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Article
Publication date: 7 December 2020

Satu Pekkarinen, Mervi Hasu, Helinä Melkas and Eveliina Saari

The purpose of this paper is to examine and reinterpret information ecology in the context of the changing environment of services, which has been strongly affected by…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine and reinterpret information ecology in the context of the changing environment of services, which has been strongly affected by digitalisation and increasing citizen engagement. Here, information ecology refers to the interaction and co-evolution of technologies, human beings and the social environment.

Design/methodology/approach

The data consist of 25 thematic interviews conducted in a public Finnish organisation responsible for organising welfare services, and in its collaborating organisations. The interviews were analysed qualitatively. The analytical framework is based on Nardi and O'Day's five components of information ecology: system, diversity, co-evolution, keystone species and locality.

Findings

The analysis shows that these basic components still exist in the digitalisation era, but that they should be interpreted and highlighted differently, for example, stressing the openness of the information system instead of closed systems, as well as emphasising the increasing meaning of diversity amongst digitalisation, and the dynamic co-evolution between the elements of the system. New capabilities, such as the ability to combine various kinds of information and knowledge, are needed in this adaptation.

Research limitations/implications

The study illustrates a wider, updated information-ecology concept with the help of empirical research. Technology affects care organisations' information ecologies in numerous – often invisible – ways, which this study brings into light.

Originality/value

So far, information-ecology research has overlooked social and healthcare, but this study provides findings concerning this societally important sector.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 34 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 6 December 2011

Martin Perry and Martina Battisti

It is not in doubt that pollution prevention and resource efficiency projects can sometimes make good business sense for an individual enterprise. For organizations that have…

Abstract

It is not in doubt that pollution prevention and resource efficiency projects can sometimes make good business sense for an individual enterprise. For organizations that have previously done little to address their environmental impacts, some opportunity frequently exists to lessen those impacts while raising production efficiency and keeping their basic approach to business intact. This was the experience of many businesses during the 1980s and the origins of the suggestion that the environment was a “win-win” issue for business (Walley & Whitehead, 1996). Simply updating production equipment can offer a double dividend, which is partly why so many businesses are able to claim they are getting greener while aggregate environmental conditions deteriorate (McDonough & Braungart, 2002). The unresolved issue is whether an ongoing commitment to improve environmental performance is reflected in ongoing gains in business performance. As expressed by one advocate of eco-industrial development, the issue is not about doing the same with less but rather about doing far more with far less (Cohen-Rosenthal, 2003, p. 22).

Details

Business and Sustainability: Concepts, Strategies and Changes
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-439-9

Article
Publication date: 23 March 2010

Kristine Pabērza

This paper aims to present a methodology, early findings, possible applications of results and lessons learned from the research study “Public libraries: value, trust and…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present a methodology, early findings, possible applications of results and lessons learned from the research study “Public libraries: value, trust and satisfaction”, which has been conducted within the public library development project ‘Father's Third Son’ in Latvia.

Design/methodology/approach

A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used (although the findings reported here are largely drawn from the quantitative study) drawing on various theories of information behaviour and use‐oriented information service evaluation.

Findings

The study gives a good picture of user information needs in Latvia, the sources they use to fulfil them and the role of public libraries within this picture, especially in relation to cultural and recreational interests and public support for public libraries in terms of potential funding. The public library influence on people's leisure hours and their support for education are highlighted. The advocacy implications of this work are reviewed.

Research limitations/implications

Although this report is confined to the early stages of the study, the work was conducted on a substantial scale.

Originality/value

The work reported here provides new evidence of library use and appreciation in Latvia. The later results of this study, combined with evidence gathered by other participants in the Global Libraries initiative, will provide a commanding view of the significance of public libraries across a range of countries.

Details

Performance Measurement and Metrics, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-8047

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 July 2022

Bumsoo Kim

Focusing on the sociological clarification based on structural pluralism, this study explores the degree to which social media users who comment on the news posts of local

Abstract

Purpose

Focusing on the sociological clarification based on structural pluralism, this study explores the degree to which social media users who comment on the news posts of local newspapers use uncivil remarks and words that reflect their moral foundations.

