With the ability of linking distant partners and diverse bodies of students and faculty, virtual design studios provide unique opportunities for examining cultural, contextual…
Abstract
With the ability of linking distant partners and diverse bodies of students and faculty, virtual design studios provide unique opportunities for examining cultural, contextual, and methodological differences in design and design collaboration. However, most evaluations of virtual design studio in the recent literature have focused primarily on technical and operational issues. In contrast, the social and cultural dimensions of virtual design studio and their pedagogical implications have not been adequately examined. To address this gap, this article examines the experience and outcomes of a recent virtual design studio involving international collaboration between faculty and student partners. Specifically, it looks at how presence of differences and process of dialogic learning create pedagogical opportunities in a collaborative 'virtual' environment. Based on the case study, this article argues that through dialogues, collaboration, and negotiation of cultural, contextual and methodological differences, collaborative virtual design studio offers an alternative to traditional design studio based on the primacy of individual practice and the master-apprentice model of learning. By creatively utilizing the collaborative environment involving diverse partners, virtual design studio can foster a critical understanding of cross-cultural design process and the significance of dialogues and negotiation in design.
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Jianwei Hou and Jeffrey Blodgett
The purpose of this paper is to determine whether online bidders adjust their offers downward to compensate for shipping fees; whether shipping fees affect the number of bids in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine whether online bidders adjust their offers downward to compensate for shipping fees; whether shipping fees affect the number of bids in an auction, and thus indirectly influence winning bid prices; and whether experienced bidders more fully compensate for shipping fees, as compared to less experienced bidders.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from eBay, covering 530 auctions of 19‐inch LCD monitors and 242 auctions of 1921 Morgan Dollar coins. Several regression models were employed to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Shipping fees had a large, negative effect on winning bids in monitor auctions, but had no effect in coin auctions. Auctions with larger shipping fees resulted in fewer bids, which in turn lessened winning bid prices. Experienced bidders adjusted more fully than inexperienced bidders in monitor auctions, in which the fees are more substantial.
Research limitations/implications
Data should be collected on additional product categories, and in order to control for background variables a controlled experiment should be conducted.
Practical implications
Shipping fees appear to result in greater revenues for online sellers. Even though monitor bidders adjust their offers downward to compensate for fees, each additional $1 of shipping fee resulted in an additional $0.05 of profit for sellers. Coin sellers appear to have profited dollar for dollar from fees.
Originality/value
Previous research has only indirectly examined the impact of shipping fees on winning bid prices. Given the dramatic growth of online auctions in the past decade, an examination of shipping charges is of both practical and theoretical importance.
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The process of educating future architects and designers around the world varies dramatically. However, there is one striking similarity - the dominance of the design studio as…
Abstract
The process of educating future architects and designers around the world varies dramatically. However, there is one striking similarity - the dominance of the design studio as the main forum for knowledge acquisition and assimilation, and for creative exploration and interaction. Such a setting encompasses intensive cognitive and physical activities, which ultimately result in conceptualizing meaningful environments proposed to accommodate related human activities. The design studio is the primary space where students explore their creative skills that are so prized by the profession; it is the kiln where future architects are molded. It has occupied a central position since architectural education was formalized two centuries ago in France and later in Germany, the rest of Europe, North America, and the rest of the world.
This chapter draws on 10 years of ethnographic fieldwork collected in gay bars from three American cities to explore the strategies LGBTQ subcultures deploy to recreate meaningful…
Abstract
This chapter draws on 10 years of ethnographic fieldwork collected in gay bars from three American cities to explore the strategies LGBTQ subcultures deploy to recreate meaningful places within the vestiges of local queer nightlife. As gentrification and social acceptance accelerate the closures of LGBTQ-specific bars and nightclubs worldwide, venues that once served a specific LGBTQ subculture (i.e., leather bars) expand their offerings to incorporate displaced LGBTQ subcultures. Attending to how LGBTQ subcultures might appropriate designated spaces within a gay venue to support community (nightlife complexes), how management and LGBT subcultures temporally circumscribe subcultural practices and traditions to create fleeting, but recurring places (episodic places), and how patrons might disrupt an existing production of place by imposing practices associated with a discrepant LGBTQ subculture(place ruptures), this chapter challenges the notion of “the gay bar” as a singular place catering to a specific subculture. Instead, gay bars increasingly constitute a collection of places within the same space, which may shift depending on its use by patrons occupying the space at any given moment. Beyond the investigation of gay bars, this chapter contributes to the growing sociological literature exploring the multifaceted, unstable, and ephemeral nature of place and place-making in the postmodern city.
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Ranjit Voola, Jamie Carlson, Ho Yin Wong and Jeffrey Hou Jiun Li
This paper aims to examine the effects of market orientation and organizational learning on individual e‐business adoption functions and firm performance in the context of Chinese…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the effects of market orientation and organizational learning on individual e‐business adoption functions and firm performance in the context of Chinese firms.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross‐sectional design was adopted for the study, whereby a sample of companies was selected from the province of Sichuan, China. The questionnaire was distributed via a personally administered method to senior managers. Partial least squares was used for analysing the data.
Findings
It was found that market orientation affected e‐order‐taking, whereas organizational learning affected e‐communication, e‐procurement and internal administration through e‐business technologies, and firm performance. Whilst market orientation was found only to effect e‐order‐taking and e‐communication was found to have a positive influence on firm performance.
Research limitations/implications
A limitation of the study is the sample size and obtaining the convenience sample from one province in China. A larger size and broader representation of provinces in China will be a direction for future research.
