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11 – 20 of 247David Moyes, Mike Danson and Geoff Whittam
It is important that agency advice and support for SMEs in rural areas is congruent with how business-owners perceive their needs and challenges. To explore how well matched these…
Abstract
Purpose
It is important that agency advice and support for SMEs in rural areas is congruent with how business-owners perceive their needs and challenges. To explore how well matched these two sides are, this chapter investigates the difficulties faced by small businesses operating in rural southwest Scotland.
Methodology/approach
In-depth interviews with business influencers (those whose activities affect businesses either through application of policy initiatives, development of policy or the giving of business advice) and owner-managers of rural businesses compare and contrast the perceptions of the challenges of rurality for small businesses.
Findings
Mismatches are revealed between the concerns of rural business-owners and what business influencers understand them to be. Business influencers consider that structural weaknesses and a ‘lifestyle’ business culture in the region inhibit growth, but business owners are strategic in their business aspirations and approaches to growth. However, they are also highly critical of the promotion of the region and concerned about the misunderstanding of potential visitors that the region is remote and difficult to access.
Research limitations
This chapter reports experiences in a particular rural location; such experiences are typical of many rural regions and, thus, the findings should be transferable.
Practical implications
The region’s economic strategy focuses on reducing the significant prosperity gap with the rest of the country. Key to this is the development of indigenous business sectors. However, the policy interventions derived from a misapprehension of the constraints and underpinning culture of indigenous businesses are unlikely to be successful and may be counter-productive.
Originality value
Contrasting the perspectives of those who do business with those who influence business reveals issues of understanding which need to be addressed.
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Geoff Lancaster and Paul Reynolds
Originally undertaken on behalf of a national multiple foodretailing chain concerned about a 50 per cent fall off in sales at a newstore within six months of its opening, this…
Abstract
Originally undertaken on behalf of a national multiple food retailing chain concerned about a 50 per cent fall off in sales at a new store within six months of its opening, this research includes a comparative study of two other supermarkets in the same town. Interviews were conducted with 321 store customers and 189 people at random locations elsewhere and a standard questionnaire completed to determine the store features important in attracting their patronage, including price, layout, selection and variety of goods, opening hours, parking facilities and convenience of location. It was established that there was nothing radically wrong with the client company′s store and subsequent implementation of recommended “fine tuning” of a number of its features has led to its developing a comparably favourable level of popularity. However, it is concluded that marketing research should be commissioned at the initial planning stage, with particular reference to suitability of location, rather than as a means of sorting out deficiencies which become apparent only after completion and opening.
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Marina Charalampidi and Michael Hammond
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the process of analysing online discussion and argue for the merits of mixed methods. Much research of online participation and e-learning…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the process of analysing online discussion and argue for the merits of mixed methods. Much research of online participation and e-learning has been either message-focused or person-focused. The former covers methodologies such as content and discourse analysis, the latter interviewing and surveys. The paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches in the context of a study of an online social educational network for gifted students.
Design/methodology/approach
The design of this study included the use of content analysis, visualisation diagrams, interviews and questionnaire survey to understand the nature of online discussion and the experience of taking part.
Findings
It was found that the message-focused analysis provided insight into participation and interaction patterns, whereas the surveys and interviews enabled access to members’ preferences and attitudes.
Originality/value
The contribution of the paper is to argue for a mixed approach in which different types of data can be compared and contrasted. While the use of mixed methods in social research in general has long been suggested, its adoption in the field of online learning is yet to be widely established, possibly because of its time-consuming and demanding nature. Despite these constraints, a mixed-methods approach is advocated, as it allows for a comprehensive picture of the use of the network and the experience of online participation.
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Julian Waters-Lynch and Cameron Duff
The purpose of this study is to reflect on and analyse the sensory experiences related to the transition to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research seeks to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to reflect on and analyse the sensory experiences related to the transition to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research seeks to understand how these experiences have influenced the integration of work practices into home and family life and the subsequent adaptations and embodied learning that arise in response.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors' research approach incorporates autoethnographic methods to explore the sensory, affective and emotional experiences of transitioning to remote work. The authors draw on principles of embodied learning, as influenced by Gilles Deleuze, and utilise a range of ethnographic tools including note-taking, audio memos, photography, shared conversations and written reflections to gather their data.
Findings
The study illuminates the ways bodies learn to accommodate the new organisational contexts that arise when the spaces, affects and forces of home and work intersect. It demonstrates how the integration of work into the private domain resulted in new affective and material arrangements, involving novel sensory experiences and substantial embodied learning.
Originality/value
This study provides a distinct, sensory-oriented perspective on the challenges and transformations of remote work practices amid the pandemic. By focussing on the affective resonances and embodied learning that emerge in this context, it contributes to the emerging discourse around post-lockdown work practices and remote work in general.
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Access to high-quality data is a challenge for humanitarian logistics researchers. However, humanitarian organizations publish large quantities of documents for various…
Abstract
Purpose
Access to high-quality data is a challenge for humanitarian logistics researchers. However, humanitarian organizations publish large quantities of documents for various stakeholders. Researchers can use these as secondary data, but interpreting big volumes of text is time consuming. The purpose of this paper is to present an automated quantitative content analysis (AQCA) approach that allows researchers to analyze such documents quickly and reliably.
Design/methodology/approach
Content analysis is a method to facilitate a systematic description of documents. This paper builds on an existing content analysis method, to which it adds automated steps for processing large quantities of documents. It also presents different measures for quantifying the content of documents.
Findings
The AQCA approach has been applied successfully in four papers. For example, it can identify the main theme in a document, categorize documents along different dimensions, or compare the use of a theme in different documents. This paper also identifies several limitations of content analysis in the field of humanitarian logistics research and suggests ways to mitigate them.
