Multisystemic therapy (MST) is described and contrasted with practice in traditional services for young people who have committed crime, behaved anti‐socially, abused substances…
Abstract
Multisystemic therapy (MST) is described and contrasted with practice in traditional services for young people who have committed crime, behaved anti‐socially, abused substances or suffered family conflict. The challenges to traditional services posed by MST are examined, including consideration of the process of engagement in therapy, the intensive individualised therapy delivered in the young person's own home or local community, and the quality assurance systems.
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Natalie Le Clue and Janelle Vermaak-Griessel
A motif, as defined by Jean-Charles Seigneuret (1988, p. 17), is an ‘essential part of a contemporary academic discipline known as thematology or thematics’ and that ‘two factors…
Abstract
A motif, as defined by Jean-Charles Seigneuret (1988, p. 17), is an ‘essential part of a contemporary academic discipline known as thematology or thematics’ and that ‘two factors may explain the rise of the thematological method: its interpretive potentialities and its intrinsic congruency with the history of ideas’.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm first introduced the story of Snow White and her evil stepmother the Queen in 1812. Decades later, the character of the Queen, who later becomes the Evil Queen, is depicted in copious narratives and several different mediums. A central parallel in most of the representations of this character is that she is presented as evil. As such, how the Evil Queen character is represented in media sees a congruence of specific aesthetical characteristics, which combines to symbolize a rhetorical motif for evil.
Silvia de Simone, Daniela Putzu, Diego Lasio and Francesco Serri
Despite the ongoing increase of women in the top positions, they are still underrepresented in politics. The studies that primarily focus on women’s underrepresentation in…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the ongoing increase of women in the top positions, they are still underrepresented in politics. The studies that primarily focus on women’s underrepresentation in politics neglect the role of gender as a category that structures and makes sense of social practices. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mechanisms that regulate the contemporary gender order in politics through discourse analysis and the contribution of the critical feminist perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on 30 biographical interviews with Italian politicians and focuses on the account of their political experiences and on the meanings attributed to these.
Findings
The results of this paper underline the tendency to either absolve or blame women for gender inequality in politics through different interpretative repertoires: “Women’s disinterest toward politics,” “Politics as masculine context” and “Politics–family unbalance.” The analysis allowed to unravel the way in which the discursive practices create and reproduce the hegemonic gender order in politics.
Research limitations/implications
The research is limited to 30 qualitative interviews, and so results cannot be generalized.
Practical implications
The findings of this paper highlight the importance of exploring issues relating to the gender gap in politics and stress the need to implement actions to promote gender equality in politics.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to an understanding of women’s underrepresentation in politics and offers causes for reflection on a phenomenon that has profound implications for our society.
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Mattia Bianchi, Anthony Di Benedetto, Simone Franzò and Federico Frattini
The purpose of this paper is to bring new empirical evidence to the controversial role of early adopters in the diffusion of innovations in industrial markets.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to bring new empirical evidence to the controversial role of early adopters in the diffusion of innovations in industrial markets.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors apply an actor market configuration perspective to the analysis of four longitudinal case studies regarding the commercialization of new products in the textile, plastic and energy industries.
Findings
The diffusion of innovation is an interactive and iterative process where the commercializing firm engages in repeated interactions with different categories of companies that are targeted as potential early adopters. This process ends when the commercializing firm identifies a category of early adopters that can stimulate subsequent acceptance in the later market, by playing one of the following two roles, i.e. word-of-mouth trigger and industry benchmark. During this process, through which the role of the early adopters is constructed proactively by the commercializing firm, the product innovation is also subject to changes to provide a better fit with the selected category of early adopters.
Research limitations/implications
The paper calls for a re-conceptualization of the diffusion process, from a passive identification of early adopters to an interactive process that entails a trial-and-error approach in the targeting and involvement of different categories of early adopters, which ends when the innovation reaches the desired levels of diffusion.
Practical implications
The study provides managers with a number of recommendations for selecting the most proper category of early adopters for their innovations, depending on the role they are more likely to play and the influence they will exert on subsequent acceptance in the later market.
Social implications
The study provides managers with a number of recommendations for targeting, through a trial-and-error process, early adopters and working with them to champion the dissemination of new technologies.
Originality/value
This paper significantly adds to existing literature on the diffusion of innovation, which has up to now conceived early adopters as static and given entities, which cannot be proactively selected by the commercializing firm, and innovation as an immutable object.
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The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of Simone de Beauvoir's feminist existentialist philosophy in an empirical research study concerned with the career choices of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of Simone de Beauvoir's feminist existentialist philosophy in an empirical research study concerned with the career choices of women professional accountants.
Design/methodology/approach
A theoretical framework, based on de Beauvoir's philosophy, is developed. It is argued that her feminist philosophy provides an appropriate theoretical lens for the study of careers. The challenges encountered in developing this approach together with their resolution are described.
Findings
The theoretical framework informs the analysis and critique of the stories of career told by 13 women chartered accountants. Multiple meanings for the oft‐reported categories for leaving public accounting surface, extending the women‐in‐accounting literature.
Research limitations/implications
The use of a structured tool may obscure certain aspects of career or unduly highlight other aspects. The framework should be used in future studies of the careers of women professionals, e.g. lawyers and minority groups, such as men of colour to assess its contribution beyond the current study.
