Search results

1 – 10 of 34
Article
Publication date: 12 April 2021

Ofer Bergman, Tamar Israeli and Yael Benn

Previous research has repeatedly shown that people only search for files in a small minority of cases when they do not remember the file's location. The current study aimed to…

Abstract

Purpose

Previous research has repeatedly shown that people only search for files in a small minority of cases when they do not remember the file's location. The current study aimed to examine whether there is a group of hyper-searchers who search significantly more than others. Based on previous neurocognitive studies, this study aims to hypothesize that if such a group exists, they will have superior verbal memory and reduced visuospatial memory.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 65 participants completed a questionnaire estimating their search percentages, as well as reporting demographic data. Verbal memory was measured using the Wechsler logical memory test, and visuospatial memory was assessed using an online card memory game.

Findings

Hyper-searchers were defined as participants with search percentage of over one standard deviation (SD) above the mean. The average search percentage of the seven participants who met this criterion was 51% (SD = 14%), over five times more than the other participants (M = 10%, SD = 9%). Similar results were obtained by re-analyzing data from four previous papers (N = 1,252). The results further confirmed the hypothesis that hyper-searchers have significantly better verbal memory than other participants, possibly making searching easier and more successful for them. Lastly, the search percentage was positively predicted by verbal memory scores and negatively predicted by visuospatial memory scores. Explanations and future research are discussed.

Originality/value

This preliminary study is the first to introduce the concept of hyper-searchers, demonstrate its existence and study its causes.

Details

Aslib Journal of Information Management, vol. 73 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-3806

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 January 2020

Ofer Bergman, Tamar Israeli and Steve Whittaker

Personal information management (PIM) is an activity in which people store information items in order to retrieve them later. The purpose of this paper is to test and quantify the…

Abstract

Purpose

Personal information management (PIM) is an activity in which people store information items in order to retrieve them later. The purpose of this paper is to test and quantify the effect of factors related to collection size, file properties and workload on file retrieval success and efficiency.

Design/methodology/approach

In the study, 289 participants retrieved 1,557 of their shared files in a naturalistic setting. The study used specially developed software designed to collect shared files’ names and present them as targets for the retrieval task. The dependent variables were retrieval success, retrieval time and misstep/s.

Findings

Various factors compromise shared files retrieval including: collection size (large number of files), file properties (multiple versions, size of team sharing the file, time since most recent retrieval and folder depth) and workload (daily e-mails sent and received). The authors discuss theoretical reasons for these negative effects and suggest possible ways to overcome them.

Originality/value

Retrieval is the main reason people manage personal information. It is essential for retrieval to be successful and efficient, as information cannot be used unless it can be re-accessed. Prior PIM research has assumed that factors related to collection size, file properties and workload affect file retrieval. However, this is the first study to systematically quantify the negative effects of these factors. As each of these factors is expected to be exacerbated in the future, this study is a necessary first step toward addressing these problems.

Details

Aslib Journal of Information Management, vol. 72 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-3806

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 June 2010

Yoram Chaiter, Yossy Machluf, Avinoam Pirogovsky, Elio Palma, Avi Yona, Tamar Shohat, Amir Yitzak, Orna Tal and Nachman Ash

The paper aims to focus on a unique quality control system that was set up ten years ago to evaluate Medical Classification Committee decision‐making processes at the Israel…

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to focus on a unique quality control system that was set up ten years ago to evaluate Medical Classification Committee decision‐making processes at the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conscription center.

Design/methodology/approach

Two main approaches were deployed by the control system to assess medical classification committees' performance. The first was direct assessment of the medical committees' clinical work and decision‐making processes. The second applied data mining procedures to the computerized medical databases. The functional classification codes (FCCs) – codes for the most common medical disorders assigned to male recruits from the central computerized central IDF database, the sub‐districts comprising the recruitment centers, and the chairmen assigning the FCCs to recruits – were all analyzed.

