Search results

This study aims to achieve broad insights into perceptions and attitudes of Turkish digital immigrants (DI) and digital natives (DN) toward native advertising (NA) format.

Based on extant review of literature, semi-structured interview questions helped to solicit subjective interpretations, perceptions and attitudes of Turkish consumers toward NA format. In-depth interviews with 36 participants were conducted.

The study gains new knowledge on issues related to NA format, such as self-determination of viewing, privacy and accuracy of information. Findings provide whys and wherefores for these undiscovered issues, as well as for preexisting themes such as format recall and recognition, disclosure, communication/marketing aims, attitudes toward NA format, brand and publisher, NA placement and “nativity” of the format. In terms of perceptions and attitudes of DIs and DNs, both similarities and differences exist. DNs consider viewing NA content under their own initiative, so their perceptions and attitudes toward NA are shaped accordingly.

The interviews were carried out in a single setting; with a convenience sample of consumers living in Izmir, Turkey. Certain age and education levels were considered desirable as main criteria for selection.

The study identifies consumer concerns on the NA format and content; and provides suggestions for advertisers, publishers and ad professionals on disclosure, relevancy and frequency of exposure, which can be applied in practice. Implications for public policy are also discussed.

This is the first known study to explore perceptions and attitudes of DIs and DNs toward NA format in the Turkish context. This study uncovers and discusses insights into underlying reasons of DI/DNs’ perceptions and attitudes. The study extends prior findings of quantitative research on NA, offering fruitful insights for future research.

This study aims to ascertain the information professionals’ perceptions and attitudes towards the application of linked data (LD) technologies in libraries in the context of a developing country. It also explores the Pakistani information professionals’ level of familiarity with LD concepts, plans and efforts in its application, along with its potential benefits.

An online questionnaire survey was used to identify the information professionals’ perceived level of familiarity with LD concepts and benefits to implement LD in libraries, and their plans and efforts to adopt LD technologies. A questionnaire was developed to meet the objective of the study and collect data from the purposefully selected professionals (N = 86) working in university libraries in Pakistan. SPSS was used to analyse the data set.

Findings show that LD application in libraries is still not common among Pakistani information professionals. They have a moderate level of understanding with semantic Web (SW) and LD key concepts. The respondents were positive about the potential benefits of implementing LD technology in libraries, such as assisting patrons to discover relevant information, enriching traditional bibliographic records, enhancing the visibility and discoverability of library data and improving the users’ overall search experiences that may foster future developments. Overall, the respondents’ institutions were on different levels of planning – from working on a plan to having a finalized plan. The findings emphasized establishing the SW’s potential in library services.

There are certain limitations of this study. Firstly, the population is Pakistani information professionals who are purposefully selected. Secondly, the findings reveal that the respondents’ understanding with LD concepts, opinions about LD, plans and efforts to its application along with its potential benefits in libraries are self-perceived and not tested in any way and they were not actually implementing these technologies in their institutions because of a lack of best practices. It is a quantitative study and it will serve as a baseline study, even though there is a need to conduct more in-depth qualitative studies in the information environment to explore the phenomenon.

This study will guide information professionals and policymakers to take initiatives towards the implementation of LD technology in libraries. It may also lead to further research to understand the perceptions of information professionals so that appropriate training and advocacy programmes can be developed to promote LD initiatives in libraries.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first known empirical study in the context of a developing country. It clearly demonstrates the Pakistani information professionals’ perceptions regarding the library LD and associated plans along with potential benefits to implement it.

The purpose of this paper is to obtain perceptions of educated non‐professionals towards people with schizophrenia.

A social distance scale and a schizophrenia knowledge and attitude survey were administered to 330 undergraduates. It was predicted that knowledge and personal family experience would predict tolerance attitudes and social distance comfort towards persons with schizophrenia.

Knowledge about schizophrenia and personal family experience with mental illness had similar effects on tolerance scores. Specifically, those with higher knowledge and family members with schizophrenia reported higher levels of tolerance (i.e. less stigma). Conversely, participants with a family member diagnosed with a mental illness reported less social distance comfort to persons with schizophrenia as opposed to those without mental illness in the family. Finally, gender differences indicated that women held more tolerant attitudes towards schizophrenia compared with men.

Few studies have focused on educated non‐professional perceptions and attitudes towards the mentally ill.

