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1 – 10 of 82Rocco Agrifoglio, Paola Briganti, Luisa Varriale, Concetta Metallo and Maria Ferrara
Building upon the practice-based framework, this paper aims to focus on working practices for understanding how knowledge is transferred among health-care professionals within…
Abstract
Purpose
Building upon the practice-based framework, this paper aims to focus on working practices for understanding how knowledge is transferred among health-care professionals within hospitals.
Design/methodology/approach
Using an ethnographic and interpretative approach, the authors conducted preliminary research based on a quali-quantitative methodology within one of the largest hospitals in Southern Italy.
Findings
This study allowed to achieve several results that could be significant and relevant within the health-care sector. First, this paper identified some of the main working practices and their associated activities in health care. Moreover, this paper identified the main organizational forms and/or tools enabling hospital personnel to share and learn the various types of knowledge for each of the prior identified practices.
Practical implications
Hospital managers should develop strategies and policies that take into account the nature and typology of knowledge-sharing processes among health-care professionals in terms of practices.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to practice-based studies identifying identified some of the main working practices, as well as the main tools for sharing and learning of the various types of knowledge.
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Francesco Busato, Maria Ferrara and Monica Varlese
This paper analyzes real and welfare effects of a permanent change in inflation rate, focusing on macroprudential policy’ role and its interaction with monetary policy.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper analyzes real and welfare effects of a permanent change in inflation rate, focusing on macroprudential policy’ role and its interaction with monetary policy.
Design/methodology/approach
While investigating disinflation costs, the authors simulate a medium-scale dynamic general equilibrium model with borrowing constraints, credit frictions and macroprudential authority.
Findings
Providing discussions on different policy scenarios in a context where still it is expected high inflation, there are three key contributions. First, when macroprudential authority actively operates to improve financial stability, losses caused by disinflation are limited. Second, a Taylor rule directly responding to financial variables might entail a trade-off between price and financial stability objectives, by increasing disinflation costs. Third, disinflation is welfare improving for savers, while costly for borrowers and banks. Indeed, while savers benefit from policies reducing price stickiness distortion, borrowers are worried about credit frictions, coming from collateral constraint.
Practical implications
The paper suggests threefold policy implications: the macroprudential authority should actively intervene during a disinflation process to minimize costs and financial instability deriving from it; policymakers should implement a disinflationary policy stabilizing also output; the central bank and the macroprudential regulator should pursue financial and price stability goals, separately.
Originality/value
This paper is the first attempt to study effects of a permanent inflation target reduction in focusing on the macroprudential policy’ role.
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Marcello Russo, Filomena Buonocore and Maria Ferrara
The purpose of this paper is to explore antecedents, namely reasons for/against error reporting, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived control, of nurses’ intentions to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore antecedents, namely reasons for/against error reporting, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived control, of nurses’ intentions to report their errors at work.
Design/methodology/approach
A structured equation model with cross-sectional data were estimated to test the hypotheses on a sample of 188 Italian nurses.
Findings
Reasons for/against error reporting were associated with attitudes, subjective norms and perceived control. Further, reasons against were related to nurses’ intentions to report errors whereas reasons for error reporting were not. Lastly, perceived control was found to partially mediate the effects of reasons against error reporting on nurses’ intentions to act.
Research limitations/implications
Self-report data were collected at one point in time.
Practical implications
This study offers recommendations to healthcare managers on what factors may encourage nurses to report their errors.
Social implications
Lack of error reporting prevents timely interventions. The study contributes to documenting motivations that can persuade or dissuade nurses in this important decision.
Originality/value
This study extends prior research on error reporting that lacks a strong theoretical foundation by drawing on behavioral reasoning theory.
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Keywords
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Design
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
The study identified the major organisational forms and tools that enable various types of knowledge to be shared.
Originality
The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.
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Michele Bigoni, Enrico Deidda Gagliardo and Warwick Funnell
Informed by the work of Laughlin and Booth, this paper aims to analyze the role of accounting and accountability practices within the fifteenth century Roman Catholic Church, more…
Abstract
Purpose
Informed by the work of Laughlin and Booth, this paper aims to analyze the role of accounting and accountability practices within the fifteenth century Roman Catholic Church, more specifically within the Diocese of Ferrara (northern Italy), in order to determine the presence of a sacred‐secular dichotomy. Pope Eugenius IV had embarked on a comprehensive reform of the Church to counter the spreading moral corruption within the clergy and the subsequent disaffection with the Church by many believers. The reforms were notable not only for the Pope's determination to restore the moral authority and power of the Church, but also for the essential contributions of “profane” financial and accounting practices to the success of the reforms.
Design/methodology/approach
Original fifteenth century Latin documents and account books of the Diocese of Ferrara are used to highlight the link between the new sacred values imposed by Pope Eugenius IV's reforms and accounting and accountability practices.
Findings
The documents reveal that secular accounting and accountability practices were not regarded as necessarily antithetical to religious values, as would be expected by Laughlin and Booth. Instead, they were seen to assume a role which was complementary to the Church's religious mission. Indeed, they were essential to its sacred mission during a period in which the Pope sought to arrest the moral decay of the clergy and reinstate the Church's authority.
Research limitations/implications
The paper shows that the sacred‐secular dichotomy cannot be considered as a priori valid in space and time. There is also scope for examining other Italian dioceses where there was little evidence of Pope Eugenius' reforms.
Originality/value
The paper presents a critique of the sacred‐secular divide paradigm by considering an under‐researched period and a non‐Anglo Saxon context.
