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Article
Publication date: 1 March 2013

Steven E. Phelan, Ane T. Johnson and Thorsten Semrau

We utilize a sample of New Jersey schools to explore the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and school performance. The results indicate a significant…

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Abstract

We utilize a sample of New Jersey schools to explore the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and school performance. The results indicate a significant relationship between several dimensions of EO and performance after controlling for a number of relevant variables. Charter schools were found to have higher EO than traditional schools. The implications of these findings for education and entrepreneurship research are discussed.

Details

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship, vol. 16 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2574-8904

Article
Publication date: 20 October 2021

Ane Turner Johnson and Monica Reid Kerrigan

In this study, the authors explored the situation of the doctoral candidate in the social sciences as they were confronted by crisis and forced to make changes to their…

Abstract

Purpose

In this study, the authors explored the situation of the doctoral candidate in the social sciences as they were confronted by crisis and forced to make changes to their dissertation research plans. The authors conceptualized this as a methodological pivot, or an unexpected shift in trajectory, in which candidates engaged and that culminated in new research plans.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Using situational analysis, a form of qualitative grounded theory, the authors conducted interviews and collected extant artifacts to understand the situations of the candidate engaged in the pivot. The analysis produced a situational map and a grounded theorizing. The authors also bound the analysis by a specific time period: the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA.

Findings

The grounded theorizing evidenced stages of pivoting, reflected as an internal process of grieving. Participants also endured external institutional impediments around programmatic support, funding and policy. Each internal and external situation exerted some degree of pressure on the candidate’s pivot. Technology and its impact on fieldwork, methodological assets and epistemological shifts mediated internal and external situations to produce the pivot.

Originality/Value

This work is unique in that it expands on the field of study and practice that has emerged from the complexity of crisis in education, situated predominantly in lower to middle-income countries. In higher income countries, like the USA, educational institutions remain unprepared for crisis. This work underscores this paucity. The authors also build on the literature that addresses the challenges graduate learners face with support and its implications for persistence.

Article
Publication date: 11 May 2022

Marcellus Forh Mbah, Sandra Ajaps, Ane Turner Johnson and Sidat Yaffa

While the possibility of a university fostering sustainable development is present in the extant literature and policy documents, the idea still warrants further consideration…

Abstract

Purpose

While the possibility of a university fostering sustainable development is present in the extant literature and policy documents, the idea still warrants further consideration. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the nature and outcomes of the university’s engagement with Indigenous communities and perceptions of Indigenous knowledge systems in both academic and non-academic activities, and what might be required to foster the university’s contributions towards sustainable development.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative case study of the only public university in The Gambia was conducted, including non-university actors. Interviews and focus group discussion methods were used, and these enabled close collaboration between researchers and participants, and the latter were empowered to describe their perceptions of reality.

Findings

Three major sets of findings emerged from the analysis of the transcripts from interviews and focus group discussions with the university and community members. These are the limited nature of and outcomes from university–community engagement, the sustainable outcomes of Indigenous practices and ideas for Indigenising university engagement for sustainable development.

Practical implications

Particular implications of the study that underpins this paper can be underscored; these include: a contribution to the literature on ways of connecting Indigenous communities with universities, and to a conceptualisation of the Indigenised university; a provision of insights into the connectivity between university community engagement, Indigenous knowledge systems and sustainable development; the creation of a context for subsequent studies on practical steps that universities might take in the direction of epistemic justice and sustainable development for all; and heightening the intractability of theoretical and philosophical issues of epistemology, knowledge ecology and epistemological justice, as they reveal themselves in practice, in complex situations.

Originality/value

Matters of the university reaching out to Indigenous peoples have yet to find their way into conceptualisations of the university for sustainable development. This paper addresses this gap in the existing literature by advancing possibilities for the Indigenised university for sustainable development to emerge.

Details

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 23 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-6370

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 27 September 2019

Ane Turner Johnson

Higher education institutions around the world have increasingly come to see information and communication technology (ICT) as vital to the business of teaching and learning…

Abstract

Higher education institutions around the world have increasingly come to see information and communication technology (ICT) as vital to the business of teaching and learning. Institutions invest a considerable amount of time and resources to erecting the appropriate institutional infrastructure, creating policy and practice, instituting strategy, training faculty, and building the capacity of technology staff. However, in under-resourced regions of the world, such as Africa, ICT, the availability and use of, has several challenges to overcome: a lack of institutional infrastructure, sufficient bandwidth, and limited capacity to employ ICT in the research process or the classroom. Universities report inadequate funding, poor management and infrastructure, resistance to change, inadequate training, and high costs associated with effective ICT use. Moreover, critiques of Western technopositivism surface misgivings related to the performance outcomes and appropriateness of ICT adoption in Africa. In this chapter, the author will explore the work of international organizations and regional and national research and education networks in the diffusion of ICT discourse, consider on-the-ground adoptions and innovation at universities in Nigeria, and reflect on the suitability and sustainability of technology adoption, all within an ICT for development (ICT4D) framework that lenses the evolution of technological applications in higher education. This chapter is significant in that it connects African higher education to ICT4D and frames the various discourses, policy landscapes and practice arenas, as they relate to international actors, continental initiatives, networks, universities, and faculty.

