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1 – 9 of 9Michelle Richey, Jade Brooks and M. N. Ravishankar
This paper examines how entrepreneurship focused programs build capacities for disadvantaged groups to pursue more dignified lives. The struggles of disadvantaged entrepreneurs…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines how entrepreneurship focused programs build capacities for disadvantaged groups to pursue more dignified lives. The struggles of disadvantaged entrepreneurs against pronounced structural constraints are well documented, but less is known about how targeted programs of entrepreneurship focused support change the status quo for disadvantaged communities.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is grounded in a mainly inductive, interpretive study and explores the work of an entrepreneurship focused program targeted at refugee participants. The paper reports on intensive fieldwork and in-depth interviews with 23 program participants in London, UK.
Findings
The empirical sections elaborate three key mechanisms supporting greater self-determination and better opportunities: building entrepreneurial intention, building contextual legitimacy and building proximal ties. These mechanisms empower disadvantaged groups to pursue a wide variety of meaningful goals, including but not limited to starting a business.
Originality/value
This paper draws attention to problems of over-emphasizing the disadvantaged entrepreneurs' agency. It uses the vocabulary of self-determination theory (SDT) and offers a psychosocial perspective of the consequences of disadvantage and the potential for entrepreneurship focused programs to build key capacities and improve precarious lives.
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Michelle Richey, M.N. Ravishankar and Christine Coupland
Social media technologies are used by many organizations to project a positive image of their strategies and operations. At the same time, however, there are an increasing number…
Abstract
Purpose
Social media technologies are used by many organizations to project a positive image of their strategies and operations. At the same time, however, there are an increasing number of reports of slip-ups linked to poor situational awareness and flawed self-presentations on social media platforms. The purpose of this paper is to explore the triggers of inappropriate social media posts.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected during a qualitative study of social media use in 31 organizations in the UK and interpreted using concepts from Erving Goffman’s theory of impression management.
Findings
The findings point to a series of demanding triggers, which increase the likelihood of insensitive and contextually inappropriate posts and also damage fostered impressions.
Originality/value
The authors identify four triggers linked to inappropriate social media posts, namely: speed and spontaneity; informality; blurred boundaries; and the missing audience. The authors also discuss how extending the notion of what Goffman refers to as “situation-like” encounters provides useful insights into impression management on social media.
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Melissa Carlton, Yair Levy and Michelle Ramim
Users’ mistakes due to poor cybersecurity skills result in up to 95 per cent of cyber threats to organizations. Threats to organizational information systems continue to result in…
Abstract
Purpose
Users’ mistakes due to poor cybersecurity skills result in up to 95 per cent of cyber threats to organizations. Threats to organizational information systems continue to result in substantial financial and intellectual property losses. This paper aims to design, develop and empirically test a set of scenarios-based hands-on tasks to measure the cybersecurity skills of non-information technology (IT) professionals.
Design/methodology/approach
This study was classified as developmental in nature and used a sequential qualitative and quantitative method to validate the reliability of the Cybersecurity Skills Index (CSI) as a prototype-benchmarking tool. Next, the prototype was used to empirically test the demonstrated observable hands-on skills level of 173 non-IT professionals.
Findings
The importance of skills and hands-on assessment appears applicable to cybersecurity skills of non-IT professionals. Therefore, by using an expert-validated set of cybersecurity skills and scenario-driven tasks, this study established and validated a set of hands-on tasks that measure observable cybersecurity skills of non-IT professionals without bias or the high-stakes risk to IT.
Research limitations/implications
Data collection was limited to the southeastern USA and while the sample size of 173 non-IT professionals is valid, further studies are required to increase validation of the results and generalizability.
Originality/value
The validated and reliable CSI operationalized as a tool that measures the cybersecurity skills of non-IT professionals. This benchmarking tool could assist organizations with mitigating threats due to vulnerabilities and breaches caused by employees due to poor cybersecurity skills.
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Anissa Lokey-Vega, Brendan E. Callahan, Ashley Archer Doehling and Michelle Head
This design case serves to identify barriers to implementing a micro-credential initiative and describes how the institution in the case addresses them to provide strategies and…
Abstract
Purpose
This design case serves to identify barriers to implementing a micro-credential initiative and describes how the institution in the case addresses them to provide strategies and lessons learned to practitioners at other institutions of higher education who may be designing a micro-credential initiative.
Design/methodology/approach
This design case traces a systems approach to designing a centralized and sustainable university micro-credential initiative. Sources include historical documents from the original working group, email-documented community feedback, current initiative communications, participant report, and frequency counts of micro-credentials awarded. This data is used to recount the design process and key decisions that led to revisions, or iterations, of the initiative's design.
Findings
The institution has seen rapid growth in the awarding of micro-credentials. Lessons learned included the need for thoughtful inclusion of stakeholders, selective terminology, a well-communicated attitude of iteration, repurposing of established tools and processes, and on-going support of academic faculty.
