout is fully mediated by the type of passion a fitness app user possesses.
Originality/value
Underpinned by the DMP, the study provides a theoretical framework explaining how the use of fitness apps can result in opposing wellness outcomes.
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This chapter considers the opportunities and challenges for HE to develop, support and celebrate excellent teaching. Drawing on conceptualisations of teaching excellence in…
Abstract
This chapter considers the opportunities and challenges for HE to develop, support and celebrate excellent teaching. Drawing on conceptualisations of teaching excellence in quality frameworks and in the literature, it considers how teaching quality has traditionally been interpreted, suggesting (as in Chapter 2) that there is a need for more nuanced and comprehensive understandings of teaching excellence to be developed, demonstrated, recognised and rewarded, to reflect the complex nature of teaching excellence across the academic career profile. It considers how institutions might build and communicate shared understandings of excellence in teaching and promote a culture in which excellence at all levels of teaching is valued in the same way as research. It discusses the ways in which the professional learning and support needs of academics can be met at various stages of the academic career, to develop in teaching faculty and education leaders a sense of being appreciated, connected and competent in their contribution and commitment to teaching excellence.
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XiaoYu Xu, Syed Muhammad Usman Tayyab, Qingdan Jia and Kuang Wu
Combining the coping theory and social support theory, this study aims to reveal users' coping strategies for mobile fitness app (MFA) engagement and fitness intentions with a…
Abstract
Purpose
Combining the coping theory and social support theory, this study aims to reveal users' coping strategies for mobile fitness app (MFA) engagement and fitness intentions with a rigorous and comprehensive hybrid research approach.
Design/methodology/approach
A three-stage hybrid research design was employed in this study. In the first stage, this study utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the associations between coping resources and coping outcomes. A post hoc analysis was conducted in the second stage to unveil the reasons behind the insignificant or weak linkages. In the third stage, the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) technique was applied to explore the various configurations of coping resources that lead to the coping outcomes.
Findings
The results in the three stages verify and compensate each other. The SEM results confirm the presence of two coping strategies in MFA, highlighting the importance of the intertwining of the strategies, and the post hoc analysis unveils the mediating role of positive affect. Moreover, the fsQCA results reinforce and complement the SEM findings by revealing eight alternative configurations that are sufficient for leading to users' MFA engagement and fitness intention.
Originality/value
This study offers a prominent methodological paradigm by demonstrating the application of multi-analysis in exploring users' coping strategies. In addition, the study also advances the understanding of the complexity of the mechanism that determines users' behavioral decisions by presenting a comprehensive interpretation.
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Yanfei Hu and Claus Rerup
James March argued that irrational approaches to problem solving and foolishness can be useful for addressing complex problems. Grand challenges are complex problems that often…
Abstract
James March argued that irrational approaches to problem solving and foolishness can be useful for addressing complex problems. Grand challenges are complex problems that often involve “guarded societal institutions” – societal beliefs and practices guarded by political or commercial powers. To explain how organizations with impossible goals dismantle such institutions by mobilizing irrationality and foolishness, we develop a process model which is illustrated with the case of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Our main contribution is to expand James March’s ideas on logics of action and organizational intelligence to advance a novel perspective for tackling big societal problems. We argue that foolishness is not only a means for finding distant solutions to complex problems but also a means for generating sustained motivation, well-being, and ideas that spark debate and lead to the questioning of taken-for-granted societal beliefs.
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Van Q. Tran, Sabina Alkire and Stephan Klasen
There has been a rapid expansion in the literature on the measurement of multidimensional poverty in recent years. This paper focuses on the longitudinal aspects of…
Abstract
There has been a rapid expansion in the literature on the measurement of multidimensional poverty in recent years. This paper focuses on the longitudinal aspects of multidimensional poverty and its link to dynamic income poverty measurement. Using panel household survey data in Vietnam from 2007, 2008, and 2010, the paper analyses the prevalence and dynamics of both multidimensional and monetary poverty from the same dataset. The results show that the monetary poor (or non-poor) are not always multidimensionally poor (or non-poor) – indeed the overlap between the two measures is much less than 50 percent. Additionally, monetary poverty shows faster progress as well as a higher level of fluctuation than multidimensional poverty. We suggest that rapid economic growth as experienced by Vietnam has had a larger and more immediate impact on monetary than on multidimensional poverty.
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The term “medical” will be interpreted broadly to include both basic and clinical sciences, related health fields, and some “medical” elements of biology and chemistry. A…
Abstract
The term “medical” will be interpreted broadly to include both basic and clinical sciences, related health fields, and some “medical” elements of biology and chemistry. A reference book is here defined as any book that is likely to be consulted for factual information more frequently than it will be picked up and read through in sequential order. Medical reference books have a place in public, school, college, and other non‐medical libraries as well as in the wide variety of medical libraries. All of these libraries will be considered in this column. A basic starting collection of medical material for a public library is outlined and described in an article by William and Virginia Beatty that appeared in the May, 1974, issue of American Libraries.