Details

Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2018
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-416-8

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 4 October 2013

Ane Turner Johnson

This chapter grapples with questions of agency in the development of African higher education, with a special focus on the Association of African Universities (AAU), an…

Abstract

This chapter grapples with questions of agency in the development of African higher education, with a special focus on the Association of African Universities (AAU), an organization outside of formal education policymaking on the continent. Through the lens of rhetorical institutionalism, findings illustrate how the AAU has adopted and adapted competing institutional logics to exert influence over development policymaking. Next, I will discuss how systems of persuasion were cultivated and symbols employed to establish the legitimacy of the organization in a heterogeneous institutional field that includes universities, development agencies, nongovernmental organizations, supranational arrangements, and the influence of international financial institutions. This enabled the AAU to extend institutional logics into African higher education. This case study seeks to upend the pervasive crisis narrative that perpetuates both the impotence of African institutions and the stewardship of outside development elites. Finally this chapter considers the implications of this critical case study for development discourse and practice.

Details

The Development of Higher Education in Africa: Prospects and Challenges
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-699-6

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1910

Very much more might be done to improve the quality of our food supplies by the great organisations that exist for the avowed object of furthering the interests of traders in…

Abstract

Very much more might be done to improve the quality of our food supplies by the great organisations that exist for the avowed object of furthering the interests of traders in foodstuffs. It is no exaggeration to say that these organisations claim, and rightly claim, to speak in the aggregate on behalf of great commercial interests involving the means of livelihood of thousands of people and the most profitable disposal of millions of money. The information that they possess as to certain trade methods and requirements is necessarily unique. Apart from the commercial knowledge they possess, these organisations have funds at their command which enable them to obtain the best professional opinions on any subjects connected with the trades they represent. Their members are frequently to be found occupying positions of responsibility as the elected representatives of their fellow‐citizens on municipal councils and other public bodies, where the administration of the Food Laws and prosecutions under the Food and Drugs Acts are often under discussion. Such organisations, then, are in a position to afford an unlimited amount of valuable help by assisting to put down fraud in connection with our food supply. The dosing of foods with harmful drugs is, of course, only a part of a very much larger subject. It is, however, typical. Assuming the danger to public health that arises from the treatment of foods with harmful preservatives, the continued use of such substances cannot but be in the long run as harmful to the best interests of the traders as it is actually dangerous to public health. The trade organisations to which reference has been made might very well extend their sphere of usefulness by making it their business to seriously consider this and similar questions in the interests of public health, as well as in their own best interests. It is surely not open to doubt that a great organisation, numbering hundreds, and perhaps thousands of members, has such a membership because individual traders find it to their interest, as do people in all walks of life, to act more or less in common for the general advantage ; and, further, that it would not be to the benefit of individual members that their connection with the organisation should terminate owing to their own wrong‐doing. The executives of such trade organisations hold a sufficiently strong position to enable them to bring strong pressure to bear on those who are acting in a way that is contrary to the interests of the public generally, and of honest traders in particular, by adulterating or misbranding the food products that they gain their living by selling. It should also be plain that such trade organisations could go a long way towards solving many of the very vexed questions that arise whenever food standards and limits, for example, form the subject of discussion. These problems are not easy to deal with. The difficulties in connection with them are many and great; but such problems, however difficult of solution, are still not insoluble, and an important step towards their solution would be taken if co‐operation between those who are acting in the interests of hygienic science and those who are acting in the interests of trade could be brought about. If this could be accomplished the unedifying spectacle of alleged trade interests and the demands of public health being brought, as is so often the case, into sharp conflict, would be less frequent, and there can be no doubt that general benefit would result.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 12 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1899

ABERDEEN, the “Granite City,” the “Silver City by the Sea,” the great headquarters of the grey granite trade, and one of the busiest and most influential mercantile cities in…

Abstract

ABERDEEN, the “Granite City,” the “Silver City by the Sea,” the great headquarters of the grey granite trade, and one of the busiest and most influential mercantile cities in Scotland, has a name which is known throughout the civilized world, and a fame which has penetrated to nearly every quarter of the habitable globe. The writing of all that might legitimately be written concerning this remarkable, and in many cases unique, community of “ hard‐headed Aberdonians ” (as they are usually styled), would fill many large volumes, and as we have neither the time nor the space for the compilation of such a work of history and description as this would imply, our readers must be content with an unpretentious historical survey of what is of more immediate interest to them, viz. : the chief libraries belonging to the city of Aberdeen. These are two in number—the Library of the University and the Public Library.

