Ross Dowsett, Noel Kinrade, David Whiteside, Dillon Lawson, Cleveland Barnett, Daniele Magistro and Luke Wilkins
Despite the perceived benefits of implementing virtual reality (VR) training in elite sport, arguably the most important element – the perceptions of practitioners – has been…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the perceived benefits of implementing virtual reality (VR) training in elite sport, arguably the most important element – the perceptions of practitioners – has been largely understudied. Therefore, the present study aims to explore practitioners' perceptions of VR training in elite football and baseball, with a focus on the important factors, obstacles, perceived knowledge and practical use of the technology.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative approach measuring practitioner perceptions via an online questionnaire was adopted. Football respondents (n = 25) represented practitioners from major football leagues across the world, and baseball respondents (n = 15) represented practitioners from Major League Baseball.
Findings
Both football and baseball respondents reported that the most important factor for implementation of VR training was improvement in on-field performance (technical and tactical); whilst cost was viewed as the biggest obstacle. Both football and baseball respondents also noted that the most likely group to receive VR training would be injured and rehabilitating athletes. Mann–Whitney U tests revealed that football respondents perceived coach (p = 0.02) and executive approval (p < 0.001) as significantly greater obstacles than baseball respondents.
Originality/value
This research provides novel and invaluable information for stakeholders within VR regarding what the elite organisations of different sports perceive as the most important factors for implementation, as well as greatest obstacles preventing use. This information should guide future development and marketing of VR training systems in sport.
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Mark Priestley, Stavroula Philippou, Daniel Alvunger and Tiina Soini
This chapter provides an introduction to the European case study chapters in this volume on curriculum making. The chapter explores different conceptions of curriculum and…
Abstract
This chapter provides an introduction to the European case study chapters in this volume on curriculum making. The chapter explores different conceptions of curriculum and curriculum making. It offers a critique of existing thinking about curriculum making as something that occurs withinreified levels within an educational system. Such thinking often construes curriculum making as occurring through linear and hierarchical chains of command from policy to practice. Drawing upon previous conceptualizations of curriculum making, the chapter develops a new approach to understanding curriculum making. This is a heuristic rather than a normative framing; it is essentially non-linear, framed around the concept of intertwined sites of activity – supra, macro, meso, micro and nano – within complex systems, with curriculum making framed as types of activity rather than institutional functions.
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Iman Hemmatian, Amol M. Joshi, Todd M. Inouye and and Jeffrey A. Robinson
In 2017, US federal agencies awarded over $86 billion in contracts to small businesses owned by members of under-represented groups (minorities, women, service-disabled veterans…
Abstract
In 2017, US federal agencies awarded over $86 billion in contracts to small businesses owned by members of under-represented groups (minorities, women, service-disabled veterans, and certified businesses located in economically distressed areas). The vast scale and scope of public procurement coupled with policies for supporting small disadvantaged businesses may drive federal agencies toward greater inclusiveness in awarding contracts, which may shape broader societal patterns of economic participation and social equity. However, the level of inclusiveness varies considerably across different federal agencies. The authors posit that differences in three key organizational mechanisms associated with federal agencies’ decision-making processes – administrative discretion, workplace discrimination, and legislative oversight – influence an agency’s level of inclusiveness in awarding contracts. They test these ideas using the annual small business procurement activities of 41 federal agencies, large and small, from 2002 to 2011. The authors find empirical evidence for economically significant effects of discretion, discrimination, and oversight on an agency’s inclusiveness in awarding contracts and discuss the scholarly, managerial, and policy implications.
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Black professionals in predominantly white workspaces must often make use of the professional pose – styles, behaviors, and practices meant to help navigate middle-class white…
Abstract
Black professionals in predominantly white workspaces must often make use of the professional pose – styles, behaviors, and practices meant to help navigate middle-class white professional settings – to assuage interactions with white colleagues and clients at work. Previous research has noted the emotional toll this often takes upon black workers. Based on two years of observations and interviews with a college organization of black men, this project builds upon previous work and investigates how collegiate black men frame those practices associated with the professional pose. Instead of framing these behaviors as only being emotionally taxing, these college men expressed that these behaviors were a necessity meant to prepare them for the real world of working alongside white coworkers, as a performance they could take pride in, and as a way to combat negative stereotypes regarding black men. These behaviors, though not necessary for their white peers, were necessary for the men if they sought to find success in the labor market they were preparing to enter.
