Search results
1 – 10 of 175Md. Hasinul Elahi and S.M. Zabed Ahmed
The purpose of this paper is to assess the information quality of e-government websites by university-education citizens of Bangladesh. It also investigated citizens' demographic…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the information quality of e-government websites by university-education citizens of Bangladesh. It also investigated citizens' demographic and Internet related variables associated with perceived information quality ratings and the validity of the underlying factor structure of information quality dimensions.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was conducted to assess information quality of e-government websites among a sample of university-educated citizens in Bangladesh. Descriptive statistics were obtained to examine respondents' ratings on information quality of these websites on a five-point Likert scale. A multiple linear regression model was applied to determine the effect of demographic and Internet use variables associated with information quality ratings on e-government websites. Finally, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to determine the underlying factor structure of information quality dimensions.
Findings
The findings revealed that the ratings on most information quality items were close to 4.00 on a five-point scale, indicating a generally high information quality of Bangladesh e-government websites. Out of 20 information quality dimensions, value-added and authority were the two top-rated information quality dimensions while security, completeness, reliability, advertisement, relevance and ease of use were the least rated dimensions. The results of multiple regression suggested that gender, age and the device used for accessing the Internet were significantly associated with information quality of e-government websites. The CFA results indicated that information quality dimensions corroborate the factor structure of information quality dimensions used in earlier studies, although the model fit statistics were not fully validated.
Research limitations/implications
The focus of this study was confined to university-educated citizens in Bangladesh. Therefore, the results of this study may not be generalized to other demographic groups in Bangladesh or elsewhere.
Practical implications
This paper can provide guidelines for developing high-quality, informative and citizen-centric e-government websites and suggest ways on how these websites can be evaluated for information quality.
Originality/value
This study is the first to examine the information quality of e-government websites from the citizens' perspective in Bangladesh. The findings of this paper can assist responsible government agencies in making the websites more informative and useful for a diverse group of users.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the idea of the “knowledge front” alongside ideas of “home” and “war” front as a way of understanding the expertise of university-educated…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the idea of the “knowledge front” alongside ideas of “home” and “war” front as a way of understanding the expertise of university-educated women in an examination of the First World War and its aftermath. The paper explores the professional lives of two women, the medical researcher, Elsie Dalyell, and the teacher, feminist and unionist, Lucy Woodcock. The paper examines their professional lives and acquisition and use of university expertise both on the war and home fronts, and shows how women’s intellectual and scientific activity established during the war continued long after as a way to repair what many believed to be a society damaged by war. It argues that the idea of “knowledge front” reveals a continuity of intellectual and scientific activity from war to peace, and offers “space” to examine the professional lives of university-educated women in this period.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is structured as an analytical narrative interweaving the professional lives of two women, medical researcher Elsie Dalyell and teacher/unionist Lucy Woodcock to illuminate the contributions of university-educated women’s expertise from 1914 to the outbreak of the Second World War.
Findings
The emergence of university-educated women in the First World War and the interwar years participated in the civic structure of Australian society in innovative and important ways that challenged the “soldier citizen” ethos of this era. The paper offers a way to examine university-educated women’s professional lives as they unfolded during the course of war and peace that focuses on what they did with their expertise. Thus, the “knowledge front” provides more ways to examine these lives than the more narrowly articulated ideas of “home” and “war” front.
Research limitations/implications
The idea of the “knowledge front” applied to women in this paper also has implications for how to analyse the meaning of the First World War-focused university expertise more generally both during war and peace.
Practical implications
The usual view of women’s participation in war is as nurses in field hospitals. This paper broadens the notion of war to see war as having many interconnected fronts including the battle front and home front (Beaumont, 2013). By doing so, not only can we see a much larger involvement of women in the war, but we also see the involvement of university-educated women.
Social implications
The paper shows that while the guns may have ceased on 11 November 1918, women’s lives continued as they grappled with their war experience and aimed to reassert their professional lives in Australian society in the 1920s and 1930s.
