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Tobin E. Porterfield, Joseph P. Bailey and Philip T. Evers
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance effects of information exchange by observing actual information exchange between industrial trading partners. Information…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance effects of information exchange by observing actual information exchange between industrial trading partners. Information exchange facilitates coordination through sharing both order cycle and enhanced information. Increased exchange may lead to closer relationships with the expectation of improved performance. This study moves away from perceived measures of information exchange and firm performance by integrating two datasets: one capturing historical firm performance and the second capturing electronic information exchange data.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative data of electronic information exchange between firms are observed and compared with operational performance results. Longitudinal regression analyses are conducted using data gathered from an electronically‐mediated industrial exchange network. This unique dataset provides distinct insights into the application and performance outcomes related to information exchange.
Findings
Results show that information characteristics vary by firm and the position of the firm within the supply chain. Manufacturers benefit from exchanging more basic information and from stability in their trading partner portfolio. Retailers enhance performance when there is more turnover in their trading partner portfolio and when information is exchanged reciprocally with suppliers.
Practical implications
Results from this study provide insight into the potential performance outcomes of sharing information within industrial relationships. The study demonstrates how greater information exchange changes the nature of supply chain relationships. Closer supply chain relationships may improve firm performance, but the extent of this varies based on the firm's position within its supply chain. Consequently, firms should consider the strategic implications of the way in which they exchange information with their trading partners.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature by identifying and testing specific information characteristics using actual observed exchanges of information between firms. The data set supports the measurement of information exchange between multiple firms and trading partners which allows for testing at a level of granularity beyond existing studies.
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Jan Walker and June Boyce‐Tillman
The aim of this study was to examine the potential role of music lessons as part of a treatment programme for children diagnosed as having severe chronic anxiety disorders. The…
Abstract
The aim of this study was to examine the potential role of music lessons as part of a treatment programme for children diagnosed as having severe chronic anxiety disorders. The findings are presented as a series of individual case studies based on the recorded observations of the children, parents, music‐teachers and family therapists. Over the period of a school year five children were recruited to receive lessons on an instrument of their choice from an experienced professional music‐teacher. Music lessons were credited with improvements in feelings of efficacy and self‐confidence, increased social ease and independence, new opportunities to express creativity and emotional feelings, and control over intrusive thoughts and feelings. Normalisation of the therapeutic environment, combined with freedom from parental pressure to succeed, appears to emerge as a key feature of the success of the project. The findings indicate that music lessons on prescription may offer a useful complement or alternative to therapy for difficult and complex childhood anxiety disorders.
Patnaree Piyaman, Philip Hallinger and Pongsin Viseshsiri
Developing countries in many parts of the world have experienced a disturbing trend in the differential pace of economic development among urban and rural communities. These…
Abstract
Purpose
Developing countries in many parts of the world have experienced a disturbing trend in the differential pace of economic development among urban and rural communities. These inequities have been observed in education systems in Asia, Africa, and Latin America where researchers have documented differences not only in resource allocation but also in the academic performance among students in urban and rural schools. Recently researchers have shifted their focus from examining financial and physical resources to investigating the nature and impact of differences in human resources. The purpose of this paper is to examine differences in school organization processes associated with learning-centered leadership and teacher learning among urban and rural primary schools in Thailand. Teacher trust and teacher agency were proposed as possible mediators of leadership effects on teacher learning.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employed a cross-sectional survey design. The authors collected survey data from 1,011 teachers and 60 principals in 30 urban and 30 rural primary schools in Thailand. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping were used to analyze the proposed model of leadership and teacher professional learning. More specifically, data analysis was aimed at determining the nature of relationships among the constructs in the conceptual model and whether patterns of leadership and teacher learning differed in urban and rural primary schools.
Findings
The results affirmed a model whereby school leadership exerted significant indirect effects on teacher learning in both urban and rural primary schools. Data analyses determined that the path of leadership effects moved through trust to agency and then to teacher professional learning. Thus, while the authors found a strong direct effect of leadership on teacher trust, there were only small direct effects of leadership on teacher agency and no meaningful direct effects of leadership on teacher professional learning. Thus, the research affirmed a full mediation model of leadership effects on teacher learning. Finally, the study also affirmed that the measured variables were perceived as significantly stronger in the urban schools than in the rural schools.
Social implications
The research expands on prior research on the “achievement gap” in Thailand by demonstrating the existence of a similar “human resource gap” when comparing urban and rural school leaders and teachers. This study implies that addressing the gap in student achievement will require action aimed at building the capacity of the principals and teachers who work with the rural pupils.
Originality/value
These results suggest differences in the quality of human resources between urban and rural primary schools in Thailand. There may be potential benefit to be gained from providing training focused on “learning-centered leadership” for principals and middle level leaders, as well as expanding access to quality professional development opportunities for rural teachers.
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Liudmila Tarabashkina, Alua Devine and Pascale G. Quester
Consumers seldom consider end-use consumption (reuse or upcycling) when products reach the end of their lifecycle. This study shows that end-use consumption can be encouraged if…
Abstract
Purpose
Consumers seldom consider end-use consumption (reuse or upcycling) when products reach the end of their lifecycle. This study shows that end-use consumption can be encouraged if individuals are primed to think creatively, engage in end-use ideation (imagine end-use) and become inspired by more original ideas.
Design/methodology/approach
Three studies were carried out. Study 1 tested if creativity priming resulted in more effective end-use ideation (greater number of ideas and more original ideas) compared to environmental appeals and no intervention. Study 2 tested the effectiveness of creativity priming in a longitudinal setting. Study 3 demonstrated how creativity priming and end-use ideation could be practically executed using product packaging.
