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1 – 10 of 106Daniel Chudnov, Jeffrey Barnett, Raman Prasad and Matthew Wilcox
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Unalog software system, a free and open source toolkit for social book marking in academic environments.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Unalog software system, a free and open source toolkit for social book marking in academic environments.
Design/methodology/approach
The history, objectives, features, and technical design of Unalog is presented, along with a discussion of planned enhancements.
Findings
The Unalog system has been very useful for information sharing among members of the digital library community and a group of beta testers at Yale University, leading its developers to plan several new features and to capitalize on opportunities for integration with other campus systems.
Originality/value
This paper describes a freely available toolkit, which can be used to provide new services through libraries to academic communities, and how those new services might be enhanced by merging the potential they offer for easier information sharing with long‐standing practices of librarianship.
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Hannah Richardson, Julian Ernst, Rebecca Drill, Annabel Gill, Patrick Hunnicutt, Zoe Silver, Mikaela Coger and Jack Beinashowitz
This study aims to examine what patients say is helpful in psychodynamic psychotherapy by analyzing responses to an open-ended question at two time points: three months into…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine what patients say is helpful in psychodynamic psychotherapy by analyzing responses to an open-ended question at two time points: three months into treatment and termination.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants in this naturalistic study were a diverse group of patients seeking treatment at a psychodynamic psychotherapy training clinic (within a public hospital system). The authors used thematic analysis to categorize patient responses to an open-ended question about what is helpful in their treatment.
Findings
The authors found that a majority of patients found their psychotherapy helpful, and patient responses broke down into 16 categories. Themes that emerged from categories were what patients experience or feel, what therapists/therapy provides and what patients do in therapy. The most frequently endorsed category at both three months and termination was embedded within other categories, “mention of an other,” which captured when patients specifically mentioned another person (i.e. the therapist) in their response. The next most frequently endorsed categories were “talking/someone to talk with,” “feeling better/experiencing well-being/improved functioning” and “having regularity/structure” (at three months) and “having attention directed at experience,” “having regularity/structure” and “experiencing the professional role of the therapist” (at termination).
Originality/value
Findings shed light on factors contributing to helpful psychotherapy from patients’ perspectives in their own words. While previous research has shown that the therapy relationship is an important factor in effective therapy, the findings of this study highlight this ingredient in a personal, spontaneous way.
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Changes in external auditing over four decades motivates a historical investigation of how client employees' perceptions of auditors have changed across this period.
Abstract
Purpose
Changes in external auditing over four decades motivates a historical investigation of how client employees' perceptions of auditors have changed across this period.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a longitudinal quasi-experiment to compare current client employees' perceptions of the auditor with results from 1972.
Findings
Changes in client employees' perceptions of the audit, its usefulness and of auditor-client conflict suggest increases in auditor independence. However, this paper also finds that despite decades of efforts to strengthen auditor independence and skepticism, the primary analogy client employees apply to the external auditor remains “consultant”.
Practical implications
The findings contribute to the discussion of whether regulatory and standard changes in the audit environment have changed aspects of client employees' perceptions of auditors.
Originality/value
The paper contributes by presenting a unique approach to partially replicating a historic study using a quasi-experimental research design.
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The Howard Shuttering Contractors case throws considerable light on the importance which the tribunals attach to warnings before dismissing an employee. In this case the tribunal…
Abstract
The Howard Shuttering Contractors case throws considerable light on the importance which the tribunals attach to warnings before dismissing an employee. In this case the tribunal took great pains to interpret the intention of the parties to the different site agreements, and it came to the conclusion that the agreed procedure was not followed. One other matter, which must be particularly noted by employers, is that where a final warning is required, this final warning must be “a warning”, and not the actual dismissal. So that where, for example, three warnings are to be given, the third must be a “warning”. It is after the employee has misconducted himself thereafter that the employer may dismiss.
Ryan Patten, Lucas Alward, Matthew Thomas and James Wada
The purpose of this paper is to examine a campus community’s knowledge and acceptance of their campus police as “real” police.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine a campus community’s knowledge and acceptance of their campus police as “real” police.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the liminality theoretical framework, this study surveyed students, faculty, staff, and administrators (n=1,484). Students were surveyed in-person, while staff, faculty, and administrators participated through an e-mail link to an online survey.
Findings
Results indicate that campus police are stuck in a liminal state. While 80 percent of the sample thought campus police should be armed, almost two-thirds (64 percent) did not know or were unsure of campus police officer tasks and three-quarters (75 percent) did not know or were unsure of campus police training requirements.
Research limitations/implications
The participants come from one university campus, so the generalizability of the sample is limited.
Originality/value
This study provides more evidence of the marginalization of campus police. Specifically, this study highlights that a majority of participants could not or were unable to identify campus police officers’ training and duties. Instead of using small qualitative samples, this study utilized over 1,400 participants on one campus, which provides more explanatory power about the perception problems of the campus police. This study also continues to advance and expand liminal theory.