Originality/value
The paper contains original biographical research of the lives of two women. It also conceptualises the idea of “knowledge front” in terms of war/home front to examine how the expertise of university-educated career women contributed to the social fabric of a nation recovering from war.
Details
Keywords
Francis Lee, Gary Tang and Chung-Kin Tsang
The purpose of this study is to examine how people’s perceptions of the importance of financial investment relate to their value orientation, societal perceptions and policy…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine how people’s perceptions of the importance of financial investment relate to their value orientation, societal perceptions and policy attitudes. Tying together insights from theoretical analysis of the financialization of society and Mannheim’s (1972) theory of generation, this study hypothesizes that perceived importance of investment should be less connected to a desire for a wealthy lifestyle and more connected to a critique of social inequality among the young generation. Analysis of survey data (N = 1,020) from Hong Kong, an international financial hub, shows that perceived importance of investment relates positively to consumer materialism, perceptions of social inequality and support for social democratic policies. More importantly, the relationships between the latter variables and perceived importance of investment vary across age groups in ways largely consistent with the expectation. The findings illustrate the changing social significance of financial investment and the reluctant embracement of investment by young people.
Design/methodology/approach
A representative telephone survey (N = 1,020) was conducted and analyzed.
Findings
The analysis shows that perceived importance of investment relates positively to consumer materialism, perceptions of social inequality and support for social democratic policies. More importantly, the relationships between the latter variables and perceived importance of investment vary across age groups in ways largely consistent with the expectation.
Originality/value
The findings illustrate the changing social significance of financial investment and the reluctant embracement of investment by the young generation. It is, to the authors’ knowledge, the first study in Hong Kong addressing people’s attitudes toward investment in relation to the notion of financialization.
Details
Keywords
Sina Ahmadi Kaliji, Drini Imami, Maurizio Canavari, Mujë Gjonbalaj and Ekrem Gjokaj
This study develops a modified food-related lifestyle (FRL) instrument to analyse Kosovo consumers' fruit consumption behaviour and attitudes.
Abstract
Purpose
This study develops a modified food-related lifestyle (FRL) instrument to analyse Kosovo consumers' fruit consumption behaviour and attitudes.
Design/methodology/approach
The research study is based on a structured questionnaire designed using a reduced version of the FRL instrument, including evaluation factors related to fruit consumption, which is useful to describe a fruit-related lifestyle. Data were collected through a face-to-face survey with 300 consumers in three main cities in Kosovo. A principal component analysis (PCA) with Varimax rotation and Kaiser Normalisation was performed to interpret and investigate fruit-related lifestyles. Cluster analysis was performed to analyse market segments, using the identified factors obtained from the PCA, a hierarchical clustering algorithm with a Ward linkage method and the K-means clustering technique.
Findings
Consumption behaviour is motivated by health concerns (perceived), fruit (nutrition) content and consumption habits. Four distinct consumer clusters were identified based on the fruit-related lifestyle instrument and analysed considering the different fruit purchase and consumption behaviour, attitudes towards health, quality, taste and safety.
Research limitations/implications
The authors adapted a survey tool based on a reduced FRL instrument to elaborate a specific survey instrument suitable to describe the fruit-related consumer's lifestyles. The instrument was not designed according to the standard scales design procedure, but it is a first step towards creating a fruit-related lifestyle instrument.
Originality/value
The fruit-related lifestyle instrument can be used in studies focused on fruit consumer segmentation. Results provide insight into fruit marketing and distribution companies, which can adjust their marketing strategies and customer-oriented initiatives tailored for specific consumer segments. Results can be useful also for policymakers to promote increased fruit consumption.