Practical implications
The generated insights can be used by the accounting firms to develop alternative human resources policies and practices in an effort to retain women accountants and by the profession in assessing the nature of the work.
Originality/value
The development of a research methodology incorporating individual voices, the role of personal agency in career and feminist existentialism, all of which are often absent from the research concerned with women accountants provides a more in‐depth understanding of careers and a way forward for further research on the subject.
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This paper sets out to corroborate the existing literature on investors' risk tolerance and to assess how the 2008 financial crisis has affected risk tolerance among Italian…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper sets out to corroborate the existing literature on investors' risk tolerance and to assess how the 2008 financial crisis has affected risk tolerance among Italian investors.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a unique dataset of real-world portfolio choices made by 1,245 Italian investors over a period of 15 years (from 2003 to 2017), this paper presents two steps of analysis. In step 1, the whole period 2003–2017 is considered with the aim to integrate and corroborate the existing literature on the topic of risk tolerance, considering a complete economic and financial cycle. Step 2 took 2008 as the pivotal point between pre-crisis (2003–2008) and crisis (2009–2017) with the aim to observe the influence on risk appetite of the economic and financial effects of the crisis.
Findings
The results obtained confirm that men are more risk tolerant than women and older people are less risk-taking than their younger counterparts, although the relationship between age and risk tolerance is not necessarily linear. Moreover, our paper demonstrates that a crisis scenario has an influence on Italian investors' risk tolerance.
Practical implications
Our results are of interest to financial advisors, financial planners, asset managers, psychologists, behavioral researchers and more in general to providers of financial products and services.
Originality/value
The results presented in this paper are relevant and original because they are based on real investors who made real choices concerning their portfolio asset allocations.
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Philippe Steiner and Marie Trespeuch
While certain contested goods do manage to make their way to market, others have moved less far in this direction and others seem permanently unable to do so. Moral contestation…
Abstract
While certain contested goods do manage to make their way to market, others have moved less far in this direction and others seem permanently unable to do so. Moral contestation promotes, holds back or blocks the emergence of contested markets. This chapter examines the conditions that make the operation of these markets possible, and those that block their appearance. From a comparison between two cases (organs for transplantation and gambling), the authors focus attention on the one hand on those devices that make transactions possible, and on the other, on the “vulnerable populations” that these devices are intended to protect, either from or by the market.
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Michael Ottenbacher, Simone Busam, Robert James Harrington and Joachim Allhoff
This study aims to examine the factors of the vegan lifestyle on the travel experience. Special emphasis was placed on difficulties during travel and influencing factors for…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the factors of the vegan lifestyle on the travel experience. Special emphasis was placed on difficulties during travel and influencing factors for destination choice.
Design/methodology/approach
The vegan lifestyle has emerged as a growing market. The dietary reference is well-known, but the impact of the vegan lifestyle on tourism has received less attention. Earlier researchers have cited motivations of ethics, the environment and health as key. An online survey was conducted within the target group of vegans to provide more understanding of vegan tourism.
Findings
A few participants stated that they refused to visit countries due to too high meat consumption or due to long flight distances. Nature was named as the most decisive factor for choosing a travel destination among the respondents. Problems that might arise were mainly the general lack of awareness about veganism, as well as the confusion between vegetarianism and veganism in the destinations. Most respondents indicated that these problems were generally prepared for during the pre-planning process.
Research limitations/implications
Research on vegan tourism is a relatively unexplored niche topic, the study used related topics adapted to a vegan tourism context.
Practical implications
Enhanced education about veganism among tourism service providers would be desirable to counteract such problems in the future and make the travel experience more carefree for vegans.
Originality/value
There has been little research in the field of vegan tourism, thus, this study provides valuable information on the needs and challenges of this growing market.
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This paper looks at science communication through an organisational lens with the aim of assessing the relevance of different organisational forms for science communication.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper looks at science communication through an organisational lens with the aim of assessing the relevance of different organisational forms for science communication.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explores science communication in different organisational forms. Based on conceptual considerations and by reviewing existing empirical literature, the paper selects and compares three organisational forms of science communication: the editorial office of a daily newspaper, the press office of a university and the Science Media Centre.
Findings
The paper shows the relevance of organisation for science communication by comparing three organisational forms. The first two, the science news desk and the press office, have the character of a sub-system of an organisation, while the third, the Science Media Centre, forms its own organisation. The paper shows how the respective set-up shapes science-media contacts with a focus on the occurrence and resolution of conflicts.
Research limitations/implications
The paper proposes a conceptual framework for studying science communication through an organisational lens but leaves comparative empirical studies of all types to future research. Yet, it outlines and compares implications of the formal organisation of science communication from a conceptual point of view.
Practical implications
The findings provide information on the structural impact of different organisational forms on science communication and point to where conflicting expectations, and thus potential conflicts, are most likely to occur in each case. A reflection of structurally conflicting expectations and how they can be overcome in specific situations is of high practical value for all science communication activities.
Originality/value
Organisational theorists have long argued that organisations are the key to understanding society. Despite their undoubted relevance, however, organisations and their influence on science communication have so far been much less analysed – both conceptually and empirically – than its contents, its practices and its impacts on public understanding, public policy, and on science and scientists. The paper contributes to the emerging field with conceptual considerations towards an organisational sociology of science communication.