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1 – 10 of over 184000The purpose of this research is to examine participants' response rate on dual style training course evaluation forms. These combine structured and open‐ended formats. Pencil and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to examine participants' response rate on dual style training course evaluation forms. These combine structured and open‐ended formats. Pencil and paper forms have a long history of use by trainers in business and commerce and more recently in education. Research methods texts tend to have neglected the issue of response rates with this type of form.
Design/methodology/approach
Approximately 2,000 course participants attending 28 courses completed evaluation forms. These were designed with a series of structured responses scales followed by a section for open‐ended comments.
Findings
It was found that the completion rate for the open‐ended sections was low and thus validity was suspect. Various explanations were offered for this. Subsequently when a redesigned evaluation form was administered to a further 1,641 course participants it was found that response rates increased dramatically when open‐ended sections were placed earlier in the questionnaire.
Practical implications
Indicates ways in which course evaluation forms can be redesigned to increase response rates for open‐ended sections and thus improve the validity of any findings.
Originality/value
Provides information about response rates neglected by most methodology texts concerning the design of training evaluation questionnaires which include open‐ended sections.
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Katherine K. Chen and Siobhán O’Mahony
Although extant theory has illuminated conditions under which organizations mimic each other in form and practice, little research examines how organizations seek to differentiate…
Abstract
Although extant theory has illuminated conditions under which organizations mimic each other in form and practice, little research examines how organizations seek to differentiate themselves from conventional forms. Our comparative ethnographic studies examine how the Burning Man and Open Source communities developed organizations to help coordinate the production of an annual temporary arts event and nonproprietary, freely distributed software. Both communities sought to differentiate their organizations from reference groups, but this was not a sufficient condition for sustaining organizational novelty. We found that the ability to pursue a differentiated strategy was moderated by environmental conditions. By exploring the organizing decisions that each community made at two critical boundaries: one defining individuals’ relationship with the organization; the second defining the organization's relationship with the market, we show how organizing practices were recombined from the for-profit and nonprofit sectors in unexpected, novel ways. This comparative research contributes a grounded theoretical explanation of organizational innovation that adjudicates between differentiation and environmental conditions.
Michael Brown argues that what unites the human and social sciences is their evolving character, made explicit in the concepts of “reflexivity,” “course of activity,” and…
Abstract
Michael Brown argues that what unites the human and social sciences is their evolving character, made explicit in the concepts of “reflexivity,” “course of activity,” and “theorizing.” Once the social sciences are taken as a whole, the notion of “sociality” will allow to grasp society as ever changing, as a becoming. I shall examine the notion of sociality in the literary criticism of Lukács, Goldmann, and Adorno, three authors who consider the essay as the adequate open form of critique in times of rapid social change. Originally adopted by the young Lukács, the essay tended to be abandoned by him when elaborating the concept of critical or socialist realism as a repository of timeless cultural values. In his studies in the European realist or the soviet novel, for example, on Balzac, Stendhal, Thomas Mann, or Solzhenitsyn, the dialectical concept of social totality becomes a sum of orientations, presenting the individual writer with the moral task to choose “progress” and discard “negativity.” The social is thus narrowed to individual choice. Different from Lukács, Goldmann's literary theory defines cultural production as a matter of the social group, the transindividual subject. Goldmann was deeply marked by Lukács's early writings from which he gained notably the notion of tragedy and the concept of maximum possible consciousness—the world vision of a social group which structures the work of a writer. Cultural creation is resistance to capitalist society, as evident in the literature of absence, Malraux's novels, and the nouveau roman. In the writings of Adorno the social is lodged within the avant-garde, provided that one takes its means and procedures literally, e.g., the writings of Kafka. By formal innovation—among others the adoption of the essay, the small form, the fragment—art exercises criticism of the ongoing rationalization process and preserves the possibility of change (p. 319).
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Danijela Tešendić, Branko Milosavljević and Dušan Surla
The aim of this research is to model and implement a software system for library circulation, so that all requirements of city and special libraries for electronic business with…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this research is to model and implement a software system for library circulation, so that all requirements of city and special libraries for electronic business with the library users can be fulfilled.