Details
Keywords
Tourism in Cuba is a relatively unexplored area in terms of research. Therefore, the main purpose of this article is to shed some light on the past, present and future potential…
Abstract
Tourism in Cuba is a relatively unexplored area in terms of research. Therefore, the main purpose of this article is to shed some light on the past, present and future potential of tourism in Cuba. The author has monitored trends of tourism in Cuba since 1994. He visited Cuba for the first time in 1997. He met President Fidel Castro in 1998, and had a brief but friendly conversation. The research methodology included a combination of personal observations, e´lite interviews and desk research. The article analyses tourism in Cuba during three different phases between 1945 and 2002. Based on his research, the author predicts that by 2010. Cuba will become the number one tourist destination in the Caribbean, a position it enjoyed for a long time until the revolution in 1959. In conclusion, the key arguments to justify this prediction for 2010 are presented.
Details
Keywords
Amzad Hossain, Kamal Naser, Asif Zaman and Rana Nuseibeh
The purpose of this paper is to examine factors that influence women entrepreneurship development in Bangladesh.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine factors that influence women entrepreneurship development in Bangladesh.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts quantitative and qualitative analyses of possible factors that may affect the development of women entrepreneurships such as: age, education, socio‐culture, motivation, market information, business idea, enterprise creation, advocacy and decision making, enabling environment, and financing. A questionnaire was used to provide empirical evidence on the variables and to estimate the model employed by the study.
Findings
The analyses revealed that women face problems in establishing their own businesses in every step that they take. The desire for financial independence and decision making, market and informational network, availability of a start‐up capital, knowledge and skills, and responsibility towards children are the main factors that impact women's decision to become self‐entrepreneurs. The regression analysis, however, revealed that participation in women associations, advocacy, and decision making (self‐fulfillment) and knowledge are the main factors that affect women's decision to develop their business. Yet, the results indicated that religion does not influence women's entrepreneurship development.
Research limitations/implications
The questionnaire survey employed in this paper is confined only to a women population who passed grade five and above as semi‐educated or educated women respondents group. The paper excludes homeless women or those who live in the slum urban areas.
Practical implications
The outcome of this paper can be used by researchers, government, non‐governmental organizations, civil society, and local community to formulate effective policy that motivate women to become entrepreneurs. This will have a positive effect on women participation on the economic development of Bangladesh.
Originality/value
This paper will be the first to provide empirical evidence on factors that affect women's entrepreneurship development in the urban Bangladesh.
Details
Keywords
Meghan Daniel and Cleonicki Saroca☆
Abstract
Purpose
Authors’ note: To capture the collaborative feminist process in writing this article, we list authors’ name alphabetically rather than the traditional presentation of lead author first.
Authors’ note: To capture the collaborative feminist process in writing this article, we list authors’ name alphabetically rather than the traditional presentation of lead author first.
Methodology/approach
We use Third World, Materialist, and Poststructuralist feminist perspectives with an intersectional transnational lens to analyze our self-reflections about feminist pedagogy and the messy business of conducting our research. We draw on student participant interviews and responses to follow-up questions to support key arguments.
Findings
Much feminist pedagogy discourse constructs consciousness-raising and empowerment as positive. However, our research indicates our students’ experiences of these processes as well as our own as teachers and researchers is contradictory; outcomes are often unintended and not always positive, despite our best intentions.
Social implications
Our work seeks to destabilize problematic notions of empowerment and consciousness-raising by contributing accounts of how feminist pedagogy impacts students in sometimes negative, unintended ways. These contributions should be utilized to better understand power relations between students and teachers, as well as refine pedagogical approaches to best address and reevaluate their impacts on students.
Originality/value
Rather than perpetuate decontextualized and overly optimistic notions of feminist pedagogy, consciousness-raising, and empowerment that fail to capture the complexities and contradictions of women’s lives and the gendered relations in which they participate, this chapter stands as a call to feminists to problematize their key concepts and practices and lay them open to critique.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to explore the effect of globalization on a commitment to the principles of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethical corporate governance in Lebanon.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the effect of globalization on a commitment to the principles of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethical corporate governance in Lebanon.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 278 university educated employees of public and private firms in Lebanon were asked to complete a self‐administered questionnaire on various issues related to corporate governance. The data were then subjected to multiple regression analyses to establish the nature of relationships among constructs.
