Public debates and scholarly literature on football fandom are often characterised by generalisation and lacking differentiation. The changing ethnography of fans, affected by the…
Abstract
Purpose
Public debates and scholarly literature on football fandom are often characterised by generalisation and lacking differentiation. The changing ethnography of fans, affected by the rapid commercialisation and internationalisation of the game, reinforces the demand for contemporary classification criteria and fan typologies that take the complexity and heterogeneity of fans into account and draw a more differentiated picture of fans and sub-groups.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the grounded theory methodology and a systematic literature review on stakeholder theory, stakeholder classification criteria and football fandom, the authors conduct and analyse 14 semi-structured expert interviews with fan managers employed by German professional football clubs. Building on the analysis, the authors identify, present and discuss ten contemporary criteria and five corresponding typologies for the classification of football fans.
Findings
The grounded theory analysis suggests that football fans can be characterised according to ten classification criteria. Building on the analysis, the authors derive five fan typologies that differ in their characteristics along the continua of the identified criteria. Typologies comprise (1) active fans, (2) consuming fans, (3) event fans, (4) corporate fans and (5) passive followers.
Originality/value
The paper enlarges prior knowledge on the behavioural and attitudinal characteristics of fans as individuals and adds knowledge regarding relationships within fan groups, and regarding formal and non-formal relations between fans and clubs. The results provide scholars with a framework for further scientific investigation and practitioners with a concept for a more sophisticated and differentiated approach to managing fan relations.
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Daniel Hofer, Markus Jäger, Aya Khaled Youssef Sayed Mohamed and Josef Küng
For aiding computer security experts in their study, log files are a crucial piece of information. Especially the time domain is very important for us because in most cases…
Abstract
Purpose
For aiding computer security experts in their study, log files are a crucial piece of information. Especially the time domain is very important for us because in most cases, timestamps are the only linking points between events caused by attackers, faulty systems or simple errors and their corresponding entries in log files. With the idea of storing and analyzing this log information in graph databases, we need a suitable model to store and connect timestamps and their events. This paper aims to find and evaluate different approaches how to store timestamps in graph databases and their individual benefits and drawbacks.
Design/methodology/approach
We analyse three different approaches, how timestamp information can be represented and stored in graph databases. For checking the models, we set up four typical questions that are important for log file analysis and tested them for each of the models. During the evaluation, we used the performance and other properties as metrics, how suitable each of the models is for representing the log files’ timestamp information. In the last part, we try to improve one promising looking model.
Findings
We come to the conclusion, that the simplest model with the least graph database-specific concepts in use is also the one yielding the simplest and fastest queries.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations to this research are that only one graph database was studied and also improvements to the query engine might change future results.
Originality/value
In the study, we addressed the issue of storing timestamps in graph databases in a meaningful, practical and efficient way. The results can be used as a pattern for similar scenarios and applications.
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Nora Denner, Thomas Koch, Benno Viererbl and Alicia Ernst
This study examines the functions of informal communication in organizations. Informal communication can be characterized as any interaction within an organization in which two or…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the functions of informal communication in organizations. Informal communication can be characterized as any interaction within an organization in which two or more individuals assume personal roles rather than their professional roles and in which employees do not intend to solve work-related problems. Despite its central role in organizations, a comprehensive understanding of the specific functions of informal communication within workplace dynamics is lacking.
Design/methodology/approach
We reviewed existing literature to identify the functions of informal communication and then surveyed employees (N = 1,380). We asked them to indicate their agreement with statements measuring the functions of informal communication that we derived from the literature.
Findings
Using exploratory factor analysis, we identified four core functions: stress management and recreation, nurturing private relationships, fostering a sense of belonging and connectedness and facilitating information exchange and coordination. We then examined how these core functions related to job-related and sociodemographic characteristics. Our findings underscore the importance of informal communication in organizations, particularly in facilitating the development and maintenance of social relationships as well as information exchange and coordination, both of which play critical roles in organizational success.
Originality/value
This study is among the first to systematize the functions of informal communication in organizations and to empirically extract core functions that can be used for further research. It is also highly relevant to practitioners of organizational management and organizational communication.
