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To elaborate the picture of credibility assessment by examining how participants of online discussion evaluate the informational credibility of conspiracy theories.
Abstract
Purpose
To elaborate the picture of credibility assessment by examining how participants of online discussion evaluate the informational credibility of conspiracy theories.
Design/methodology/approach
Descriptive quantitative analysis and qualitative content analysis of 2,663 posts submitted to seven Reddit threads discussing a conspiracy operation, that is, the damage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September 2022. It was examined how the participants of online discussion assess the credibility of information constitutive of conspiracy theories speculating about (1) suspected actors responsible for the damage, (2) their motives and (3) the ways in which the damage was made. The credibility assessments focussed on diverse sources offering information about the above three factors.
Findings
The participants assessed the credibility of information by drawing on four main criteria: plausibility of arguments, honesty in argumentation, similarity to one's beliefs and provision of evidence. Most assessments were negative and indicated doubt about the informational believability of conspiracy theories about the damage. Of the information sources referred to in the discussion, the posts submitted by fellow participants, television programmes and statements provided by governmental organizations were judged most critically, due to implausible argumentation and advocacy of biased views.
Research limitations/implications
As the study focuses on a sample of posts dealing with conspiracy theories about a particular event, the findings cannot be generalized to concern the informational credibility conspiracy narratives.
Originality/value
The study pioneers by providing an in-depth analysis of the nature of credibility assessments by focussing on information constitutive of conspiracy theories.
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Keywords
Karen M. Peesker, Lynette J. Ryals and Peter D. Kerr
The digital transformation is dramatically changing the business-to-business (B2B) sales environment, challenging long-standing views regarding the critical competencies required…
Abstract
Purpose
The digital transformation is dramatically changing the business-to-business (B2B) sales environment, challenging long-standing views regarding the critical competencies required of salespeople. This paper aims to explore the personal traits associated with sales performance in a digital selling environment.
Design/methodology/approach
Using template analysis, the researchers captured and coded over 21 h of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with senior sales leaders from various industry sectors, exploring their perceptions of the personal traits now required of B2B salespeople in the digital landscape.
Findings
The research identifies three high-level trait types critical to sales success within a digital selling environment: “analytical curiosity” – the natural motivation and ability to gather and synthesize sales-related knowledge, “empathetic citizenship” – the ability to establish initial rapport while building long-term trust and “disciplined drive” – the exertion of selling effort in a highly focused and methodical manner across all stages of the sales process.
Research limitations/implications
The present data came from interviews with sales leaders in Canada. A more global sample may lead to additional insights. Moreover, the sample was drawn from long-cycle B2B sales environments; conclusions may differ for short-cycle or business-to-consumer markets.
Practical implications
This paper presents a framework for hiring and developing salespeople in the digital sales environment, identifying personal trait types that sales leaders should look for when hiring: analytical curiosity, empathetic citizenship and disciplined drive. The paper identifies how these trait types influence sales success, suggesting that sales leaders could coach and educate their teams to make the best use of them.
Originality/value
This paper presents a conceptual framework for hiring in the digital sales environment and introduces the trait of analytical curiosity not previously discussed in the literature.
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Rebecca Rogers, Martille Elias, LaTisha Smith and Melinda Scheetz
This paper shares findings from a multi-year literacy professional development partnership between a school district and university (2014–2019). We share this case of a Literacy…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper shares findings from a multi-year literacy professional development partnership between a school district and university (2014–2019). We share this case of a Literacy Cohort initiative as an example of cross-institutional professional development situated within several of NAPDS’ nine essentials, including professional learning and leading, boundary-spanning roles and reflection and innovation (NAPDS, 2021).
Design/methodology/approach
We asked, “In what ways did the Cohort initiative create conditions for community and collaboration in the service of meaningful literacy reforms?” Drawing on social design methodology (Gutiérrez & Vossoughi, 2010), we sought to generate and examine the educational change associated with this multi-year initiative. Our data set included programmatic data, interviews (N = 30) and artifacts of literacy teaching, learning and leading.
Findings
Our findings reflect the emphasis areas that are important to educators in the partnership: diversity by design, building relationships through collaboration and rooting literacy reforms in teacher leadership. Our discussion explores threads of reciprocity, simultaneous renewal and boundary-spanning leadership and their role in sustaining partnerships over time.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to our understanding of building and sustaining a cohort model of multi-year professional development through the voices, perspectives and experiences of teachers, faculty and district administrators.
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Nadia Caidi, Saadia Muzaffar and Elizabeth Kalbfleisch
This pan-Canadian study examines the information practices of STEM-trained immigrant women to Canada as they navigate workfinding and workplace integration. Our study focuses on a…
Abstract
Purpose
This pan-Canadian study examines the information practices of STEM-trained immigrant women to Canada as they navigate workfinding and workplace integration. Our study focuses on a population of highly skilled immigrant women from across Canada and uses an information practice lens to examine their lived experiences of migration and labour market integration. As highly trained STEM professionals in pursuit of employment, our participants have specific needs and challenges, and as we explore these, we consider the intersection of their information practices with government policies, settlement services and the hiring practices of STEM employers.