Design/methodology/approach
Object‐oriented methodology is used for modelling of information systems. Modelling is carried out in the CASE tool that supports the Unified Modelling Language (UML 2.0). The software architecture of the system is based on the software components and web services.
Findings
The result is a software system for library circulation. The application of the system supports the work with the local database (intranet), as well as with the remote database (internet). Also the application supports the work with different library formats (UNIMARC, MARC21 et al.).
Research limitations/implications
The system is integrated into the BISIS system so that communication with the system for cataloguing is carried out via the text server of the BISIS system. For this reason integration into the other library software systems requires an additional programming. This limitation can be solved through implementation of the software package for communication with the system for cataloguing. In this case, the integration into another library system should require only the implementation of the method of the corresponding interface for work with bibliographic records.
Originality/value
The contribution of the paper is in the system architecture that can be configured for work in the local intranet, as well as on the internet, and that is independent of the library record format. Also, the architecture enables integration of the application in different library systems.
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Kathleen Bridget Wilson, Vikram Bhakoo and Danny Samson
The purpose of this paper is to link crowdsourcing, operations management (OM) and project management (PM). The study demonstrates how crowdsourcing as an open innovation…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to link crowdsourcing, operations management (OM) and project management (PM). The study demonstrates how crowdsourcing as an open innovation mechanism is operationalised within a complex PM context. Specifically, the study seeks to understand how crowdsourcing as a novel form of OM improves key outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted exploratory research involving five pure-play crowdsourcing firms based in the USA and Australia.
Findings
The findings indicate that the firms practise a form of crowdsourcing that allows flexible, efficient and low risk operations and links to contemporary notions of PM such as projectification and project society. The crowd can be used in a new manner to boost success factors tied to PM through open innovation and operational novelty. In terms of OM, crowdsourcing offers flexibility, speed, dynamism and scalability to project processes.
Research limitations/implications
This research is based on five case studies. Further fine-grained, longitudinal research is required to fully understand this phenomenon in a wider range of contexts.
Practical implications
The paper contributes to practices tied to open innovation and provides guidance on how organisations might use large crowds to enhance PM success.
Originality/value
The study represents early scholarship on crowdsourcing and project operations. It makes three contributions. First, the authors introduce a new theoretical framework linking PM and novel aspects of crowdsourcing to extend understandings of projectification, as well as open innovation frameworks. Second, the authors showcase the flexibility and fluidity of the crowdsourcing project process. Third, the authors examine crowdsourcing operations in terms of size, efficiency and scalability which results in timely and efficient output due to innovative technology, along with the element of trust among stakeholders.
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This paper seeks to study how interorganizational governance mechanisms within mobile eco‐systems are affected by the end of the walled gardens and what this implies for…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to study how interorganizational governance mechanisms within mobile eco‐systems are affected by the end of the walled gardens and what this implies for developing mobile internet services.
Design/methodology/approach
Starting from concepts on interorganizational governance, the paper conducts an extensive case study on how the Dutch walled garden i‐mode portal evolved in an open WAP‐based portal.
Findings
The transition of walled garden to open portals dramatically changes governance mechanisms between operator and content providers. Authority‐based governance in the form of operator rules, contracts‐based governance in the form of formalized agreements, and trust‐based governance in the form of close collaboration all reduced following the end of the walled garden.
Research limitations/implications
The author demonstrates that theoretical concepts of interorganizational governance are relevant for actors within the mobile ecosystem to understand, next to regulatory, technical and market mechanisms, if they are to provide value to the customers as well as to the eco‐system itself.
Originality/value
Although scholars often agree that the choice between walled gardens and open models will influence service innovation, existing studies do not systematically study how governance between operators and content providers changes when the mobile eco‐system is transforming from walled gardens to open models. Although this paper focuses on the relation between operators and content providers, the power shift to hardware and platform providers implies that governance is still highly relevant. As walled gardens also emerge in other areas of ICT‐enabled services, for instance in the Smart Living domain, the insights will be valuable for studies on ICT‐enabled service industries as well.
