Alternative document models (ADMs) were created with the purpose of reducing the extent to which anomalies occur in counts of web links at the page level, and have been used…
Abstract
Purpose
Alternative document models (ADMs) were created with the purpose of reducing the extent to which anomalies occur in counts of web links at the page level, and have been used extensively within webometrics as an alternative to using the web page as the basic unit of analysis. This paper seels tp carry out a longitudinal study of ADMs in an attempt to ascertain which model gives the most consistent results when applied to the UK, Australia and New Zealand academic web spaces over the last six years.
Design/methodology/approach
Information science software (SocSciBot Tools, socscibot.wlv.ac.uk) was used to process hyperlink structure text files for UK, Australian and New Zealand universities and produced standard Page, Directory, Domain and Site ADMs using both inlinks and outlinks. Spearman bivariate correlation analysis was then undertaken to determine the level of correlation between these eight ADMs and a measure of site size for each university.
Findings
The findings show that the Domain ADM gives the most consistent results. However, the Directory ADM also gives more reliable results than are evident when using the standard Page model. Aggregating at the site (or university) level appears to provide less reliable results than using the page as the standard unit of measure, and this finding holds true over all three academic webs and for each time period examined over the last six years.
Research limitations/implications
The use of Spearman's correlation coefficient is considered to be unreliable when used with very small sample sizes and, with only eight universities, the New Zealand academic web space may not be sufficiently large to give truly accurate statistical results.
Originality/value
While previous specific studies have shown that more accurate results can be obtained through the use of the Domain or Directory ADM, the paper has shown that these results are consistent over time and across different countries' academic web spaces.
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This paper seeks to address the question: do university web sites publish the same kind of information and use the same kind of hyperlinks year on year or do these change over…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to address the question: do university web sites publish the same kind of information and use the same kind of hyperlinks year on year or do these change over time?
Design/methodology/approach
A link classification exercise is used to identify temporal changes in the distribution of different types of academic web links changes, using the academic web spaces of the UK, Australia and New Zealand in the years 2000 and 2006.
Findings
Significant increases in “research oriented”, “social/leisure” and “superficial” links were identified as well as notable decreases in “technical” and “personal” links. Some of these changes identified may be explained by general changes in the management of university web sites and some by more wide‐spread internet trends, e.g. dynamic pages, blogs and social networking. The increase in the proportion of research‐oriented links is particularly hopeful for future link analysis research.
Originality/value
This is an important issue from the perspective of interpreting the results of academic web analyses, because changes in link types over time would also force interpretations of link analyses to change over time.
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Shannon Elizabeth Jones and Nigel Coates
Technology transfer (TT) in industry to university collaboration (UIC) literature focuses primarily on a macro view within an SME environment. While these discussions are…
Abstract
Purpose
Technology transfer (TT) in industry to university collaboration (UIC) literature focuses primarily on a macro view within an SME environment. While these discussions are important to establish the significance of encouraging UIC's as the value is important to both parties, there is a need for further research at a micro level to help understand key approaches to ensuring the success of the TT. By looking at how value created from TT for a multi-national corporation (MNC) with a project based within a single subsidiary, this research effectively looks at the issue from both a SME level (the subsidiary independently) and a MNC level.
Design/methodology/approach
The research uses a longitudinal knowledge transfer partnership and action research to form a case study of Parker Hannifin's Gas Separation and Filtration Europe, Middle East and Africa (GSFE) division.
Findings
The research highlights the key areas to focus on in ensuring a successful TT within an UIC such as: once identifying the gap that a UIC is filling in the company, identifying internal barriers before the project starts; education of why change is necessary and then using knowledge experts to educate on the new processes being introduced and finally; incorporation of a full range of personnel, not just those directly involved in the day-to-day of the UIC.
Research limitations/implications
As a case study, further research is required to make the results more generalisable. One way to do this would be to evaluate previous successful and unsuccessful UIC's and determine if the success criteria identified were present in these programmes.