Findings

A total of 26 FCCs, each indicating a common medical problem and its severity, constituted approximately 90 percent of all FCCs assigned at recruitment centers between 2001 and 2006. Major contributors to medical profiling outcomes were underweight, asthma, chronic headache, mental illness, symptomatic scoliosis, hypnosis, chronic back pain, knee joint disorders, allergic rhinitis and sinusitis. Evaluating the computerized medical database revealed significant differences in: medical profile prevalence; recruitment center FCCs; different sub‐districts in a given recruitment center; and profiling by medical committee chairmen.

Practical implications

Findings indicate disparities between recruitment centers and their chairmen in the medical profiling process owing to variations in recruitment center working methods and medical history taking, physical examinations, interpreting medical information and individual differences in the chairmen's decision‐making process. Other reasons include technician and laboratory staff inaccuracies. These significant discrepancies highlighted the need for an intervention program. To minimize variations and create a uniform work platform, an orderly instruction system and training programs for the committee chairmen, technicians and laboratory staff were established. These actions resulted in improved performance in 2007 as confirmed by a decreased variability in the assignment of medical FCCs.

Originality/value

The paper highlights methods that can be used to assess disability screening, sports medicine committees and primary care setting procedures.

Details

International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, vol. 23 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0952-6862

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 October 2016

Tamar Arieli

Border environments differ as foci for conflict discourse. While classic realist theories are used to account for mechanisms of securitized borders, socially oriented theories are…

2037

Abstract

Purpose

Border environments differ as foci for conflict discourse. While classic realist theories are used to account for mechanisms of securitized borders, socially oriented theories are often invoked to characterize relaxed borders. This distinguishing pattern regarding securitization reflects a deeply rooted focus on idealized borders, based on implicit expectations that relaxed borders are a viable option and goal for all. This orientation is prone to mistaken assumptions regarding local, national and regional interests and ultimately threatens delicately balanced states of stability. This paper aims to question this somewhat simplified categorization and posit that securitized borders are longstanding realities which warrant more complex theoretical conceptualization.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis is based on documentary study and qualitative field research, mapping and evaluating Israel–Jordan cross-border interactions conducted during 2006-2014. Local civilian interactions were studied using three tools: interviews, non-participant observations and a sector-based analysis of original and secondary sources. In the course of research, many tours and observations of the border region were conducted, and key actors in Israel and Jordan were interviewed: entrepreneurs, local residents, local and national government officials, security personnel and representatives of non-governmental organizations involved in the administration and funding of normalization-promoting initiatives.

Findings

In light of internal and external security threats which challenge states and border regions in conflict environments and in normalized settings, there is increasing value in recognizing multi-level power relations (“bringing the state back in”) that design, inhibit and ultimately control the inevitability, circumstance and social–political effectivity of any cross-border interaction. Cross-border cooperation (CBC), which evolves gradually, monitored by the border regime and reflecting actual levels of inter-state political dialogue, is a slower yet safer option and a more realistic expectation for CBC, especially in regions of minimal communication between cross-border neighbors. In the backdrop of the Middle East turmoil, Israel and Jordan mark 20 years of peaceful relations, enjoying stability based on shared political and security interests, yet displaying no apparent tendency toward increased cross-border interaction. Given the stark differences in regimes and ongoing regional unrest, this securitized border fulfills local and regional needs and is far from a temporary “second-best” reality.

Originality/value

The analysis is based on original fieldwork and documentary study, mapping and evaluating Israel–Jordan cross-border interactions conducted during 2006-2014.

Details

International Journal of Conflict Management, vol. 27 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1044-4068

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 February 2020

Dorit Zimand Sheiner and Tamar Lahav

This study aims to focus on customer-initiated contact (CIC) discourse on Facebook brand pages. It concentrates on how brands manage CIC on Facebook when customers are more…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to focus on customer-initiated contact (CIC) discourse on Facebook brand pages. It concentrates on how brands manage CIC on Facebook when customers are more concerned with brand communications than product-related issues, price or distribution. A research framework from the perspective of consumer-initiated touch-point communication model is proposed.

Design/methodology/approach

Two case studies of Israeli TV ads are examined. Discourse between customers and brands on the Facebook pages of the latter are analyzed. Research was conducted in three phases: data collection, quantitative content analysis and thematic analysis.

