Nelson Piedra, Edmundo Tovar, Ricardo Colomo-Palacios, Jorge Lopez-Vargas and Janneth Alexandra Chicaiza
The aim of this paper is to present an initiative to apply the principles of Linked Data to enhance the search and discovery of OpenCourseWare (OCW) contents created and shared by…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to present an initiative to apply the principles of Linked Data to enhance the search and discovery of OpenCourseWare (OCW) contents created and shared by the universities.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a case study of how linked data technologies can be applied for the enhancement of open learning contents.
Findings
Results presented under the umbrella of OCW-Universia consortium, as the integration and access to content from different repositories OCW and the development of a query method to access these data, reveal that linked data would offer a solution to filter and select semantically those open educational contents, and automatically are linked to the linked open data cloud.
Originality/value
The new OCW-Universia integration with linked data adds new features to the initial framework including improved query mechanisms and interoperability.
Details
Keywords
The attention of scholars and policy makers towards the topic of innovation has consistently increased, especially in recent years. This is justified by the fact that innovation…
Abstract
The attention of scholars and policy makers towards the topic of innovation has consistently increased, especially in recent years. This is justified by the fact that innovation undoubtedly plays, today, a crucial role in driving a country’s economic growth, improving productivity and, more generally, enhancing overall societal well-being.
When the discourse around innovation focuses on its economic dimension, the strong intertwinement with entrepreneurship emerges. In line with this, focusing on research on innovation in organisations and, especially, innovation in relation to the figure of the entrepreneur is considered, plenty of studies have been carried on, over time, in many disciplines, analysing the role of the entrepreneur in relation to innovation from various different angles. However, especially when management studies are considered, we can notice a poor consideration of the role played by the gender of the entrepreneur. In line with this consideration, by means of a systematic literature review, this chapter aims to fill this literature gap focusing on the intertwinement that can be envisaged, in management studies, among the issues of entrepreneurship and innovation in the case of women-owned firms.
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Keywords
Arleen Hernández-Díaz, Theany Calderon-Abreu, Maria Amador-Dumois and Mario Córdova-Claudio
Higher education institutions, particularly in the case of public universities, face the challenge of creating more value in an environment of increasing requirements and…
Abstract
Purpose
Higher education institutions, particularly in the case of public universities, face the challenge of creating more value in an environment of increasing requirements and limitations. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relation of internal marketing (IM) with employees’ attitudinal outcomes, which aim to stimulate and retain motivated and customer-conscious contact employees.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data of 94 customer-contact employees in a public higher education institution were analysed using partial least squares path modelling to explore and predict key target constructs.
Findings
The results demonstrate the relationship between customer-contact employees’ service empathy (SE), institutional IM initiatives and employees’ attitudinal outcomes in the public sector, specifically higher education institutions.
Research limitations/implications
The current study relies on self-reported data and a small sample of customer-contact employees working only on enrolment-related areas. Further studies should be designed for theory confirmation and generalizability of the results.
Practical implications
Top managers in public higher education institutions must encourage organizational identification through IM initiatives, such as well-established internal communication procedures. Academic management should continuously train and retain customer-contact employees that have developed SE and a sense of belonging to the organization. SE must be incorporated in the job descriptions and training of customer-contact employees.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the limited literature on the use of IM and SE in the public sector, specifically higher education institutions.
Propósito
Las instituciones de educación superior, en particular en el caso de las universidades públicas, se enfrentan al reto de crear más valor en un entorno de necesidades y limitaciones en aumento. El propósito de este estudio es explorar la relación entre el marketing interno y las resultantes actitudes laborales de los empleados. El objetivo del marketing interno es estimular y retener empleados de contacto que estén motivados y sean conscientes de la importancia de los clientes.
Diseño/metodología/enfoque
Se analizaron datos de 94 empleados de contacto de una institución pública de educación superior utilizando modelos de regresión de cuadrados mínimos parciales para explorar y predecir constructos claves.
