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1 – 10 of 950Benjamin Wulff, Alexander Fecke, Lisa Rupp and Kai-Christoph Hamborg
The purpose of this work is to present a prototype of the system and the results from a technical evaluation and a study on possible effects of recordings with active camera…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this work is to present a prototype of the system and the results from a technical evaluation and a study on possible effects of recordings with active camera control on the learner. An increasing number of higher education institutions have adopted the lecture recording technology in the past decade. Even though some solutions already show a very high degree of automation, active camera control can still only be realized with the use of human labor. Aiming to fill this gap, the LectureSight project is developing a free solution for active autonomous camera control for presentation recordings. The system uses a monocular overview camera to analyze the scene. Adopters can formulate camera control strategies in a simple scripting language to adjust the system’s behavior to the specific characteristics of a presentation site.
Design/methodology/approach
The system is based on a highly modularized architecture to make it easily extendible. The prototype has been tested in a seminar room and a large lecture hall. Furthermore, a study was conducted in which students from two universities prepared for a simulated exam with an ordinary lecture recording and a recording produced with the LectureSight technology.
Findings
The technical evaluation showed a good performance of the prototype but also revealed some technical constraints. The results of the psychological study give evidence that the learner might benefit from lecture videos in which the camera follows the presenter so that gestures and facial expression are easily perceptible.
Originality/value
The LectureSight project is the first open-source initiative to care about the topic of camera control for presentation recordings. This opens way for other projects building upon the LectureSight architecture. The simulated exam study gave evidence of a beneficial effect on students learning success and needs to be reproduced. Also, if the effect is proven to be consistent, the mechanism behind it is worth to be investigated further.
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Michael Winkler, Kai Michael Höver and Max Mühlhäuser
The purpose of this study is to present a depth information-based solution for automatic camera control, depending on the presenter’s moving positions. Talks, presentations and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to present a depth information-based solution for automatic camera control, depending on the presenter’s moving positions. Talks, presentations and lectures are often captured on video to give a broad audience the possibility to (re-)access the content. As presenters are often moving around during a talk, it is necessary to steer recording cameras.
Design/methodology/approach
We use depth information from Kinect to implement a prototypical application to automatically steer multiple cameras for recording a talk.
Findings
We present our experiences with the system during actual lectures at a university. We found out that Kinect is applicable for tracking a presenter during a talk robustly. Nevertheless, our prototypical solution reveals potential for improvements, which we discuss in our future work section.
Originality/value
Tracking a presenter is based on a skeleton model extracted from depth information instead of using two-dimensional (2D) motion- or brightness-based image processing techniques. The solution uses a scalable networking architecture based on publish/subscribe messaging for controlling multiple video cameras.
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The general topic of spirituality and the ways in which spirituality in organizations was studied and reported on have received mixed reactions (ranging from positive to puzzled…
Abstract
The general topic of spirituality and the ways in which spirituality in organizations was studied and reported on have received mixed reactions (ranging from positive to puzzled to skeptical to negative) from sc’Moi participants, many of whom were European critical management theorists, and management researchers in other divisions when the Management Spirituality and Religion group was started at the Academy of Management. In this chapter I examine how these management research differences in approaches to ontology and epistemology were influenced by the philosophical approaches of Hegel and Marx, and how similar differences also influenced psychological research, whose approach to research and research methodology forms the basis of much management research. I will examine how these contrasting beliefs have played out and continue to play out in such seemingly diverse but really similar subjects of inquiry as philosophy (e.g., Hegel vs Marx), psychology (e.g., introspection vs behaviorism), and management studies (e.g., management organization inquiry vs critical management). I examine what these approaches have in common, how, in my opinion, the behaviorists have so far prevailed, and why they have so far prevailed; I conclude with suggestions for how ongoing dialectics between the seven Ss (the seven themes elaborated on in this book – storytelling, system, sustainability, science, spirit, spirals, and sociomateriality) can help contribute to the field of spirituality in management, and how spirituality research can contribute and interact with the other themes to the future of management and organizational inquiry.
