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1 – 10 of 481Access to unbiased self-reported (primary) data for a normative concept like social sustainability has been a challenge for construction project management (CPM) scholars, and…
Abstract
Purpose
Access to unbiased self-reported (primary) data for a normative concept like social sustainability has been a challenge for construction project management (CPM) scholars, and this difficulty has been further amplified by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This paper aims to address this issue by asserting the suitability of secondary data as a methodologically sound but underutilized alternative and providing directions for secondary data-based research on social sustainability in a project setting.
Design/methodology/approach
By drawing on a framework for social sustainability and using “project-as-practice” approach as its point of departure, this conceptual paper identifies possibilities for utilizing multiple secondary sources in CPM research.
Findings
The paper provides a roadmap for identification of secondary sources, access to data, potential research designs and methods, limitations of and cautions in using secondary sources, and points to many novel lines of empirical enquiries to stimulate secondary data-based research on social sustainability in CPM.
Social implications
Indicated secondary sources and empirical opportunities can support research efforts that aim to promote societal welfare through construction projects.
Originality/value
The presented guidance will assist researchers in identifying, accessing and utilizing naturalistic, secondary data for designing and conducting empirical research that cuts across social sustainability and CPM. This, in turn, will facilitate methodological pluralism and “practice turn” in such research endeavors.
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John Goodwin, Eileen Savage and Aine O'Donovan
Significant advances have been made in using applied methodological approaches. These approaches facilitate critical and creative ways to generate new knowledge, encouraging…
Abstract
Purpose
Significant advances have been made in using applied methodological approaches. These approaches facilitate critical and creative ways to generate new knowledge, encouraging researchers to explore novel research questions which could not be sufficiently addressed using traditional “branded” methodologies. It is important that, in addition to design, researchers consider the most appropriate methods to collect data. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of the draw and tell method in the context of an interpretive descriptive study.
Design/methodology/approach
Given the challenges associated with eliciting responses from adolescent populations, in addition to the use of a semi-structured interview guide, the authors encouraged adolescent participants to produce drawings as part of an interpretive descriptive study.
Findings
Despite the fact that drawings are seldom used with adolescents during research interviews, the authors found this method promoted conversation and facilitated deep exploration into adolescents' perspectives.
Originality/value
The authors argue that this creative approach to data collection should be embraced by researchers engaging in applied methodological research, particularly with participants who may be challenging to engage. Drawings, although seldom used with adolescent research participants, can stimulate engagement and facilitate conversations.
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Lena Cavusoglu and Russell W. Belk
The physical filmmaking landscape has been transformed by the emergence of digital platforms that foster interaction and dialogue. The accessibility and affordability of mobile…
Abstract
Purpose
The physical filmmaking landscape has been transformed by the emergence of digital platforms that foster interaction and dialogue. The accessibility and affordability of mobile production tools have empowered anyone with a mobile phone to become a media content creator. Accordingly, this paper aims to present a multi-method approach for creating phygital projects that involve people as active participants rather than mere subjects who collaborate with the researchers to tell their stories.
Design/methodology/approach
Research participants can embrace diverse roles, serving as co-researchers, content creators, curators and collaborators. The authors use various engagement strategies with the research participants, who are often marginalized or underrepresented, to encourage their participation and give them agency and creative control. Thus, we also use a participatory action research approach to help advocate for the participants’ facial equality concerns.
Findings
Collaborative videography embraces the mosaic of voices expressing intricate social issues. In this project, research participants with “facial differences” explain their experiences in facing society.
Originality/value
By experimenting with participatory frameworks and combining physical interactions (such as in-person meetings) with digital platforms like Zoom and social media, the authors suggest a multi-method approach that honors the authentic stories of the research participants, effectively engages the audience and explains how phygital research methodologies can be used in interpretive consumer research, particularly in co-creating films that capture strong visuals.
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Robert Faff, David Mathuva, Mark Brosnan, Sebastian Hoffmann, Catalin Albu, Searat Ali, Micheal Axelsen, Nikki Cornwell, Adrian Gepp, Chelsea Gill, Karina Honey, Ihtisham Malik, Vishal Mehrotra, Olayinka Moses, Raluca Valeria Ratiu, David Tan and Maciej Andrzej Tuszkiewicz
The authors passively apply a researcher profile pitch (RPP) template tool in accounting and across a range of Business School disciplines.