Practical implications
The findings of this study highlight the need for creating an internal organizational culture, which facilitates the adoption of e‐business technologies. Specifically, they should develop capabilities such as organizational learning and market orientation prior to the adoption of e‐business technologies.
Originality/value
The contribution of the study is that the findings provide insight into e‐business adoption in China from a resource‐based perspective.
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The “unplannable” is a welcomed exception to the formal order of urban planning. This opinion article explores some examples of informal urbanism and discusses its ambiguous…
Abstract
The “unplannable” is a welcomed exception to the formal order of urban planning. This opinion article explores some examples of informal urbanism and discusses its ambiguous relationship to public space and unplanned activities in the city. The informal sector offers important lessons about the adaptive use of space and its social role. The article examines the ways specific groups appropriate informal spaces and how this can add to a city’s entrepreneurship and success. The characteristics of informal, interstitial spaces within the contemporary city, and the numerous creative ways in which these temporarily used spaces are appropriated, challenge the prevalent critical discourse about our understanding of authorised public space, formal place-making and social order within the city in relation to these informal spaces.
The text discusses various cases from Chile, the US and China that illustrate the dilemma of the relationship between informality and public/private space today. One could say that informality is a deregulated self-help system that redefines relationships with the formal. Temporary or permanent spatial appropriation has behavioural, economic and cultural dimensions, and forms of the informalare not always immediately obvious: they are not mentioned in building codes and can often be subversive or unexpected, emerging in the grey area between legal and illegal activities.
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This chapter differentiates stress from generalized anxiety, discussing the nature and prevalence of each among college students. The chapter then delves into generalized anxiety…
Abstract
This chapter differentiates stress from generalized anxiety, discussing the nature and prevalence of each among college students. The chapter then delves into generalized anxiety in detail, covering instruments that measure generalized anxiety, cultural considerations associated with generalized anxiety and the causes, consequences, prevention and treatment of generalized anxiety among college students. The next section of the chapter focuses on social anxiety among college students, similarly addressing its defining characteristics, prevalence, cultural considerations, causes, consequences, prevention and treatment. The final section of the chapter follows a similar structure in discussing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among college students. Throughout the chapter, attention is devoted to neurotransmitters and brain structures that are involved in anxiety and its treatment through antianxiety medications. Case examples are used to help bring theoretical concepts and research findings to life.
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This chapter provides an overview of the current state of college student mental health. It describes the contextual factors affecting college students’ mental health, such as…
Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of the current state of college student mental health. It describes the contextual factors affecting college students’ mental health, such as institutional funding devoted to students’ wellbeing; the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences; and sociopolitical realities such as racism, gun violence and anti-Semitism. The sensationalistic and opportunistic portrayal of college student mental health in popular media is explored, as are the positive and negative effects of social media on students’ wellbeing. Finally, the current scene with regard to college student mental health is placed in a historical context to highlight long-standing concerns and changing trends facing today’s college students.
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Milton Boyd, Jeffrey Pai, Qiao Zhang, H. Holly Wang and Ke Wang
The purpose of this paper is to explain the factors affecting crop insurance purchases by farmers in Inner Mongolia, China.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain the factors affecting crop insurance purchases by farmers in Inner Mongolia, China.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey of farmers in Inner Mongolia, China, is undertaken. Selected variables are used to explain crop insurance purchases, and a probit regression model is used for the analysis.
Findings
Results show that a number of variables explain crop insurance purchases by farmers in Inner Mongolia. Of the eight variables in the model, seven are statistically significant. The eight variables used to explain crop insurance purchases are: knowledge of crop insurance, previous purchases of crop insurance, trust of the crop insurance company, amount of risk taken on by the farmer, importance of low crop insurance premium, government as the main information source for crop insurance, role of head of village, and number of family members working in the city.
Research limitations/implications
A possible limitation of the study is that data includes only one geographic area, Inner Mongolia, China, and so results may not always fully generalize to all regions of China, for all situations.
Practical implications
Crop insurance has been recently expanded in China, and the information from this study should be useful for insurance companies and government policy makers that are attempting to increase the adoption rate of crop insurance in China.
Social implications
Crop insurance may be a useful approach for stabilizing the agricultural sector, and for increasing agricultural production and food security in China.
Originality/value
This is the first study to quantitatively model the factors affecting crop insurance purchases by farmers in Inner Mongolia, China.
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Chen Wang, Fengqiu Zou, Jeffrey Boon Hui Yap, Lincoln C. Wood, Heng Li and Linghua Ding
The production of sleeve grouting in prefabricated construction is routinely plagued by a variety of factors, and lack of mass data and complex environmental conditions over time…
Abstract
Purpose
The production of sleeve grouting in prefabricated construction is routinely plagued by a variety of factors, and lack of mass data and complex environmental conditions over time make problems inevitable. Thus, a dynamic risk control system is a valuable support for the successful completion of the sleeve grouting process. This study aims to develop an entropy-based sleeve grouting risk dynamic control system.
Design/methodology/approach
First, static risk assessment was conducted through the structured interview survey using the entropy weight method, followed by a dynamic risk control technique, where indicators were simulated through system dynamics containing causal loop diagrams and stock-and-flow diagrams.
Findings
Finally, three types of risk control models, namely, “tortuous type”, “stable type” and “peak loop type”, were developed in the entropy-based sleeve grouting risk dynamic control system and simulated using system dynamics in a real case.
Originality/value
Compared to traditional sleeve grouting risk management, the developed system enabled dynamic control over time.