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Despite the healthy growth in studies and publications in recent years in relation to the expanding paradigm of gender and entrepreneurship, and notwithstanding the success of…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the healthy growth in studies and publications in recent years in relation to the expanding paradigm of gender and entrepreneurship, and notwithstanding the success of this very journal, from the perspective of the author, the field remains overly dominated by a focus on female and women's entrepreneurship. Conversely, there are few studies on masculinity and entrepreneurship and the role of men in shaping gendered entrepreneurship. In addition, few male entrepreneurship scholars choose to write in this niche and specialised field. Indeed, there is a discernible imbalance in the literature in relation to what can be termed as “silent” and “silenced” masculinities. In this reflection, the study aims to look back at his career as an entrepreneurship and gender scholar, considering why this situation exists.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an invited, reflective essay written in an auto-ethnographic style containing personal viewpoints.
Findings
In the feminist-inspired gender and entrepreneurship literature, “Patriarchy” and the entrepreneurial “strawman” are blamed for the problems associated with the “silent” and silenced female entrepreneur. Much of the gendered literature concentrates on gendered female stereotypes and in particular on negative elements of these. The main finding is that the common assumption of the female as proxy for gender has, to date, prevented the consideration of the full spectrum of gendered identities. These issues are explored, and a call is made for more in-depth research into masculinity and entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
This reflection presents some novel thoughts on how to advance the debate on gender scholarship and in particular masculinity.
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E. Ertugrul Karsak and Melis Almula Karadayi
This paper aims to address performance measurement in the health-care sector, which gains increasing importance for most countries because growing health expenditures and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to address performance measurement in the health-care sector, which gains increasing importance for most countries because growing health expenditures and increased quality and competition in the health sector require hospitals to use their resources efficiently. Health policy-makers and health-care managers stress the need for developing a robust performance evaluation methodology for health-care organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents an imprecise data envelopment analysis (DEA) framework for evaluating the health-care performance of 26 districts in Istanbul, a metropolis with nearly 15 million inhabitants. The proposed methodology takes into account both quantitative and qualitative data represented as linguistic variables for performance evaluation. Moreover, this study reckons that weight flexibility in DEA assessments can lead to unrealistic weighting schemes for some inputs and outputs, which are likely to result in overstated efficiency scores for a number of decision-making units (in here, districts). To overcome this problem, a weight restricted imprecise DEA model that constrains weight flexibility in DEA is proposed.
Findings
The proposed imprecise DEA approach sets forth a more realistic decision methodology for evaluating the relative health-care performance and also enables to determine the best district in terms of health-care performance in Istanbul.
Originality/value
This paper includes the quality dimension, which has been overlooked in previous studies, into the health-care performance evaluation of districts. Moreover, it circumvents unrealistic weight flexibility which may distort the relative evaluation of health-care performance.
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Provides an overview of the “Balancing Opportunities, Expectations, and Resources” conference, held in Anaheim, California in November 2003. The conference was organised by…
Abstract
Provides an overview of the “Balancing Opportunities, Expectations, and Resources” conference, held in Anaheim, California in November 2003. The conference was organised by EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. Outlines the seven track presentations of the conference.
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Collins Osei, Joseph Amankwah-Amoah, Zaheer Khan, Maktoba Omar and Mavis Gutu
In almost every large business, there is a growing recognition of the importance of organisational agility in improving their marketing responsiveness and business survival…
Abstract
Purpose
In almost every large business, there is a growing recognition of the importance of organisational agility in improving their marketing responsiveness and business survival. However, limited insights have been offered by scholars on multinational enterprises and their marketing agility in emerging markets context. The purpose of this paper is to examine the various manifestations of agility and the various strategies adopted to sustain agility by an emerging economy multinational enterprise (EMNE) which started in the late 1990s as a small firm operating within the fresh fruit and juice industry in Africa.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors utilised empirical qualitative data from an emerging African economy to develop a three-stage model of how agility manifests overtime.