Abstract
Purpose
The authors passively apply a researcher profile pitch (RPP) template tool in accounting and across a range of Business School disciplines.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors document a diversity of worked examples of the RPP. Using an auto-ethnographic research design, each showcased researcher reflects on the exercise, highlighting nuanced perspectives drawn from their experience. Collectively, these examples and associated independent narratives allow the authors to identify common themes that provide informative insights to potential users.
Findings
First, the RPP tool is helpful for accounting scholars to portray their essential research stream. Moreover, the tool proved universally meaningful and applicable irrespective of research discipline or research experience. Second, it offers a distinct advantage over existing popular research profile platforms, because it demands a focused “less”, that delivers a meaningful “more”. Further, the conciseness of the RPP design makes it readily amenable to iteration and dynamism. Third, the authors have identified specific situations of added value, e.g. initiating research collaborations and academic job market preparation.
Practical implications
The RPP tool can provide the basis for developing a scalable interactive researcher exchange platform.
Originality/value
The authors argue that the RPP tool potentially adds meaningful incremental value relative to existing popular platforms for gaining researcher visibility. This additional value derives from the systematic RPP format, combined with the benefit of easy familiarity and strong emphasis on succinctness. Additionally, the authors argue that the RPP adds a depth of nuanced novel information often not contained in other platforms, e.g. around the dimensions of “data” and “tools”. Further, the RPP gives the researcher a “personality”, most notably through the dimensions of “contribution” and “other considerations”.
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Groups of students were enrolled in a course that sought to produce a three-phase theoretical model over three semesters.
Abstract
Purpose
Groups of students were enrolled in a course that sought to produce a three-phase theoretical model over three semesters.
Design/methodology/approach
A design project to comprehensively address school violence was launched at a university in eastern Pennsylvania.
Findings
This article updates the recent and most critical finding of the project by illuminating specific implications of the importance of teacher training and the development toward competence in recognition of children who are emotionally and psychologically injured through proactive measures such as screening for emotional and psychological well-being.
Research limitations/implications
Although the model has not been tested, screening to identify those in need of emotional support and training to support teachers is clear. Screening and training offer important opportunities to help learners build skills toward resilience to soften the effects of trauma.
Practical implications
A view of the “whole child” with regard to academic success could further foster social and emotional development.
Social implications
Early intervention can prevent the onset of symptoms associated with posttraumatic stress and related disorders. This effort alone may significantly reduce the uncomfortable incidences and perhaps ultimate prevention of the violence that is perpetuated among children.
Originality/value
Preliminary research supports a continued conversation regarding effective tools to find children emotionally and psychologically at-risk, which allows teachers an opportunity for timely emotional and psychological interventions.
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With the increasing popularity of online courses, their quality has become a public concern. Based on the perspective of knowledge management, this study aims to identify…
Abstract
Purpose
With the increasing popularity of online courses, their quality has become a public concern. Based on the perspective of knowledge management, this study aims to identify comprehensive and granular quality factors of online courses and analyze the relationships between the factors.
Design/methodology/approach
Following the principles of the grounded theory, interpretive structural modeling and cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) analysis methods, this research uses reviews and comments garnered from Zhihu, which is the most popular online question-and-answer community in China, to conduct the analysis.
Findings
Based on the text data, 50 factors that potentially affect the quality of online courses are obtained. The analysis identifies the hierarchical relationships and dependent correlations between the factors.
Originality/value
The research uses the knowledge transformation model to classify content elements according to their degree of descriptiveness and provides practical and effective suggestions for improving the quality of online courses.
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Sophie Wootton, Sophia Tkazky and Henriette Bergstrøm
The purpose of this study is to investigate how mock jurors’ experiences of deliberations are impacted by the defendant having a personality disorder.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate how mock jurors’ experiences of deliberations are impacted by the defendant having a personality disorder.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a qualitative approach to explore mock jurors’ experiences during the deliberations of a fictional defendant, Sarah Priest. Ten participants formed two mock juries, and each mock jury were given two case studies to deliberate. Case study one described Priest as having “Severe Personality Disorder, Borderline Pattern” whereas case study two described Priest as having “Complex Mental Health Problems”. There were no changes to the content of the case studies aside from the change in language used to describe the defendant.
Findings
An inductive thematic analysis identified two main themes relating to juror experience: “Interaction with Other Mock Jurors” and “Language as a Barrier to a Verdict”. Participants constructed that prosocial interactions with other mock jurors in the deliberations helped them make a verdict decision, but some of these interactions led to disagreements between participants due to a wide variation of opinion. Second, the different description of the defendant in each case study were constructed to have made the deliberations and decision-making difficult, but for different reasons. In case study one, a lack of knowledge surrounding BPD was the reason for this difficulty, and in case study two, participants thought that the applicability of diminished responsibility criteria were unclear, making it hard to reach a verdict.
