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1 – 10 of 19Jorge Cordero, Luis Barba-Guaman and Franco Guamán
This research work aims to arise from developing new communication channels for customer service in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), such as chatbots. In particular…
Abstract
Purpose
This research work aims to arise from developing new communication channels for customer service in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), such as chatbots. In particular, the results of the usability testing of three chatbots implemented in MSMEs are presented.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology employed includes participants, chatbot development platform, research methodology, software development methodology and usability test to contextualize the study's results.
Findings
Based on the results obtained from the System Usability Scale (SUS) and considering the accuracy of the chatbot's responses, it is concluded that the level of satisfaction in using chatbots is high; therefore, if the chatbot is well integrated with the communication systems/channels of the MSMEs, the client receives an excellent, fast and efficient service.
Originality/value
The paper analyzes chatbots for customer service and presents the usability testing results of three chatbots implemented in MSMEs.
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Daniel Briggs, Jorge Ramiro Pérez Suárez and Raquel Rebeca Cordero Verdugo
The purpose of this paper is to provide an honest and critical reflection with regard to the damage neoliberalised education systems have had on the “crime science” of criminology…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an honest and critical reflection with regard to the damage neoliberalised education systems have had on the “crime science” of criminology in Spain.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a viewpoint based on our experience of teaching criminology and researching crime problems in Spain.
Findings
We argue that the neoliberalisation of education systems results in a “crime of science” in the sense that this produces rampant competition between university institutions which is amplified by the emergence of internal and external corporate enterprises who compete against each other in commodifying knowledge around crime which is largely focussed on a combination of statistical measurements and zonal mapping. This results in the reproduction of misleading conceptions about how crime occurs because the research is not grounded in offenders’ experiences and pays no attention to the political economy, power and corruption and the oscillating relationship between agent and social structure. This has negative implications for the development of critical knowledge which should equip we to reconceptualise how and why social problems occur.
Practical implications
These infractions have major implications on how we are able to report on crime problems.
Social implications
As researchers/students, the authors are only able “diagnose problems” and answer questions and lose the capacity to question the answers as well as question the way the authors question.
Originality/value
We do not think that many criminologists would be prepared to write these words (unless it was being published in a high-impact factor journal).
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Armando Villanueva-Ledezma, Juan D. Machin-Mastromatteo, Fidel González-Quiñones, Aixchel Cordero-Hidalgo and Jorge Flores-Flores
This paper presents the findings of a project that aims to analyze the ethical treatment of the news, with special attention to the reporting of violent events, as it is carried…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper presents the findings of a project that aims to analyze the ethical treatment of the news, with special attention to the reporting of violent events, as it is carried out by digital news outlets from the State of Chihuahua (Mexico).
Design/methodology/approach
A media observatory was established to collect and analyze the 9,115 news reports of violent events from February to June 2019 and was published by 12 digital news outlets in Chihuahua. Quantitative data analysis was carried out using three analytical axes – ethics, human rights and violence. Each axis was, in turn, subdivided into three criteria, and this paper identifies how compliant were each news outlet and individual news report with those criteria.
Findings
Data analysis established that 5,385 of the news reports (59.1 per cent of the total news analyzed) met all the nine desirable criteria, whereas other subsets did not comply with up to a minimum five criteria. How the observed news outlets and their reports complied with the criteria used is specified in this paper.
Originality/value
The methodology used and the data analyzed seek to develop ethical and socially responsible journalism. Hence, this paper offers various possibilities, such as raising new questions related to journalistic deontology, helps engage responsible journalists and also represents an area of opportunity for library and information professionals who are immersed in digital environments (e.g. digital libraries and library professionals that are the ideal professionals to store, manage and disseminate the records produced by media observatories). Moreover, the data analyzed help to set a maximum limit for the non-compliance with each of the criteria analyzed, which can even lead to the development of an ethical and social responsibility accreditation that can be granted to news outlets with the best practices for journalism.
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Justo De Jorge-Moreno and Fernando Martín Meana
This study provides new results on the efficiency on health centers in Madrid (Spain).
Abstract
Purpose
This study provides new results on the efficiency on health centers in Madrid (Spain).
Design/methodology/approach
The objective of this study was to analyze the efficiency of primary care centers in the Community of Madrid in the period 2016–2018. Special attention has been paid to the detailed study of the best practices carried out. Likewise, the factors affecting efficiency have been analyzed. The methodologies used were nonparametric DEA radial, nonradial and bootstrap, for the estimation of efficiency. The main results reveal that, despite the differences in the techniques used, fundamentally the radial versus non-radial criterion, the results dynamically show the deterioration of the efficiency of the health Centers of the Community of Madrid, when compared by subperiods 2017/18–2016/17. The benchmark analysis identified the best practices of the health centers in the period analyzed. The application of cluster analysis, through kernel distributions (Azzalini and Menardi, 2014), segments the sample in two, and shows the top 20% of health Centers in resource management, in the case of radial DEA. Subsequently, a detailed analysis using pairwise comparison and their presence in the formation of the production frontier captures the benchmark health Centers, as they are present in the three years analyzed in the formation of the production frontier. The analysis of the second stage reports that the explanatory factors of efficiency are centered on the inverse relationship between the population assigned to the health Centers and positively with teaching versus those that do not. It also confirms the extent to which the pressure of care compromises the efficiency of the health Centers.
