David D. Franks and Jeff Davis
Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to be as comprehensive as possible about what is known about mirror neurons at this time.Design/methodology/approach – This chapter offers…
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to be as comprehensive as possible about what is known about mirror neurons at this time.
Design/methodology/approach – This chapter offers a comprehensive critique including Churchland's hesitations about findings on mirror neurons (2011) which are balanced by Ramachandran's conviction that much of the research on mirror neurons is valid (2011). Following this is a summary of the results of the Mirror Neuron Forum (2011) wherein leading mirror neuron researchers exchange their views and conclusions about this subject.
Findings – The few single cells measures that we have show that they are much wider distributed throughout the brain than we have previously imagined. It should be stressed that single measures of mirror neurons have occurred albeit in limited situations. This establishes once and for all their relevance to humans.
Originality/value – The work on mirror neurons is a critical contribution from neuroscience to bringing the social brain into sociology and refining our understandings of intersubjectivity and of our biologically driven connections with others.
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This paper shows that the collector (like the flâneur) is a decisive character in Walter Benjamin’s philosophy of history, specifically in the manifestation of the historical…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper shows that the collector (like the flâneur) is a decisive character in Walter Benjamin’s philosophy of history, specifically in the manifestation of the historical materialist, yet the paper is not so much about the collector or collecting as it is about the commodity and the experience thereof in consumer society.
Methodology/approach
The section “The Dream World of Mass Culture” discusses mass culture and the central problem of commodity fetishism as Benjamin sees it. The section “A Physiognomist of ‘the World of Things’” discusses the critical task of the historical materialist actualized and made possible through an activity akin to collecting. The section “Collecting, Child’s Play, and Seeing Similarities” illuminates the central importance of the activity of collecting for Benjamin’s research regarding mass culture, historical materialism, and the experience of modernity itself. The final section explains and fleshes out the central concepts of the mimetic faculty and physiognomic perception for Benjamin.
Findings
I find that, ultimately, to understand the ability of the historical materialist to witness history critically, according to Benjamin, is to understand the historical materialist as a collector. To understand the revolutionary activity of collecting is to understand collecting as a manifestation of a fundamental activity of human nature, the inclination to become “like” or to become “similar.” But such an impulse grounds, for Benjamin, not only the activity of collecting but also collective experience, the collective conscious, mass culture, and the essence of the commodity itself as a sociocultural artifact. The paper demonstrates that the mimetic faculty is the primary human faculty Benjamin focused on in his theory of experience.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper lies in the fact that it illustrates the primary importance of the theory of the mimetic faculty, the notion of physiognomic perception, and the work of Heinz Werner to Walter Benjamin’s theory of commodity fetishism that to date has been largely underdeveloped. But, more importantly, the paper shows that Benjamin’s theory of experience could illuminate a path toward developing a theory of experience within a fundamental philosophical anthropology.
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Jenell M. Johnson and Melissa M. Littlefield
Recent years have seen an explosion in research by scholars from the social sciences and humanities who apply neuroscience to research in their home disciplines. One way these…
Abstract
Recent years have seen an explosion in research by scholars from the social sciences and humanities who apply neuroscience to research in their home disciplines. One way these ‘neuroscholars’ have engaged in conversations with neuroscience is by incorporating books of popular neuroscience into their work. This chapter explores some of the textual changes that result from the translation of neuroscience to popular neuroscience, and through rhetorical analysis, examines how popular neuroscience is used to support claims in emerging disciplines like neuroeconomics, neuroliterary criticism, neurolaw, and neuroeducation. An examination of scholarship from several disciplines – including sociology – reveals that popular neuroscience is often marshaled not as a translation or accommodation of science, but as science itself via two primary rhetorical strategies we have termed ‘fact finding’ and ‘theory building.’
Jocelyn Cranefield, Mary Ellen Gordon, Prashant Palvia, Alexander Serenko and Tim Jacks
The study aims to explore whether there is diversity of occupational culture among IT workers. Prior work conceptualizes IT occupational culture (ITOC) as based around six…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to explore whether there is diversity of occupational culture among IT workers. Prior work conceptualizes IT occupational culture (ITOC) as based around six distinctive values (ASPIRE) but has not explored whether there is variation in ITOC.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data from 496 New Zealand IT workers was used to create factors representing IT occupational values based on the ASPIRE tool. Hierarchical cluster analysis and discriminant analysis were applied to identify distinctive segments of ITOC.