Design/methodology/approach

This computer-assisted data collection produces three types of datasets that include numerous social media comments. To explore the association between moral foundations and incivility, both quadratic association procedure (QAP) and multiple regression QAP (MRQAP) are implemented.

Findings

The findings suggest that social media users who comment on the news posts of urban-located newspapers tend to use more uncivil words compared to social media users who comment on the news posts of suburban and rural-based newspapers. Individuals who comment on the news posts of urban-based newspapers tend to show a wider range of moral foundation spectrums than those who comment on the posts of rural and suburban newspapers. Lastly, there are significant associations between moral-vice components and incivility in response to urban- and suburban-located newspapers' social media posts.

Research limitations/implications

The employed bag-of-words may not completely capture incivility given that social media users can use nuanced and metaphoric terms instead of explicitly uncivil terms. Even though this study systematically selected local newspapers' social media accounts, the contextual factors of other newspapers in politically slanted communities could be different.

Practical implications

The findings of this study provide meaningful and practical implications for journalists and news reporters. The inherent rudeness and aggressiveness of social media users can drive them to use uncivil and moral-harm words against a particular person or group.

Social implications

Under the circumstance that fake news and politically slanted news content are widely distributed in the United States, social media users may easily express negative emotions toward news stories or the journalists who post the stories.

Originality/value

Structural pluralism particularly specializes in explaining why and how the contextual factors of news stories differ depending on community complexity. Building on the reasoning of structural pluralism in the social media context, this study investigates the degree to which social media users who comment on the news posts of local newspapers employ uncivil remarks and moral foundation words.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-11-2020-0522.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 47 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 28 December 2016

Hilary du Cros

This chapter looks at how sensitivity to event design and the creative process for an arts event also can have an impact on its ongoing management and tourist experience, by…

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter looks at how sensitivity to event design and the creative process for an arts event also can have an impact on its ongoing management and tourist experience, by applying a new assessment tool, sustainable creative advantage (SCA), to gauge its performance.

Methodology/approach

A case study approach was used to assess SCA for the Sculpture by Sea, Bondi, Sydney 2015, in order to discuss how its management enables satisfying arts leisure experiences. Two key activities in the research were (1) in-depth interviews with organizers, full and volunteer staff, artists, gallery owners, and participants and (2) participant observation of touristic performances and other forms of engagement with the sculptures.

Findings

In its 19th edition, the event could still be considered a fresh and inspiring experience for tourists. However, crowding on weekends can affect the experience for all participants. Tactile tours are a unique feature of the event and could be promoted more to tourists, particularly the disabled.

Research limitations

Applying SCA needs careful timing, in order to collect information when interviewees are available and the event itself is running. Approaches should be made to organizers before, during, and after the event for information.

Practical implications

Event organizers could use SCA to understand more about controlling tourist experiences and how creative management and marketing of an event can have an impact on overall participant satisfaction.

Originality/value

Could also offer insights to academics studying glocality and events, the relationship of curatorial power to content/experience, or how such events can add to the study of leisurescapes in cultural tourism.

Details

The Handbook of Managing and Marketing Tourism Experiences
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-289-7

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 17 December 2009

Lucy Sargisson

Green intentional communities are easily dismissed as irrelevant to wider academic and political debates. In the first instance, they comprise small vanguards, fringes or minority…

Abstract

Green intentional communities are easily dismissed as irrelevant to wider academic and political debates. In the first instance, they comprise small vanguards, fringes or minority groups. Surely then they interest only the readers of rarefied anthropological journals or viewers of voyeuristic television shows?1 Secondly, they are part of the green movement, itself often cast (derogatorily,2 positively,3 or otherwise4 as ‘utopian’). Are they not excessively idealist and romantic: wishful day-dreamers? Drawing on the literal meaning of the word utopia, which combines eu (good), ou (non) and topos (place), this chapter explores the idea that green intentional communities are indeed utopias, whereas challenging two common interpretations of that term. The first views it negatively (as unrealistic, unrealisable, excessively wishful thinking) and can be found on the pages of English Dictionaries and in colloquial parlance. The second views utopias as perfectionist: seeking to provide perfect blueprints that map the road to the good life. I shall explore some of the key ways in which these groups perform key utopian functions, suggesting that they are indeed utopian but that their utopianism is deeply imperfect and pragmatic, rooted in the real concerns and material limitations of the now.