Practical implications
The findings have key implications for the judicial system; common experiences can be identified and recorded to implement procedures to protect jurors from adverse experiences.
Originality/value
There is a lack of studies that have investigated juror experience in the UK, and the few studies available have used a quantitative methodology. The approach taken in the current study is, therefore, unique in a UK context. The findings have key implications for the judicial system; common experiences can be identified and recorded to implement procedures to protect jurors from adverse experiences.
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Matthew David Phillips, Rhian Parham, Katrina Hunt and Jake Camp
Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) have overlapping symptom profiles. Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) is an established treatment for…
Abstract
Purpose
Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) have overlapping symptom profiles. Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) is an established treatment for self-harm and BPD, but little research has investigated the outcomes of DBT for ASC populations. This exploratory service evaluation aims to investigate the outcomes of a comprehensive DBT programme for adolescents with a diagnosis of emerging BPD and a co-occurring ASC diagnosis as compared to those without an ASC diagnosis.
Design/methodology/approach
Differences from the start to end of treatment in the frequency of self-harming behaviours, BPD symptoms, emotion dysregulation, depression, anxiety, the number of A&E attendances and inpatient bed days, education and work status, and treatment non-completion rates were analysed for those with an ASC diagnosis, and compared between those with an ASC diagnosis and those without.
Findings
Significant medium to large reductions in self-harming behaviours, BPD symptoms, emotion dysregulation and inpatient bed days were found for those with an ASC diagnosis by the end of treatment. There were no significant differences between those with an ASC and those without in any outcome or in non-completion rates. These findings indicate that DBT may be a useful treatment model for those with an ASC diagnosis, though all results are preliminary and require replication.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to report the outcomes of a comprehensive DBT programme for adolescents with an ASC diagnosis, and to compare the changes in outcomes between those with a diagnosis and those without.
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Margaret Jjuuko and Emmanuel Munyarukumbuzi
Despite the existing gaps in the use of technology in East Africa, the region is among the fastest-growing mobile data users on the continent. This progress is partially…
Abstract
Despite the existing gaps in the use of technology in East Africa, the region is among the fastest-growing mobile data users on the continent. This progress is partially attributed to local initiatives to develop and adapt homegrown technologies to local contexts to increase their accessibility and use even in the remotest areas. In this chapter we identify a few of these innovations in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda and examine how they have been indigenised to fit local contexts as well as the processes of their diffusion, adoption, affordability and accessibility among users and their everyday gratifications from the innovations. The socio-technological assemblage theory, which illuminates the influences of, and the connections between various types of actors and their roles, visions, ideas, concepts and the technological products, informs our inquiry. Other related concepts including ‘innovation’, ‘indigenisation’ and ‘diffusion’ are discussed to understand the homegrown technology innovations and their adaptability. Discussions with both innovators and users/beneficiaries reveal rigorous proactiveness and responsiveness of innovation creators and users in the three countries – reflected in numerous attestations of life transformation. Nevertheless, there is a paradigm shift in the diffusion of innovations amongst users – contrary to the discourse around its early precepts.
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Kasimu Sendawula, Shamirah Najjinda, Marion Nanyanzi, Saadat Nakyejwe Lubowa Kimuli and Ahmad Walugembe
The purpose of this study is to explore how the personal traits of the informal entrepreneurs influence their formalization decisions.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore how the personal traits of the informal entrepreneurs influence their formalization decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted a qualitative approach using a multicase design in which 28 informal entrepreneurs situated in Kampala district, Uganda, were engaged. An interview guide, recorders and note books were used in data collection.
Findings
The results indicate that the traits of informal and semiformal entrepreneurs are distinct. Informal entrepreneurs have been noted to be more courageous and resilient, while their semiformal counterparts have greater passion for their businesses. It is thus observed that the formalization prospects are higher for the semiformal entrepreneurs than for their informal counterparts. Entrepreneurs that would be willing to formalize their businesses are discouraged by distance, technology and the cost of involving middlemen. Whereas the resilient entrepreneurs are noted to work through these challenges, the passive ones in both the informal and semiformal categories will not formalize their businesses by giving such excuses.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the extant literature on informal entrepreneurship by providing initial empirical evidence on how the personal traits of the entrepreneurs influence their formalization decisions specifically.
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