Search results

As part of a larger study into the influence of a Writers in the Schools (WITS) professional development consultancy, this narrative inquiry began just as Hurricane Harvey, the second most costly hurricane to hit the United States, devastated the Texas Gulf Coast in August 2017 and drew to a close in late 2020 during the COVID-19 global pandemic. This chapter explores the 2017–2018 school-year interactions between WITS Collaborative writer, Mary Austin (pseudonym), and six writing teachers with whom she worked at McKay High School (pseudonym) in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. With record flooding and widespread damage causing school-opening delays, teachers, students, and WITS consultants navigated a rip tide of emotions as they strived to balance educational/professional needs and duties with personal loss and unexpected financial burdens. This inquiry examines how WITS teacher professional development was carried out in the midst of these trying circumstances.

In this chapter, we discuss how an outside writing program was able to assist the stakeholders at a local middle school and the story behind the leaders involved in the process. This program was part of a larger system of “interventions” geared toward improving student success and teacher efficacy. Traditional interventions (after-school tutorials, grouping by state assessment scores, test-taking strategies) were viewed as lacking when it came to their impact on the campus's mostly students of color. Knowing the potential impact of a solid reading and writing program on urban youth, the faculty on the campus teamed with a Writers in the Schools (WITS) writer who proposed several promising practices. The contributions of a professional writer, real-world examples, and ongoing teacher professional development with support contributed to creating a knowledge community of writers that, in addition to creating more scholarship for students and staff, manifested itself in more minority students performing at the highest levels on the state accountability assessments.

Purpose – Presents metrics and policy recommendations from the Dallas Domestic Violence Task Force (DDVTF) concerning the systemic response to domestic violence (DV) within this community.

Design/methodology/approach – In June 2017, 47 private citizens, nonprofit, criminal justice, social service and religious organizations, and governmental officials who participated on the task force were invited via email to participate in an electronic Qualtrics survey.

Findings – Both general annual metrics are offered as well as detailed monthly metrics and long-term trends for shelter and advocacy providers, police, the district and city attorney’s offices, and courts. In 2016–2017 alone, roughly 15,000 people were educated on DV, 246 victims were sheltered in emergency beds each night on average, roughly 8,000 victims were turned away due to lack of space, over 15,500 DV-related calls were handled by police, 11,000 county criminal cases were filed, and 7 intimate partner homicides occurred within the city of Dallas. Policy recommendations are offered.

Originality/value – The DDVTF annual report is one of the largest and most comprehensive reports of its kind in the United States, with over 3,000 variables collected across the partners. Now in its third reporting year, this chapter offers an overview of key findings and policy recommendations and highlights the work of this coordinated community response team.

Social media influencers (SMIs) are becoming a powerful force within the marketing and branding landscape, with several leading brands opting to use SMI endorsements for their products and brands. Extant SMI literature has primarily focused on the influence mechanism exerted by SMIs on their followers. Less is known about how followers view their favorite SMIs. This study aims to explore the SMI–follower relationship from the follower’s perspective and examine the underlying attachment mechanism.

First, a qualitative study was conducted to explore the attributes that individuals consider following an SMI and ensure that it is consistent with the literature review. This was followed by a survey-based quantitative study where a structural equation modeling technique was used to test the hypotheses using 508 SMI followers.

Followers find the SMI as a source to fulfill their intrinsic needs, that is, need to escape or self- improvement. The findings of this study suggest that followers attribute glamor, fun and connectedness to the SMIs driven by their need for self-improvement and fun with their need to escape. Finally, these attributions influence the overall perceived image of the SMI in followers' minds.

This study uses qualitative and quantitative approaches to picture SMIs as human brands from a follower's need fulfillment perspective.

Discusses the various strategies for mass merchandizing technologically complex products and services. Considers fear of technology, high‐tech aficionados, and lifestyle differences as factors in marketing high‐tech goods. Concludes that separate strategies for aficionados and non‐aficionados should be developed, and also that more customer‐oriented strategies should take into account that the aficionados themselves can be segmented by interests.

This bibliographic essay reviews the English‐language collection development and management literature published in 1997. Selection, deselection, access as an alternative to ownership, collection evaluation, user studies, organization and staffing for collection development, serials collection management, and electronic resource collection management, among other topics, are included. The primary emphasis is on articles, books, and book chapters. More than 180 items are covered in the essay.

This study aims to focus on people’s pro-environmental behavior and investigates its dimensions and determinants. As environmental sustainability attracts increased scrutiny, understanding end consumers’ pro-environmental behavior becomes imperative for various stakeholders in our highly networked marketplace – e.g. policymakers, businesses, consumers, the public and society at large.

Using data from the general public in the USA, the hypothesized relationships are tested using structural equation modeling (SEM).

The results indicate that if people find enjoyment in nature, believe in achieving a balance between “mankind” and nature, and believe that the benefits of conservation activities are going to accrue in the near term (present), they are more likely to engage in pro-environmental behavior at all levels – supportive, active and lifestyle.

Although only one aspect of environmental sustainability – environmental conservation – is analyzed, these findings support assertions set forth in the theory of environmentally significant behavior (Stern, 1999), the norm-activation theory of altruism (Schwartz, 1973), the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein, 1979) and the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985).

Messages about sustainability, environmental conservation and pro-environmental behavior should be framed using people’s fondness for and enjoyment of nature; should focus on present benefits of conservation; and should be targeted and differentiated for men, women and older people to encourage conservation behaviors among these differing demographic groups.

This study identifies three different levels of intensity of pro-environmental behavior – supportive, active and lifestyle – and empirically examines the relationships between these behavior types and the attitudinal antecedents revolving around time when the benefits of environmental conservation accrue, nature and human–nature interaction.

An analysis of the US border manufacturing industry revealed that, while a plentiful supply of inexpensive labor is available, there are high levels of absenteeism and turnover. This in turn has affected this industry’s ability to implement lean and agile manufacturing production environments. It was argued that lower inventory levels and quicker response time to market fluctuations are required for these manufacturers to stay competitive. Yet, without careful consideration of the idiosyncrasies of the infrastructure, the change to leaner and more agile manufacturing could destroy some of these plants. The high levels of absenteeism and turnover, which have a direct bearing on the low and variable product yield rates, could cause an agile and lean production system to fail. Yet this research has shown that a recursive, pull‐type production control system that will meet the required daily quota and minimize inventory while accounting for high levels of absenteeism and turnover that directly affect workstation yield rates would be advantageous. That is, a US border manufacturer can become leaner and more agile in spite of the drawbacks that are germane to the US border manufacturing industry.