Practical implications
There are three critical points that can be taken away from this research and applied to any company looking to use UIC for TT and value co-creation. Education, external knowledge experts and business wide inclusion were highlighted in the findings as being potentially critical turning points and need to be addressed for successful TT.
Social implications
Successful UIC's further encourage investment in such programmes which has greater societal benefits. Not only can we see greater leaps in industry through better, more specific knowledge being transferred from the university, the industry knowledge fed into universities helps to guide research and teachings.
Originality/value
The micro level view created by action research based from the industry partner perspective adds another level of importance as the “how” for overcoming barriers is clearly addressed. Furthermore, the research looks at how a multi-national corporation can have value added through UIC's within subsidiaries which often is not addressed in the literature.
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The industrial relations climate of a steelworks was investigated through a programme of structured interviews with shop stewards and managers at all levels. Interviewees were…
Abstract
The industrial relations climate of a steelworks was investigated through a programme of structured interviews with shop stewards and managers at all levels. Interviewees were asked how often they handled different types of industrial relations issues, how often they interacted with their opposite numbers at different levels to solve those problems, how satisfied they were with the way each of the problems were handled and, how satisfied they were with their opposite numbers' handling of industrial relations problems generally. Results shows that there was union‐management agreement about the nature of the local climate, but that the climate differed across departments in accordance with data from independent sources. The findings also indicated that in this plant the climate was more ‘issue‐centred’ than ‘person‐centred’. It was concluded that the technique could be similarly useful in other settings for the speedy appraisal of industrial relations at plant level, but that more comparative research on industrial relations climate was needed.
Tim Denison and Malcolm McDonald
Responds to the recent criticism associated with marketing′s poorcontribution to business success. Reviews the state of marketing inBritish industry, drawing on previous research…
Abstract
Responds to the recent criticism associated with marketing′s poor contribution to business success. Reviews the state of marketing in British industry, drawing on previous research and continues by describing the major changes experienced in the business environment, arguing that the future of marketing depends on recognizing these trends and responding to them. Goes on to describe the steps that leading companies, based in the UK, are taking to become truly marketing orientated, and the ways in which they are meeting the new challenges they face. It ends by highlighting the new opportunities for market‐led companies and concludes that marketing′s contribution to business performance is in its ascendancy and far from decline.
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Gerard P. Hodgkinson, Nigel Dale and Roy L. Payne
Reviews the data on changing demographic trends and predictionsabout their implications for human resource management (HRM) practicesin the 1990s. Reports the results of a survey…
Abstract
Reviews the data on changing demographic trends and predictions about their implications for human resource management (HRM) practices in the 1990s. Reports the results of a survey of 176 senior managers/personnel specialists, which assessed their knowledge of the demographic trends, and their attitudes to HRM practices which are claimed to alleviate the effects of these trends. The results reveal a considerable degree of ignorance about the nature of the demographic trends, and varying attitudes towards the importance of the practices associated with their alleviation.
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In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of…
Abstract
In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.
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Nigel F. Coates and John R. Willans
Dentists, whilst recognizing, in the main, the need to be moremarketing oriented still have some way to go to improve the perceptionof themselves and their services in the eyes of…
Abstract
Dentists, whilst recognizing, in the main, the need to be more marketing oriented still have some way to go to improve the perception of themselves and their services in the eyes of the public. Research indicates various barriers to attendance, some of which could be minimized by elementary marketing considerations, e.g. accessibility to potential patients. Reviews the literature to determine what these barriers are together with indications of how these issues could be addressed. A survey of the UK dental schools indicates a lack of a marketing input until the postgraduate vocational training year. Given changes in the way in which dentists are being remunerated and the well‐documented problems which they face in encouraging people to use their services, suggests that perhaps an earlier and more systematic application of marketing principles is needed. The research indicates that major barriers are fear and cost. Discusses possible ways in which basic marketing principles could be used to mitigate their effects.