Resultados
Los resultados demuestran la relación entre los siguientes constructos: niveles de empatía de los empleados de contacto, iniciativas institucionales de marketing interno, y las resultantes actitudes de los empleados del sector público, en particular organizaciones en el sector de la educación superior.
Limitaciones/implicaciones de la investigación
El presente estudio se basa en los datos auto informados de una pequeña muestra de empleados de contacto que trabajan sólo en áreas relacionadas con matrícula. Nuevos estudios deberían ser diseñados para la confirmación de la teoría y la generalización de los resultados.
Implicaciones prácticas
Los altos directivos de las instituciones públicas de educación superior deben fomentar la identificación con la organización a través de iniciativas de marketing interno, tales como procedimientos establecidos de comunicación interna. Los directivos académicos deben continuamente adiestrar y retener a los empleados de contacto que han desarrollado la capacidad de proveer servicios de manera empática y que tienen sentido de pertenencia a la organización. Proveer servicio de manera empática debe ser incorporado en las descripciones de empleo y formación de los empleados de contacto.
Originalidad/valor
El estudio contribuye a la literatura limitada sobre el uso de marketing interno y empatía en los servicios en el sector público, específicamente en las instituciones de educación superior.
Details
Keywords
- Internal marketing
- Service empathy
- Public sector marketing
- Higher education
- Human resource management
- Customer-contact employees
- Partial least squares
- Marketing interno
- empatía en el servicio
- marketing en el sector público
- educación superior
- gestión de recursos humanos
- empleados de contacto
- regresión de cuadrados parciales mínimos
Jose O. Diaz and Karen R. Diaz
“When James Boswell returned from a tour of Corsica in 1765 he wrote: ‘It is indeed amazing that an island so considerable, and in which such noble things have been doing, should…
Abstract
“When James Boswell returned from a tour of Corsica in 1765 he wrote: ‘It is indeed amazing that an island so considerable, and in which such noble things have been doing, should be so imperfectly known.’ The same might be said today of Puerto Rico.” Thus began Millard Hansen and Henry Wells in the foreword to their 1953 look at Puerto Rico's democratic development. Four decades later, the same could again be said about the island.
Marta B. Rodríguez-Galán and Luis M. Falcón
To examine aging Puerto Ricans’ experiences with and perceptions of depression treatment.
Abstract
Purpose
To examine aging Puerto Ricans’ experiences with and perceptions of depression treatment.
Methodology/approach
In-depth analysis of eight exemplary cases from ethnographic interviews with a subsample of 16 aging Puerto Ricans in the Boston area who are part of the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study.
Findings
The results show that respondents were resistant to accepting pharmacological treatment for their depression, and they often characterized antidepressants as “dope.” Moreover, they claimed that in addition to their health problems, social stressors such as financial strain, lack of jobs, housing problems, and social isolation are triggering or contributing to their depression. Because of this, they express reluctance in accepting clinical treatment only, and suggest that broader social issues and other health needs ought to be addressed as part of an effective treatment. For many, pharmacological treatment is acceptable only in the more severe forms of depression.
Research limitations/implications
These results have important implications for improving the quality of depression treatment and reducing health disparities for mainland Puerto Ricans.
Originality/value of chapter
Even though recent studies continue to show a high frequency of depression among Puerto Ricans, issues of treatment quality are still understudied and ethnographic accounts are especially lacking. Our study offers an exploratory investigation of this unresolved research issue.
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Keywords
Anna Marie Johnson, Claudene Sproles and Robert Detmering
– The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.
Design/methodology/approach
Introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.
Findings
Provides information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.
Originality/value
The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.
Details
Keywords
José Antonio Cordón García, Julio Alonso Arévalo and Helena Martín Rodero
In Spain, recent experiences by publishing houses are related to the new market of electronic books and they will change the current publishing scene in no time. The paper aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
In Spain, recent experiences by publishing houses are related to the new market of electronic books and they will change the current publishing scene in no time. The paper aims to discuss some of them and to give an outlook of future developments in the sector and in the libraries.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to develop the current situation of electronic publishing and the research on the initiatives of production and sales of electronic books, the authors used statistical and business sources, as well as bibliographic and reference databases. They assessed the experiences that have been developed in the libraries regarding the lending and use of electronic books, by means of a survey that considers these points.