Research limitations/implications
The AQCA approach does not provide an exhaustive qualitative analysis of documents. Instead, it aims to analyze documents quickly and reliably to extract the contents’ quantifiable aspects.
Originality/value
Although content analysis has been used in humanitarian logistics research before, no paper has yet proposed an automated, step-by-step approach that researchers can use. It also is the first study to discuss specific limitations of content analysis in the context of humanitarian logistics.
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How one company has developed its use of customers' names and addresses is discussed. Thorn‐EMI would claim to have installed the first extensive EPOS system, but this was aimed…
Abstract
How one company has developed its use of customers' names and addresses is discussed. Thorn‐EMI would claim to have installed the first extensive EPOS system, but this was aimed almost exclusively at recording and allocating customer cash payments. Significant savings accrued from reductions in the accounting staff, but further major benefits were only discovered when customer data were analysed from a marketing orientation. A key to further uses of names and addresses was the post‐coding of virtually the whole database. Mailshots then began to be used and have since become more selective until new individual shops are able to specify the selection criteria. Recent developments of store credit cards, competitions and credit scoring are touched on in relation to customer data.
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Alkistis Pitsikali, Rosie Parnell and Lesley McIntyre
The playground is a commonly advised means to integrate children into the public realm of “child-friendly cities”, yet research has tended not to examine it in relation to…
Abstract
Purpose
The playground is a commonly advised means to integrate children into the public realm of “child-friendly cities”, yet research has tended not to examine it in relation to adjacent public space. This paper aims to understand the extent to which the playground – a socio-spatial phenomenon – facilitates children's integration into the public realm, enabling critical examination of the “child-friendly space” concept.
Design/methodology/approach
An ethnographic study was carried out across three sites in Athens, Greece, where typical neighbourhood playgrounds replicate features common across the global north. Methods combined observation (167 h; morning, afternoon, evening), visual-mapping and 61 semi-structured interviews with 112 playground users (including adults and children from the playgrounds and surroundings). Rigorous qualitative thematic analysis, involving an iterative post-coding process, allowed identification of spatial patterns and emergent themes.
Findings
Findings reveal perceptions surrounding the protective and age-specific aspects of child-friendly design, limit the playgrounds' public value. However, a paradox emerges whereby the playgrounds' adjacency to public spaces designed without child-friendly principles affords children's engagement with the public realm.
Research limitations/implications
Reconceptualisation of the “child-friendly playground” is proposed, embracing interdependence with the public realm – highly significant for child-friendly urban design theory and practice globally. Researchers are encouraged to compare findings in other geographical contexts.
Originality/value
This original finding is enabled by the novel approach to studying the playground in relation to adjacent public realm. The study also offers the first empirical examination of child-friendly city principles – participation in social life and urban play – in a Greek context, addressing a geographical gap in literature on children's everyday spaces.
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Marios Vryonides and Iasonas Lamprianou
The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors that affect progression to university education across Europe.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors that affect progression to university education across Europe.
Design/methodology/approach
The data used are obtained from the fourth round of the European Social Survey (2008).
Findings
Findings point to interesting age by gender and age by parental education interactions affecting the entrance to university. It demonstrates the disparity that exists across Europe whereby in some countries progression has been a smooth process for the past few decades while in others widening participation to higher education has only been a recent phenomenon.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this study are discussed with reference to social reproduction theories and have implications for wider European educational policies for enhancing access to university education.
Originality/value
In a globalised education market inequalities may be observed within countries but also between countries making the outcomes of policies for offering equal opportunities a complex one.
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Mauri Laukkanen and Päivi Eriksson
The paper's first objective is to develop a new conceptual framework for categorizing and designing cognitive, specifically comparative, causal mapping (CCM) research by building…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper's first objective is to develop a new conceptual framework for categorizing and designing cognitive, specifically comparative, causal mapping (CCM) research by building upon the theory‐centred and participant‐centred perspectives. The second purpose is to enable the discerned study prototypes by introducing a new CCM software application, CMAP3.
Design/methodology/approach
Building upon the distinction between theory‐centred (etic) and participant‐centred (emic) perspectives in social research, we first construct and apply a conceptual framework for analysing and categorising extant CCM studies in terms of their objectives and basic design. Next, after noting the important role and basic tasks in computerising causal mapping studies, we present a new CCM software application.
Findings
The theory‐centred/participant‐centred perspectives define four causal mapping study prototypes, each with different goals, basic designs and methodological requirements. Noting the present lack of widely accessible software for qualitatively oriented CCM studies, we introduce CMAP3, a new non‐commercial Windows application, and summarise how it is used in related research.
Originality/value
The framework and the studies representing the prototypes demonstrate the versatility of CCM methods and that the proposed framework offers a new, systematic approach to categorising and designing CCM studies. Research technically, CMAP3 can support the defined CCM‐prototypes, based on a low‐structured (inductive/qualitative) or a structured (nomothetic/quantitative) methodological approach/stance, and having therefore different needs of data acquisition, processing, coding, aggregation/comparison, and analysis of the emerging aggregated cause maps’ contents or structure.
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Some evidence on the use made by UK insurance companies of variousforms of information technology (IT) in their sales and marketingactivities is presented. Some views on the…
Abstract
Some evidence on the use made by UK insurance companies of various forms of information technology (IT) in their sales and marketing activities is presented. Some views on the trends in this developing use of IT in the next two years are presented – a period when the full implications of the Financial Services Act will be seen. The results of recent research are analysed and some conclusions are drawn.
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