Details

New Library World, vol. 2 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Book part
Publication date: 24 October 2017

Michael J. Pomante and Scot Schraufnagel

The research uncovers an increase in the disapproval of Congress and a drop in public trust in government associated with exposed congressional corruption in the post-Watergate…

Abstract

The research uncovers an increase in the disapproval of Congress and a drop in public trust in government associated with exposed congressional corruption in the post-Watergate era. The tools Congress holds to punish members caught up in scandal are discussed and the chapter considers five major scandals to rock Congress since the 1970s. Importantly, we uncover evidence that government institutions and actors are somewhat resilient and can bounce back after experiencing negative public sentiment for a period of time. Yet, it seems in the aftermath of exposed corruption, the corresponding drop in public support has policy implications. We determine that movement in public disapproval of Congress and overall trust in government help explain public law output and the ability of Congress to pass its contemporary legislative agenda.

Details

Corruption, Accountability and Discretion
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-556-8

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 March 2015

Andre Mollick

The purpose of this paper is to examine what happens to the variance of individual stocks forming the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) allowing for aggregate uncertainty…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine what happens to the variance of individual stocks forming the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) allowing for aggregate uncertainty measured by VIX, the “fear gauge index” of US options contracts. In examining each individual stock belonging to DJIA in 2011, the authors reconsider aggregate market uncertainty (VIX) as the mixing variable. In contrast to studies on the effects of VIX on the aggregate equity market, the data set used in this paper allow a further look at the proposition that market aggregate uncertainty should have varying impact on individual stock variance.

Design/methodology/approach

GARCH-M models estimate individual stock returns belonging to the DJIA in 2011 on its lags and on the ARCH-M term in the mean equation linking stock returns to the variance equation. The longest time span has 5,738 observations for most stocks under daily frequency from January 3, 1990 to December 30, 2011. The authors use one lag for the VIX2 term to address simultaneity problems in the variance equation. In order to allow for interactions between volatility and business cycles, the authors include a dummy variable for the three recessions identified by the NBER over the period.

Findings

Adding the “fear gauge” VIX index and a dummy variable for recessions to the variance equation in GARCH-M models, the VIX coefficient always increases variance and the recession dummy has mixed effects. Overall, VIX acts as expected as mixing variable. Supporting the mixture of distribution hypothesis, the impact of VIX is always positive (1.039 on market variance) and GARCH effects vanish completely for the index and almost as much for 24 stocks.

Research limitations/implications

In theory, the effects of VIX on stock variance should be positive and statistically significant, together with reductions of GARCH persistence. The authors find this to be the case for the aggregate stock market and for 24 out of its 29 DJIA stocks. The authors leave for further work extensions to estimating the variance equation for companies very exposed to idiosyncratic changes, such as oil price fluctuations or stock buybacks. The implication of this research for the academic or financial community relies on the estimation of VIX effects on individual stock variance, controlling for business cycles.

Originality/value

Due to its benchmark in equities, stocks in the Dow Jones Industrials make it a very interesting case study. This paper reconsiders the aggregate uncertainty hypothesis for two main reasons. First, the financial press and traders keep a very close track on the daily evolution of VIX. Second, recent research emphasizes the formal predictive power of VIX in US stock markets. For the variance equation, existing works report positive values for the VIX-coefficient on the S&P 500 index but they have not examined individual stocks as the authors do in this paper.

Details

Managerial Finance, vol. 41 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4358

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2007

Peter L. Francia

Popular accounts of the labor movement suggest that unions have become weak organizations. There are, however, trends that indicate laborʼs political power has not waned in recent…

Abstract

Popular accounts of the labor movement suggest that unions have become weak organizations. There are, however, trends that indicate laborʼs political power has not waned in recent years. Using data from multiple sources, the results in this study indicate: (1) despite declines in union density, the percentage of union households has remained steady for two decades; (2) unions continue to produce a strong Democratic vote from its membership, even from its white male members; (3) unions are among the top campaign contributors and spenders in American elections; (4) unions hold significant influence among congressional Democrats and have made gains at the state and local level; and (5) public opinion of labor unions has remained consistently positive for several decades.

Details

International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, vol. 10 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1093-4537

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