This study explores auditors’ professional attitudes and behaviours. It tests the influence of public interest commitment, independence enforcement beliefs and organisational ethical culture on auditors’ acceptance of and engagement in practices that compromise their objectivity. The study is based on survey responses of 122 Spanish auditors. To analyse the combined effect of the variables under study, variance-based structural equation modelling (partial least squares, PLS) was employed. The results suggest that the regulatory efforts to improve auditors’ behaviours by enforcing independence rules have been internalised by auditors. The results also reinforce the need to instil the societal responsibilities of professional auditors, since auditors’ public interest commitment is related to their ethical decision making. Furthermore, this study reveals that firms’ ethical cultures influence auditors’ commitment to the public interest, as well as their ethical decision making. The study raises practical implications for auditing professionals, regulators and audit firms. Understanding auditors’ beliefs and behavioural patterns is critical to proposing mechanisms that enhance their ethical behaviours, which could ultimately enhance audit quality. The chapter contributes to the field by analysing the combined effect of the regulatory framework and organisational context on auditors’ professional values and behaviours.

The purpose of this paper is to examine skill underutilization and collective turnover in a large professional service firm (PSF). The authors hypothesize that skill underutilization is positively related to collective turnover, that skill underutilization is greater among professionals than nonprofessionals, and that the positive relationship between skill underutilization and collective turnover is stronger for professionals than for nonprofessionals.

Using survey data from a large PSF, the authors test these predictions across 191 groups (professional and nonprofessional) in 80 offices. Collective turnover rates were taken from company records one year after the survey was administered.

The authors find support for the prediction that skill underutilization is positively related to collective turnover. In addition, skill underutilization is greater among professionals than nonprofessionals within a PSF. However, the relationship between skill underutilization and collective turnover did not differ between professionals and nonprofessionals.

While the authors find that skill underutilization is positively related to collective turnover, future research is needed to measure the group processes that occur among group members and lead to collective turnover. Limitations of this study include the inability to validate the aggregation of data from the individual level to the group level, and the generalizability of findings to other PSFs or to involuntary turnover situations.

Understanding the antecedents of collective turnover is of particular concern to PSFs, as they are composed of highly skilled, intrinsically motivated professionals, who generate value for the firm. These findings are particularly timely, given the significant levels of underemployment in countries throughout the world.

In addition to extending skill underutilization and collective turnover research to the occupational group level, the findings highlight the importance of providing development opportunities for employees during difficult economic conditions in order to minimize collective turnover.

There has been a range of initiatives in South Africa aimed at determining how community-based approaches such as Community Asset Management (CAM) can be enabled and supported through mainstream public infrastructure delivery and development practice. One of the critical issues emerging is around the need to clarify and specify roles and processes in CAM projects where the effective role of the community itself is central to the success and sustainability of projects. This paper calls attention to the importance of community participation and empowerment in these development projects, and begins to highlight the paradigm shift that this would require with respect to professional roles in the delivery of the built environment.

As a first step towards better defining the new roles and structures that are required, this paper identifies the prevailing attitudes and perceptions of the traditional built environment professionals in South Africa towards participatory projects. In so doing it draws upon a survey whose findings are presented and used as a basis for determining the key obstacles and constraints facing professionals in the effective implementation of participatory, community-based projects.

The conclusions and recommendations offered are intended as considerations for researchers and development agents who are grappling with the complex but critical issues of how to enable effective asset-based community development.

The purpose of this paper is to assess to what extent social groups maintaining traditional‐collectivistic or modern‐individualistic lifestyles while sharing a similar nationality ethnicity and cultural origin, may be differentiated on the basis of their professional job perceptions and attitudes.

Questionnaires were administered to 323 Bedouin teachers who live in the southern part of Israel while maintaining a rather traditional way of life and to 232 Arab teachers who live in modern towns where Arabs and Jews coexist.

The results show that Bedouin teachers exhibit a higher degree of compliance and loyalty to the leader and are more conservative and emotional in comparison to Israeli Arab teachers. These results testify to the strong relationship existing between values and norms accumulated during ethnic socialization processes and individual role perceptions especially when individuals' lifestyles correspond to these values.

In considering the framing influence that ethnic socialization has on individual work perceptions, it is argued that ethnic considerations should be taken into account in multicultural contexts and that some facilitating mechanisms should be established in order to increase tolerance for ethnical diversity and understanding among individuals coming from different ethnic groups.