Design/methodology/approach
We conducted a qualitative study using in-depth interviews with 74 immigrant women across 13 Canadian provinces and territories to understand the nature of their engagement with employment-seeking in STEM sectors. This article reports the findings related to the settlement and information experiences of the immigrant women as they navigate new information landscapes.
Findings
As immigrants, as women and as STEM professionals, the experiences of the 74 participants reflect both marginality and privilege. The reality of their intersectional identities is that these women may not be well-served by broader settlement resources targeting newcomers, but neither are the specific conventions of networking and job-seeking in the STEM sectors in Canada fully apparent or accessible to them. The findings also point to the broader systemic and contextual factors that participants have to navigate and that shape in a major way their workfinding journeys.
Originality/value
The findings of this pan-Canadian study have theoretical and practical implications for policy and research. Through interviews with these STEM professionals, we highlight the barriers and challenges of an under-studied category of migrants (the highly skilled and “desirable” type of immigrants). We provide a critical discussion of their settlement experiences and expose the idiosyncrasies of a system that claims to value skilled talent while structurally making it very difficult to deliver on its promises to recruit and retain highly qualified personnel. Our findings point to specific aspects of these skilled professionals’ experiences, as well as the broader systemic and contextual factors that shape their workfinding journey.
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Domenica Barile, Giustina Secundo and Candida Bussoli
This study examines the Robo-Advisors (RA) based on Artificial Intelligence (AI), a new service that digitises and automates investment decisions in the financial and banking…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the Robo-Advisors (RA) based on Artificial Intelligence (AI), a new service that digitises and automates investment decisions in the financial and banking industries to provide low-cost and personalised financial advice. The RAs use objective algorithms to select portfolios, reduce behavioural biases, and improve transactions. They are inexpensive, accessible, and transparent platforms. Objective algorithms improve the believability of portfolio selection.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a qualitative approach consisting of an exploratory examination of seven different RA case studies and analyses the RA platforms used in the banking industry.
Findings
The findings provide two different approaches to running a business that are appropriate for either fully automated or hybrid RAs through the realisation of two platform model frameworks. The research reveals that relying solely on algorithms and not including any services involving human interaction in a company model is inadequate to meet the requirements of customers in decision-making.
Research limitations/implications
This study emphasises key robo-advisory features, such as investor profiling, asset allocation, investment strategies, portfolio rebalancing, and performance evaluation. These features provide managers and practitioners with new information on enhancing client satisfaction, improving services, and adjusting to dynamic market demands.
Originality/value
This study fills the research gap related to the analysis of RA platform models by providing a meticulous analysis of two different types of RAs, namely, fully automated and hybrid, which have not received adequate attention in the literature.
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Leona Wiegmann, Annemarie Conrath-Hargreaves, Zhengqi Guo, Matthew Hall, Ralph Kober, Richard Pucci, Paul J. Thambar and Tirukumar Thiagarajah
The use of interviews for data collection is prevalent in qualitative accounting research. This paper examines vignettes – sketches of hypothetical scenarios – as a promising…
Abstract
Purpose
The use of interviews for data collection is prevalent in qualitative accounting research. This paper examines vignettes – sketches of hypothetical scenarios – as a promising complementary way to conduct interviews in qualitative accounting research.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on our experiences designing and using vignettes in five separate qualitative accounting studies, which collectively involve over 200 interviews with various participants. It discusses the opportunities the use of vignettes in interviews offers to qualitative accounting research, as well as the challenges associated with designing and using vignettes. The paper also reflects on fellow researchers’ varied reactions during seminars, workshops, and the journal review process.
Findings
Vignettes emerge as a productive and engaging complementary way for accounting researchers to obtain additional insights and perspectives not usually accessible in semi-structured interviews. The paper also provides practical insights into developing, using and publishing qualitative accounting studies using vignettes, contributing an additional behind-the-scenes view of using qualitative research methods.
Originality/value
The aim of this paper is to increase awareness of vignettes as a complement to the standard qualitative accounting interview. It provides guidance on how vignettes might be used productively for studying rare, new, emerging, complex, or multi-period real-world accounting phenomena. It also discusses how vignettes can promote transparency, honesty, and a greater level of detail in participants’ responses, as well as facilitate the involvement of lay people in accounting studies.
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Kasmad Ariansyah, Ahmad Budi Setiawan, Alfin Hikmaturokhman, Ardison Ardison and Djoko Walujo
This study aims to establish an assessment model to measure big data readiness in the public sector, specifically targeting local governments at the provincial and city/regency…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to establish an assessment model to measure big data readiness in the public sector, specifically targeting local governments at the provincial and city/regency levels. Additionally, the study aims to gain valuable insights into the readiness of selected local governments in Indonesia by using the established assessment model.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a mixed-method approach, using focus group discussions (FGDs), surveys and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to establish the assessment model. The FGDs involve gathering perspectives on readiness variables from experts in academia, government and practice, whereas the survey collects data from a sample of selected local governments using a questionnaire developed based on the variables obtained in FGDs. The EFA is used on survey data to condense the variables into a smaller set of dimensions or factors. Ultimately, the assessment model is applied to evaluate the level of big data readiness among the selected Indonesian local governments.
