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1 – 10 of over 8000Brent L. Smith, Jeff Gruenewald, Paxton Roberts and Kelly R. Damphousse
In this chapter, we examine several attributes of lone wolf terrorists and how their activities are temporally and geospatially patterned. In particular, we demonstrate how…
Abstract
Purpose
In this chapter, we examine several attributes of lone wolf terrorists and how their activities are temporally and geospatially patterned. In particular, we demonstrate how precursor behaviors and attack characteristics of lone wolves are similar and different compared to those of group-based terrorists.
Methodology/approach
Based on data drawn from the American Terrorism Study (ATS), we examine 268 federal terrorism “indictees” linked to 264 incidents. Three types of loners are identified based on group affiliations and levels of assistance in preparing for and executing terrorist attacks. A series of analyses comparatively examine loners who had no assistance and those actors that did.
Findings
The results of this study suggest that lone wolf terrorists are more educated and socially isolated than group-based actors. Lone wolves also engage in less precursor activities than group actors, but are willing to travel greater distances to prepare for and execute attacks. Explanations for why lone wolves are able to “survive” longer than terrorist groups by avoiding arrest may in part stem from their ability to temporally and geospatially position their planning and preparatory activities.
Originality/value
Studies on lone wolf terrorism remain few and many are plagued by methodological and conceptual limitations. The current study adds to this growing literature by relying on lone wolf terrorism data recently made available by the American Terrorism Study (ATS). Our findings are valuable for members of the law enforcement and intelligence communities responsible for the early detection and prevention of lone wolf terrorism in the United States.
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David A. Oloke, David J. Edwards and Tony A. Thorpe
Construction plant breakdown affects projects by prolonging duration and increasing costs. Therefore, prediction of plant breakdown, as a precursor to conducting timely…
Abstract
Construction plant breakdown affects projects by prolonging duration and increasing costs. Therefore, prediction of plant breakdown, as a precursor to conducting timely maintenance works, cannot be underestimated. This paper thus sought to develop a model for predicting plant breakdown time from a sequence of discrete plant breakdown measurements that follow non‐random orders. An ARIMA (1,1,0) model was constructed following experimentation with exponential smoothening. The model utilised breakdown observations obtained from six wheeled loaders that had operated a total of 14,467 hours spread over a 300‐week period. The performance statistics revealed MAD and RMSE of 5.03 and 5.33 percent respectively illustrating that the derived time series model is accurate in modelling the dependent variable. Also, the F‐statistics from the ANOVA showed that the type and frequency of fault occurrence as a predictor variable is significant on the model's performance at the five percent level. Future work seeks to consider a more in depth multivariate time series analyses and compare/contrast the results of such against other deterministic modelling techniques.
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Matthew J. Brannan and Beverley Hawkins
This article seeks to explore forms of selection practice, focusing on role‐play techniques, which have been introduced in many organizations in an attempt to “objectivize” the…
Abstract
Purpose
This article seeks to explore forms of selection practice, focusing on role‐play techniques, which have been introduced in many organizations in an attempt to “objectivize” the selection process by offering a means of assessing task‐specific aptitudes.
Design/methodology/approach
This article draws upon an ethnographic study of a call centre in which the researcher underwent the recruitment and selection process to secure work as a precursor to conducting fieldwork within the organization. Whilst there is little precedent for the employment of ethnographic techniques in researching recruitment and selection, we argue such techniques are appropriate to explore the social processes involved in practices such as role‐play. The discussion draws upon fieldwork which was conducted at “CallCentreCo”, who continuously recruit customer service representatives (CSRs) to work in their call centre. CallCentreCo uses role‐playing exercises extensively in the selection of all grades of staff and are argued by CallCentreCo's Human Resource Manager to be essential in the recruitment of CSRs to ensure the selection of suitable candidates and minimize initial attrition rates.
Findings
This article makes two contributions: first it provides empirical evidence to explore the basis of structured interviews by revealing how the view that role‐play can “objectivize” the selection process is potentially built upon false assumptions. Second, the article argues that supposedly “objective” practices such as role‐play seek to legitimize the overwhelmingly subjective interview process in order that it may serve purposes beyond initial selection: namely the control of future employees before they even enter the organization.