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Matthew A. Lapierre and Eunjoo Choi
This study aims to examine what parents from across the USA know about online advertising/marketing tactics directed at children, their familiarity with these tactics and what…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine what parents from across the USA know about online advertising/marketing tactics directed at children, their familiarity with these tactics and what they believe about the appropriateness of using these promotional methods to target children.
Design/methodology/approach
The online survey company Qualtrics was used to collect data from 500 parents in the USA. Parents had to have at least one child between the ages of 5 and 14 to participate. To ensure socio-economic diversity, half of the participants had an associate degree or more of schooling while the other half of participants had some college or less. Participants were given vignettes describing 11 different online advertising/marketing tactics and were asked how familiar they were with each tactic, whether they could identify the tactic by name, at what age they believed their child could understand the promotional intent of the tactic and the age that they thought it was ethical to use this tactic with children.
Findings
The results revealed that parents were only moderately familiar with many of these advertising/marketing tactics and had difficulty identifying most of them by name. In addition, parents reported that, on average, most 11-year-old children would understand the purpose of these marketing approaches and that it was ethical to target children with them.
Originality/value
The results of this exploratory study offer researchers some key insights into how American parents perceive online advertising that targets children.
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Matthew Allen-Coghlan and Kieran Michael McQuinn
This paper aims to examine the implications for the Irish housing market of the economic slowdown due to the Covid-19 virus.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the implications for the Irish housing market of the economic slowdown due to the Covid-19 virus.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, an inverted demand function for housing is augmented to include a residential market activity variable and estimate the impact on house prices of the decline in economic activity due to the virus-related measures. The likely future path of house prices based on two different recovery scenarios is also examined. Under both scenarios house prices are forecast to decline in the near term.
Findings
The scenario analysis presented here indicates that Irish house prices are set to fall over the next 18 months as a result of the Covid-19 downturn. This contraction in prices is due to the decline in household disposable income and the sharp fall-off in mortgage market activity, which will inevitably result from the administrative closedown implemented by the Irish authorities.
Originality/value
As such the approach builds on several studies which have examined both house price movements in general and the relationship between house prices and mortgage credit availability. The paper also draws on the latest analysis of the implications for the Irish economy of Covid-19 and the related administrative closure methods introduced by the public authorities.
Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).
Swarna Weerasinghe and Matthew Numer
This article presents a study of the social, emotional and physical health lifestyle behaviours of a socially marginalised segment of Canada's population: retired, widowed…
Abstract
This article presents a study of the social, emotional and physical health lifestyle behaviours of a socially marginalised segment of Canada's population: retired, widowed, immigrant mothers from a South Asian country. Using a narrative research process, we explore how present physical, emotional and social health leisure activities are influenced by behaviours from their childhood, with emphasis on migration to Canada, retirement and widowing as lifestyle behavioural change points. Our sample of immigrant women were living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada during the time of the study. The study employed narrative inquiry, which is often used in migration studies. Our qualitative data analyses uncovered themes that linked present social health activities and early life behaviours and the influence on them of cultural constraints or stimulants. Three forms of sociocultural influences, gender segregation, patriarchal protection and early preparation for marriage, shaped adolescence and adult life as less physically active but more emotionally and socially healthy. Later life events, migration, retirement and widowing, enabled women to gain freedom to renegotiate and reconstruct late‐life styles to be more physically and socially active through ethno‐cultural social networks they had built after migration. The concluding discussion makes recommendations for health and social programme planning to draw attention to cultural realms that could help these women become physically active after migration without compromising traditional social behaviours.
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Matthew Schwieterman, Manus Rungtusanatham, Thomas J. Goldsby, W.C. Benton, Martha C. Cooper and Esen Andiç-Mortan
This research seeks to identify the motivations, means and outcomes of supply chain integration (SCI) among firms in the middle market (i.e. those with annual revenues between…
Abstract
Purpose
This research seeks to identify the motivations, means and outcomes of supply chain integration (SCI) among firms in the middle market (i.e. those with annual revenues between US$10m and US$1bn). These firms often interface with larger, more powerful firms in the supply chain – both suppliers and customers. Understanding how these firms are challenged and benefit from integrative mechanisms in supply chain relations can lead to better outcomes more often.
Design/methodology/approach
The research utilizes an online focus group methodology featuring 39 participants. The participants were able to interact in written form with a professional moderator, as well as each other, over the course of three days.
Findings
The research presents evidence that firms in the middle market adopt SCI as a response to pressure from customers and suppliers. These firms also view technology as a primary means of achieving integration. Despite their disadvantageous size position relative to larger customers and suppliers, firms in the middle market achieved positive outcomes from integration.
Research limitations/implications
Because of the specific context of middle-market firms, this research may lack generalizability. However, providing contextualization regarding firm size contributes specificity to the large number of studies detailing the challenges and benefits of SCI.
Practical implications
Managers of firms in the middle market should find value in this study as it explicates the possible benefits their firms may realize through integration with customers and suppliers. Moreover, this research outlines several of the possible means through which integration can be achieved. Further, managers in smaller and larger firms can better understand the motives and needs of middle-market companies with which they interact.
Originality/value
Despite voluminous literature on SCI, this paper provides context-specific findings by isolating the implications of SCI to firms in the middle market.
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