Findings
FGDs identify 32 essential variables for evaluating the readiness of local governments to adopt big data. Subsequently, EFA reduces this number by five and organizes the remaining variables into four factors: big data strategy, policy and collaboration, infrastructure and human resources and data collection and utilization. The application of the assessment model reveals that the overall readiness for big data in the selected local governments is primarily moderate, with those in the Java cluster displaying higher readiness. In addition, the data collection and utilization factor achieves the highest score among the four factors.
Originality/value
This study offers an assessment model for evaluating big data readiness within local governments by combining perspectives from big data experts in academia, government and practice.
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Rachael Hains-Wesson and Kaiying Ji
In this study, the authors explore students' and industry’s perceptions about the challenges and opportunities of participating in a large-scale, non-compulsory, individual…
Abstract
Purpose
In this study, the authors explore students' and industry’s perceptions about the challenges and opportunities of participating in a large-scale, non-compulsory, individual, in-person and unpaid business placement programme at an Australian university. The placement programme aims to support students' workplace transition by emphasising the development of key employability skills through reflective learning and linking theory to practice.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilising a case study methodology and integrating survey questionnaires, the authors collected both quantitative and qualitative data with large sample sizes.
Findings
The results highlight curriculum areas for improvement, emphasising tailored feedback to manage placement expectations and addressing employability skill strengths and weaknesses.
Practical implications
Recommendations include co-partnering with students to develop short, tailored and hot tip videos along with online learning modules, including the presentation of evidence-based statistics to inform students about post-programme employment prospects.
Originality/value
The study contributes to benchmarking good practices in non-compulsory, individual, in-person and unpaid placement pedagogy within the business education context.
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COVID-19 has rendered many firms' business models, strategies and performance vulnerable, including entrepreneurial financials. Some managed to survive, while others drowned in…
Abstract
Purpose
COVID-19 has rendered many firms' business models, strategies and performance vulnerable, including entrepreneurial financials. Some managed to survive, while others drowned in the epidemic swamp. This study offers an exceptional model to fill the gap.
Design/methodology/approach
Employing a rigorous qualitative design, the study utilizes a novel framework that integrates institutional theory (IT) and corporate entrepreneurial strategy (CES). Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and thematic analysis identified key themes: external environment, institutional environment and organizational response, CES and performance and survival.
Findings
The study reveals the dual nature of the external and institutional environment, acting as both facilitators and barriers for entrepreneurial financial firms (EFFs). It highlights the robust CES exhibited by these firms during the pandemic, demonstrating their adept balancing and integration of different CES components in their organizational response. The EFFs employ a mix of financial and nonfinancial indicators for performance assessment, yielding varied outcomes based on contextual factors.
Practical implications
EFFs and stakeholders are guided to adapt their business models, balance institutional pressures, implement CES and evaluate performance. It advocates collaboration within the entrepreneurial finance ecosystem and leveraging opportunities emerging from the pandemic, including new market segments, technologies, innovations and regulatory changes.
Originality/value
This topic is underexplored in many emerging economies. Fresh perspectives and rigor frameworks are developed on how EFFs navigate and capitalize on the pandemic under uncertainties.
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The purpose of this paper is to consider the ethical and environmental implications of allowing space resource extraction to disrupt existing fuel economies, including how…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider the ethical and environmental implications of allowing space resource extraction to disrupt existing fuel economies, including how companies can be held accountable for ensuring the responsible use of their space assets. It will also briefly consider how such assets should be taxed, and the cost/benefit analyses required to justify the considerable expense of supporting this emerging space industry.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts theoretical bioethics methodologies to explore issues of normative ethics and the formulation of moral rules to govern individual, collective and institutional behaviour. Specifically, it considers social justice and social contract theory, consequentialist and deontological accounts of ethical evaluation. It also draws on sociological and organisational literature to discuss Dowling and Pfeffer’s (1975) and Suchman’s (1995) theories of pragmatic, cognitive and moral legitimacy as they may be applied to off-world mining regulations and the handling of space assets.
Findings
The findings of this conceptual paper indicate there is both a growing appetite for tighter resource extraction regulations to address climate change and wealth concentration globally, and an opportunity to establish and legitimise new ethical norms for commercial activity in space that can avoid some of the challenges currently facing fossil fuel divestment movements on Earth.
Originality/value
By adopting methodologies from theoretical bioethics, sociology and business studies, including applying a legitimacy lens to the issue of off-world mining, this paper synthesises existing knowledges from these fields and brings them to the new context of the future space resource economy.
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