Findings
Four ITOC segments were identified: fun-lovers, innovators, independents and institutionalists. These differed in the relative emphasis ascribed to the ITOC values with each segment being distinguished by 1–2 dominant values. Segment membership varied according to level of responsibility and birth country. Institutionalists and innovators had higher concern about organizational and IT issues than fun-lovers and independents. Job satisfaction was lowest among innovators and highest along institutionalists.
Research limitations/implications
This study challenges the concept of a unified ITOC, suggesting that ITOC is pluralistic. It also theorizes about interactions between ITOC, individual motivation and values and national culture.
Practical implications
Management needs to be cognizant of the fact that IT occupational culture is not homogeneous and different IT occupational segments require unique management approaches, and that their own values may not match those of others in IT work. By understanding ITOC segments, managers can tailor support, assign tasks appropriately and design teams to optimize synergies and avoid conflict.
Originality/value
This study reveals the existence of ITOC segments and theorizes about the relationship of these to innovation-orientation, job satisfaction, individual motivation, work styles and national culture. The combination of cluster and discriminant analysis is a valuable replicable inductive method that is underrepresented in Information Systems (IS) research.
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Anderson A., Karthikeyan A., Ramesh Kumar C., Ramachandran S. and Praveenkumar T.R.
The purpose of this study is to predict the performance and emission characteristics of micro gas turbine engines powered by alternate fuels. The micro gas turbine engine…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to predict the performance and emission characteristics of micro gas turbine engines powered by alternate fuels. The micro gas turbine engine performance, combustion and emission characteristics are analyzed for the jet fuel with different additives.
Design/methodology/approach
The experimental investigation was carried out with Jet A-1 fuel on the gas turbine engines at different load conditions. The primary blends of the Jet A-1 fuels are from canola and solid waste pyrolysis oil. Then the ultrasonication of highly concentrated multiwall carbon nanotubes is carried with the primary blends of canola (Jet-A fuel 70%, canola 20% and 10% ethanol) and P20E (Jet-A 70% fuel, 20% PO and 10% ethanol).
Findings
The consumption of the fuel is appreciable with the blends at a very high static thrust. The 39% reduction in thrust specific fuel consumption associated with a 32% enhance in static thrust with P20E blend among different fuel blends. Moreover, due to the increase in ethanol concentration in the blends PO20E and C20E lead to a 22% rise in thermal efficiency and a 9% increase in higher oxygen content is observed.
Practical implications
The gas turbine engine emits very low emission of gases such as CO, CO2 and NOx by using the fuel blends, which typically reduces the fossil fuel usage limits with reduced pollutants.
Originality/value
The emission of the gas turbine engines is further optimized with the addition of hydrogen in Jet-A fuel. That is leading to high specific fuel exergy and owing to the lower carbon content in the hydrogen fuel when compared with that of the fossil fuels used in gas turbine engines. Therefore, the usage of hydrogen with nanofluids was so promising based on the results obtained for replacing fossil fuels.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the existing mechanism through which business group affiliated firms in emerging markets (EMs) continue to generate superior performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the existing mechanism through which business group affiliated firms in emerging markets (EMs) continue to generate superior performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors build our argument on the basis of how business group affiliation in EM facilitates internationalization and investment into innovation in affiliated firms compared to un-affiliated firm, resulting in higher firm performance. The authors use advance statistical modeling – causal mediation analysis to separate direct effect and indirect effect of business group affiliation in EM on performance through internationalization and investment into innovation of business group affiliated firms as mediating variables.
Findings
Based on 122,479 observations (firm year) from 17,235 Indian business group affiliated and un-affiliated firms, the findings help to identify that internationalization and investment into innovation of business group affiliated firms do have a mediating role in affiliation–performance relationship for EM business groups.
Originality/value
This study unravels the existing causal chain between business group affiliation in EMs and subsequent performance of affiliated firms. The authors complement institutional argument for superior performance of business group affiliation and focus on the performance implication of mediating strategic decisions in affiliated firms.