Research limitations/implications
Like any design case, this study is not generalizable.
Originality/value
This paper provides a unique empirical account of the design, development, and implementation of a micro-credential initiative that functioned in tandem with, rather than in conflict with, shared governance and academic traditions at a higher education institution.
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In recent years, the issue of human trafficking has become a key component of a growing number of corporate social responsibility initiatives, in which multinational corporations…
Abstract
In recent years, the issue of human trafficking has become a key component of a growing number of corporate social responsibility initiatives, in which multinational corporations have furthered the pursuit of “market based solutions” to contemporary social concerns. This essay draws upon in-depth interviews with and ethnographic observations of corporate actors involved in contemporary anti-trafficking campaigns to describe a new domain of sexual politics that feminist social theorists have barely begun to consider. Using trafficking as a case study, I argue that these new forms of sexual politics have served to bind together unlikely sets of social actors – including secular feminists, evangelical Christians, bipartisan state officials, and multinational corporations – who have historically subscribed to very different ideals about the beneficence of markets, criminal justice, and the role of the state.
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Sehrish Huma, Waqar Ahmed, Minhaj Ikram and Muhammad Ibrahim Khawaja
Logistics service quality and customer loyalty have recently become the topic of discussion in both developing and under-developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
Logistics service quality and customer loyalty have recently become the topic of discussion in both developing and under-developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to understand the logistics service quality factors contributing to customer loyalty in a developing country context.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 250 respondents who were direct or indirect clients of logistics firms, through online questionnaire distribution. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling was used to examine the hypothesized relationships.
Findings
The findings of this research revealed that operational logistics service quality (OLSQ) and relational logistics service quality have a significant impact on customer loyalty. Moreover, for enhancing customer loyalty, relationship quality is the key factor.
Practical implications
Research reveals that even in a developing country like Pakistan, it is important for carriers to establish high-level relational and OLSQ to satisfy shipper. It will correspondingly add worth to the discussion in the literature and it shall also provide the basis for future research studies.
Originality/value
The novelty of this paper is logistics service quality and its effect on customer loyalty from the perspective of a developing country, specifically due to geographical importance in the context of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor.
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Alexandra K. Abney, Allyn White, Kevin J. Shanahan and William B. Locander
This research investigates new innovative service models that provide opportunities for hearing and deaf individuals to switch roles within a co-created service encounter to allow…
Abstract
Purpose
This research investigates new innovative service models that provide opportunities for hearing and deaf individuals to switch roles within a co-created service encounter to allow for an enhanced perspective-taking experience. The purpose of this paper is to gain an in-depth understanding of deaf individuals’ experience working within such models using their preferred language, American sign language, to interact with a primarily hearing-majority customer base.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected for two studies through qualitative depth-interviews with both the deaf service employees and the hearing-majority customers from a North American restaurant founded on this innovative service model.
Findings
Results of these studies yield new insights into understanding the value generated for both the minority and majority populations within this co-creation platform. Notably, the deaf employees primarily recognize the transformative value derived from this service experience, whereas the hearing customers note the missing habitual value elements to which they are accustomed in traditional service encounters that inhibit repatronage intentions.
Originality/value
This is the first study to investigate the interpersonal service experience of deaf and hearing individuals within these emerging service models. Further, this research represents an initial attempt to explore a co-creative service experience between two different cultures, the deaf-minority and hearing-majority populations, with differing levels of ability.
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Mohammed Farhan, Caroline C. Krejci and David E. Cantor
The purpose of this research is to examine how a change in team dynamics impacts an individual's motivation to engage in helping behavior and operational performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to examine how a change in team dynamics impacts an individual's motivation to engage in helping behavior and operational performance.
Design/methodology/approach
An online vignette experiment and a hybrid discrete event and agent-based simulation model are used.
Findings
Study findings demonstrate how a non-core worker's perception of team dynamics influence engagement in helping behavior and system performance.
Originality/value
This study provides a further understanding on how team members react to changes in team processes. This study theorizes on how an individual team member responds to fairness concerns. This study also advances our understanding of the critical importance of helping behavior in a retail logistics setting. This research illustrates how the theory of strategic core and procedural justice literature can be adopted to explain team dynamics in supply chain management.
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– This case study describes Indiana University Libraries' use of Omeka for online exhibits of digital collections.
Abstract
Purpose
This case study describes Indiana University Libraries' use of Omeka for online exhibits of digital collections.
Design/methodology/approach
Omeka is placed in the context of other online exhibit tools being used by galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM).
Findings
Omeka provides many benefits for different types of digital library collection exhibits and different levels of technical expertise but is currently limited in the ability to manage multiple exhibits of separate digital collections.
Originality/value
Describing Omeka in the context of other online exhibit tools shows the need for this kind of evaluation to improve these tools for the GLAM community.
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