In recent years, Tunisian listed companies have been preparing their financial statements under a hybrid set of accounting standards; a mixture of national and international standards. The purpose of this paper is to empirically verify to what extent this particular form of de facto compliance with IAS/IFRS (which are not authorized in Tunisia) is used among listed companies. The paper further analyzes accounting professionals’ perception of the current state of Tunisian standards and their attitudes in the absence of relevant national Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAPs).

Two methodological approaches were used to answer the paper’s research questions: a document analysis approach and a survey questionnaire.

The document analysis revealed that a growing number of listed companies complement local GAAPs by standards they select among IAS/IFRS. The perception study indicated that Tunisian Accounting Standards are, indeed, less suitable for listed companies’ needs. Accordingly, when there is no local standard to measure a specific transaction or event, accounting professionals seem to have no problem in using some IAS/IFRS as a complement to overcome the unachieved nature of local GAAPs. However, the overall findings are likely to suggest that international standards used must not conflict with the Tunisian conceptual framework’s provisions. This means that the use of IAS/IFRS in conjunction with local GAAPs is generally perceived as being beneficial to the quality of financial statements.

This study may be of interest to many developing countries that have not continued the harmonization of their accounting standards with IAS/IFRS. Future research should focus on the reasons which have led to this unachieved harmonization and the consequences of the normative gap which might emerge.

Previous research has often shown how difficult it is to apply international accounting standards in developing countries, especially when they do not correspond to the companies’ needs. Difficulties could occur when local standard-setters do not accurately know which new international standards are suitable to the market needs. The study gives some insights suggesting that corporate accounting practices should be analyzed to understand the real needs for new standards.

The paper highlights the beginning of a de facto convergence with international accounting standards without any support of national de jure convergence. Consideration of this phenomenon may contribute to the understanding of the malaise that characterizes the current accounting standard-setting in developing countries.

Establishing a more sustainable built environment is an increasing global concern for the construction industry. Despite the intrinsic and extrinsic obstacles the stakeholders face, huge efforts are required to transition to a smooth, sustainable construction (SC) practice. This study identifies and discusses cogent obstacles to SC in developing nations.

The Preferred Reporting Item for systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) approach was employed to establish research work in SC for developing countries. The databases used were Scopus and Web of Science. Meta-analysis of keywords was analysed thematically. The initial broad search returned 8,420 publications which were filtered and reviewed in-depth to fit the aim of the study, produced only 21 relevant publications from the years 2000–2021.

The four identified themes of obstacles to SC in developing countries are as follows: construction professional training and education, clients' attitudes and awareness, construction industries' culture and capacity and governments' regulation, policies and economy. The key barriers identified from the meta-analysis include inadequate training and education amongst construction professionals, poor execution of sustainability ethics, poor populace attitude towards sustainability, poor awareness and understanding, dearth of precise data and integrated study and inappropriate priorities about sustainability.

The originality in this study are themes drawn from millennium development goals (MDGs) and sustainable development goals (SDGs) publications related to SC. Consequently, the final framework presented a holistic approach to surmounting the established limitations and aided recommendations for future studies. Thus, setting a background for developing strategies to overcome the limitations and further attain sustainable development (SD).

This paper examines beliefs and attitudes in the context of how they influence the decisions of university Human Research Ethics Committees (HRECs) as a preface to undertaking an empirical study in this area. It also aims at establishing a conceptual framework to guide the design of a questionnaire targeting beliefs about research ethics and the implications of these beliefs on review practices of HREC members throughout Australia.

Using content analysis of the extant body of the literature the paper examines the relationship between the concepts of beliefs and knowledge, beliefs and attitudes, and among beliefs, attitudes and behaviour in the context of research ethics.

The discussion suggests that ethics approval practices can, at times, be influenced more by personal beliefs than by contemporary review standards. It is also suggested that personal beliefs can be transmitted through the review process and that HRECs can serve to influence the transfer of values from reviewers to researchers.

The framework that this paper presents has the potential to appraise an array of perspectives which in turn would guide the design of professional development programs. In addition, an improved, more nuanced understanding of how HREC members make ethical decisions will positively impact and inform best practice in the review of ethical applications for research projects.

The paper presents a novel theoretical framework underpinning research ethics reviewer beliefs and attitudes within a contemporary context.