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Learning to teach subject matter topics that emerge as challenging for culturally and linguistically diverse students remains a key goal for prospective teachers. Teacher education needs multiple ways to guide preservice teachers (PSTs) for this work. One context for such teacher development is classroom-based teacher inquiry. I describe an innovation in teacher inquiry pedagogy that mentors PSTs in (a) mining multiple sources of knowledge for teaching challenging areas of content learning, (b) systematically analyzing knowledge gleaned from these sources, and (c) mediating through visual representations the overlapping, reinforcing, and sometimes conflicting ideas gleaned from sources, in order to advance conceptions and practice in content-based learning for diverse youth. I describe the pedagogy in practice, then use a case of one PST to illustrate how her knowledge evolved in learning to teach persuasive writing to early adolescent English language learners. It was in the knowledge sources interface, mediated by visual representations and written reflections, that this PST’s developing knowledge gained texture and depth.

This paper seeks to serve as an introduction to a networking platform called iBridge, recently launched by the administrative office of Zhongguancun Haidian Science Park (HSP) in Beijing, China. With the goal of enabling knowledge sharing and collaboration between members and businesses across the world, iBridge has evolved to include features such as communities, blogs, search, recommendation and content customization. The emergence of iBridge is viewed in the context of China's national innovation policy, paying specific attention to the role that collaboration plays as a means of fostering the exchange of ideas and innovation. The paper also aims to discuss the challenges involved in adopting this approach.

The information for this paper was gathered through visits by the author to HSP in 2006 and 2008, as well as through secondary written and web‐based sources.

The paper finds that, since its inception in 2006, the iBridge platform has incorporated many new features and increased its membership substantially. It is anticipated that Web 2.0 features, such as blogs and community forums, will encourage greater levels of innovation as iBridge membership increases.

No empirical evidence is presented in this paper to support the claim that iBridge has increased innovation. However, a greater exchange of ideas is expected, as a “network effect” takes hold and the platform grows in terms of functionality and usage.

The iBridge platform is still in its infancy, having a very limited member base. While it has started to gain notoriety in the high‐tech community within China, it has still not received much international attention. With this paper the iBridge platform will be known to a wider audience.

This research seeks to obtain a better understanding of the factors impacting the intent to share knowledge within the Vietnamese organizational context. While the literature provides some examples of cross‐cultural studies involving knowledge sharing, there has been a lack of research on emerging economies such as Vietnam.

The theoretical foundation for the paper is the theory of reasoned action (TRA), a social psychology framework that has been used extensively to explain many types of human behavior. The research model was formulated based on the original TRA framework as well as additional factors taken from the literature. Six variables were tested to determine their impact on the intention to share knowledge in an organizational context. Primary data were obtained from a survey administered to 124 employees in six multinational companies in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Regression analysis shows that TRA, for the most part, has explanatory power within the Vietnamese organizational context. All TRA constructs were found to be significant, except for extrinsic awards and expected associations. Examination of actual survey responses revealed that knowledge sharing is generally recognized as being a beneficial strategy in this context.

The size and make‐up of the sample were limiting factors in this study. In spite of these limitations, the results provide insight into knowledge‐sharing intent in Vietnamese companies. Managers looking to enhance the knowledge‐sharing capabilities of Vietnamese employees will find practical implications in the study.

The paper provides a much needed view of the organizational environment and knowledge‐sharing culture of Vietnam, an emerging country rapidly entering into the knowledge economy.

Overseas Chinese business networks have had a profound effect on the economic development of mainland China and on the global economy as a whole. Such networks are based predominantly on familial, language and cultural factors and provide a foundation on which business is conducted, often with reduced transaction costs and with resilience to major shifts in the financial markets. This paper aims to explore business networks in the US Chinese diaspora.

The paper begins with a brief introduction to the concept of ethnic business networks. Subsequent sections provide historical background on the Chinese diaspora and the role Chinese business networks have played around the world. An examination of how such networks have evolved in the US context follows. Finally, implications are discussed and a research agenda is suggested.

It is suggested that a different type of business networking pattern has evolved in the US context, one that is less reliant on the traditional pillars of family, language and culture and more on intellectual capital.

No empirical evidence is presented here. However, a research agenda is specified.

Relatively little has been written that specifically addresses the US Chinese business experience, which differs in several important ways from other groups in the Chinese diaspora. This paper examines this branch of the Chinese diaspora, focusing on the networking behaviors among professionals, including those that have most recently emerged in the high tech sector.

The goal of this narrative synthesis is twofold. The purpose of this paper is to understand the barriers and constraints that hinder or prevent the growth of professional community. The author also want to form an empirical understanding of how educators can be successful in meeting these challenges. In both cases, the author wish to grow this knowledge in the complexity of schooling and the rapids of continuous school improvement. The conceptual architecture for the review is a mixture of research on change and implementation, school improvement, and community.