Findings

It was demonstrated that customers use Facebook as a discourse platform for TV commercial brand advertising. However, brands are not always prepared to engage in online CIC involving advertising issues. The reply rate is moderate and the reply manner is not consistent, tending to be characterized as “official and dismissive.”

Research limitations/implications

Data collection used a sample of two case studies. However, they generated rich findings, enough to support the purpose of the study.

Originality/value

This paper expands the contemporary CIC point of view and adds an integrated marketing communications (IMC) perspective. It extends the perception of CIC from product-level customer service to brand-level discourse. Finally, it fills the research gap by using a research tool based on consumer-initiated touch-point communication model. Theoretical and practical implications are presented.

Article
Publication date: 14 October 2013

Tamar Almor and Orly Yeheskel

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the paper is witnessing a new phenomenon of international entrepreneurship; skilled entrepreneurs from developed countries are…

Abstract

Purpose

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the paper is witnessing a new phenomenon of international entrepreneurship; skilled entrepreneurs from developed countries are temporarily moving to emerging economies in order to pursue business opportunities. While anecdotal evidence exists, very little theoretical development has taken place so far to explain to this phenomenon. The paper presents two short cases based on such anecdotal evidence. These cases form the basis for the development of a conceptual framework which entails a profile of entrepreneurs who have the ability to establish and operate new business ventures in an emerging economy which is characterized by a high psychic distance.

Design/methodology/approach

Using Siu's work on immigrant laborers, the paper suggests that skilled, professional entrepreneurs from Israel, who seek business opportunities in China, have a profile that differs from typical immigrant entrepreneurs described in literature and is closer to the immigrant laborers described by Siu and the paper suggests therefore naming them “sojourning entrepreneurs”.

Findings

These entrepreneurs have the ability to overcome liability of foreignness, without integrating in the host society, and without becoming part of the local culture and the ability to engage both networks in the home country and in the host country to further the entrepreneurial venture in the host country. The paper poses that these foreign entrepreneurs will be more successful in China when using strategic alliances and that they will be more successful if they are able to leverage their foreignness temporarily and become liaisons and mediators between agents in the home and in the host country.

Originality/value

If, as posed, these entrepreneurs will indeed be more successful in China when using alliances rather than WOFEs and if their unique capabilities enable them to become liaisons and mediators, this line of research can lead to guidelines for such entrepreneurs as well as for the Chinese Government. The paper expects that in the Chinese century, more entrepreneurs will be footloose and fancy-free and exploit opportunities in globally emerging markets and they will be in need of guidelines based on empirical research.

Details

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, vol. 7 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6204

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 October 2016

Kussai Haj-Yehia and Khalid Arar

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the factors that attract (pull) or discourage (push) Palestinian students from Israel (PSI) to study at a Palestinian university, the Arab…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the factors that attract (pull) or discourage (push) Palestinian students from Israel (PSI) to study at a Palestinian university, the Arab American University in Jenin (AAUJ), for the first time since the establishment of Israel in 1948.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative research method using in-depth interviews with 15 PSI who study at AAUJ attempts to define the motivations behind PSI preferring AAUJ, on one hand, and constraints, on the other hand.

Findings

The findings of the study show factors that attract PSI to study at the AAUJ and what subjects they choose to study there, the encounter with a similar culture and nationalism in a Palestinian campus in the occupied West Bank; the most significant difficulties and impediments they face there, whether economic or political, are discussed. This paper contributes to an understanding of the new national re-encounter between two Palestinian groups in a university campus, one under Israel’s occupation and the other that has Israeli citizenship.

Originality/value

It is a unique phenomenon in the trends of international students’ mobility in the world.

Details

Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, vol. 8 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-7003

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 May 2021

Joshua Schmidt and Alex Altshuler

This paper aims to discuss how the tourism industry is contending with the economic and interorganizational challenges wrought by the COVID-19 outbreak and heightened by a lack of…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to discuss how the tourism industry is contending with the economic and interorganizational challenges wrought by the COVID-19 outbreak and heightened by a lack of communication between the government and local businesses in the state of Israel. The researchers examine the dependency of the tourism industry on the general preparation programs that were developed and are currently being deployed by the relevant national stakeholders and question whether instead, it should use the pandemic as a catalyst for formulating its own nuanced tourism-travel-and-hospitality-oriented strategies and procedures.