Details

The Transition to Sustainable Living and Practice
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-641-0

Book part
Publication date: 1 January 2007

Lucy Sargisson

Abstract

Details

Utopias, Ecotopias and Green Communities: Exploring the Activism, Settlements and Living Patterns of Green Idealists
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-667-6

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2004

George Stone, Mathew Joseph and Jeffrey Blodgett

Corporate recognition of the interdependence between ecological considerations and the need for sustained economic growth has enforced the need for a paradigm in which…

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Abstract

Corporate recognition of the interdependence between ecological considerations and the need for sustained economic growth has enforced the need for a paradigm in which environmental considerations are included as a prerequisite for sustained operations. One of the underlying factors driving this philosophy appears to be corporate recognition of the fact that many consumers now routinely make themselves aware of the ecological reputation of the firm. The purpose of this research is to test a proposed model in which an organization’s generation, dissemination and responsiveness to environmental information is contingent on both internal organizational requisites and the external environmental circumstances facing the industry. Specifically, this study examines the effects of external environmental turbulence and internal organizational factors on the organization’s ability to create an eco‐oriented corporate culture.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 19 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 30 October 2018

FR. Oswald A. J. Mascarenhas, S.J.

The stable and predictable agricultural, infrastructure, manufacturing, and energy economies of hard products have been followed by economies that offer softer products such as…

Abstract

Executive Summary

The stable and predictable agricultural, infrastructure, manufacturing, and energy economies of hard products have been followed by economies that offer softer products such as services, information, knowledge, health care, digitization, networking, globalization, entertainment, sustainability, and currently, well-being and happiness. Such soft market products are loaded with buyer–seller information asymmetries (BSIA) that create market risk, market uncertainty, market chaos, and ambiguity – all of which are specific types of market turbulence. In this context, this chapter investigates the phenomena of turbulence, specifically environmental turbulence whose major subsets are technological turbulence and market turbulence. We cite several recent geopolitical variables and events that have aggravated market turbulence such as Chinese economic invasion of global markets, global climate change, Brexit, international asylum-seeking migrations, artificial intelligence, and demonetization. We also define market turbulence as varied forms of BSIA for which both marketers and consumers must have appropriate joint responsibility. In addition, we focus on ethical and moral marketing responsibilities for reducing BSIA under each type of turbulence.

Details

Corporate Ethics for Turbulent Markets
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-187-8

Book part
Publication date: 24 March 2021

Marc Schneiberg

Despite recent advances, neither organizational studies nor the scholarship on economic resilience has systematically addressed how the ecologies of organizations that populate…

Abstract

Despite recent advances, neither organizational studies nor the scholarship on economic resilience has systematically addressed how the ecologies of organizations that populate local economies can serve as infrastructures for responding proactively to economic shocks. Using county-level data, this study analyzes relationships between the prevalence of organizational alternatives to shareholder value-oriented (SVO) corporations within a particular locality and its unemployment levels during and after the Great Recession. The results support the hypothesis that the presence of such alternative organizations can enhance the capacities of local economies to resist and recover from recession shocks. Cooperative, municipal, and community-based enterprises, research universities, and nonprofits more generally were associated with greater resistance to the recession shock and stronger recoveries – specifically, lower surges in unemployment rates from 2007 to 2010 and greater reductions in unemployment rates from 2010 to 2016. By contrast, SVO corporations were associated with greater surges in unemployment and perhaps weaker recoveries. Providing a proof of concept, this study opens up new lines of inquiry for organizational studies by linking organizational ecologies to the promotion of collective efficacy and a more broadly shared prosperity in economic life.

Details

Organizational Imaginaries: Tempering Capitalism and Tending to Communities through Cooperatives and Collectivist Democracy
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-989-7

Keywords

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