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Until recently, motivation has been considered to be an individual phenomenon. Motivational theorists have accordingly conceptualised key constructs in individualistic terms and emphasised the individual origins and nature of motivation, although they have also long recognised that contextual or social factors have a significant influence on these individual processes. Recently this conceptualisation has been questioned as theorists have suggested, after Vygotsky, that motivation, like learning and thinking, might be social in nature. This idea was first suggested by Sivan (1986) more than twenty years ago but it received a major impetus with the publication of an article by Hickey (1997) eleven years later. Since that time interest in the social nature of motivation has grown as a small number of book chapters and journal articles have been published and conference papers have been presented on the topic. Although some motivational theorists remain sceptical (e.g. Winne, 2004) of this theoretical development, the inclusion of a section on sociocultural approaches to motivation in Perry, Turner, and Meyer's (2006) chapter on classrooms as contexts for motivating learning in the 2nd edition of the Handbook of Educational Psychology suggests that this perspective is being seriously considered by motivational researchers. Similarly, the inclusion of a chapter (Walker, in press-b) on the sociocultural approach to motivation in the 3rd edition of the International Encyclopedia of Education indicates that this approach has achieved some recognition.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a research synthesis of substantive findings drawn from studies of educational leadership and management in Hong Kong between 1995 and 2014. The goal of the research synthesis was to identify and elaborate on key trends identified by scholars who studied educational leadership in Hong Kong over the past two decades. The synthesis drew upon on relevant articles published in eight “core international journals” specializing in educational leadership and management.

The study first identifies a clearly delimited body of relevant literature comprised of empirical, non-empirical and review/synthesis types of studies in a total of 161 published research articles from the eight journals. Information concerning the nature of the studies as well as substantive findings was extracted from each of the articles. The findings were then initially coded in preparation for data analysis. Synthesis of substantive findings was accomplished by cross-article comparative mapping aimed at identifying key themes in the literature. Findings within four of the most robust themes were then synthesized and reported.

The synthesis highlights the challenges faced in Hong Kong’s efforts to reshape its education in a multi-faceted quest for quality education in the twenty-first century. A variety of inter-related issues emerged as policymakers and education administrators sought to implement a full plate of imported globally recognized education reforms. Analysis of the research from this period yielded four robust themes: “leadership development,” “leadership for learning,” “organizational change,” “multi-level performance focus.” The findings also further highlight the impact of “education policy borrowing” on system-level efforts to revamp the structural conditions in which school leaders operate and reshape managerial, as well as teaching and learning processes in schools.

Although the scope of the sources included in the review are highly representative of the “Hong Kong literature” of the past two decades, the authors note that it was not an “exhaustive” review of all potential sources.

Prior research by Hallinger and Bryant (2013b) had identified Hong Kong as having produced the largest volume of literature in educational leadership and management in Asia. This paper represents the first systematic review of research findings that emerged in the recent educational leadership literature produced in Hong Kong. Therefore, although the authors make no claims of generalizability to other parts of Asia or even to China as a whole, the paper offers insight into how global trends have reshaped the practice of educational leadership in one East Asian society.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, this paper seeks to formalize a definition of activist entrepreneurship and differentiate it from social entrepreneurship. Second, this paper proposes a model that explains how the storytelling process, in the form of the message and means of communication, influences the activist identity process and consequently the legitimacy of the activist entrepreneur.

This paper explains the historical method and offers an overview of the unique case of Madam C.J. Walker and analyzes how she gained legitimacy as an activist entrepreneur by conveying psychological capital (Psycap) concepts in her message and political skill in the means of her communication. The paper also analyzed books being written on her and also letters that were exchanged between herself and her lawyer F.B. Ransom.

The authors have found out that Madam Walker used Psycap elements such as self-efficacy, hope, resiliency and optimism as message and elements of political skill such as social astuteness, interpersonal skill, networking ability and apparent sincerity as means to communicate the message toward her followers and built a legitimate social identity where she had won the trust of them.

The primary limitation of this paper is that it is theoretical in nature and uses only one case study to support the theoretical model. However, when analyzing complex relationships, historical cases offer a wealth of insight to solve the problem at hand.

By using the elements of the model discussed in the research paper properly, people could create a legitimate identity for themselves where any message they give to their employees, colleagues and sub-ordinates would be viewed as a selfless one and that would increase the chances of their messages or orders being accepted and obeyed by the followers.

This paper aims to present a “Q&A interview” conducted by Joanne Pransky of Industrial Robot Journal as a method to impart the combined technological, business and personal experiences of a prominent robotic industry engineer-turned entrepreneur regarding the evolution, commercialisation and challenges of bringing a technological invention to market.

The interviewee is Rich Walker, the Managing Director at the Shadow Robot Company in London, UK. Rich Walker joined the Shadow team before going to University, and in this interview, he describes his 25-year journey with the company.

While he was studying mathematics at Cambridge, Rich Walker's passion for cutting edge robotics led him to write software in 1989, unpaid, as part of a team at the pioneering the Shadow Robot Company. Walker was soon involved in developing robotic hands based on pneumatic muscles, which resulted in eight patents, with Walker named as one of the inventors. Walker and the small team have since grown Shadow to become a thriving global business that designs and manufactures state-of-the-art anthropomorphic robot hands and related systems, with 20 R&D and production engineers in London, Brest and Shanghai.

Walker's experiences with a small entrepreneurial robot start-up has led him not only to become a leader at Shadow for new robotics applications but he is also active in developing and implementing European projects, and he consults as an expert in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and innovators.

The purpose of this paper is to explore innovation in alliance contracting in the New Zealand construction industry in terms of features (i.e. development process, risk/reward framework and leadership structure) that could influence successful project outcomes.