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Elizabeth Long Lingo and Hille C. Bruns
While audiences play a key role in the implementation and ultimate success of novel ideas, how audiences are reflected in negotiations about quality within the creative process…
Abstract
While audiences play a key role in the implementation and ultimate success of novel ideas, how audiences are reflected in negotiations about quality within the creative process remains undertheorized. We examine this question through a comparative ethnography of two settings where digital technology use magnifies the countless micro-decisions involved in producing a creative output and considerations of audience evaluation throughout the creative process – Nashville music production and systems biology cancer research. We find that actors encounter a fundamental tension between two competing standards of quality: the technically perfect, processed and ideal versus the empirically grounded, unprocessed and real. We show how actors navigate this tension vis-á-vis three different audiences – internal peers, extended community, and external reviewers – and how this manifests differently across audiences and the arts and sciences, depending on the audience’s expertise. Our study illuminates the tension between the “ideal versus real” in creative processes that is brought to the fore when creating with digital technology, extends extant research on audiences and organizing for creativity, and offers unique insights from our comparative ethnography across the arts and sciences.
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Johannes Wegmann, Daniel Hermann and Oliver Musshoff
Urbanization is a main driver of the transformation from agricultural-based economies to service-based economies. At the same time, urbanization might also alter preferences and…
Abstract
Purpose
Urbanization is a main driver of the transformation from agricultural-based economies to service-based economies. At the same time, urbanization might also alter preferences and attitudes such as risk and time preferences that contribute to economic growth and foster this transition. To study the effect of urbanization, few studies have compared individual time or risk preferences in rural and urban settings, reporting mixed results. This study analyses how risk and time preferences alter along the rural–urban interface and assesses the correlation of socio-economic, socio-cultural and demographic characteristics with these preferences. Using such an approach provides insights how preferences are altered in areas of transition as the rural–urban interface mirrors different stages of urbanization.
Design/methodology/approach
Using experimental approaches, risk attitudes and time preferences of 1,117 agricultural and non-agricultural households were elicited along the rural–urban interface of the fast-developing Indian megacity Bengaluru in 2016/17. The study reports joint estimations of risk and time preferences and discusses the influence of urbanization on these preferences.
Findings
Results show that households are on average slightly risk-averse and highly impatient. The results also indicate a decline in discount rates towards rural areas while risk preferences do not considerably differ between those areas. This puzzling result may be explained by difference response of rural and urban areas to the Demonetization policy of the Indian government in 2016.
Originality/value
The research design compares jointly estimated risk and time preferences of agricultural and non-agricultural households of a rapidly urbanizing area in a low-medium income country.
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Lisa Schmidthuber, Simone Stütz and Dennis Hilgers
Governments all over the world have implemented citizensourcing initiatives to integrate citizens into decision-making processes. A more participative decision-making process is…
Abstract
Purpose
Governments all over the world have implemented citizensourcing initiatives to integrate citizens into decision-making processes. A more participative decision-making process is associated with an open government and assumed to benefit public service quality and interactive value creation. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the outcomes of open government initiatives and ask to what extent open government participation is related to perceived outcomes of open government.
Design/methodology/approach
Data conducted from a survey among users of a citizensourcing platform and platform data are used to perform non-parametric analyses and examine the relationship between platform participation and perceived outcomes of open government.
Findings
The findings of this paper suggest that active platform usage positively relates to several outcomes perceived by citizens, such as improved information flow, increased trust in and satisfaction with local government. In contrast, repetitive participation does not significantly relate to users’ outcome evaluation.
Practical implications
This study suggests public managers to provide possibilities for citizen participation and interaction with government such as citizensourcing initiatives. In particular, it recommends promoting participants’ platform activity, as proactive platform participation has positive effects on perceived outcomes of open government.
Originality/value
Previous literature discussed what it needs to realize a transparent and participatory government. First empirical studies deal with government institutions’ reasons to promote exchange with citizens, and investigate citizens’ motivation to participate in citizensourcing activities, but have disregarded the consequences of open government so far. This study thus provides first insights into the outcomes of open government, as perceived by the users.
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Lucas Nesselhauf, Johannes S. Deker and Ruth Fleuchaus
The purpose of this paper is to show that consumer education in the form of information can effectively overcome adoption barriers to new and innovative wine packaging. This…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show that consumer education in the form of information can effectively overcome adoption barriers to new and innovative wine packaging. This effectiveness depends on both the degree in packaging innovation and the level of consumer involvement.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on an online experiment conducted with a sample of 427 German consumers to analyse the perception of consumers about innovative packaging. The experiment featured three different packaging options: bottles with screw-cap closures, bag-in-box and StackTek®. For each packaging form, a treatment group with additional information about the packaging and a reference group without this information were surveyed. ANOVA and t-tests were carried out to test the hypotheses. A moderated regression analysis was used to examine the effect of involvement in combination with information on intention to buy.
Findings
The results revealed that low-involvement consumers react positively to additional information about the benefits of a new packaging. For highly involved consumers, however, the effect of information is not significant. Furthermore, the analysis showed that low-involvement consumers mainly buy wine in supermarkets.