Kutay Güneştepe and Deniz Tunçalp
Purpose of this paper is to explore how resistance of individual and collective actors play role in maintenance and change of institutions. Framing tactics of two emerging social…
Abstract
Purpose of this paper is to explore how resistance of individual and collective actors play role in maintenance and change of institutions. Framing tactics of two emerging social movements in Istanbul Technical University and Middle East Technical University, which emerged against institutional changes in Turkish higher education, were examined by hybrid ethnography, using both online and offline data sources. Findings show that framing tactics of institutional entrepreneurs comprise different discourses and different forms of power, which also vary during different life stages of these movements. This paper contributes to existing literature in three ways. First power dynamics in institutional change, which is mostly disregarded in institutional theory, is taken into consideration. Second, with a longitudinal comparative study, it is shown that outcomes of social movements with similar demands may diverge according to different framing tactics based on power mechanisms that appealed at different stages of their life cycle. Third, this paper, as one of the few examples of a hybrid ethnographic approach, underlines the key role of considering both offline–online data sources, as an important part of actors’ life that take place in the online world.
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Belinda Luke and Martie‐Louise Verreynne
The purpose of this research is to elaborate on a model of entrepreneurship within the public sector.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to elaborate on a model of entrepreneurship within the public sector.
Design/methodology/approach
Case studies involving state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) trace three examples of entrepreneurial ventures.
Findings
A theme of strategic use of entrepreneurial action within these organisations emerges. It is argued that these examples are representative of both a field of enquiry and a specific concept which has been termed “strategic entrepreneurship”.
Research limitations/implications
On the strength of the findings from this study we are able to draw two important conclusions. First, empirical support is found for the notion of “strategic entrepreneurship”, which is defined and explained in this paper. Second, incidences of strategic entrepreneurship are demonstrated in the SOEs, which extend the range of entrepreneurial types usually described in the public sector.
Practical implications
A number of core and supporting elements of strategic entrepreneurship are identified, providing a clear framework for businesses.
Originality/value
This paper progresses strategic entrepreneurship beyond the purely theoretical, by examining and analysing strategic entrepreneurship in an applied business setting, in this case public sector organisations.
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Attention was called in the March number of this Journal to the promotion of a Bill for the reconstitution of the Local Government Board, and the opinion was expressed that the…
Abstract
Attention was called in the March number of this Journal to the promotion of a Bill for the reconstitution of the Local Government Board, and the opinion was expressed that the renovated Department should contain among its staff “experts of the first rank in all the branches of science from which the knowledge essential for efficient administration can be drawn.”
It is now forty years since there appeared H. R. Plomer's first volume Dictionary of the booksellers and printers who were at work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to…
Abstract
It is now forty years since there appeared H. R. Plomer's first volume Dictionary of the booksellers and printers who were at work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667. This has been followed by additional Bibliographical Society publications covering similarly the years up to 1775. From the short sketches given in this series, indicating changes of imprint and type of work undertaken, scholars working with English books issued before the closing years of the eighteenth century have had great assistance in dating the undated and in determining the colour and calibre of any work before it is consulted.
José Vale, João Alves Ribeiro and Manuel Castelo Branco
The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the management of collective intellectual capital (CIC) occurs in a seaport through the actions of the network coordinator.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the management of collective intellectual capital (CIC) occurs in a seaport through the actions of the network coordinator.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study was conducted in a seaport, focusing on the actions taken by a network coordinator – a port authority – to develop the seaport’s CIC. The seaport is conceptualised as a meta-organisation, composed by interdependent actors which may possess different interests and different levels of power.
Findings
Evidence suggests that the mobilisation of different dimensions of power, in both coercive and non-coercive ways, is needed to promote a higher level of collaboration. Indeed, by mobilising non-coercive dimensions of power, the network coordinator can foster a sense of community within the meta-organisation, grounded in a trust-based collective culture that can potentiate collaboration, and thus allow the attainment of a more “sustainable” type of CIC.
Research limitations/implications
Despite the validity of the interpretations provided by the case study, generalisation of this study should only be conducted in a theoretically framed manner.
Practical implications
The findings can provide network coordinators with a better understanding of the consequences of using different dimensions of power to leverage its intangible assets and enhance the meta-organisation’s performance.
Originality/value
The paper focus on the IC management of a specific type of meso-level unit, which possess some particular characteristics of its own: a seaport. Also, the paper aims to fill a gap in literature regarding the management of different dimensions of power and its effects over IC creation.