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The ‘sharing economy’ involves the giving and taking of goods, services, your room, my car, our food recipes and alternative forms of money to create a new economic imperative…
Abstract
The ‘sharing economy’ involves the giving and taking of goods, services, your room, my car, our food recipes and alternative forms of money to create a new economic imperative. Its open-sourced character is the creation of producers, users, consumers and, crucially, citizens, who consciously or unwittingly are carving out a new economy with a collaborative, social impetus. Driven, on the one hand, by technology that refuses to be constrained in the hands of the few, and, on the other, by the fracturing of our economies and societies by inequality (ecological, demographic, the movement of people across borders), the giving-and-taking phenomenon is lubricated by new sources of funding and philanthropy. The sharing economy opens up possibilities for the further consolidation of wealth either in the coffers of a privileged minority or a reversal of wealth creation and the inculcation of entrepreneurship as the right and responsibility of citizens through the sharing of ideas, technologies and values, locally and globally in varied ‘commons’. This chapter offers an analysis of the phenomenon of giving and taking in an open-sourced environment and proposes ideas for a prospective citizen entrepreneurship to open up spaces for collaborative new ventures.
Robert W. Messler, Suat Genc and Gary A. Gabriele
This second of a six‐part series presents a hierarchical scheme for classifying integral snap‐fits at the attachment level, bringing great order to where there appeared to be…
Abstract
This second of a six‐part series presents a hierarchical scheme for classifying integral snap‐fits at the attachment level, bringing great order to where there appeared to be chaos. The scheme is then used to enumerate all possible design options. The proliferation of plastic parts, and the ability to mould such parts of great complexity at little cost penalty, has resulted in the growing use of integral attachment in the form of snap‐fit features in designs. Heretofore, the great diversity of part geometry and integral snap‐fit features has made it appear that design possibilities may be unbounded, and that attempts at optimization might be intractable. The result shows that options can quickly be reduced to a small enough number to allow designers to compare every possibility, thereby making true optimization a practical reality. As such, the scheme guides new designers and validates choices for experienced designers in ways never before possible.
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The purpose of this study is to examine factors which influence responses on open‐ended evaluations of training courses.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine factors which influence responses on open‐ended evaluations of training courses.
Design/methodology/approach
Course participants completed open‐ended evaluation forms about their experience on a course. These consisted of 377 senior teachers attending a training programme dealing with child abuse. The course was repeated 17 times. The second training programme concerned teaching skills. This was attended by 231 postgraduates. The course was repeated 25 times.
Findings
Responses on open‐ended evaluation forms tended to be favourable with reference to “human related factors” and unfavourable when referring to “hygiene factors”.
Practical implications
It is suggested the way people complete evaluation forms is partly a reflection of their desire to see themselves as acting in a socially desirable manner. Interpretations made from such forms about the effectiveness or merits of any course should take this into account.
Originality/value
Provides a lot more information about open‐ended evaluations than is provided in the research methods texts. It is suggested that those who use open‐ended evaluations need to be particularly careful when they interpret them.
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Iliya Bouyukliev and Tsvetanka Georgieva‐Trifonova
The aim of this paper is to propose the bibliographic information system “Personal eLibrary bgMath”. This is a system for the organisation, storage and usage of digitalised…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to propose the bibliographic information system “Personal eLibrary bgMath”. This is a system for the organisation, storage and usage of digitalised literature. It supports the user in organising his/her publications and his/her library of electronic issues. The system is very convenient, especially for scientific literature.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology to design a database storing information about publications and other literature is presented. The entity‐relationship model of the database is described. The relational tables, obtained after the transformation of the created ER model into a relational model, are given. The paper contains the description of the forms implementing two basic tasks of the presented program, i.e. input and search for publications. The database is implemented by means of the database management system Microsoft Access 2007.
Findings
The system Personal eLibrary bgMath allows easy manipulation of materials (papers, dissertations, reports, etc.) and references, which are used frequently and are very often necessary in scientific activity such as research, writing papers and dissertations, preparing reports and web pages or application documentation. The proposed program is free and a user guide is available.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a practical method for creating a bibliographic system for scientific literature and explains its basic functional features.
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