Research limitations/implications
Although we make no attempt to generalize from such a limited case study, this article raises issues that are likely to be relevant to organizations as they increasingly search for more “effective” selection procedures, and to academic endeavors to critically theorize the purpose and effects of selection for the employment relation.
Originality/value
The originality of this approach lies in the ethnographic study of the interview as a social interaction, the richness of which may be lost in the quantitatively dominated approach to analyzing selection.
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Hongna Tian, Jingge Han, Meiling Sun and Xichen Lv
Toward sustainable development, radical green innovation (RGI) is necessary. Despite extensive research on the factors influencing green innovation, few studies have been conducted…
Abstract
Purpose
Toward sustainable development, radical green innovation (RGI) is necessary. Despite extensive research on the factors influencing green innovation, few studies have been conducted on the precursors. Based on upper echelons (UE) theory, dynamic capability (DC) theory, “stimulus-organism-response” (SOR) theory, social information processing (SIP) theory and cognitive appraisal (CA) theory of emotion, the study explores how digital leadership (DL) affects RGI and investigates the mediating effects of green organizational identity (GOI) and the moderating effects of digital threat (DT) and technology for social good (TSG), as well as the multiple concurrent causalities that trigger high RGI.
Design/methodology/approach
The method of combining structural equation model (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fs QCA) is adopted in the study. Data from 233 questionnaires were collected at two different time points.
Findings
This study's findings indicate that the four dimensions of DL can positively influence RGI and GOI partially mediates between the four dimensions of DL and RGI. DT has a negative moderating effect between DL and GOI, while TSG is positively regulated between them, DT and TSG linkage moderates the partial mediating effect of GOI in DL and RGI. Further, fs QCA is used to analyze the causal complexity of DL dimensions and GOI to RGI and nine effective configuration paths are identified. It is found that the synergy of digital thinking ability (DTA), digital detection ability (DDA), digital social ability (DSA), digital reserve ability (DRA) and GOI is crucial to high RGI. Among them, GOI core appears the most times, indicating that GOI plays a vital role in improving enterprise RGI.
Originality/value
This study expands the literature on leadership and innovation by constructing a framework of “DL-GOI-RGI” and exploring the transmission of GOI and the boundary effect of DT and TSG. The study used fs QCA and SEM to better understand the statistical associations and the set relations between the conjunctions and conditions.
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Educational design/build (e-d/b) curricula in university-level professional schools of architecture have flourished in recent years, internationally, as new programs are launched…
Abstract
Purpose
Educational design/build (e-d/b) curricula in university-level professional schools of architecture have flourished in recent years, internationally, as new programs are launched and the volume of built work increases dramatically. This growing body of built work, however, has typically not been subjected to rigorous behavioral assessment from the standpoint of what is actually built, as experienced through the eyes of user-recipients in the everyday milieu. The lack of rigor in this aspect of assessing the efficacy of what gets built continues to hinder evidence-based academic scholarship on this subject.
Design/methodology/approach
An interdisciplinary research initiative titled Thinking While Doing, spanning the years 2013–2019, centered on exploring the inner profundities of e-d/b. As part of a multifaceted project involving seven universities in Canada and the United States, behaviorally focused post-occupancy assessments were conducted of three open-air pavilion structures from the viewpoint of 161 respondents' impressions, degree of satisfaction and everyday uses.
Findings
Functionality, community context, materiality and aesthetic factors were among the set of variables analyzed. Among the results, the three open air pavilions were viewed as tectonically sound and aesthetically iconic and were considered to be valued additions to their immediate physical contexts and local community.
Research limitations/implications
Study limitations and directions for future research are discussed.
Practical implications
Student learning objectives in relation to the design intent of the built structures are highlighted.
Social implications
This evidence-based design research empowers stakeholders seeking campus-community partnership opportunities.
Originality/value
This is the first comparative, behaviorally focused appraisal of its type from the perspective of everyday user-recipients in the realm of e-d/b.