Findings
The authors find that successful development and deployment of international marketing agility strategy adopted by an EMNE from emerging markets hinge on building relationships, being socially responsible and being innovative in standardisation and adaptation in response to, and in anticipation of, the rapidly changing business environment.
Research limitations/implications
This research is based on data from one organisation. Future research can consider using multiple cases from different countries to further understand marketing agility in emerging markets and when such firms internalise into developed markets.
Originality/value
This paper extends research on standardisation/adaptation debate and research on agility, to address the gap on international marketing agility. Hitherto, there was no significant research on marketing agility in emerging markets which focused on highly perishable products such as fruits. This research provides unique insight into how marketing agility could be developed, deployed and sustained in emerging African markets.
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Vahid Jafari-Sadeghi, Salman Kimiagari and Paolo Pietro Biancone
Global economies are involved with enormous activities of internationalization that provide pure and untapped opportunities for entrepreneurs and businesses to place and promote…
Abstract
Purpose
Global economies are involved with enormous activities of internationalization that provide pure and untapped opportunities for entrepreneurs and businesses to place and promote their products.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors applied structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis with the partial least squares (PLS), conducting an empirical analysis of data from 28 European countries.
Findings
The results reveal that the higher level of education/knowledge in a country enhances the foresight competencies of entrepreneurs and that they both have a positive influence on the effective business creation. The findings of this paper also stress on the positive relationship between the effect of business creation and international intensity in economy level.
Research limitations/implications
The limitation of this study lies in the impossibility of obtaining a larger and more complete data. Consequently, this study uses national-level data from 28 European countries, which makes the sample too small. In addition, although innovation is one of the driving factors in both internationalization and entrepreneurship, because of the limitation, it has not been considered in this study.
Practical implications
The authors assert that countries, specifically European nations studied in this research, can improve their employment rate and value creation (through their products in international markets) by giving a special attention to the entrepreneurial-oriented human capitals.
Social implications
This research warns policymakers that they can have a serious contribution in promoting (international) entrepreneurship. They should draw a rigorous plan for formal and informal educational systems that effectively develops essential knowledge for launching new businesses and fosters the innovation and entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
This study set out to improve the understanding of the role of level of education/knowledge and foresight competencies, as the elements of human capitals, on international entrepreneurship.
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Vahid Jafari-Sadeghi, Dev K. Dutta, Alberto Ferraris and Manlio Del Giudice
The main objective of this research was to identify the key critical determinants of internationalisation business processes that entrepreneurs adopted in under-supported policy…
Abstract
Purpose
The main objective of this research was to identify the key critical determinants of internationalisation business processes that entrepreneurs adopted in under-supported policy contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
This research utilised a case-study design, incorporating multiple case examples, applying non-probability purposive selection criteria. A total of five in-depth, structured 90-min to two-hour case interviews were conducted with Italian entrepreneurs, in which four out of the five cases selected are goods-oriented, and one is services oriented.
Findings
Regarding internal entrepreneurial motives, four crucial determinants were recognised: (1) Making more profit, (2) Expanding market, (3) Personal tendency to export and (4) Obtaining social respect. Regarding external networking capabilities, two key factors were identified: (1) Developing relationships with an international partner or representative and (2) Maintaining relationships with industry-relevant authorities.
Research limitations/implications
The data gathered for this paper depends on self-announcing, expanding the likelihood of being one-sided for social desirability answers. The sample of research is also limited to small and medium businesses and has covered a limited number of companies.
Originality/value
An under-supported policy context forces international entrepreneurs to make their own arrangements and tailor their business process through personal initiative and interactions with network partners. Taking advantage of field-based data, this paper is probably one of the earliest research studies to identify several internal and external factors impacting on firm internationalisation business processes in the low policy support context for entrepreneurship.
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