This study employed a qualitative research methodology. Three alliancing projects have been identified as the cases. By using interviews with the project’s owner and non-owner participants and related project documentation, the relevant features in the three examined cases were identified and compared.

The findings revealed differences in the reasoning why a particular alliance approach was implemented, how the alliance selection process was conducted and what kind of leadership structure was adopted. Interestingly, a number of unique and innovative practices to alliancing were also highlighted, notably the innovative agreements, innovative governance structure and innovative functional teams that influence the synergistically creative solutions to suit the clients’ needs.

The innovative practices identified in this study have brought the alliancing concept to a new level of practice in the industry. The findings provide a basis and a platform for discussion, both nationally and internationally, to gain greater understanding in managing different alliance contracting towards breakthrough outcomes.

This study extends the alliancing procurement literature, in particular, but also provides significant insights into innovative advancements to the collaborative procurement approaches.

The three volumes before us comprise the second title in the “Elgar Reference Collection” of Critical Ideas in Economics, a new series which, we learn from the book cover, aims to provide “an essential reference source for students, researchers and lecturers in economics.” Each volume in the series will bring together a collection of previously-published articles and book-chapters which “focuses on [a] concept widely used in economics,” and will thereby “improve access to important areas of literature which will not be available in the archives of many of the newer libraries.” No one can deny that Professor Walker’s topic is ideally suited to this stated intent; is there a concept more “widely used in economics” than that of equilibrium? A collection of previously-published items cannot, of course, be appraised in terms of the originality of its content. Such a work offers a different sort of contribution. In addition to the publisher’s stated aim of an improved access to those key articles which, either because of their age or the location of their publication, are not widely available, a work such as this can perform a function not unlike that which Weintraub (1991, pp. 129–130) ascribes to the survey article. The act of selection (and, hence, of exclusion) serves to delineate the field for the non-specialist, and the ordering of the items in the collection can reveal instructive lines of intellectual development – a “filiation of scientific ideas” to adopt Schumpeter’s (1954, p. 6) felicitous phrase – that otherwise might be obscured.

A walking assistant robot can help elderly people walk around independently, which could improve the life quality of the elderly and benefit our aging society. Ensuring the elderly person's walking comfort with such a robot is very important. At present, the majority of walking assistant robot research does not focus on this field. The purpose of this paper is to examine the requirements of comfortable walking and outline the design of a motion control algorithm for a walking assistant robot, Walkmate III, based on comfort.

During walking, the walking assistant robot should be able to capture the intent of user, guide the user and move at the same pace as the user. Usually, force or haptic interface is used to detect the user's walking intention. The motion control system then transforms the forces applied by the user into the robot's motion. By surveying the elderly people at a nursing home, the authors find that this transformation is important to the walking comfortableness and should be carefully designed. In this paper, the model of walking assisting process with such kind of walking assistant robot is derived at first. Based on this model, a new motion control algorithm is then designed.

The elderly hoped that, in all topographic conditions, only small forces were needed to drive the walker during walking. Also, good maneuverability was also very important for a walker, to offer the user comfort, which meant the walking assistant robot should be able to respond to the input forces quickly and precisely. Currently widely‐used motion control algorithms cannot satisfy all those requirements. In this paper, a new motion control algorithm is proposed, which can get a fast and precise response to the input forces and the input forces needed to drive the robot are kept at a preferred small level, so that the user will not feel tired during walking. Furthermore, by modifying, force feedback can be realized to improve the comfortableness of walking.

The availability of walking assistant robot with improved walking comfortableness might encourage a wider adoption of robotics in our daily life. It could also benefit our aging society by improving the life quality of the elderly and reducing the pressure deriving from nursing labor shortages.

This paper is of value to engineers and researchers developing walking assistant robots for the elderly people.

A large, predominantly undergraduate university in Tennessee partnered with a local magnet school aiming to assist high school seniors with their college-level research assignment. The partnership began as a pilot, but quickly expanded to include other high schools as a result of initial successes. This paper aims to describe the development of the partnership and its importance in fulfilling a key component of college preparedness for gifted high school students.

This paper describes how the Library partnership commenced as a service to a local high school that required its students to access college-level research materials. The paper details how both the Library and the high school recognized the impact of collaborating to expose these students to the information literacy skills needed for college readiness.

The paper presents the challenges encountered when attempting to provide college-level information literacy instruction to large groups of students visiting a college campus. It concludes with best practices and lessons learned, as well as plans for formal assessment and future initiatives.

The author has presented at Library Instruction West, July 2018. A review of the professional literature demonstrates that other academic libraries have partnered with local schools for a variety of library-related initiatives. Therefore, the concept of partnerships between the Library and local high schools is not unique. However, this paper aims to describe challenges encountered, best practices, lessons learned and suggestions for future directions, including formal assessment, all of which could be adapted by other academic libraries as applicable.

It is unclear as to what extent sustainable procurement is being practised in Ireland and what barriers there are to implementing it in organisations. This study provides the first complete insight into the use of sustainable procurement in Irish commercial semi-state bodies. It explores the extent and type of use of sustainable procurement plus identifies and examines the challenges to its use. A deductive approach is utilised to determine the barriers. Eleven participants, nine from the commercial semistate bodies and two experts with knowledge of this subject, are interviewed using semi-structured questions. The research findings show that sustainable procurement is being practised in the majority of the commercial semi-state bodies. Definition of sustainable procurement, the absence of mandatory guidelines, cost, time and a dearth of sustainable procurement knowledge by suppliers are some of the main barriers put forward by participants.