Findings
Creativity priming represents an effective intervention to stimulate end-use consumption with particularly positive results amongst less creative consumers. However, it was not the number of generated ideas, but their originality during end-use ideation that triggered inspiration.
Research limitations/implications
This study demonstrates which interventions are more effective in changing consumer behaviour in favour of more sustainable practices.
Practical implications
Increasing environmental degradation requires consumers to change their behaviour by re-consuming products. This study shows that consumers can adopt end-use if they are primed to think creatively, imagine end-use consumption and generate more original ideas.
Originality/value
Creative thinking has been leveraged at product development stages, but not at the end of products’ lifecycle. This study integrated creativity priming, consumer imagination and inspiration theories to explain the underlying mechanism behind end-use consumption to scale up its adoption by consumers.
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Michelle Annette Meyer, Marccus Hendricks, Galen D. Newman, Jaimie Hicks Masterson, John T. Cooper, Garett Sansom, Nasir Gharaibeh, Jennifer Horney, Philip Berke, Shannon van Zandt and Tiffany Cousins
Participatory action research can improve scientific knowledge and community capacity to address disaster resilience and environmental justice. Evidence from the literature…
Abstract
Purpose
Participatory action research can improve scientific knowledge and community capacity to address disaster resilience and environmental justice. Evidence from the literature suggests that resident participation enhances assessment of environmental risks, raises awareness and empowers residents to fight for equitable distribution of hazard and climate risk adaptations. Yet, risk assessment and urban planning processes still frequently operate within expertise-driven groups without significant community engagement. Such fragmentation results in part from a lack of appreciation for community expertise in built environment adaptations and educational tools to support resident involvement in the often technical built environment planning processes.
Design/methodology/approach
A participatory research and place-based education project was developed that enhanced co-learning between residents and researchers while collecting and analyzing local data on flood resilience in the built environment. Five research activities constitute the curriculum of resilience education on stormwater infrastructure: establishment of partnership agreement/memorandum of understanding, participatory GIS to identify flooding issues, water quality testing and health survey, stormwater infrastructure assessment and urban/landscape design. Partners included high school and college students, residents and environmental justice organizations.
Findings
Outcomes include a stakeholder-approved infrastructure assessment smartphone application, neighborhood maps of drainage issues, a report of water containments and neighborhood-scaled green infrastructure provisions and growth plans. Findings indicate that participatory research positively contributed to resilience knowledge of participants.
Originality/value
This paper outlines an interdisciplinary pedagogical strategy for resilience planning that engages residents to assess and monitor the performance of stormwater infrastructure and create resilience plans. The paper also discusses challenges and opportunities for similar participatory projects.
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Shengnan Liu, Philip Hallinger and Daming Feng
In this era of global education reform, teacher professional learning (TPL) has emerged as a key factor in efforts to create sustainable school improvement. The same holds in…
Abstract
Purpose
In this era of global education reform, teacher professional learning (TPL) has emerged as a key factor in efforts to create sustainable school improvement. The same holds in Mainland China where ambitious curriculum reforms have been undertaken since 2000. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of learning-centered leadership (LCL) and teacher trust (TT) in fostering TPL in Chinese schools. More specifically, the authors examined two research questions: (1) What is the nature of the relationship of LCL to TT and professional learning?; and (2) How LCL practices influence TT and professional learning.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employed a cross-sectional survey design. The authors collected survey data from 1,259 teachers in 41 primary and secondary schools in three different Chinese provinces. The research employed confirmatory factor analysis to confirm the measurement model and structural equation modeling to examine interactions among the three main variables.
Findings
The results affirmed a positive association between LCL and TPL, and highlighted TT as a significant mediator in this relationship. Additional analyses distinguished between the effects of different dimensions of LCL on TT and TPL. Although the results of these analyses were broadly consistent with prior findings reported in the literature, divergent findings also emerged. More specifically, there was a limited use and no significant impact of “leadership modeling” on either TT or professional learning.
Research limitations/implications
The authors suggest that this pattern of leadership practice is linked with features of China’s institutional cum socio-cultural context. The authors recommend the use of qualitative and mixed methods studies capable of gaining further insight into relationships.
Practical implications
These findings in Mainland China reaffirm the efficacy of school-level leadership that builds a safe, trusting but focussed environment for teacher learning in the workplace. This is a potentially significant finding in a society where the use of top-down directives and reliance on legitimate authority by leaders can rob teachers of the motivation and initiative that undergirds sustainable professional learning. The findings, in concert with those of other scholars, suggest that “building trust” represents a useful strategy for principals who seek to establish productive learning environments for their teachers.
Originality/value
The value of this study lies in two areas. First, this is one of a growing but still limited set of quantitative empirical studies of school leadership in Mainland China. Second, the study tests the nature of mediation in the relationship between leadership, trust and TPL, a topic of relatively recent vintage in the educational leadership literature.
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Chris Jackson and Heidi Luv Strikwerda
Poverty has many varying negative effects on the health and well-being of those enduring it. Specifically, in the world of education, regardless of the many educational reform…
Abstract
Poverty has many varying negative effects on the health and well-being of those enduring it. Specifically, in the world of education, regardless of the many educational reform efforts over the last 50 plus years, poverty results in markedly lower achievement regardless of the metric used to determine academic success. Through this work we hope to shine light on the wealth gap in contemporary American society and the academic achievement gap that is an inevitable consequence of this inequitable concentration of monetary means. We review various literature sources to illustrate this problem and propose possible research-based solutions to ameliorate this societal ill. Using our previous works which resulted in the creation of the theoretical foundational framework of Critical Determination, we identify tangible steps that PreK-16 professionals can readily apply in an effort to minimize the current wealth gap and correlating achievement gap experienced by many students on the margins of the American public education system.