Findings
A methodological approach based on three efficiency analysis methodologies (radial, non-radial and bootstrap) is applied. Likewise, a cluster analysis criterion is used (Azzalini and Menardi, 2014), little explored in the field of Healthcare.
Originality/value
The Benchmark analysis applied in this study could contribute to decision making for managers, professionals, and policy makers in the health sector. The provision of a greater quantity and quality of public health resources is an important challenge that must be met in order to maintain levels of excellence.
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Alejandra García-Franco and Jose Antonio Chamizo
Practitioner research is now widely used in different programs of teacher preparation. It is expected that teachers conducting research on their own work will become more…
Abstract
Practitioner research is now widely used in different programs of teacher preparation. It is expected that teachers conducting research on their own work will become more reflective and develop the skills required to become life-long learners. Even though many programs for teacher preparation include some form of teacher research it is not common to find tools to assess teachers and to allow for peer- and self-assessment. In this chapter, we present a pedagogy that uses heuristic diagrams as a mean to assess teachers’ research. We have used such heuristics with teachers participating in a Research Methods Course in a Master Degree and have found that it allows teachers to engage in a constant interplay between the theoretical and the practical and encourages the development of better research questions. Teachers have systematically found this tool very useful in advancing their research projects in the different scenarios where teachers are trying to improve their practice through research.
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Paula M. Hernandez-Diaz, Jorge-Andrés Polanco and Sandra Milena Castaño
This paper aims to know how university’s strategic managers, from botacademic and administrative systems, perceive the relationship between sustainability and accreditation as…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to know how university’s strategic managers, from botacademic and administrative systems, perceive the relationship between sustainability and accreditation as sustainability incorporation and the quality of their processes are amongst the actual challenges of universities.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper opted for an inductive, exploratory study using the case study approach, including 19 in-depth interviews to administrative and academic managers in a private, high-quality certified university in Colombia. The data were assessed using the content analysis methodology. The Colombian accreditation guidelines were the base to analyse the data as accreditation is part of the quality assurance system.
Findings
This paper provides empirical insights into how the implementation of sustainability in universities relates to the Colombian accreditation factors. The main links found were in the areas of the university’s social impact and organisational responsibility, which are highly relevant to graduates, external stakeholders and sustainability skills. Sustainable campus operation was associated with environmental management and improvement of the quality of the physical plant, with social and economic benefits in the long-term. Additionally, this research found a need for administrative and academic managers to understand and increase their commitment to sustainability.
Research limitations/implications
Because it was a case study, results are not generalisable. Consequently, further research on similar lines is required to universalise the mentioned observation and results.
Practical implications
The accreditation factors related to sustainability, inductively defined and exposed in this paper, provide an idea of how sustainability implementation could contribute to higher education quality assurance.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to filling the knowledge gap about embedding sustainability in Latin-American universities. This paper postulates a starting point considering accreditation standards and the link of the strategic manager’s perceptions of sustainability.
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Jorge Alfonso Lara-Pérez, Francisco Canibe-Cruz and Antonio Duréndez
The present study shows that the implementation and development of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as a technological innovation provide a competitive advantage that…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study shows that the implementation and development of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as a technological innovation provide a competitive advantage that helps to improve the functionality of business intelligence (BI) systems in the digital transformation of manufacturing companies, in addition to improving overall firm performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The research uses the structural equation approach based on PLS-SEM technique with a sample of 120 firms in the manufacturing industry in Coahuila, Mexico.
Findings
The paper provides empirical insights into how the interaction of ERP systems and innovation significantly affects the functionality of BI Systems and has a substantial effect on overall firm performance.
Originality/value
Empirical evidence of how advanced digital management systems (ERP and BI) impact digitalization processes in organizations by improving performance is still scarce.
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This paper seeks to present a numerical model which is used to obtain the transit time limited frequency response of p‐i‐n photodiodes with an arbitrary electric field profile…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to present a numerical model which is used to obtain the transit time limited frequency response of p‐i‐n photodiodes with an arbitrary electric field profile. The effect of the absorption layer width and bias voltage on the frequency response is also investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
The absorption region is divided into any desired number of layers and the continuity equations are solved, for each layer, assuming that within the layer the carriers' drift velocities are constant. The frequency response of the multilayer structure is calculated from the response of each layer using matrix algebra.
Findings
The numerical results agree well with those from the experiment. It is seen that the results, assuming the saturation drift velocities, are usually overestimated especially for low values of the bias voltage or high values of the absorption region width.
Research limitations/implications
The numerical method under study neglects the capacitive effects which may determine the frequency response of very short devices. In this case a more complete treatment, including also the displacement current, should be carried out.
Practical implications
Software development for the design of multilayer photodiodes with optimized frequency response.
Originality/value
To the best of one's knowledge this is an original report of the application of this numerical method to the calculation of the frequency response of p‐i‐n photodiodes. The numerical method, being able to treat in a simple way multilayer structures with any electric field profile, is a very powerful tool in the development of software for the design of efficient photodiodes of various types.
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MEXICO: Petty politics will reflect badly on parties