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Alessandra Borrelli, Giulia Giantesio and Maria Cristina Patria
This paper aims to analyze the steady two-dimensional stagnation-point flow of an electrically conducting Newtonian or micropolar fluid when the obstacle is uniformly heated.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyze the steady two-dimensional stagnation-point flow of an electrically conducting Newtonian or micropolar fluid when the obstacle is uniformly heated.
Design/methodology/approach
The governing boundary layer equations are transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations using appropriate similarity transformations. Some analytical considerations about existence and uniqueness of the solution are obtained. The system is then solved numerically using the bvp4c function in MATLAB.
Findings
If the temperature of the obstacle Tw coincides with the environment temperature T0, then the motion reduces to the usual orthogonal stagnation-point flow; if Tw = T0, then it is necessary to include in the similarity function describing the velocity an oblique part due to the temperature. Also, the presence of a uniform external magnetic field orthogonal to the obstacle is examined. In all cases, the motion is reduced to a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations with boundary conditions, whose solution is discussed numerically when the Prandtl and the Hartmann number varies.
Originality/value
The present results are original and new for the problem of magnetohydrodynamic mixed convection in the plane stagnation-point flow of a Newtonian or a micropolar fluid over a vertical flat plate. At infinity, the motion approaches the orthogonal stagnation-point flow of an inviscid fluid; the effect of an uniform external magnetic field is considered, and the obstacle has a uniform temperature.
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Alessandra Borrelli, Giulia Giantesio, Maria Cristina Patria, Natalia C. Roşca, Alin V. Roşca and Ioan Pop
This paper aims to consider the influence of the temperature and of an external magnetic field on the steady oblique stagnation-point flow for a Boussinesquian nanofluid past a…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to consider the influence of the temperature and of an external magnetic field on the steady oblique stagnation-point flow for a Boussinesquian nanofluid past a stretching or shrinking sheet.
Design/methodology/approach
The flow is reduced through similarity transformations to an ordinary boundary value problem, which is solved numerically in MATLAB using the bvp4c function. The behavior of the solution is discussed physically, and some analytical considerations concerning existence of the solution and the occurrence of dual solutions are drawn.
Findings
The study of the influence of an external magnetic field on the oblique stagnation-point flow of a Buongiorno's Boussinesquian nanofluid is carried out. The fluid clashes on a vertical stretching or shrinking sheet. Dual solutions appear for suitable values of the parameters.
Originality/value
The present results are new and original.
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Keywords
Alessandro Bigi, Fabio Cassia and Marta Maria Ugolini
A food tourism destination can fully exploit its competitiveness if food-related attributes are consistently highlighted both in its promotion and in user-generated content…
Abstract
Purpose
A food tourism destination can fully exploit its competitiveness if food-related attributes are consistently highlighted both in its promotion and in user-generated content. However, in the context of food tourism research, a possible image incongruence has not yet been studied. Tourism destination image incongruence occurs when different travel information sources reflect inconsistent representations of a destination's attributes. This study addresses this gap, focusing on Italian food and wine as drivers to attract visitors. This study examines whether food-related attributes are present in online travel-related conversations and are perceived differently by people with and without knowledge about the destination.
Design/methodology/approach
Content analysis based on a Bayesian machine-learning technique utilizing Leximancer software was applied to analyze questions and answers posted on TripAdvisor forums by potential and past visitors of four destinations in Italy (Naples, Florence, Parma and Ferrara). Questions and answers expressed by people with different knowledge in Italian and English were analyzed separately to gain deeper understanding.
Findings
Contrary to expectations, food-related themes were almost completely absent in the conversations analyzed, with only a few exceptions in Italian question sections. This situation depicts a sort of “cannibalism”, in the sense that the centrality of food-related attributes is engulfed by other, less sensorial, enjoyable and memorable aspects of the travel experience.
Research limitations/implications
Analysis suggests that hype may exist in food tourism promotion related to destination image incongruence. However, while based on a large volume of conversations, the analysis covers only four Italian cities.
Practical implications
Destination management organizations (DMOs) should develop their strategy and communication considering internal and external elements: their marketing targets on one side and the local culture and attractions' perceptions on the other. Standard marketing processes (segmenting, targeting, positioning) and theories should be put in place. The application of standard marketing dynamics and studies should push the DMOs to understand that the internally perceived cultural values of the touristic destinations could not be known or joint univocally by the global external customers and that a local promotional activity should start with branding and not commercial activities.
Originality/value
This is the first study to suggest the existence of hype in food tourism promotion of Italian destinations and to provide evidence supporting this argument.
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The purpose of this paper is to propose a simple, fast, and effective method for detecting measurement errors in data collected with low-cost environmental sensors typically used…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a simple, fast, and effective method for detecting measurement errors in data collected with low-cost environmental sensors typically used in building monitoring, evaluation, and automation applications.
Design/methodology/approach
The method combines two unsupervised learning techniques: a distance-based anomaly detection algorithm analyzing temporal patterns in data, and a density-based algorithm comparing data across different spatially related sensors.
Findings
Results of tests using 60,000 observations of temperature and humidity collected from 20 sensors during three weeks show that the method effectively identified measurement errors and was not affected by valid unusual events. Precision, recall, and accuracy were 0.999 or higher for all cases tested.
Originality/value
The method is simple to implement, computationally inexpensive, and fast enough to be used in real-time with modest open-source microprocessors and a wide variety of environmental sensors. It is a robust and convenient approach for overcoming the hardware constraints of low-cost sensors, allowing users to improve the quality of collected data at almost no additional cost and effort.
Details