The paper can best be described as an integrative review or a narrative synthesis – an interpretation of the literature (Vescio et al., 2008), a method that is especially useful when combing qualitative and quantitative research findings. The author follow guidance from Hallinger in explaining the construction of the paper. The goal is to explore the broadest landscape possible to distill knowledge and understanding on the one hand and provide usable material on the other. In the words of Battistich, the aim is “to develop integrative explanatory concepts that provide people with a useful framework for considering action under particular circumstances.”

The paper concludes that there are dynamic cultural and well-entrenched structural barriers that make the realization of professional community problematic. Some of these elements are visible. Many others are deeply buried in the meta-narrative of school improvement. The author also finds that absent direct attention to these conditions, efforts to nurture professional community in schools will be seriously handicapped.

Narrative syntheses offer the hope of deep understanding of domains of school improvement. They permit the inclusion of findings garnered from an array of methodologies. At the same time, this mode of investigation lacks the precision associated with more structured methods of knowledge accumulation. Even when done well, it places considerable responsibility on investigators in making sense of findings.

By examining research from a wide area of domains, the author is able to construct a comprehensive map of the world of bringing professional community to life in schools for researches, policy actors, developers, and practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of knowledge capture in the biopharmaceutical industry, focusing primarily on the transition from paper‐based to electronic data capture (EDC) systems.

The paper draws on biopharmaceutical industry literature and data from example clinical studies to describe the issues involved in transitioning to EDC in the clinical trials environment.

While electronic data capture systems provide greater efficiencies along the clinical trial supply chain, the industry is still far from achieving wide scale utilization of such technologies. The barriers to successful implementation are multifaceted, involving not only the information technology itself, but also user acceptance issues, lack of interoperability standards, and regulatory compliance. Major shifts in organizational culture and a unified effort within the industry will be necessary in order to derive full benefits from electronic capture systems in the future.

This study was limited in that case data from only one company was used to supplement the literature review. Further research is warranted to better understand the factors that facilitate adoption of electronic knowledge capture systems in the biopharmaceutical industry.

While the need for knowledge management in the healthcare industry is indisputable, there has been remarkably slow progress in this area, and a dearth of research exploring implementation issues. The value of this type of inquiry is profound as it will help us better understand the issues in implementation and adoption, and ultimately to deliver more effective and safe drugs to the public in a more efficient manner.

There has been considerable debate about the impact that Foreign Direct Investment has upon home grown enterprise (Pathak et al., 2015). The purpose of this paper is to examine how foreign business ownership at the local level affects the decision of individual UK entrepreneurs to export their production.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data and ONS foreign firm employment data are used within this study. In order to control for entrepreneurial and firm characteristics, a multivariate approach is adopted with logit, ordered logit and multinominal logit regressions utilised.

It is found that the influence of foreign firms, as captured by their share of local employment, has a negative influence on domestic entrepreneurs’ probability of exporting, but has no significant effect on the intensity of these export activities.

The results suggest that local economies may not only become highly reliant on foreign employers, but also on local demand for domestic production. This means actions might be required to reduce this over-reliance to ensure the development of resilient local economies.

Unlike many other studies the relationship between the SME exports and foreign influence is considered at a local level. With the current UK government seeking to increase UK firms’ exports substantially, understanding this relationship is of key importance to policy makers.

We introduce this volume featuring the work of C. L. Clarke and D. A. Hutchinson with references to existing literature addressing complexities of teacher knowledge development. Drawing from their metaphor of the muskeg, we write about ways in which notions of teacher knowledge intersect with prior personal and professional experiences across time, place, and social interaction. Clarke and Hutchinson write about ways in which identities that they view as having developed at the edges of their communities have contributed to shaping their sense of professional and personal identity in profound ways. They examine the potential impact of these experiences in: shaping their research and the building of research relationships with their participants using a narrative inquiry approach; and developing ways in which the use of poetic expression and word images enriched their understanding of the development of teacher identity and knowledge and informed their curriculum making. A chapter written by their dissertation supervisor offers further insight into ways in which their use of a narrative inquiry approach shaped their research work and writing, and offered a unique glimpse into their research phenomenon. We position this work in relation to existing research in the area of teacher knowledge and highlight ways in which this work contributes to knowledge in the area, as well as contributing to ideas about how narrative inquiry methodology has informed the examination of their research phenomenon.

Professional development schools (PDSs) advocate links between schools and teacher education programs, but how do mentor teachers in schools experience their role in this? Therefore, this research focuses on mentor teachers to investigate the change brought about by the implementation of a complex-wide PDS.

This qualitative single case study in a newly formed complex-wide PDS is based on surveys and individual interviews with mentor teachers from one school complex area. Activity systems analysis provided the framework to analyze mentor teachers interactions, their role and activities.

Mentor teachers expressed a sense of purpose in educating the next generation of teachers, experienced continuous learning in the collaboration with the teacher candidates and recognized opportunities for professional development offered by teacher education programs.

Schools and teacher education institutes rely on mentor teachers in their support to educate the next generation of teachers. Knowing what activities and values mentor teachers place on their mentoring can guide school administrations and teacher education institutes in their support and recruitment for mentor teachers.

This research contributes to the development of teacher education in the State of Hawaii and has identified helpful structures for meaningful teacher education.