Findings
The study finds that commitment to ethical corporate governance among public‐sector organizations in Lebanon is mainly influenced by globalization and a desire to practice CSR, whereas such commitment among private‐sector organizations is mainly influenced by vision, a code of ethics, and a desire to practice CSR.
Research limitations/implications
Because the concept of corporate governance is a relatively new notion in Lebanon, the selection of a relevant population from which to draw information was difficult. The use of a university‐educated sample has some advantages in terms of the respondents' relative familiarity with the subject under study, but can also have disadvantages in terms of possible sample bias.
Practical implications
Effective corporate governance can be achieved in Lebanon by building new corporate values within organizations and acknowledging the links that exist among environmental, economic, social, technological, and cultural values. Employees in both the public and private sectors in Lebanon should be educated about the importance of globalization, gender equality, and environmental protection, without any feelings of guilt that some of these ideas might contradict their traditional socio‐cultural values.
Originality/value
Given the general paucity of research on Lebanon, this study makes a significant contribution to knowledge about the emerging concepts of corporate governance and CSR in this country.
Details
Keywords
This chapter examines the training of indigenous Mayan catechists by the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico, and their subsequent role in the…
Abstract
This chapter examines the training of indigenous Mayan catechists by the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico, and their subsequent role in the establishment and growth of the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) in the period prior to the Zapatistas' 1994 uprising. It considers the adequacy of Timothy Wickham-Crowley's model of guerrilla insurgencies in Latin America in explaining the Zapatista case. It finds, contrary to Wickham-Crowley's model of the relations between urban university leadership groups and peasant support bases, that the catechists constituted a stratum of “organic indigenous-campesino intellectuals” that radically undermined their communities’ traditional intellectual dependence on outsiders and enabled them to constitute themselves as a new collective political subject.
Zehorit Dadon-Golan, Adrian Ziderman and Iris BenDavid-Hadar
A major justification for the state subsidy of university education at public institutions (and, in some countries, of private universities too) is the economic and social…
Abstract
Purpose
A major justification for the state subsidy of university education at public institutions (and, in some countries, of private universities too) is the economic and social benefits accruing to society as whole from a significantly university-educated workforce and citizenship. Based upon a broad range of research findings, a particular societal benefit emanating from higher education relates to good citizenship: that it leads to more open mindedness and tolerant political attitudes. We examined these issues using a representative sample of students from Israeli universities to clarify the extent to which these outcomes would be paralleled in the Israeli setting, where the university experience differs markedly from that found typically in the West.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is based on a comparison of political tolerance levels between first- and final-year students enrolled in regular undergraduate study programs (of four days a week or more). However since a change in tolerance is likely to be contingent also on the amount of time that the student spends on campus during the study year, we introduce, as a control group, students enrolled in compressed study programs (of three days a week or less) and compare changes in their tolerance levels with tolerance changes of students enrolled in regular programs. Research questionnaires were distributed to undergraduate students at three universities from the three major districts in Israel–north, south and center. The achieved sample size was 329 students.
Findings
Using Difference-in-Differences techniques, we looked for any changes in students' general political tolerance, over the course of their studies. Surprisingly, we found no such effect on political tolerance attitudes. Israeli students are older and often married and though nominally full-time students, they often hold down a full-time job. Thus they come and go to attend lectures but do not otherwise spend much time on campus. Given the somewhat perfunctory nature of the university experience for most Israeli students, it does not to lead to more open-minded and tolerant political attitudes.
Practical implications
Some broader, practical applications of the research, beyond the Israeli case, are presented, particularly related to distance learning and to the impact of COVID-19. Attention is given to more recent “Cancel culture” developments on university campuses.
Originality/value
The results have wider implications, to other university setting in other countries. Changes in political attitudes may occur in university settings where campus life is well developed, with opportunities for student interaction, formally in extra-curricular events or through social mixing outside the lecture hall. Where the university experience is more minimally confined to attendance at lectures these desirable outcomes may not be forth coming. These findings are relevant to other university frameworks where campus attendance is marginal, such as in open university education and, even more explicitly, in purely internet-based higher education study.
Details