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Lynette Riley, Deirdre Howard-Wagner, Janet Mooney and Cat Kutay
This chapter outlines the successful community engagement process used by the authors for the Kinship Online project in the context of Indigenous methodological, epistemological…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter outlines the successful community engagement process used by the authors for the Kinship Online project in the context of Indigenous methodological, epistemological, and ethical considerations. It juxtaposes Indigenous and western ways of teaching and research, exploring in greater detail the differences between them. The following chapter builds on and extends Riley, Howard-Wagner, Mooney & Kutay (2013, in press) to delve deeply into the importance of embedding Aboriginal cultural knowledge in curriculum at the university level.
Practical implications
The chapter gives an account of an Office for Learning and Teaching (OLTC) grant to develop Indigenous Online Cultural Teaching and Sharing Resources (the Kinship Online Project). The project is built on an existing face-to-face interactive presentation based on Australian Aboriginal Kinship systems created by Lynette Riley, which is being re-developed as an online cultural education workshop.
Value
A key consideration of the researchers has been Aboriginal community engagement in relation to the design and development of the project. The chapter delves deeply into the importance of embedding Aboriginal cultural knowledge into curriculum at the university level. In doing so, the chapter sets out an Aboriginal community engagement model compared with a western research model which the authors hope will be useful to other researchers who wish to engage in research with Aboriginal people and/or communities.
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Analytics enable HR to make strategic contributions, but not all analytics offer equal insights. Alec Levenson compares the usefulness of ROI, cost‐benefit, and impact analysis…
Abstract
Analytics enable HR to make strategic contributions, but not all analytics offer equal insights. Alec Levenson compares the usefulness of ROI, cost‐benefit, and impact analysis. He also explains why the time is right for HR to build an HR analytics centre of expertise and create a foundation of analytic skills across the function.
The paper focuses on intentional information security breaches by insiders. The purpose is to assess the relationship between insiders' backgrounds and motivations and their…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper focuses on intentional information security breaches by insiders. The purpose is to assess the relationship between insiders' backgrounds and motivations and their deviant behaviors. Two outcome variables, information technology (IT) espionage and IT sabotage, are correlated with four predictors, financial changes, relationship strains, substance abuse, and job changes.
Design/methodology/approach
Some 62 cases of intentional information security breaches by insiders are examined using canonical analysis.
Findings
The results indicate that a significant relationship exists between financial hardship, relationship strains, and the theft and sale of proprietary data by insiders; and recent firings, substance abuse, and relationship strains are related to information system sabotage.
Research limitations/implications
Because little or no research has been conducted on this topic, there is a lack of validated measures for variables associated with information security. Thus, the measures used in this paper are necessarily simplistic. Because few organizations report information security weaknesses, the sample is relatively small.
Practical implications
In the majority of cases included in this paper, it is found that the insider convey a number of warning signs before committing the security breach. After reading this paper, diligent managers should be able to identify potential security breaches.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies to explore insider security breaches using canonical analysis.
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Sajjaad Moedeen, Eugene Cheng-Xi Aw, Mohammad Alryalat, Garry Wei-Han Tan, Tat-Huei Cham, Keng-Boon Ooi and Yogesh K. Dwivedi
This study aims to propose and test a research model outlining the chain effects of social media marketing activities (SMMA) on brand equity, encompassing the potential mediators…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to propose and test a research model outlining the chain effects of social media marketing activities (SMMA) on brand equity, encompassing the potential mediators of self-congruity, consumer empowerment and brand experience.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was conducted, and 241 valid responses were acquired. The data was submitted to Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), complemented by the artificial neural network (ANN) analysis.
Findings
The results revealed that SMMA can foster the development of self-congruity and consumer empowerment. These two psychological responses represent the key drivers to reinforce the positive brand experience and ultimately lead to brand equity. The sequential mediating effect was confirmed. The ANN analysis offered further insights into the ranking of variable importance.
Originality/value
The present study presents a breakthrough by taking into account the roles of self-congruity, consumer empowerment, brand experience simultaneously and assesses their sequential mediating roles in the linkage between SMMA and brand equity.
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