Findings
There are several working experiences with electronic books, mainly through the subscription of collections in university and research libraries. However, the latest innovation is represented by the appearance of initiatives for the production and creation of publishing contents in Spain. The publication of electronic books in Spain has gone from being a mid‐term possibility, calmly accepted by the publishing sector, to being an unstoppable reality that has forced the main actors in this field to take their positions and to adopt immediate initiatives.
Originality/value
This is the first time that an analysis of the sector of electronic books in Spain and their implications for library and publishing sector is done.
Details
Keywords
Literature on “gender and organisation” in developing countries is scarce. The purpose of this paper is to unveil the way in which gender construction is understood and operates…
Abstract
Purpose
Literature on “gender and organisation” in developing countries is scarce. The purpose of this paper is to unveil the way in which gender construction is understood and operates within public organisational settings in the Dominican Republic.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 27 women and 13 men from three organisations in the public sector in the Dominican Republic. The research was developed using a feminist poststructuralist methodological framework and used discourse analysis.
Findings
Gender construction and dynamics in the Dominican public sector reproduce paternalistic assumptions and beliefs. Organisational culture operates as a gendered system where sexualised structures and processes perpetuate ideas about male superiority and female inferiority, which translate in expectations of men being dominant and women being submissive.
Research limitations/implications
The experience of a group of employees from three public institutions cannot generalise the whole of the public sector all around the country. More importantly, it cannot be assumed to represent all feminist voices from developing countries.
Practical implications
The implications of this research are significant both for gender sensitive employment public policy reform and human resource management practices in the public sector.
Originality/value
The research focused on how gender is articulated in organisational culture, situating this problematisation in the public sector in the Dominican Republic. The paper contributes to the limited knowledge of gender and organisation in the Hispanic Caribbean, particularly the Dominican Republic.
Details
Keywords
This study aims to investigate the factors that affect the likelihood of formalizing informal sector activities in 13 Sub-Saharan African countries, using World Bank enterprise…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the factors that affect the likelihood of formalizing informal sector activities in 13 Sub-Saharan African countries, using World Bank enterprise survey data collected between the periods 2009 and 2018. Notwithstanding the great contribution of the informal economy in Africa, developing countries may stand to gain more if they make inroads in formalizing the informal sector.
Design/methodology/approach
Since the dependent variable is binary taking the value of one if the firm is willing to formalize and zero otherwise, the study will employ a discrete choice probit model.
Findings
Results inter alia show that firms that are more likely to formalize are young, owned by individuals with high levels of education and, have registered before. Governments should therefore target firms that are young and provide them with information about the benefits of registration, and if these firms are owned by experienced and educated individuals, the likelihood for them to register would be high.
Research limitations/implications
The study uses cross sectional data and therefore cannot capture time variant factors affecting the probability to register and also cannot correct effectively for endogeneity.
Practical implications
Governments should therefore target firms that are young and provide them with as much information as possible about the benefits of registration, and if these firms are owned by experienced and educated individuals, the likelihood to convince them to register would be high. They should also reduce the cost of registration so as to improve net benefits in line with the rational exit view.
Social implications
Formalizing informal activities will help improve the performance of these firms, reduce vulnerable employment as well as crime, poverty and inequality. Providing decent operating and working conditions to informal players will reduce social and political unrest.
Originality/value
The African continent is home to many informal firms accounting for roughly 55% of economic activity with 90% of workers eking out a living in a sector that does not respect worker rights, provide decent working conditions and where changes in growth have done little to reduce its size. Regulatory reforms have also been implemented resulting in the number of start-up registration procedures falling from 11 in 2003 to seven in 2019. The uniqueness of Sub Saharan Africa in terms of entrepreneurial culture, political, institutional and economic conditions as well as lack of consensus in the extant empirical literature make this study pertinent.