Design/methodology/approach

Applying an ethnographic-based mix-methods research approach, this paper draws on insights from data compiled by fusing existing theoretical and emerging practical knowledge with empirical research (qualitative and quantitative) conducted among numerous relevant macro (governmental/centralized industry) and micro (hotels, travel and tourism operators and service providers) stakeholders as well as potential consumers.

Findings

It is essential that national and local government bodies form collaborative interorganizational relationships with local stakeholders to jointly activate case-specific hospitality and travel-specific risk mitigation management strategies. Moreover, the pandemic laid bare the tentative and fragile nature of the globalized tourism industry supply and demand chains, a condition that may be remedied via a pivot toward using national or even regional supply chains and goods and service providers. Within Israel, such changes could lead to increased economic benefits that extend beyond the tourism industry to provide certain security-related benefits.

Originality/value

Relating to idiosyncratic factors relevant to an Israeli cultural context, this paper uses the ethnographic field-borne familiarity of the researchers with the tourism and travel industries in Eilat and the Dead Sea to offer applicable suggestions for leveraging certain industry resources to both meet the demands of the present-day circumstances and cultivate a multifaceted organizational web of macro and micro social, economic and environmental networks so as to foster a more diversified and therefore resilient local tourism and travel economy.

Article
Publication date: 9 October 2017

Khalid Arar and Ruth Abramowitz

The purpose of this paper is to examine Arab teachers’ motivations and justifications for choosing a college for postgraduate studies.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine Arab teachers’ motivations and justifications for choosing a college for postgraduate studies.

Design/methodology/approach

During the academic year 2014, the authors administered questionnaires to 150 Arab teachers studying postgraduate courses at a peripheral all-Arab teacher-training college in order to investigate their motivations for engaging in postgraduate studies and their justifications for choosing this college.

Findings

Findings indicated that the strongest motivation expressed by the students is intrinsic: desires for self-fulfillment and further education. Aspirations for social mobility also motivate the Arab teachers, while professional development is of less importance. Convenience (proximity to home and employment prospects while studying) determines the justification to choose this college. The reputation of the college was of less importance. Correlation and predictive tests reveal no connection between the level of intrinsic motivations and factors for choosing this college. Extrinsic motivations positively correlate with the justifications of convenience and reputation.

Research limitations/implications

The conclusion is that for the Arab teachers, the possibility to pursue postgraduate studies at a peripheral all-Arab teacher-training college near home answers the needs of those looking for professional development.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the authors’ understanding of teachers’ choice of a higher education institution for their postgraduate studies and professional developement.

Details

Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, vol. 9 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-7003

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2021

Tamar Icekson, Anat Toder Alon, Avichai Shuv-Ami and Yaron Sela

The growing proportion of older fans and their potential economic value have increased the need for an improved understanding of age differences in fan behaviour. Building on…

Abstract

Purpose

The growing proportion of older fans and their potential economic value have increased the need for an improved understanding of age differences in fan behaviour. Building on socioemotional selectivity theory, the current study examines the impact of age differences on fan hatred as well as on the extent to which fans actually engage in aggressive activities and fans' perceptions of the levels of appropriateness of certain physical and verbal acts of aggression.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used an online panel-based survey that offered access to a real-world population of sport fans. The participants were 742 fans of professional football (soccer).

Findings

Results from structural equation modelling indicated that older fans reported lower levels of fan hatred, lower self-reported aggression and lower acceptance of physical and verbal aggression. Moreover, fan hatred partially mediated the relationship between age and levels of aggression and between age and acceptance of verbal aggression. In addition, fan hatred fully mediated the relationship between age and acceptance of physical aggression.

Originality/value

The current study makes two important contributions. First, it demonstrates that sport clubs may particularly benefit from understanding the potential but often neglected importance of older sport fans in relation to the problematic phenomenon of fan aggression. Second, it offers a thorough theoretical account of the manner in which fan hatred plays a significant role in the relationships between age and fan aggressiveness.

Details

International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, vol. 22 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1464-6668

Keywords

1 – 10 of 34