Ahmad Beltagui, Thomas Schmidt, Marina Candi and Deborah Lynn Roberts
Online games based on a freemium business model face the monetization challenge. The purpose of this paper is to examine how players’ achievement orientation, social orientation…
Abstract
Purpose
Online games based on a freemium business model face the monetization challenge. The purpose of this paper is to examine how players’ achievement orientation, social orientation and sense of community contribute to willingness to pay (WtP).
Design/methodology/approach
A multi-method study of an online game community is used. Interviews and participant observation are used to develop an understanding of social and achievement orientations followed by the development of hypotheses that are tested using survey data.
Findings
The findings indicate that a sense of community is positively related to WtP, whereas satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the service provider is not. The authors examine the moderating role of players’ achievement orientation and social orientation and find that while a stronger connection to the community may encourage achievement-oriented players to pay, the opposite is indicated for socially oriented players.
Practical implications
Decision makers need to understand that not all players are potential payers; while socially oriented users can help to maintain and grow the community, achievement-oriented players are more likely to pay for the value they extract from the community.
Originality/value
While communities are held together by people with common interests, which intuitively suggests that WtP increases with the strength of connection to the community, the authors find this only applies in the case of players with an achievement orientation. For those with a social orientation, WtP may actually decrease as their connection to the community increases. These perhaps counter-intuitive findings constitute a novel contribution of value for both theory and practice.
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Carolin Auschra, Timo Braun, Thomas Schmidt and Jörg Sydow
The creation of a new venture is at the heart of entrepreneurship and shares parallels with project-based organizing: embedded in an institutional context, founders have to…
Abstract
Purpose
The creation of a new venture is at the heart of entrepreneurship and shares parallels with project-based organizing: embedded in an institutional context, founders have to assemble a team that works on specified tasks within a strict time constraint, while the new venture undergoes various transitions. The purpose of this paper is to explore parallels between both streams of research and an increasing projectification of entrepreneurship.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based upon a case study of the Berlin start-up ecosystem including the analysis of interviews (n=52), secondary documents, and field observations.
Findings
The paper reveals that – shaped by their institutional context – patterns of project-like organizing have become pertinent to the new venture creation process. It identifies a set of facets from the entrepreneurial ecosystems – more specifically different types of organizational actors, their occupational backgrounds, and epistemic communities – that enable and constrain the process of new venture creation in a way that is typical for project-based organizing.
Originality/value
This study thus elaborates on how institutional settings enforce what has been called “projectification” in the process of new venture creation and discuss implications for start-up ecosystems.
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Although different facets of managerial third‐party intervention in organizations have been explored, we know little about how managers should intervene in different disputes for…
Abstract
Although different facets of managerial third‐party intervention in organizations have been explored, we know little about how managers should intervene in different disputes for resolving them successfully. In this study, a prescriptive model of intervention strategy selection proposed by Elangovan (1995) is tested. Data on successful and unsuccessful interventions were collected from senior managers in different organizations. The results show that following the prescriptions of the model leads to a significant increase in the likelihood that an intervention would be successful as well as in the degree of success of the intervention, thereby supporting a contingency view of dispute intervention.
Martha Gabriela Martinez, Jillian Clare Kohler and Heather McAlister
Using the pharmaceutical sector as a microcosm of the health sector, we highlight the most prevalent structural and policy issues that make this sector susceptible to corruption…
Abstract
Using the pharmaceutical sector as a microcosm of the health sector, we highlight the most prevalent structural and policy issues that make this sector susceptible to corruption and ways in which these vulnerabilities can be addressed. We conducted a literature review of publications from 2004 to 2015 that included books, peer-reviewed literature, as well as gray literature such as working papers, reports published by international organizations and donor agencies, and newspaper articles discussing this topic. We found that vulnerabilities to corruption in the pharmaceutical sector occur due to a lack of good governance, accountability, transparency, and proper oversight in each of the decision points of the pharmaceutical supply chain. What works best to limit corruption is context specific and linked to the complexity of the sector. At a global level, tackling corruption involves hard and soft international laws and the creation of international standards and guidelines for national governments and the pharmaceutical industry. At a national level, including civil society in decision-making and monitoring is also often cited as a positive mechanism against corruption. Anticorruption measures tend to be specific to the particular “site” of the pharmaceutical system and include improving institutional checks and balances like stronger and better implemented regulations and better oversight and protection for “whistle blowers,” financial incentives to refrain from engaging in corrupt behavior, and increasing the use of technology in processes to minimize human discretion. This chapter was adapted from a discussion piece published by Transparency International UK entitled Corruption in the Pharmaceutical Sector: Diagnosing the Challenges.
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Matthias Wählisch and Thomas C. Schmidt
This paper aims to discuss problems, requirements and current trends for deploying group communication in real‐world scenarios from an integrated perspective.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to discuss problems, requirements and current trends for deploying group communication in real‐world scenarios from an integrated perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
The Hybrid Shared Tree is introduced – a new architecture and routing approach to combine network – and subnetwork‐layer multicast services in end‐system domains with transparent, structured overlays on the inter‐domain level.
Findings
The paper finds that The Hybrid Shared Tree solution is highly scalable and robust and offers provider‐oriented features to stimulate deployment.
Originality/value
A straightforward perspective is indicated in the paper for a mobility‐agnostic routing layer for future use.
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An onsite experimental study was conducted in order to observe conflict management styles of 90 middle‐level managers from a large Korean furniture manufacturing company. By using…
Abstract
An onsite experimental study was conducted in order to observe conflict management styles of 90 middle‐level managers from a large Korean furniture manufacturing company. By using accomplices, conflict conditions were introduced in a controlled setting which simulated the features of a work environment. The experiment manipulated the relative status among the subjects and observed the influence of this treatment on the subjects' choices among different conflict management styles. Both structured observations and self‐report questionnaires converged to show that conflict management styles differed significantly when the managers interacted with superiors, peers, or subordinates: the managers were mainly avoiding with superiors, compromising with peers, and competing with subordinates. The current research suggests that the relative status among the parties in conflict determines the choice of conflict management styles.