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This chapter incorporates gender consciousness into critiques of the rational actor model by revisiting Carol Gilligan's account of moral development. Economics itself, led by the…
Abstract
This chapter incorporates gender consciousness into critiques of the rational actor model by revisiting Carol Gilligan's account of moral development. Economics itself, led by the insights from game theory, is reexamining trust, altruism, reciprocity, and empathy. Behavioral economics further explores the implications of a more robust conception of human motivation. We argue that the most likely source for a comprehensive theory will come from the integration of behavioral economics with behavioral biology, and that this project depends on the insights from evolutionary analysis, genetics, and neuroscience. Considering the biological basis of human behavior, however, and, realistically considering the role of trust, altruism, reciprocity, and empathy in market transactions requires a reexamination of the role of gender in the construction of human society.
First, we revisit Gilligan, and argue that her articulation of relational feminism faltered, in part, because she could not identify the source of the stereotypically feminine. Second, we consider the ways in which the limitations of the rational actor model meant that law and economics could also not resolve the relational concerns that Gilligan raised. Third, we discuss the rediscovery of gender that is emerging from the gendered results of game theory trials and the new research on the biological basis of gender differences. Finally, we conclude that incorporating the insights of this new research into law and the social sciences will require a new methodology. Instead of narrow-minded focus on the incentive effects in the marginal transaction, we argue that reconsideration of stereotypically masculine and feminine traits requires an emphasis on balance.
Sundas Hussain, Safiya Mukhtar Alshibani and Amir Daneshvar
The ongoing economic impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic upon national and international economies has provided a novel set of challenges and barriers for organisations;…
Abstract
The ongoing economic impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic upon national and international economies has provided a novel set of challenges and barriers for organisations; particularly for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This has led to an increased focus on sustainable decision-making and long-term survival and growth strategies, such as internationalisation opportunities, for SMEs during obscure times and fluctuating economies. Thus, examining how SMEs within ambiguous economies are adopting innovative decision-making to continue to sustain and grow their enterprises provides a vital perspective and understanding of not only enterprise survival but enterprise growth during times of economic uncertainty. This chapter proposes a conceptual framework that explores internationalisation opportunities through an intersectional lens. The framework depicts that intersectionality as an enabler during ambiguous times for Maldivian women entrepreneurs generates innovative decision-making towards internationalisation as part of sustainable growth practices. The conceptual framework offers theoretical implications for empirical studies of an inductive or deductive nature and offers pragmatic importance for women entrepreneurs considering internationalisation through sustainable growth during obscure times and fluctuating economies. This chapter contributes to the growing body of knowledge in the field of international entrepreneurship, particularly innovative decision-making, and sustainable growth through internationalisation opportunities of women entrepreneurs, whilst advancing our understanding of gender and entrepreneurship studies. Studying innovative decision-making and sustainable growth practices of women entrepreneurs additionally provides a new perspective on intersectional works within entrepreneurial growth during uncertain times.
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Ajeeta Srivastava and Akanksha Jain
Purpose of This Chapter: This chapter examines the gender-based skewness witnessed in terms of women-led unicorns, as well as, in the field of entrepreneurship in general in…
Abstract
Purpose of This Chapter: This chapter examines the gender-based skewness witnessed in terms of women-led unicorns, as well as, in the field of entrepreneurship in general in India. India has been witnessing a booming startup landscape lately, with the country producing several new unicorns. Competing internationally, India comes third in world rankings regarding the number of unicorns made.
Design / Methodology / Approach: The methodology adopted in this chapter is case-based analysis of individuals with the help of secondary data available in the public domain. The authors employ comparative analysis methodology keeping two major parameters of interest as the verticals that form the basis of the comparative analysis.
Findings: The special provisions in place that are especially meant for women entrepreneurs in order to help them scale up their business and target higher profits have loopholes in them and as a result, a very low number of women-led businesses have been able to mark their presence in the unicorn club.
Research Limitations / Implications: A lesser number of women entrepreneurs in the unicorn club, so making generalizations has not been possible.
Practical Implications: The chapter gives a better understanding of the dynamics of the entrepreneurship arena in India with respect to women entrepreneurs who are doing significant work on the basis of scale of operation and profits.
Originality: This is an original chapter which has not been presented or published before. This chapter can be of immense value to anyone interested in India’s current entrepreneurial scenario, and useful to policymakers, researchers, and academicians.