Practical implications
Information about new packaging forms should be presented in places where low-involvement consumers buy wine, such as at supermarkets. These consumers can be influenced by the additional information about the innovative packaging.
Originality/value
The use of a moderated regression analysis in the context of wine packaging and involvement is a first and reveals new and valuable insights.
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A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balanceeconomics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary toman′s finding the good life and society enduring…
Abstract
A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balance economics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary to man′s finding the good life and society enduring as a civilized instrumentality. Looks for authority to great men of the past and to today′s moral philosopher: man is an ethical animal. The 13 essays are: 1. Evolutionary Economics: The End of It All? which challenges the view that Darwinism destroyed belief in a universe of purpose and design; 2. Schmoller′s Political Economy: Its Psychic, Moral and Legal Foundations, which centres on the belief that time‐honoured ethical values prevail in an economy formed by ties of common sentiment, ideas, customs and laws; 3. Adam Smith by Gustav von Schmoller – Schmoller rejects Smith′s natural law and sees him as simply spreading the message of Calvinism; 4. Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon, Socialist – Karl Marx, Communist: A Comparison; 5. Marxism and the Instauration of Man, which raises the question for Marx: is the flowering of the new man in Communist society the ultimate end to the dialectical movement of history?; 6. Ethical Progress and Economic Growth in Western Civilization; 7. Ethical Principles in American Society: An Appraisal; 8. The Ugent Need for a Consensus on Moral Values, which focuses on the real dangers inherent in there being no consensus on moral values; 9. Human Resources and the Good Society – man is not to be treated as an economic resource; man′s moral and material wellbeing is the goal; 10. The Social Economist on the Modern Dilemma: Ethical Dwarfs and Nuclear Giants, which argues that it is imperative to distinguish good from evil and to act accordingly: existentialism, situation ethics and evolutionary ethics savour of nihilism; 11. Ethical Principles: The Economist′s Quandary, which is the difficulty of balancing the claims of disinterested science and of the urge to better the human condition; 12. The Role of Government in the Advancement of Cultural Values, which discusses censorship and the funding of art against the background of the US Helms Amendment; 13. Man at the Crossroads draws earlier themes together; the author makes the case for rejecting determinism and the “operant conditioning” of the Skinner school in favour of the moral progress of autonomous man through adherence to traditional ethical values.
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Alesia Gerassimenko, Lieven De Moor and Laurens Defau
Currently, residential forecasting literature is limited with few to no forecasting papers that consider residential prices and energy consumption for the selling and rental…
Abstract
Purpose
Currently, residential forecasting literature is limited with few to no forecasting papers that consider residential prices and energy consumption for the selling and rental market within a single study. The purpose of this paper is to study the prices and energy usage for both markets by combining an explanatory model with the predictions of a predictive model, which will lead to a better understanding of the forecasting results.
Design/methodology/approach
This study presents an econometric comparison between 508,612 selling properties and 174,007 rental properties transacted in Flanders between January 2019 and December 2023. The authors study their prices and energy usage by combining the causal results of a hedonic price model (HPM) with the predictions of an autoregressive integrated moving average model (ARIMA).
Findings
The authors find that both markets are extremely sensitive to changes in related factors, whereby selling prices are primarily influenced by macroeconomic factors, but rental prices and especially energy usage are also sensitive to market standards. Policies that target energy efficiency can therefore steer its future trend. In addition, in line with previous literature, the HPM shows an increasingly strong relationship between residential prices and energy efficiency over the years, indicating that these steering energy policies also indirectly monitor residential prices.
Originality/value
This study underscores the importance of integrating the results of an explanatory model with a predictive model. It demonstrates that combining them provides a more comprehensive understanding which is helpful for policymakers, real estate professionals and investors during their decision-making process.
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Per Ståle Knardal and Inger Johanne Pettersen
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the budget, when split into a network of projects, can act as a management tool to balance control with creativity.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the budget, when split into a network of projects, can act as a management tool to balance control with creativity.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study is used to discuss the budget in a large Norwegian festival. Simons’ (1995) concept of interactive use of budgets is applied for the analysis of empirical findings. Especially, the authors focus on the design and use of the budget and how it is aligned with the specific characteristics of festivals as economic organizations.
Findings
The findings support earlier research which focusses on the need to balance between control and dynamic changes to successfully manage festivals. This study gives a detailed knowledge on how managers use budgets to combine management control with creativity and dynamic adaptions.
Originality/value
This study contributes to a detailed understanding of how managers can use budgets as tools to stabilize between uncertainty, creativity and control.