Jonathan A. Rhoades and Josh A. Arnold
The purpose of the present studies was to derive an integrative taxonomy of responses to social conflict. In Study 1, we had college‐age participants sort 33 responses to…
Abstract
The purpose of the present studies was to derive an integrative taxonomy of responses to social conflict. In Study 1, we had college‐age participants sort 33 responses to conflict, taken from various research domains, according to their similarities. From this, we generated two different classification systems: a very simple low‐dimensional system, obtained through multi‐dimensional scaling; and a complex high‐dimensional system, obtained through cluster analysis. To aid in the interpretation of the structures, in Study 2 we collected a set of ratings on each of the conflict responses. The results from Study 2 indicated that many of the labels used to describe conflict responses in past research could be used to describe some aspects of these taxonomies. However, no dimension or set of dimensions was sufficient to describe all classes of conflict responses. The results are discussed in terms of their larger theoretical and practical implications.
Kh.G. Schmitt‐Thomas and C. Schmidt
Ionic contaminations, especially flux residues due to manufacturing, cause various faults and failures of printed circuits during service. The contamination (µg‐eq NaCI), surface…
Abstract
Ionic contaminations, especially flux residues due to manufacturing, cause various faults and failures of printed circuits during service. The contamination (µg‐eq NaCI), surface insulation resistance (SIR), electromigration and corrosion caused by flux residues of six different fluxes (categories: F‐SW26, F‐SW32 and F‐SW34 according to DIN 8511) have been investigated. The main effort was applied to the investigation of electromigration, which is understood as the formation of short circuits by metallic bridges between two conductors of different voltage.
Renita Schmidt, Mary M. Jacobs and Heidi Meyer
The purpose of this work is to describe the current sociopolitical context and complex consequences surrounding elementary literacy education in one Midwestern US state and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this work is to describe the current sociopolitical context and complex consequences surrounding elementary literacy education in one Midwestern US state and consider how power works through language.
Design/methodology/approach
Using qualitative methods and critical discourse analysis as a theory and method, surveys and interview data from teachers, administrators and parents, policy documents and other artifacts were analyzed and described to explain the sociopolitical climate.
Findings
Using Fairclough (2015) and Gee’s (2015) tools, the authors identified the discourses of deficiency, efficiency and gatekeeping in the data. Foucault’s ideas about governmentality and regimes of truth are used to explain the ways teachers took up the policies and resisted them.
Research limitations/implications
The authors argue that a new testing regime is on the move, and more unity and critique by elementary and secondary teachers and administrators will be important for restoring and sustaining quality literacy instruction and decision-making in all classrooms.
Practical implications
Continued research is needed to understand how particular reading assessments exacerbate and perpetuate the ranking and sorting in schools and the loss and struggle children face when they are denied literacy experiences that validate their lives outside of school and give meaning and purpose to reading in school.
Originality value
As the reality for secondary education language arts teachers begins to shift to a more restrictive curriculum, a loss of academic freedom and frequent testing, the authors see an opportunity for new professional alliances to form in support of a complex theory of literacy.
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Michael Engelhardt, Arne Hildebrand, Dagmar Lange and Thomas C. Schmidt
The paper, aims to introduce an educational content management system Hypermedia Learning Objects System (hylOs), which is fully compliant to the IEEE LOM eLearning object…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper, aims to introduce an educational content management system Hypermedia Learning Objects System (hylOs), which is fully compliant to the IEEE LOM eLearning object metadata standard. Enabled through an advanced authoring toolset, hylOs allows the definition of instructional overlays of a given eLearning object mesh.
Design/methodology/approach
In educational content management, simple file distribution is considered insufficient. Instead, IEEE LOM standardised eLearning objects have been well established as the basic building blocks for educational online content. They are nicely suited for self‐explorative learning approaches within adaptive hypermedia applications. Even though eLearning objects typically reside within content repositories, they may propagate metadata relations beyond repository limits. Given the explicit meaning of these interobject references, a semantic net of content strings can be knotted, overlaying the repository infrastructure.
Findings
Based on a newly introduced ontological evaluation layer, meaningful overlay relations between knowledge objects are shown to derive autonomously. A technology framework to extend the resulting semantic nets beyond repository limits is also presented.
Research limitations/implications
This paper provides proof of concept for the derivation and use of semantic content networks in educational hypermedia. It thereby opens up new directions for future eLearning technologies and pedagogical adoption.
Practical implications
The paper illustrates capabilities of the hylOs eLearning content management. The hylOs is built upon the more general Media Information Repository (MIR) and the MIR Adaptive Context Linking Environment (MIRaCLE): its linking extension. MIR is an open system supporting the standard XML, CORBA and JNDI. hylOs benefits from manageable information structures, sophisticated access logic and high‐level authoring tools like the eLO editor responsible for the semi‐manual creation of meta data and WYSIWYG like XML–content editing, allowing for rapid distributed content development.
Originality/value
Over the last few years, networking technologies and distributed information systems have moved up the OSI layer and are established well within application‐centric middleware. Most recently, content overlay networks have matured, incorporating the semantics of data files into their self‐organisational structure with the aim of optimising data‐centric distributed indexing and retrieval. This paper elaborates a corresponding concept of semantic structuring for educational content objects. It introduces and analyses the autonomous generation and educational exploitation of semantic content nets, providing proof of concept by a full‐featured implementation within the hylOs educational content management system.